Chapter 15: The Son's Blade
After their challenging test from the 3 Guardians, Godzilla and Madison were allowed to claim their regained strength and power, and now to leave the arena.
Madison climbed down from Godzilla back onto the platform where Ichigo and the other two other major Kamen Riders stood, but quickly ran past them to get an embrace from her father and Ilene.
"Please never do this again you scared the hell out of me." She noticed how hard his heart pounded as they hugged, he really was scared for her there.
"I'm okay dad, I'm not hurt one bit."
He chuckled quietly in a concerned way, "could've fooled me."
As Ilene hugged, she said "Please be more careful next time." Madison smiled, "I'll try," she responded quietly, knowing she probably won't be able to uphold that promise.
As they let go of each other, a sort of glistening sound surrounded the area, everyone looked confused, until they realized that the rider spirits that had sat in on the tribunes slowly faded out. Returning back to their resting places, the lights going out one by one in a wave. The arena lighting returning to its natural warm orange dim lighting, compared to the shining blues and greens.
Yet Ichigo remained. The great riders spirit standing in front of them with his arms crossed looking at Madison. She approached him closer.
Mark whispered into Ilenes ear, "What do you think they are doing?" "My guess? Probably finishing up whatever ritual they had."
Madison held out her hand with her staff, he touched it… and it had fallen to dust, except down to the red bone part that was the handle. Mark and Ilene being taken aback by this initially, yet when Madison made a hand movement, it turned back. She repeated it again by herself, learning the process of the regrowth. He told her this would make it easier to carry, but save her more power, as she needed to be in heat performance during combat to completely summon it should she lose, yet that would use more power.
"The Staff is an embodiment of your power, it will aide you, but it will not be the only thing you can rely on." Madison nodded, now fully ready to go on.
Godzilla in the meantime had leaned down, to be on eye height with Ichigo. The Rider turned around, walked up to the King of the Monsters and touched the snout. Old friends from ancient times, united for similar reasons they were initially.
Slowly Ichigos spirit turned into a form of glowing dust, that surrounded the area, everyone except Madison and Godzilla were confused, but that was to be expected by now. She turned over to Nathan, "we need to get ready, times running low if I'm correct?"
First Dr. Lind was confused, then he looked at the time at his wrist, only 6 hours remaining, and probably from their location it was going to at least take 2 or even 3 to get out of the Hollow Earth again.
"Not one minute too soon, okay then everyone, get back in, we have barely enough time to head back and-" "Don't worry, he will guide us." Said Madison, confusing Nathan even more then he already was. "What do you…what the..."
The dust that Ichigo had become flew around in a pattern towards the HEAVs and surrounded them. "He can guide us to a known shortcut we can take, Godzilla will need to take another rout to catch up, but at least we can buy time until then." "Sounds like a plan, okay, everyone pack up and follow the green light!"
Everyone made haste to pack up all the equipment and start the machines back up. Madison, Mark and Ilene joined back into Nathans machine. She sat down in the back, to take a small bit of rest and catch her breath after all of it, so Mark and Ilene sat down opposed to her.
Godzilla started walking back to the entrance. The guardian Monsters letting him pass first, the HEAVs following quickly suite as the green dust flew outside of the arena, opening the doors. The King stepped outside, greeted by fresh air and warm lighting, shaking himself off, and huffing pleased with himself, he headed straight forward, his instincts guiding him as always, while the Ichigos spirit quickly went to the roof, where a hole was visible to be seen, and the HEAVs followed.
Madison closed her eyes, concentrating to connect back with Godzilla, basically telling him to be safe and that they'll meet up soon hopefully again. Mark and Ilene looked outside the back window of the HEAV as they increased in height, they saw that Gomora, Baragon and Varan also were leaving the arena.
"Hey Maddie?" Ilene asked her, she snapped out of her connection, looking to Ilene, "do you know why they are leaving?" She pointed outside towards the three monsters that were seemingly just leaving their home.
"I, don't know. I think this was their last task maybe, and now they are out there and finding new places to live."
"I guess this won't be the last time we will see them." Mark jokingly remarked, but it was true, more monsters they would need to track off.
Madison continuously stared outside to them. It felt a bit again like the ending of the Boston battle, it felt almost similar to that, but that feeling of it all being over never crept in.
She sighed, perhaps it was that sinking, dreading feeling of possibly never able to tell him and her these things, before something terrible might happen. Despite what she had gone through, this took a different kind of courage for her to say, but in her mind she decided to put it all on the table now, because backing out from anything now wasn't possible anyway as she had figured.
"Dad?" She said softly.
"Yeah?"
"Can I tell you something, something…important."
Mark had a bit of a puzzled reaction, "I mean sure, why would I mind that?"
"It's just, yah know how the world is sometimes…"
Still confused, he just calmly told her, "Go on?"
"I think I like Abby." He scratched his head, giving it a minute to think about then leaning back sighing and saying "I assume you don't mean you like her, just as a friend?"
Calmly Madison replied, "Yeah," shaking a bit her legs, folding her hands together.
He leaned forward and chuckled a bit and then told her: "Look, if I was against anything you're doing, of all things, being into girls wouldn't be even remotely close on my mind."
"So you're not… angry?" "Maddie, why would I? Who would be mad at someone for loving someone else?"
"Well, Abbys dad is…"
"I've heard of it, lets just say there are some reasons I haven't worked with him, but Monarchs larger then life attitude lets it slide. Like I said, of all the things I wish you didn't do, this is not one of them, Abby will always be welcome with me, and you're allowed to like who you like, what happens after that is for you to figure out…" he grabbed her hand, looked her into the eyes, "but remember, I'll always try to protect you with what I can do, from what and who possible." He let go of her hand, and the situation seemed to calm down a bit, yet Madison decided to push a bit further.
"So I guess the thing you wouldn't want me to do is all the fighting and anything to do with Godzilla."
"Well…" Mark sighed heavily, looking away for the first time, but then Ilene grabbed his hand, to now reassure him.
"Look you have to understand, after San Franisco, you know more then anyone else how I couldn't really move on from it after a while. I despised Godzilla, I despised all the Titans. Only after everything that went down with your mother, I was able to look past it. But it's still there a bit," he wiped some sweat from his forehead, trying to explain all of this to his daughter.
"I almost went fully back to it after he took you away on Skull Island and all. I'm still trying to change, understand what is going and help you where I can. Yet, I still wish you wouldn't do all of it."
"But I can't just not do anything-"
"That's why I haven't stopped you. The last view days taught me a lot about what to do. I know you want to help and protect anyone in this, as much as me or anyone else. I know its dangerous, but I know you would hate yourself for not having done anything to help when you have the powers to do so. Again, I'll try and help you in any way I can, that is my responsibility."
"Thanks dad, and sorry, I know it's a lot."
"Maddie, please don't apologize. Sure, if things were all perfect and fine, I wouldn't need to do it. Maybe your brother and your mother would still be around, and we could've just lived together in peace at our old house. But the world isn't so nice. But we'll get through this together, and see what doors open in the future."
Madison smiled, sighing relieved to get it all out on the table. The tension sank and she leaned back and looked up at the ceiling.
"By the way…I know what you two are doing."
"What?!" Both Ilene and Mark exclaimed, feeling flabbergasted by it.
"Yeah, I mean come on, its been pretty obvious for now and I know you two were probably thinking about how to tell me."
"Well, you're not wrong…" Ilene said.
"We just didn't know how to tell you yet." Admitted Mark sheepishly.
"We had our talks about it, we just needed the right moment to find for it." She nudged Mark in the chest in the elbow, he just shrugged it, now everythings out basically.
Ilene explained to her: "It was mostly about the fact that it all happened pretty shortly after your mothers death, and I didn't want to just come into the house that was just destroyed, but while we working together, your father and I got to know each other pretty well…"
"Hey, no worries. I like you Ilene, if it makes dad happy, why should I judge you."
Mark and Ilene looked at each other, while Madison just chuckled a bit.
"Thank you Maddie," she nodded to Ilenes response.
"No, problem, I wouldn't mind callingyoumom." Madison murmured and yawned, so they didn't really get what she said. "You okay Madison?" Mark stood up and grabbed her on the soulder
"Yeah just…let me take a nap, I feel pretty tired."
"Understandable, just lie down a bit," "Here Mark take this," Ilene handed him an emergency heat blanket "thank you," he whispered, as Madison laid down on the seats, he put the blank over her, but a seatbelt on in a way that wouldn't bother her and tugged her in.
She already was fast asleep once he was done. "You think telling her all that might've stressed her out more?" "No don't worry Mark, I think the fighting just caught up to her again, maybe we would get some rest too…" "Maybe we should…" Marked yawned.
Hong Kong, around the same time
The Sun was setting again, and Belvera and her team made the last preparations before the hostages would be exchanged for the money and Jonah. The overall mood was a bit tense, yet everyone remained as calm as they could, acting professionally despite the dirty work they were doing.
Belvera checked and reloaded her revolver, cleaning it on the table they had set up to make sure it wasn't jammed and lied it down to the other weapons.
She had owned that revolver one for a long time, being a gift from her father as a kid. There wasn't much she knew about his past life, mostly that he was a highly trained special ops and that they preferred this weapon, and he gave it to her as they started her training. It was an extremely cruel training by all accounts, but she had no qualms about it now, since it had formed her in the sharpened knife she now was and she liked doing her job, even if it was a bit, bloody, at times.
The table was was full of weapons, from guns to the special batons they had received a while ago, as well as radio equipment where two of their men were sitting and decoding messages, while the other two there were keeping guard at the window. Empty pizza boxes and bottles laid around. They didn't care about the cleanliness of the room, this was on the house of one of their funders.
An operation like this was funded in secret by multiple parties. Companies like a trade, private military and high tech companies made a large share, but also governments, like Saradia. They had even donated one of their agents to help, he was quite useful in the raid on the Skull Island outpost raid, but since then he had become absent and stuck to the ship. Belvera wasn't bothered by that, she had enough personal right now for what was needed, so as long as what the agent did didn't get in-between business, everything was A-OK.
The elevators ding rang behind her, to her surprise she saw Ren come back from the roof, with a large looking suitcase that he didn't go up with.
"Where did you get that one from?"
"Our major employer in this operation had send this to me via drone."
"When did you get in contact with him?"
She raised an eyebrow, it made her quite suspicious that she wasn't in the know about something, especially when it comes to their employers and funders.
"A view weeks before we got started, I had discussed some personal details with him and send him the items to modified, since I was impressed with the equipment, he had funded your men with so far." Ren gestured towards their mercenaries they had with them, and their special batons.
"Okay but why is it so important that it needs be delivered right now?" Ren gave a smug smile off as he laid down the suitcase in front of the table they had sat up. He opened by typing in a code into lock, she couldn't see what numbers he typed in exactly, but she could hear him mumbling something nineteen fifty.
Confused yet also quite amused, in the suitcase lied a mechanical mask, digital gloves, something that looked like the backside of a shoe and a Katana, that was red in colour and has some sort of mechanical or almost cybernetical enhancements around the grip.
"What the hell is that, are you seriously bringing a blade to a Titan fight?"
Ren scoffed the remark and picked up the blade carefully.
"This, is my families blade. It has been in our possession since the Kamakura period. My mother kept it from her brother and my father was supposed to inherit it, but he decided to throw away the families legacy all for-"
"That still doesn't answer my question, when the hell do you intend to use this exactly?"
Annoyed at being dismissed by a woman, he pointed the blade at her face, and pressed a button at the end of the shaft, which send a quick current through it. The guards in the room started getting a bit on edge.
Belvera simply crossed her arms, and raised her eyebrow. "What do you think you're gonna do?"
Seeing that his attempt at intimidating her didn't work, he begrudgingly put the sword back into its sheave at his right side of the belt.
"What exactly did you make the client do?"
"I simply asked him to modify the weapon with his technology, he assured me he would take good care of the blade, an I believe he held his word, as I can feel it's increased power."
His hands were shaking a tiny bit, a weird sort of tingling was in them, as the blade wasn't supposed to be used without the gloves.
"I presume the technology that was used to modify the blade was HF?"
"Yes, the vibrations allow it to cut easier through material, I saw that you bought the same tech from the client before."
"We had a contract before about a shipping of knifes yes." She answered, flatly, acting unimpressed with Serizawas new toy.
Bored of it all, she went over to the open kitchen, pouring in a glass of old brandy.
"And who or what exactly do you plan to cut with your blade? Since it's your family blade, it must be quite personal."
She looked up as Ren put on the gloves and the mask, which was frame initially, able to be closed at will.
He answered: "I plan on restoring my families honour."
"Yes but at who is it aimed."
"It is a back up in case that girl decided to pull another of her tricks like you have told me."
"Oh? But something tells me it's deeper than that." Smugly she took a sip, "something tells me that you have a personal issue with that little princess's bond with Godzilla."
He stood there, silent for a minute. Then going away into the secondary bedroom, closing his mask, mumbling again to himself.
"Guess I hit a nerve." She chuckled and took another sip.
"Uhm, Miss, we some news for you." The guy at the radio called her over.
"What is it?"
"So basically we got one decoded messages from our guys, they are currently guiding Kong slowly along the Mountain ranges with an Osprey."
"Whats the monkeys condition?"
"Hazy look, vital signs are a bit on the higher end, but he's steadily walking."
"Gooood, and the other?"
"Monarchs ready to send the goods over soon, we just have to transfer them the landing point."
"Would this expose our current location?"
"Not if we got enough time to do I carefully,"
"You get that time, but I don't want it wasted, get to it!"
"Aye mam."
"And you two." She pointed at the two guys that were keeping guard, the peeked up as they were mentioned. "Get to packing we are leaving soon." They nodded and began packaging all the guns and non radio equipment.
Meanwhile in the other room, Abby had leaned on the door with an ear, trying to hear out the conversation. Miki was trying to play a bit with Jia, distracting her from what was going on around them.
"Miki, we need to do something, I think they are planning on hurting Maddie!"
"I know." Miki tried to grab her hand to calm her down, but she kept moving up and down in the room
"Then why aren't we trying to break out of here and do something, I hate this, I need to-"
All of a sudden she could feel someone tug on her jacket, surprised she looked down to see Jia, holding her Kong doll, having a very worried expression.
"Abby, please listen to me," Miki spoke softly. "I get how you're feeling right now, believe if we could do something, I would do it right now, but we can't. We have to bide our time and wait, have hope."
"Hope for what?"
"That they will repair the imbalance. Though I wouldn't even say I hope they will come, because I know they will, it's in his nature, and she has become part of him. I've seen how strong of a person she is. After all she had gone through, she kept going, after being betrayed by the people close to her, she took it upon herself to fix what they did,"
Miki looked outside the window, seeing the sun set, against a blood red sky,
"I wasn't sure when I first heard a girl and Godzilla had bonded with each other, but once I met her, everything became clear to me. I trust her, and I know you and Jia do too."
Somewhere in the Hollow Earth, unknown tunnel
Madison had went of into a deep sleep again, exhausted from a battle once again, she tried to find some rest, to save up her energy. Drifting away into a dream, the memories of the past days recollect in her mind. Skull Island, the Pacific Battle, the Hollow Earth and Arena. The Titans she got to see, Gorosaurus, Tiamat, Manda, Gomora, Varan, Baragon … and Kong.
Nervosity was there for whats to come, but not about herself or Godzilla, but Kong. She knew, it wasn't his own doing, but there was no peaceful solution to this.
It was going to be violent, likely bloody.
Ghidorah was inside of him.
He has gained powers that now easily equal him with Godzilla.
Caught up in an ancient rivalry he wanted no part of, he is no less a victim of the hydra and Apex then they were and just like the Godzilla and her had formed a bond, so had Kong and Jia, she did not want to be the one to destroy it.
Ichigos words went through her mind, she promised herself to go by them. The outcome will not be sure, but maybe at last, Ghidorahs last fragment can be stomped out.
However, thinking of the devil invites its presents, and he all to welcomed greeting her once more, as an ever going manifestation of hatred and evil.
The cold air, the howling of wind echoing, the thunder and noises. All things she used to be afraid off. She opened her eyes within this dream, standing in an endless ice land, a snowstorm around her, yellow lightning struck around her and lit up the night sky, and revealing the shape of the Hydra.
It stood before her in the shadows, masking its presents to mock her. But she was done with this, done with the games, done with the nightmares, done with being mocked by him. Standing her ground as the loud footsteps came nearer, the girl stared into the eyes of the dragon, who tried to scare his victim.
One step forward, a loud booming noise coming from it. She saw how the dragons shadow flinched back, uncertain of what this meant.
The one who is many looked at the little creature with mixed emotions, he recognized the anger that was within her, the utter despise of what was in front of her, only one other creature had a similar resentment towards him.
The thoughts discussed what to do, deciding to roar at their victim again, trying to remind of the past.
Another step forward answered, then another, and a final third.
The hydra sought safety in the shadows, he wouldn't find it. Gazing upon what was once just a thing he wanted to toy with, that he considered nothing more than a blight to his reign, a bright shining blue light came off. It pushed the shadows further way, exposing the hydra and making him retreat further as she continued to walk towards him.
The wings folded over the heads to shield from the light, trying to peak through them. An all too familiar roar echoed through the world, the shadow of his rival coming up from behind her. He felt getting hit by two things, a ray and wave of light, pushing him out of the dream of what was once a victim of his, vanquished back once more by the two's resolve.
Madison awoke from her sleep, feeling something nudging at her gently, she rubbed her eyes and yawned. Ilene was waking her up, Mark was up with Nathan discussing something. "Where are we?"
"We are close to the exit, we think, the trail we followed is now going into the water." "Huh?" Madison felt a bit confused, shook her head, and got up from her seat, up to Mark, to see what was going on.
"She told us we should follow it and I trust her." "I get that Mr. Russell but we have already lost one machine today and we don't know whats in ther-" "We can go ahead."
They turned around, seeing Madisons stand, some fragments of the light trail they had been following coming off from her. "With all due respect, we don't know if the HEAV is able to deal with water." "We had no trouble getting sucked into maelstrom earlier in antarctica, I think it should be fine. He wouldn't have led us here if we couldn't cross it."
She sat down on the seat behind the copilot.
"Has anyone ever told you have a lot of blind faith in these monsters." Nathan smugly noted. Madison crossed her arms, "It's not just the monsters now, it's the people that once lived here, they got us so far, you wanna quit at the last stretch?" The silence was deafening, but Nathan ended up giving the go towards the other HEAV that they will enter the water tunnel and follow the light trail in there.
"I have bad feeling about this." Noted Nathan, Mark brushed him off. "Get used to it, they never go away but sometimes it's a good sign."
Nathan looked at him weird but proceeded to fly the HEAV into the water.
The sound of the outside dampened as they dived down, slowly and carefully finding their way through the tunnel with the lights ahead, the second HEAV following. It was quite tight of a surrounding, certainly not Titan would have fitted here, yet life seemed to still exist even here, as after some meters, shrimps swam against the windows of the HEAV, they were blind, almost as if they were part of a deep seas species.
Navigating through the unknown environment had them a bit on the edge, as it was a stead up and down. Then suddenly at one point, the tunnel ended. "Well now we are stuck." The copilot commented, unsure what to make of it.
But Maddie already had a guess where it was going, "Look up."
"What- oh what the hell." Above them, the tunnel continued as a straight shaft, up to the ocean.
"I suspect this is a similar sort of tunnel Godzilla would use, just smaller." Ilene commented.
"Well, we got not time to go back, everyone, buckle up," Mark and Ilene went to the backseat, Madison remained on the front.
"In one, two, three, now!" Nathan piloted the HEAV upwards, initially having to press upwards quite a bit, only for on the halfway, the controls seemingly becoming not as responsive.
A communication came from the other HEAV: "Sir something is dragging us upwards."
"How is that possible?"
The HEAV shook around a bit as it brushed against the rocky side of the chasm, everyone held onto their seats, Mark yelled from behind.
"I think we got caught in some kind of vortex, just like back then, but reversed!"
"How is that- EVERYONE HANG ON!"
With extreme force, the HEAV got catapulted outside onto the sea, surpassing the ocean floor, reaching about halfway to the surface before the controls were back on. Everyone breathed in heavily, as Nathan was getting another message send by the other group.
"H2 here sir, we should move towards the water surface as quickly as possible, the HEAV might not be able to handle the pressure."
"Agreed H2, follow by signal, activating beacon for pick up."
Steadily they made up their way towards the surface, trying to not further stress out the Machine. As they got higher up, a familiar voice greeted them over the radio chatter.
"Hello, can somebody hear me Hello?" Mark quickly got up and went over to it "Rick, is that you?" "Yes its me, glad to hear you guys still kicking, whats going on, we got your beacon a view miles off the coast of Hong Kong."
"Long story, we are currently getting to the surface."
"I see, and the big G himself?"
"He's healed, currently still getting up by the look of it."
"And the mad hatter?" "Oh she's doing juust fine." Mark tried to joke, but Ricks tone sounded a bit more serious.
"Glad to hear that, but you guys need to punch it as quickly as possible over to Hong Kong, we've just got Kong located again, he's almost there, the times running out in roughly 2 hours."
Madison flinched back from that, having thought there would be more time, yet it was running lower then ever.
"Doctor Stanton, we have sustained some damage and had hoped we could get picked up by an Osprey since these things need likely some repairs."
"Sorry man but the hands are tied here, we need your HEAV with Dr. Russell and Dr. Chen, to fly to hand over point with Apex, we need you there, an Osprey will meet you there with all the goods."
"Understood." Nathan hesitated, but gave it a go anyway, breathing a deep sigh.
They breached the surface and while the other HEAV remained buoyant on the water, waiting to be picked up, the team proceeded to their assigned place.
Madison started to feel a bit unsure again, but like she said, this was the last stretch.
Miki was just getting Jia ready, putting on her scarf and bag. It was noticeable that the young Iwi was extremely anxious about it, for the last hours her body trembled the entire time.
Miki grabbed her hand and stroke it a little bit, trying to calm her down.
"It's okay, you won't get hurt."
Jia nervously pointed back to her, she struggled to properly articulate herself.
"But, what about, papa?"
At first she wanted to immediately answer, but couldn't. Like everyone else at this point, she wasn't sure what was going to happen with Kong.
But she stayed by her words from earlier.
"Maddie and Godzilla, will help him."
"What if he hurts them, or they hurt him."
"It may happen, but they will get him away from the evil, I promise."
Miki reassured her with a smile, and while she could still notice that Jia was anxious, it seemed to have helped at least a little bit.
Someone knocked on the door. "It's time my dears." Belveras voice came from the other room. Slowly the door opened. Strapped with her revolver and a sinister smirk, she greeted her 'guests' right behind her were two masked mercenaries with their guns and special batons.
"I hope you enjoyed your time in this luxury hotel?"
No answer from Abby and Miki, Jia hid behind the two from her.
"Well I guess I can't fault you if you don't wanna speak, but either way, please, follow me."
One of the two mercenaries tried to grab Abby by the arm and drag her out of the room, but he felt another hand blocking him, he looked back to see Miki hold Abby with her left hand, while Jia held tightly onto the right. "Hey what do you think you're-"
"Let them be." Said the other mercenaries, stopping the guy from raising his baton.
Miki looked up at man, she replied quietly in Japanese. "Arigato…" He didn't answer, but despite being unable to see his face, he gave her a reassuring nod.
"Helloooo? Can you get on with it?" Yelled Belvera from the Elevator door. Miki grabbed Abby by the hand and went up to the mercenary woman, impatiently waiting for them. Meanwhile Ren leaned on the wall on the right, crossing his arm, wearing the opened combat mask, and gloves, as well as having his sword to the side.
Miki brushed it off as one of his attempts to seem more intimidating, but it made her reconsider on what Abby said. Non the less, the elevator door rang, and they all proceeded into it, going back up to the top floor, exiting on the roof, where a Helicopter was already waiting for them, with two of the mercenaries standing in front of it to clear the area.
Hastily they all climbed inside and proceeded to fly away from the hotel. Once again Hong Kong was dunked in its beautiful neon colours. It wouldn't take them long to get to their destination though, as they proceeded to land at another tall building, on which a big wide-open area, it looked like sort of company office building, but there were no signs on it to indicate what company it was.
Miki found that strange, but she supposed it was chosen for its size for the osprey to land.
"Seems like they aren't here yet, well, they got roughly an hour left to arrive." Belvera commented.
"Where is Kong however?"
"Don't worry Ren, he's just close by." Smugly she pulled out a handhold device with a short antenna, showing a green glowing rader and making some strange sounds.
The machine carefully made contact with the ground of the building, yet a lot of pebble and dust got blow up, and flung against the windows and walls. The door opened after half a minute and Belvera, Ren, the hostages, two of the Mercenaries went out and gathered in front of it, the two others and the pilots stayed behind.
They waited a bit, the strong wind blowing at this heigh made it quite cold. Miki and the children huddled together for warmth, Ren walking around up and down with his arms crossed, while Belvera counted the bullets in her revolver.
Then, after roughly 10 minutes, something appeared on the sky, from the bay area, leaving a blue trail behind.
"What is that?" asked one of the men very puzzled.
"Seems like on of Monarchs new toys to me." Belvera had her hand on the revolver.
The HEAV proceeded to fly close by, turn around and land on the right side of the building opposite to them.
The first one standing in front was Madison, having kept on the HEAV unit outfit and staff on the back of it, behind her Mark and Ilene, who had put back on their regular coats, together they went out to face the kidnappers.
"Well well Sister, nice to see you again." Ilene didn't answer her half sister, simply gave her a dismissing look, which they both knew what it meant.
"And Madison! What fresh new outfit, would be shame if someone put some holes in that."
Instead of being scared, Madison got angered by the threat, balling a fist but Mark hold her back, grabbing her shoulder.
"Don't let her bother you now."
Madison whispered back, "I won't, don't worry."
"So anway, where is our beloved leader Mr Jonah? And where are my billion dollars?"
"They are arriving shortly."
"I would hope so for you Dr. Russell, and I sure hope you are not trying to stretch for time, tell your pilot to leave. You three stay behind until we get what we want."
Instead of arguing with her, Mark gave over a command to Nathan to fly back to base, he obliged and evacuated the area quickly.
"And Madison, please don't do anything that someone might consider stupid, because might I remind you…" she put out the handhold device, pressing a button.
Madison flinched as it got activated, feeling a natural uncomfortable ness from what the woman held in hand.
Yet it was nothing compared to the presence to the left, that came out of the shadow of a bigger building. The king of skull island slowly stomped his way up to the building. Having been there already for quite some time, the dark fur masking the presence in the shadows.
His yellow glowing eyes starring off into nothingness as he approached, the vibration of every step going through everything.
He stopped roughly 50 meters away from them, he didn't seem like he was quite there.
Jia walked more towards the middle, tried to wave and sign to him, have him react to anything, but he didn't, he just remained still. Her face grew from looking concerned and panicked, to sad. Miki grabbed her so she wouldn't get in trouble, and hugged her, trying to comfort her.
The little Iwi girl started crying, to the annoyance of Belvera.
"You still have 40 minutes, 30 if she doesn't stop crying soon."
Pointing her revolver at the two, everyone stared at her for bit, and Jia became very silent after seeing what was going on, still sobbing and having hick ups however.
Not a moment too soon, another Osprey, with a Monarch designation arrived at the scene. It landed where the HEAV had done so before, Madison and her side shieled their eyes from the wind.
The door opened, out stepped a G-Team soldier. Holding a silver suitcase in one hand, and a dragging forward Jonah with his hand cuffed behind his back. They stopped at the group, Jonah and Madison made short eye contact, before adverting the gaze of the girl.
"Well, I guess everything's in order…now, tell your other pilot to go as well."
"But that wasn't-"
"It is now Mr. Russell, you'll get your people either way."
To say that no one there trusted her of all people on this was and understatement, but they had play along anyway for now.
The Monarch Osprey removed itself from the situation on Marks command, radio chatter protesting the deal were simply ignored.
"And now for the last part, we will give you the British girl first, then you give us Jonah and the money, and these two," pointing once again with her revolver at Miki and Jia, "come right after it."
Mark nodded, he started to sweat a bit, things started to diverge from the original arrangement, and Godzilla wasn't there in case thing would go south with Kong and he didn't want to bring Maddie into another fight so shortly after the last one.
"Alright then, move brit," Belvera signalling with he revolver to walk towards the others.
Slowly and carefully, Abby walked over, praying under her breath that nothing bad could happen and trying not to flinch and cause a reaction to happen. Her eyes contact was locked with Maddie, who seems to have a similar intensity in her eyes but was trying to gesture her to stay calm.
Finally she was in reach for them and Mark pushed her past him, Abby instantly hugged Maddie, sobbing quietly.
"I'm so scared…"
"It's okay we're here, everything's going to be alright." Chen rubbed her soldier and tried to comfort her.
Meanwhile Abby whispered into Maddies ear.
"They talked about hurting you- they aren't going to let us go like that."
Slightly taken aback by this, but expecting it, Madison nodded to her, but reassured her: "Just get behind me…"
"Next!" Belveras commanding voice echoed on the roof. The G-Team soldier slowly walked over with Jonah and the money, first he gave over the old man to Belvera and then the suitcase to one of the Mercenaries standing next to her.
The man was about to go back before she stopped him, "Ababab, let's check first if the cash is actually in there shall we."
The Mercenary nodded and opened the case, in it were multiple stacks of money types of different currency, to match up with their demand.
"That looks good, very good, now shush, go back." The soldier nodded and walked back towards Dr. Russell, simply keeping his profile low next to them.
"Okay now its time to say goodbye little Jia dear," Belvera looked at her with a smile, but all it did was make the Iwi girl scared and hide behind Miki.
"Oh well, now, go." Miki didn't nod or anything, but simply held Jia by hand and walked over to Madison.
"Are you okay, did they do anything to you?" Maddie gave Miki a hug, having missed her a lot.
"Don't worry Maddie, they didn't… what happened to you?"
Noticing some brucess on her, the new suit, the staff on her back and general sense that she felt quite rough. "I'll explain later…" Leaving out the events of the past days, she could feel something tugging at her arm.
It was Jia. Madison looked down to her. A worried expression was over her face, she knew it was about Kong. Unable to really speak to her now, she simply smiled softly and nodded, trying to tell her that everything was going alright.
On the other side of the building, Belvera in the meantime uncuffed Jonah by picking it open with her knife. As the chain broke and he was finally free, he grabbed his wrist on the hands, feeling like they hurt quite a bit.
"Thank you dearest Belvera."
"Oh you really shouldn't."
"Oh why is that?"
She pulled out a revolver and shot him in the head. The loud bang of the gun going through the entire area. Everyone flinched a bit, Madison eyes widened in shock, Miki quickly tried to advert Jias view from it, as Jonahs body fell to the ground.
"Bloody 'ell" whispered Abby under her breath, Chen cursed something in Chinese, while Mark just stood there, unsure what to feel, looking over at Madison, who seemed to handle it not much better.
"What are you doing?!" She yelled with full force at Belvera, who simply wiped some blood off her gun.
"Surprised to see you being upset at that Madison, I thought if anyone would be happy to see the old fool gone it would be you?"
Madison clenched her fist, walking forward to the group. Mark noticed a slight blue glow coming off her back. He grabbed her shoulder, holding her back at any cost because now it could mean death or living.
"Or maybe you wanted to take your revenge on him?"
"Why did you kill him?" Maddie spoke calmly, but noticeably holding herself back from everything.
"Business, he stood in the way of recourses we needed and now everything he had is ripe for the taking," she waved over the Mercenary with the suitcase to pack up, "our deal is done, but unfortunately for you all, the business isn't."
"What?"
Casually Belvera replaced the empty bullet case in her revolver, spinning it back.
"Unfortunately, the lizards not here yet to be smashed by the monkey, but he will come, I know that because these things know when one of their own is in danger."
A sinister smirk went over the old womans face.
"Are you threatening us?" "Madison, I don't do threats, I do promises."
She gestured over to Kong, "you didn't think we would just get the monkey under our control just so we could get some extra money and get an old man back? No you see, not everyone in the world shares your views or those of Monarchs, that we have to live with the Titans. A lot of business has went down the drain thanks to Godzilla and his army of Monsters. Kong will get rid of him and other monsters and things will go back to normal and of course, we will make a lot of profit from that."
"You're monster." "I don't care what you think I am. Besides, you decided to help these monsters and get on with them, you're part of the problem."
She pointed her revolver at her, and readied it, Madison pushed Mark away from her, not wanting him to end up in any crossfire, even though it would inevitably happen, there was nowhere to hide, she had a clean shot at everyone.
To surprise of everyone however, the younger looking Japanese man stepped in front of Belvera, he had remained quiet long enough. "What the hell are you doing, this isn't part of the plan?" She growled annoyed, trying to do her usual dismissal attitude. It was answered with a gleaming back that was nothing like he had ever showed or done before.
"The job will be finished, but I'm taking on from here, my way."
For a second she could've sworn something red glow in his eyes, it must have been a reflection of the many lights, but it made her feel a bit uncanny around him, feeling genuinely imposed for the first time.
He was done with being dismissed by her and anyone else, to him this was his moment.
In a very casually appearing manner he approached the group, as if nothing had happened, stopping around a view meters away from Maddie.
He announced: "My name is Ren Serizawa," the blade unsheathed with a zinging noise, "son of Ishiro Serizawa."
Maddie peaked up, getting a very weird feeling in her stomach, there were many emotions going through as she heard that name, not many of them good, at first denying any similarity, but very quickly starting to believe that fact.
"You're are the one they call Madison Russell?" A current went through the blade, lighting up the red sword, as if it was already dunked in the blood of battles long since forgotten.
"Y-Yes, but, how is it…I never knew he had-"
"A son, a family? Probably because he decided to forget about them. Casting me and my mother aside to dedicate himself to Godzilla, putting more care and love into him then his own."
"That's not the Serizawa I knew, he was…" Things started to slowly click into place for Maddie.
"Not there for his son past the age of 6? He only showed up once or twice every years and tried telling about his oh so important job, even at my mothers, his wife's funeral he insisted it was too important to stay for longer, that he was doing it for me. And don't try to sway me, I know what your relationship with him was."
Something turned in her chest, hearing that someone knew more about her life then she believed was an anxious feeling, one she hated to have, she adverted her gaze to calm herself
"Instead of caring for his actual family, he decided to take more care of a random American girl and invest the rest of his time chasing after a Titan that would think of him as a footnote. And where did that get him? He's dead now!"
The tension rised up more, Madison stepped forward, angry, with feeling of betrayal coming back. No one wanted to intervene. It was incredibly uncomfortable for everyone.
"You don't think that's the case? The only reason he is dead now is because your mother decided to betray humanity, and then he decided to take his life so your father and Godzilla could rescues you and fix the mess he had started. If it wasn't for you he would still be alive, taken from me."
Madison looked up at him, the tone of voice felt not out of anger towards Ishiro anymore, there was, grief in there as well.
Finally Madison answered his arguing: "Why do you care that he is dead if he never was there for you like you said, then you should be happy he's gone." Shouting back with so much anger and grief over having to remember Ishiros death.
Serizawa stopped and took in her words for a second.
"I do not believe he could've been so heartless. I do not know a lot of his past, but I know he didn't just sacrifice himself for me or Godzilla, but because he knew it would protect you as well!"
"You're lying, you're just a child, blind to it all, you have no idea-"
"I don't have any idea whats it like when your parents aren't there for you? I know that better then you think. My dad wasn't always there for me but in the end I always knew he tried his best."
"You think you're broken family equates anywhere near close mine? He didn't have to keep Monarch secret from you and yet you betrayed them and the rest of humanity for the Titans!"
"I did not, I don't belong to one or the other, I protect both, just like Ishiro tried to!"
"Don't you dare speak his name. Just more proof that he cared more about you and those things then his own blood related family."
Things started to get more heated, both of them got more agitated towards each other, as if it were to siblings having a fight.
Madison tried to remember, holding onto the memories she had with Ishir, went back to the time spent, his actions, his mannerism, his behaviour. They were honest and caring, more then her mother ever was. Channelling whatever power it was that made her able to say goodbye to him, searching for the emotions and feelings that were present, the life that had once flown there.
At the top of her lung she shouted to him: "I remember seeing something in him when he was with me, he was different, as if he had missed something. I believe it in my heart that he missed you. He took care of me like he had once of you, it's only way to explain it. I don't doubt for a second, he would have stopped if it didn't mean that his work could protect you."
"Lies…all lies…"
Ren clenched his teeth, tried to control and restrain his anger, grabbing the hold of the blade tightly, trying to harness the emotions within him.
"You're the one…who killed him…your families actions got him killed!"
"I regret my actions from those days but I know, that he didn't gave his life just for me, or Godzilla, he gave it to the world and you," she got louder, more aggressive, more angry at him, pointing and gesturing wildly: "And now you're trying to betray all he worked for, by teaming up with these scumbags who want nothing more then profit of suffering in the world. Is that what you think he wanted!?"
"I don't care what he wanted, I will avenge him from Godzilla, from you!" He breathed so quickly and heavily, sweat ran from his forehead as everything was coming to a tipping point.
Belvera wasn't sure if she should just shoot to end it all, there was such a radiant energy from going from the two of them. Madison surrounded by a soft blue-ish light as Serizawa was drowned in a blood red tone from a nearby billboard.
"The only one who is lying here is you to yourself!"
"No! My mother, my family will get their name back by tearing down his work, he betrayed us!" Rens speech became more sporadic, more uncontrolled. Madison decided to push further.
"Do you even know what you want, what you are even fighting for?!"
A quick and loud schwing sound brought silence to the fight.
Ren had unsheathed his blade, and put it front of his face. Assuming a stance that was known as the Chudan no Kamae, however to Belvera, she noticed he was slightly sloppy in this, more having a sign of someone who once used to do it perfectly, less than a beginner.
"The only thing I know…I will have my revenge..."
Both their hearts pounding in sync unknowns' to them, like many other things. Two people that had never met until this moment, full of hatred, full of past scars. One in full balance with nature, one without.
Madison looked the man that was before her in the eye.
There was a smile there, but she couldn't begin to think of where it came from.
Was he trying to hide or confuse his real emotions even further?
Was he just a man so far gone and shattered by memories?
Was he just out for bloodshed? For self-proclaimed Vengeance?
There was no other way out of this, it seemed almost like it was destined to be this way, for all of them. Whatever happened next couldn't be stopped, this was too personal to be interfered with, too risky to get caught in.
She grabbed onto her staff: "And I'll protect his sacrifice."
He yelled out in Japanese, activating the mask around his face. To the surprise of all, he was quite quick, charging at Madison with enormous speed, barely enough time for her to react, as she grabbed her staff and blocked the incoming attack.
As their weapons clashed, loud clanking and sparkles came of the collision. A buzzing came of the blade as it activated and vibrated at great speeds, a current going through it, the blue mist of her staff melding into the lines of red sparks.
The two weapons of them couldn't have been anymore different yet were perfectly countering each other.
The fight was just getting started and no one there could really intervene or was even daring to. As Madison aura started to manifest once more, the Godzilla dorsal plates jutting out from the back, he dodged back, making Ren miss with the blade towards the ground.
Instead of cutting into it however, he spined around to his right and used the momentum gained from it to almost surprise hit her, barely missing her face by an inch.
She took another dodge back, there was something weird about this weapon and gear, it felt so deeply unnatural, it was hard to describe to her, but it felt like it shouldn't be here. Non the less, it was there, and now the man wielding the sword was ready to cut down whatever was in front.
He held the sword upward, double grip on his right, charging her right away. Now she realized what he had, next to the gloves and mask he also had something on his boots, that gave him a boost in whatever reaction he desired, likely guided from the gloves and mask.
He had gotten all of it specifically to counter her or at least keep up with. "Guess I'll go full out."
Dodging his charge to the right, she swung down with her staff, shoving the blade downwards, and making him lose slight balance, giving her an opening to hit him with an elbow in the face, hitting him more around the chin however.
Holding a bit back still apparently, Ren got her quickly back by giving her a kick in the rips, booting her away, really close to the edge. Relocating back to the middle by sliding down, she narrowly avoided a jump attack from him, that was once again, higher then she had anticipated.
She spun around by ramming her staff into ground and holding onto it get momentum, hitting him with a charge roundhouse kick in chest. This would've finished the fight with any other person, but he was resilient despite it all, not because of any outside influence, he just didn't seem to care that much to get hit a bunch.
Standing up right he slides a bit across the gravel floor, Madison had given now him an opening, but due to how he held on the blade now, he decided to one hand it, hitting her with the end of the grip in the head, quite violently.
Things got blurry for her, she coughed up in pain luckily no blood. Her staff flung to the left, now closer to her group again. Landing on her back the only she heard was as someone yelled out to her, then seeing the red sparkling of the blades current above her. He held the blade to stab into her. Throwing an instinctive kick towards the waist area, charged with energy knocked him away, making him go fly towards the other end of the building on the side where Kong stood.
The blade flew through the air and stuck in the ground, they both needed a second to recover.
As Madison was getting up, Ren was already grabbing his blade, grabbing his stomach to control himself. "Damn that hurt." He thought to himself, cursing her out.
He was ready to walk up to her now that she had no weapon. But then Jia decided to run from Miki, and get her staff, they all instinctively tried to yell or stop her but she couldn't hear, so as she was grabbing it and trying to drag the way to heavy object for her towards Madison, Ren decided he would get rid of the weapon and punish Madison further.
The little Iwi girl looked horrified, as the man who she had barely known ran up to her, dragging his blade sideways, a red glare in his, a line of red spark coming from the sword like a trail of blood.
For a second he wanted to ask his question, but decided to strike, he was already to far in all of this, at least that's what he told himself.
Jia pinched her eyes together, feeling too scared to look.
But there came no impact or anything, instead she could feel something before her going on, she squinted, seeing Madison standing in front of her, grabbing onto the blade to protect her.
It was extremely painful, cutting through her skin, making it drop blood. Not simply yelling but roaring out at it, even Jia was able to hear an ever so slight pint of it.
Belvera looked worried over to Kong, they had sedated and put more stuff into him before all this, but she could notice movement in his face, he got agitated by it, if this was going to happen again she had to interfere.
Ren looked at Madison, looked into her eyes, and he had this tingling sense that he messed up. Madison wrestled the blade away from, him throwing it back to the ground, grabbed him by his collar and headbutted him real good.
Falling down to the ground Ren started bleeding from the ground, while Madison clenched her fist, trying to stop the bleeding, as it started squeeze and drop outside, making her energy focus around it, it started to go away, but the cuts would remain for quite a bit, but that was not of the matter now.
Her stance now was more brutish, slightly leaning, her hair and head down, breathing was fast and heavy. Then someone tucked on her leg, she looked down, it was Jia again, holding her staff by grabbing carring it with both her arm. Nodding, she grabbed onto it. A bit of blood starting to covering the grip, seemingly perfectly fitting the more red titan bone.
Serizawa tried to get up, grabbing the blade that was on his side, now roles started to become reverse, with him having to quickly block a strike from above by Madisons weapon, blocking it with his blade, having to hold the pointed end.
But she didn't given him room to breathe, as she was just throwing it down over and over, the blades. He hadn't expected her weapon nor herself to be so resistant to the blade but it was easily able to keep up, despite its height of technology.
Madison put down her staff and started pushing down the blade, closer to his chest. It sliced a tiny bit into his suit on the left arm, ripping it up. Ren was in a pickle and he knew it, as she started putting more strength on it, he decided to take a hit on his shoulder, but trading by slashing her left leg.
Quickly he pushed himself away with his feet from her, trying to get out of the cornered situation. Madison yelled out and grabbed onto her leg, the cut wasn't too deep once again but it hurt like hell.
Belvera started to get nervous as it was clear he wasn't nearly as much in control anymore as he had was at first. "Come one Serizawa, hit her right!"
The hit on the shoulder was a big gamble as now it was strained, meaning he could barely hold onto it with two hands, yet also Madison wasn't as wounded as he had hoped for. She shook her had and body, trying to get herself back together, the aura dorsal plates on her back moving with her, the tail shaking a bit as well.
She decided to put it all down on one card and ran to him as he got back up, holding her staff behind the back, trying to hit him in the ribs or something, maybe injuring him enough he would stop. Whatever it was, it needed to happen quickly.
Yet he already anticipated that, so as she was running at him with full speed, he put the blade back into its sheath, holding it with the strained arm. As she was showing to ready up a strike, the blade unlocked again, jumping out of its sheath with a mechanism, gliding into his hand.
He would cut of her arm, he thought.
As the blade got fully out, he expected to able to get a clean strike, but she had faked the movement and instead stopped, hitting not from above or the side but from below, putting all her energy into the staff, using it as the catalyst it was meant to be, hitting it towards him. But having now used a full blown attack of hers, the two weapons motions and energy shattered the blade into dozens of smaller pieces, all flying towards him.
Cutting some parts of the cloth or skin that was exposed, luckily not artery that would make it fatal, yet maybe he would have preferred that, as the pointed edge piece flew across his left check, up towards his brow, making a deep cut.
He fell down, crying out in pain unlike before. There was blood dripping from his hand as he held on.
Madison made a full stop, gazing down on him. There was much pain and anguish in his face, contempt and hatred like nothing else. This fight might be over but he would never forgive her, he would never fully stop.
She wasn't unsure how to handle it, she wanted to yell at him again, be angry, but also there was that sickening feeling in her stomach, like she had down something wrong. This was Ishiros son, he wouldn't have wanted her to hurt him like this. Yet no sound came out of her lips, as there was nothing to mend any of their wounds now.
"I knew you couldn't do it." They looked back, Belvera had readied her revolver, pointing it straight at Madison, with the other hand holding up the device that was controlling Kong.
"Bye, Bye Godzi girl-" a loud bang followed her voice, followed by a yell.
"What did you do?!" Belvera screamed, extremely angry and panicked. The G-Team soldier had shot the device in her right hand, destroying it in the process. The Apex mercenaries were ready to return fire immediately, only for a very loud roar to cut them off.
Kong was grabbing at his head, roaring so loud everyone had to grab their ears to not get any further damage, even Madison. Only Jia looked scared and worried to him, as the King of Skull Island stumbled around, as the machine malfunctioned and the connection was severed. He was now out of their control.
Belvera didn't even remotely think to fight Madison now, she hoped they would die and decided to bail as fast she could, she grabbed Serizawa by the back of his suit and dragged him across the floor towards the helicopter yelling at him: "You fucked it all up Serizawa!" She cursed more and further in Chinese, as she was violently shoving him in the helicopter.
It was so quick, neither the G-Team soldier, Madison or anyone else could really have time to react.
Everyone either shook their heads or felt some kind of ringing in the head, Madison felt a headache and picked on her forehead.
No time to really rest up however, as Kongs roaring faded out and become more quiet. It took her a moment to realize what was going on, as she looked on her left.
Kong had walked up closer towards the building, it going up to his lower chest. They came eye to eye again, just like back at skull island, Madison gazed into the unnaturally yellow eyes of Kong.
Kong himself might not have wanted to fight her, but what was within very much wanted to hurt Madison and manipulated the basal instincts of the ape, like a non existing puppet master.
There was nothing Madison could do, they were stuck here and there was no way of convince this Monster to stop.
Much of that became clearer to everyone as Jia tried to once again, wave and sign to him, standing very close to the edge. He didn't turn his head, but his eyes moved to her, there was still a bit of him in there, but it was almost like he was being caged in his own body.
The eyes looked back at Madison, piercing her with that glowing yellow gaze. She held onto her staff, unsure what to do. Outright attack or wait for one?
An answer followed quickly. Kong leaned back with his right arm, and then threw it down onto them from above. Everyone ducked to the ground, and guarded their heads instinctively, even though it wouldn't really protect them. Miki ran towards Jia, trying to grab her.
Madison looked up, putting up her staff towards the incoming fist of Kong.
Took a little bit on this one, hope it doesn't come off to much as filler! It ended up being way longer then I expected, probably more so over establishing small things for the future and wrapping up everyone getting to the finale logically. There was some quite heavy stuff for me to write, things that were planned since ages. I'll get to work on the final chapter right away, I plan on having it be out before the end of the year.
Hope you enjoyed it and stayed for the ride :)
