Notes: And here we are! I can't believe this story is finally finished, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Hope you guys enjoy it! :D
Shoutouts to wellingtonlucas282, 54godamora, Miss Queen B, IdleManRPG, and ultron emperor for reviewing: you guys are awesome, and I really appreciate the feedback.
Music for this chapter is as follows! For the opening scene, "Mountains – Roof of the World," from the Planet Earth II soundtrack; for the Boston scene (particularly the first part of that scene), "Mountains – The Himalayas," from the Planet Earth II soundtrack; and for the last scene, "Planet Earth II Suite," also from the Planet Earth II soundtrack. That last song in particular, and the scene that goes with it, is something that I've had in my head ever since I first started working on this story, so I was really excited to finally get it written, and I strongly recommend listening to the music as you read that part in particular to get the full experience. As always, all of those songs are now in the YouTube playlist that I made for this story (the link for which is in this story's description on my profile), so if you guys want to listen to the theme music that I've been picturing for these stories as you're reading along, you're welcome to do so! :D
Oh, and one more thing to note before we get started! I mentioned earlier on in this story that I would be diverging from canon much more significantly at a certain point in this 'verse. Well… if the contents of this chapter don't make it obvious enough, that moment has arrived.
Now, without further ado, let's get into this!
Chapter 9: A New Beginning
Thousands of years ago…
The King cruised slowly through the icy water, pushing a group of drifting icebergs aside as he swam away from the frozen continent and headed north towards the open ocean. Normally he didn't particularly enjoy the frigid temperatures of the polar oceans, but right now they were actually a little soothing, helping to dull the pain of the slowly-healing injuries that he'd sustained during that night's savage battle.
The Queen was perched on his back, holding his dorsal plates for purchase and periodically dipping her wings into the ocean on either side of his body so the cold water could soothe the burns left behind by the Golden One's lightning. She would be able to speed up the healing process for them both as soon as she'd gotten a chance to rest, but she'd used up most of her energy in the battle and they weren't in any rush, so she didn't want to drain her remaining reserves yet.
For his part, the King was quiet, lost in thought. They had been fighting against the Golden One for so long, risking their lives in battle after battle, that it was hard to believe it could really be over. He kept half-expecting to hear the familiar trio of cackling roars as his nemesis broke free of their new icy prison, or to feel the stinging pain of lightning bolts striking him and searing through his muscles again.
"Goji?" The Queen's soft voice drew his attention, as she lifted her wings out of the water and shook them, sending a brief pulse of energy rippling through them to evaporate the water that was soaking into her fur. She frowned and tilted her head as she looked down at him, shifting forward a bit and leaning to one side so she could see his face. "Are you all right?"
The King lifted his head out of the water, his breath forming a cloud of steam in the cold night air, before he looked back over his shoulder at her and nodded. "Yes, I'm okay," he reassured her. "I just…" He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, knowing full well that there was no point in trying to hide his misgivings from his Queen. One crucial element of having a mental bond like theirs was that it was impossible for either of them to keep secrets from the other, or for one of them not to understand what the other was feeling: however, as a result, it was also impossible for him to keep something like this to himself. "Part of me can't believe that we actually won," he admitted quietly. "It doesn't feel real. I keep looking over my shoulder and expecting them to show up again."
The Queen nodded, her eyes dimming slightly as the King felt a rush of sympathy flowing through their connection. "I understand," she murmured softly, leaning down and nudging her head against his. "Believe me, I do. Back before we met, in the old days when I usually just had to look after myself without always having a partner around to help me, I spent a very long time constantly looking over my shoulder for anyone who might try to harm me and knowing that an attack could come from anywhere, at any time. But I've had plenty of time to get used to that feeling, so it doesn't bother me too much." She chuckled softly, her voice becoming a little more amused as she lightly stroked his head with one forelimb. "In your case, though, since you're a big scary predator, you haven't had to worry about that as much since you were younger. So it makes perfect sense that you hate feeling that way."
Snorting in amusement, the King rolled his eyes and shook his head. "You know, with all that teasing, you're lucky you're so cute," he remarked dryly, before he twisted in the water and shifted deliberately to one side. Interpreting the unspoken signal, the Queen flared her wings out and jumped into the air as he rolled over onto his back, before dropping back down and landing lightly on his chest and stomach.
The Queen giggled, her bioluminescence briefly flickering from blue to pink in her equivalent of a blush, before her smile softened. "In all seriousness," she continued as she gently stroked his cheek with one of her forelimbs, "I do understand, my love. We've been fighting the Golden One for so long that the thought of them being gone doesn't seem possible. But it's true." She folded her legs underneath her body so she could lie down and rested her head lightly on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. "We won, Goji. Finally, after all this time, they're really gone. If they do ever get out of there, we'll be ready to stop them again… but for now, the war's over. We did it, and now we can rest."
The King's tension finally started to bleed away. He smiled, lowering his head so the Queen could rest her cheek against his, and closed his eyes as he felt the reassuring warmth and love of their connection. "You're right," he breathed. "Thank you, my love."
"I'm always happy to cheer you up, you know that," the Queen replied with a soft chuckle. She folded her wings across her back and nestled down against his chest and stomach, rolling onto her side so she could look up at the sky. A moment later, she inhaled sharply, and he felt a surge of amazement from her mind. "Goji! Look!"
The King's eyes snapped open, and he too looked up at the clear night sky. The clouds left behind by the Golden One's storm had finally dissipated completely, and with the unnatural darkness finally gone, he could easily see what had captured his mate's attention. The sky looked like it was alive, lit up by a brilliant, swirling display of multicolored light like the bioluminescence that flowed through his Queen's wings. He'd seen such displays in the sky before, of course – they were a common sight whenever he ventured to the polar regions at each end of the planet – but it seemed especially beautiful tonight, as if the Earth itself was celebrating their victory over the monstrous demon that had plagued it for so long.
For quite a few minutes, the couple drifted slowly along the surface in silence, enjoying each other's presence and taking in the spectacular view overhead. Finally, the Queen shifted slightly against the King's chest, drawing his gaze down to meet hers. "So," she murmured quietly. "What should we do now?"
The King frowned thoughtfully as he considered that. "Well, there are a few things that we do need to take care of fairly quickly," he replied, turning things over in his mind. "We'll have to start spreading the word that the Golden One is gone, letting everyone know that they've been dealt with and warning other Kaiju to stay away from this area. And then we're eventually going to need to figure out what to do about the Jinshin-Mushi swarms, considering how much trouble they've been causing lately." His frown faded a moment later, and he smiled down at her. "But for right now… let's just find a nice quiet island, someplace without any other Kaiju around, where we can rest up and heal for a couple of days. After that fight, I think we've earned a little vacation." His grin became a bit more playful at that, and the Queen's bioluminescence briefly flashed pink again as she smiled too.
"That sounds perfect," she agreed, smiling brightly as she stood back up. "Shall we, then?" Unfolding her wings, she hopped back into the air, allowing the King to roll back over, and landed on his back again. Refolding her wings, she nestled down between his plates, holding onto them to help keep herself in place.
Smiling to himself, his earlier misgivings now forgotten, the King propelled himself back into motion with powerful sweeps of his tail, cruising off into the night with his Queen by his side as the skies overhead continued to swirl and dance with light.
Now…
As the echoes of his Alpha call slowly faded away, the King nodded in satisfaction. He could dimly hear the return calls of a dozen or so other Kaiju echoing across the world, and while he couldn't tell who exactly was awake or what they were all saying, he could tell that his attempt to purge any remaining traces of the Golden One's control from them had worked. All of those Kaiju were now completely free from the False King's spell, and the last traces of the three-headed devil's brutal campaign against the inhabitants of this planet had been swept away.
With the previous silence restored, the King returned his attention to the five Kaiju who were still kneeling in a loose circle around him. He wasn't concerned about Scylla, Behemoth, or Methuselah: all three of them were firmly loyal to him, and he shouldn't need to worry about any of them causing trouble. The Jinshin-Mushi was an entirely different matter, as there was no way he could trust one of her kind after everything they had put him through, but the fact that she didn't have a mate and that she had willingly bowed to him meant that he didn't automatically need to kill her… at least, not unless she gave him a reason to do so.
But as for the last Kaiju in this group…
The King's eyes narrowed fractionally, their orange glow darkening as his gaze drifted over towards Rodan's crouching form. He had seen the entirety of the fire-wing's fight with the Queen, and his link with Mosura meant that he had heard everything she and Rodan had said during that confrontation. While he'd been distracted with his own battle, he'd been forced to put that aside and focus on the fight in front of him. But now that the battle was over, those memories were playing through his mind again… and his anger was quickly starting to build, on the verge of boiling over. His clawed hands clenched slowly into fists, and a deep growl began welling up in his chest as he lowered his head and glared down at the ground.
The rest of the Kaiju in the circle, meanwhile, had slowly gotten back up once his roar had faded away, clearly taking the conclusion of his brief speech as a cue that they no longer needed to stay kneeling. The Jinshin-Mushi looked more annoyed than anything else, but the others – particularly Rodan – were starting to look a little nervous, glancing at each other and taking a couple of slow steps back as they picked up on the signs of the King's growing anger.
"Uh… you okay, man?" Behemoth finally spoke up, even his usually laid-back attitude giving way to a bit of apprehension. "Is, ah… is everything –"
In that instant, the King burst into motion. He spun on his heel and his tail cracked like an enormous whip, striking Rodan squarely in the chest before the fire-wing had any time to get out of the way. The impact knocked the smaller Kaiju flat on his back, winding him and producing a strangled squawk of pain along with a burst of flames and smoke. Coughing and spluttering, he tried to scramble back to his feet, but the King was on him before he could get his feet back under him. One clawed hand wrapped around his neck in a vice-grip, hauling him back to his feet and slamming him back against one of the few large human buildings that were still standing in the area. The impact shook the whole building, but surprisingly it didn't collapse.
"You spineless, self-serving traitor!" the King spat, blocking a desperate swipe of Rodan's wing-claws with his free arm and maintaining his hold on the fire-wing's throat. "How dare you side with that monster against us?! You turned your back on everything that we ever stood for, and you deliberately attacked the Queen. We both nearly died because you kept her from helping me, and she had to sacrifice herself because you burned off her scales! I should snap your worthless neck right now for that!"
All four of the other Kaiju had stumbled back in shock when the King had lashed out at Rodan, but now they slowly stepped forward, forming an irregular semicircle around the pair. The Jinshin-Mushi hung back, keeping her distance, although a faint grin was forming on her fanged beak as if she found the situation mildly amusing. The other three, however, had all been shocked into horrified silence. Scylla's eyes were wide in anger and grief, likely due to the King's explanation of what had happened to the Queen, while Behemoth and Methuselah both looked alarmed but also a little conflicted.
"Your Grace, wait!" Methuselah called out, taking a slow step forward. He flinched noticeably as the King's head snapped around to fix a glare on him, but stood firm and continued after a moment, his deep, gravelly voice laced with sympathy. "I... I promise you, my liege, I understand how you must feel. If something like that had happened to my dear life-mate, I would feel the same way. But… surely the Queen would not wish for Rodan to be executed like this? Especially when what happened was the Usurper's fault, not his?"
"He's right, man," Behemoth agreed, nodding despite the nervous look in his eyes. "The Golden One was controlling all of us, right? I didn't wanna follow any of the orders they gave me, but I couldn't stop myself." He glanced around him at the others. "I'm guessin' it was the same for you guys, right?"
"Indeed." Methuselah nodded soberly. "I did not wish to cause any of that destruction, but with the Enemy's claws in my mind I could not overcome their will." He nodded to Rodan, who was choking and gasping for air as he struggled desperately against the King's grip. "Surely it was the same for him, no? Whatever he did, it could only have been because the Golden One was controlling him, just as they did to the rest of us. No sane creature would ever follow that monster of their own free will."
The King had fallen silent as they were speaking, but when Methuselah said that, his eyes narrowed and his scowl returned. "I wish that were the case," he replied curtly, before his glare shifted back onto Rodan. "But, unfortunately, it isn't. The only one responsible for what Rodan did today is himself. Because unlike the rest of you, I'm quite certain that the Golden One wasn't forcing him to do anything."
Rodan's eyes widened in terror, and his struggling intensified as he tried to get free. The King saw the flash of panic in the fire-wing's eyes, and his scowl deepened as his suspicions were confirmed.
"You see," the King continued grimly, "a long time ago, back before the Queen and I trapped the Golden One in the ice of the southern continent, she gave Rodan a gift to help him in battle against them. She used her psychic powers to put a 'shield' in his mind, designed to protect him against the Golden One's mental attacks so there was no way they could ever gain control over him. She was the only one who could get rid of that shield, and she never did. So, in this case, there's no way the Golden One could have controlled or brainwashed Rodan the way they did with the rest of you." His eyes narrowed. "Which means the only way he could have joined them… is if he did so willingly."
Rodan let out another strangled, choking sound, and the King swung back around to meet his panicked gaze. He deliberately relaxed his grip on Rodan's neck, holding him tightly enough that he still couldn't get free but loosening his hold enough that the smaller Kaiju could catch his breath. "Go ahead," he growled, his eyes blazing with anger. "Tell me I'm wrong. But don't even think of trying to lie to me."
Rodan was silent for a long moment, except for his coughing and wheezing as he tried to get his breath back. He met the King's gaze for a few seconds, his eyes wide and filled with a mix of swirling emotions – fear, pain, and an overwhelming guilt – before his eyes narrowed to slits and he shook his head, unable to keep looking the King in the eyes. "I… I can't," he whispered shakily, his voice cracking as he bowed his head. "You're right."
The onlookers all took another step back, their eyes wide and their faces showing a wide range of emotions. Scylla was visibly furious, her tentacles practically tying themselves into knots as she glared daggers at Rodan. Behemoth and Methuselah both looked horrified, staring at the fire-wing with varying degrees of shock and alarm. The Jinshin-Mushi just let out a contemptuous snort, regarding the scene with a mixture of amusement and disgust.
The King's expression hardened, and he nodded. "That's what I thought." A moment later, he let go of Rodan's neck, rocked back on his heels, and threw a full-force punch at the fire-wing's face with his other hand.
Rodan's eyes popped wide open in horror and he frantically hurled himself to one side, just before the King's fist pulverized the human building that he had been pinned against. Before he could take to the air, another swing of the King's tail swept his feet out from under him and he crashed down on his back again. As he desperately tried to scramble away, one of the King's feet slammed down on his chest, cracking his armored scales and pinning him to the ground as he let out a screech of pain.
"Did you really think you would get away with it?" the King demanded, his plates lighting up as an intimidation display rippled up and down his back. "How could you side with them?!"
"You think they gave me a choice?!" Rodan shot back, anger warring with panic in his eyes. "I thought you were dead, which meant there was nobody left who could beat them; if I'd tried to fight them on my own, they would've torn me to pieces! And they told me they would leave this planet forever if I helped them to wipe out the humans, so I thought that was the only way to get rid of them!"
"And you actually believed that?" The King snorted in disgust. "You should know that nothing that monster said could ever be trusted! They weren't just trying to get rid of the humans: they wanted to wipe out every living thing in the entire world. Including all of us! All that you were really doing by working with them was sacrificing countless innocent lives just so you could keep your own miserable hide safe for a little longer." His eyes narrowed, burning with fury and contempt. "You know, I always had my issues with you back in the old days… but until now, at least, I never thought of you as a coward."
Rodan's eyes flashed with anger and he tried to squirm upwards, but the King just pushed down harder, drawing a pained gasp as his lungs were compressed by the larger Kaiju's weight. "I… I'm not a coward!" he wheezed, glaring up at the King. "I just… there was nothing else I could do! I didn't have a choice!"
"There is always a choice," the King bit out, his eyes burning into Rodan's. "You know that as well as I do."
"But… what else was I supposed to do?!" Rodan gasped as the King's clawed foot crushed down harder on his chest, barely able to breathe. "Do you seriously think… I should've just let them kill me?!"
"Yes!" the King snarled, leaning down closer and resisting the urge to unleash a blast of his fire-breath directly into Rodan's face. The fire-wing recoiled as much as he could, pressing himself flat against the ground as the King scowled down at him. "That is exactly what you should have done. And do you know why?" His eyes blazed like twin burning orange coals, and his next words came out as a hiss that was barely audible to the onlookers. "Because that is what he would have done."
Rodan froze. All of the anger and desperation in his eyes slowly drained away, leaving only a glazed, empty look of overwhelming pain and guilt. His struggling stopped, and he slumped back against the ground. Even his flames subsided, flickering and dwindling to almost nothing, like a forest fire burning itself out. He couldn't find any words to answer the King's statement… because they both knew that in this regard, he was right.
The King stared coldly down at him, feeling some satisfaction as he saw the stricken look on the fire-wing's face. "What do you think he would have done if he'd been in your position?" he questioned, his voice hard and unyielding. "If, on that night all those years ago, he hadn't forced Mosura to save you instead of him?"
When he heard that, Rodan's eyes widened in shock, and he sucked in a strangled intake of breath. "W-What?!" he managed to gasp out.
The King's eyes narrowed, and he nodded. "That's right," he confirmed coldly. "When Mosura and I found you two that night, he wasn't the only one who was dying. Both of you were dying, and Mosura only had enough time and energy to save one of you. She and I couldn't choose between you… but he was awake and you weren't, so he forced Mosura to heal you first, and as a result he died before she could do the same for him." Although his voice was cold and harsh, he couldn't entirely suppress an internal pang of guilt at the knowledge that he had just broken his long-ago promise to Anguirus. But he crushed that guilt down and refused to let it weaken his resolve: as far as he was concerned, Rodan's betrayal today had removed any reason for him to continue showing compassion to the fire-wing.
"So, what do you think he would have done if the situation had been reversed?" the King continued, glaring down at Rodan. "If you had died that day and he had lived, and then one day he had to face the Golden One by himself… what would he have chosen?" His lip curled in a furious, twisted sneer. "You don't need to bother answering, because I think we both already know the answer to that question. He would never have sided with them. He would have fought back, no matter the odds, until the bitter end. And he would have died fighting, a thousand times over, before he ever bent the knee to his partner's murderer." Those last words came out as a furious growl, and his eyes flashed from orange to blue as he pressed down even harder. Something crunched in Rodan's chest, and his next screech of pain was mixed with a sickly gurgling sound as a trickle of frothy orange blood started leaking from the corners of his beak.
"So, Rodan… what do you think is the proper punishment for this level of betrayal?" the King snarled, glaring down at Rodan as his plates glowed brighter again, a deep humming sound echoing from them. At such close range, and with Rodan pinned and unable to dodge, one full-power blast of his fire-breath would be more than enough to kill the fire-wing. "Usually, that sentence would be death. So… give me one reason not to end your worthless life right now."
Rodan, for his part, looked like he had completely given up on trying to escape. He was limp and unmoving; the scales on his chest were cracking under the pressure of the King's weight, and hot orange blood was still bubbling in his mouth. He was still clutching weakly at the King's leg to try and relieve the crushing force that was bearing down on him, but his eyes were vacant and glassy, as if he was seeing something far away. At the King's demand, though, he blinked and his gaze focused back on the larger Kaiju's face. He coughed and gagged, spitting blood, before he was finally able to get out an answer. "It… it doesn't matter," he gasped, panting desperately for air as tears leaked from the corners of his eyes and evaporated into wisps of steam. "You're… you're right. Anguirus… he'd hate me… if he knew what I've done." He closed his eyes, the flames on his wings fading away. "At this point… I've got nothing left to live for anyway. So… if you're gonna kill me… just do it already."
The King's eyes narrowed as he stared down at his former friend, his plates humming and crackling with blue light. Scylla, Behemoth, Methuselah, and the Jinshin-Mushi were all watching with varying degrees of alarm and concern (or none at all, in the parasite's case), but none of them made a move to interfere.
In that moment, the King was sorely tempted to unleash his wrath and end Rodan's life. One full-power blast would finish the job, and the fire-wing would pay the full price for his betrayal. But as he glared down at the other Kaiju's limp body, seeing the pain, guilt and grief mingled together on his face… for a moment, all he could see was Anguirus. All he could remember was that night, as his best friend's voice echoed in his head.
"He'd do the same thing in my place… and I'm not letting him die."
The King squeezed his eyes tightly closed, gritting his teeth and clenching his hands so hard that his claws dug into his palms. The humming in his plates grew louder and louder, approaching a crescendo. Finally, he could bear it no longer: he threw his head back and let out a deafening, furious roar, before swinging his head forward again as he unleashed a blazing torrent of blue fire.
But the blue-white beam didn't hit Rodan. Instead, it speared into the ground right next to his head, and then tore across the earth as the King swung his head back up, carving through the ruined city as he vented his rage in a blaze of azure light. By the time he finally let up and the beam dissipated, a smoking, mile-long trench was left behind in its wake, stretching off towards the horizon.
The other four Kaiju had all flinched back and shielded their eyes when the King had unleashed his beam, but once the thunderous echoes of the blast had faded away into silence, they all looked back up at him in surprise. In Rodan's case, he had just scrunched his eyes tightly shut and braced himself for the end; his facial expression when he realized that he was still alive was one of complete and total shock, his eyes wide and his beak hanging open, that would actually have looked rather hilarious under different circumstances.
Lowering his head as his burning blue eyes faded back to their normal orange, the King lifted his foot off of Rodan's chest and took a step back. "Get up," he snapped. "Don't make me tell you twice."
Coughing and spitting blood as he tried to get his breath back, Rodan rolled over and clambered to his feet, propping himself up by resting his wing-claws on the ground as well. "I… I don't understand," he panted, frowning as he looked up at the King with a faint flicker of hope in his eyes. "You're not going to kill me?"
The King was silent for a second, before he shook his head slightly. "No," he replied curtly. "I'm not. But before you get any ideas, I'm not doing it for you." He closed his eyes briefly. "The only reason you're not already dead… is because Anguirus wouldn't want this. He wouldn't want you to die, whatever you'd done. Which is why, at least for now, I'm not going to kill you." His eyes opened and focused back on Rodan, his expression hardening. "But make no mistake, Rodan: I do not give second chances. This is the one and only time that I'm going to show you mercy from now on. So if you want to live… stay out of my way, don't bother the humans, and don't cause me any more trouble. And if anything like what you've done over the past couple of days is ever repeated… or if you ever try to harm my Queen again… then I will hunt you down, wherever you try to hide, and I will paint every coastline in the world with your blood." The words were delivered in a voice as cold and flat as an executioner's blade. "Is that understood?" His eyes flickered blue again for a split second, and his voice deepened in the characteristic style of an Alpha command as he growled the last few words.
Rodan shivered, the fear in his eyes showing that he understood the warning perfectly clearly. "Y-yes," he replied, nodding and sinking into a low bow again. "I understand, my King."
"Good." The King snorted and jerked his head towards the horizon. "Now, before I change my mind… get out of my sight."
Nodding again, Rodan quickly turned away and started hurrying off towards the ocean. After a few shaky hops, he finally kicked off the ground and leapt into the air, his wings swiftly carrying him aloft. He didn't look back even once, putting all of his energy into flying faster, as he soared out over the ocean and rapidly accelerated up and away. Finally, he disappeared entirely, leaving only the distant echo of a sonic boom trailing in his wake.
The King was quiet for a minute after that, glaring after the vanished fire-wing and inwardly wondering whether he'd made the right decision. Eventually, however, he decided that he had. Rodan wasn't a serious threat on his own, and considering how broken the other Kaiju had looked just now, the chances of him deciding to cause any further trouble were fairly low.
In any case, now that Rodan had been dealt with, he had other things to worry about. He turned back to face the remaining four Kaiju, his gaze sweeping over Scylla, Behemoth, and Methuselah, before it finally came to rest on the Jinshin-Mushi. She was standing a little further back than the others, clearly showing some caution in case he decided to turn his wrath on her next.
"You," the King intoned, taking a slow step towards the parasite. "What's your name?" When she tilted her head and her eyes flickered a little brighter in a sign of surprise, he smirked. "Yes, I know your kind have names. I've dealt with far too many of you not to know that. So what's yours?"
The parasite remained silent for a moment, and then shrugged. "Barb," she replied evenly. "So, are you going to try and kill me? If you are, at least have the decency to tell me first." Her tone was surprisingly calm, given the circumstances, although the last part was delivered with more than a hint of sarcasm.
The King snorted in mild amusement despite himself, before shaking his head and focusing back on the matter at hand. "That depends on you, actually. I have a couple of questions for you, and whether you get to leave here alive depends on how you answer them. And you'd better answer them honestly; don't even bother trying to lie, because if you do, I'll know." He took another deliberate step towards her, a pulse of blue light flickering in his plates as a silent warning. "So. First question: Are you carrying any eggs right now?"
The parasite – Barb – had taken a wary step back when he moved a little closer, but at that question her tensed-up posture relaxed a bit. "No, I'm not," she replied matter-of-factly, straightening up a bit. "I laid my most recent clutch of eggs back before I went into hibernation, and I certainly wasn't pregnant when I went to sleep, so I'm not pregnant now." She chuckled and indicated herself with a wave of one forelimb. "Plus, if you know anything about my kind, you should know that it's usually pretty easy to tell when we're expecting. Do I look pregnant to you?"
The King's eyes narrowed, but he nodded. "Very well. Second question: If I let you live, are you going to cause any problems for me?"
Barb laughed at that and shook her head. "Hell no! I'm smart enough to have a sense of self-preservation: I know how to keep myself safe, and pissing you off would be the opposite of that. So if you let me go, I'll stay out of your way and I won't cause you any trouble. You have my word."
"Good." The King didn't trust her, of course – no other Kaiju was foolish enough to trust a Jinshin-Mushi – but he could tell that in this case, she probably wasn't lying. For the moment, at least, her desire to keep herself safe was stronger than whatever resentment she undoubtedly bore towards him for what he'd done to her species over the years. "All right, then. In that case, you're free to go." His eyes flickered from orange to blue for a heartbeat, as another wave of azure light rippled through his plates. "But I'm warning you now… if you give me a reason to put you down, I will do it without hesitation. So do yourself a favor and don't give me that reason." A thought occurred to him, and he added, "And one more thing: stay away from the humans, and don't attack them unless they attack you first. I've had my fill of conflicts with them since I came out of hibernation a few decades ago, and I don't want you stirring up any more trouble with them."
"Of course. Whatever you say, oh mighty King." Thinly-veiled sarcasm practically dripped from those words, but Barb still reluctantly inclined her head in obedience again, before she promptly turned and started walking away, ambling off in a westward direction as she headed further inland.
Despite the parasite's lack of any threatening behavior, the King still watched her carefully until she disappeared from view. The real reason behind his decision to leave her alive was that, out of all the other Kaiju that had been awakened by the Golden One's Alpha call, he hadn't heard a sound from any other Jinshin-Mushi. As a result, unless another male parasite showed up at some point, this one didn't have any way to reproduce, and a single Jinshin-Mushi wasn't a serious threat to him. With that in mind, leaving her alive for now wasn't too much of a risk… but he'd had more than enough experience with her kind to ever trust one of them, so he was definitely going to keep an eye on this one just in case. And if a male parasite did show up eventually, he would have no qualms about putting them both down on the spot.
Now that both of the "problem" Kaiju that he'd been worried about were gone, the King visibly relaxed as he turned his attention to Scylla, Behemoth and Methuselah. "That last warning goes for you all too," he addressed them. "For the most part, the humans don't seem to remember us very well anymore, since we've all been asleep for so long, and most of them simply see us as potential threats now. They've attacked me a few times since I came out of hibernation, and while most of their new weapons still aren't powerful enough to seriously harm us… some of them are fully capable of doing some real damage." He winced as he remembered the exploding radiation-stone that had given him his unexpected growth spurt and destroyed his temple, the other radiation-stones that had blown up in his face on multiple occasions shortly after he'd emerged from hibernation, and most of all, the deadly explosion of green energy that had turned an entire patch of ocean into a stagnant sea of poison.
"As you wish, my liege," Methuselah rumbled, bowing his head in acknowledgment. He yawned and straightened up, arching his back as much as he could, his joints crackling and popping as he stretched them out. "Ahhh, it feels good to be free of the Enemy's control. Now I just need something to eat, and ideally a nice nap to help get rid of this damned headache."
"Awww, c'mon, man!" Behemoth laughed, playfully nudging his shoulder against the mountain-shell's. "We've been asleep for way too long already! All you really need is some fresh air and sunshine: that'll help loosen you up." He smiled cheerfully. "Luckily, I know just the place. It'll take a little while for us to get there, but it's totally worth it." Ignoring Methuselah's irritated groan, he glanced over to the King. "Unless, uh… do you need us for anything else, man?"
The King rolled his eyes and wasn't entirely able to suppress a snorting chuckle. "No, I think we're done here," he replied with a shake of his head. "You can be on your way. Just do your best to stay out of trouble."
"You got it, boss." Behemoth grinned and nodded, before shifting his focus back to Methuselah. "C'mon, man, it'll be great! There's lots of tasty plants to eat, and plenty of space. You'll love it, I promise."
Methuselah sighed heavily, rolling his own glowing white eyes. "Very well," he finally grunted as he dipped his head to the King once more, before nodding to Behemoth. "Lead the way."
"All right!" Behemoth's carefree grin widened, and he started ambling away along the coast to the south, with Methuselah lumbering along beside him. "This is gonna be great, man."
The King shook his head as he watched the pair departing, before turning back to Scylla. "Now that it's just us," he spoke up, "there's something you should know. I thought…" His eyes drifted half-closed, and he lowered his head. "I thought I should tell you what happened to Mosura. I didn't feel the need to tell the others the whole story, but she's your friend, so you deserve to know."
Scylla's eyes dimmed as she looked down, a shadow of grief passing over her face. "Of course," she murmured. "Please, tell me."
Somewhat hesitantly, the King gave her a brief summary of everything that had happened since the Queen had first contacted him to inform him that her egg was hatching, culminating in her sacrificing herself to save his life and giving him the power that he'd needed to finally kill the Golden One. When he'd finished, they both stood in silence for several minutes, united in grief and sorrow.
After a few minutes, Scylla finally spoke up. "It wasn't your fault, dear King," she addressed him quietly. "From what you've told me, there was no other option. It was you or her, and of the two of you, you were the only one who had a chance of winning that battle." Her beak clicked several times, and her tentacles arranged themselves into her species' equivalent of a sad smile. "That's Mosura for you: she does whatever it takes to protect those she loves, no matter the cost."
"She always has," the King agreed, nodding solemnly. As his thoughts returned to the Queen, however, a ray of hope pierced through the cloud of grief, as he remembered their last conversation. "But that's not all that I wanted to tell you," he continued. "When Mosura transferred her power to me, she was also able to talk to me through our connection, and she told me that she would be able to come back much sooner this time. While I was recovering in my temple, she went to try and find some of the other eggs that she'd left behind when we went into hibernation… and from what she told me, she found one." He smiled. "And when she contacted me in that moment, she showed me where that egg is."
Scylla's eyes lit up with a rush of happiness. "Really? That's wonderful!" Her tentacles flicked eagerly back and forth. "So, are you going to go and find it now?"
"I am," the King confirmed. "Mosura said that when she found the egg, she set it to start hatching within a few days in case anything happened to her, so I should be able to locate it before then. And since you haven't gotten a chance to see her yet, I thought I should invite you to come along."
"I would love that." Scylla bowed her head to him, her tentacles twining gently with each other. "Thank you, dear King."
With Scylla following behind him, the King turned and strode through the ruins of the human city, making his way back to the ocean. Wading out into the water until it was deep enough for him to swim, he dove beneath the surface and started gliding swiftly out to sea. Scylla trailed in his wake, propelling herself through the water with all six of her legs while also forcing concentrated jets of water through a flexible siphon that was tucked into the curved shell on her back, a legacy of her cephalopod ancestors that helped her to swim more quickly underwater.
They steadily moved out away from shore, diving deeper as the seabed fell away beneath them, the water deepening from hundreds of feet to thousands. The King stayed in the lead, using his mental map of the ocean floor so he could guide them along the proper course, until eventually he sensed that they were approaching the right place. Finally, he saw it: a rounded hole in the ocean floor, one of the entrances to his underwater tunnels.
"Stay close," he instructed Scylla, calling over his shoulder as his voice echoed through the water around them. "These tunnels can be confusing sometimes, so you'll need to stay right behind me to make sure we both end up at the same place."
"Of course." Scylla nodded in agreement, positioning herself directly behind him so she could follow him closely as they were pulled along by the tremendous acceleration of the tunnels.
I'm coming, Mosura, the King thought with a small, determined smile. He braced himself for a moment, sucking in a deep inhale of water through his gills, and then plunged headfirst into the dark abyss.
She was alone.
She was alone and in the dark, and she couldn't move or see. The last thing she could remember was a swirl of light and heat and fire, everything coming apart as the world came crashing down around her.
In the back of her mind, she wondered if she might be dead. Was this what it felt like? She tried to move, to get up, but her limbs wouldn't respond, as if they weren't even there. Panic started welling up inside her again.
But then… there was a light. A soft blue glow, with no individual source but seeming to come from everywhere at once, slowly filled the empty void around her, ultimately washing the darkness away entirely.
And then her eyes opened, and she looked around in confusion.
She was back in China, in the containment facility within the ancient pyramid. The difference was, this time it was utterly silent. No one else was there: not her mother, not the doctors, not that monster Jonah and his mercenaries… no one but her.
And, of course…
A soft chittering sound echoed from above and behind her, and the soft blue light grew brighter as she turned around. Her eyes widened in amazement, and her hands lifted involuntarily to cover her mouth. A faint whisper escaped her lips, barely audible in the silence of the room.
"Mothra…"
The insectoid Titan loomed over her, radiating a brilliant blue aura. She wasn't in her larval form this time: now she was transformed, in the winged adult form that she had only caught brief glimpses of during the battle. She was far larger than she had been before, so big that she shouldn't have really been able to fit inside the temple chamber, but in this moment that didn't matter.
Hello, my child, Mothra whispered, leaning down closer to her. The soft, warm voice didn't echo through the air, but inside her head. Don't be afraid. Everything's going to be all right.
Her earlier panic was gone, but her eyes heated up, and she felt her vision becoming blurred with tears as all of her memories returned. "How can you say that?" she questioned, her voice cracking. "After everything that's happened, all those horrible things… after what happened to you… how can you be sure that everything's going to be okay?"
Mothra tilted her head slightly to one side, her mandibles flaring out slightly. Despite her alien facial features, that posture somehow gave the distinct impression of a kind, motherly smile. I don't know, little one, she replied with a trace of sadness in her mental voice. But I have faith. I've lived for a very long time, and I've been through many dark times over the eons. And I've never faced any challenge that didn't eventually pass. The Titan leaned down closer, resting her chin gently on the platform in front of her. You will survive this. I know you will. And I promise you, we will meet again… sooner than you think.
Slowly, she took a step forward and rested her hand on Mothra's forehead, just like she had last time. On impulse, she leaned further forward and rested her own forehead against the Titan's soft, downy fur, feeling a rush of warmth flowing through her. "Thank you," she breathed. "I… I believe you."
Good. Mothra "smiled" again and exhaled, a gust of warm air billowing around her and ruffling her hair. Now… it's time to wake up, dear child. There is much work to be done.
"I understand," she replied, nodding reluctantly and taking a step back. As she did, however, she looked into Mothra's glittering blue eyes… and she noticed something odd.
First, the eyes of her reflection were glowing faintly, lit up with the same blue light as Mothra's. And second, while she had been certain that she and Mothra were alone in the room… reflected in the endless blue depths of the enormous compound eye, standing on either side of her, were two other figures. She couldn't make out the finer details of their appearances, but they were both taller than her, with dark hair – one with short hair, the other with a long braid – and their eyes were both glowing with the same blue light.
"Who…?" she started to ask. But before she could get any other words out, the glow of Mothra's eyes suddenly brightened, and her surroundings melted away in a wave of soft blue light.
"Maddie?"
Madison Russell blinked and shook her head, jarred back into consciousness. For a moment, she had no idea where she was, until she blinked several times and her surroundings settled into clarity. She was still on the Osprey that had rescued her from Boston, although now it was flying out over the ocean. On the other side of the cabin, Dr. Ilene Chen was leaning back against the wall with her eyes closed, also seemingly asleep, while Dr. Rick Stanton and the three Monarch soldiers who had been picked up with them were also reclining in their seats, taking the opportunity to get some rest after the insanity of that day.
Frowning and rubbing her eyes, Madison tried to piece things together. The last thing she clearly remembered was hearing Godzilla's final triumphant roar as the other Titans bowed down to him, before she'd been forced to move away from the boarding ramp and find a seat. Utterly exhausted after all the stress and terror of the last few days, she must have fallen asleep after that.
"Madison?" The voice that had awakened her spoke up again, and she turned to see her father Mark sitting next to her. "Sorry to wake you up, sweetheart, but we're almost to the Argo." He nodded up towards the front of the Osprey, where she could hear some muffled chatter from the pilots. "Figured we should be ready to hop off when we get there. Don't worry, they've got plenty of beds on board." He leaned back in his seat, resting his head against the wall. Thanks to his exhaustion and the stress of the last few days, it looked like he'd aged half a decade since the last time she'd seen him at the Monarch outpost in Antarctica. That wasn't really a surprise, though, as she felt the same way.
"Sounds good," Madison replied, surprised to find that her voice was oddly calm. She'd been on the verge of a complete breakdown as they'd been pulling away from Boston, after her mom had sacrificed herself to save them; that had also played a role in causing her to pass out once she'd sat down, but apparently that strange dream of Mothra had really helped to calm her nerves.
Where had that dream come from? She'd had a similar vision during the chaos in Boston, when she'd tried to hide inside her family's old house and it had come crashing down on top of her. In that strange dream, she had seen Mothra – first in her larval form, then in her adult winged form – and reached out to touch her, as she had when she had met the insectoid Titan in her temple. But in that vision, Mothra hadn't spoken to her, as she had in this dream… and as she had in the temple in China.
That incident in particular, hearing the Titan's voice in her mind as Jonah and his mercenaries broke into the facility, was something that Madison hadn't mentioned to anyone, not even her mom, because it just hadn't seemed possible. After that, when she'd been thoroughly distracted by everything that had been going on elsewhere, she had almost convinced herself that she must've just imagined it. After all, the existence of giant monsters was common knowledge by this point, but a giant monster that could talk? And one who'd chosen to talk to her, specifically? Everybody at Monarch would probably think that she'd lost her mind if she tried to explain it.
But something about the dream that she'd just had made her feel like there might be more to it. In that dream, Mothra's voice had sounded exactly the same as it had back in China. It hadn't been dulled or muffled, as voices often were in a dream; it had been just as clear and piercing as it had been back then. And who were those two people who had been standing behind her, the two shadowy women with glowing blue eyes?
The Osprey rocked noticeably, and Dr. Chen's eyes drifted open as she finally woke up too. Her gaze flicked slowly back and forth across the cabin, before it came to rest on Madison and she smiled warmly. "Hi, Maddie," she greeted the younger girl. "How are you feeling?"
There was really no good way to answer that after the nightmare that today had been, so Madison settled for a shrug. "I'm… okay," she replied as honestly as she could. "I guess."
Dr. Chen nodded understandingly. "I know what you mean," she replied. "And I understand if you'd rather not talk about anything right now. But if you do need to talk, about anything – anything at all – then just let me know, okay?"
Despite herself, Madison felt a faint smile come to her lips. A moment later, her suppressed emotions started welling up within her again, as she felt an uncomfortable warmth in her eyes and her vision blurred slightly. "Thanks," she managed to get out, before shifting her focus to taking a few deep breaths and trying to calm herself down again. She would have plenty of time later to let herself feel all the pain and grief that were stewing deep down in her gut, but she couldn't afford another breakdown right now. For all her faults, Emma Russell had done a good job of teaching Maddie how to handle difficult or stressful situations, and that training was definitely helping her to keep her emotions in check right now.
"Coming up on the Argo now, folks!" one of the pilots called back to them, his voice echoing through the cabin. "Make sure you're all strapped in until we land, just to be safe."
As Madison double-checked her seatbelt to make sure that it was secure, she noticed a strange feeling in the back of her mind. It almost felt similar to the odd tingling sensation that had spread through her body when she'd felt Mothra's telepathic "voice" in the ancient temple, although this sensation wasn't nearly as strong. As she looked around the cabin again, her eyes were inexplicably drawn back to Dr. Chen, who was leaning back in her seat and gazing out of a window. The older woman glanced back over to her, and a faint smile flickered across her lips; this smile, however, was almost playful, as if she knew something that Maddie didn't.
And then, for a split second… Ilene Chen's eyes flashed from their usual dark color to a bright, shining blue.
Madison inhaled sharply, her own eyes widening as she sat up straighter in her seat. But before she could say anything, the momentary flash of blue light was gone, and Dr. Chen's eyes were normal again as she turned away again and looked back out the window.
Madison had never been on the Argo before, but she'd certainly heard of it. The huge, highly-advanced aircraft had apparently spearheaded both the human forces in Boston and an earlier attack on Monster Zero in Washington DC, and it certainly showed: its sleek black wings were now battle-scarred, with smoldering burn marks covering several portions of the hull. But it was still flying and it didn't seem to be too badly damaged, which was all that really mattered.
The Osprey landed in one of the hangar bays, and Madison joined the rest of the group as they made their way up to the bridge. Too many Monarch personnel that she had known before were missing: she'd gotten some updates on everything that had happened since Antarctica, and she couldn't believe that both Dr. Ishiro Serizawa and Dr. Vivienne Graham were gone. Vivienne, in particular, had been like the aunt that she'd never had, and the knowledge that she was dead added a fresh stab of pain to the twisting knot in Madison's stomach.
Once they got to the bridge, the scientists took up their usual stations, while Maddie found an empty chair near one of the large floor-to-ceiling windows that gave her a perfect view of the scenery below. They were over the ocean, some distance out to sea from Boston, and were now starting to head back towards Monarch's Castle Bravo facility to regroup with all the forces who had survived the battle.
"So, uh… what's the situation with the Titans now?" Dr. Sam Coleman spoke up.
"Well, Rodan booked it like a bat out of hell as soon as Godzilla was done kicking his ass," Dr. Stanton quipped with a snicker. Judging by his tone, he'd had a few too many sips from the flask that he always carried, probably to help defuse the post-battle stress. "Satellites say he's somewhere over the mid-Atlantic right now, heading south, but he flies so fast that it's harder to track him than it is for most of the others." He shrugged, tapping a few keys. "The new MUTO's heading west towards the Canadian border, Behemoth and Methuselah are heading south along the coast, and Godzilla…" After a moment of checking the computer screens, he frowned. "Huh. Looks like once he was done cleaning house, he and Scylla headed straight out into the ocean, dove pretty deep, and then… they dropped off our radar a few hundred miles offshore. No idea where they are now: he must've found another one of those freaky Hollow-Earth tunnels or something like that."
"The good news is," Colonel Foster put in, "based on our satellites and reports from around the world, Dr. Russell's plan to target Ghidorah worked like a charm." She nodded over to Mark, who had chosen a seat near Maddie's chair. "Almost as soon as Godzilla won that fight, all the other Titans broke off their attacks completely, and now they're all moving away from populated areas."
"Yup," Dr. Stanton agreed, popping his lips on the end of that word. "Seems like the Big Guy must've sent out a cease-and-desist order or something."
Madison frowned, a thought occurring to her. "So… wait, how many Titans are awake now?" she inquired, her cheeks flushing faintly as all eyes turned to her. "I, um… sorry, I was just curious."
Dr. Chen smiled warmly. "Don't worry, it's okay," she assured her, bringing up several satellite maps on her computer and projecting them onto the bridge's main monitor screen. "Well, there were eighteen to start with: seventeen in containment, plus Godzilla."
"Right, I remember you guys telling me that," Mark agreed. "So, now that Ghidorah and Mothra are both gone, that leaves sixteen, right?" He rested a sympathetic hand on Madison's shoulder when she winced at the mention of the latter name, both of them remembering the horrible mental image of Mothra's death.
"Well, sixteen plus that new MUTO who popped up in Jersey," Dr. Stanton replied, taking another sip from his flask as he nodded to the projected world map on the main screen, which now showed a series of glowing dots that represented the current locations of most of the active Titans. "So we've got seventeen in total right now."
"We've also had a few other reports of additional Titans surfacing elsewhere, in areas where we didn't have any containment facilities," Foster added. "Except for the new MUTO, though, we haven't been able to confirm any of those others yet." She shrugged. "For right now, we're just heading back to Castle Bravo to regroup. Then we can start figuring out what to do next."
As exhausted as she felt in that moment, Madison couldn't help the urge to take a look for herself. Despite the soreness that was running through her muscles and the weariness that was still weighing on her shoulders, she clambered back to her feet and walked over to Dr. Chen's station, leaning on the edge of the console and looking up at the main display screen. It showed a slowly-rotating globe image of the planet, created in real time thanks to a network of satellites, and highlighted either the current or last-known locations of all the living Titans that were currently in Monarch's database.
On one side of the screen was a tally list of all the Titans that were currently active. Prior to Mothra's hatching in China, the only names on the "Active" list had been Godzilla, Kong, and the other two Titans on Skull Island. Now, however, the map was cluttered with data and tracking icons, and the list of active names stretched halfway up the screen.
"Wow," Madison breathed, her eyes wide and amazed as she took in that sight. She hadn't realized just how devastating her mother's grand plan of awakening the Titans would be for humanity as a whole – at least not until it was far too late to stop it from happening – but now that she was seeing this, a large number of Titans who were now apparently leaving humanity in peace, she couldn't help but hope that her mom had been at least partially right. Maybe now, with Monster Zero gone and its devastating rampage brought to an end, the remaining Titans could actually do what she and her mom had believed they would: they could help to heal the planet, start to repair the damage that had been done, and begin creating a better world for everyone.
At the very least, she thought to herself with a faint smile as her eyes drifted over the map and she looked up to see dawn breaking through the Argo's bridge windows, now they might have a chance.
Monarch Satellite Monitoring System: List of Active Titans
Titanus Gojira
Titanus Rodan
Titanus Scylla
Titanus Methuselah
Titanus Behemoth
Titanus Jinshin-Mushi (aka "MUTO-3")
Titanus Kong
Titanus Maguma
Titanus Shisa
Titanus Baphomet
Titanus Sargon
Titanus Na Kika
Titanus Mokele-Mbembe
Titanus Sekhmet
Titanus Leviathan
Titanus Typhon
Titanus Bunyip
After several hours of high-speed travel through his underwater tunnels, the King finally found his way back to the surface. He burst up into the ocean, grinning as a rush of warm tropical water swirled around him and swimming rapidly towards the surface. Scylla rocketed out of the tunnel right behind him, taking a moment to get her bearings before rushing upwards in his wake.
When they broke the surface, the King stretched up out of the water as far as he could, glancing back and forth to get his bearings. It was night here, as they'd surfaced on the other side of the planet, but the sky was still bright enough for him to make out their surroundings. Sure enough, he'd chosen the right tunnel: in the distance, he could see the dark green outline of a large and familiar island, the same one where Anguirus had died on that fateful night all those years ago. In this case, however, seeing it inspired a feeling of bittersweet happiness, because in addition to that tragic event, this island was also where his Queen had built one of her hidden nests. And from what she had told him in that last telepathic conversation, this was the nest where she had sensed a surviving egg, and had triggered it to begin developing.
"This way," he instructed Scylla, before slipping back beneath the surface and propelling himself towards the island.
Reassuringly, this island hadn't changed all that much since the last time he'd been there, back before he'd gone into hibernation. There were more signs of human habitation than there had been back then, but there were still none of the larger cities that he'd seen in other parts of the world. He stayed away from the human villages as much as he could while making his way slowly inland. Scylla followed close behind him: it was actually easier for her to navigate the rainforest than it was for him, as her long, narrow legs carried her easily over the trees without having to flatten a bunch of trees with each step, the way his feet did.
As they made their way through the forest, the King's eyes suddenly widened slightly and he stopped for a moment, as he detected the faint trace of a familiar presence. His mouth curved in a delighted smile, and he picked up the pace a bit, not running but walking as quickly as he could.
After a good hour of walking, they finally arrived at the right place: a tall mountain, one of many that ran along the center of this island. Although it had been thousands of years since the King's last visit here, he still recognized the mountain as easily as if he'd been there yesterday.
"This is it," he informed Scylla as he came to a stop, pacing around the mountain and examining the rocky slopes more closely for a couple of minutes, before nodding in satisfaction as he found what he was looking for: a huge, vertical cliff-face, hundreds of feet high. Although most onlookers wouldn't have noticed anything unusual, he knew exactly what to look for, and he could tell that in one place, part of the mountainside had been dug out, replaced by a protective layer of silk covered in rocks and soil. "Stand back." Raising his arms, he dug his claws into the mountainside and ripped down, tearing through the silk barrier and sending a minor avalanche cascading down into the trees below. After a minute of digging, he was able to fully remove the barrier to reveal a large, circular tunnel that led deep into the mountain, ending in a large cave that had been mostly sealed off to protect its contents from anyone who might disturb it. A soft blue glow shone out from inside, mingling with the silver moonlight that shone down overhead.
"You were right," Scylla murmured quietly, her voice brimming with happiness and relief as she saw the blue light. "She's okay."
Sure enough, resting inside the cave was one of the Queen's eggs. Its normally-faint bioluminescence was significantly brighter now, and the occasional ripple of movement was visible beneath its surface. That was the telltale sign that this egg had been "awakened," and that the larva inside was developing and getting ready to hatch.
Scylla pulled herself carefully up the mountain so she could peer into the hole at a closer range. Her tentacles stretched down the tunnel and into the cave, their tips brushing lightly against the egg's soft membrane in a gentle caress, before she pulled back. "I don't think she's ready to come out yet," she commented.
"No, she said she wouldn't be ready for a few days," the King agreed. "But that's fine. We're here now, so we can keep this egg safe until she's ready to hatch. And I don't know about you, but after the last couple of days, I could definitely use a rest." He sank slowly to the ground, leaning against the mountainside so his head was resting just below the opening to the nest chamber, and allowed himself to relax for the first time in what felt like an eternity. "So we'll wait here until she's ready."
Nodding in agreement, Scylla also sank to the ground, tucking her legs in under herself so she could lie down more easily. They both slipped into a peaceful silence, making themselves as comfortable as possible, and settled in to wait.
Two days later, in the hour before dawn, the egg began to hatch.
The King was roused from his sleep by a soft crunching noise, coming from somewhere above his head. His eyes flickered open, just in time to see Scylla sitting up as well. Their eyes met for a moment, before both of their gazes immediately shifted up to the cave entrance. The blue light coming from it had gotten much brighter, and the soft crunching, cracking noises continued to spill out.
Pushing himself up to his feet, the King brought his head up to the entrance, to see that the egg was twitching and jolting back and forth. It was also significantly bigger than it had been when he'd first arrived, showing that the larva inside had continued growing in the time that they had been there. Scylla scrambled up next to him, also trying to get a better view.
As they both watched eagerly, a tear appeared in the silken casing of the egg, as a small, hooked claw pierced through it from the inside. The claw went slack for a moment, but then it dug in and started pulling downwards, tearing a gash into the egg's membrane and allowing the fluid inside to spill out. Finally, the whole egg split wide open and fell away, as the shape inside shook off the collapsing membrane and rose up to her full height, letting out a soft, ringing chirp.
The King felt a rush of warmth welling up inside him, and his expression softened as his eyes glittered with emotion. "Mosura?" he whispered.
As she shook off the remaining liquid from her egg, the Queen looked up and her shining eyes met his. "Goji!" She scrambled forward, rushing out through the exit tunnel, and practically threw herself onto his head, gently rubbing her claws over his scales as her body trembled with sobs, joy and sorrow warring in her voice. "I knew you could do it! I'm so sorry I had to do that, but… I'm so glad you're all right!" Her voice was a little softer and a little higher-pitched than it was in her adult form, but other than that it was unmistakably the same.
The King closed his eyes and nuzzled into her embrace, carefully reaching up with one hand to run his claws gently down her back. "It's okay, Mosura," he murmured, his voice uncharacteristically soft and soothing. "We did it. We finally won. Everything's going to be all right, I promise." He rested his forehead lightly against hers, and felt another surge of warmth and love flowing through him as they reaffirmed their mental link once more.
After a long minute of just holding each other close, sharing their thoughts and emotions, they finally pulled back. The King smiled, a little more playfully this time. "There's someone else here who wanted to say hello, by the way," he informed her, nodding over to where Scylla was watching. She had backed up a little to let them have a bit of privacy, but her eyes were practically sparkling with happiness at the sight of the Queen.
"Scylla!" the Queen exclaimed, her eyes and her bioluminescence flashing even brighter at the sight of her friend. "It's so good to see you!"
Scylla reached up and let some of her tentacles briefly wrap around the Queen's small form in a friendly hug. "It's good to see you too, Mosura," she replied with her equivalent of a bright smile. "I'm glad you're okay: you had me worried for a while there." She chuckled softly at that, giving the smaller Kaiju a reassuring pat on the back with the tips of several tentacles.
"We should probably take this somewhere else," the King spoke up, drawing both of their attention. "Mosura, we should go someplace where you can rest and eat without being disturbed until you're ready to cocoon. Any preference?"
"Hmmm…" The Queen frowned, tilting her head to one side as she thought it over, before an idea came to her. "Oh! One of my old temples isn't far from here, so we might be able to go there. You remember, the one on an island to the northwest of here? I don't know if there are any humans living there now, but if there aren't then that would be a perfect place for me to cocoon."
The King nodded in agreement. "All right, then. Climb on and let's get going, shall we?" He lowered his head so it was just below the cave entrance, making it easy for her to climb onto his back. Unable to entirely suppress a giggle, the Queen scrambled out of the cave and over the top of his head, scuttling down his neck before finding a good spot on his back, tucked in safely between two rows of his dorsal plates with her head resting on his shoulder. Her claws hooked onto his plates, holding her securely in place.
With the Queen perched on his back and Scylla following beside them, the King strode back down out of the foothills and retraced his earlier path as they made their way down to the ocean. Just as they reached the shoreline, the sun began to rise on the eastern horizon, casting rays of brilliant light across the sky and creating a dazzling display on the water.
"Part of me still can't believe it," the Queen murmured as she gazed out at the beautiful sunrise. "It's finally over."
The King, however, shook his head, a faint smile coming to his face. "I wouldn't say that," he replied. "It's not over: it's just a new beginning."
As he waded into the sea, the King contemplated what the future might look like from here. The Golden One was gone for good, but the events of the last few days had still changed this world irrevocably. A new age was now beginning: many other Kaiju had now emerged from hibernation, and they were all going to have to learn how to coexist with each other again, while also adjusting to the challenge of sharing the world with these new, often-hostile humans.
But in his heart, the King felt unusually optimistic. His nemesis was dead at last; he had strong allies that he could call upon if necessary to help him keep the peace; and he had been reunited with his beloved Queen, this time for good. And, as she had told him so many times… when they worked together, there was nothing they couldn't do.
Standing in the shallow water, the King stopped for a moment. He exchanged a smile with his Queen, and then tilted his head back and roared up at the sky. The Queen called out along with him, a piercing, trilling cry that rang out far louder than her size would suggest. Their voices rose in harmony, treble and bass, echoing across the world with enough power to shake the heavens themselves.
It was a new day. A new world. And despite all the challenges that it might bring, for the King and the Queen, the future had never looked brighter.
Notes: And there we have it! It's taken quite a while for me to finally bring this story to a close, but I've loved every minute of it, and I hope you guys have all enjoyed it too. :)
A few quick notes:
– In addition to the voice fan-castings from last chapter, I did actually come up with a voice actor for Methuselah! In these stories, he would sound similar to the voice of Nicholas St. North from the "Rise of the Guardians" movie (played by Alec Baldwin). So, that's the kind of voice he has here: the "wise, gruff old man" type, with a deep voice and a heavy Russian accent.
– For Madison's scene, there will probably be some questions about what was going on with her weird dream about Mothra, so I will remind everyone that in this story, Mosura and Maddie formed a telepathic link (or at least the beginnings of one) back in Chapter 2. And in Chapter 1, I established that even when Mosura's still in her egg, it's possible for her to telepathically contact someone in their dreams if she has that kind of link with them. So, just keep that in mind. :D
– For everyone who's undoubtedly curious about that list of Titans that I put at the end of the Monarch scene: yes, we will eventually be meeting every Kaiju on that list in my future stories! One of the only things that I didn't really like about Godzilla vs. Kong was the fact that they had all the new Titans from KOTM just go back to sleep between movies, so I'm definitely not going to be doing that here. XD Obviously my list there doesn't cover all of the MonsterVerse Titans, but we will be seeing some of the others (such as Tiamat and Amhuluk from the "Godzilla Dominion" comic) as well. And while you may notice that a couple of names on that list don't seem to fit with the MonsterVerse Titans, those ones are actually going to be based on classic Toho Kaiju from the old Japanese movies.
– And finally, for that last scene: I did mention that I was going to be majorly diverging from canon eventually, and there was no way I was going to have Mosura stay dead for as long as the canon MonsterVerse has. XD We know she has another egg in canon, since there's a news article in the KOTM credits that says Monarch found a second one, but I figured that I'd change things up a bit in this AU and have it hatch right after the end of KOTM (in addition to having Goji & Scylla be the ones to track it down, rather than the Monarch crew). So yes, Mosura will still be playing a major role in my other stories in this 'verse. :)
Speaking of that, I figured I'd explain what you guys can expect going forward in this Godzillaverse: namely, quite a bit! I am planning to cover the events of Godzilla vs. Kong eventually, but in-universe there's a five-year gap between KOTM and GvK, and I've got plenty of stuff planned to fill in that timespan. XD To start us off, next up in this series will be a direct sequel titled In the Hearts of Titans, in which the Royal Couple and their allies, both human and Kaiju, begin adjusting to life in this new age. In addition, I've also got two shorter side-stories that will be coming out alongside that one: one, The Heart of the Mountain, will be focused on Methuselah & Behemoth as they go on a journey to explore the new world together, while the other, The Last of the Parasites, will focus on Barb the MUTO, delving into her past and showing how she's dealing with life in the present day. So you'll all have a bunch more Kaiju action coming soon.
I hope you all enjoyed this story, and I'll see you all in the next one!