Notes: And we're back! I'm glad everyone enjoyed the last chapter: I'd really been looking forward to that one, so I hope I did it justice. And for those who were wondering, yes, we will definitely be seeing more of all those Titans/Kaiju in the future.

Shoutouts to GuardianDragon98, ARandomPerson23, davidterceroaguilar, Anonymous, edboy4926, and Miss Queen B for reviewing; you guys are awesome! :)

Music for this chapter is "Ghidorah Theme" from the KOTM sountrack for the first scene; "Queen of the Monsters," also from the KOTM soundtrack, for the second scene; and "Only One," by Alex Band, for the flashback scene.

Chapter 6: Eye of the Hurricane

Rodan flew low over the ocean, heading north along the eastern coastline of the continent. The curtains of rain stung as he flew through them, and he was trailing clouds of steam as the water dissipated on contact with his scales. The combination of the rain and the darkness of the storm clouds meant that he had to keep squinting, as his normally-sharp vision was blurred and indistinct.

It didn't help that he could constantly feel Ghidorah's presence, like a claw dragging slowly down his back. The Golden One was flying just above and behind him, making it impossible for him to make any deviations from their chosen flight path. If he veered to one side and tried to escape, they could be on him in an instant, and they could easily blast him out of the sky with their lightning if he tried to outrun them. He felt like he was trapped in a set of unbreakable shackles, the way the giant apes that dwelled in the Underworld had once bound their prisoners and servants.

The humiliation of being treated like this was infuriating, but Rodan was smart enough to know that there was nothing he could do about it. Defying the Golden One at this point would only result in his own demise, and he had no interest in dying. For the moment, he would have to keep his emotions in check and endure his situation, until he could find a chance to escape. The mental shield that the Queen had placed in his brain made him immune to Ghidorah's telepathic influence, which meant that they couldn't control him the way they were doing to the other Kaijus that they'd apparently forced out of hibernation. That should hopefully help him to endure until he could get away.

"Hey, can you speed it up a bit?!" the Golden One's right head called out to him, mocking amusement clearly present in his voice. "We thought you were a better flier than this!"

Rodan clamped his beak tightly shut, grinding his teeth as his eyes flashed with anger, until he could prevent himself from saying something that could incur their wrath. "I'd be able to fly faster if I knew where we were going," he snapped back over his shoulder. "What are we looking for?"

"A large enough city," the middle head replied casually, as Ghidorah increased their speed just enough that they were flying directly above Rodan instead of behind him, making it easier for them to talk without having to yell as loudly. "Most of the human cities that we've seen so far are fairly small: our storms should be enough to take care of them, for the most part. We're looking for any cities that are large enough that we'd need to attack them directly."

"Right…" Rodan nodded slowly, before something occurred to him: a question that he'd always been curious about on some level, ever since Ghidorah had first come to Earth. "By the way, I've actually always wondered. What do you have against the humans, anyway?"

All three heads' gazes immediately fixed on him, red eyes gleaming through the darkness of the storm, and for a moment Rodan was afraid that he'd said the wrong thing and that they were about to attack him. But then the middle head shrugged, a ripple running along the length of his neck, and laughed softly. "Why not?" he chuckled. "All right: we'll tell you. We certainly have enough time, after all."

The left and right heads went back to observing the coastline below, while the middle head shifted into a more relaxed pose. "How much do you really know about the humans, fire-wing?" he questioned, arching one eyebrow ridge.

"Ah…" Rodan blinked and frowned as he considered that. How much did he really know about the humans? "Well, they're some kind of tiny mammals, but although they're really small they're also supposed to be pretty smart, smart enough to build really big and complex nests. They worship some Kaiju – or at least they did back before I went into hibernation, but that was a few thousand years ago so I don't know if they still do." The humans had certainly worshipped the King, the Queen, and Anguirus back in the day, but although they'd also carved images of Rodan on their temples, they'd never really worshipped him that way… which did make sense when you considered that his tendency to set fire to plenty of things around him, and his ability to level large areas to the ground just by flying over them at high speed, didn't exactly endear him to such small and fragile creatures.

"And that's all?" the middle head inquired. "Nothing else beyond that?"

Rodan shrugged as best as he could while flying. "Yeah, basically. I've never really gotten too close to them." His frown deepened as he looked up at Ghidorah. "Why do you ask?"

The middle head smiled coldly. "Well, as you know, we're not from this planet. What you do not know is, we have visited many different worlds over the eons since our birth… and in the process, we have encountered quite a few other intelligent species like the humans, very small but supremely intelligent, capable of building their own complex civilizations." His smile faded. "But, based on what we have seen, those types of species typically have an inevitable – and highly destructive – impact on their planets." His eyes narrowed, and his brothers both growled under their breath. "If such a civilization becomes advanced enough, they can even become a legitimate threat to creatures as powerful as us. We've seen it happen several times before."

Rodan's eyes widened. "Seriously?" He shook his head. "No, that can't be right. I've seen what the humans can do, and they can build lots of interesting things, but their weapons are nothing compared to a Kaiju."

All three heads snickered. "Clearly you haven't seen the advancements that they've made in the last few millennia, then," the middle head replied with a smirk. "While we were buried in the ice, and you and your ilk were sleeping, the humans have evolved considerably, and they now possess highly-advanced weapons that can even bring down Kaiju." His eyes narrowed. "In fact… earlier today, it was thanks to a human weapon that your Lizard King met his end."

A choking sound escaped Rodan's beak, and he swerved violently in flight for a moment as his wings briefly seized up. "Wait, what?!" he spluttered, his eyes wide and shocked.

The right head snorted. "Yup," he snarked. "Seemed like the humans were trying to help him kill us using an explosive weapon filled with some kind of poison, but we got away in time and it killed him instead." A low, cruel snicker escaped his mouth.

Rodan was stunned. How could that be possible?! The humans' weapons back in the old days couldn't have caused the slightest bit of harm to a Kaiju, least of all the King. How in the world could a human weapon have killed him?

"So, as you can see, the humans have indeed become quite formidable while we've been asleep," the middle head continued. "If they were able to bring down the Lizard King, then they could potentially do the same to any of us. And there are precedents for it: this isn't the first time that we've encountered a civilization with the capability to do something like that." He and his brothers all looked angry and unsettled, as if they were recalling some particularly unpleasant memories. "Other races of tiny sentients behaved quite similarly on their own worlds, before we destroyed them. The Bilusaludo, the Nebulans, the Kilaaks, the Simeons… and the Exif." Low snarls echoed from the other two heads at that last name. "The humans are merely the latest in a long line of these dangerous little species, and we will deal with them accordingly, just as we did with all the others before them."

Rodan felt a chill run through him. He'd never thought of the humans as being much more than glorified pets for the Queen: sometimes entertaining, sometimes annoying, but ultimately harmless. But… if they were really that dangerous, then he could actually understand why Ghidorah would want to destroy them.

"It's ironic, actually," the middle head remarked dryly. "We would have finished our job and left this planet in peace long ago, if it weren't for your former friends being so hell-bent on protecting the humans from us." He shrugged. "In a way, it's almost their fault that we had to fight you all so many times. If the little Queen and her Lizard King had just gotten out of our way, we would never have needed to fight at all."

"Yup," the right head seconded, a cruel grin flickering across his face. "Just think: if it hadn't been for them being so desperate to protect those little sentients, you and your partner wouldn't have had to fight us… and he might still be alive."

Rodan's eyes flashed, a surge of anger welling up at the thought of Anguirus. "Don't talk about him!" he snapped, momentarily forgetting all about his fear as he flared his wings out and swerved out and away from Ghidorah.

The right head's lip curled and he scowled, his neck crackling with golden electricity as Ghidorah wheeled around to face Rodan heads-on. "I'll talk about whatever I want to talk about," he growled. "And if you know what's good for you, you'll –"

"Shut the hell up, Ni," the middle head ordered flatly, his eyes blazing scarlet as he glared at his brother. The right head snarled, baring his teeth for a moment as if he was considering a retort, but he ultimately thought better of it and lowered his head in submission.

"My apologies," the middle head addressed Rodan. "My dear brother has a tendency to let his anger get the best of him."

"It's… it's fine," Rodan muttered, now feeling thoroughly confused. Are they… actually being nice to me? This is way too freakin' weird.

"Hey, guys, I got one!" the left head called out, grinning as he stretched out to point to something off to their left: a large human city, on the shores of a river. "That one looks pretty big."

"And it's fairly well-situated, too," the middle head remarked, nodding and smiling at his brother. "Well done, San. Observational as ever."

Rodan nodded slowly, glancing over at the distant city as he altered his course to head towards it. "So… how are we doing this?"

"You'll go in first," the middle head instructed, Ghidorah falling back to trail behind Rodan. "Soften them up for us, and then we'll follow you. Destroy as much as you can, and then leave the rest to us." The right and left heads grinned eagerly, their eyes blazing through the gloom, tantalized by the prospect of carnage.

Rodan nodded in agreement, descending closer to the water and veering in the direction of the city with the Golden One close behind him. As they soared towards the city, however, he couldn't stop thinking about what they had said. If the humans were really that dangerous, and all Ghidorah actually wanted was to get rid of them…

He'd always been under the impression that the Golden One was a threat to the entire world, that their goal was to conquer the whole planet and wipe out all those who opposed them. But if they weren't, if their real goal had simply been to destroy the humans… then that would mean that all of those battles – and Anguirus's death – had all been just for the sake of protecting the Queen's favorite pets.

Rodan still wasn't entirely convinced that Ghidorah had been telling him the truth, of course. But as they approached the city and he saw the human constructs spreading out below them, a hot rush of anger welled up in his belly, and he screeched out a battle cry as he dove towards it.

Accelerating as he approached the nearest buildings, he heard the echoing thunderclaps caused by his high-speed flight, and a wall of displaced air surged below him, sweeping over the city like a tidal wave. This city might be large, but it didn't have too many tall buildings: most of them were fairly small, and were pulverized or ripped apart by the shockwave, leveled to the ground in seconds. Inflicting widespread destruction like this was one of a fire-wing's most powerful abilities, and Rodan made full use of it now.

Ghidorah was next, sweeping low over the city in the same fashion. They couldn't fly as fast as him, so the wind generated by their passing wasn't quite as powerful, but that was more than made up for by the torrent of lightning that poured from their mouths. Arcs of crackling golden power lanced down, spearing into the tallest human structures and raking across the ground, obliterating any buildings that Rodan's shockwave hadn't already destroyed.

Only the biggest and most durable structures in the city remained intact after that initial blitz, and the Golden One quickly set about destroying the rest. They fired at anything that moved and most things that didn't, annihilating everything in their path. Swooping down on the largest remaining building in the city, which was marked by a distinctive dome, they fired a trio of beams that carved through most of the structure. One beam slashed across the dome, leaving a burning scar in its wake, but the dome must have been extremely durable because it didn't collapse.

The attack didn't take very long. With no human military forces present to fight back against them – although Rodan had been quite surprised to learn that apparently, the strange metal flyers that he'd been fighting earlier were actually some sort of artificial creatures, built and controlled by humans – the two Kaiju leveled most of the city in less than half an hour. Once Ghidorah was satisfied, they touched down near the large, dome-topped building, flaring up their wings and heads as all three mouths shrieked in triumph.

The storm system that the Golden One had been generating had caught up while they'd been working, and the city was now being hammered by torrential rain. In addition, a storm surge generated by the tempest had swept up the river, and the low-lying city was already in the process of flooding. Not wanting to deal with the stinging sensation of water splashing against him any more than he had to, Rodan landed atop a half-demolished building to keep himself clear of the rising floodwaters.

Now that the city was destroyed, Rodan wasn't sure what to do next. "So… now what?" he questioned. "Are we heading someplace else?"

"No, this will do for the moment," Ghidorah's middle head replied, shaking his head. "Our other servants are handling things in other parts of the world, but we've got a more efficient solution to the problem. As you know, the humans are far less durable than we are, and among other things, we've found that tiny sentients are typically quite vulnerable to natural disasters." He smirked, his brothers mirroring him, as they began steadily flapping their wings, electricity sparking across their body. They didn't lift off into the air again, but merely used their flapping wings to continue churning up the clouds overhead. Already, the rain and wind were swirling into a vortex, centered on Ghidorah, and the storm was beginning to grow and spread outwards in all directions. Rodan shivered as the air and the rain grew colder, and he tasted an electric tang of ozone as lightning crackled through the clouds overhead.

"All you need to do right now is stay close, in case anyone tries to attack us while we're working," the middle head continued, glancing over to Rodan with a bit of amusement in his eyes. "Although if you'd care to help instead of just sitting there, flying in circles around us would probably help to speed up the process."

"So basically, if you wanna help, go ahead," the right head added with a snort. "If not, then just sit back, shut up, and let us do our work."

Rodan scowled, still not enjoying that head's constant needling, but he shook his head and did his best to ignore it. Eh, hell with it. Might as well do something to keep the blood flowing, and it's better than just sitting here and getting soaked. Unfolding his wings, he took off and rose into the air, flying in large, slow circles around Ghidorah to add his own wing-power to the generation of the growing vortex.

The knowledge that Anguirus had apparently died purely for the sake of the humans still made him feel sick, and his resentment towards the King and the Queen had grown even stronger because of it… but in a strange way, he almost felt better with the knowledge that he'd gained. Because if Ghidorah's claim was true, then it meant that as soon as the humans were gone, the Golden One would leave this planet.

And then he could have peace again.

Ichi turned his focus back to monitoring the growing storm, feeling the amusement running through his siblings' minds. Keep a lid on it, brothers, he cautioned them telepathically, as they both started giving off the mental equivalent of snickers. Manipulation works best if the one being manipulated doesn't know about it.

All right, all right, Ni muttered. You've gotta admit it's pretty fuckin' hilarious, though.

Right?! San giggled. He actually bought it! He really thinks that we're only interested in the humans. If we keep this up, he might actually start to believe that his partner's death was their fault.

Yes, I am aware, Ichi sighed. But as entertaining as that is, right now I need both of you to focus. We have a job to finish. You'll have plenty of time to entertain yourselves later.

As his brothers reluctantly assented and they went back to their task, however, Ichi couldn't entirely conceal his own self-satisfied smirk. It had been his idea to convince the fire-wing that their only goal on this planet was to eradicate the humans, and that they would leave in peace once the little sentients were gone. Apparently, their servant had bought it, and even with whatever mental shield was preventing them from probing into his mind, Ichi could tell that the anger radiating from Rodan was no longer entirely directed at them: some of it was now trained on the Lizard King, his Little Queen, and the humans.

Ichi nodded in satisfaction. That little speech that he'd given Rodan had been at least partly false, of course. While everything he'd said about the humans and the other sentients that they'd encountered during their travels had been true, the claim that Ghidorah would leave this world in peace once the humans were gone was a blatant lie. Any world that had generated a sentient civilization once could potentially do so again, and that would not be allowed.

By the time they were done, this planet would have suffered the same fate as all the other worlds that had been unlucky enough to harbor a civilization of tiny sentients: it would be reduced to a charred, sterile shell of a planet, barren and devoid of life. Even this world's Kaiju would all be eradicated in the end, once they had served their purpose. The brothers would annihilate everyone and everything on this planet, to make sure that its inhabitants could never pose a threat to them again.

Because that's what we do, Ichi thought to himself with a cruel smile, his siblings' grins widening in agreement as the storm swirled around them, growing stronger every minute.

We are Ghidorah. The Destroyer of Worlds. And the end of all things.

The Queen had flown as quickly as she could, heading west across the continents as she followed the faint trail that led from Ling's mind to that of her sister. She could sense the Golden One's distant presence, but she could tell that they were still a long way away, so she wasn't worried about running into them. She could sense the presences of a few Kaiju who'd been awakened by them somewhere nearby, so she flew higher to hopefully avoid detection: since Ghidorah seemed to be keeping in contact with their brainwashed servants, she didn't want to take any chances on running into them and alerting the Enemy to her awakening.

It took a few hours for her to reach the end of the trail, but she finally found it. By the time she got there, she'd been forced to climb much higher into the sky to avoid a mass of dark, churning clouds that were slowly spreading outwards in all directions. From her vantage point, many thousands of feet in the air – so high up that the air grew thin and icy-cold – she could see the extent of the growing storm, and it sent a shiver down her back. It was enormous, and still growing, already blanketing the entire eastern coast of the continent ahead of her and spreading steadily outwards. She could sense the Golden One's presence at the heart of the expanding hurricane, their power surging as they worked to spread their foul influence further.

"Not on my watch," the Queen muttered. Her eyes narrowed as she tilted forward, tucked her wings back, and dove towards the clouds below, making a beeline for the end of the telepathic trail. Her bioluminescence flared up as she speared downwards, the blue glow of her wings growing brighter to light her way as she plunged into the storm. The soft, downy fur on her body was quickly soaked by the driving rain, but the winds weren't strong enough to force her off-balance or off-course, so she kept going.

Finally, she leveled off, less than a thousand feet above the ocean. Reaching out with her mind, she sensed a sizable concentration of humans ahead of her at water-level, possibly on an island. But due to the clouds filling her field of view and blocking out almost all of the sunlight from above, she couldn't actually see her destination.

Luckily, she had ways of dealing with that.

The Queen slowed down, her glow intensifying as it shifted from blue to white. She charged up her energy throughout her body, preparing to unleash her most powerful ability, until she couldn't contain it any longer. Letting out an ear-piercing screech that cut through the thunder, she flung out her wings and unleashed all of that energy at once in a brilliant, crackling pulse that blasted outwards in all directions, lighting up the darkness of the storm and hurling back the clouds.

Now that she could see her surroundings, the Queen took stock of the situation. She was hovering a few hundred feet above the ocean's surface, and she could see a small island rising out of the water in front of her. Curiously, this island appeared to be made of metal, not stone; it took her a moment before she realized that it was actually an artificial structure, presumably built by the humans on top of an existing island or seamount. She'd seen human structures built entirely on water before, back in the old days, but never to this extent.

A large group of the humans' metal fish – she recognized them from her King's memories – were gathered around the island, and she could see numerous metal birds roosting on the island and on the backs of the metal fish. Some of the metal birds looked like the ones she'd seen while she'd been making her cocoon, while others were different. A few of them took to the air as she approached, circling warily around her but remaining at a safe distance.

Keeping a short distance away from the artificial island so she wouldn't run the risk of frightening the humans, the Queen focused her mind and scanned the island and the metal fish around it with her telepathy. While she could detect the presences of hundreds, if not thousands of humans, one of them stood out among all the others: the familiar glow of a Singer's psychic presence.

Finally! The Queen smiled brightly, relieved to have found what she was looking for. Focusing her psychic powers on the Singer's presence, she carefully touched the human's mind, reforging the ancient connection between them just as she had done with Ling. She felt the Singer flinch a little as she felt the touch of the Queen's mind, but just as with Ling, she felt a rush of amazement and joy as the girl realized what was happening.

Greetings, my child, the Queen murmured, keeping her mental voice quiet and gentle. Your name is Ilene, isn't it?

A surge of shock ran through the Singer's mind. I… y-yes, it is, she replied. How… how do you…?

Know who you are? The Queen chuckled softly. Your sister Ling told me, when I emerged from my cocoon. She speaks quite highly of you.

Ilene's amazement was blended with love and amusement. That sounds like her, she agreed, before her sense of awe and amazement returned. I… I'm honored, my Queen. Ling and I grew up hearing stories of you, but I was never sure that we would be the ones lucky enough to be alive when you returned.

Another rush of sympathy and guilt came over the Queen. I'm sorry, dear one, she replied sadly. I would not have left you if I had any other choice, but I needed to hibernate through the Cold Times, and it was impossible for your ancestors to sleep along with me.

Ilene gave a mental smile and a sensation of comforting warmth. It isn't your fault, my Queen. Our lifespans are so much shorter than yours, it makes perfect sense. None of us have ever resented you for any of it. I was taught as a child merely that we have been connected to you for countless generations, that you would one day return, and that we would need to be prepared for that day when it eventually came. She chuckled softly. Ling and I didn't expect to be the ones, but… well, let's just say neither of us are complaining.

The Queen echoed the Singer's soft laugh. Very well, she replied, smiling as her wings continued to glow brilliantly. Now: Ling told me that you might be able to help me find my King. Do you have any idea where he might be?

Ilene's emotions shifted, becoming much more subdued and somber. I… I don't know. He was hit by some sort of deadly explosive weapon, a very powerful one. As far as I know, he… he might be gone.

The Queen smiled. Don't worry, dear one. I know it may seem as if there is no hope, but I assure you, there is always hope. My King and I are connected, just as I am connected to you and your sister now. And if he was dead, I would know it. But I can still feel him… which means that he is not dead. I just need to find him.

Reaching out again with her telepathy, she felt along the faint trail of the telepathic bond that she shared with her King, searching for any traces of his presence, a soft humming chorus of song echoing from her as she hovered in midair with slow, graceful flaps of her wings. After a moment of searching, she finally sensed something: a faint trace of her King's energy, somewhere far beneath her. Beneath the deep ocean water, beneath the rock of the seafloor, she could feel his familiar presence, faint but unmistakable. It felt like he was in one of his underwater tunnels, but he wasn't moving.

It took her a moment to realize what that must mean, but then she nodded as her eyes brightened in realization. Of course! Her King must be in his underground temple, the sanctuary that he'd been using as a resting and feeding station for many thousands of years. She hadn't been to that temple for a very long time, but she remembered it well enough, and she was now certain that it was where he must be.

Nodding decisively, the Queen reached out to Ilene once more. One moment, my dear, she addressed the young Singer, before focusing more intently on the King's distant presence. With both her voice and her mind, she called out, the words echoing down through the water and permeating deep into the bedrock below.

"Goji? Goji, can you hear me?"

Far beneath the surface of the earth, in a massive underground cavern, the King lay sprawled upon an immense stone slab. More than large enough to accommodate his entire body, the slab was very similar to the one in the Queen's temple, where her egg had rested. This temple, however, was far bigger and much more expansive. That did make sense, as while the temple where the Queen had hatched had been a smaller outpost of the ancient humans, this one had been their capital, the center of their civilization.

Those ancient humans had built many temples, in various different locations all over the world. Some had been constructed on the continents, others had been established on islands… and some, like this one, had been constructed in the deep caverns of the Underworld. This particular cavern had been chosen for two reasons: first, because it contained an underground volcano, where the energy flowing up from beneath the Earth provided an abundant supply of radiation for the Kaiju to feed; and second, because it was connected to the underwater tunnels that the King used to circumnavigate the planet, making it an ideal place for him to rest and recover whenever he needed to do so. It had originally been connected to other Underworld caverns as well, these ones habitable and free of seawater, which had provided the humans with a way to travel to and from the surface.

This cavern consisted of two connected chambers: a larger one that had housed the humans' city, and a smaller one where they had built their temple. A set of enormous gates crafted from dense stone and metal, weighing many thousands of tons, had once been used to separate the temple-chamber from the rest of the city, but the gates had collapsed long ago and now lay broken on the submerged floor of the chamber, leaving the passage between the two chambers constantly open.

From his resting place, the King could see the submerged tunnel entrance that led to the rest of the city, and he let a heavy sigh escape his lungs as he remembered the disaster that had befallen this place. Ironically, it had not been an attack by an enemy that had caused this destruction: instead, the city had been the victim of a powerful earthquake, caused by the shifting of tectonic plates. Part of the larger cavern beyond this one had collapsed, and a flood of seawater had rushed in from the underwater tunnels, flooding the larger cavern and drowning the city. Some of the humans had survived and escaped to the dry tunnels, migrating up to the surface or to other parts of the Underworld, but many had died in the cataclysm.

Unlike the larger city-chamber, which had been entirely flooded, the second, smaller chamber had retained an air pocket, so most of the temple was still above the water. It was here that the King had dragged himself, hauling his wounded form up onto the great stone slab to rest and recover. The warm, humid air of the chamber was comforting as clouds of steam wafted around him, and the heat soaked deep into his bones, helping to soothe the pain of his wounds. Most important of all were the lava tubes that lined the back of the chamber, from which fountains of molten rock regularly sprayed, pouring heat and radiation into the chamber. This radiation was why the King returned here so often: it provided him with a natural feeding station, from which he could constantly replenish his reserves of energy whenever he needed.

This time, however, even this place's power supply wasn't enough. The humans' poisonous weapon had done a tremendous amount of damage to his body: thousands of deep wounds and lesions dotted his immense frame where his scales and flesh had melted away, and the reserves of radiation in his body were almost completely drained. He had never been this exhausted in his entire life: he felt as weak as a newborn hatchling. All he wanted to do right now was sleep.

He hadn't felt this helpless in a very long time. Not since…

As a memory surfaced, the King felt a gut-wrenching pang in his heart, and his gaze was drawn towards the submerged entrance again. He couldn't see out into the larger cavern from here, but he knew every inch of it: he'd been visiting the flooded city for thousands of years, and every part of it was burned into his brain. But one object in particular would always draw his attention every time he came here: an enormous skeleton, lying a short distance from the entrance to the smaller chamber, exactly where he had deposited it all those millennia ago. Every time he visited here, he would always take a moment to gently rest his hand on the head of the massive skeleton, paying his respects to the long-buried bones.

The bones of his best friend.

As he drifted once more into the darkness of sleep, a soft, slow groan rumbled in the King's throat, carrying with it thousands of years' worth of guilt and pain.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice quiet and sorrowful as the memory overtook him.

I'm sorry… Anguirus…

Thousands of years ago…

The sun was bright, shining above the large, tropical island. The island was almost entirely covered in a cloak of lush green rainforest, leading up from its swamp-lined shores to high, glacier-topped mountains. It was a beautiful and idyllic place, peaceful and with plentiful food… which made it an ideal vacation spot for a group of Kaiju.

The King sighed as he leaned against the side of a mountain, rubbing his neck back and forth across the stone as he tried to soothe an annoying itch on his gills. Smiling as a soft, downy wing draped over his shoulder from behind, he tilted his head back and allowed the Queen to gently scratch his neck with one of her forelimbs. Her claws were able to tackle the itch much more effectively, and he let out a deep, reverberating purr of satisfaction as it quickly faded away, before chuckling softly when she finished by placing a soft kiss directly on his gills. "Thank you, dear," he murmured, smiling as he turned his head so he could look back at her.

Perched on his back, with her front and back legs hooked onto his dorsal plates to balance herself so she wouldn't fall to the ground, the Queen laughed softly and nuzzled into him, playfully bumping her head against his nose. "Always happy to help, my love," she giggled.

An exaggerated gagging sound drew both of their attention over to a nearby area, and the King rolled his eyes as he saw Rodan snickering, wisps of smoke rising skyward from the other Kaiju's wings in tandem with his muffled laughter. "Sorry," the fire-wing called over to them with a grin from where he was perched on a nearby spike-topped hill. "You two are just way too cutesy sometimes."

The King snorted and ignored the fire-wing's comment, while the Queen grinned as her own eyes suddenly flickered a little brighter. "Oh, really?" she teased, her tone light and playful. "Well, I hardly think you're one to talk, Rodan, considering the things that you and your partner get up to."

As if on cue, the "hill" underneath Rodan suddenly rolled over, tossing the fire-wing to the ground with a loud, highly-undignified squawk. Rising to his feet from where he'd been napping with his eyes gleaming and a bright grin on his face, Anguirus playfully tackled his partner, grappling and wrestling with Rodan as they rolled over repeatedly, tearing up the earth around them.

"Okay, that's enough!" Rodan called out, laughing hysterically as Anguirus finally managed to pin him down with a front paw on each of his wings. "I give, I give! Get offa me, you brute!"

Anguirus barked out a laugh, grinning as he leaned down and playfully bumped his beak-tipped snout against Rodan's own beak. "If you say so," he chuckled, stepping back and allowing Rodan to roll over and clamber up to his feet, before turning his attention to the King and Queen. "So? You guys heading out soon?"

"Yes, I think we should," the Queen replied, nodding. "I wish you two would come with us, though! It's always a great deal of fun to see all the humans at my temple nests."

"Heh, yeah, you're not wrong," Anguirus agreed with a chuckle. "But I think I'll stay here this time. We could use some time to ourselves, just like you guys." He shrugged and grinned, nudging one shoulder lightly against Rodan's side. "Plus, this one always gets mopey when I go off and spend too much time with the humans, since he's not allowed to go too close to them."

"To be fair, after what happened the last time I flew too close to a human town, it's not really a surprise that they don't like having me around," Rodan pointed out sarcastically. The Queen winced at the memory of that unfortunate incident.

"Fair," Anguirus replied with an amused grin. "Don't worry, Fire-Boy: I still love you, even if the humans don't." Waving off Rodan's vaguely-flustered protests, he turned his attention back to the King and Queen. "So yeah, you two have a good time! Enjoy your trip, make sure everything's in order, and we'll be here when you get back."

The King nodded. "All right. But be careful, just in case any other Kaiju try to cause trouble while we're not around."

Anguirus and Rodan exchanged glances and chuckled softly. "Oh, don't worry, pal," Anguirus replied with a grin as his tail waved leisurely back and forth behind him, the deadly spiked club at its tip lightly ruffling the tops of the rainforest trees. "If anybody tries to cause trouble for us, we'll handle it." Rodan nodded in agreement, mirroring his partner's grin.

The King had no reason to be worried. After all, he and his Queen wouldn't be gone for very long, and their companions were more than capable of handling themselves if any other Kaiju started causing trouble. He had nothing to worry about.

But despite that, as he and the Queen left the island and he dove beneath the waves, he couldn't get rid of a strange, unpleasant feeling in his gut.

Leaving Rodan and Anguirus behind to enjoy their own vacation, the King and Queen headed out on their annual journey across the world. They usually made this journey at least once a year, to check on all of the Queen's nests and ensure that none of her eggs had died or been eaten by predators. If any of the eggs had been destroyed, the Queen would lay another one to replace it, and potentially make a new nest if the old nest had been dug up by a predator. It was also a good way for the couple to check in with other Kaijus, particularly the Queen's other friends who didn't usually travel with them, and it gave them a chance to visit all of their human worshippers in their various cities around the world.

Usually, these journeys were a peaceful and pleasant experience: the only problems were if they happened to encounter hostile Kaiju along the way, but most other Kaiju were no match for the King, and the Queen's presence alongside him was more than enough to ensure victory against any opponent that they might face.

But this time, unbeknownst to the King or the Queen, they were being observed from afar. After having suffered countless defeats at the hands of the Royal Couple and their allies, their deadliest enemy had decided that an alternative strategy was required. Having retreated to the void beyond the sky to rest and recover their strength, they waited patiently until the King and Queen had left on their patrol.

And then, when the quartet's strength was divided and their less-powerful fighters were isolated, the Enemy descended from the sky once again, targeting their more vulnerable opponents.

The King and the Queen were thousands of miles away from the island when they heard the distant sounds echoing across the world: roars, shrieks, and the unmistakable cackling three-tone cry of the Golden One. They knew immediately what must have happened, and they broke off their patrol without a second thought. For once, the Queen's limited swimming abilities didn't even enter her mind: she latched onto the King's dorsal plates with all six limbs and folded her wings tightly against her body while sucking in as deep of a breath as she possibly could, and they plunged beneath the sea and dove towards the nearest entrance of the King's underwater tunnels, racing back towards the island where they had left Anguirus and Rodan with the kind of speed that only absolute fear can bring.

As soon as they broke the surface, having emerged from a tunnel that wasn't far from the island, the Queen's whole body ignited with the blazing light of her bioluminescence, letting a brilliant pulse of energy burst outwards from her and using its heat to evaporate all of the water that had soaked into her fur. Not taking any time to rest, she leapt into the air and accelerated towards the island, with the King swimming right behind her.

The situation was obvious: even from this distance, they could clearly see the torrential thunderstorm that had now engulfed the island, and they could hear the demented cackling of the Golden One echoing through the clouds. Sure enough, as the King waded ashore and broke into a lumbering jog, he saw the distinctive outline of those huge, batlike wings illuminated by the lightning, as their enemy soared down out of the clouds and began descending leisurely towards the ground, aiming for a point not far away. The King followed their trajectory with his gaze… and then he froze, his heart lurching in his chest as a rush of horror turned his blood to ice.

Anguirus and Rodan both lay sprawled on the ground, crumpled and broken, each in their own scorched crater. Neither of them were moving, and he couldn't detect any signs of life coming from either of them.

The King and Queen wasted a single moment as they froze in place, numbed by their own shock and horror. Then those emotions changed in an instant, flipping from stunned horror into pure, all-consuming rage. The Queen blazed like a sun, her bioluminescence shifting from blue to red and then to white as she rocketed towards their enemy, while the King howled a battle-cry as his own spines lit up with their piercing blue-white glow. Even as the Golden One turned in their direction, they attacked simultaneously: another brilliant pulse of light from the Queen blinded all three heads, and the King unleashed a searing blast of atomic fire that hit the Enemy squarely in the chest and knocked them backwards through the air, burning into the golden hide.

For all their power, the Golden One knew better than to stand and fight in that moment. Even as all three heads shrieked in pain from the combined assault, their wings cracked the air and they rose swiftly back up towards the sky, disappearing into the dense storm clouds overhead. They didn't slow down or change course, but kept flying straight up, accelerating straight through the clouds and up into the night sky, heading back to the void from whence they'd come. Almost immediately, the rain began to lessen, and the unnatural thunderstorm began to subside and dissipate.

The King didn't spare another glance for his fleeing enemy: instead, he whirled around and rushed towards the crumpled bodies of his companions. The Queen soared past him, sweeping in low and circling quickly over the two fallen Kaiju. Her ability to detect injuries was far more acute than the King's, so she would be able to assess their conditions much more quickly and accurately than he could.

After a long moment, the Queen's eyes widened in alarm. "Goji, we have to hurry!" she exclaimed. "They need healing, now!"

The King swayed unsteadily as he felt a sick twisting sensation in his gut. "Which one first?!" he demanded, glancing back and forth from Anguirus to Rodan. "Which one's worse off?" Anguirus lay on his back, his body twisted awkwardly and his limbs splayed out, blood leaking from a set of nasty puncture wounds in his neck. Rodan was in the same position, but with jagged black burns laced across his chest, stomach and wings, clearly inflicted by blasts of the Golden One's lightning.

"They…" The Queen's eyes widened further, her alarm shifting to dismay as she stalled briefly in flight. "They're dying," she breathed as she landed on the ground, her gaze shifting slowly up to the King's face.

"Both of them."

The King stiffened, and a slow, creeping horror came over him as he realized what that meant. His Queen's healing powers could work miracles, and more than once she'd saved one of the other three when they were on the brink of death. But her powers had limits. And to bring her full healing powers to bear, if a Kaiju was so badly wounded that they were in danger of imminent death, she could only heal one Kaiju at a time.

Which meant that if both Anguirus and Rodan were dying… she would most likely only have enough time to save one of them.

"No," the King whispered, his voice wavering as he closed his eyes and fought the urge to fall to his knees. Anguirus and Rodan loved each other just as much as he loved Mosura: he knew that. Neither of them would ever want to lose the other, and each would be willing to sacrifice themselves for the other. But with both of them unconscious, how could he and Mosura possibly decide which one to save?

"G… Go…" a voice rasped. "Go…ji…"

The King's eyes widened, and his head whipped around towards the source of the voice.

Anguirus was awake. His eyes had drifted open, still glowing a soft green in the darkness, and he weakly craned his neck to look at the two of them. "Goji?" he muttered. "Mosura? Are… are you guys okay?"

"Anguirus!" the Queen exclaimed, her eyes wide as she took a quick, bounding hop over towards him. "Yes, we're all right. Are you…?"

"I…" Anguirus coughed, blood trickling from the corners of his mouth as he shook his head. "'M fine. How's Rodan? Is he okay?"

The Queen looked up at the King, her eyes wide and helpless. She clearly had no idea what to do: just the thought of losing one of her companions, let alone both, was paralyzing. The King felt the same way, but he forced his emotions down, doing everything he could to think about the situation logically as he turned back to Anguirus.

"No," he intoned, forcing his voice to remain as steady as possible. "He… he's badly wounded, Anguirus. He needs healing." He closed his eyes for a moment. "But… so do you. And we…" His voice almost cracked. "We don't have enough time to…"

"To heal both of us," Anguirus finished, his own voice quiet and subdued as the situation sank in. "Yeah. Makes sense."

This time the King did fall to one knee, with an impact that shook the ground underfoot. "Anguirus…" he whispered, his voice trembling as he leaned down close to the fallen spike-shell and rested one hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry. I should have been here –"

"We should have been here," the Queen whispered, tears leaking from her eyes as she crept slowly forward to Anguirus's other side. "I'm so sorry, Anguirus… we shouldn't have split up like that, I shouldn't have –"

"Hey," Anguirus cut her off, his voice surprisingly firm. "It's not… your fault, Mosura. There's no way we could've known. Don't… blame yourself." He winced and coughed again, blood bubbling in his throat. "Dammit… bastards really did a number on me…"

The King's eyes snapped open, inspiration sparking to life inside him and warring with the despair that was rising in his mind. "We can talk later," he decided, his gaze flicking over to the Queen. "Mosura! Get started on healing him, all right? If we switch back and forth between the two of them, then maybe we can keep them both stable long enough to –"

"Goji." Anguirus's voice cut through the King's racing thoughts, drawing his attention back to the spike-shell's face. There was fear and pain in his friend's eyes, but also determination… and the King knew in that moment that Anguirus had already made his decision.

"It's okay," Anguirus murmured softly, before he turned to face the Queen. "Mosura?" He weakly lifted one front paw to point over to where Rodan had fallen. "Heal him first."

The King could sense the dismay in the Queen's mind – not at the idea of saving Rodan, but at the simple prospect of having to lose one of her friends to save another – but she did her best to stay calm. "Anguirus…" she breathed. "Are… are you sure that's what you want?"

"Positive." Anguirus nodded firmly, clearly doing his best to stave off the pain. "He'd do the same thing if he were in my place… but he isn't. And I'm not letting him die." His eyes flashed brighter for a moment, burning with a fiery intensity even as another cough racked his broken body. "Do it! Save him!"

The Queen looked at him for a moment, her eyes wide and her expression clearly conflicted… but she nodded slowly, casting a sad and apologetic look up at the King. "I'm sorry," she whispered, addressing both of them, before she slowly turned and scrambled over next to Rodan. Stretching her wings out over the dying fire-wing, she hummed softly and started to release a gentle shower of glowing blue scales from her wings, the shining particles raining down onto Rodan's charred body and absorbing into his scales so their healing properties could kick in.

The King's body sagged, and he slumped onto his hands and knees beside Anguirus. His own spikes had gone dark, with barely a flicker of blue light present on them. "You stay with me, all right?" he demanded, his eyes fixed on Anguirus as the spike-shell's gaze shifted wearily back over to him. "She can help you too, you know that. You just have to hang on until she's done with him, and then…"

"Goji…" Anguirus coughed again, more blood leaking from his mouth. "I'm sorry, man, but… I'm done. We both know it." He winced as he tried to shift position a little. "Shit… they dropped me a really long way. I'm all busted up… can't really move my back legs or my tail… an' it's only the fact that my spikes're stuck in the ground that's holding my back together."

The King's eyes widened and his stomach lurched, horror mingling with rage at the knowledge of just how badly the Golden One had wounded his friend. If the three-headed Kaiju had still been there in that moment, he would have ripped them to pieces… but for Anguirus's sake, he forced himself to temper his anger.

"Hey," Anguirus rasped, drawing the King's attention back to him. "You guys… don't tell him that I did this, all right?" He nodded weakly over to where the Queen was still sprinkling her scales over Rodan; some of the fire-wing's injuries were already visibly starting to mend as their healing properties took effect. "Don't tell him that I forced you guys to heal him 'stead of me. Tell him… it was already too late for me, but not for him."

"What?" The Queen frowned despite her tears, her head tilting slightly in confusion. "Why?!"

"Because… if he finds out about this, he'll blame himself," Anguirus replied, gritting his teeth against the pain as he fought to stay lucid. "He's always… been doing stuff like that, blamin' himself whenever I got hurt, thinkin' he shoulda been faster, stronger, better… I don't want him to spend the rest of his life knowing that I told you guys to save him instead of me." His eyes were glassy with pain and exhaustion, but still alert as he glanced from the King to the Queen and back again. "All right? Promise… promise me you won't tell him."

After a moment, both the King and the Queen silently nodded, feeling the heavy weight on their hearts. "Okay," the Queen whispered, more tears leaking from her eyes. "We… we won't."

"Good. Thanks." Anguirus sighed heavily, a bubbling sound still echoing from his throat. He leaned back, resting his head on the ground, his eyes becoming glassier as his gaze shifted over to meet the King's. "I… I'm sorry, Goji. I… fought as hard as I could, man."

"It's not your fault," the King assured him, feeling a constricting sensation in his throat as tears welled up in his eyes too. "I'm sure you gave them hell."

"Damn right." Anguirus let out a wheezing chuckle. "Nearly tore one of those bastards clean off, before they got the drop on me." He snorted softly, his beaked mouth curving in a faint grin. "Heh. 'Drop.' Ironic, considering what happened next." He indicated his current position and the crater around him with an idle wave of one paw.

The King managed a soft chuckle of his own, even through the hot tears that were stinging his eyes. "It'll be all right, my friend," he murmured, reaching up with one hand and gently resting it on Anguirus's head, running his claws through the spikes on the back of his head. "I'll see you again someday. We all will."

"Yeah…" Anguirus's smile softened, his head tilting back as he gazed up at the sky. The storm had finally dissipated entirely, leaving only the dark night sky and a silver tapestry of stars. "Man… those stars are beautiful tonight." He sighed. "Mentioned that t' Rodan earlier, before…" He shivered slightly. "Getting cold out here… huh, Goji? Least we've got those stars, though…"

The King nodded, his vision blurred by tears. "Yeah," he managed, his voice cracking a bit. "They… they're beautiful."

"Stars," Anguirus repeated quietly, in a soft, almost wondering tone. His head sagged slowly back against the soft earth, and the green glow in his eyes slowly faded away.

And then he was gone.

The Queen let out a soft gasp, a rush of pain surging through their psychic connection as she sensed the life leaving their comrade's body, before she forced herself to continue healing Rodan even as her sobs echoed around them. The King, for his part, was silent for several long minutes, tears flowing down from his closed eyes as he quietly mourned his friend. Then his eyes flickered open as he slowly reached down with one hand and carefully closed Anguirus's eyes. "Goodbye," he murmured. "My friend."

Before long, the Queen finished carrying out the healing process, and Rodan woke up.

To say that he didn't take the news of Anguirus's death well would be an understatement.

The distant echoes of a sonic boom were still rumbling across the island, the unnatural thunderclap signaling Rodan's departure. The King and the Queen were both still frozen in place, staring silently after the rapidly-disappearing form of the fire-wing as he soared out over the ocean, vanishing into the night without a backward glance.

As soon as it sank in that they were alone, the Queen collapsed, her entire body shaking as she broke down in tears, crying and sobbing uncontrollably. The King instinctively dropped to all fours and scrambled over to her, rolling onto his side and pulling her gently into a comforting embrace. She instinctively wrapped her limbs and her wings around him, nestling into him and burying her face against his neck, and the two of them succumbed to their grief, crying into each other and taking as much comfort as they could from each other's presence as they mourned for all that they had lost. In the end, they both fell asleep there, nestled in each other's arms and totally drained by the horror of that night.

The next morning, they both woke up slowly. The sun was rising on the horizon, tinting their surroundings in a soft orange glow as the two of them sat up and did what they could to clean themselves up. Anguirus still lay where he had fallen, as the King hadn't wanted to try moving him the night before.

"What do we do now?" the Queen questioned softly as they sat watching the sunrise together. "Where… where should we take him?"

The King considered that for a moment, before the obvious solution came to him. "I'll take him down to the old temple, in that Underworld cavern," he decided. "He loved it there, and it's totally isolated now after the collapse, so there won't be any scavengers around to disturb him." He glanced down at her. "How does that sound?"

The Queen was clearly still grieving, but she nodded. "That sounds perfect," she agreed. "I think he'd be happy there."

And so the King, after carefully lifting Anguirus's body out of the crater where it had come to rest, carried it out to sea, and after a quick dive into his underwater tunnels, deposited the body in the underwater city. Sure enough, no other Kaiju or scavengers disturbed the spike-shell's remains, and he was left to spend eternity in peace.

And from then on, every time the King visited the underwater temple to rest or to replenish his energy supply, he always made a point to spend some time paying his respects to the remains of his long-lost friend. It became part of his routine whenever he visited there, and it helped him to come to terms with the new reality of a world that didn't have Anguirus in it anymore… a world without his best friend.

But despite all of the King's visits, it was never quite enough to remove the lingering shadow of guilt and sadness that would always be present in his heart. The longing wish that he and his Queen would have been able to save two lives, not just one, on that fateful night so long ago.

But, in the end, even gods have their limits. And eventually, all things must come to an end.

Now…

…Goji? Goji, can you hear me?

The King was pulled slowly back into consciousness, his eyes flickering open as a deep, pained groan echoed in his chest. He tilted his head slowly to one side, gazing up at the rocky ceiling of the cavern. For a moment, he wasn't sure what he'd heard… but then he recognized the voice, and a surge of joy began welling up in his heart.

"Mosura…?" he called out, speaking both verbally and telepathically. "Is that you?" He wasn't entirely sure if he'd still been dreaming when he'd heard that call, but it had sounded so much like her, and she had been due to finish her transformation soon…

Sure enough, his call was answered moments later, as the familiar voice echoed in his mind again, accompanied by a rush of warmth and love. Goji! I knew it; I'm so glad you're okay!

Mosura! The King smiled and his pain lessened, if only slightly, as he felt their telepathic link finally growing back to full strength, thoughts and memories flowing back and forth between them just as easily as they had before their long hibernation. This time he didn't bother replying verbally, and simply reached out through their connection instead. What's going on? Are you all right?

I'm fine, the Queen assured him. I sped up my transformation when I sensed that you'd been hurt. As soon as I emerged from my cocoon, I knew I needed to find you, and my Singers were able to help me locate you. She paused, and he could feel her trying to examine him as best she could through their connection. What happened? Are you all right?

I'm… alive, at least, the King muttered. It was the humans… I was fighting the Golden One, and they fired some kind of weapon at us. It was like one of their exploding fire-stingers, but this one was far more powerful, and it had poison in it. It turned the seawater to acid: my whole body felt like it was on fire, and my flesh started melting in a thousand places. I only survived because one of my tunnel entrances was close enough that I could use it to escape. He exhaled slowly and drew another long, ragged breath. I barely made it back to the temple. I'm healing and recharging now, but… He shifted position slightly and groaned softly. …it's going very slowly. It's going to take a while for me to recover fully. Maybe a long while.

The Queen was silent for a moment. Yes, I can tell, she murmured eventually, her tone making it clear that she was deeply concerned. Can you swim back up to the surface? If you were up here, I could heal you, or at least help to speed up the process.

The King shifted his position, but he couldn't push himself up off the floor: his damaged muscles screamed in protest, and he slumped back down with a groan of pain. No, he replied with a soft growl and a shake of his head. I would if I could, but I can barely move right now. It'll take a while before I can even crawl back out of this temple, let alone swim all the way back up to the surface. The humans' weapon had done far more damage than he'd realized, and he wasn't anywhere close to being recovered, even with the radiation from the volcano slowly refueling his reserves of energy. Leaving this place, for the moment, was out of the question. And while his Queen could swim quite well in her larval form, she was not a good swimmer in her adult form, as her soft, downy wings slowed her down and made her awkward and cumbersome in water. She could swim in that form, although she would need to dry her wings off afterwards, but she would never be able to dive all the way down to the seafloor on her own, let alone swim through the underwater tunnels to reach his temple.

I understand. The Queen's mental voice was still concerned, but it seemed to become a little more optimistic as she continued. Well, fortunately I'm not the only one capable of helping you. I've been able to reestablish contact with my Singers, and it seems that they now work with a group of humans who are still loyal to you. They call themselves "Monarch"… and I think they may be able to help you now.

Help me? The King snorted, tasting blood in his mouth and wincing again as it sent fresh jolts of pain through his body. That's a laugh. It was the humans who did this to me: what makes you think that they would want to help me now? He was fairly certain that the humans who'd fired that weapon had been trying to kill both him and the Golden One, not just him, but that didn't really make him feel any better.

Two reasons, the Queen replied, chuckling softly. First: as you well know, not all groups of humans are the same. You remember the First Great War, do you not? Humans fought on both sides of that conflict, not just yours.

The King nodded begrudgingly, thinking back to that conflict. In his lifetime, there had been three "Great Wars," as they were commonly known, among this world's Kaiju. The first of those Wars had been fought between two competing species of Alpha Kaiju: his own species on one side, and the mammalian Great Apes on the other. The Great Apes, which had evolved down in the Underworld, had become jealous of his kind's power and authority over the other Kaiju, and had attempted to depose them and to take their place as the rulers of the world. That war had been long and bloody, with great losses on both sides, but he and his kind had ultimately emerged victorious, while the surviving Great Apes had been driven into the most remote caverns of the Underworld.

But the part which related to his Queen's point was that it had not just been a war of Kaiju: the humans had taken sides as well, with one group – the humans who had eventually built the city in which this temple rested – following the King and his kind, and another group following the Great Apes. Perhaps this was a similar situation, where one group of humans supported him while another saw him as an enemy. It was certainly worth considering, at least.

And second, the Queen continued with the impression of a warm smile in her mental voice, my Singers are part of this group. And I trust them, completely. They have no secrets from me, just as you and I have no secrets from each other. If they trust these "Monarch" humans and believe that they can help you, then I think we should trust them as well. Her voice developed a hint of wry amusement. Also, to be fair… it's not as if we have many other options at the moment, is it?

The King let out another soft, amused snort. Fair enough. He sighed, letting his body relax back onto the warm stone slab beneath him. So they have some sort of plan to heal me?

As far as I can gather, yes, the Queen confirmed. They need me to locate the nearest entrance to your tunnels so they can make it down to the temple, but that shouldn't be a problem. From what my Singer is telling me, I believe they plan to bring some sort of device that produces large levels of radiation down to you, so you can feed on it and use that power to speed up your healing process. If they can give you enough energy, you might be able to heal much more quickly than you could otherwise.

The King nodded slowly, thinking that over. Yes… that makes sense. If the humans could supply him with a large amount of extra radiation, he would be able to recharge and heal much more quickly than he could if he was relying solely on the radiation from the lava tubes. Assuming that they could actually pull it off, he certainly wasn't going to complain.

Now take it easy, my love, the Queen told him, her voice soft and comforting. While they're preparing, you should go back to sleep, get some more rest, and let your body continue to heal. Once you're healed and back to full strength, we can deal with the Golden One together and put an end to this once and for all.

The King grinned wearily. You always know just what to say to help me feel better, he quipped.

I do my best, the Queen replied cheerfully, sending the telepathic equivalent of a warm hug as she projected the mental image of her wings wrapping around him in a gentle embrace. Now go back to sleep, my King, and rest. They will be on their way soon, and I'll be waiting up here for you once you're healed.

All right, the King murmured, feeling the weariness overtaking him again as he lowered his head back onto the warm stone. I love you, Mosura.

I love you too, Goji, the Queen replied with a soft chuckle. Sleep well, my King. I'll see you soon.

The King's eyes drifted closed, a deep rumble echoing in his chest, and he allowed his exhaustion to overtake him again. This time, no memories plagued him, and he sank into a deep and dreamless sleep.

High above, the Queen sighed in relief, her wings flapping slowly to keep her aloft as she gazed down into the depths of the ocean. Her King was wounded and weak, but he was still alive, and the humans had a plan in place that might be able to heal him. That was all that mattered.

As she circled slowly around the humans' metal island, she reached out through the psychic connection between her and her King, tapping into his memories as she tried to locate the closest entrance to his underwater tunnels. She knew there was at least one in this area, so all she had to do was find it, and then she could lead the humans to it.

Sure enough, it only took a couple of hours for her to locate the tunnel entrance. While she couldn't dive down to it, she could sense the faint radiation emanating from it, carrying a trace of the distinctive energy that flowed throughout the Underworld. Nodding in satisfaction, she took up a position directly above the tunnel opening, hovering in place as she reached out to Ilene telepathically. Here, my child, she projected. You and your friends must come here. This is where you will find the King.

Eventually, one of the humans' metal diving-fish came into view, cruising across the surface towards her. She reached out with her mind, and was satisfied to sense Ilene's presence within it.

Everything will be all right, my Queen, Ilene's voice echoed through their connection. Our plan should succeed: we can give the King more than enough radiation for his injuries to heal. In the meantime, our comrades will do what they can to distract the False King, and hopefully that will buy us enough time to complete our work. She paused, a bit of worry coming into her mental speech, as the Queen saw a series of images: flocks of metal birds soaring over a large school of metal fish, all the power that the humans could muster, heading straight for the center of the Golden One's storm.

The Queen's eyes widened in alarm. No amount of humans, no matter how brave or skilled, could hope to prevail against the Destroyer's fury without help from other Kaiju. But she could tell from Ilene's memories that the humans involved already knew this, and that they hoped merely to keep the Golden One occupied and distracted long enough for Ilene and her companions to heal the King. These humans, at least, knew that she and her King were on their side, and were prepared to risk their own lives to help them.

You honor us with your trust and your bravery, young one, she projected, her mental voice quieter and softer than before. Thank you. Her wings pulsed a little brighter and she looked down at the metal fish as it slowly approached the tunnel entrance. Now, I must go; there are preparations that I need to make before the time comes for my King and I to face the Enemy. You and your companions can handle things from here.

As you say, my Queen. Ilene's voice softened. And… thank you. I had never dared to dream that I would actually be able to commune with you like this, but… it's everything I could ever have hoped for.

That simple, earnest confession wrenched at the Queen's heart, and she felt a rush of sympathy. I'm sorry that I had to leave you alone for so long, my child, she murmured. But I'm back now, and I will not leave you this time. I promise you that. Her eyes and wings shone brightly as she watched the metal fish slip beneath the surface and disappear from view, diving down towards the tunnel that would lead them to the King. Now go, and know that my blessing goes with you.

The Queen waited for another long moment, making sure that the metal fish was on course to find the tunnel entrance. Then she flapped her wings and rose up and away, accelerating back up into the cloud-filled sky and soaring off towards the horizon. Hopefully she would know before long whether Ilene and the Singers' allies had accomplished their mission, but in the meantime she had another job to do.

When she had gone into hibernation during the Cold Times, the Queen had left a dozen eggs behind, hidden in concealed nests all over the world. Normally she didn't have nearly that many eggs, perhaps half a dozen at most, but she hadn't wanted to take any chances, as this time she'd known that she wouldn't have an active adult body around to patrol the nest sites. The egg that she'd hatched from in the abandoned human temple had been one of those, but she had no idea how many of the other nests were still intact, or if any of the eggs in those nests were still alive. But before the time came for her to face the Golden One in battle again, she needed to find out. Just in case.

After all, the Queen reflected as she headed towards the nearest location of one of her hidden nests, she hadn't survived this long by taking chances.

Note: And there we go!

So, for anyone who may be curious about the Ghidorah & Rodan bit: yes, if you couldn't already tell, Ghidorah is lying their collective ass off about their claim that they're only interested in killing the humans. While yes, eradicating all of humanity is their primary goal, they're also very much planning to kill everything else on the planet in addition to the humans. They just lied to Rodan about that as manipulation, trying to convince him that Anguirus's death only happened because Goji and Mosura wouldn't let them get rid of the humans.

Also, regarding that scene, all of the alien species that Ghidorah mentions during Ichi's brief explanation of why they're targeting the humans are actually the names of alien species from the Japanese Godzilla films! The Exif and Bilusaludo are the two alien species from the recent Netflix anime trilogy (and the Exif are also another iteration of the Xiliens from Invasion of Astro-Monster and Final Wars), while the Kilaaks are the aliens from Destroy All Monsters, the Simeons are the ape-faced aliens from the Showa movies Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and Terror of Mechagodzilla, and the Nebulans are the cockroach-aliens from Godzilla vs. Gigan and Godzilla vs. Megalon. We'll be seeing more of those alien species, particularly the Exif, in the Ghidorah prequel that I'll eventually be writing.

Also, just as a fun fact: the island where we see the Goji/Mosura/Anguirus/Rodan quartet in this chapter, and where Anguirus is killed by Ghidorah, is Papua New Guinea in Indonesia. I chose that as the location because the KOTM novelization includes a story by a tribe in New Guinea describing Ghidorah's coming to Earth and battling against the Titans there, so I figured it would work well enough as the location of the Anguirus & Rodan vs. Ghidorah battle.

And for that flashback scene: yup, there's the biggest missing piece of the story surrounding Anguirus's death, and the reason why I gave that moment a second flashback. Both Anguirus and Rodan were dying after their fight with Ghidorah (Anguirus due to the injuries he sustained in the fall, Rodan because he got fried by a triple blast of their lightning), and Mosura only had time to save one of them... and Anguirus forced her to heal Rodan instead of him. And Rodan himself has no idea that happened, because he was unconscious at the time and Anguirus made both Goji and Mosura promise not to tell him the truth. Sure adds an extra level of complexity to Rodan's argument with the Royal Couple in Chapter 4's flashback, doesn't it? ;)

Next time, Ghidorah and Rodan face off against the humans' counterattack; the King has another dream-vision, and receives an unexpected visitor in his temple; and the Royal Couple are finally reunited!