UNKNOWN BOOK: TITANS, VOLUME 3: GHIDORAH

by Anonimosx

After Godzilla's victory everyone thought that everything was over, but once again they were wrong. Both Team Avatar, Monarch and the four nations continue their fight for survival when a new rogue group intend to free the Titans and bring back nature's true balance. So now Team Avatar must help Godzilla face an ancient nemesis to recover his rightful place as King of the Monsters.

4. Chapter 4

4- A Mass Awakening.

Mark began to regain consciousness and woke up inside a room resembling one of some medical office full of thin yellow lights, Monarch stylized. He laid on some medical bed, with his fingers connected to some tech equipment. Over him stood a screen that showed his vitals, which all of them looking fine, the same as a smaller one over on his left and two much smaller under the big one. His clothes were on a chair standing on his left, and so his shoes. The last thing Mark remembered before getting unconscious back at the South Pole was Monster Zero taking flight and Godzilla roaring at the sky. Then he felt a strange and wet but comfortable and relieving feeling on his abdomen, he turned his sight there and saw Katara using her healing water abilities on him.

"It's okay, Dr. Russell. You're fine, you're safe." Katara assured him, aware that he was awake. "We're back on the Argo. Everyone is here, safe and sound. Well, except…you know." The teenage waterbending girl lamented. Mark was going to get up but was stopped by Katara, who signaled with her hand gently to not do it. "Just stay on the bed, I'll finish in no time."

"What…what happened?" Mark asked softly after lying on the bed again.

"You were pushed back with force by an explosion and hit a wall hard. Fortunately you only got unconscious, but I made sure to prevent and undone any possible new physical or mental issue that your body could have next by the hit with my healing abilities, which are now enhanced and more powerful as you know already." Katara explained continuing with the healing treatment.

"Thanks." Mark thanked. "What about Madison?"

"She's gone, Jonah and Emma took her with them and left. We don't know where." Katara replied. "The others are trying to track them, but for now there's nothing. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. It's not your fault."

"I still can't believe what Emma did, right in front of us. She looked like someone we could trust and then…she tricked us. She lied to us, including her own family! How could she be so manipulative and despicable?! And in cahoots with a man like Jonah?!" Katara expressed in anger, although making sure her emotions do not influence her bending at the moment and calming down later. "Sorry, again. It's just that…something I cannot endure is treason." She apologized at Mark.

"It's alright. And I agree with you. I didn't expect that neither, and knowing that now I cannot avoid feeling more worried about Maddie."

"Yeah, me and the others are as well." Katara said as she finalized with the healing session and retrieved the water back into her jug. "That's all. I recommend that you stay still for a least a minute, just in case." She advised getting up and turning at the exit.

"Why he does it?" Mark asked in a confused and pleading tone, making the waterbending teenager to turn at him again.

"What do you mean?"

"Your friend, the Avatar. Why? Why he defends Godzilla? After what happened in Ba Sing Se it was clear that he is a threat for the world, he and the other creatures like him." Mark said with all sincerity standing on bed. "I thought that…of all the people the Avatar would be the one who would realize it the most, and so you guys. And yet he's all against it, refusing to deal with him and the other Titans or allowing anyone to do it. Like if he chose to protect him instead. I…I don't understand. Why?"

"Aang has good reasons to do it, and so do I." Katara responded, with a little serious tone. "After all, the Titan you hate so much saved him."

"What?" Mark asked, more confused as he didn't expect to hear such thing.

"As you heard. Godzilla saved Aang, both before we found him and infiltrated into the Fire Nation and back in Ba Sing Se, when the two of them battled the Mutos together, just like they did against Monster Zero last night." Katara revealed. "Serizawa knows it, and so did Graham."

Mark didn't know what to say, but at least he now knew why Aang acted so protective and supporting with Godzilla and that aggressive and offended by him for what he said back in the reunion: Aang owed his life to Godzilla, and twice. He was in debt with that dino. It was a matter of honor and loyalty, and the Avatar saw the Titan as an ally…and a friend, a special one to count on. And there was no way he was going to allow anyone to dare or try hurt him no matter the reason or excuse they could come up with, especially someone motivated by vengeance.

"I know what you believe and the reason of that, but revenge will resolve nothing, or bring back nothing. It has never done it, especially if it's against animals." Katara said next with a regretful voice tone. "It has never been the answer. It would only blind you and give you more harm, poisoning yourself…and in the worst case turn you into something terrible, even the same thing you seek to destroy…or worse." She expressed all that with all the sincerity of the world, as she unfortunately passed through the same before too when she went with Zuko in search of the man that took away her mother Kya long ago, knowing that she could have done a huge and terrible mistake back then if it wasn't for what Aang told her before going on such trip. And now it had become a memory that she didn't like to remember, making her to hate herself for desiring such thing back then, the reason why she lowered her head in remorse. "Trust me, I know it from experience." Then she turned back at the exit before giving him one last look. "You could do something that would regret later, so think about it. That's another healing advice of me for you."

Katara went out the room, leaving Mark with his own thought and reflecting on everything his healer said. Those words got into him and began questioning what he believed and wanted regarding the current situation, mostly about Godzilla. He didn't doubt the intentions and goals of any of the members of Team Avatar, and with what Katara just told him maybe she was right. What if he was so clouded by desires of revenge for the loss of his son Andrew that he couldn't see the real thing? Just like many people like him. What if what he wanted the most in the world was a terrible mistake for everyone and everything and lead to the doom of the world? What if he was mistaken? Those thoughts left him confused and worried, and he wasn't sure what to believe at the moment. Smart move from Katara indeed, and also a good lesson, one that she learned from her boyfriend back then as well. Talking about her, she went back to the command center where everyone was with the sunlight coming through the windows on the first hours of the afternoon. Then she turned at where Aang stood, sat alongside Serizawa in front of a screen that showed a frontal photo of Graham and her profile with both of them having their heads lowered, surely still grieving her death. But besides that Aang was there also to talk with Serizawa about his battle with Monster Zero, what he thought about it apart of what Monarch's crew already told them and other possible details they could be not aware of.

"I gotta admit…this Monster Zero became harder to handle than expected, and I don't say it just because of its three heads. If it wasn't for the new outfits which really came in handy, like they made things easier." Aang admitted looking at his new suit before turning back to Serizawa serious again. "But despite that it was a hard battle, even with Godzilla's aid. And when it took flight and he roared at the sky it wasn't like other times. He seemed…frustrated that it got away, like if he wanted to stop it at all cost." Serizawa nodded at his words as he tried to analyze the new information.

"How can you tell?" Katara asked curious.

"When I was fighting Monster Zero I felt something by only looking at his eyes and being close to him. Something…evil, it gave me goosebumps at the moment. I don't know how to explain it, but it was the same feeling from when I fought Ozai at the day of the comet, or similar. Or like being in presence of Vaatu."

"Maybe it has something to do with how so little we know about it, or some of our theories." Chen deduced before realizing a detail that Aang said indirectly. "Wait. You said 'him'?"

"Yes. It's a male dragon. I don't know how I came with it. It just…popped into my head." Aang said with all sincerity. "You didn't know?" Serizawa and Chen denied with their heads.

"Whatever the case we've a new Titan on the loose, just like it all began the first time." Zuko pointed.

"I'm not sure about it. The Mutos acted by instinct, even if their purpose of multiply would lead to a worst case scenario."

"What do you mean, Twinkle Toes?" Toph asked intrigued and confused.

"I don't know, it's strange. But somehow I feel this is different. We must find it before…" Aang said as he started feeling down again remembering the tragic fate of Graham.

"Don't say it. It wasn't your fault. We must keep going and do everything in our hands to ensure the same not happening to more people." Katara encouraged him putting a comforting hand on his shoulder while looking at him eye-to-eye. "Never give up hope."

"That's right. She would not want you to give up, but to go on." Serizawa added, referring himself to Graham. "She believed you could achieve the same thing you did with the war with the problem of the Titans…with Gojira at your side, the same as I. Besides, she'll always be with you."

Those words really got into Aang and he knew they were right. If he managed to defeat Fire Lord Ozai and help Godzilla into defeating the Mutos in Ba Sing Se he could do it again and again rising upon himself as he did a lot of times before Sozin's Comet arrived, so he looked up at them with a determined face and raised regained hope after drying his tears and nodded, making his girlfriend and mentor/father figure to show a soft but firm smile.

Then the airbender realized something else as he looked everywhere. "Hey, where are Sokka and Suki?"

"Oh, they went to get their power suits." Katara responded grinning. "You know, to get all the team completely upgraded."

On that same moment the pair of non-benders entered the bridge already suited up with their new outfits. They looked just like the other four, except that the color of these two was purple.

"So, what do you think of your new battle outfits?" Aang asked to the non-bending couple. "You look great."

"You bet! I feel like I can take on an entire battalion now all by myself." Sokka expressed excited. "Stronger, tougher, cooler…now this's what I call an upgrade. Totally worthy of the new and improved Team Avatar."

"It looks different from the outfit of the Kyoshi Warriors, but it's more comfortable and lighter. Besides I've always thought what would be to have a different suit, one of my own and signature of mine." Suki admitted checking her new attire.

"It really looks good on you, Suki." Sokka assured his girlfriend, making her to smile at him. "But why our suits are different? I mean, I supposed mine would be blue like Katara and Suki's would be green like Toph, you know because of me being Water Tribe and she Earth Kingdom. Then why purple?" He wondered confused.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. We also had the same debate when it came to choose your outfits' color." Stanton explained. "But then 'hey, why not?' After all we wanted to remind and stand out the importance and strength of non-benders on a new level."

"Oh. Good, yeah, that sounds nice. Very nice." Sokka simply said, with Suki nodding too.

"So, you guys know where Godzilla is currently?" Aang asked next to Monarch's crew. "For what we know he seemed to leave the South Pole."

"Anything on the long-range scanners?" Foster said.

"Subs have Godzilla hauling out off Kangaroo Island." Stanton reported as he went to check one of the two big main screens on both sides of the room showing a map of the world with the moving positions of both Godzilla (Specimen: Titanus Gojira on screen) and Monster Zero (Monster Zero on screen and inside some thermal version showing of a tropical storm), which positions were on the part of the ocean near the west of the main continent, in route toward the east part of the Fire Nation and both of them moving north slowly and Godzilla moving after Monster Zero. "We lost Monster Zero in a tropical storm over the ocean passed any island or land mass. Scanning the entire Southern Hemisphere. So far, nothing."

"Then scan the Northern." Foster ordered.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

"Monster Zero went into a tropical storm and then gone? Now that's weird." Toph said.

"More than just that, it's highly suspicious. You see, when Monster Zero awoke inside the crater it was like a storm formed inside all around him instantly." Sokka pointed, making both his friends and Monarch's crew turn at him and listen. "And not just that, when he emerged most of the sky got stormy too. It cannot be a coincidence."

"Yeah, you're right. Also the lightning inside the storm had a yellow touch, just like the thunderbolts that he fired from his mouths." Aang added, with Sokka nodding at him.

"Are you suggesting that there's a connection between Monster Zero and the new and anomalous changing weather?" Foster proposed.

"I don't know. It could be. But…if that's the case I don't like how it sounds…and where it could go." Sokka expressed worried, with Suki putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Like everyone around here." Stanton added.

"And Jonah and his forces are still out there and who knows where they could go next, and so Emma." Zuko said with a frowned face. "So it's now Madison the only one we must bring back, recover the Orca and bring the captors to justice and behind bars, all of them." Foster nodded at the words of the young Fire Lord.

"Okay, regarding that issue…sorry to say it but I find it hard to believe, your Highness." Coleman responded, still reluctant to believe that Emma had betrayed them.

"Fire Lord Zuko knows what he's saying. I was there with them." Foster replied calmly, supporting Zuko's declaration. "I know what I saw, Sam. And I'm telling you, she pulled that trigger."

"All due respect, Colonel, you saw wrong. Okay?" Coleman defended. "She wouldn't have done it. I mean, she recruited pretty much everyone in this room, with the clear exception of Team Avatar but that's out of the question."

"Maybe Jonah forced her, right?" Stanton proposed. "Maybe he used Madison as leverage."

"No, he and his troops could do nothing with Katara and her ice shards pointing at their necks and heads." Foster pointed. "They were at her mercy."

"No, no. It had to be someone else." Coleman insisted.

"It was no one else, it was Emma." Katara assured firmly and serious. "We all saw her doing it with our own eyes."

"Indeed. She told us the whole truth with Madison and everyone else there as well, right in our faces. Even Jonah acknowledged that." Suki supported.

"They're right." A new voice affirmed. It was Mark, who arrived there. His affirmation left Coleman and the rest stunned. "Emma. It was Emma. Foster saw it right, just like us. It was her. No one forced her to."

"Are you sure?" Serizawa replied, with Mark nodding. Next he turned at Aang, who did the same.

"Believe me, I don't want to believe it more than anyone here, but…unfortunately, that's how it is."

"Let's face it. She's a traitor. She betrayed all of us, including Maddie." Sokka declared next. "She has been on Jonah's side since who knows. And Madison is still in danger, now more as she is with her mother who could try to manipulate her and make her believe what she's doing is right."

"You got that right, Sokka. But after seeing what her mother did to us surely she will be more cautions with her and her friend Jonah."

"I hope you're right, Toph. Because Emma knows very well what she's doing: she made the Orca for whatever Jonah suggested her to do, she deactivated the security measures in order to allow him and his forces to get inside the containment site while she fooled us saying that she had no idea what was happening back then, and they allowed Mothra to go on her own and free after they took us out of there by force."

"He's right, and not just that. First, she releases Mothra. And now Monster Zero." Foster began pointing the connected events regarding said free Titans, and maybe some bigger plan. "Anyone else sensing a pattern here?"

"Yes, and not a good one: It's as if she is trying to start a mass awakening." Chen deduced agreeing with Foster's suspicions.

"Well, it's just too bad that no one tried to warn you that that was gonna happen." Mark complained mad looking at Chen.

"And I guess you didn't expect someone of your family to be the one who would do it, right?" Zuko replied, making Mark to regret of his words as he had nothing to say at that.

"Hang on, guys. Why in the world would she want to release them?" Coleman asked confused. "And why would she team up with Jonah, of all people, to do it?"

"We'll ask her when we find her." Serizawa responded as he put on his glasses, making everyone to look at him. "So, let's keep looking." Aang nodded at his words.

"Well, I hope we find her soon. And then I'm going to make her regret her decision of bringing her daughter into a trip of madness and evil and lie to us right in front of our faces." Sokka proclaimed angry, tapping his palm with his fist. "With…your permission of course, ma'am."

"You don't require permission for that." Foster answered, empathizing with him.

"Let room for me to join on that, Captain Boomerang." Toph supported.

"Me too." Suki followed. "Sorry Dr. Russell, but this has turned into a personal matter for us too."

"Well, that doesn't sound a bad idea." Mark said.

"So Emma is going to release more Titans that Monarch has contained? How are we going to know which ones are not truly dangerous?" Katara wondered worried.

"Simple. The ones Godzilla would not fight." Aang responded confident, with Serizawa and Chen nodding at him.

Hours later, deep in the ocean was Godzilla swimming as fast as he could and without pause, curiously on the same direction of Monster Zero and the storm where he disappeared within. And behind him were a couple of new high-technological submarines from Monarch following the amphibian dinosaur from a safe distance. These ones were of last generation, a huge improvement over the first ones created by Sokka and The Mechanist and used at the invasion of the Fire Nation at the day of the solar eclipse: The Day of Black Sun. Why? Because these ones were equipped with advanced systems and machinery and had automated propellers and engines, so waterbending was no longer needed to move them. Besides these subs had no fish-like form. Instead they had a more torpedo-like shape and were totally black in order to camouflage better in deeper waters. Meanwhile, back in the Argo…

"Any news of Godzilla's whereabouts?" Aang asked to Foster.

"Godzilla appears to be following the same path as Emma's osprey, heading north over the Fire Nation to here. Outpost 56 in Isla de Mara, an island located on the ocean very far north from Fire Nation mainland." Foster reported as the location of the outpost appeared in the screen of the main control panel of the center of the room alongside a red line representing the supposed trajectory of the aircraft stolen by Emma, Jonah and their mercenary forces, which ended in the island's location and next a footage of some closed entrance to the containment site from above, with most of the crew gathered around the control panel alongside Team Avatar. "We touch down there in 10 minutes."

"I've never heard of such island before." Zuko said intrigued.

"It was discovered by our infiltrated forces before it reached to your grandfather and his court ears, and the Titan in slumber inside the inactive volcano. The island was dangerously too close to the worst location at the moment, so we couldn't allow Fire Lord Azulon to be aware of such finding, and so your father when he became his successor. So we assigned most of our forces in the Fire Nation to the island to keep an eye on things there and the colony established there. Fortunately no one there suspected anything, and so it went until the end of the war." Foster explained, with Zuko nodding in affirmation.

"What about the people?" Mark asked next.

"I'm sorry?"

"The people. The people down there in that village that don't realize they're gonna be the special of the day." Mark clarified.

"He's right. We've to get everyone out of there in case the worst happens." Katara supported.

"We've sent G-Team to begin an evacuation." Serizawa reassured.

"Dr. Serizawa, we have a call on the emergency channel from Isla de Mara." A woman, one of the officers that monitored the systems and scanners reported from her post.

"Answer it."

Then the two big main screens changed the image of the world's map and the locations of the known containment sites to something that nobody really expected as it made everybody to turn at the screens and approach to them: for surprise, shock and annoyance for some of them someone appeared on screen, the one everyone less expected to contact them: Emma Russell, the traitor, now on a different outfit and on another location with some electronic devices and systems behind her, probably on some secret base of Jonah and his forces. After seeing her on screen most of Team Avatar couldn't avoid to look at her with anger, like Sokka, Suki, Katara and Zuko. How dared her to contact them after what she did in the South Pole? How could her want to talk with them after setting free Monster Zero like nothing? She had to be crazy for doing such a thing, although she didn't look pleasant of doing that either. In fact, she looked like a little regretful of her actions toward her former companions, but now it was too late to say sorry, like…if that was gonna work that easily on such moment.

"I suppose I should go first." Emma began saying, trying to appease that awkward situation at least. "I'm glad to see that you guys are okay." She said looking at Team Avatar.

"Cut out the formalities, doctor. It's not going to work." Zuko interrupted as he warned seriously at her. "And for you I'm the Fire Lord, and only that."

"Of course, Fire Lord Zuko." Emma responded, sounding like embarrassed and hurt.

"Where's Madison?" Mark demanded.

"She's right here with me."

At the moment Madison at her mother's right side on the monitor. She wore a different and more casual outfit like her mother.

"Dad, are you okay? What about you guys?" Madison asked to both her father and Team Avatar.

"Well, all the best we can." Aang replied sincerely.

"Madison, you all right, hon?" Mark asked back at his daughter.

"Dad, guys…I'm sorry. I couldn't do anything, and I'm sorry." Madison apologized, ashamed for what happened back then in the South Pole.

"Maddie, you don't need to be it. It wasn't your fault." Suki responded to calm her before turning at her mother next, and not glad. "Unlike some others." She added in an upset tone.

"It's okay. It's okay." Emma told her daughter, caressing her and kissing her on the cheek to comfort her.

"I'm sorry, Dad. I'm sorry guys." Madison apologized one more time before her mother sent her aside of the monitor gently.

Emma and Madison were in front of another computer and surrounded by another tech devices, but the location they were…not of Monarch. It was controlled by Jonah and his people, monitoring a lot of things from that and other rooms and places of that secret base of theirs.

"She's fine, everyone, trust me." Emma said turning at her ex-husband and Team Avatar, but they were not going to buy it.

"Hum, no, no thanks doctor. We can't afford to do that, especially after leaving us behind like nothing and at the mercy of a giant three-headed electric breathing dragon Titan!" Sokka responded exclaiming mad. "ARE YOU MAD!"

"How dare you contact us? How dare you talk to us like that after what you have done?!" Katara accused mad, exclaiming too. "Graham and others have died because of you! You get that?!"

That made Emma low her head and turn her sight aside, probably feeling remorse of hearing that and knowing that the young waterbender was right: that was her undoing. Indirectly, but it happened because of her actions, so she was guilty of that too.

"They're right. Trust is a little hard to come by, Dr. Russell. Especially after what you pulled." Foster added.

"I know. And I can only imagine what you're all thinking." Emma admitted turning at the monitor again. "But if there were any other way to do this, I would."

"Do what, Emma?" Mark asked suspecting already.

"I'm saving the world." Emma responded, leaving everyone confused and intrigued. "Better said, I'm ending what you started, Aang."

"Me?" Aang said pointing at himself, more confused than anyone else there.

"Yes. When you put an end to the war by defeating Fire Lord Ozai many thought it was finally over, but it was just the beginning. The fact that what happened in Ba Sing Se, the Mutos, Godzilla's return…all that happening shortly after the war ended, it wasn't a coincidence. It was a signal that the four nations, their people and the entire world were entering into a brand new chapter of their history, a new era. But not the one that everyone had in mind, but something more than that: part of something way bigger. By looking back at all the discoveries that Monarch made through its history since its foundation I finally realized what kind of future we all needed."

"But by releasing those things? That doesn't make sense." Mark protested at his ex-wife's words.

"As impossible as it seems, it does." Emma contradicted, insisting on her speech. "Hear me out, Mark. After we lost Andrew, I swore his death would not be in vain. That I would find an answer. A solution to why the Titans were rising. But as I dug deeper, I realized that they were here for a reason. And that despite all the years that we spent trying to stop them, we never dared to confront the truth." Emma said with determination.

"Which truth?"

"Humans have been the dominant species for thousands of years, and look what's happened."

The same time Emma said those words she transmitted some disturbing pictures on the screens, both through the monitors of the mercenaries base and the Argo, showing huge crowds of people living in poverty, factories of coal emitting black smoke and a river polluted with a town living over it, the same one that Aang, Katara, Sokka and Toph went and helped some time ago, and the worst of all towns destroyed and covered in flames, debris and smoke. Madison also saw all that on the monitors' screen while hearing what her mother was saying.

"Overpopulation, pollution, war. The mass extinction we feared from long ago it's about to begin, if it has not already begun. And we are the cause. We are the infection." Emma declared serious. "The Hundred Year War and the Air Nomads genocide is the undeniable proof that our kind has lost its way. And if something like that has happened and endured for so long who knows what else could happen in the future."

At hearing Emma's words Aang and his friends lowered their heads as they couldn't avoid reflecting on about what she just said, knowing deep inside that she wasn't wrong on that at all. But that also sounded familiar for some of them. Even if it wasn't the same case her words sounded a little similar of how Jet thought and what he did back then when they met him. But going that far in order to make things right? They had to agree with Mark on that, as it sounded too extreme.

"But that's why the spirits are. They care about the natural world." Aang reminded raising his head and turning at her. "And they try to prevent people to do bad things to themselves and the world that surrounds them."

"If spirits were really as you say or better they would have stopped the war long ago." Emma rectified as she appeared back on screen, with Jonah nodding as he saw and heard her from some distance. That made Aang to low his head again in shame, as she was right on that as well. "And sorry to contradict you on that Aang, but unfortunately they're not as you, your people and others believed. Once we knew about the Avatar's origins I realized another disturbing truth, an additional reason of why he came into existence. Spirits and humans are more similar than they believe, both in good…and bad, even when they don't realize that what they're doing is wrong. When spirits came into our world through the portals they did it in large numbers, becoming more and more. They not only forced humans to live isolated, but also altered nature and its living creatures by their mere presence, crossing them into impossible and unnatural fusions and hybrids. They were corrupting nature, and with everyone unaware of that fact, taking a world that was not theirs slowly. They don't belong to this world after all, they never belonged here. They knew humans had not a chance against them even with the power of the elements granted by their protectors and they took advantage of that. They became another infection, a supernatural plague for this world."

Now that was something they didn't saw coming. Nobody knew that Emma thought about spirits that way, not even her colleagues, leaving everyone in shock.

"That's why Titans are so aggressive and hostile with spirits: they know what they did here long ago, what they became and that don't belong here despite what some people believe. For them they're nothing more than invaders, usurpers. That's another reason why the Avatar's birth became so important and imperative. As the bridge of the two worlds Avatar Wan sent the spirits back to their homeworld, where they really belonged. If this never happened, surely the Titans would have risen in order to chase down the spirits, hunt them down. That would force them to return to their world and reversed the corruption on nature that they caused. Nobody has given it a second thought…until now. But even if the supernatural infection got eliminated a small part of it remained all this time a residual part of it: its chimeric undoing on most of animals, leaving a very small portion of fauna to remain as pure breed, as it should be with all of them while another infection has been spreading in its place and compromising the world's stability: ours."

"But that's why the Avatar is for too. As the master of all elements is his or her duty to bring balance to the world and maintain it. We all know that, and so do you." Katara defended, with some of the present ones there nodding at her words. "Everyone knows it."

"And what good has that been?" Emma interrupted her, not convinced by her words. "What's the difference? And where?" Katara had no idea of what she meant, but was afraid of that whatever it could be. "History has showed us clearly as it has been repeating itself all over and over again. Despite the reincarnating cycle of the Avatar and the efforts of each and every one of them that hasn't stopped evil people to keep appearing and trying to impose their wicked desires, intentions and goals upon the world, no matter what the Avatars did back then. They haven't made a difference in the world, and…they haven't achieved anything in the end. Just feeding an endless cycle of continuous conflict, tragedies and destruction through decades, centuries and millennia. How long peace and order have endured since an Avatar did one of its great, mighty and remarkable feats? Even with the pass of time they haven't secured worldwide order and peace, and that is not an achievement. What Fire Lord Sozin and his descendants did and the war they brought with themselves is the proof of that, with many people waiting for a single person to come and save them like magic while they stay and do nothing but watch everything crumbling down around and survive how they can."

Everyone inside the Argo became more speechless at hearing what Emma expressed, mostly the members of Team Avatar: it sounded like Emma had lost faith and hope in the Avatar, and for a while, or she didn't even considerate it a solution no more. And the worst of all was that…she wasn't wrong at all on what she said. Despite the role of the Avatar and its successors through all its lifetimes that didn't prevent horrible things to happen over and over again to innocent people and other living beings through times, no matter what they did or how hard they tried. But…that's why Aang's predecessors kept going on their duties as guardians of the world's order, right? : To make the difference, and they weren't alone on their mission (like Aang's case), some of them. Avatars never gave up on their task and keep fighting the noblest of fights and causes, because it was worthy, just like they went doing since the beginning of the new age: the Age of the Avatar. But that was not going to be enough to make Emma change her mind, as it looked like she got disappointed for some time and already made her choice for another path. Most of the young heroes lowered their heads feeling a mix of embarrassing, disappointment and remorse touch, Aang and Katara the most.

"This has nothing to do with you, Aang." Emma assured to the little airbender, noticing his reaction as she kept explaining herself and getting his and everyone else attention again. "But it's clear that such a task have been always being too much for one single person to handle on his or her own. History until now has proven that the Avatar is not enough for ensure the world's safeguard, it needs something more: something way bigger, strong, capable and complex. Something to help it to bring back true balance to the planet…and that's what I mean with my goal. Like all living organisms, the Earth unleashed a fever to fight this infection. Its original and rightful rulers, the Titans." Emma proclaimed before transmitting on screen videos that showed the female Muto when she woke up and her initial rampage, Godzilla rising from the ocean in the distant past, King Kong patrolling on his home, Skull Island after defeating the invading forces of the Fire Nation 25 years ago and the male Muto when he woke up on Ignus Janjira and broke free from his cocoon and containment site. "They are part of the Earth's natural defense system. A way to protect the planet, to maintain its balance, as it have been doing from millions of years ago. Very long before spirits and their world came into existence, and so ours and our kind."

Aang had to agree with Emma on part of that. Of course he didn't dare to say it, only in his mind. It was true that some Titans like Godzilla and Kong looked after the safety of most of living beings, including humans and somehow their presence ensured the natural balance of wherever they went and restore any kind of damage it was inflicted upon it. And these benevolent Titans didn't attack unless were provoked first. But there were also Titans that were more malevolent and only brought harm, death and destruction to both the environment and other living beings, like the Mutos, the Skullcrawlers, Shinomura, Muto Prime, the Kraken, the Ion Dragon…and recently Monster Zero. And the fact that most of the creatures that Aang and his friends met were of the ones classified as destroyers wasn't something pleasant and/or relieving. So if Emma's plan was to set them all free…that could end being catastrophic, just as Mark thought, and it could be too much for Godzilla to deal with.

"But if governments are allowed to contain them, destroy them, or use them for war, the human infection will only continue to spread. And within our lifetime, our planet will perish, and so will we." Emma warned seriously while the next image on screen was a sequence of pictures of the planet slowly deteriorating until becoming a toxic and dead world, one completely void of life. That was some horrible and sad image of a terrible outcome for the planet: the worst case scenario. Aang and his friends (minus Toph, because she couldn't see it. Good for her) got horrified of such supposed doomed version of their home, enough to cause them nightmares. "Unless we restore balance, the real one."

By seeing and hearing what Emma was referring to, both Aang and Madison realized what was what had her so worried about, something that the Avatar understood as he shared the same thing…almost. But still her methods were questionable.

"Aang, remember what we talked about back on Air Temple Island? When you told me that sometimes you felt pressed for being the Avatar?" Emma recalled from when Aang and Katara met her and Madison the first time, getting their attention. "Well, this will be also helpful for you. This is not another burden for you to hold on your shoulders, this is a gift, for you and your friends. You will not need to take such unfair responsibility anymore, and you'll be able to live a better life: a normal life, just like you desired." She assured in a comforting tone. "We've been selfish and arrogant believing and trusting the responsibility of the entire world to fall over a child when it should be ours, each and every one of us! Denying such fact is the tactic of a fool, as the original monks of Aang's people were." Emma expressed in a mad tone before calming down. Aang didn't know what to say about it, as he didn't expect Emma to think that would help him personally somehow.

"Okay, we all agree on that last part, Dr. Russell." Foster admitted.

"And what's gonna be left, if you do this?" Stanton asked back at Emma, not believing her words. "A dead, charred world, overrun by monsters?"

"No, Dr. Stanton, the exact opposite. Just like how a forest fire replenishes the soil, or how a volcano creates new land, we have seen signs that these creatures will do the same." Emma swore while on screen appeared more videos: first one of new plants growing in a forest at high speed after a wildfire extinguished, with the new generation proliferating, taking over where stood the ashes of their predecessors and returning it to its former glory, that followed next by another one showing a volcanic eruption near the sea where a lava flow reached the cliff over a beach peacefully, with steam emitted from the contact of molten rock and water. Next it appeared a video of the ruins of Ignus Janjira took by nature, just like how Team Avatar found it when they went there with Ursa to investigate the first time. "Ignus Janjira, Ba Sing Se, Si Wong Desert, wherever the Titans go, life follows, triggered by their radiation. They are the only thing that can reverse the destruction that we started. They are the only guarantee that life will carry on." Emma kept telling while on screen appeared two sequences of pictures: one of Ba Sing Se becoming more natural, full of trees and even an entire forest growing everywhere there and the other of the Misty Palm Oasis with the same thing, even with the forest expanding far into the desert: fertile and prosperous despite the place it stood, like following the same path the female Muto went when she woke up. That confirmed Katara and Aang's theory of why those places and others had become that exuberant and full of life as Emma returned back to the screen. "But for that to happen, we must set them free."

"You are murdering the world." Chen said referring to the four nations and humankind, pointing that all Titans freed and roaming all around the world could be a potential threat for the world as they know. Like how it was going to be with the Mutos when these intended to reproduce and overrun the world with their offspring.

"No. Because as difficult as this will be, I promise humanity will not go extinct." Emma insisted, still persevering the best she could. Trying to convince them that her intentions were noble, that her purpose was a good one and see things her way. For that she put on screen a new set of pictures: the ones that showed ancient and forgotten cave painting and stone murals of various Titans discovered by Monarch, like Godzilla, Mothra (the one from the Temple of the Moth), Monster Zero, some kind of giant flying reptile (pterosaur)…even the stone drawings of one of Kong's ancestors, from the natives of Skull Island. "Using the ORCA, we will return to a natural order. A forgotten order, where we coexisted in balance with the Titans. The first gods." With that showed Emma returned back to screen again. "That's why I created the ORCA. This is its true purpose."

"What if you're wrong? What if things don't go as you expect?" Aang asked next, making everyone to turn at him. "Nature goes its own way. It doesn't obey anyone or follows someone's desires. It has its own order, and we follow it, just like all living beings. Jonah and you don't know for sure if what you both want will result as you visualize it, or it will end in disaster. You should think it twice before doing something so risky and hasty like that, Emma."

"Aang's right. This is a dangerous path: you are meddling with forces beyond our comprehension. Gambling with the lives of billions!" Serizawa accused her mad, suspecting how far she could go with such plan.

"And what are you gambling with, Serizawa?" Emma replied annoyed, tired of seeing her colleagues contradicting her. It was obvious that she couldn't convince them, no matter how hard she tried. It was a waste of time. "Monarch is broken, the Avatar is not enough. The organization it's on the verge of being shut down by governments whose only objective is to eradicate the creatures. And if that happens, what will our chances be? And it's only a matter of time before more people follows the same path that made Fire Lord Sozin and his corrupted linage to lose it, and I'm not gonna let that happen! Not a chance!" She expressed angry.

"So all this is for that? Because of the grudge you hold to the Fire Nation?! For what happened on Ba Sing Se?!" Mark exclaimed shocked, and so others in the control room, mostly Team Avatar. Madison also got in disbelief at hearing what her father said, as she didn't hear or know anything like that about her mother. "Emma, I thought you had left all that behind, and what you're doing now is part because of that?!"

"No Mark, this has nothing to do with that." Emma defended, although her ex-husband was not convinced of that. "This is something much bigger than that or anything else related to that matter. I'm sorry, but this is the only way. It's something that must be done right now before it's too late, and it cannot wait."

"My gosh, you are out of your all freaking mind!" Mark shouted mad at her. "First, you put our daughter's life in danger and now you get to decide the fate of the world. That's rich, Emma!" He said really mad, unable to believe how far the woman that he loved once was willing to come, and what kind of person she had become. Madison, who could hear everything of the transmission felt uneasy and worried, as she didn't like to see and hear her parents arguing, and much because a delicate moral subject like that. "You're not different from Ozai and his predecessors on that matter!"

"Don't dare to compare me with those monsters!" Emma defended mad, as what he said was something that really hit a nerve on her. "I couldn't be more sane, and Madison couldn't be stronger. After we lost Andrew, I trained her to survive. And at least now, she will have a fighting chance, just like Aang and his friends." Emma argued back, feeding up the discussion, which was starting to become that typical of a mad couple.

"A fighting chance? Like Aang and his friends? Why don't you listen to yourself? It's not all math, Emma. Some things, you can't control."

"And there are some things that you can't run from."

At the end, both parents exploded by yelling at each other their hidden inner opinions, regarding their past actions and how those affected their family, which ended turning it apart and blaming each other for that sad result.

"This won't bring him back to us." Mark said sharply and hardly, feeling himself hurt by that accusation, and so was his ex-wife who looked away.

Both parents remained in silence, hurt by the accusation of their former mate of betraying the family. Aang and his group began to feel that atmosphere awkward and unpleasant, seeing that it was becoming something more personal, with Aang and Katara looking at each other worried, the same as Madison looking at her mother and hearing her father, trapped inside that uncomfortable, delicate and tough dilemma.

After thinking about her inner thoughts and clearing her mind Emma turned at the monitor again, thinking which last words to say to her ex and former companions. "I can only urge you all to take refuge." Emma said to everyone in the Argo serious again. "Over the last 60 years, Monarch has prepared bunkers around the world to save and restart civilization. I suggest you find them, because after today…a new age will begin. Better said, a past age will return, and with it…true balance to the world."

With that last declaration Emma ended the transmission, with the screens of the Argo's monitors showing Monarch's emblem and name again. Although Emma seemed to have spoken out her mind and have made her intentions clear she didn't look to feel relieved because of her face, which looked to be that of a hurt person emotionally, something that her daughter noticed. In fact, she looked to feel bad with herself, like she didn't wanted to turn at her former colleagues and friends that way, and if it was another way…a better way, but now it was too late. She chose her path and in the eyes of Monarch she was a traitor, a criminal and another villain. But…what if what her ex-husband said was true? What if what she intended to do was not different from what Fire Lord Sozin and his descendants desired to do? Then she could be making a big mistake. Emma could not avoid having that thought crossing her mind. No, she was not like them. What she planned to do would be beneficial for the entire planet: what must be done, regardless of the nations, their leaders and high-class crew realizing it or not. So she stood firm on her purpose, as the proverb said: the good justifies the means. Hoping that after everything was over she could find a way to fix things with everyone too: Mark, her colleagues of Monarch, even Team Avatar…if she could, something that would not be easy because of what she did and what will do. Back on the Argo everyone was so disappointed and mad by Emma's criteria and behavior, on what their partner and trusted comrade for some of them had become by turning her back on Monarch and joining Jonah and his repent people in search of some crazy quest. They trusted her so much for everything she had done for them and Monarch and suddenly she betrayed them on such way. She was nuts.

"That witch." Chen cursed, frustrated and furious on Emma's mad goal.

"How long until this thing lands?" Mark asked hardly still looking at screen, still hurt emotionally.

"Three minutes." Foster responded.

"You might want to rethink that." Stanton advised looking at his monitor.

"Why?" Foster asked as she went to check what he could have detected.

"Something's not right. Check this out." Stanton called as he found out something that appeared already on the monitor. The signal of Emma that they were tracking down and thought it was on the island disappeared and reappeared on different sites over and over again. It was some kind of interference or trick from Emma or Jonah's crew in order to confuse and hide their real whereabouts. "Emma's not at Isla de Mara. I mean, the signal's too weak to be local. She's bouncing it off our systems. They must be holed up in one of our old bunkers. She could be anywhere." Stanton deduced.

Meanwhile Aang and his group were gathered on some side of the ship, probably reflecting on Emma's words during the transmission.

"Guys, you're going to think this crazy or funny coming from me, but…I think I understand Emma's point of view." Aang expressed calm to his friends, as he empathized with Emma's mission a little.

"You mean you agree with her on freeing each and every one of the Titans and let them on the loose wherever they want while stomping on the people?" Sokka specified sarcastically, stunned at hearing his best friend saying such a thing.

"What?! No! I would never agree on such rashly and risky action." The Avatar defended. "But I would never let anyone to eliminate all the Titans either, that's wrong as well. So I understand her worries, what she fears. After all these years the war has indeed left the world scarred, very harmed. And some wounds may take years to heal and disappear, even decades. Besides, the fact of some places where the Titans crossed boiling with new life is true."

"Yeah. Emma's not wrong on that. Aang and I already checked that." Katara supported. "Those are the places where the Mutos and Godzilla passed through, and all of them are flourishing with life and nature."

"But that doesn't mean it would go the same with all Titans, like the Skullcrawlers." Suki pointed. "Those only went causing chaos wherever they passed and eating anything on their sight with no stop. That's breaking balance, not maintain or restoring it. She should have that in mind."

"Good point, Suki. But it's obvious that Emma's too obsessed on her quest to realize what she could do." Sokka reminded.

"She's not obsessed, she's desperate." Zuko clarified, making everyone to turn at him lightly confused.

"What do you mean, Zuko?" Toph asked.

"Remember how I acted when I was chasing you all around the world trying to capture Aang?" Zuko reminded them the time when they were far from being friends, with everyone nodding at him. "I was desperate to capture the Avatar and bring him to the Fire Nation, believing that would allow me to come back home and restore my honor. That my father would welcome me back like if nothing he did back then happened."

"Yeah, we try to not think about those times much." Sokka said.

"Well, we should. Those are not only memories, they're lessons." Aang pointed.

"Exactly. I think Emma is passing through some similar situation as mine, and that forced her to ally herself with Jonah and his people." Zuko explained. "After realizing the public opinion about both Monarch and the Titans and what most of the nations could be planning to do with them she felt that she had no choice but to handle things all by herself: taking destiny by her hands, do things her way in order to prevent the worst outcome to happen, even if that meant to abandon Monarch and her friends and join those eco-terrorists."

"I see. That's why she did it. It must have been a very hard decision for her." Katara understood. "But that doesn't mean she had to put innocent lives in danger, not talking about involving and dragging Madison into such complot." Zuko nodded at her later words.

"If that's what Emma planned to do, we could have helped her by the right way." Aang proposed.

"And which would have been the right way of her big plan of restoring real and natural balance to the world aside the Avatar's way?" Sokka asked not convinced.

"By figuring out which Titans are the ones."

Aang's answer left everyone confused with funny faces, but intrigued at the same time.

"Em…you lost me, Twinkle Toes." Toph said scratching her head. "And I know already that you say weird things time to time."

"What do you mean with that?" Suki asked.

"Don't you remember? All discovered Titans are classified by Monarch as protectors or destroyers. We were told that during the reunion with the leaders of the nations and the high-ranking members of the White Lotus." Aang explained.

"So Emma should have only focused on the ones known as protectors and discard the ones known to be destroyers." Katara finished, realizing her younger boyfriend meaning, with him nodding at her.

"And if such idea was not right or some of them ended causing trouble we would know it by Godzilla."

"Who is an alpha among Titans." Toph concluded. "Gotta admit it, Aang. When you think and propose things deciding by your heart and feelings, you make it right. Most of the time." The metalbender complimented. "Plus of being the Avatar."

"No, just of being yourself." Katara added smiling; making Aang to smile too blushed.

"Whatever the case one thing is still clear: we've to rescue Madison from Jonah and his mercenaries, and bring her back." Zuko declared, with everyone nodding.

Then a soft but constant alarm sounded all over the room, warning everyone who turned at the main control panel.

"What is that?" Mark asked, with him and the others going to check the control panel.

"Please, tell me that means that you found where those two are hiding out." Sokka pleaded, referring to Jonah and Emma's secret whereabouts.

But what Coleman saw on the screen got him shocked and horrified. "Oh, no! She shut down the containment system." He informed seeing on screen an image from above the closed crater of the volcano where the outpost was established, showing 'Isla de Mara. Outpost 56 - Offline.' in red, with the energy levels of the systems drooping.

"Just for curiosity…what kind of Titan did you found inside that volcano and have it contained there?" Sokka asked carefully, expecting not to be something like Monster Zero.

"Well, let's just say that…if this one was awakened back then during the days of the war, people would have considered it as the manifestation of the Air Nomads' fury, hate and resentment for the genocide and their ultimate instrument of vengeance." Coleman replied surprisingly. "And so the worst nightmare for the Fire Nation and the punishment for their vile actions, as besides of being a flying Titan this one looks to be born from fire, so the Fire Lord and his forces wouldn't have been able to do anything against it, being totally at its mercy as it's believed by some of us that this one could be capable of wipe them out easily."

"You had to ask, Captain Boomerang." Toph reproached before giving him a punch to Sokka on his shoulder.

"Auch! Yeah, I should have kept my mouth shut." Sokka regretted rubbing his arm.

"How much time do we have?" Serizawa asked.

As the Argo's crew tried to find an answer to Serizawa's question the Gaang became concerned for what Coleman said about the Titan in slumber inside the volcano of Isla de Mara, as it seemed to be another one like Monster Zero and what could it do if it was unleashed too. At the same time far away from there, inside the hidden bunker where Emma, Madison, Jonah and his forces were already established like in home everyone was prepared for their next move according to Emma's plan. Their computer experts were already hacked into the network of the island's outpost thanks to Emma's instructions, that's how they managed to shut down the containment system and let the door open for the next Titan to get free all by its own.

"Containment system bypassed. We're patched in." One of the informatics engineers reported to Jonah after checking everything on the monitor of his computer, with his boss nodding at him before turning at Emma. "Ready to broadcast the ORCA."

About Emma, she was still immersed on her thoughts, so she didn't look to have heard it.

"Doctor?" Jonah called, snapping her out and turning at him, releasing that it was now her turn to do her magic again. Her daughter saw this concerned and sighing sad, not able to believe her mother was going to do it again. She didn't want to believe it, which is why she got alarmed at seeing Emma walking slowly at the table where the Orca stood already online and prepared to be used by its creator.

"Mom, don't!" Madison protested walking at her.

"I'm sorry, did a child just tell you what to do?" Jonah replied, trying to get his partner focused on their task.

"Maybe Dad, Aang, Katara and the others are right. Maybe this isn't the way." Madison defended, trying to convince her mother to stop before doing something regrettable and becoming too late.

"By all means, Dr. Russell, let's reconsider our entire plan. Especially after telling your friends, the Avatar and his friends about it, who would have already marked us as the most wanted criminals in the world by now." Jonah contradicted almost sarcastically, maybe meaning that he didn't agree with her decision of telling her motives to her ex-husband, her former colleagues from Monarch and Team Avatar, considering it a mistake.

Emma stood now in middle of that moral dispute, just like the one she had recently with Monarch on her previous transmission, and she wasn't in the mood for passing through that again.

"Madison, we talked about this." Emma reminded her daughter in a serious tone, like if she was ordering her to shut up, remain calmed and trust in her.

"No, you said you were gonna help people, that you would let them find shelter-" Madison insisted, remembering what she said to Monarch during her speech.

"We don't have time for this!" Jonah shouted while hitting a table, starting to lose his patience and making Madison to stop her argument by interrupting before turning back to Emma. "Did you really think this was gonna be easy? Painless? Is that what you told her?"

"Leave her out of this." Emma complained.

"Why? You're the one who pulled her and her new special friends into it, although I don't recall taking members of Team Avatar with us in the first place." Jonah reminded her before turning at Madison while the engineers kept watching the monitors like nothing, like if they weren't there or heard not a word of the quarrel. "Madison, tell me, what exactly did Mommy sell you on? Some grand utopia? Something that your friend, the Avatar would agree on? Man and monster, living together in blissful harmony?"

Jonah's words make Madison realize that things may not be as how her mother told her, that she was merely masking them so her daughter wouldn't question them or know what would really happen instead and not seeing her as the bad one. Even the unpleasant though that perhaps her mother lied to her came into her mind. Then a small and short alarm sounded, coming from one of the computers.

"Sir, they're attempting to lock us out. It's now or never." The chief engineer warned.

"Emma, you came to me. This is your plan. We both want to finish what Avatar Aang started and help him save the planet, even if he and his friends doesn't see it that way, but everything is going to die if we don't see it through." Jonah pleaded to Emma, reminding her goal and desire, the reason why they became allies and partners despite their different ways to achieve results and fight for the same noble cause. "You said it yourself. It's just a matter of time before another tyrant rise and goes down the same path people like Chin the Conqueror, Fire Lord Sozin and his unworthy descendants went, and we cannot allow that to happen."

"Please, at least let them get to safety." Madison pleaded too, signaling with her sight at the monitor from above, which screen showed the inhabitants of the island in a hurry to evacuate because of the Titan threat alarm emitted by Monarch.

"Ma'am, our window's closing." The chief engineer warned again.

"Mom…please. For Aang. For his team. Give them a chance to solve all this right."

Madison kept pleading her mother to do things right, and maybe fix everything else somehow later. But then Emma remembered all the hard times she and her family passed through because of selfish, arrogant and oppressing people back home on Ba Sing Se, like Long Feng, the Dai Li and then the Fire Nation. That was one of the main reasons which pushed her into this mission: to prevent and stop more of that kind of people to have their way, no matter what they do or how far they go with their actions. She preferred everyone to be and live under mightier and worthier creatures like the Titans before anything like that to repeat again. And with the Orca now she had the means to make that a reality. That's why she created the device, and Jonah and his people were the only ones that swore to support her on such quest. They started it already, and then she was going to stop it? That sounded nonsense, mostly if she was not going to go all the way to the end and see the fruition of her efforts: the restoration of nature and the planet, healing the scars left by the Hundred Year War (or most of them at least) and bringing balance completely. That was her dream…and she was not going to allow anyone to get in her way to do things right, whether they liked it or not.

"I'm sorry, Madison. This is bigger than just you and me." Emma replied to her daughter newly convinced and motivated, showing that she made up her mind, continuing with her plan as she searched for the correct frequency of the next Titan on the Orca and shocking Madison with that answer.

"But…"

"It's decided, Madison. There's nothing else to talk about." Emma interrupted; speaking this time in a more serious, firm and angry tone and look, startling her daughter and making her to step back a little. "I've waited so long to finally make something. I've given lots of chances to people to see the wrong of their ways, to make things right and redeem themselves…only to be disappointed and betrayed. And not just me, but let many others down by them. And I'm tired of waiting, and of giving chances that nobody is going to take for you. Now…it will be my way."

Emma then turned at Jonah who nodded at her, as he shared her same opinion before looking at the Orca and activating the new frequency, which was showed on red. That left Madison more wordless of what her mother said and chose to do, dropping a tear from her eyes down her face as she felt disappointed with her, betrayed. She couldn't believe that her mother became that kind of person recently, the one she admired the most in world besides the Avatar and his friends, and then she chose going that path, no matter what would happened to countless innocent people. She was no longer a heroine on her daughter's eyes; she had turned into a different person, the opposite one that she once believed: a villain, on her own terms and actions.

Isla de Mara, island far north Fire Nation mainland. Monarch Outpost 56.

Meanwhile in Isla de Mara things were a complete mess. The entire town that stood near the volcano received the warning, with all its citizens gathering at the evacuation points already. The situation was too chaotic even for the G-Team members assigned there for helping and lead the evacuation off the island smoothly and effectively, like Barnes, Martinez and Griffin. The good thing was that most of the population was already leaving the island on the evacuation ships by sea and air, but there was still a huge crowd on land, with each and every one of them making their way among it to advance and be the next ones to get out of there before the Titan sleeping in the heart of the volcano wake up. And with more reason, because the supposed inactive volcano was already leaking smoke from its crater, even with this closed by some of the structure of the containment site.

"Tell them to slow it down. Tell them to stand back!" Barnes ordered to one of his troops about some of the civilians, as he was the one in charge of the whole operation there. "How are you handling things right there, General Iroh?" Barnes asked turning at his left, revealing that Zuko's uncle was also there alongside Mai and Ty Lee, with the three of them helping with the evacuation there as said place was nearby the Fire Nation, almost.

"Well, doing the best I can as this is something I've never done before in my life." The high-ranking member of the White Lotus said after guiding some people to some of the evacuation aircrafts. "And please, no need to call me that way. Former general as I prefer it."

"Okay, as you wish sir." Barnes acknowledged before turning at the girls, who stood at his right. "How is it going, ladies?"

"Everything alright for now!" Ty Lee responded while she and Mai guided another group of people to enter one of the evacuation Ospreys, with it already full and ready to take off. As its engines began spinning the two girls covered from the wind and dust generated by these until it was gone. "Well, there goes another one, but still a big crowd here to get out yet." Ty Lee said watching how many people remained in town to be extracted from the island.

"Yeah, and all because of the Titan that stays in slumber inside the island's volcano." Mai recalled looking at the volcano on the distance with her usual face, like if she wasn't worried about that fact, but she really was deep inside. "I can't believe there has been one of those things so close to our nation all this time." Mai expressed both surprised and stunned as she and Ty Lee took a little break.

"Me too. Makes me wonder where the other ones that Monarch knows could be." Ty Lee wondered intrigued.

"Sincerely I prefer dealing with Azula instead of with any of those beasts." Mai confessed surprisingly. "Don't tell anyone I said that."

"Nah it's okay. Actually I think alike." Ty Lee agreed. "In this kind of cases I prefer to immerse myself into my own matters and thoughts, like the dream I just had last night."

"No offense Ty, but I'm not interested on that by the moment." Mai declined respectfully, her way.

"Alright, then I won't tell you about it." Ty Lee answered peaceful, that simple.

"Fine."

"Alright, alright! I'll tell you anyway." Ty Lee replied excited, unable to contain the desire to share the details of the dream she had last night. "Well, I saw myself on the Southern Air Temple totally restored, just how it was back in the past on its former glory. Then I saw myself wearing an Air Nomad version of my own outfit. Ow, I was so astonishing on that. And not only that, Aang was also there with me. Gotta say we looked pretty good together, even if he was way younger than me. I mean the fact that he was a child and I a teenager, but I don't care of that. Aw, it was so beautiful, so lovely…so romantic." Ty Lee expressed charmed at such scene and blushing.

"Wait, what? You and Aang?" Mai repeated surprised, as she didn't expect to hear such declaration.

"Yeah, you heard right."

"So, you mean with that you have some secret crush on him?" Ty Lee nodded at her friend's question smiling. "I thought Sokka was the one you were interested as you told me time ago."

"Well, that's true in some sort of way. Yes, I thought that before, but then I realized that Aang is quite more interesting, funnier, pure, kind-hearted and cuter. Not talking about that he's the Avatar, so that's like a jackpot for any girl. It's a plus. I think we could make a good couple."

"Oh, is that so?"

"Maybe, but that last part not counts for me. Just the rest of his traits said first." Ty Lee assured.

"My, my, my. What an interesting revelation." Mai said smirking on a mischievous way, something that Ty Lee noticed and started to get nervous by noticing also what she did.

"But, but…as I said this is something that I keep for myself, so please promise me you won't say a word about this to Katara!" Ty Lee pleaded desperately as she bowed to Mai with her hands together in pleading posture. "She would kill me if she found it out, or worse! She would turn me into a living puppet with her dark waterbending technique!"

"Oh, I don't know. This is just too tempting that I don't know what I would do by knowing such interesting thing as this." Mai teased turning around and putting her hands behind her head. No doubt she was enjoying that a lot.

"Oh, come on Mai! Don't be like Azula! This is a secret I shared only with you. We're friends, and in this kind of situations friends-"

But Ty Lee's explanation got interrupted when a huge, loud and chilling squawk-like roar was heard all around the place, making her and others to shut up and everyone to stay still and turn back at the volcano, the place where the sound came from. Everyone stood quiet and worried as they not only saw the volcano emitting more volcanic smoke now, but also hearing the Orca's call broadcasted through the big sound tower of the containment site on top of the mountain.

"I've a bad feeling about this." Mai said, this time really worried.

"Yeah, me too." Ty Lee supported afraid too.

Then the structure that had the crater closed began to dent, getting hot and give in because of the great pressure of the gases, magma and heat from inside, meaning that somehow the volcano had become active, or something did it from its very heart, something that recently woke up. The pressure increased with each second until it ended the structure couldn't endure it anymore, with this disappearing into a big explosion of fire and smoke, consumed by this volcanic eruption. The explosion was so strong and unexpected that the people covered themselves from it while the eruption's shockwave reached even beyond the island's limits on sea where the departed ships were nearby some smaller isles, with these affected by it. Next more crackles and creaks-like sounds came from within the erupting crater, with melting lava constantly emerging from the deep caldera. The ones assigned to the outpost that survived the blast of the eruption hurried to get out both of the place and the merging molten rock, just when a hot red reptilian hand of three fingers with claws emerged within the lava and grabbed itself to the edge followed by another one, and then rose the head of their owner bathed in the lava, a Titan of Winged Fury. The Titan that emerged from the deeps of the volcano looked to be some giant pterosaur-like creature, and indeed it was: it was a real pterosaur, but not an ordinary one. This one had a large beak, two horns protruding from the back of his head, and huge wings with molten rock trailing off their edges while most of the wings were covered in cooled magma, which got fused with its scales. The sparks and lava falling from his wings seemed like a reminiscence of the image of a phoenix, but not in the good way. He could walk like any pterosaur by using these wings as front limbs and each of his forelimbs had two fingers and a thumb. Rows of spikes adorned his chest, and his tail was large, flat and fan-shaped. His body was a burgundy red color, while his serrated beak was black. It had no teeth, although it had some sharp teeth-like extensions on its beak that acted the same way and it had feet that were more like the talons of an eagle or a hawk, having a vestigial claw and a spike on his ankle. The way he sometimes stood on his legs greatly resembled the stance of modern birds. This giant bio-volcanic pterosaur Titan was 46.9 meters high and with a wingspan of 265.5 meters. It looks like this specimen was born after his parents nested on that volcano very long ago, with their offspring lying dormant in pyrostasis within its inside, that way becoming his home. By now he had to be extremely old. In ancient times of the forgotten past this one was known by many names, like the One Born of Fire or the King of the Skies, meaning that he ruled the skies of past times, just like pterosaurs did during the Mesozoic Era. After getting completely out of his lair of fire and magma the giant flying reptile checked on his surroundings while the volcano kept leaking lava out of the crater and some volcanic bombs were blasted into the air with force. Fortunately their impact route was out of the village but that was not what everyone was worried about, as the crowd got petrified by the figure of the winged Titan emerging from the erupting volcano. The pterosaur Titan extended his wings while roaring loud at the skies, signaling his awakening and returning to the world before putting his upper limbs back on the edge of the mountain and turning his sight into the crowd below and on the almost abandoned village, which ran away scared. All this was also witnessed by everyone inside the Argo, with the sky clouded lightly and the ash mushroom cloud rising upon the island as it got higher and higher in the sky.

"So, you guys got a catchy name for this one?" Sokka asked Chen, stunned after seeing the sight of the new flying fire Titan rising from the depths of the volcano.

"Local legends from ancient times call it Rodan, the Fire Demon." Chen said. "As the volcano where he slept within was considered as El Nido del Demonio, or literally translated as The Demon's Nest."

"Well, that's comforting." Mark responded as some sort of bad joke.

"As an expert of jokes that I am that's not what I would call a good one." Sokka complained, making Mark to look at him confused.

"But…what kind of animal is this Rodan?" Toph asked.

"I don't know. It's quite similar to some kind of bird, but the traits it has its more like those of a reptile." Suki explained the best she could focusing her sight on Rodan, the winged fire Titan.

"Maybe it's some type of flying reptile?" Katara proposed. "One different from dragons."

"It is. Rodan is what we call a pterosaur. A prehistoric flying reptile, more ancient that dragons, from the same era when dinosaurs lived and ruled the planet." Serizawa explained as he turned back at where the Titan still stood, roaring at the sky once again. "And this is the largest known of them all."

"Okay, I get the picture, more or less." Toph added, a little concerned.

"Guys? You remember that tropical storm where we lost Monster Zero? It's changing direction, and, uh, guess where it's headed now." Coleman warned looking at one of the main big screens, which showed the same tropical storm which shortly passed over the land territories of the Fire Nation and was currently going west, right toward the island.

"Wait, what?!" Sokka exclaimed alarmed, with things getting worse. "Why, universe?! Can't you give us a break?!" He complained looking at the ceiling, with the crew looking at him confused and then looking up too.

"Something that he says time to time." Suki clarified for the witnesses, with some of them nodding in acknowledgement.

"It's coming this way all of sudden?!" Zuko asked in disbelief, referring to the storm.

"How is that possible?" Katara asked next shocked.

"That's not possible. No storm moves that fast." Stanton protested.

"Unless it's not a storm." Chen proposed.

"You mean…that huge storm is Monster Zero's doing?" Suki translated in shock.

"She's right." Aang said, supporting Chen's deduction. "Back at the South Pole, when Monster Zero woke up the entire sky got stormy instantly: windy, full of black clouds and electricity, and those thunderbolts were yellow, just like the ones he fired from his mouths."

"Yeah, you're right. It's like if that Titan called upon the storm with just his mere presence." Katara deduced, agreeing on her younger mate's theory.

"So that means that our new dragon pal is capable of influence weather and get it altered all by himself. This is getting better by the moment." Toph said sarcastically as a complain, standing with crossed arms.

"Oh, man." Coleman said seeing the upgraded status on screen, showing a yellow ship-like figure with the name of Monster Zero inside the eye of the storm.

"We need time to finish the evacuation." Serizawa replied.

"Well, then you'd better hurry, 'cause it's closing in fast."

"But why coming at us that suddenly?" Zuko asked next, wondering what could have made the three-headed dragon Titan change direction on such moment, making things worse that were already.

"It's not us the one he's after. He's after that." Sokka corrected while pointing at Rodan, who was still on top of the erupting volcano as he realized what was really going on.

"You're right, Sokka." Mark agreed before turning at Serizawa. "Serizawa, it's not a coincidence that Monster Zero thing is headed here. It's reacting to Big Bird's cries. That means it's coming for food, a fight, or…something way worse."

"Indeed, mostly each of the two first options. And we could take advantage of that." Sokka proposed, earning their attention.

"What do you suggest?" Serizawa asked him, deducing that the leader of Team Avatar could have a plan in mind already.

"I say we do our best to take Rodan's attention. We could make it mad on purpose, and then we lure it far from the island, all the way right to Monster Zero, and then…let them fight, just like you would say."

"I agree on Sokka's idea. That's our best course of action for now." Foster supported.

"Alright. Let's do it." Serizawa affirmed, authorizing the operation.

Shortly after that the Argo deployed some fighter jets from its hidden main hangar from below and took formation, with these sent to attack Rodan, provoke him and enrages him enough to make him to take flight and follow them into the storm so he could face Monster Zero and leave both Titans to fight each other inside the hurricane, far from the island's town and its people. And flying among the planes was Appa, with Team Avatar riding on him. Why? Because the same as some previous Titans reacted at Aang's signature energy once they feel it nearby this could also get the attention of Rodan. So he only had to be close enough for the pterosaur Titan to notice his presence at least. Even if the young airbender insisted in going alone in order to not put his friends (and family) in danger they refused to let him go out all on his own on such dangerous task, as they were all on the same boat together: all for one and one for all.

"I don't get why you came here, Toph! You should have stayed on the Argo!" Katara argued with the blind earthbender.

"Because I felt like going with the flow, just like you would say, Sugar Queen!" Toph replied back at her before beginning to feel uneasy. "But…you're right on that."

"So how are we going to do this?" Zuko asked to Sokka.

"First we've to get near the volcano. Once we're close enough to Rodan that will be your call." Sokka instructed turning at his sister and Aang. "Use your best shot on waterbending. Try your best to get him really annoyed."

"How do we know that waterbending will affect it that much?" Suki questioned.

"Well, Rodan seems to be a fire Titan, one able to endure lava, flames and extreme heat temperatures. So it's logical to deduce that things like water, ice and extreme cold temperatures will be effective against it." Katara suggested. "Just like the opposed natures of water and fire. Once again it's a matter of elements."

"You said it, sis." Sokka added.

"Are you really sure this will work?" Aang asked still not sure about that plan.

"Totally sure, Aang. That flying reptilian firebird looks like something that can get easily irritated." Sokka assured pointing at Rodan, still on his spot.

"I hope you're right." The Avatar said, still a little doubtful.

"I really believe that." Toph supported nervous, ready for incoming turbulence. "Which is what worries me."

As they were the fastest, the fighter jets were the first ones to approach the volcano's top, with Rodan noticing their presence and seeing them coming, finding it strange and intriguing as he never saw anything like that flying that way, that fast and coming at him like nothing.

"All fighters, weapons free." The leader of the fighters' pilots commanded, giving them the order to attack.

One of the jets fired two missiles right straight to Rodan, who looked at the projectiles coming at him and impacting on his lower part. Even if Rodan didn't seem injured physically he really felt the explosion of the missiles as he roared in pain and annoyance. Then the pterosaur Titan spread his wings as a sign of intimidation for his attackers, but in this case it didn't work and received more missiles at his torso and neck, irritating him more and screeching at the fighters angry. Then the fire winged Titan stopped as it felt something else there, a big energy nearby that got his attention. Rodan looked at his surroundings for the energy he detected before looking at where the Gaang was riding on Appa and focused his sight on them, especially on Aang: the one from which the energy came within. That left the giant flying reptile confused as he tilt the head at his left, not expecting such big energy spike to come from a little human boy.

"He knows already!" Aang warned seeing Rodan looking at him and his gesture, deducing that he detected his energy, the one of the Avatar.

And so Aang and Katara used their new highly enhanced waterbending to call a large stream of water from the near ocean. That also got Rodan's attention, seeing the water lifting from the sea and gathering into a giant floating bubble, something that was not normal for the prehistoric flying reptile as he never saw anything like that before on his whole life. Then he got alarmed when he saw the water bubble coming fast at him as a stream again, forcing him to cover himself with his left wing from the splash hit. Now that was something that really hurt him although his wing didn't look injured, thanks to the extreme heat temperatures of his body and the erupting lava of the crater. After the splash evaporated Rodan roared furiously at the benders, knowing that it was them the ones who somehow threw that huge water stream at him before receiving more missiles from the fighters. Clearly those pests were looking for a fight with him. That was also noticed inside the Argo.

"Oh, I think we got his attention." Mark said.

"Everyone, strap in." Foster advised, making everybody to sit down. "All ships, follow our lead. You too, Team Avatar." She ordered through com-link.

"Copy that, Colonel." Sokka responded through com-link. Next he turned at his teammates. "Phase One complete. We move on to the next phase."

"Yeah, the hard one." Aang added worried while guided Appa to turn around and follow the Argo, as he intuited that was going to be the worst part.

The Argo put its engines at full power as it turned around fast and set course to the approaching storm where Monster Zero was, with all fighters, aircrafts and Team Avatar doing the same. Rodan saw that as another provocation snarling, like if they were challenging him to go after them if he had the guts to do it. To him. Rodan began spreading his wings and walking out the flaming crater as a sign that he accepted the challenge, with nobody aware that among the Titans there was no better flyer than him. Once he stood at the edge of the mountain Rodan took flight with a single flap of his wings and left the volcano while roaring. It was the first flight he took since forgotten times of the world, but…unlike the other flying creatures that one also was known of bringing destruction from the sky by the people of those past times. Unfortunately for Monarch, Aang and his friends Rodan began flying nearly over the island's surface, that way generating and unleashing devastating hurricane winds under the land where he flew over. These cyclonic drift streams generated by his wings could level entire cities instantly, literally ripping structures out of the ground and flinging debris into the air as the town was tragically going to feel upon itself. The worst thing of all was that there were still people on town; right on the destructive route of Rodan, and seeing him flying all over them and screeching loud made the citizens ran away as fast as they could, but it would be futile to escape the deadly incoming wind streams. But then the G-Team soldiers hurried to get each and every one of them into safety underground thanks to their earthbenders before they got flying away by the air. Well, everyone except Iroh, Mai and Ty Lee, who were hanging on some stone pillar enduring the wind the best they could for their lives.

"WOW! WHOA! Now I know what it feels like to be a flag in a windstorm!" Ty Lee yelled and joking, trying her best to avoid being swept away by the blowing wind and staying optimistic.

"If that thing was awakened when Ozai, his father or grandfather ruled back then, everyone in home would have seen it as the ultimate revenge of the Air Nomads upon the Fire Nation!" Mai shouted, speaking out her mind.

"Yeah! My brother would have stayed hidden under his bed!" Iroh added yelling in joke. "Hang on, girls!"

Rodan continued unleashing his destructive winds upon most of town before flying up. As for Team Avatar, they stood flying over the clouds, with everyone aware, nervous and searching for their new aerial pursuer.

"Where's Rodan?" Aang asked while looking on every direction, just like his friends.

"Anyone see it?" Zuko asked next.

"I don't see it anywhere." Katara answered looking down and seeing nothing.

"That's weird. How can you miss something that big in the sky?" Toph said in disbelief.

But then, for the surprise and horror of everyone Rodan appeared suddenly from behind and beneath the clouds, roaring at them from some distance.

Sokka couldn't help but scream while pointing at the giant pterosaur. "There he is!"

"Okay Appa, listen up." Aang started saying at his sky bison companion. "You must do your best flight ever. You have to fly like you've never done before, you got it? Give it all you got." Aang encouraged him. "Show what your kind is capable of, buddy! YEP YEP!"

Appa roared in agreement as he went full speed ahead down the clouds in order to keep some distance from their chaser and make it lose sight of them among the cloud mantle. Rodan seemed not to be in a hurry of chasing them, of catching them or worried of losing sight of the funny mammal animal with no wings (something he thought ridiculous) as he only followed them slowly between the clouds and keeping some distance between him and the group. In fact, he found them trying their best to get far from him…amusing, like if they could do such of thing. For the moment Rodan stood watching them from above with not much effort in his flight, just like an eagle or hawk. He seemed to be playing with his preys. Appa flew toward a fleet of big airships of the Fire Nation positioned in a defense perimeter (which reminded them of the fleet of Fire Lord Ozai during the Day of Sozin's Comet), ready to strike at the incoming aerial Titan. Big mistake. The fire blasts of the airships hit Rodan, but did nothing except annoy him and turning his attention on them. Then he went taking them down easily with his sharp talons, wings and sharp beak. And if that wasn't bad enough after Rodan turned around and flew right at the second and third waves of airships coming as reinforcements he fired from his mouth what looked like some fire breath, with this wasn't a beam just made of fire merely, but also of wind and heat. This strong breath composed by flames, air and extreme heat took down the fragile airships one by one, consumed by overwhelming gigantic flames in seconds and reduced to burned broken debris sinking in the ocean. The Avatar and his group could only see the fleet taken out of the sky one by one by Rodan as they flew away, seeing how strong that Titan was.

"Yeah, that wasn't a good plan!" Sokka lamented, seeing the entire fleet wiped out in no time.

"Emma really should have thought twice and deeply about her plan!" Suki recalled exclaiming. "This is the opposite of what she had in mind!"

"Another big mistake of hers! She should have done it the way Aang visualized it. His version was way better and wouldn't have led to anything like this!"

After finishing with the airships Rodan continued pursuing Team Avatar, but then he got hit again by more fireballs, these new ones coming from below. The responsible ones? A fleet of Fire Nation ships coming by sea that began firing at the giant reptile once they got sight of it (one large like the one Zhao gathered for the invasion force for the North Pole). That made Rodan growl mad and going into a tailspin, right over the ship that was in front. Next he grabbed the ship with his claws and lifted into the air before throwing at the closest ship, leaving both of them out of combat. Next the air Titan flew a few meters over the sea's surface, that way generating with his cyclonic winds and supersonic flight a series of enormous tidal waves that engulfed and took down most of the fleet.

"How are we going?!" Toph asked, who was not feeling well.

"Well, I don't wanna get into worrisome details but I'm starting to believe the universe prefers Titans over us." Sokka answered his way.

"And not very good. He's coming at us again and fast!" Katara warned alarmed seeing Rodan focusing on them again.

"We cannot keep going like this! At this rate he'll catch us in no time!" Zuko deduced. "Aang, you better have a better plan in mind soon!"

"I do! I'm going over that isle!" Aang replied setting course to a middle-sized isle in front of them.

"What?!" Everyone said shocked, with no clue of what could Aang planning, but it was obvious that there was no use trying to fly faster than Rodan. No matter how fast and good was Appa flying he seemed to be no match for that pterosaur's skills.

Rodan had enough playing around with spontaneous pests and got serious into chasing his main target and end it. With a couple of flaps of his wings he catched up near Appa's position in no time, approaching dangerously close to them.

"Aang?!" Katara called nervous, seeing Rodan getting closer and closer at them.

"Come on. Get a little closer, just a little more." Aang whispered, seeing that they were over the isle already and waiting for Rodan to get close enough."

"Aang, we're going to be a snack very soon!" Sokka exclaimed almost in panic, and more watching Rodan opening his jaws ready to chomp on them.

But that's what Aang wanted, the signal for his trap: he used quickly his enhanced earthbending to summon from below a couple of rock pillars that hit Rodan fast and hard on his neck and torso by surprise, making the airborne Titan to lose balance, passing over the group without control as Aang pulled Appa's ropes to make him stop in middle of the air and falling on solid ground with force. The young ones yelled happy seeing it on ground.

"Yeah! How do you like that, fire lizard bird?!" Sokka mocked happy. "Good one, Aang!"

"He'll recover in no time! Appa: up! Go up, buddy! Quickly!" Aang commanded, making the sky bison to fly up and high as fast as he could, deducing that Rodan would return to the chase in no time, and they still needed to gather with the Argo.

Aang's deduction was not wrong, because even if he was on the ground Rodan recovered immediately from the hit after shaking his head. He lifted his sight up and watched Team Avatar flying away, looking at them with a frowned face and snorting for being fooled by such trick, and one made by inferior and non-flying creatures, that was what infuriated him the most. First those humans dared to attack him on his home, especially with water. Next they challenge him to go after them and attack him with explosive fireballs and now this, falling into such a trap. For him that was humiliating…and he had enough. There was no way he was going to let that slide. Rodan roared furious at the team and fired his breath of fire, wind and heat at them.

"INCOMING!" Zuko shouted.

Aang used his airbending to push Appa and themselves farther and out of the way of the beam as fast as possible. It was a close call, but they managed to evade it in time, leaving with small burns on Appa's fur, but nothing serious, with Katara using her waterbending to extinguish the remaining flames and ashes and heal the burns.

"Yeah, I should have stayed in the Argo with Momo!" Toph lamented, feeling herself dizzier like she never got before.

"Appa, are you okay?!" Aang asked to his animal partner, with him growling in affirmation.

"Look! There's the Argo!" Suki spotted, pointing up ahead.

Then two of the fighters that accompanied the Argo approached them from right and left, what made Appa nervous.

"Don't worry, Appa. They're on our side." Aang said to his animal pal, calming him down.

"Raptor 25 to Team Avatar. Glad to see you back and okay." The pilot of one of the fighters said to each and every one of the young heroes by com-link. "We're going to escort you guys back with the Argo and the squadron."

"Thanks, pilot. Lead the way." Zuko replied.

"Yes, your Highness."

And so, escorted by the two fighters of Gold Squadron Appa was able to catch up with Monarch's flagship and the rest of the squadron and stood on their side.

"Kids, are you alright?" Stanton called by com-link. "We got worried about you after we lost sight of you and your bison."

"We're fine, Dr. Stanton. Rodan almost caught us, but we managed to put some distance between us and him." Sokka responded.

"Stay close to us, team. We'll have more chances to do this if we stick together." Foster advised.

"Don't tell us twice, Colonel."

Alongside the Argo and Gold Squadron, Team Avatar passed through the clouds up the sky, only to be followed by Rodan, who appeared from beneath the clouds once again roaring and continued pursuing them.

"He's back!" Suki yelled.

"Wow, he really is persistent!" Katara admitted, even if that wasn't good.

"Yeah, he's truly mad at us! I'm starting to regret this plan!" Sokka complained.

"Quite a time to realize that, Captain Boomerang!" Toph lectured before giving him a punch on his shoulder, making him yell in pain.

"Argo to Gold Squadron. Let's lure this turkey away from the mainland straight to Monster Zero." Stanton instructed to the fighters by com-link while checking everything on his monitor, showing the Argo with CC1 on it and in blue, the same for Team Avatar but as a blue circle with Aang's arrow on it, a red or orange ship or arrow-like figure with the name of Rodan following them, their position leaving the island and the one of Monster Zero inside the approaching storm over the ocean at the right side. "ETA two minutes!"

"Gold Squadron, engage on our six." Foster commanded next by radio, authorizing the squadron to attack Rodan keep him distracted as long as they could, looking at another screen showing at the center the Argo and the circle with arrow representing Team Avatar at its back surrounded by the fighters of Gold Squadron, all of them followed by the red arrow figure of Rodan or R1. Upfront of her it could be seen at the distance the huge hurricane of Monster Zero already, with yellow lightning flashing among the dark stormy clouds, giving it a sinister and unnatural look.

"Copy. Start the clock." The leader of the squadron acknowledged.

Multiple fighters of the squadron turned around in synchronized movement and formation, flying now directly at Rodan. Once they had him on the target sight the fighters opened fire at him, sending more missiles at the giant fire pterosaur. But this time lesser was done to him as Rodan saw them coming and already knew the magnitude of those weapons, enduring these better than before. Rodan growled at the fighters continuing flying at them, and once he had them in front he brought his wings together and propelled himself higher into the air fast with that strong thunderclap while screeching aloud, generating a sonic boom that took out the jets. Team Avatar witnessed that big and unexpected display of might in shock.

"You guys saw that?!" Sokka said in shock.

"How can something that big fly so fast?!" Suki asked in disbelief.

"Don't know, but I don't like how that sounds!" Toph expressed worried grabbed at whatever she could.

"Instead of the Fire Demon he should be called the King of the Skies." Aang said watching it flying all over themselves, with ashes, smoke and particles of lava leaking through the ends of his wings.

"Bogey. Nine o' clock high!" One of the pilots reported seeing Rodan descending fast at his left.

While descending nearly at supersonic speed Rodan passed very close to where the Gaang was, leaving them with no time to react. The wind current was too strong for Appa, who ended dragged down and fell from the sky spinning and out of control, taking the team with them screaming. Meanwhile Rodan caught two jets in his talons and tore them apart; one with his sharp beak and the other crushed on his talon. Next he threw away their remains and continued with his aerial hunt toward the hurricane, which now generated multiple tornadoes over the ocean, like some kind of waterspouts but stronger than the normal ones, making them more dangerous. Fortunately he was too focused on the Argo and the squadron and didn't notice Appa falling down behind him. Even if he touched the water with the tip of his wings Rodan didn't looked affected by it this time surprisingly, maybe because he was too focused on his new targets.

"Duster 223. Get out of there." Foster warned to one of the jet pilots by com-link, as Rodan chose him as his new prey and was approaching dangerously close at him from behind. "He's on your tail. Get out of there!"

One of the Ospreys of the squadron gave some cover fire at the jet shooting fire blasts through some gun to Rodan at his right, but the shots did nothing because they were too small for the Titan to feel them as he attempted to catch the jet with his beak. Seeing that he could not escape from the great flyer, the pilot decided to eject from his jet, but he ended shallowed by Rodan in one chomp. His signal turned red in the monitor of the Argo where all members of the squadron were registered, with more and more of them changing blue to red, meaning that they fell on battle, so things weren't looking good.

"Cobra's Raptor is off the team!" Stanton reported the next one that Rodan eliminated. "ETA to Monster Zero, 60 seconds!"

"Where's Team Avatar?!" Serizawa asked.

"They're way behind us. Actually they're the ones safer right now." Stanton answered checking their position way behind theirs thanks to the suits' signal.

Back with Aang and the others, they were still on Appa spinning, screaming and falling out of control, now with the girls flying away from their ride.

"NO!" Sokka yelled seeing his sister, Suki and Toph blasted off; trying to reach any of them with his hand but it was useless.

Aang then used airbending to stabilize his animal partner inside a floating air sphere and catch the girls inside a small but strong tornado, where they stood still swirling and spinning but at least they weren't into free fall anymore. He pulled the whirlwind closer and put the female trio back on ride while Appa dropped over the marine water slowly and in calm.

"Uff, thanks Aang. That was too close." Katara thanked giving him a hug and kiss on his forehead while Sokka hugged Suki affectively.

"Yeah, too close." Toph added trying to not throw up, putting her hand on mouth.

"Alright, he asked for it!" Aang said mad. "Appa, yep yep!"

Even if he felt a little tired Appa took flight again and set course to the Argo, meaning that they were going after Rodan too…again. As they hurried to catch up with them the group was able to spot in the distance the incoming hurricane, which was a scary sight for them to witness.

"It's that the storm where Monster Zero is hidden?" Katara asked, feeling nervous of such sight. "It doesn't looks like a normal one."

"You said it, sis. The one you rescued me from looked less…sinister compared to that up ahead." Sokka added.

"Yeah, it seems so…unnatural, mostly with all those incessant lightning and waterspouts, or tornadoes?" Aang wondered before turning up at where Rodan was, still following the Argo and the squadron, looking at him with a frowned face. "Zuko! Get the ropes! Take Appa over the Argo and then you anchor him to the upper part of it, Toph." The young Avatar instructed giving the ropes for guiding Appa to Zuko and his post.

"What do you intend to do?" The young Fire Lord asked back.

"I'll try my best on helping the squadron with our air pursuer." The airbender revealed.

"Aang, wait!" Katara exclaimed, but too late. Aang used airbending to propel himself up strongly before entering the Avatar State and surround himself into an air sphere, setting course toward…Rodan?

"Raptor 37. Bogey coming up on your six." One of the members of Gold Squadron warned at the designated one, who looked behind and saw Rodan approaching at his left dangerously fast, with the flyer looking at him with a frowned eye.

But suddenly a giant air projectile hit Rodan hard from below, catching him by surprise, losing balance and fall to the sea below, but he managed to recover in no time by spreading his wings fast and glide over the water surface before looking for the one who dared attack him that way. Then he looked up high and saw Aang in the Avatar State, with glowing tattoos in white like his eyes and inside the wind sphere looking at him back with a frowned face. That was enough for Rodan to realize that he was the one who tried to take him down as he roared at him and flew up, right toward the little but mighty human until they were almost face-to-beak. But before the flying reptile could try to chomp him Aang surprised Rodan again by summoning a gigantic marine water stream from below that came fast up and trapped his head inside it. Next he flew up higher and connected himself with the giant water mass by his hands through two giant and long water tentacles. It looked like he was trying to submit Rodan with waterbending by grabbing and keeping his beak closed and pressuring his neck. Rodan tried to set himself free from the fluid grip, but it became stronger and tougher than he thought, as if it wasn't enough struggling to keep breathing in mid-flight. That allowed Appa to fly higher and faster without worrying of being chased by Rodan, because now he couldn't, and his passengers got impressed by how and what their friend was doing.

"Wow, he makes it look easy to do." Suki expressed amazed by Aang's performance with Rodan.

"I don't know if that's too brave or too stupid. More even than when he did it with the Unagi." Sokka opined.

"Me neither, but if I'd to choose it would be the first one." Toph said.

"Me too, although it seems very risky for me." Katara added worried, hoping that Aang not risk himself much with that distraction.

Appa succeeded in catching up with the Argo and landed on top of it. Next Toph used her metalbending to glue Appa on the ship with some improvised clamps put on his feet and tail. As for Rodan, despite struggling with all his strength, with the water boiling by the high heat temperatures from his body and shaking his head fiercely he couldn't free himself from the grip that the Avatar had on his beak and neck with the huge water mass, replenishing with more water from the sea below. The rest of Gold Squadron approached to aid Aang, surrounding Rodan and by firing more missiles at his torso, what kept annoying him. But then he had enough. Time to show those pests what the top flyer was capable off and teach them to fly…for real. With a new tactic in mind Rodan prepared to get rid of the jets once and for all. Without prior notice Rodan suddenly began spinning through the air and fast, destroying the jets with his wings one by one. That also allowed him to drag Aang in his spin and after a couple of spins the Avatar lost grip and was thrown down into the sea with force. Fortunately he seemed to be unharmed, unlike the jets of Gold Squadron.

"I'm losing control here. I'm losing control!" The last member of Gold Squadron reported yelling by radio, unable to do anything for stabilizing her jet as she ended falling on the ocean in flames and with force.

"We lost the squadron! ETA to Monster Zero, 30 seconds!" Stanton reported with all members of Gold Squadron in red on the terminal, not glad of how ugly things were becoming.

With all of them eliminated at last Rodan focused on dealing with his last target: the Argo. But while he intended to fly up a giant geyser of water appeared in front of him suddenly with no time to dodge it, making him to crash with it, lose balance once again and fall to the water while Aang rose from the water with a water vortex and next he flew up fast blasting off like a rocket with fire rockets on fists and feet. That's how he did it to reach the top of the Argo, getting out the Avatar State before landing on Appa and reuniting with his group and family.

"Sorry I'm late." Aang said before hugging Katara while trying to catch his breath. "I tried my best but…"

"We know, but now we must focus on that. We're reaching there." Zuko interrupted pointing at the storm, as they were almost there.

"This ride is gonna be harder once we get inside, so we better brace ourselves." Sokka advised, with everyone holding tight on their place while Zuko and Aang swapped places, with the airbender child back over Appa's head.

"Don't worry, buddy. This is not like when we got inside that storm when we left home, this is different. This time we're safer over here."

"I wouldn't worry about that, but that!" Suki exclaimed pointing at Rodan, who was already back in the air and over them.

Rodan prepared to dive and catch the flagship, but this was fast enough to avoid the hit and leave him behind just when it reached the storm and got inside, evading countless yellow lightning among the black clouds on its way to the eye of the storm, the place where Monster Zero seemed to be. That was some scary sight for everyone inside the Argo, but even more for Team Avatar as they stood outside attached to the top while struggling with the rain and wind. Some of the lightning hit the ship, making the systems from inside to emit some sparks and explosions from the short-circuits provoked by such huge amount of electric energy besides of the whole place shaking by the turbulence. The group of young ones covered themselves from the strong hit of the thunderbolt. Aang and Zuko thought of preparing themselves for intercepting lightning and returning them back, that way protecting the ship. The problem was that they were moving very fast and inside the hurricane, so no one could anticipate from which way the bolts could come from as they were surrounded. And that was not the main problem at the moment, but Rodan who was still on their tail and approaching them really fast.

"We're not gonna make it!" Aang shouted alarmed seeing how close was Rodan.

"Of course we're gonna make it!" Sokka contradicted, trying to encourage everyone. "We're so close!"

That was also seeing inside the Argo's control room in monitors.

"Ten seconds!" Stanton warned exclaiming. They were almost there.

Seeing his target flying onward and in front of him Rodan prepared to grab the Argo with his sharp talons and end that chase with a single move, like claiming his trophy.

"He's going to catch us!" Katara shouted alarmed, seeing Rodan's claws approaching at them slowly, open and ready for the kill, making everyone to scream fearing the worst.

But then…the yellow ship figure of Monster Zero and its name or M0 appeared on the monitor right in front of both the Argo and Rodan. Outside meanwhile Rodan almost got the ship on his grasp, but then he backed off on the last moment and screeched in front of him at something else that he sensed: something that forced him to stop in middle of the stormy air before turning around and abandon the air chase. This was also noticed by Team Avatar who saw Rodan flying away.

"He's leaving!" Katara announced.

"Yeah, but why?!" Zuko asked confused.

Then Appa's growling took the attention of his master, seeing that he looked quite nervous and scared mostly, and it was not because of Rodan anymore. And when he looked ahead Aang got scared too seeing what stood in front. "For that!" He yelled in panic.

When everyone looked ahead they got petrified by the terrifying sight they had in front of themselves: hidden in the dark clouds and only revealed by the flashing glow of the lightning of the storm stood Monster Zero appearing from nowhere, looking more menacing than never, and when its figure was not showed by lightning while flying in the dark sky his sinister glowing red eyes was more than enough to make him noticeable in the darkness alongside his immense shadow. Everyone inside the Argo also spotted him appearing that way, leaving them wordless, shocked and scared of such live scene, like Chen and Coleman. The three-headed dragon Titan stopped in middle of the air and observed the Argo flying at him, with his overwhelming and imposing shadowy figure dwarfing Monarch's flagship, mostly by just spreading his wings. There's no need to tell he surely detected Aang's presence onboard the ship, but that was not his main priority on that moment.

"Dive! Dive!" Foster ordered, making the pilots to lead the ship in free fall.

This was also noticed by Team Avatar.

"Everybody hold on!" Aang warned shouting, with everyone bracing themselves for their lives and screaming as they went down like a hawk alongside the ship to the ocean.

Monster Zero ignored the Argo and kept flying forward to the one that truly got his attention and roaring at Rodan, clearly looking for a fight as his screeches sounded like a call for a challenge, one that he accepted. Rodan roared back at him flying at full speed with his talons ready for strike him with force. And that way the dragon and the pterosaur went on collision course toward each other, with the stormy atmosphere getting more tense for which one would hit first…and that was Monster Zero. Despite that Rodan was faster Monster Zero had the advantage of size and body mass on his side, which allowed him to counter the pterosaur's strike in time with his strong feet with claws, stopping him in mid-air and bite him by triple (with all his heads' jaws). All at the same time. As for the Argo, the ship continued its dive through the cyclone at full speed until the sea was spotted below. Then it slowed down and turned up to lift into the air before hitting the water surface just in time. That's when the Gaang stopped screaming once they noticed this as well.

"We made it!" Aang exclaimed cheered up and then relieved, seeing that they were okay. But then some roars coming from above took everyone's attention except Toph, who wasn't feeling very well.

"Something really bad and huge is happening up there." Suki deduced watching shocked what could only be the shadows of Monster Zero and Rodan rumbling inside the storm flashed by the lightning.

"You got it out of my mouth, Suki." Sokka agreed, as stunned as she and the others were.

Just as the team suspected over their heads was an air combat like nobody from their world had never seen. Despite hitting first and hard on his new opponent things didn't looked well for Monster Zero. Maybe he was bigger than Rodan, but there was no doubt that the pterosaur was faster and agile in the air than him and managed to land on his new opponent in mid-air and began scratching and bite him with his beak, his sharp feet and sharp clawed hands of his wings, besides of the burning touch of his sharp limbs, that way forcing the dragon to hold him back with his feet while trying to shake him off his torso with his jaws in front and spiked tails from behind, without stop flapping for staying in the air, and that wasn't easy. Rodan tried to bite the neck of the right head of Monster Zero, but the middle head grabbed his right wing and pushed it back swiftly, forcing the pterosaur to let go of him, but only for a few seconds as he stood gliding face-to-face and landing on the dragon's torso immediately and with force, pushing him down a few meters. Monster Zero tried to hit Rodan again with his twin tails, but he dodged them with ease. Next the electric Titan tried to grab him with these, but the fire Titan was well hooked on his torso with his clawed hands and endured good. Fortunately Monster Zero was capable of shake Rodan off with a strong kick of his feet, but then the pterosaur fired his fire breath at the dragon. That took him by surprise, hitting on his torso, necks and heads. After the beam expired Monster Zero did his best to shake himself of the flames and burns, but that left he exposed to another strike of Rodan, who took some distance and then dove at high speed like a hawk in collision course toward the dragon. The impact of the hit was strong enough to send Monster Zero down a few meters with force as he fell out of control until he stabilized himself in the air, but next Rodan took chance for hooking on his back and bite the neck of his center head with his beak. Monster Zero tried to grab him with his other two heads but Rodan had these grabbed firmly with his hands with claws. The battle between the two flying reptiles was also recorded and observed inside the Argo.

"By the spirits, they're killing each other." Stanton said watching the aerial fight recorded by the cameras of the ship.

"Mayday, mayday! This is Raptor One to Argo. Argo, do you read?" The voice of Barnes called by com-link, with Foster noticing her subordinate's call instantly on monito besides his image.

"Copy, Raptor One. What's your status?" Foster responded.

"We're very bad, that's what. And we got kids on board." Barnes reported, as his transport, on which were Martinez, Griffin, Iroh, Mai and Ty Lee on board too was the last one to leave Isla de Mara (which volcano was still in eruption) and was carrying all the civilians that they protected from Rodan's devastating flight. However, one of the Osprey's engines was damaged, leaking flames and smoke and almost losing functionality, so nobody knew how much longer they could stay in the air, and they were losing height already. Not talking that they were inside the tropical storm too, so things could get worse. "We're gonna need immediate mid-air retrieval."

"Lock on to their position, and prepare the hangar for an emergency landing." Foster commanded to the pilots.

However, there was another problem as Stanton saw on his monitor.

"Hangar doors are unresponsive." Stanton reported, seeing on his monitor that the structure of the doors marked in red and the big letters 'Warning: Hangar Doors Non-responsive.' Maybe some damage caused by the lightning that struck on the Argo when they entered in the storm.

"Manual override?" Foster proposed.

"They're stuck!" Stanton responded in frustration, meaning that they couldn't open the doors that way neither.

Mark sighed in frustration and got up from his seat. "All right, which way to the hangar?" He asked.

"I can show you." Coleman replied getting up too, offering himself to take Mark to the hangar.

"Anybody else?"

"I know the way." Coleman insisted. "Come on."

And both of them hurried up in reaching the hangar as fast as they could.

"Hope you got a big wrench in case Beifong is not available to open them instead." Stanton commented, even if they couldn't hear him.

"Where's Team Avatar?" Foster asked next.

"They're on top of the ship, and surely they'll get inside in no time." Stanton said checking on their current position thanks to the signals of their new suits.

Talking about Toph and the rest of the team she was currently using metalbending to free Appa from the metal clamps and opening an entrance to the ship's insides. Casually the room she opened from above was the rest room for Appa and Momo, with the lemur already nervous for all the shaking caused by the turbulence and the thunder, startling more at hearing the sound of metal tearing apart from above and ran to hide behind some boxes, but then he saw Appa landing with all his passengers and then everyone getting off him, calming down the flying lemur by seeing his friends and herd back. The sky bison was exhausted after all that hard flying and struggling against Rodan and the typhoon, so he simply sat down right on where he landed after the young humans got off.

"You were amazing out there, buddy. You did great." Aang congratulated caressing his big animal companion. "You deserve a good rest."

But not everyone celebrated being back inside the Argo as most of them tried to catch their breath after such chase, and Toph was way too dizzy and ran toward the same boxes near where Momo was as she couldn't endure it anymore and the poor girl began vomiting on one of those.

"I'm…not…going to…do that…ever again." Toph hardly spoke before throwing up again. Momo hopped on her and pat her gently, it seemed that the lemur knew she wasn't feeling well and tried his best to comfort her. "Thanks Momo."

"Hey guys, are you there?" Stanton asked to each and every one of them by com-link. "I hope you guys are still fine and fresh because maybe you could give us a hand."

"What is it, Dr. Stanton?" Katara replied.

"Barnes and his team have a group of evacuated civilians flying toward us but the doors of the hangar cannot open. We need to get them opened so their Osprey can enter and swiftly." Stanton instructed.

"We'll see what we can do." Zuko answered.

"You guys go ahead. I'll catch…catch up with you later." Toph said softly, still recovering from her dizziness.

"Okay. Momo, stay with her until she gets better." Aang said to Momo, who growled softly at him in affirmation and kept caressing Toph gently on the back while the Avatar and the others went to the hangar as fast as they could.

The Osprey where Barnes and the others were was getting closer to the sea surface, although it had the Argo on its sight already. On their way to the hangar Mark and Coleman got almost stopped by sparks and little explosions coming from everywhere besides some shaking, the same for Team Avatar but both groups tried to maintain their balance and keep moving. It looked like the hangar's doors weren't the only thing that the thunderbolt damaged when it struck the ship. The sound of an emergency alarm and a red lightbulb was sign enough that things weren't going well for some sectors of the vessel. Coleman and Mark reached the hangar shortly, only to confirm what Stanton detected on the ship' systems: the doors from below looked to be closed but at the same time moved slightly by the shaking and the wind from outside, and there was people on levels from up and down trying to figure out the problem and a way to unlock the doors' system. Near the entrance the two men found another one checking on the system of said doors. Probably an engineer.

"What's the problem?" Coleman asked the engineer.

"Hydraulics systems are jammed! I'm trying to jump-start power. It's not looking good." The engineer reported.

"Yeah, definitely we're going to need the kids here." Coleman deduced.

As for the battle between Monster Zero and Rodan they were closer than what everyone believed, and the first one finally had the upper hand. He restrained Rodan's wings by grabbing them with his right and left mouths and pulling them aside with force, making the pterosaur to groan in pain. With his opponent incapable of doing nothing next the dragon fired a gravity beam from his central head that blasted Rodan into the ocean. Rodan roared while falling into the water in defeat. Despite he was the top flyer among Titans Rodan was no match for Monster Zero. Meanwhile inside the Argo...

"It's Admiral Stenz." Stanton reported after hearing some telephone ring-like sound, which meant some incoming transmission and turned at the big screen of his left, which showed the admiral from some military base.

"Admiral." Serizawa said walking at the screen.

"Dr. Serizawa, Colonel Foster. I need you, your forces and Team Avatar to immediately disengage and withdraw to a safe distance." Stenz advised.

"Admiral, I don't understand." Foster replied.

"We have been developing a prototype for a new weapon. An oxygen destroyer. Designed to exterminate all life forms within a two-mile radius." As Stenz said this on a monitor it could be seen the schematics of this Oxygen Destroyer: it was a heavy device composed of a metal capsule with a glass central chamber. Within this chamber was a second capsule attached by rods at either end. Contained within the capsule was a large amount of the weapon's payload. Numerous gauges and pressure meters were present on the larger capsule. The chemical weapon was attached to a missile, inside of it. "With any luck, it will kill these things and this nightmare will finally be over." He declared, revealing that this new superweapon was attempted to be used against Monster Zero and Rodan.

"Admiral, we must keep our faith in Gojira." Serizawa pleaded, knowing that such action would only get things worst.

"I'm sorry, Doctor. You had your chance. The missile is already on its way."

"With all due respect, Admiral. You know as well as us that when Team Avatar realize this they'll get really mad, especially the Avatar and the Fire Lord." Stanton warned.

"These are waters near Fire Nation territories, Admiral. You need Fire Lord Zuko's permission for an action of that magnitude." Foster added reminding that such operating couldn't be done without Zuko's approval. "And he hasn't been informed of such decision in time, just like us."

"I'm aware of that, and the consequences of such reckless action." Stenz affirmed. "I tried my best to prevent the launch, but it was done anyway despite my advice. May the spirits have mercy on us all."

And that was the end of the transmission. Then the ship' scanners detected the missile that contained the Oxygen Destroyer and showed it on screen of the main control panel, with it far away but already on collision course toward Monster Zero's position (marked as Unit-075, Specimen: Monster Zero) as some red spot slowly approaching their position.

"He's not lying. It's coming in hot." Foster noticed.

That left Serizawa worried of whatever outcome that could happen once the weapon exploded, knowing that would make Aang and his friends worried as well once they hear it out. And they still had to find a way to open the hangar doors and get the Osprey inside, which kept struggling to maintain itself in the air.

"Argo, you gotta get those bay doors open now! Have the crash and fire crews ready." Griffin hurried by com-link.

In that moment Team Avatar reached the hangar, finding Mark and Coleman there.

"Guys, thank goodness you're here." Coleman expressed, seeing the Gaang there. "We gotta get those doors open and hurry or Barnes, his team and the people they rescued will not be able to get in here. And they're running out of time." He said pointing at the jammed doors.

"Understood." Sokka replied before taking a good look at the problem. "Hum, I think we can get those doors opened if we hit them with something with enough weight or with great force. That should unlock them." He proposed before turning at Aang. "Maybe your enhanced airbending can do the trick."

"Maybe, but I think something more solid and tough would be more effective." Aang deduced before sighing in frustration. "I knew I should have learned metalbending."

"Leave it to next class, Twinkle Toes." Toph's voice answered, making everyone to turn back and see her behind them. She managed to recover faster than expected and catch up with them quickly.

With metalbending Toph opened the jammed doors in no time, something that was spotted by Barnes and the others inside the Osprey.

"What was that?" Barnes asked a little confused.

"I think Beifong had something to do with it." Mai deduced smiling.

"There's our entrance!"

"Hold on!" Griffin warned before setting course to the hangar full speed ahead.

As for everyone in the hangar…

"Toph, try to grab the vessel and pull it toward here carefully!" Katara requested, with the little earthbender already in position.

"You people down there better make way while you can!" Toph advised.

Then the Osprey began ascending faster and easier than before, with its passengers feeling like some force took hold of it and pulled it into the hangar, making Griffin to lose grip of the controls and breathe in calm. Even if it looked like a hard task for a metalbender, especially a young one Toph did it without even sweating or struggling. Another of the special traits that the new special suits: better and easier control than any other benders. Once it got inside the hangar Toph landed the vessel in the floor carefully. Seeing themselves inside the Argo already Griffin turned off all engines and auxiliary systems before sighing in relief.

"That's what I'm talking about, Griff!" Barnes said congratulation his subordinate and pilot patting her on her shoulder before turning at the rest. "Everybody okay?"

Mark, Coleman and Team Avatar went down stairs to check on the newcomers while the hangar's staff guided all passengers to the emergency room.

"It's everyone alright?" Zuko asked to Barnes after getting out the aircraft.

"Affirmative. Thanks to the lift! We own you a big one, Beifong."

"You can start thinking a good way to return it to me after this." Toph answered.

Next the group spotted a familiar trio getting out alongside Martinez and Griffin.

"Uncle?!" Zuko said surprised, with him and the others gathering with him, Mai and Ty Lee. "Mai?! Ty Lee?! Where do you come from?"

"From the island. We're helping getting the people out of there when that flying fire lizard bird crawled out of the volcano and took flight." Mai told.

"Are you guys okay?"

"Well, all the best we can be, nephew." Iroh replied calmed.

"And…the town?" Katara asked.

"You don't wanna know it." Ty Lee answered a little affected. "We barely got out of there alive with that hurricane that creature created with its wings."

Then a familiar cackling roar alerted everyone.

"Now what?!" Mai asked, both surprised and shocked.

"There!" Suki pointed to the window of in front, with her and everyone seeing Monster Zero flying down nearby the sea surface and then right toward them. "Monster Zero, coming for us!"

"It's that…a dragon?!" Iroh said stunned.

"And it has…three heads?" Ty Lee added scared.

"Yes, and not a good one!" Sokka summarized. "It seems he hadn't enough with Rodan!"

"I think we're invited for dinner." Katara ended seeing him approaching them and with not friendly looks.

"Go! Go!" Barnes commanded the civilians to keep moving and leave the room, but they stood petrified by seeing Monster Zero coming at them fast.

"Oh, my!" Mark expressed nervous of their new giant problem.

"Now what we're gonna do?!" Toph asked concerned.

"Guess we'll have to repel him the best we can." Zuko suggested, getting in battling position. Aang, Katara and Toph followed his gesture, even if they didn't have many hopes in repelling the massive dragon without him getting some serious damage on the ship.

It was obvious that Monster Zero knew that Aang was inside the Argo besides the other humans, but surely even if he wasn't there that wouldn't change any motives for the Titan to be the one now after the ship knowing what he did to simple foot soldiers back in the South Pole. The four benders prepared for their first strike as the dragon came closer and closer, but then…just when it looked like he was going to get them he was caught off-guard when Godzilla appeared at his left from the water by surprise and dragged him into the water. Once everyone knew what happened they cheered for their savior.

"Now that's what I call good timing, pal!" Sokka cheered for Godzilla entrance at the last moment.

"Go get him, Big Guy!" Toph cheered up for Godzilla too.

"Give him one for the Water Tribe!" Katata added.

And the tables turned. Being underwater was something that Monster Zero was incapable of as he didn't know how to swim or his own morphology did not allow it, especially with his large wings so he was defenseless on such environment. Now the giant three-headed dragon seemed to be in panic, wanting to get back in the air and far away from the water as fast as it could. He tried to get out of the water as fast as he could, but Godzilla prevented him to do it continuously dragging him under the surface, knowing that his rival had no chance to fight back there: those were his domains. The underwater battleground also flashed in yellow with the intense electricity of Monster Zero, showing the shadow figures of both Titans underwater while in the stormy sky curiously the lightning disappeared mysteriously. It was like once Monster Zero got inside the water the thunderbolts followed him in there but had no effect inside the marine water, only losing strength. In fact it seemed like the storm was losing strength too. An example of this is that the rain fell with not much intensity as before shortly. Why? Because lightning die once they contact the sea, so this was the same. Once inside the sea the bio-electric nature of Monster Zero was useless, meaning that he had no power there too. And Godzilla knew that, it was all part of his strategy.

"He cannot fight well underwater, and he looks desperate to get out of there." Suki realized by seeing Monster Zero attempting to get out of the water instead of fighting Godzilla.

"No doubt of it. He can't swim with large wings like those." Toph supported. "The stormy dragon is in real trouble now."

"And that's good, right?" Ty Lee asked.

"Yes. It means Godzilla now has the upper hand." Zuko confirmed. "He can win this battle."

"Of course he will." Aang expressed fully convinced, trusting on the capabilities of his Titan friend.

The battle underwater raged on, and it looked like Monster Zero got totally overwhelmed by Godzilla's amphibian abilities. Despite the bigger size of his opponent and how much he tried to shake him off there was no doubt that fight was on Godzilla's favor. Meanwhile Team Avatar returned to the control room alongside Coleman, Mark, Iroh, Mai and Ty Lee as everybody else there also saw the new titanic battle in the waters. Suddenly one of the heads of Monster Zero emerged from the water in middle of the ship's trajectory trying to breath, and also taking the chance to grab the Argo in his jaws. But before it could happen he was dragged down into the water again by Godzilla, who kept restraining him under the surface.

"We're getting out of here. The military launched a weapon." Stanton communicated to everyone holding on tight to what they had at hand closer to them.

"Well, that's not the worst idea." Mark admitted as he wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

"Wait, you said they did what?" Suki replied surprised, and not in the good way.

"Don't tell me they're gonna send another nuclear bomb of theirs." Sokka added in disbelief. "Are they crazy?! That plan didn't work the first time and I barely believe that weapon could do anything serious to Monster Zero."

"It's not a nuke this time, but a new kind of superweapon." Stanton rectified.

"What?!" most of Team Avatar said shocked.

"They call it Oxygen Destroyer. Its designed to exterminate every lifeform on the place it explodes. It's gonna kill 'em both, so we've to get out of here and fast."

Team Avatar got deeply shocked at this new unexpected information.

"But...that means…" Aang hardly said, starting to fear the worst coming for his dinosaur friend.

As for the Titans, Monster Zero tried once again to take flight but he was pulled down into the water again by Godzilla. Next the amphibian dinosaur grabbed the neck of the dragon's left head with his hands firmly before biting him with force and continuing disorienting him by pulling him into more spins, similar to a crocodile with its prey with the death roll. As for the humans inside the Argo, Monarch's crew continued setting course as far and fast as they could from ground zero, but Team Avatar was at disagree with them regarding the new incoming situation and threat for Godzilla.

"With all due respect, colonel, we can't allow that and you all here know it." Sokka protested. "That new weapon, the Oxygen Destroyer will only make things worse."

"Godzilla has Monster Zero in his grasp. You all saw it: he's defenseless underwater, so now he can be defeated. But only if we give it a chance." Zuko insisted too.

"That's why we must turn around and intercept that missile." Suki pleaded pointing at the missile signaled on the main control panel, which was getting closer to where the Titans were fighting, now showing that too the position of Godzilla as 'Specimen: Titanus Gojira'. "If we hurry and get close enough Toph could stop the missile and turn it off safely before it detonates."

"I understand that you wanna do what's best and ensure no harm comes to the wrong creature, but that action is too risky, even for someone like Beifong." Foster defended.

"I know, but still I would give it a try if with that I avoid a real disaster." Toph insisted, trusting on her new upgraded metalbending skills.

"Maybe, but still we must maintain the safety of the rescued civilians and everyone else of this ship. It's my responsibility as its commanding officer." Foster explained.

"Besides we wouldn't reach it in time. The missile is almost there, so there's no way to avoid it." Stanton added monitoring the weapon's advance. "I'm sorry."

"No! There must be some way to stop it!" Aang begged, starting to sound desperate for doing something to avoid Godzilla being exposed to the Oxygen Destroyer. "If I must, I'll do it myself! I'll stop it!" And he hurried toward the exit, but Katara and Sokka grabbed him, holding him tight in order to stop him for doing such craziness.

"Aang, don't! That's too dangerous!" Katara said, not wanting him to get near to such devastating weapon.

"One thing is facing some flying Titan like Rodan and other is getting near a weapon like that about to explode! Be reasonable, pal!" Sokka added, supporting his sister.

"No! Let me go! That's going to kill him!" The Avatar pleaded trying get free from the grip of his friends. "I can't let Godzilla die! We...we can't lose him again." He begged looking at them with a sad face, like if he was going to cry.

Even if they couldn't allow him to go Katara, Sokka and the others of the team also shared deep inside the same opinion as Aang, as well being worried sick for their dinosaur Titan outcome. But now they couldn't do anything about it. The only thing Katara could do was making her grip on Aang more like a hug in order to calm him down the best she could. Sokka realized this and loosened his grip on his best friend. That scene got witnessed by Monarch's crew too, who got touched by how much the Avatar cared for Godzilla, especially Mark as he didn't expect it, and they couldn't avoid feel sad for him, and so for Godzilla.

"It's almost there." Stanton reported the approach of the Oxygen Destroyer to the location of the Titans. "Ten...nine...eight...seven…"

Everyone except Team Avatar gathered around the main control panel watching the superweapon getting more and more closer to its target, which seemed to be inside a smaller and weakened version of the storm that the scanners detected previously. Back with Godzilla, all the spinning moves he made on Monster Zero had his rival very tired, making him more vulnerable to anything that the amphibian reptile could do next. Still biting on the neck of the left head Godzilla made tougher his grip on it with his jaws and claws and then he pulled strongly from it until he managed to tear it off. Godzilla emerged from the water with the head torn off still on his mouth before diving again. That was one head down, two more to go. Godzilla continuing oppressing Monster Zero underwater with the dragon unable to do anything to defend himself or get out of that hopeless situation, with both of them unaware that the missile containing the Oxygen Destroyer was already there, coming from above among the stormy clouds in collision course at the sea.

"Three...two…" Stanton kept saying the countdown for the explosion of the Oxygen Destroyer, nervous for that moment.

"NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOO!" Aang shouted in sadness and fear, unable to do anything but watching the inevitable outcome.

And it happened. Once the warhead got into the water and dove where the Titans struggled below it covered both of them within with the mighty explosion as they disappeared into an eerie green glow. Following the blinding glowing light of the explosion from the depths emerged a powerful mushroom-like cloud of water and vapor combined with the substance of the Oxygen Destroyer of the same color that reached the storm over it. It also generated powerful tsunamis that hit both the coasts of Isla de Mara and the isles near it, which devastated what remained of the village even if it was already been consumed by the lava flows emanated from the volcano, that way destroying the remaining ruins. Then the explosion expired with another big flash of light while its shockwave hit the Argo, forcing everyone to brace themselves and endure the tremors as all systems recovered from it. Once it finished there was only an intriguing and uncomfortable silence. Team Avatar went slowly toward the main window to look at where Godzilla and Monster Zero supposed to be, only to watch in horror lots of dead fishes floating in the surface of the water. Next they saw how the surface of the entire area of the ocean that got inside the reach of the chemical weapon and its powerful explosion began to churn covered in countless and incessant giant bubbles coming from below, caused by a successive violent chemical reaction. This made the group of young heroes more horrified once they saw the fishes reduced to skeletons in seconds, and then to nothing, becoming completely disintegrated. The corrosive chemical reaction continued for a while before expiring and the surface of the sea returned back to normal, with nothing at sight as it seemed that the chemical weapon have dissolved all bodies. That was the terrifying power of the Oxygen Destroyer.

"It's...its horrible." Katara hardly said shocked by what she just witnessed, covering her mouth with her hands.

"And I though those nuke things were terrible as superweapons, but this...is way worst." Toph expressed, wishing she was totally blind and not have seen that. "How could they?"

"And yet...they did it." Sokka lamented softly. "It shows how terrifying the power that humans hold can be sometimes."

But then something huge emerged from the water roaring, and for the surprise and shock of everyone it was Monster Zero, of course with one of his heads torn off. With that wound and loss apart the dragon Titan looked completely intact as he ascended in the air flying up back to the storm without difficult now that he was not of the water. And with him back in the sky the yellow lightning returned into the clouds, and the storm recovering strength. Seeing that Monster Zero survived the blast of the Oxygen Destroyer left everyone inside the Argo stunned and worried. How could he still being alive after that devastating blast?

"Blast." Mark said shocked by seeing the three-headed Titan unharmed and flying away toward the stormy clouds.

"That's some serious big problem." Mai expressed worried.

"It's still alive?!" Ty Lee said alarmed.

Aang gasped in surprise after realizing what that could mean. "Could it be…" He said turning at Serizawa hopeful.

Serizawa nodded at him, as he was thinking the same. "Dr. Stanton, can you locate Gojira?" He requested.

Stanton checked on his monitor, which showed the silhouette of Godzilla still on screen alongside his vitals and radiation levels. But they didn't look good. "Yeah. I got something." He informed hearing something through his headphones, which seemed to be Godzilla's heartbeat, but...it was decreasing. "His vitals are fading. Radiation levels plummeting." Stanton said as he saw both radiation levels and vitals of the dinosaur getting weaker and fast on the monitor. That made most of the crew worried, with the Gaang the most of them.

"That means...that he's…" Toph said incapable of finishing the phrase, not wanting it to become real.

"Come on Godzilla, you gotta stay strong. Please." Katara pleaded.

"Hand in there, Godzilla." Suki begged.

"Don't give up, buddy. You can get out of this. You must." Sokka encouraged.

"We know you can." Zuko supported.

"Come on, big guy. Fight it." Stanton encouraged too.

"We still need you, friend. Don't let this to be your end." Aang implored, not wanting his supposed fate on Ba Sing Se they thought first to become real now.

The entire room got immersed into a tense atmosphere as everyone heard Godzilla's weak heartbeat and stood aware of which was going to be his outcome. But suddenly...his vitals on screen faded completely and the radiation levels reached the bottom of the meter until reach zero followed by a low and constant beep, similar to the one that signaled that someone's heart stopped beating.

Stanton put down his headphones on desk after realizing the tragic outcome of the only Titan they considered an ally. "He's gone." He said dejected.

That answer confirmed everyone's fear: Godzilla lost against the Oxygen Destroyer and succumbed.

"No." Aang said with a weak voice and tearful eyes before falling on his knees in the floor, feeling himself devastated by the new. "It can't be." He felt like if his heart was breaking, his strength leaving his body in despair and letting out tears of sadness for the loss of someone important for him. His friend was gone and he couldn't do anything to safe him, or at least try it.

Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph, Zuko, Mai and Ty Lee shared Aang's mourn, with most of them showing tearful faces and others trying their best to fight back their tears. And the couples tried to find comfort on each other: Katara pulled Aang into a hug although he wasn't able to return it, Sokka and Suki hugged each other, the same with Zuko and Mai. Toph tried to cover her crying face with her arm and Ty Lee with her hands. Iroh lowered his face in sadness at seeing the young ones mourning Godzilla's demise and the fate of such unique creature, taken away by the destructive and arrogant power of their species, with Serizawa doing the same. The rest of Monarch's crew seemed to share said sadness by seeing the reaction of the Gaang except Mark, who got shocked by seeing how affected were the Avatar and his friends after knowing that Godzilla was gone. He didn't expected that, but it make him realize at last how much they cared for that Titan, the one that he hated so much.

Serizawa then slowly turned at Mark. "Looks like you got your wish, Mark." He told him with a disappointed and softly but mad face before going to some seat at the other side of the room and sat on it, probably wanting to be alone or with his thoughts only. It was easy to see he was not glad to see what his comrade wanted so badly, something from desires of revenge.

"I hope you're satisfied now, doctor." Aang said next at Mark with an angrier tone and face, but still with tears before leaving the room.

Mark got more shocked with that reaction: seeing the Avatar turning at him that way, as if he was accusing him for what just happened. But he said that because he was hurt. Mark intended to go after Aang and try his best to make him feel better but he was stopped by Chen, who stood near him and gently put her hand on his shoulder as she shook her head, meaning that it would be best to leave him alone for a while. Mark couldn't understand it. He finally had what he wanted since what happened in Ba Sing Se, but he didn't feel better. Instead he felt the same, or even worse. Then...he finally realized what Katara told him previously: revenge did not bring anything good nor did it solve anything, especially if it was against an animal or living creature. It only did cause more pain and harm, making things even worse. It was like a venom, the worst type of all...and he gave in to it. And why he felt that others stared at him with blaming eyes? Maybe part of this awful sensation was because Team Avatar glared at him with angry but still tearful faces, a sight he didn't like to see. Even Iroh looked at him with a disappointed face and shook with it after lowering it down. Next it was Katara the one who decided to leave the room. Shortly after she left Sokka, Suki, Toph and Ty Lee decided to do the same.

"Colonel, contact Admiral Stenz. I wanna have some serious words with him." The Fire Lord ordered in a serious tone, with Foster nodding at him with nothing to say at all.

"You heard him, Dr. Stanton." Foster commanded, with Stanton nodding and making the call.

Shortly the big screen on the left turned on, with Admiral Stenz back on it.

"We receive you, Argo." Stenz affirmed.

"Admiral, the Oxygen Destroyer has hit its target. However, Monster Zero remains intact and...we lost Godzilla." Stanton reported, the last part on a little sad tone.

"I'm sorry to hear that. That means the weapon has turned out to be a failure."

"Yeah. That's pretty obvious, but I'm afraid that's not the reason of this call, Admiral. Fire Lord Zuko wishes to talk to you." Foster explained.

"Your Highness." Stenz saluted.

"Just tell me the truth, Admiral. Who was the one?" Zuko demanded serious. "Who did it?"

"What do you mean, Fire Lord Zuko?"

"Do not take me for a fool, Admiral!" Zuko yelled mad, making everyone in the room to look at him startled. "Don't mess with me! I'm not in the mood for that! I've witnessed with my own eyes how a horrible devastating weapon was detonated at doors of a territory of the Fire Nation, and near my own homeland! Only I can allow a perilous action like that, if I see it right, but it has been done anyway without my authorization and with me and friends with no knowledge of that Oxygen Destroyer! Even if I knew its existence I wouldn't authorize such weapon. I thought I said myself clear the last time the use of a superweapon as solution was proposed. This is why I don't allow weapons of mass destruction to be used, because it only makes things worse. They're not the solution of anything! Only someone as ruthless as my father would choose such decision." Even if he couldn't express it at that moment, deep inside Iroh was proud of his nephew as Fire Lord. There was no doubt that Zuko was become a better leader than ever his father and his predecessors were or could be. "Someone managed to make you guys launch that missile and I have all right to know who is responsible."

"Of course, Your Highness. I already suspected that alongside the Avatar you wouldn't allow the Oxygen Destroyer to be deployed even if it was against Titans, so even if they showed me the royal authorization I thought that something was not right."

"Who are they? Who dared to do it in my place?" Zuko demanded to know, suspecting by what the admiral said that someone used the authorization of the Fire Lord without consulting with him first.

"Your military council." Stenz revealed, leaving everyone shocked. "Your generals said that it was a necessary action, and it had to be done at soon as possible in order to avoid a great disaster."

"Well, the disaster has happened anyway thanks to that decision taken behind his back." Stanton reproached.

"Pass me with the generals." Zuko demanded next. "Now."

Meanwhile, out on the upper deck of the Argo (which had a convertible mode and was at that moment activated) was Aang sat in middle of the place shivering and immersed in sadness, with his face in tears and hidden in his arms that stood crossed over his legs. In that posture he was exposed to the rain and wind from the storm, but he didn't care of it. He was too sad for the demise of his Titan friend to care of himself looking dejected and miserable (besides his new suit allowed him to remain warm despite the wet and cold environment), and all because of people that wanted to do things their way, the easy way: the way of weapons of mass destruction, just like how intended to do with the Mutos when these emerged back then. And because of such action he had lost someone important for him, besides of the multiple innocent living beings that were exterminated by the Oxygen Destroyer. That wasn't different from what Afiko, the monk that betrayed the Air Nomads, his own people did back then with his airbending demonstration. From inside the entrance to the deck Katara saw him on his misery with a sad and worried face. She remembered the last time he was that affected: back in the desert, when Appa was kidnapped by the sandbenders Aang got really mad. He released his frustration over her, Sokka and Toph not on purpose and stood most of the time angry and sad. And when they found the sandbenders Aang almost exploded in rage, entering in the Avatar State and almost unleashing a strong dust devil all over them. If she hadn't intervened back then nobody knows what could have happened. After that Aang regretted how he behaved, but he still felt hurt. During their journey through the Serpent's Pass to the walls of Ba Sing Se she tried her best to get close to him and comfort him, but he rejected her...but in the end he managed to regain hope and opened up to her and the others. Sometime later they reunited with Appa inside the Earth Kingdom's capital, but this situation wasn't like that one. Godzilla was gone and they all knew there was no power capable of bringing the dead back to life. The only exception was the special water from the spiritual oasis on the North Pole, the same one that she used to bring Aang back to life when they were forced to leave Ba Sing Se with the king before the city was taken by the army of the Fire Nation. But even if they could find Godzilla and bring him to the North Pole there was no guarantee that water could give them the same result as before, neither because it wouldn't be compatible with Titans or because there wouldn't be enough mass of water for that or for the risk of the oasis being altered anyway by the Titan's presence. So unfortunately...there was no way to achieve that goal and undone that wrong. As she went out Katara used her waterbending to diver the falling rain over to left and right, that way maintaining herself dry while walking at Aang. Once she stood behind her boyfriend she removed the water from him to dry him out.

"Aang? Are you okay?" Katara asked gently crouching at his size.

"How?" Aang only said hardly, with a weak voice and without turning at her. "How could they?" How could they...do this? How could this...happen?"

"I'm sorry. I can't believe it either." Katara said putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I didn't expect the military to do something like that suddenly, and much less without consulting us or warning us."

"And yet...they chose to…" Aang followed, lifting his face still in tears but now changed to a mad expression. Katara sensed his voice getting a soft but angry tone, which she understood. He had reasons to be it...and right now he felt like if he and his group was stabbed in the back by some of their allies: like if they were tricked… betrayed. "I thought after Ba Sing Se they learned the lesson, but no." He said referring to the militaries, as well the people that wanted them and the nations to eliminate the Titans who he secretly detested. Next as he got up slowly followed by his girlfriend the falling rain and water on deck was dispersed to the sides of it. "They decided to go the same way as they intended to do back then: the easy way, disposing of everything on their path to ensure their success. The wrong one." As he declared the mad tone of Aang's voice increased more and more. This got Katara a little concerned and she retreated a little as she suspected that in case Aang exploded in anger he could make some bending performance in Avatar level, just like it happened a couple of times before. "The one impulsed by the arrogance and folly of humans! Those bunch of…!"

The Avatar couldn't endure it more looking up and firing a huge and intense fire breath while roaring in rage very loud, forcing Katara to cover herself with her arms from the intense heat and glow from the fire blast that reached the stormy sky, which dispersed some of the cloud mass from around the beam by its great force. When the fire stream expired Katara looked at Aang breathing hard and approached him again.

"I know you must feel…"

"No, don't deny it, Katara!" Aang interrupted her as he turned at her suddenly, making her shut up and freeze. "Don't you dare to. You think and feel the same as me right now. I know you do!"

"Yes, I am! I'm as mad as you are, and so are the others!" Katara admitted, not capable of maintain formalities and her emotions in check any longer. "We're all hurt by what we recently saw, so don't think you're the only one here who got harmed! This event involves all of us, not just you so don't start sounding like Dr. Russell!"

After yelling at each other while more lightning flashed in the stormy sky the couple stood looking at his/her companion and the mad expression on their faces. Then their expressions turned sad again, realizing that they got mad on their mate unfairly and both turned away their sight in shame.

"I'm sorry, Katara. I shouldn't have done it." Aang apologized regretful with a hand on his arm, looking at his girlfriend. "It wasn't right."

"Me too. I didn't want to take my anger and sadness on you, again." Katara also apologized with crossed arms, turning at her boyfriend too.

As they forgiven each other the young bending couple hugged in love and remorse, ashamed of taking their emotions on the person they cared most in the world. Obviously they felt the same feeling of being devastated by the unfair fate of Godzilla.

"It's just...how I am supposed to do my duty as the Avatar, do my best to protect everyone and everything and keep balance when people do not believe in me? In us?" Aang expressed in frustration after undoing the hug with his beloved girlfriend and turning aside. "How can I trust myself? How can I trust people when they choose to do what they want anyway in the end? No matter my opinion, yours and the others?"

"I don't know, Aang." Katara lamented, not sure of what to say.

Then Aang lifted his head again, this time with an expression of determination on face. "You know what? Maybe it's time for me to do what I want, no matter what others say. Just like how I did it when I defeated Ozai back then. When I defeated him my way."

"What do you mean?" Katara asked a little confused, not sure of what her boyfriend meant with that as she saw him turning at where Isla de Mara was, with its volcano still in eruption, but this time it was more intense.

"Godzilla...he was after Monster Zero for a reason, and I don't think it's just mere rivalry. He had to realize something that nobody else is aware about him. I'm sure of it." Aang confessed looking at the island covered in lava flows, with the strongest part of the storm that arrived there recently, feeling that's where Monster Zero went. "I felt something wrong from it when we faced him back in the South Pole: something big...and evil."

Following the example of his friend Sokka, Aang chose to trust his instinct. Then he took a deep breath as his mind has made up.

"I'm going to end what he started." Aang proclaimed, decided to be the one to confront next Monster Zero.

"What? Wait! Aang!" Katara exclaimed trying to stop him, but it was too late.

Through waterbending and inside the Avatar State Aang gathered all the scattered water on deck plus the constant rain to lift himself fast and high with a tornado-like water vortex formed under his feet, which caught Katara and sucked her in. After spinning inside the whirlpool for several seconds she felt the water body falling down back to the floor, forcing her to create a small water tower to stabilize herself before touch solid ground. Next she looked up and saw Aang flying fast toward the island with fire rockets and getting far from the Argo more and more.

"Oh no." Katara expressed in concern for what could possibly happen to Aang.

The teenage waterbending master hurried on going back inside the vessel after pressing the button to close the upper deck, returning it back to its normal state. Meanwhile inside the Argo's bridge…

"Degraded, all of you. For an entire week." Zuko decreed, talking to his military council through the big screen in a transmission as some sort of punishment.

"What?!" Some of the generals said in disbelief.

"That's your punishment, and be glad for it being just temporary and disciplinary."

"With all due respect, Your Highness. I find such verdict to be quite unnecessary." One of the generals protested.

"We understand that our decision was reckless and out of protocol, mostly without your authorization, but something had to be done in order to stop those monsters for spreading their rampage." Another of the generals defended.

"Godzilla could have dealt with them all on his own! He had Monster Zero cornered into the sea where he couldn't escape from his grasp, and now he got away again thanks to what that new weapon has done!" Zuko defended too.

"How were we supposed to know it wouldn't get affected at all by it? Its creators said it was made to eradicate Titans mainly." Another general said.

"Well, you killed the wrong one."

That answer from the Fire Lord left the entire council wordless, making them realize at last that what they did was wrong and had terrible consequences.

"Your action had cost us a great and important loss. It was something that only my father would have done, not caring of using it against anything...or anyone. I'm going to be clear on this matter: I will not tolerate none of you or any other military officer of the Fire Nation allowing the use of another superweapon ever again." Zuko warned really serious. "Next time the punishment for the responsible one will be jail."

With everything said Zuko signaled Stanton to end the transmission, so he did it. Then the teenage Fire Lord sighed tired and sat down on a near seat. Mai came behind him and put her hands on his shoulders, trying to comfort him.

"Sometimes...being Fire Lord is too hard, and stressful." Zuko expressed covering his face with his hand.

"Yeah, no joke on that. But...you're doing great on it." Mai encouraged.

"Indeed." Iroh added. "I knew you were the one that our nation needed for redemption."

"Well, not everything is my doing. I've a lot of help." Zuko answered smiling.

In that moment Katara entered the control room running. "Aang has left! He's on his way to fight Monster Zero!"

"What?!" Zuko expressed shocked turning at her, as so did everybody else.

"He left the ship without telling anyone here?" Foster said before turning at Stanton.

"She's right. I've him on the monitor." He confirmed checking the signals of both his suit and his energy, which he could track. "He's going straight toward the island and fast. His energy readings are already off the charts." Stanton reported watching Aang's signal marked on the screen as an intense yellow point moving far from the Argo, and in direction forward where Monster Zero was currently located. "He really seems to be eager for a fight."

"Yes, and I don't think there's anything we can do to stop him, even if we wanted." Chen suspected.

"Without Gojira's help, it will be lucky if he survives the fight." Serizawa expressed concerned. "And for us to see him again. Let's us hope for him to make it, and trust him to be capable on making his stand."

Just like Katara and Serizawa were everyone in the room got concerned by knowing Aang's decision of facing Monster Zero on his own and its possible outcome, mostly Mark who didn't expect Aang to do such thing out of nowhere: going after Monster Zero and fight him on his own in Godzilla's place. Back on Isla de Mara everything turned dark and creepy because of both the storm finally reaching the island and the volcano still erupting at full force, emanating lava flows and ash clouds. Then a massive shadow appeared flying from behind the volcanic cloud, revealing to be Monster Zero who landed on top of the fiery crater, all over the remaining ruins of the abandoned village of the island. Then something unexpected and shocking happened to his severed left head: it began regrowing, like a hydra when one of its head got severed. Bones, muscles, nerves, cartilage, skin, scales, horns, teeth, tongue…everything regenerating in seconds inside some kind of transparent chrysalis. The main head, the one on the middle seemed to roar in pain briefly before grabbing the cocoon with his jaws and rip it off while the left head kept regenerating. While the organic reconstruction kept going the other two heads tried their best to endure the pain of such process. Sure it wasn't a pleasant experience for the Titan. Once it ended it looked just the same as it was before Godzilla torn it off moments ago. With his lost part recovered all his heads roared one after another, being the victorious one of his battle against Rodan and survived his encounter and struggle with Godzilla underwater, this one thanks to the Oxygen Destroyer. Suddenly he got hit by a group of giant fireballs from behind, powerful enough to make him roar in pain and fall down the volcanic slope, which was a tough one. Once he got up and recovered from the fall by shaking off the ashes, lava and debris the dragon saw meters away from his position, at the edge of the coast and high in the sky Aang inside an air sphere and in the Avatar State. He snarled at the Avatar angry with his three heads, realizing immediately that it was the little but mighty human boy who dared attack him from behind by surprise and make him fall down the mountain in such humiliating way, so he responded by raising his tails and emitting the same rattling noise from them for intimidation.

"You may have evaded Godzilla and his wrath, but now it's me the one you shall face, Monster Zero, and all the power of the elements within me!" Aang proclaimed loud and clear with a frowned face in the Avatar State. "The same ones that forged and maintain this very world!"

Then the Avatar sent a fast and powerful air blast that caught Monster Zero off guard instantly, pushing him toward the sloped from behind with force. The impact provoked some rocks, dirt and lava to fall all over the dragon Titan, who growled in pain. Suddenly the airbending Avatar had a quick flashback as he looked at Monster Zero cornered, but instead it was Fire Lord Ozai: just how he confronted him in the day of Sozin's Comet when he was able to enter the Avatar State again. For a few seconds Aang saw himself back on the day when he ended the Hundred Year War before returning back to the present. With this familiar sensation he realized how he should act, but this…he will not contain himself unlike the previous time. Just like he did in his fight with Ozai after regaining the Avatar State, Aang raised high in the sky while firing huge fire blasts from his fists, feet and roaring mouth, forming a star-shaped form of fire that way. Suddenly the ground began shaking in tremors while the wind began increasing around, this last thing not provoked by Monster Zero. The three headed Titan roared almost in panic as he struggled to maintain his stand in the ground against the tremors and covered himself from the flying debris and increasing winds with his wing. Multiple giant rocks and a huge stream of water came from below the ground and the sea while the fire streams gathered around Aang forming a fire ring around him and the wind sphere, which expanded. Next the rocks gathered around him and forming a ring too, followed by the water stream which did the same. Once it was done Aang had formed a new elemental sphere, this one looking the same he formed when he fought Ozai except for one detail: it was bigger than the first one, but way bigger. Monster Zero stopped covering himself with his wing and saw what the Avatar had accomplished. No doubt that human child somehow prepared himself for battling him…and he was not going to back off neither. Monster Zero roared loud and mighty at his new opponent with all of his heads and spreading his wings in intimidation while standing on his feet, looking bigger and imposing. The stormy sky got red by the ashes and embers from the volcano while thunder and lightning filled the sky at the inevitable battle.

(The Deep End, theme from KH3) (Titan Fight)

Aang attacked first by lifting lots of boulders and buildings (the ones destroyed or left as ruins) in the sky and throwing them at Monster Zero, forcing him to cover himself with one of his wings again, but these were also putting a good punch on his wing and had no choice but to expose himself as he couldn't endure it any longer. Aang continued bombing the dragon Titan with boulders and damaged buildings, leaving no time for the beast to react. With that tactic the airbender managed to keep Monster Zero cornered against the mountain for a while, giving bruises all over his body and even tearing some teeth from his right head apart with one of the hits. But then the dragon monster decided that was enough, roaring back at the human and firing his gravity beams quickly to all directions, that way destroying all incoming projectiles and forcing Aang to dodge the giant thunderbolts before being hit. Once it was over Monster Zero charged at Aang running on landed, choosing to change strategy and deal with his foe by melee combat, unaware that was a mistake. As he saw it coming Aang flew fast toward Monster Zero in collision course and tackled him, with no time for the dragon to evade him. Surprisingly the force of the elemental orb was so strong that it was capable of push back Monster Zero with ease, leaving the beast in shock and defenseless before being pushed back with force by a combined blast of the four elements, falling back on the ground hard. Once he recovered Monster Zero began feeling himself unease, feeling at the edge of being tired already and almost overwhelmed by the enhanced power of the Avatar. No doubt it reminded him a lot to his old rival and nemesis, so the dragon tried to take flight and leave the island as soon as possible, just like how he did when he left the South Pole. But Aang was not going to allow him to escape again and turned one of the giant rocks from the ring into multiple stone shards, firing them at the flying Titan and hitting him in the back. The sharp pain got Monster Zero off guard and lost focus of his flight for a few moments until recovering shortly and taking his leave, with Aang after him again. Monster Zero flew high and fast into the storm, trying to hide himself among the stormy dark clouds while putting some distance between him and his human pursuer, which was humiliating for him but he had no choice in order to self-preserve himself. As the main head focused on the flight his side heads stood alert for if they saw the Avatar, with the left head spotting Aang coming from behind and telling it to the main head by growling. Then the middle head growled at both heads from left and right and these turned around, with Aang on their sight and fired their gravity beams at him in attempt to force the human to fall back, but Aang dodged the electric beams with ease all over and over again. Next the Avatar fused some of the boulders from his earth ring to make them bigger and threw them at high speed to Monster Zero's wings. The double hit made him roar in pain and fall down to the sea nearby the coast of the island until he spread his wings again and stood gliding over it. But then he was forced to stop when two giant pillars of water appeared suddenly in front of him and turn left, only to be knocked down by a huge water stream that hit him from his right. The size of Monster Zero and his proximity to the coast allowed him to stand over the surface, and after shaking off the water from himself and his heads saw Aang coming from above fast, almost in free fall. The dragon waited for the human to get close enough and then, when he seemed to stomp on his torso the Avatar was hit by the tails in the last moment. That pushed Aang out of the way but fortunately regained focus soon enough, but that was the chance for Monster Zero to counterattack as he tried to catch and crush the airbender with his jaws by triple. Aang was fast enough to avoid the heads trying to bite him and pushed back the Titan with a blast of air and water that hit directly on his torso. That forced Monster Zero to retreat going back on shore. Next he roared at the stormy sky, making lots of lightning to fall from the hurricane all over Aang, forcing him to move in every direction fast for dodging them, with a couple of them almost hitting him. Aang knew that he couldn't keep up like that forever so he decided to go near the water and then he left the elemental ball a few meters over the surface and got inside the water before creating an air bubble all around him standing a few meters far from the surface. Good plan, because the lightning bolts couldn't reach him underwater and their strength went off at contact with it. Once the electric rain ended Aang resurfaced fast went back inside the elemental sphere. Once he gained some altitude the Avatar sent five huge fire missiles toward Monster Zero, with the Titan responding by firing his gravity beams to intercept them because it was impossible for him to evade something like that. Once he got rid of the fire blasts at time Monster Zero concentrated his beams at Aang, with him responding at it with a mixed beam of water, earth, fire and air, that way provoking a phenomenon that could be only known as beam-lock. Both opponents focused on their side of the lock, trying to push it to the other strongly. It looked like Monster Zero was the one who would win that, but Aang increased the force of his beam by aiding more water from the sea and earth from solid ground besides of increasing the flames and wind…and surprisingly overpowering the triple electric blast of Monster Zero, who got pushed back with the force of the ending blast. The dragon Titan roared briefly at the Avatar before taking flight again, but Aang acted quickly and once again he summoned a giant stream of water from the sea that captured the flying Titan by surprise and put it inside a bubble of his side. Next he turned it around and stomped it with force all over the mountain slope again. Now that hit really got the Titan hard as he began feeling tired, almost exhausted…and that made him felt nervous, even a little scared. How could a little human overpass him in might? And an infant one. He clearly underestimated him, even if he didn't want to admit it, but seeing himself on the ground knocked down like that was proof enough of that. The dragon tried to get up while growling in pain and softly but he couldn't, no matter how much he tried or hurried. Aang noticed this, meaning that it was time to finish the fight. He could feel it.

"Time to end this." Aang proclaimed softly for himself. Next he put some distance between him and the Titans and increased the intensity of his elemental sphere. "This is for Godzilla!"

And so Aang charged at full speed toward Monster Zero, once again in collision course and give him the final blow. All of his heads widened their eyes in shock when they spotted the Avatar coming at him and fast…but then the center head changed his expression to a frowned one and snarled. No way he was gonna allow himself to fall like that, defeated by an inferior being. He was not going to give up, and he had something in mind already. He groaned at the other heads, like if he ordered them to stay focused, and they did. They stood by watching the Avatar flying at them and without moving, waiting for the right moment to do their move. As he was getting closer at the three headed monster Aang let out a battle cry, ready for giving the final strike, and then…when it seemed that the Avatar has gonna end the fight…Monster Zero fired all his beams at him at the same time, hitting his target at full power. The electric beams pushed back the elemental sphere while their intensity grew more and more until it caused a huge explosion. As result of this Aang was launched into the air at great speed and force to the ocean while screaming in pain and fell in the water hard. This became an unexpected turn: Monster Zero had tricked the Avatar by letting him to get close enough and then unleashing his triple beam of electricity at full power, that way catching him by surprise. And that overload of energy became too much for Aang to counter, getting overpowered by it. That was a neat trick of the Titan, and a really smart move. Shortly after it Monster Zero was finally capable of getting back on his feet, slowly but steady as it looked like he healed from his wounds and turned at the direction where Aang fell, aware in case he returned. He stood still breathing hard, as he had to catch his breath after the intense struggle with the Avatar, waiting for anything for rising from the water…but nothing appeared. Then it came the shocking and horrible result of the battle: the Avatar was gone, terminated by Monster Zero. Each of the heads behave different at their enemy's fate: the right head responded growling while the left head stretched his neck in order to get a closer look, but the two of them turned at the middle one after hearing how he reacted at the Avatar's demise. He groaned a few times, but these sounded like…laughing. And that's how it was: he laughed malicious at what have become of that puny human. Even with all that power he couldn't defeat him in the end. Seeing that he was the winner of that battle Monster Zero roared loud in victory, with the hurricane increasing the thunder and lightning for a few seconds of the Titan's roar. Next he turned around and took a few steps before taking flight once again toward the top of the volcano. While Monster Zero left that area…far from there, on the area of the sea near the limits of the island's proximity someone resurfaced from the water hard to breath and catch his breath: it was Aang, he survived, but barely. He was lucky to be alive after being exposed that close to that attack. He remembered what Avatar Roku told him about the Avatar State: even if there he was at his most powerful state, he was also at his weakest at the same time. If he was struck down while into the Avatar State, his connection with his past lives would be broken…and the Avatar would be destroyed for good. It already happened to him once before, when Azula struck him down with lightning. Fortunately for him Katara used the special water from the spirit oasis from the North Pole to bring him back to life. This time, if it wasn't for his special suit he wouldn't have made it. He felt weak and harmed, with all his body in pain. And no doubt of that, because he had his face covered in burns, bruises and scratches. He looked around and saw a large plank afloat near him, so he swam slowly but steady while enduring the pain on his body until he reached it and grabbed himself on it, but only that, staying there shivering a little while catching his breath. He was too weak to even move further for long time or do anything else. Next he turned around slowly and saw in the distance Monster Zero standing on top of the volcano, with his large and shadowy figure all over the island. Then, with him standing over his legs, turning at the sky, spreading his wings up alongside his tails as high as he could the dragon Titan roared at the sky, more loudly and mightily than he had ever sounded before. This shrieking roar was too strong that it echoed and sounded all over the planet. That was not a regular roar; it was an alpha call, meaning that with his rival Godzilla now gone Monster Zero established himself as the new alpha Titan.

"Oh no, that can't be good." Aang intuited talking with a weak voice, having a bad feeling about that. And he was not wrong. Next the Avatar closed his eyes and lowered his head in sadness. "I'm sorry, Godzilla. I've failed."

Monarch Outpost 55.

Very far from there, on some place of the rocky desert area of the Earth Kingdom was another of the containment sites of Monarch hidden as a coal mine facility, the one that inside it had contained the Titan specimen known as Titanus Scylla. Once the call of Monster Zero reached there the entire place started shaking like an earthquake. Next some giant spider-like legs emerged from the ground while provoking giant and violent eruptions of dust, earth and stone all over the place, destroying Monarch's facility in the process. And it wasn't the only case…

Monarch Outpost 67.

On other part of the continent far away from that outpost, on some peaceful land with forests and mountains stood another one of Monarch's outpost. This one was built around one of the mountains near some village, which wasn't a real mountain but another Titan in slumber: Titanus Methuselah, who's back looked like a mountain while most of its body stood underground. When the alpha call reached there the mountain began moving, shaking and becoming higher and bigger, seemed to be getting up somehow but it was the Titan. One of the cameras of the outpost that recorded its awakening was able to get a sight of its head, with its eyes totally white before the recording got lost.

This unexpected and worrying, or better said 'alarming' event was happening on all outposts that Monarch had established all around the world, forcing their crews to evacuate as fast as they could shocked and scared. Some more examples of this was Monarch Outpost 75, the one where Titanus Mokele-Mbembe was contained and studied, which was sending Monarch agents scattering as he broke out of the outpost. No much of this Titan could be seen during its release, just a few details of its body: it seemed to have a massive, snake-like tail, two-thirds of his total body length, four thick legs with five claws each, a curved horn on his head pulsing with a very faint green light, a head that looked something like an earless elephant, except that its tusks turned down rather than up, a mouth that opened like a crocodile's, revealing thousands of teeth and a gray and pebbled back. Or the outpost where the curious specimen called Titanus Behemoth stood in slumber until now. Despite the outpost's backup kill switch and other containment systems prepared for a situation like this one their power got cut secretly by some agent who sympathized with the mission of Emma Russell. Behemoth quickly dispatched a group of soldiers and a nozzle emitting blue-white fire before breaking out of the facility.

Monarch Outpost 33. Skull Island.

The call even reached one of the most mysterious, unknown, isolated, wild and dangerous places of the world, one which only Monarch was more aware about than anybody else: Skull Island, the home and domain of King Kong. Unlike the other outposts that Monarch built all over the world this one was not for containment, but for studying Kong, watch over his status every day and ensure his safety and wellbeing in case any new threat appeared for him and the island, as king of the island he was its protector, for the natives and all its native wildlife. At this point in time Kong was no longer a teenager, but a full-grown adult. He possessed a pronounced human-like beard which covered the lower part of his head and chin, two scars on his nose and a scar on the right side of his belly. His legs had lengthened, giving him more human-like body proportions. He also had broader shoulders with much larger amounts of fur than before, almost looking like football pads. His sclera now changed between white and black and his irises were brown. Kong was wandering around his turf when he heard Monster Zero's call, which he found strange as he had never heard anything like that before. But because it came from a creature that it was out of the island and way far from it was not of his concern, besides of the fact that Kong was also an alpha Titan so the call didn't affect him neither. Kong only looked at the direction where the call came with a suspecting and distrustful face and growled softly at it, that way rejecting the call…but there were others that unlike him responded to such call for "hunting together". Kong felt that something wrong was going on so he went to investigate by running on four legs like the gorilla-like ape he was to not lose time. After passing the mountain he had in front of him Kong groaned fiercely at seeing that his suspicions were correct. On a small valley in front of him Kong saw the Skullcrawlers back on the surface, but this time they came in large numbers. There were more of them than he had never seen before. It looked like the call of Monster Zero also awakened the Skullcrawlers (almost their totality, if it wasn't all of them), recognizing a more powerful creature similar to them and feeling that call as a signal for rising from the depths of the island again and in large numbers. The good thing was that there was not a single adult member between all the new reptilian creatures. In other words: not a new Ramarak. The bad thing was they were a full pack, something that hasn't happened since very long ago, from the time when Kong's species walked upon the island in packs. Most of the Skullcrawlers soon spotted the ape Titan and roared at their enemy and possible first big prey. There was no doubt that whatever sent that call had already threatened the balance of the island by awakening its most dangerous and vicious predators, and there was no way Kong was gonna let that happen. And so King Kong pounded his chest and let out a loud and mighty roar at the Skullcrawlers, prepared to battle the creatures once more. Now he was way bigger, stronger, smarter and experienced than when he faced and defeated their alpha and leader: Ramarak, the Skull Devil, and numbers didn't guarantee victory for those reptile monsters like it was demonstrated previous times. And most important of all…Kong knew that he couldn't allow them to get out of the island and continue their rampage in the outside world after finishing it there. Everything that awakened, walked and lived on Skull Island stayed and died there, and its king was going to make sure of that.

All Titans that Monarch had discovered all over the years woke up from slumber and got themselves free responding at the call of Monster Zero, destroying the containment facilities and outposts that Monarch had built over or around them in the process. The call of the new alpha also awakened Titans that were not discovered yet by Monarch or anybody else. Some of those even reminded to some ones that Monarch already had discovered and studied, with their appearances similar to those but with some differences. Curiously these ones went all the way to find their counterparts that got free from their containment outposts and reunite with them shortly after awakening and began acting together, like if they were a pair and/or couple or became that (Titanus Leviathan: male, and Titanus Nessie: female) (Titanus Na Kika: female, and Titanus Kraken: male). It was a mass awakening, just like Emma intended to do but not the way she wanted as all Titans were released all together at the same time. Talking about her, Emma was still on the secret bunker of the mercenaries watching the current situation on the planet alongside Jonah through multiple monitors, but the smaller ones lost recording transmission and only the bigger ones were still operational: the one on the left showed a digital map of the world with the location of all the containment facilities of Monarch marked as red points, and the one on the right showed Monster Zero standing on top of the volcano of Isla de Mara still on his calling posture and Rodan appearing at his right flying back to his place of emergence, turning around and landing at the foot of the mountain, right in front of the one that beat him.

"I thought we were going to release them gradually. One at a time." Jonah reminded, seeing that things got an unexpected turn and not according to their plan.

Emma, on the other hand, was shocked at what just happened. "I'm not the one doing this." Her answer made Jonah turn at her lightly surprised before turning back to the main screen.

On the screen showing the Titans on the island…for their surprise and shock they saw Rodan bowing before Monster Zero despite their previous battle, seeing him as the alpha Titan. From that moment the planet now belonged to him. That was the moment of victory for Monster Zero: his great and ultimate triumph. Jonah understood immediately what that scene meant.

"And so it ends the Age of the Avatar and begins a new one: the Age of Titans. All the sins of humanity and spirits are left behind as the world returns as it should be." Jonah declared for what that meant for the entire world. "Long live the king."

With all that said Jonah and his people left the room, but Emma remained focused on what the screen showed while hearing the screams and calls for help from the people of the outposts, still shocked of seeing the result of her actions. This wasn't what she had in mind. That wasn't supposed to happen. Her plan was to get the Titans free one by one in order to give Earth and nature time to adapt to the return of their rightful rulers at an appropriate pace, trusting that Godzilla would put all of them in their rightful places. But with him out of the picture because of the military and the Oxygen Destroyer, Monster Zero had risen to power, or perhaps it was her fault for not knowing exactly what kind of Titan she set free, And if that wasn't bad enough they all witnessed how the dragon Titan eliminated the Avatar, the human guardian of the world this far with a taste of his power. That was what left her affected the most. She didn't expect that Aang would try to battle Monster Zero all on his own, and now…he was gone. She didn't want this to happen, and yet…it became real in front of her eyes. Now with both Godzilla and the Avatar gone it was like all hope to stop and reverse this event disappeared alongside them. Then she turned around and saw everyone leaving the control room except her daughter, but she could see the look of disappointment and sadness in her tearful face.

"You're a monster." Madison only said with a sad voice before leaving her as well.

Those words from her daughter hurt Emma, but could she say something about it? Especially after what her mother had done? No, she couldn't. Madison saw it everything too, mostly how Aang battled Monster Zero bravely and yet lost against him, succumbing at his gravity beams. That's what affected her the most, seeing her friend dying because of her mother's actions. That convinced Madison that her mother had lost her way. She became like Jonah: she became a villain, not different from people like Zhao, Long Feng or Ozai, but she went farther than they did. She ended provoking what she feared and wanted to avoid at all cost: she had condemned the world.

Mothra Cocoon Site. Yunnan Rainforest, Northwestern areas of the Earth Kingdom.

Shortly after Monster Zero's rising as alpha of the Titans multiple massive storms similar to the one that was made by the dragon Titan's mere presence began forming all around the planet strangely. An example of this was on the Yunnan region, where Monarch established a new small auxiliary observation base in front of the waterfall where Mothra cocooned herself to check and monitor her evolution. The great waterfall was illuminated with a pair of big spotlights and two others at their side as additional lights. An Osprey of Monarch was arriving at the area well despite the severe climatic conditions that changed out of nowhere, and inside the waterfall stood the cocoon where Mothra was intact under it.

"Castle Bravo, this is Containment Team Mosura. Do you read? Over." One of the staff members communicated by radio, trying to contact Monarch's headquarters, but for now no one responded. "Castle Bravo, this is Containment Team." He insisted, but still nothing.

Because of the precarious weather everyone there had to wear raincoats and was a little tight inside the camp base with all the tech equipment and lights. Among them was Dr. Brooks, one of the members that traveled to Skull Island 25 years ago and witnessed King Kong battling and defeating Ramarak, the original Skull Devil, so it was a veteran right now. Since that time he married his partner Lin San who came with him on said journey too and had a son, who returned to the island on an unauthorized mission to check on Kong's condition and how things were on the island. He and his wife never saw him again since then, mostly because he stood to help the natives and decided to live there. Since two decades and half had passed since their journey to the island clearly Brooks had aged quite much.

"Anything?" Brooks asked to the same man trying to contact headquarters.

"Dr. Brooks. We've lost contact with the Argo, Castle Bravo and the other containment sites." The man reported as he and Brooks looked at the screen of the main monitors, which showed that Emma and Jonah saw: a map of the world with the outposts in red and multiple images of the Titans escaping from their containment sites, tearing them apart while the staff from these running for their lives, with the recording of Monster Zero sending his alpha call on Isla de Mara. On two of them were the ones of Scylla and Methuselah rising up. "The ones on the Water Tribe, the Earth Kingdom, Skull Island. All the Titans, they're escaping."

Brooks got near the video images of the Titans to get a closer look, and then he realized something. "Wait, wait, wait. It's him." Brooks sad pointing at the recording of Monster Zero roaring. "He's the one doing this. They're responding to his call." He deduced correctly.

Then all systems began glitching out and lights flashing while a profound chirp-like sound was heard all around for a second.

"Oh, gosh! Where's Dr. Ling?" Brooks asked.

"She's outside." The man answered.

After pointing on his hood Brooks went out of the tent and found Dr. Ling, Chen's twin sister staring at the waterfall.

"Dr. Ling! We've lost contact with Monarch." Brooks said, but Ling didn't react at his words, or maybe she didn't hear him because the loud sound of the rain and the waterfall. "Dr. Ling?" But she stood still. Then he saw what got her attention: it was the cocoon, but it was glowing in light blue patterns from below to upside while some chirps sounds came from it. Brooks took out his hood surprised by this phenomenon.

Next the clouds above where the waterfall stood got mysteriously dispersed, with the full moon illuminating through that hole. Then, through that hole in the clouds something else came among the moonlight: a little swarm of fireflies that flew down and stood in front of the waterfall, like if they were recognizing a superior creature of the same type of animal as them and went there to see it emerge as its guests. The rest of the crew came out realizing that they rain stopped and watched alongside Brooks and Ling the new activity of the cocoon, which began glowing whole next. Suddenly something came from within the chrysalis, which looked to be the leg of an insect, one very large. The limb stretched and appeared in front of the humans from behind the waterfall while some kind of inner energy flowed through the limb to the edge of it. That caused the spotlights to get overcharged and exploded, startling everyone and cover themselves but only that. With the swarm of fireflies forming two lines at both sides of the waterfall the chrysalis glowed with more and more intensity, with the glow like it was flowing through the water. Next everybody saw something new emerging from the organic structure, the owner of the limb. Something with glowing blue eyes (something that for some of the crew reminded them to the Avatar but in Titan)…and it could only be none other than the same one that formed it around herself, but now it had reached to her imago form: Mothra had completed her metamorphosis, now as a winged adult. Once she got out of the cocoon Mothra looked at the humans that stood out of the waterfall with no sign of aggressiveness, but relaxed and peaceful. All of Monarch's crew there stood stunned by her beauty. It was only required one single sight of her to know that no one was in danger on her presence and that she wasn't like the other Titans: she was benevolent, an ally for humans. Ling finally got her hood out, revealing to be identical to her twin but with longer hair tied in a ponytail (similar to the one Katara had in Book 1 and 2) while Brook smiled and chuckled happy, feeling themselves lucky to bear witness of such moment, because it was more than natural: it was magical. And like an act of magic Mothra spread her new massive wings while a bright glow of light but intense blue flowed through them from her body. Mothra looked very different from her previous form: she had a segmented insect-like body, with six legs and two wings and had two long hind legs with two joints and two clawed toes. She had four forelimbs, two on each side of her body, with one large pair and one smaller pair. Her forelimbs were long and muscular, and end in large hooked claws. Mothra had a small head and large blue eyes, which were oval-shaped. White fur surrounded her eyes, with some brown-orange fur on her forehead which appeared to also cover the rest of her body. She possessed two large white antennae which typically laid flat against the top of her head. Mothra had two gigantic compound wings each composed of two segments: a larger segment near the front of her body and a smaller segment toward the rear. The wings possessed intricate patterns of orange, yellow, black and white coloration, which could emit bioluminescent glows that shift in color as the humans saw recently. There was a circular pattern on both sides of the front corners of Mothra's wings, which curiously reminded a little to Godzilla's eyes. With her metamorphosis done and ready for returning back to the skies Mothra let out the same loud and profound chirp-like roar that Sokka, Suki, Madison and Emma heard when they got there the first time. A few hours later and very far from there was Aang still holding on the plank afloat, but now he saw himself in middle of the ocean and way far from Isla de Mara, although he also witnessed Rodan bowing to Monster Zero there. The current had dragged him to open sea and in middle of the raging storm, with nobody near that could help him. The airbender was once again on the same situation he got into when he on his recklessness decided to go and set things right when he was hurt and ended up in middle of a storm after evading a blockade of the Fire Nation, before he talked to both his past life, Avatar Roku and Princess Yue as the new moon spirit…and before Godzilla saved him the first time on Crescent Island. He felt lost, far away from his friends, from Katara, from Serizawa and Monarch, from his people. With no one for him to rely on. And this time there was no one who was gonna come and get him out of there, not even Godzilla because…he was gone. The little boy felt miserable, defeated. With no idea of where to go or what to do.

"What I am going to do?" Aang said in a weak voice for himself in sorrow, immersed on his own thoughts. Then he cried quietly, feeling devastated. "I…I'm sorry Katara. I can't. I can't keep going. I've failed. I've failed everyone." He hardly expressed in lament, feeling that he failed as Avatar, again. But after a while shedding tears Aang dried them out and lifted his head, now with a determined look. "No, I can't give up. Not again! I didn't give up when I believed to be the last airbender. I didn't give up when the Fire Nation attacked the Northern Water Tribe. I didn't when the Fire Nation invaded Ba Sing Se. Neither I did when the invasion on the Day of Black Sun failed, or when I faced Fire Lord Ozai on the Day of Sozin's Comet, and I defeated him against all odds." Aang said remembering some of his past experiences during the final days of the war. "And I swear that I won't give up on this too." The Avatar swore raising his head up to the sky before showing a concerned face again." But how? Even if I got back, what then?" He said lowering his head.

Then the airbender boy heard what it seemed like the faint sound of a whale or something similar coming from far away and in the sky, which found it curious…and comforting. Next he saw a faint light blue glow among the dark clouds, which was getting bigger and stronger for seconds.

"That light…what is it?" Aang wondered, feeling a strong and huge energy coming from it, but then he became alarmed when said light seemed to be getting closer, right at him. "Wait, I'm not done here! I can't go into the afterlife yet, or going back to the Spirit World!" He begged, thinking it perhaps was the gate to the other side. "Please, there's still so much for me to live! They need me here!"

The intensity of the glow forced Aang to cover his face with his arm and brace for whatever could happen next. But then…he felt himself being grabbed gently by a pair of limbs and carried into the air. Aang opened his eyes and saw the plank being left and lost in the distance as he looked back and down: he was flying over the ocean high, and it wasn't his doing. Someone has come to his aid, or better said something, just like when Godzilla came for him back then. Aang looked up to see who was his savior this time, but he couldn't watch clearly because of the intense glow, although he could deduced that it had to be a winged creature. Next he took a closer look on the limbs where he stood safe and sound, which reminded those of an insect and so were the wings at both right and left, but the appearance of these resembled more of those from a moth or a butterfly. But the most intriguing fact of all was that he could feel some kind of intense energy from within it, one which felt familiar to the one of Godzilla, or even Raava. What kind of creature could it be? That was the question. After flying for a while the mysterious animal brought Aang to an isolated isle where it put him on the ground gently. Once back on solid ground Aang turned around and got stunned when he saw who was in front of him: in mid-air stood a beautiful butterfly or moth Titan of 16 meters high and a wingspan of 245 meters which landed gently on its forelimbs a few meters in front of him with her glow decreasing, that's how he was able to see it at last. Its appearance told that it was mostly a female (and it was): angelic, feminine, and elegant, like a goddess. Even when it chirped sounded in some angelic form. Well, now Aang could say it: he was saved by a Titan twice. The butterfly Titan stood glaring at the child still with curiosity and interest, with only her wings moving a little while leaking some dust from them and her pretty blue eyes blinking a few times, as he was the first human of his type that she meant. She could felt his massive inner power transmitted through generations, as well the almighty spirit within him, something that the two of them seemed to share.

"Wait, you're…?" Aang said before taking a closer look at the Titan's shape and appearance. "Mothra?!"

The moth Titan chirped softly at him, like if she was saying 'yes', leaving the Avatar more stunned than before. The giant caterpillar Titan had passed to her next phase, just like he and others from Monarch predicted, but this was beyond of what anyone could imagine. The only fact recognizable that she kept from her larva form was her mouth, which looked just the same but in different color and a little modified in shape. Next the airbender crouched and bowed before her as sign of gratitude and respect.

"You're…magnificent." Aang said looking at her again, still impressed by her beautiful appearance. She was the prettiest creature he had ever seen, besides Katara of course. He even couldn't avoid letting out some tears of amaze.

Mothra took one of the tears gently from Aang's face with one of her legs. Next she waved her wings slowly while making a faint current of air toward him. Then countless shiny scales and dust particles were leaked from her wings and fell all over Aang. He saw amazed how his body easily absorbed them while his body was covered in the same light blue glow for her for an instant while Mothra stopped. When it finished Aang surprisingly felt himself totally healed, with all his strength back, burns and scratches completely gone and feeling ready for the next round. It was like some healing spell or similar.

"Wow." The young Avatar could only say impressed by what Mothra did for him. "Thank you." He said turning at her, with she chirping back at him. Like saying 'you're welcome'.

Yeah, that's what he seemed to understand, even hear. Actually it was like if he could hear her thoughts somehow on his mind, like some psychic connection that she managed to establish with him immediately. He couldn't understand it at all, but he didn't need it as he smiled at her. Just by looking at Mothra it was enough for Aang to know that her role, her power, her story…her whole being was almost the same to that of the Avatar. They had some much in common, and of all Titans she was the most spiritual one. The body and wings of Mothra began glowing in blue again. That was more than enough for Aang to regain hope. The fight was not over yet, and there was still so much to do. And despite how bad things seemed to be they were not alone on this, because they had another Titan on their side. One that refused to let Monster Zero have his way or follow his bidding. After all Mothra was also an alpha Titan, one that had an ancient and deep story with multiple ancient human civilizations from forgotten times. And she was glad to find a human who resembled her a lot in most of attributes, or to Godzilla. Why? Another interesting matter for another time, as the current winged issue of three heads was still on the loose and had started a new evil order by himself. But no matter how hard things looked like to become they were going to keep fighting on…as the lights in the dark.

Just to clarify something about the counterparts of Titanus Leviathan and Titanus Na Kika mentioned previously. As I said Titanus Nessie is the female counterpart of Titanus Leviathan, as I put it here as male, but while the Leviathan looks like a combination of a sea serpent, a marine eastern dragon (wingless) and a marine western dragon (wingless too) Nessie has the same appearance from the concept art and production model that it had for the unmade film of Nessie that was going to be made by Toho and Hammer. The same goes for Titanus Kraken, the male counterpart of Titanus Na Kika, who is known to be female mostly. First this Titan is not the same creature as the one fought and defeated by King Kong in the anime series of 2023 of Skull Island. Second this one has different shape and body appearance, looking more like a prehistoric cephalopod like Cameroceras: big cone-shaped outer shell linked to its head, green octopus-like body, cuttlefish-like eyes and multiple tentacles differentiated and separated in two types: some of them bigger and the other smaller, both in size. If some of you search for this on Deviantart or had seen it already you know what I mean. And yes, I know that Na Kika can change gender, and so can the Kraken, but because they felt and found a member of the opposite gender of their kind (or quite similar) this ability is not needed on them anymore.