Sorry it's been so long! Also I watched GxK. This story will remain how I originally planned it, so it's an AU to GxK I guess, where instead of skar king, we have Hollow G. A part of me wonders if Adam wanted to do another Godzilla in the hollow earth too, but couldn't because Toho wouldn't allow two Godzillas so they made Shimo instead... Anyways, enjoy!

Reunited

…

Whyley walked along side Amara as they traversed the forest. He had his gun in his hands while his eyes were constantly scanning their surroundings. Besides the rustling of small things scampering around, nothing sounded of any concern.

The feeling of Kong's presence guided her easily through the trees. It was like the strange compass in her mind had split, one needle pointing toward Kong, and the other steadily on Godzilla far behind. Unfortunately, it was the latter that she wanted to follow. Leaving Godzilla vulnerable like that…it felt wrong. A feeling that wasn't unfamiliar. She'd felt it from him many times before when they parted.

But there wasn't another Godzilla out there before. Another bigger Godzilla.

He does not see me as a threat. Godzilla's voice filled the back of her mind. He will go after Kong.

Godzilla's voice was distant. Her mind strained to reach his.

Because he hates Kong's species?

Yes.

But why? I know there was a war. But what started it?

I do not know.

With every step, it took more effort to stay connected enough to communicate.

Is there anything you do know about him? Weaknesses? Motivations?

He is far stronger than I, and he is angry. If you do not convince the others to leave with Kong, he will not rest until they are dead. And then he will come for me.

So he would attack you?

I have shown that I am on Kong's side. Kin or not, I am his enemy.

Alright. We'll find the others then leave as soon as we can.

Amara, if it comes to it. I will take you home, willingly or not.

I know you can't. You're too tired.

I would find a way.

Whyley must have noticed her shaking her head. "You want to stop for a bit?"

"No. I'm afraid if I stop, I won't be able to start again."

"Think we're getting close?"

"Yeah, the feeling is getting more precise. I don't think he's too much further."

Amara made more of an effort not to drag her feet. Without any sense of time, walking felt eternal. The forest, endless. Warm air brushed against her damp skin. Calls of a hundred foreign birds and insects coursed around them. If she didn't look up to the mantel side of the Hollow Earth, they could be in the Amazon.

"Goji says the other Godzilla will go after Kong, so when we get to the others we have to convince them to leave with Kong."

"Then we're back to square one. We have to get rid of that Godzilla and make Kong the Alpha. Did you ask G if it has any weaknesses?"

"I did."

He looked at her expectantly.

"And he has none. He's another bigger, stronger Godzilla. He obliterated Kong's axe, sucked the energy from Godzilla and blew up a chunk of the Hollow Earth."

"So we'll have to find a different way to kill it. Get G's energy back and get Kong a stronger weapon. I think they can win if they work together, just look at when they defeated Mechagodzilla. And now you're here to help too. You can do that mind thing with G again and Judo that thing's ass!"

Amara looked away. "I appreciate your optimism."

"It's not even that much bigger than Destroyer."

"Not that much? It's nearly twice the—"

Whyley froze, lifting his gun to his shoulder.

Amara looked around. "What?" she whispered.

"It's quiet."

Sure enough, the birds were silent. Everything was silent.

Amara managed to look over her shoulder one more time before something caught her eye.

Someone.

Then more appeared. People dressed in oranges and reds, skin painted with blue.

They were surrounded. Spears and arrows pointed at them from every direction. Whyley lowered his gun. Amara put her hands up.

There really were people down here. Still, after how many thousands, if not millions of years. People, actual people! They did not speak, instead, they looked at each other. One gestured at Whyley to drop the gun. He complied, slowly kneeling and placing it on the ground.

She did her best to breathe. To stay calm. If she panicked, Godzilla would hear her. The people looked weary, but not like they were going to kill them unprovoked.

Plus, Kong was close, which meant…

A woman's voice called through the trees as the people began binding her and Whyley's wrists with think vine. Ilene's voice.

Not a few seconds later, Jia came bounding from the trees dressed and painted like the people. She was adorned in beads and handmade trinkets that jingled with her stride. People parted to let her pass. Some bowed.

They knew she was connected to Kong.

She wildly gestured to them with a pleading look on her face. One of the older ones made gestures back, but they were different. Their hands flowed slowly, distinct from American sign language, or at least what Amara could tell.

Though the people did not stop binding their hands, they did lower their weapons. Once their hands were secure, Jia pushed through them and hugged Whyley around the waist before signing something up to him.

"You're welcome," he said with a smile.

They were prodded forward to follow the group. Nathan and Ilene came from behind the trees ahead of them. Ilene had an arm supporting Nathan who was limping.

"Jia there you are—" Ilene abruptly stopped when she noticed Nathan was looking at the two of them. "Oh my god, we thought you might be—we were so worried. We tried looking downstream but there was no sign of you two."

Unlike Jia, Nathan and Ilene were dressed in their hiking clothes, but like her, they too had leather and beaded jewelry draping from their neck and arms.

"How did you manage to find us?" Nathan asked.

Whyley responded before she could. "We were just trying to find our way out of the forest. They found us."

The people urged them forward.

"I'm so glad we found you guys. Can you believe there's still people down here?" Ilene said falling into stride next to Amara and the woman leading her.

"I wouldn't if I wasn't surrounded right now."

"They don't speak at all. They're a lot like Jia's people on Skull Island. Ancestors to the Iwi. They found us a couple of days ago not far from the river. It looked like they were about to kill us until Kong came to our rescue. After that, they took an interest in Jia and led us back to their village."

So they knew Jia was connected to Kong. She turned her eyes to the side. The Iwi people didn't seem to give her any special attention.

"How could they tell Jia was the special one?"

Ilene chuckled. "When the Iwi people backed off, Kong held out a hand for Jia to climb onto. Don't think he wants to take any more chances after what we just went through" She leaned closer. "Another Godzilla?"

"Wouldn't have believed that one either."

"What's even crazier is that our Godzilla sensed it and was down here in a matter of minutes. It was like he knew exactly where we were from the surface."

"Yeah, strange…" Amara nodded.

"Did either of you see if he got away?" Nathan asked from beside Ilene.

Amara looked at Whyley before they both spoke.

"No."

"I grabbed Jia and jumped, didn't see anything after that."

Nathan looked ahead. "You think that thing killed him? Can't say I'd be upset. One Godzilla is plenty."

Ilene nudged him with the arm she had around his back. "Hey!"

"What happened to your ankle?" Whyley asked.

"Think I hit it on a rock when we jumped into the river. I don't think it's broken though, luckily."

His ankle was wrapped in an assortment of leaves and bandages, as if Ilene and the Iwi people insisted on mending it in their own way.

Amara looked away, her eyes landing on stone buildings not dissimilar to the temple they'd found before. The settlement sat on the edge of the forest. The sound of water trickling water meant the river wasn't too far away.

They passed through a stone wall that was level with her shoulder. It curved around the buildings, spanning out of sight. Inside it was lush vegetation mostly consisting of shrubs and grasses. Grazing on it were large lizard-bird-like creatures the size of draft horses. They looked as if a raptor were in the middle of evolving into an ostrich with large yellow eyes and a bill filled with needle-like teeth.

As they walked, more creatures came into view. Sheep covered in black wool that looked harmless until one raised its head to reveal two sets of massive curved horns. Beside it was another, with only one set of less pronounced horns. From under its belly, a woman paused milking to regard them.

To find ruins was one thing…but there were actual living people down here. The oldest living relatives of Homo sapiens.

But the question was, did humans come here from the surface, or did they come from the Hollow Earth?

Amara flinched at the sound of her shoe hitting cobblestone. Eyes dropping to the stone etched with crystal, it was indeed the same as the sone in the temple.

But it did not begin to glow.

She was urged forward by one of the Iwi women behind her. Taking a calming breath, she moved on. Of course it wouldn't glow. Hollow Godzilla sucked the radiation from both the stones and her body.

The cobbled path they walked was the main street through the village. Smaller paths branched off to the sides that led to the various stone buildings, while straight ahead was a huge building much like the previous temple they explored.

They passed dozens of people who stopped to stare, but it was strange not hearing a single sound from them. Now and again, one of them would make a small gesture with their hands.

Whyley must have noticed too. "Do they use sign language?" he whispered to Ilene.

"Yes, but it's nothing like ASL. I've been working on it with Jia since we got here. It's a lot more nuanced," she whispered back.

They reached the temple. The stone doors were etched with drawings of people and Kong's kind. They were opened just enough for humans to pass through single file.

Jia made her way to the front of the group and entered first.

Amara found out why as soon as she passed through the doors.

Kong sat on a huge throne in the middle of the open chamber. Beside him was a carcass half his size, the arm of which, he was currently eating.

It was times like this she was thankful that Godzilla didn't have to eat. His breath was never bad and his teeth were rarely full of flesh. And the times there were, usually after a fight, all he had to do was open his mouth and the fish would happily take care of it.

"What, you happy to see Kong or something?" Whyley asked as he watched Ilene help Nathan along after Jia.

"No, just thinking about how nice it is that Godzilla absorbs radiation instead of eating."

"Don't think there's enough whales in the ocean to keep him fed for more than a month."

"He wouldn't eat the whales. They're his friends."

Whyley pulled a face.

"What? Who do you think he hung out with before me?"

"Guess I never really thought about it." Whyley looked back at the others. "How are we going to tell them that if we can't kill Hollow Godzilla, we have to get Kong out of here?"

"We have to prove to them that he's coming before he gets here."

He nodded. "In the meantime, we should try to find out as much as we can about these people. Maybe they know more about that thing that Godzilla does, or even what caused it to go dormant."

Amara lowered her voice. "Sure, we just can't get complacent. I'll have to figure out how to talk to Uncle Gary from here."

"I didn't think we were that far from him."

"We're both tired, I think that's making it harder to talk from this distance. I heard a river earlier, I'm sure I can talk to him if I can get to it."

"You think he'll know how close Hollow G is getting?"

"Yeah," she said quickly as two Iwi people came over and gestured for them to follow.

They looked like brother and sister with their hair half shaved on opposite sides. The biggest difference between them was the girl had stripes pained on her nose and cheeks while the boy had paint on his forehead and chin. They looked youthful, likely teenagers.

The siblings led them around the throne to the titan-sized doors on the other side of the temple. As they passed, Kong looked down at Amara and gave an apathetic grunt of acknowledgment. She nodded back.

"Wonder if he knows you're the reason G came and saved us. Knows he owes you one."

"I would hope they'd help each other out again. They don't get along, but I don't think they hate each other anymore. At least Goji doesn't."

Out of the temple, they were led to a building not too far away. Inside the main room, a fire burned in a pit in the middle. Sitting on one of the sleeping bags around it, was Ren.

He had the decency to look up at them. "I see you two survived."

"Nice to see you too," Amara said.

When he made no further comment and went back to filling his bag of dehydrated food with boiling water, Amara and Whyley took off their backpacks.

The siblings left without making a noise while Amara laid out her sleeping back off to the side of the others. Whyley did the same next to her.

"I hope you guys brought more food. So far the most they've given us is mushrooms and berries. Neither of which taste good."

"We've got enough for ourselves for a few days," Whyley replied rather tersely.

Amara got into her sleeping bag before anyone could question her, pulling it over her head and closing her eyes.

She would worry about their problems later. It was finally time to sleep.

…