Title: An End

Author: KnightQueen (Sakura123, weber_dubois22)

Summary: [AU]. Sequel to "A Start". A Titan trapped in the Colorado mountains threatens to take what little family Madison has left, and Godzilla's not around to help.

Rating: PG-13

Characters: Mark Russell, Ilene and Ling Chen, Sam Coleman, Rick Stanton, Andrew Russell, Godzilla, Emma Russell, Original Character(s), Carl the Cat

Chapters: 1/10

Written: 7/6/2019

Author's Note: I wrote An End and A Start during the Summer of the Before (COVID) Times, 2019. It's inspired by CONTROL (Remedy Entertainment), Dead Space (Visceral Games), Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris, and three fanfics: A Conversation of Clowns by Corraleo* (Mobile Suit Gundam Wing) and Alexandra Huxley's Celestial Light and Butterfly Ops* (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Around the time I finally got to see Godzilla: King of the Monsters in theaters in June, my cat of 19 years passed away.

I was down bad and grieving something awful. She was my world, so my concept of time with and without her became pre-KOTM and post-KOTM. So, I wrote about Mark and Madison's relationship after Emma's death and the world-ending mess she created as an outlet. As much as I don't like Emma, there won't be any character bashing in this fic (not my style). Frothing rage over her actions aside... I get why she was doing it on some level. I didn't want to, but I did.

When I started writing this, I couldn't find any stories about the human characters or stories genuinely interacting with the film's narrative. Certainly, there was nothing within it where Godzilla and the Titans weren't treated like Madison's cuddly pets vs. predators. The general lack of interest in the aforementioned characters means the Godzilla/Monsterverse fanspace is predominantly furry-esque, which doesn't interest me. (I feel like that defeats the allegory baked into monster/human narratives, but that's me.)

Music: I largely completed this by re-listening to The Editors' discography (particularly An End Has a Start, Violence, The Back Rooms, and EBM). I wasn't a superfan of theirs before this, but now I adore them as a group.

Forewarning: There are frequent descriptions of body horror, blood, and gore that appear in later chapters (2, 4, 5, 6, etc).

Constructive criticism is welcome.

ONE: When the Anger Shows

(START: 50 hours 35 minutes 42 seconds) - Wednesday Morning

"When did this all start, exactly?"

Madison Russell sat up from leaning back in the cushy office chair. The concern in her father's voice drew her attention to the situation room's touchscreen table.

"Fifteen hours ago, exactly," Ilene Chen said. "We didn't notice it at first. Not until Stanton pointed out the frequency jamming our communications. And there's more." Moving her hand across the touchscreen, a series of photographs darted across the screen like cards spread on a table. Mark leaned forward in his seat, pen tapping idly against the back of the hand lying flat on the table.

"So, after the COSMOS test," He sighed.

"Yes," Dr. Chen affirmed. "The song must've stirred it from its hydrostasis." Without words, Madison asked if she should be worried. Mark did what he usually did when there was bad news: offered a benign smile and a quick nudge with his arm. No help at all.

Madison frowned inwardly, staring at the photographs. At first glance, there was nothing to them. Overhead shots of pillars encircling the broken curve of a wall erected around the dormant Titan in the explicit image of a prison. But closer inspection revealed a series of red lines progressively spreading across the concrete surfaces, growing into a fine system of veins.

"Is there anything we can do to put it back to sleep?" Mark asked. Dr. Chen shook her head, drawing up the vital statistics of the Titan. There were wild dips and rises in the audio and EKG recordings like she'd see whenever Godzilla passed Castle Bravo. "No. Sedatives stopped having any actual effect half an hour ago. We think it's using the water inside its chrysalis to flush it out of its system. It's actively trying to escape its enclosure."

"Is it hostile?"

"I don't know, but I believe it may try to communicate with us." Madison's eyebrows rose at the same time as Mark's.

"How's that?" Mark asked.

"Well, in situations like this, any Titan that can mess with the comms is probably a gabber," Rick Stanton shrugged. "Erring on the side of caution, boss."

It wasn't a flawed assumption to make. "What about the rest of the team? Jenkins, Andrews, and the other guy?" Mark snapped his fingers, trying to summon the name too far to recall. "Did they reach the lifts?"

"It's Jerkins," Sam Coleman corrected. "Their feeds went out around the time it started waking up. Jerkins, the team, and the excavators are all still down there with it."

"And there's a chance we won't be able to retrieve them from the epicenter," Dr. Chen said, bringing up a black-and-white video feed of a dour-faced man Madison assumed was Jerkins. The picture seemed still at first, Jerkins wandering outside the observation room. Madison stared at the image, waiting for something to happen. She didn't realize the fine lines slipping across the lens until Jerkins' image fell out of focus, and the feed became static.

"So far, the metamorphosis has only spread as far as the Dianoia's resting place and the observation deck," Dr. Chen continued. "That's where Jerkins and his team were. The growths have disabled the minor lifts." The worry on her father's face only became more pronounced. "So, we're using the emergency lift?" He sighed.

"It's the only way down there," Coleman said. "The problem is that it's slow getting up and down. So, if something were to happen, the upper levels would be vulnerable to attack."

"What about the town?"

"They're prepping everyone for evacuation," Coleman assured. "But we can't guarantee they'll be out of range when this thing pops."

Dr. Chen fixed Madison a look. She pretended not to see it, too preoccupied with picking the lint on her blue arm cast, a gift from last week's baseball game in Chicago where she, Andrew, and Mark were living currently.

No one said anything for a long time. Her father stood and tugged at her hood. She sighed, knowing what would come next. "Uh, excuse us," he said. Madison followed the gentle 'suggestion' to follow, moving forward with all the sluggishness of Andrew when he had to give up the television. Mark walked her a little ways down the hall before urging her to face him.

"Mom would let me stay," Madison cut to the chase. She was thirteen years old now, old enough to know the gorier details of Monarch's work, to see it firsthand. "I'm not your mother. That's what makes me your father," Mark replied dryly.

Beyond the basics, Madison knew very little about Dianoia. Monarch discovered it in May 1998, five years before her parents officially joined the organization in 2003. It was trapped in what Ilene called the 'chrysalis.' But instead of a giant butterfly cocoon, a massive cliff face that stretched into a chasm that drones were still mapping out. Her parents wrote a paper about it, Music of Dolphins*: Possible Stimulation for Titans with Disorders of Consciousness, but otherwise? Everyone treated the Titan like a Monster Mystery Box.

One guess was as good as another.

"Look, whatever, Ilene–Dr. Chen wants to tell us. I don't think you need to hear it."

"I know what a dead body looks like, Dad. It's not a big deal," Madison argued.

"We don't know if Jerkins or the others are dead, so don't make assumptions," Mark corrected her. "And whether it's a big deal is irrelevant. You shouldn't have to see that kind've stuff, and if your mother had any sense, you wouldn't've."

"Whatever." Emma spent five years preparing her for the world's end. Gamifying it, even. Madison doubted that 'sense' had anything to do with Emma's actions, but didn't argue the point further. "Why bring me into the meeting at all?"

"Because I–" Mark sighed, fingers carding through his graying hair. "I didn't think it would be this serious. Maybe it isn't, but I don't wanna be responsible for any nightmares you might have because I wasn't cautious. We're only thinking about your safety."

"You mean you are, right?"

"Of course I do." Mark blinked. "But everyone here cares about your safety. It's not just me."

"I'll be fine," Madison sighed. "Monsters don't scare me anymore, Dad."

"Yeah, well, they should. A little fear never hurts. Keeps you alive." The condescending hand on her head earned Mark a sharp swat. She grinned when he shoved his hand into his jacket pocket.

"Have you talked to Andrew t'day?"

"No, he didn't pick up. He's probably busy with Dr. Ling and Mothra." Having more fun than I am.

"Oh. Well, try him again. You know how he gets. I'll let you know what's going on after the meeting."

"Can I hold you to that?"

"Yeah," Madison leaned into the forehead kiss that came as second nature to Mark. "We'll talk about it over dinner."

"Promise?"

Again, his hand carded through her hair, playing with the ends. "Promise."

(END: 50 hours 19 minutes 17 seconds)

*A Conversation of Clowns is one of a few Gundam Wing fics I go back and reread because it was refreshingly devoid of fandom misogyny/sexism or Slash wank/fetishism typical to that fandom. Give it a read. It's a great Trowa/Duo friendship fic.

*If you want to read Celestial Light/Butterfly Ops, access the website (alexandrahuxley dot com) through the Wayback Machine. It was one of those stories published back when people could still afford to host their own websites, and you had to ask to "archive" it on fanfiction websites.

*Music of Dolphins is a Middle-Grade novel by Karen Hesse, published in 1998. I read it around the same time I was into Ocean Girl. Loved it to pieces.