The One Who Lost His Way

AN: In this chapter, Ghidorah and Mothra have a chat. Humans do things, too.

Key:

"Titan speak"

"Human speak"

Character's inner thoughts

"Telepathic communication"

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

Edit (01/30/23): A reviewer made a good point about Rodan's behavior in the movie, so I went back and changed and added to that scene so it would make more sense.

Yunnan Rainforest, China:

Finding their destination wasn't exactly hard. Being a creature with telepathic abilities, it was easy to locate other creatures with those same abilities. While theirs were more focused on communication with each other rather than with others, there was no mistaking the telepathic signals they were locked onto. And if they could sense her, she definitely knew they were coming.

"I still think this is a bad idea," San commented as their destination finally came into sight. The lush, green rainforest ended at the foot of a great waterfall, one with a human camp at its base. The occupants of said camp were running every which way, no doubt panicking at their arrival.

"Yes, you said that already. Many times, in fact," was Ichi's response. Being nice to San was already harder than he thought, though that was probably because he'd said the same thing about a dozen times by now.

Other than the human camp, there were no clearings big enough for them to land, so they just flattened several trees nearby. Coming here unannounced was already reason enough to frighten the insect. There was no need to do so even more by hurting her precious humans.

Sizable though the waterfall was, it was still dwarfed by their magnitude. The top of the falls barely reached their hips, so they had to bend down quite a ways to look within. A soft blue light came from within, a product of the cocoon they could spy within. Some commotion in the human camp caught Ni's attention. It seemed the little creatures thought them a threat to the insect. They were waving their arms and shouting, and one, a female that seemed oddly familiar seemed unafraid of them, even under Ni's glare.

"Why should she be?" The gentle voice coming from within their own heads took them collectively by surprise. "You mean us no harm, correct?" Unsurprising that she already knew their intentions weren't hostile. Her telepathic abilities far outclassed their own. "Why are you three here, then?"

"To talk," Ichi responded, staring at the cocoon through the great sheet of falling water. Ni kept his gaze on the humans, making sure they didn't try anything foolish. San was...being San. The youngest was currently studying his reflection in the calmer parts of the lake. At least he wasn't trying to eat a tree or something.

"I sense the truth in your words, yet I can scarcely believe it. You have never wished to talk before now. Hmm...a sense that the darkness that once consumed you is now gone, replaced by something else. A fog. You are confused. Lost and uncertain. About what, may I ask?" Now all three of them were staring at the cocoon, jaws agape in utter shock. That was...terrifyingly accurate.

"Why bother asking if you can clearly figure it out yourself?" Ni challenged, going back to watching the humans. Ichi glanced at the little creatures for a moment. Based on the small devices they were holding, this entire interaction was clearly being recorded.

"Because you came to talk. So talk." Ichi sighed, not knowing where to start. "How about from the beginning?"Her tone was rather cheeky, which made Ichi roll his eyes. That, in turn, just made her giggle.

"Very well..." They carefully readjusted themselves into a more comfortable position, flattening more trees in the process, as Ichi prepared to explain their situation. "We...were not so different from this planet's guardian once."

"Who? Godzilla?"she interjected.

That actually gave Ichi pause. The thought of him having a name hadn't even crossed his mind for some reason. "Is that his name?" She answered in the affirmative. "Then...who are you?"

"Mothra," was her simple answer. "And if we are doing introductions now, you have yet to formally introduce yourselves."

"We are Ghidorah. That is the name we prefer." For some reason, none of them liked being thought of as anything else by others. Their individual names were for their own sake, not for anyone else to use. If someone wished to speak with one of them, they would address all of them.

"Well, it is nice to finally make your acquaintance, Ghidorah. Going back to your story...you said you and Godzilla were not so different once?" They could hear the clear intrigue in her voice. Ever since their arrival on this planet, they'd been nothing more than an enigma to the other large creatures. Their origins were unknown, their motives were unknown, their identity was unknown. For the first time, they were about to give answers to some of those lingering questions.

"Yes...we were a protector of life. We traveled the stars as a guardian of peace. It was a...lonely existence at times. And a frustrating one. Eons of thankless responsibility and lonesome wandering eventually drove us mad with anger and hatred—the injustice of it all proving too much to bear after millions upon millions of years." San nuzzled his oldest brother's cheek in reassurance, an act Ichi was silently grateful for. Even after uncountable years of abuse, San still cared for his brothers.

Mothra had latched onto one little detail. "Just how old are you?"

"Age has no meaning to an eternal being," Ichi answered, hoping she wouldn't see the underlying truth.

"You have no idea, do you?" Well, there went that hope...

"...No," he replied truthfully. "Not really. Whether it be fifty million or five hundred million matters little at this point. The answer remains the same: age matters little to us. Our kind does not grow old. We simply...grow." Ichi glanced back at their enormity with a small frown. While proud of their size and power, it did make some things a bit more difficult. Like living peacefully on a single planet, for instance. Especially one so densely inhabited by such small, fragile creatures.

"There are more of you, then?" Slight concern tinged her voice, though that was no surprise. If the creatures of this planet found it so difficult to defeat one of them, they would stand little chance against an army. Fortunately, their numbers weren't so great.

"Last we knew, there were less than fifty of our kind scattered throughout this galaxy. Whether more exist in other galaxies, we know not." They didn't need much more than that. Very little could kill them, after all. Plus, they had no natural end. Hatchlings, then, were exceedingly rare to the point of near nonexistence. In all their time wandering the void, they'd never come across another of their kind save the times when they actually sought another for one reason or another.

"Interesting. I would love to hear more about your kind later, but this is about you. Why the change in heart?" Ichi could sense the slight smugness in her tone, and he was reminded of the day they were imprisoned.

"I think you know." While she didn't verbally respond, Ichi could almost picture the victorious smirk on her face—as much as an insect could smirk, at least. "Our imprisonment was eye-opening in a way. We wish to return to our old ways, but..."

"But you are not quite sure how." Ichi nodded. San was back to doing his own thing again, having grown bored with the conversation. Ni was still watching the humans, who seemed to be relaxing more as time went by with no incidents occurring. "Why come to me? Why not ask Godzilla if you two are similar?"

Ichi glanced at the humans again before answering. "You interact with the humans regularly. How do you make them unafraid?"

"By having one speak for me,"she answered immediately. Ichi and Ni glanced at each other. They'd noticed the small telepathic signal coming from that female human. "It is not a perfect means of communication by any means, but it works. Perhaps you should find a human of your own."

Their telepathy didn't work that way, but there were other ways to follow Mothra's suggestion. And it made a certain sense. If they couldn't speak for themselves—yet—they needed someone to speak for them. Only one question remained, though: which human should be their speaker?

Monarch bunker outside Boston:

While Jonah's men were preparing to awaken Rodan, Maddie found herself studying the latest videos of Monster Zero. Mostly, she was wondering the same things her mother was. Why hadn't Monster Zero been affected by the ORCA? Why hadn't Monster Zero and Godzilla fought each other? Why was the dragon in China having what looked like a one-sided conversation with Mothra's cocoon?

Jonah's tech specialists had intercepted the videos being sent to Monarch command, and both Maddie and her mother had been watching them—in separate rooms, obviously—almost nonstop. Monster Zero's behavior was a mystery that had everyone stumped, and even Jonah was wanting to know why.

Why hadn't the plan worked?

Maybe Maddie's twelve-year-old imagination was interfering, but she swore she saw something more than animal intelligence in the dragon's eyes back in Antarctica. Her mother was already starting to believe that Monster Zero was more intelligent than previously thought, but Maddie was beginning to think the adults were still underestimating him—them? Seriously, was it one dragon with three heads or three dragons with one body? It was really confusing.

She hadn't told her mother about her suspicions yet since she knew exactly what the response would be. "Don't be ridiculous, Maddie, they're not sentient creatures."

But what if they were? Or Monster Zero, at least.

Based on the video from China, it sure looked that way. She could see that same intelligence in Monster Zero's eyes. The dragon purposefully landed so as not to hurt the people in the camp, looked around to make sure everyone was clear before laying down. Monster Zero was aware of how much bigger he was compared to everything else on this planet. It was also obvious that he was talking to Mothra's cocoon. The sounds he made followed by short pauses and more sounds. He was talking, she was sure of it. Just like he 'spoke' with Godzilla in Antarctica. She'd found and studied that video, too.

It just seemed so obvious that Monster Zero was as intelligent as any human. No one else could, though. Maybe she was reading too much into it. Maybe she was just seeing what she wanted to see.

She put her tablet down with a sigh and rubbed her eyes. Spending several hours watching the same few videos in a dark room had given her a headache, so she decided to go check in and see what was going on in the control room. She was allowed in there even if Jonah didn't like it. There wasn't much she could do, after all.

It looked like her mother had just opened a video call with Monarch. The first thing she heard was her dad demanding, "Where's Madison?" Maddie all but sprinted over to see him, the guilt for leaving him in Antarctica weighing heavily on her mind.

Rather unsurprisingly, the video call didn't go well. Everyone at Monarch, including her dad, was deeply against what her mother was trying to do. It ended with her mom upset at the anger and betrayal felt by her former friends.

Even still and despite her pleas for the inhabitants of Isla de Mara, her mom caved to Jonah's desires and used the ORCA to wake up Rodan. What followed was...not the coexistence she'd been promised.

At first, Rodan had just made a big show. When it became apparent that the titan was content to just sit there, however, things quickly became ugly. "Do it," Jonah commanded. "It's time to send a message." Her mom glanced at her with sympathy and sadness before nodding. Then, after fiddling with the ORCA for a few seconds, it began broadcasting a slightly different tone.

On the monitors, they could see Rodan look around in clear aggravation at the new sound. After a few seconds, he roared a mighty challenge, to what she wished she hadn't seen. There was nothing she could do but sit there and watch as the titan turned his fury on the local population, a result of the ORCA, no doubt. There was nothing anyone could do, really. Even the local military's efforts were utterly futile. They Mexican government was simply trying to defend their people and their homes, yet their retaliation only served to increase Rodan's wrath. Everyone was just forced to sit back and watch as thousands of people were massacred by the rampaging titan.

All the while, the Orca kept broadcasting that same signal to drive the titan deeper into an uncontrollable fury.

Maddie would agree that the titans didn't deserve to be locked up for being what they were. They should be freed. A quick glance at Jonah's unsympathetic smirk told her the rest of these people didn't share her views. They didn't care about freeing the titans. They just cared about the damage they would cause. Even her mother, while remorseful for the destruction, didn't seem deterred from this course.

It was in this moment when Maddie realized she was on the wrong side.

Aboard the USS Argo:

Mark, like everyone else aboard the Argo, found himself unable to look away from the horror they were witnessing. All the destruction and loss of life occurring right before them, and they couldn't do a damn thing to stop it. His idea of luring Rodan away to give the people more time to evacuate was shot down since they'd basically be signing their own death certificates. They had nowhere to lead the titan, and according to Monarch's research, Rodan could actually fly faster than the Argo.

Through the terminals' screens, they could see the devastation taking place. The entire town was flattened, most of it on fire. Through the speakers, they could hear everyone still left screaming for help or in pain. The evacuation teams they sent were too little and too late. Now they were all trapped on the island just like everyone else.

"Just try to get to the other side of the island," Foster had told them. "We'll try and pick you up there." Easier said than done with a rampaging fire-chicken hunting down everything that moved.

It was only when someone got sick from all the screaming that Mark finally spoke. "Maybe turn that off?" Rick did after a moment, the scientist's eyes glued to the screen the whole time, and Mark looked around at all the grim faces in the control room. Sam was currently face down in a trash can, so that was that mystery solved.

No one spoke, for none knew what to say. This was the worst titan-related crisis—maybe any-related crisis—since...since San Francisco. The old desire to get something to drink resurfaced, but he crushed it ruthlessly. There was no helping anyone like that. Instead, he just bowed his head and closed his eyes, trying to find some sort of light.

He felt a gentle touch on his arm and looked up to see Dr. Graham there with an equally upset expression. Serizawa was watching him, too. They knew what he'd been through, knew what this was reminding him of. "You need to send word to all of your outposts. Tell them to kill these things now before more people die."

Serizawa pursed his lips, clearly unhappy with the suggestion, but he didn't actually argue. Rather, it was Chen who spoke up. "Even if that is the best course of action, we cannot kill them."

"Can't!?" He stared at her incredulously before pointing at the screen. "You don't kill them, and that happens to everyone. It's us or them, and I'm damn well not about to let it be us."

While the two were glaring at each other, Rick spoke up. "What she means to say is that we couldn't even if we wanted to." When Mark switched his glare to him, Dr. Stanton explained. "You've read the files, man. The MUTOs, Kong, even Godzilla. We've tried to kill them before..." He shook his head. "We just can't."

"The ORCA has upset the natural balance. We must focus on finding it. Gojira will restore balance like he always has." He genuinely seemed to believe that, and most of the others seemed to believe it, too. Mark just couldn't believe these people were so loyal and trusting of the thing that killed his son.

"And how many more cities will be destroyed in the meantime!? How many more people have to die before you realize he's not on our side, huh!? That's he's not the magic solution to all of your problems!" Serizawa just raised his head and looked away, not even looking in Mark's direction anymore.

"It's not like we have any better ideas..." Rick muttered.

That was all he could take. Mark stormed out with a cold fury, trying to find somewhere quiet and out of the way where he could brood and grieve in peace. In the end, he settled down in an empty office and tried to figure out the ORCA signal again.

Even if they were all deluded fools with far too much faith in Godzilla, he could agree that the ORCA needed to be found. Preferably before something like this happened again. It was around ten minutes later when the alarms sounded...

AN: Did the edits make a bit more sense? The ORCA's capabilities aren't really expanded upon much in the movie, but we know it can be used to communicate simple commands to them. Now, Rodan only attacked the people on Isla de Mara because of the ORCA instead of for revenge.

Until Next Time

AdmiralCole22