The One Who Lost His Way

AN: You know something? This story just hit 100 favorites. It also has 110 follows and just shy of 25k views. That's awesome, guys! Thanks a lot for the continued support and interest!

Anyway, there's two POVs in this chapter that I've never done before, so I hope you all like the check-ins with them. That's actually what most of this chapter is, admittedly. Getting thoughts from two characters that we've not visited yet. Still, the plot keeps moving right along. There's some actual progress made in this chapter. Enjoy!


Key:

"Titan speak"

"Human speak"

Character's inner thoughts

"Telepathic communication"

Disclaimer: I do not own Godzilla: King of the Monsters or any characters.


Temporary military outpost, JFK airport:

As director of Monarch for many, many years, he had been through a lot of stressful times. Honestly, the constant battle he'd had with the US government about the titans after Gojira's return five years ago was the worst he thought things could be. Even the attacks of five years ago didn't cause him so much stress since he really hadn't been the one in operational command of that situation. The US military had been.

And before that, the resurgence of the MUTOs in 1999 was the last notable time with this much stress. The destruction of Janjira Nuclear Power Plant had been particularly rough. The number of people demanding answers alone had been hard to handle. Digging through the rubble to find the remains of everyone who had died there was even worse. And then came fifteen years of monitoring that quarantine zone, directly most of the time, though he had been pulled away for other projects a few times.

This, though...

As if Jonah and his group releasing titans across the globe wasn't bad enough, he had to deal with Emma's betrayal, too. Both of those problems had lead to Isla de Mara's residents getting massacred with those that managed to evacuate having to permanently relocate, and worse yet, New York City was now basically a war zone. Somewhere between a quarter and a third of the city had been destroyed, and tens of thousands of people had been killed with that count going up by the day.

Now, Gojira was chasing a new MUTO into Canada, and the chase had ended up destroying yet another nuclear power station. Now the two titans were rampaging across southern Ontario, though mercifully, their trajectory had them missing the capital, Ottawa.

And on top of that problem, there was this whole issue with Ghidorah now. A titan that wasn't really a titan. A destroyer come from the stars that was somehow their best shot at humanity and titans coexisting peacefully. Not that the hydra had shown any destructive tendencies since reawakening, of course, minus that single incident in Russia. They were already shown to be intelligent, but the call he got from Mark just a few minutes ago painted Ghidorah in another picture entirely. The fact it had been on the secure line should have clued him into the importance.

A guardian of the universe...a protector of life...a guide to advanced civilizations...

The potential amount of knowledge Ghidorah must possess, secrets that could unlock advanced technologies, was staggering. Of course, it was all theoretical for now. Even if the hydra did possess that kind of knowledge, they had no cause to give it to humanity, especially because of their past experiences. Civilizations given gifts to grant them a better future, yet they'd squandered them making war.

He'd say it was human nature, but...humanity wasn't alone in its greedy, control-hungry tendencies, it seemed.

In five minutes, he'd made up a list of things the hydra may possess as a little thought experiment. The key to more efficient solar energy collection, cures to different diseases such as cancer, FTL travel, gravity generators, more refined—and safer—ways to produce nuclear energy, better weather and climate prediction models.

In the end, all of that amounted to nothing more than his own personal wishlist of things he would like to have for the betterment of humankind. Again, whether or not Ghidorah actually did understand advanced technology was purely hypothetical. For all anyone knew, when they spoke of 'guidance', they meant spiritual guidance, not technological guidance. Still, how it was stated lead him to believe Ghidorah did understand advanced technologies. Mark said they spoke of civilizations destroying themselves after their guidance.

And if that was true, it was of the utmost importance to keep that knowledge away from the military. All they would hear when they heard the phrase 'advanced technology' was 'advanced weaponry'. And if history showed him anything—both humanity's history and Ghidorah's claims—that kind of power was dangerous to possess. If they somehow managed to create peacefully coexistence with the titans yet ended up killing themselves off, he'd be sorely disappointed in his species.

Dangerous though the answer could be, this question did need to be answered. They couldn't afford to be blindsided in the future. Since Madison seemed to be Ghidorah's favorite human right now, he would discuss the problem with her. As unfortunate as it may be, if Ghidorah was going to insist on her 'speaking for him', she was going to need to be involved. Being a 'lawyer' for a titan would come with a lot of responsibilities, something she needed to be made aware of sooner rather than later.

Once Mark became Monarch's director, he would have the power to protect her and to work closely with her. That, his own good standing with hydra, and his taking charge of the Argo while he'd been suffering from some severe depression, had proven to him that Mark was indeed the best candidate for his replacement. Plus, on a more personal side...he was getting old. It was time for him to step down. And...he wanted to repair the relationship with his son while he had the chance. He hadn't seen or heard from Ren in almost a decade now.

Just then, there came the sound of electrical humming, before all of the lights and systems on the Argo's empty bridge came on. Down the hall, he could hear Rick's shout of, "Yes!"

He stood from his chair, his joints popping from the motion after having been sitting for so long. He'd been in here since long before Mark's call. The empty bridge was quiet. It was a good place to just...think. Searching the ship, he found Doctors Stanton and Coleman in the server room. The former was looking over the shoulders of the latter as lines of code filled the screen. "Are the repairs finished?" he asked them.

Sam jumped a bit, having not heard him enter, but he quickly composed himself. It was Dr. Stanton who answered, though. "Looks like it. We're looking over the codes again just to make sure we didn't miss anything."

"Emma's back door looked to only affect the Argo and some of our less secure communications channels, which means the breach was small but effective," Sam explained. "After learning about Emma's betrayal, I had the tech sector completely rehash our secure channels and our digital data archives. Point being, this could have been a lot worse."

Stanton nodded. "Yeah. If our whole system had been compromised, it'd take months to fix the breach."

"What data did they have access to?" he asked.

The two scientists shared a look before Stanton answered. "Everything that's gone through the Argo for the past year or so." That meant Emma had been planning her betrayal for some time now. "That includes communications and all files sent to and from the ship."

"And tracking information," Sam added. "Which is how they knew when we were coming for them in Boston."

"How long until we get airborne?" Because right now, that was the most important question that needed to be answered.

"Give us another...three hours?" Sam looked to Rick, who thought for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, three hours just to finish our last checks. If everything comes back green, we'll be good to go."

"If not, we'll need to go through the entire system again, which could take another week or two," Dr. Stanton added.

He frowned but nodded. "Keep me posted."

"Will do," they both chorused before getting back to work.

With that, he left and headed back to the bridge, sitting back in the chair he had recently vacated. Hopefully, they could get this ship back into the air before night fell. If so, he'd feel a bit better, like some progress was being made untangling this massive ball of stress within him. An alert on his phone had him looking at a new report about Gojira and the MUTO he was chasing.

The cold grip of fear clutched at his heart when he read it:

GODZILLA AND MUTO NEW TRAJECTORY, NORTHEAST, EXPECTED TO HIT OTTAWA IN THREE HOURS!

Wasting no time, he dialed the number of the only person who could fix this. He picked up after the first ring. "Serizawa? Something else come up?" The old scientist braced himself for the order he was about to give, and the possible consequences that would stem from it. "Gojira and the MUTO have changed course. They will hit Ottawa, the capital of Canada, in three hours..."

Isla de Mara, Mexico:

"...Tell Ghidorah that they must intervene before that happens." That piece of news had hit Mark hard enough that he'd had to sit down on the beach right then and there as he processed the implications.

Put simply, the more major cities that got hit by titans, the less sympathetic the general public would become to their existence. Monarch had the military on its side right now, but if the majority of the populace started demanding that the titans be culled, the government would be forced to act.

Funny, just a few weeks ago, and that would have been the best news he'd heard ever.

"Ghidorah's a fast flier, but I don't know if he can get all the way up there in just three hours." The named titan had been talking with Maddie, but upon hearing their name being mentioned, all three heads were now looking at him, which in turn, made Maddie look his way, too. The intent stare Ichi was giving him clued Mark into the fact he knew something was wrong.

"They are our only chance!" Serizawa responded almost desperately. "That is, unless you want to involve the military."

"Maybe..." he began, only to trail off in thought. Ghidorah had already said they didn't want Godzilla dead. And if five years ago was any indication, the MUTO could be trouble, but the hydra had handled it quite well back in New York. Right now, if he remembered right, the two titans were in a relatively sparsely populated area. It wasn't the five-for-one that the military had originally planned in New York, but two-for-one was still a good deal, especially if one of those ones was Godzilla. But both Ghidorah and Maddie's reaction to Stenz's suggestion of killing Godzilla stopped him. After a solid twenty seconds that Serizawa let him have, he relented. "Alright, I'll pass the word. But if they can't get up there in time, you'll have to involve them, anyway."

"I know," the old director sighed. "I'll contact the admiral and tell him to hold off as long as he can."

"Hopefully, he can convince the Canadians to do the same." Serizawa hung up after his comment, and Mark stood up. San, now dubbed Kevin, was still half-distracted by Maddie giving his chin scratches, but the other two were awaiting his okay. Too bad they weren't getting it. "Godzilla and the MUTO changed course. They're now headed straight towards the capital of Canada."

Ichi growled, and Mark could tell he was furious, though he couldn't say why. San pulled away from Maddie, giving her a soft, "Get back," which she complied with, running across the beach towards him as fast as she could, before Ghidorah started to stand. "How long do we have?" Ichi asked once he'd gotten them to their feet.

"Just under three hours," Mark told them, which made Ichi and Ni glance at each other.

"Judging by where I sense him and how long we have, we won't make in time, brother," Ni told Ichi. "Unless..."

Whatever they were thinking, it caused Ichi to nod. "We will take care of this," Ichi informed them. "Return to the others. It is unlikely that we will return before nightfall."

As Ghidorah began to spread their wings, Mark pulled Maddie back towards a rather large rock that they could take cover behind so they didn't get buffeted by their takeoff winds. "Good luck!" Maddie shouted. Kevin turned to smile at them, and then with a mighty leap and a single flap of their massive wings, they were gone, flying straight up.

Ontario, two hours later, some distance southwest of Ottawa:

"Are you sure this is worth it?" Mothra wondered. She was nervous, afraid even, of what might happen if this chase continued. The humans that had been heckling the both of them for days now had backed off for some reason, and she had no idea why. Actually, that they'd backed off at all was probably a bad sign. They were getting closer and closer to a large city, so logically, there should be even more humans trying to stop them.

The only good thing—she hoped—was that she could sense Ghidorah heading their way. With any luck, they should be here in about ten minutes or so. She'd been trying to talk Godzilla out of the chase ever since she arrived almost twelve hours ago, but he could be stubborn even in the best of times. Faced with the resurgence of one of his species' natural enemies meant he was even less reasonable than usual. So since she'd been unable to talk him down, maybe Ghidorah could.

Hopefully, without a fight. She knew it was inevitable that the two fought. It was their way. But maybe, hopefully, it wouldn't be today.

"How many times do I have to tell you, Mothra!? That thing is a parasite! Left alone, it could spawn enough children to destroy the balance of the world!" he roared at her. But then he huffed. "Plus, my feet are killing me, so I'm not walking all the way back to the ocean without taking care of her first."

She just deadpanned at him. Him and his pride... "Uh huh...and it has nothing to do with proving your dominance and settling old grudges, I suppose?" His dismissive snort was all the answer she needed.

All this time, she'd been riding on his shoulder, but now she decided to take flight to see what lay ahead. Godzilla didn't say anything about her sudden takeoff.

As before, the only thing of note was the trail of destruction that the other titan left in her wake. Trees uprooted or flattened, the occasional road destroyed, stuff like that. The one upside was that no houses had been destroyed in this mad dash across the countryside that had been going on for over an entire day. The exhaustion from such a long chase had slowed down both titans, especially Godzilla since he was more meant for the water, but neither showed any signs of stopping. As always, the other titan kept about a twenty mile lead on Godzilla.

And she knew from her previous scouting trip when the other titan had changed course that there was a large city in this direction. When it became obvious that Godzilla wouldn't be swayed, she tried to convince her to change course, but she wouldn't hear of it. As she explained, her going to the city was a threat that if Godzilla didn't break off, she was going to go straight through it, and it would all be his fault.

His response when Mothra reported back? "Then I'll just make her death all the more painful."

So, yeah...neither of them were being particularly helpful.

It made her sigh. Godzilla had never been this unreasonable before. He used to listen to her, but now, he pretty much ignored her council. And it was all because of Ghidorah. It didn't matter how many times they assured him that they had no intention of starting any trouble, it just didn't stick in Godzilla's brain. He was afraid, pure and simple. Godzilla was afraid of fighting them again, which she didn't blame him for. The last conflict with Ghidorah had been brutal. But because he was afraid, he seemed to have this false belief that he needed to prove his strength to the titans that acted out.

But it wasn't the other titans that were the problem. They all knew his power. Why else did they—almost—never challenge him? And those that did were always beaten into the ground...with two exceptions. Ghidorah, obviously. And Tiamat, the only titan that could outmaneuver Godzilla in the water. Godzilla had nearly died fighting her last time, which had only exacerbated this problem.

The problem wasn't even Ghidorah! The hydra had already said that they would remain peaceful as long as Godzilla did the same. If the two just talked things out, agreed to rule the world together...

But no.

Even she wasn't that optimistic. There was simply too much bad blood between the two. And, well, neither would accept such an arrangement. Well...she knew Godzilla wouldn't. She more assumed that Ghidorah would likewise reject it. One day, the two would fight for the title of King.

She just hoped it wasn't a fight to the death.

AN: Confrontation with Godzilla next chapter! Though, just so you don't get your hopes up, it's not going to be 'the big one'. That's still a little ways away. All the same, there will be some action next time.

Anyway, thoughts on Serizawa and Mothra's perspectives? Are they in character? Do they give good insight as to how they view recent events? Should I use their perspectives again in the future or should I stick with the main ones? Appreciate any feedback!

Until Next Time

AdmiralCole22