WARNING: This chapter contains major spoilers for Godzilla Minus One. If you haven't seen the movie yet and don't want to be spoiled, skip this chapter for now and come back to it later.

"Miranda, wait!" Joseph shouted as he ran after The Priestess.

"Just leave me alone! Haven't you done enough already?!" She shouted back.

"I just want to talk to you!"

Miranda then stopped and stared at Joseph with a look of anger. He hadn't seen a look like this since he first arrived at the castle.

"Why?! So you can berate me on mistakes even more?! I won't have it! Leave!"

Joseph shook his head.

"Listen, I just want to help you. I don't want to see you suffer more than you already have."

The Priestess' eyes narrowed. Her anger wasn't subsiding at all.

"I'm warning you, Brody. Leave. Now."

"No. I'm not going anywhere."

Miranda then shouted with rage and began to attack Joseph with her clawed gloves. He quickly brought up his defenses, blocking and dodging her strikes before landing a kick to her midsection, sending her back, but it took her only a second to close the gap again.

She then took a swipe at Joseph's head, but he used his arm to deflect the blow. The claw however cut into his skin as he did so, drawing blood. Miranda then delivered a powerful palm strike to his chest and sent him flying back onto the ground.

She then jumped and tried to deliver a follow up blow, but Joseph quickly rolled out of the way and did a sweeping kick, knocking The Priestess off her feet.

Joseph winced in pain at his arm as Miranda quickly got back up. Without a weapon, he was at a huge disadvantage, and he wasn't sure how long he could keep this up.

"Miranda, stop! I don't want to fight you!" He shouted.

"You should have thought of that before you provoked me!" Miranda shouted back and continued her assault.

Joseph tried his best to defend himself, but Miranda's super human speed and strength were making this difficult for him. Her claws then cut across his back as he tried to dodge, causing him to again wince in pain.

"Joseph!"

He turned around to see Cassandra running towards him with his katana in hand. She hadn't even bothered to put her jacket on.

"Catch!" The brunette shouted as she threw the weapon in his direction.

In one smooth movement, Joseph grabbed his sword, unsheathed it, and began a series of counter attacks on The Priestess.

Now Miranda was suddenly on the defensive, trying to use her clawed gloves to block the sword's blows, but struggling to do so. With his katana in hand, the fight had quickly turned in Joseph's favor, and his speed and tenacity with the blade were overwhelming her.

She tried to deliver a powerful swipe with her claw, but Joseph deflected it before elbowing her in the face, sweeping her legs out from under her again, and spun back around to bring his katana to her throat, the blade just a hair's breadth away from touching her.

She was beaten. Joseph had her as his mercy.

"Enough." He said. "Fighting won't solve anything for either of us."

Miranda just stared up in disbelief. This man, who wasn't mutated or enhanced in any way, had defeated her in battle fair and square. Who was he? No, what was he?

"Just finish me and get it over with." She said.

Joseph was silent for a moment, but he didn't kill her. Instead, he removed his sword and put it back in its sheath before offering The Priestess a hand up.

She was confused.

"You humiliate me by defeating me in battle, me, and yet you chose to spare me? Why?"

"It was you who attacked me, Miranda. I never wanted to fight you." Joseph reminded her.

She still didn't take his hand. Instead, she got up in a sitting position and just sat there.

Joseph put his arm down and cautiously approached The Priestess. When she didn't move, he sat down next to her.

"Why didn't you just kill me? You had every right to, and I deserved it." Miranda said, her anger finally subsiding.

"Because if I did, I'd be denying you a second chance, and everyone deserves a second chance."

"Not me. I've done too many horrible things to count. I never even put any thought into it until tonight. That's how heartless I was. All that mattered to me was Eva, everyone else be damned, and I became such a horrible person. My daughter would be ashamed of me."

Joseph nodded.

"You did do horrible things. And in time you may have to answer for all of that, but that doesn't mean you can't change."

"After all of this?! You must be delusional! You can't come back from where I am! I'm beyond redemption!"

"What about Alcina?"

That question made Miranda pause.

"What about her?"

"She was in the same position as you were pretty much. She had also killed and tortured many people, but she didn't let that stop her from changing. You saw it yourself. She's much more kind and calm to others now, as are her daughters."

He motioned to his girlfriend. It was then that he noticed Alcina had come outside as well with Cassandra's jacket and was scolding her for not bringing it.

Joseph chuckled before turning back to Miranda.

"And even though she may never fully gain the trust of the people, she is still happy with what she has and is trying to stay positive. I understand completely that your daughter's death had you all messed up inside, and you couldn't handle the grief. So you just walked away from everything. You're not the first person in history that's happened to.

"What I'm trying to say here is that if Alcina and her daughters can come back from rock bottom, you can too."

Miranda just shook her head. She wasn't convinced. Joseph was disappointed, but he didn't want to give up. He needed to do something more to reach The Priestess. He thought about it for a moment before he got an idea.

"I want to show you something. Will you let me?"

Miranda paused for a moment before reluctantly nodding.

Joseph then turned back to Cassandra.

"Cassie, go to the entertainment room and put on Godzilla Minus One. We'll have Miranda watch it."

Now The Priestess was confused.

"I don't understand. How will that help?"

The countess and her daughter just smiled.

"You'll see." They both said.

Joseph helped Miranda up and walked up to Alcina and Cassandra where the brunette's eyes widened.

"Oh god! Joseph, I need to patch up those cuts before we do anything!"

Joseph looked at his arm and back. He had completely forgotten about the injuries on his body. Alcina put her hand on her daughter's shoulder.

"You can do it during the movie, dear. Come now. Let's not waste any more time."

….

Unlike the first time Godzilla Minus One had played in the entertainment room, the room was completely silent for the whole movie, save for the noises Cassandra made as she tended to Joseph's injuries, but the effect the film had wasn't any less.

Miranda was confused at first as to why Joseph thought this movie would help, but it didn't take long for her to get her answer as the movie became a story about guilt and learning to overcome the past, just the same way that Alcina and the other lords were doing.

The part that cemented this message in for The Priestess was when Koichi's emotions were at an all time low after Noriko's apparent death, and he was prepared to die to kill Godzilla, as he felt he didn't deserve to live and be happy.

But then Tachibana, his former comrade from the war who blamed him for the events that were haunting him, came in. At first, he was bitter towards Koichi. But after seeing the suffering and anguish he was going through, he realized he was wrong to judge Koichi the way he did, and chose to forgive him by installing an ejector seat in his plane and ordering him to come back alive, that he deserves happiness and not death.

When the movie was over, Miranda was in full tears, hiccupping and sobbing uncontrollably. She was starting to hyperventilate, so Joseph came over and told her to take deep breaths, but The Priestess just embraced him in a tight hug, still sobbing.

Alcina and Cassandra were the only other ones in the room. They hadn't allowed anyone else in, and even they were tearing up. They had hated Miranda for what she did, but at that moment they realized that they had felt the same way towards Miranda as the villagers had felt towards them. Like the villagers, they too needed to give the architect of their suffering a second chance.

They walked over and joined in the hug, in which Miranda started sobbing even harder.

"Alcina…Cassandra…p-please forgive m-me!" She wailed.

They remained silent and just simply hugged tighter.

….

By the time the group walked back into the main hall, most of the guests were gone, and Daniela and the other lords were waiting for them. Like Joseph, Cassandra, and Alcina, they too were shocked at the events that had unfolded. They had always thought of Miranda as cold and heartless, but this revelation turned all of that on its head. And now, they actually started to feel guilty for judging her the way they did.

Miranda looked between each one of them, fighting back more tears as hard as she could, before speaking.

"I honestly don't know what to say to you. Looking at you all now, I'm only beginning to understand the full impact of my actions. I turned all of you into monsters and killers. There's just no way around that. I was so blinded by grief and anguish that I became determined to bring back my daughter at all costs, and you suffered the consequences."

She took a few deep breaths before continuing.

"I know this doesn't really mean anything but…I am sorry. For everything. What I did to you all was inhumane and inexcusable. Perhaps it would be best if I left this village and your lives for good."

Donna shook her head and stepped forward, taking her veil off to The Priestess' shock.

"Donna…!"

The doll maker held her hand up.

"Don't leave, Mother Miranda. Running from your problems will solve nothing. It will only make them worse. The only way you can overcome them is to face them head on. I only learned that recently."

Alcina then stepped forward as well.

"It's true that you committed horrible atrocities against us, but I am not exactly innocent of it myself."

"She manipulated you, Vampy." Heisenberg said.

"She did, but she had been overwhelmed by her emotions as much as we were. Perhaps she just projected it onto us. In fact, now that I think about it, I was actually luckier than she was. I at least had my daughters to be by my side and lift my spirits, but Miranda had no one. She was alone all those years."

"And I know how sad and painful it is to be alone." Joseph said.

"You do?" Miranda asked, surprised.

"It's a long story, but he's telling the truth." Cassandra said.

Alcina nodded in agreement before speaking up.

"We have been trying hard recently to rebuild our lives and asking for a second chance from the villagers. Sadly, I don't think we will ever be able to achieve that fully, but some of them are at least willing to give us that chance. So it's only fair that we give it to you as well."

"It will take us a long time. But I think if we work together, we can move past this and make peace with it." Daniela said.

"I hate to say it, but Vampy is right. The only way things'll get better is if we put aside our differences and learn how to become friends and all that Care Bears shit." Heisenberg said.

"None of us here were ever evil Miranda." Joseph said. "We were just blinded by our emotions. And because of that, we made mistakes. So let's not have our mistakes make us." He smiled and put his hand on The Priestess' shoulder.

Miranda stared into Joseph's eyes in wonder for a long moment, then she finally responded.

"You truly are something special Joseph. You've brought these people together in a way that I never could."

"That's because you never tried, but now is your chance to make things right, make your daughter proud."

Miranda noded, shedding a few more tears before hugging him again.

"Thank you Joseph. You've done much more than spare my life. You've opened my eyes. I am eternally grateful."

"He has a talent for that." Cassandra said with a warm smile.

Just then, the doors opened and Bela and Elena came walking forward to the group. Their hair and clothes were a mess and it had been obvious what they were doing. They paused as they saw the group all together.

"Hey guys. Did we miss something?" Bela asked.

Heisenberg gave her a dumbfounded look.

"Were you two seriously that distracted fucking each other to not notice anything?" He asked.

The two girls became beet red as everyone in the room burst out laughing.