VS
VS
Author: ShinGojira14
Word Count: 10,211
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Deep Sea, Central Pacific Ocean.
The ocean. The vast, endless void of miles upon miles of water that millions of different species call the closest possible concept of home. It is where all life on the planet traces its heritage back to, back where the very first tiny organisms on the planet squirmed into existence to begin the story of life on earth. It was yet another typical day in the deep sea, where lifeforms of countless types continued to flourish in the ecosystems of the dark bottom depths of the sea.
The jaws of a hungry pelican eel snapped down at lightning speed around the small body of a bright orange shrimp that formerly drifted through the depths with speedy paddles if its little segmented legs before the predator stalking it made its move. Trapped within the jaws of the hunting fish, the little crustacean was helpless as its killer sucked its body down its throat, never to be seen again. The limbless fish relished in the meal for a moment, then set to using its beady little eyes to try and locate another small creature to call breakfast. It didn’t take too long before it noticed another orange shrimp paddling through the void, just a good twenty meters away next to what appeared to be the top of a large rock face, which in of itself seemed to be the beginning of a large hill with huge, jagged rocks protruding along it in a massive row. Silently, like a serpentine grim reaper, the pelican eel undulated his body from side to side as he swam towards his next prey. The little arthropod was all but unaware of the fish’s presence, and as the eel began to near his chosen prey he opened his mouth, ready to spring his deadly trap the moment his victim was within range…
Suddenly, both lifeforms darted away in fright when the rock face moved, a low rumble causing the area to vibrate with the force of a small earthquake. Small schools of fish sped off into the void when a massive lid suddenly lifted upwards, revealing a massive yellow eye that seemed to glow in the dark. The rock face was not made of rock at all-it was the head of a giant creature awakening from a deep slumber. The sea floor began to vibrate powerfully as the giant animal pushed itself off its resting place, its huge silhouette towering above the oceanic crust as its jagged dorsal spines loomed impressively behind it. With a deep growl, the dinosaurian beast kicked off with its feet as it took to the seas, following the peculiar scent that had caught its nostrils’ attention.
*****
Yokohama, Japan.
The steady calls of the city’s resident Gulls continued to ring into the air as its citizens continued about their daily routines, whether walking along the shoreline to gaze upon the sea’s shimmering beauty, visiting the local aquarium, enjoying themselves at Cosmo World, or trudging about through the sidewalks surrounding the majestic towers of steel and glass that made up the city itself. It was yet another typical morning in Japan's prominent port city, the 3.73 million human beings which made up its population thriving happily under the perfect warmth of the sun that now sat perfectly in the heavens.
However, this moment of happiness would unfortunately prove to be short-lived.
The surface of the sea began to billow upwards as a gigantic form pushed up from underneath it. Citizens gasped in both awe and terror as the water rose impossibly far into the heavens before, after a good ten seconds, the mass of water finally burst apart in a colossal spray of white, disgorging a massive reptilian entity that glared upon the populace with eyes that were as blank and white as stone. A scaly lip curled to reveal horrid rows of jagged teeth ending in snake-like fangs that bared savagely at the unfortunate humans who now began to flee in terror in massive crowds. The towering juggernaut began to lumber towards land, shaking the earth with every footfall. Its three rows of bone-white dorsal plates rattled slightly as they revealed the beast’s unmistakable identity to all those unlucky enough to gaze upon it.
The entire nation’s worst fear had come true: that nightmarish apparition last seen eighteen years ago hadn’t been truly destroyed. The God of Destruction who ravaged Japan with relentless hate in 1954, the merciless mutant who once landed here in this very city at the dawn of the new millennia, transforming much of it into a fiery battlefield of death and desolation. Even the combined might of the mythical Guardian Monsters failed to stop it, and it was only thanks to the selfless courage of Taizo Tachibana that defeated it and allegedly sent it to a watery grave.
Its possessed eyes gazing evilly upon the once tranquil city of Yokohama, the demonic dinosaur reared back its head and let loose a soul-quaking roar that shattered all the glass windows in the vicinity as countless civilians cried out its cursed name.
Godzilla had returned.
Finally touching land, the reprehensible reptile stormed eagerly through the outskirts of Yokohama, the millions of souls driving his undead form screaming for Japan’s punishment through his chilling roar. Mindlessly obliging to the collective will of countless ghosts, the spirit of Japan’s sinful past trampled ceaselessly through the crowds of frightened civilians, crushing thousands of innocents like bugs within just a few seconds, their horrible screams filling the air as the possessed vessel’s deceased masters vented their fiery rage.
But somewhere deep, somewhere so dark within the husk of the possessed giant, another soul resided. A comatose soul if anything, powerless and stagnant, yet still there. Somewhat aware, yet unaware at the same time of what the other awakened souls were doing. It was only thanks to the other spirits and their combined strength that this spirit continued to sleep, but they were all troubled in doing so. The slumbering ghost was even stronger than it was eighteen years ago, so it was not so simple anymore to keep it in its current state. If they so much as caused the slightest shift, made the smallest error, they could very well lose control of the sleeping spirit and, subsequently, the vessel they drove as well, and all would be lost.
As Godzilla smashed his way through the towers of steel, sending more than a few toppling to the ground in powerful bursts of glass and debris, the ghosts who manipulated him suddenly detected the presence of something...
Something familiar… yet something foreign. Something otherworldly. And without a doubt, something immeasurably powerful.
The reptilian juggernaut suddenly stopped in the middle of the city, his head turning to look skyward with a low growl. The once still air began to hiss and warp with a sound reminiscent of sizzling electricity, a sound that caused every lifeform to freeze in terror for miles. The ground, the city, and even the surface of the sea brightened greatly as if the sun was passing over the world at great speed.
And that’s when they saw it.
A colossal meteor entered the atmosphere, glowing with a brightness that rivaled even the hottest stars. Godzilla bellowed in nervousness as the giant space rock sped closer and closer to his point of location, growing larger each second in the sky. The planet trembled horrifically at its coming, but before it could make impact the meteor suddenly exploded just a few hundred meters above Yokohama. Waves of fire spewed everywhere, setting many buildings aflame, and Godzilla screeched as he was thrown off balance by the powerful shockwaves.
And then the flames gathered to a single spot…and took shape.
A loud, bell-like cackling threatened to shatter Godzilla’s eardrums, and the King of the Monsters stared in utter shock at the entity that formed from the flames right before his very eyes. It looked as if he, a ghost, was seeing a ghost himself. The accumulation complete, the newcomer hovered briefly before landing a good five hundred meters away from the radioactive reptile, the planet itself trembling in fear at the behemoth that had made landfall at last.
The beast looked almost identical to the three-headed guardian that had been slain by Godzilla back in 2002, golden and draconic with two massive wings that stretched out impossibly far. But there was one key difference- this three-headed dragon was far bigger than the Yamato guardian, with twisted horns that stretched like devilish antlers and blood red eyes seething with pure unrelenting evil, the exact opposite of the God of the Sky that Godzilla had fought years before. Unlike the long-dead God of the Sky, this monstrosity towered over Godzilla like he was nothing. The possessed saurian stood his ground as he prepared to face this beast that looked so much like his old foe, who glowered back at him with its six red eyes.
Even the most malevolent of souls who inhabited the mutated dinosaur’s body shuddered in fear when Grand King Ghidorah- the REAL King Ghidorah -let loose another sickening laugh that seemed to echo across the planet itself.
The King of Terror studied the radioactive reanimated reptile that stood in his way with gleeful interest. While human beings could not see nor even sense it, King Ghidorah could see the millions of restless souls who resided deep in the bowels of the nuclear reptile. The space dragon wanted to smile. He had a king-sized feast ripe for the taking right in front of him, and all he had to do to earn it was to crack open this undead puppet that concealed it. As if on cue with his thoughts, the dinosaur roared at him, the unearthly shrieks of countless ghosts yearning for bloodshed crying out in unison with their vessel as they attempted to strike fear into the golden hydra.
Had they been alive and inhabiting their physical forms, the spectral soldiers would have widened their eyes with the very emotion they tried to afflict upon their alien opponent when the King of Terror responded to their intimidation tactic with his signature laughter. These phantom insects wanted to know fear? Then they shall receive it like nothing they had ever felt! Taking a thunderous step forward, King Ghidorah licked his fanged mouths in anticipation. Not only could he not wait to taste the delicious essence of the diminutive wraiths, he also couldn’t wait to crush the radioactive puppet that had just so happened to slay the earthbound copy of him eighteen years ago. Such a shame that it had been this creature whom had destroyed it-he himself had been yearning to do the deed himself. But unfortunately, he was too little, too late.
Whatever the case, that ‘guardian’, that fake, was dead and gone. Destroyed. Nonexistent. It no longer mattered; it was cleansed from the earth, and the destruction of its killer would suit him just fine.
With another ferocious roar, Godzilla charged towards the King of Terror. Raising his hand into the air, the nuclear menace swiped across the hydra’s muscular torso with his dagger claws, causing a shower of sparks as they slashed harmlessly across his golden scales.
King Ghidorah felt nothing.
Godzilla lunged forward and locked his fanged jaws around the dragon’s center neck, and with all the power in his reanimated jaw muscles crunched down upon the lengthy appendage. His powerful teeth, try as he might, failed to breach the galaxy killer’s armored body, and Ghidorah laughed gleefully at the demon’s pathetic attempt of attack. Godzilla pried and yanked with all his might on the center neck as he tried to tear a wound in the dragon’s seemingly impenetrable body- and widened his eyes in surprise when the destroyer lunged down with all three heads and sank his jaws into different parts of the saurian’s body. At first, Godzilla’s tough skin seemed to delay the hydra’s fanged maws piercing through, but to the possessed vessel’s surprise it didn’t take any longer than eight seconds before his skin finally gave way and the rows of teeth pierced through his flesh, drawing the first small drops of blood. The spirits remembered how their vessel had bit down upon the neck of the smaller Ghidorah years ago, thinking that this must have been how he felt.
With a nigh effortless heave, King Ghidorah lifted the so called ‘King of the Monsters’ clear off the ground, breaking free of his toothy grip in the process, before turning left and heaving once more, tossing the dinosaur into the Cosmic Clock 21. Godzilla screeched as his massive body collided with the huge Ferris wheel, crushing it like burnt paper beneath his weight. King Ghidorah’s haunting laughter rang in his ears, letting the ghosts who controlled the nuclear reptile know their time was near. Shaking his head free of the dusty rubble, Godzilla roared as he returned to his feet. A hissing sound warped the air as his dorsal plates lit up with atomic power, radioactive particles beginning to pool into his jaws as he inhaled. King Ghidorah cackled at the white-eyed demon, who in turn let loose his infamous atomic ray.
The cerulean firestorm washed harmlessly around the golden dragon like water, as his scales manipulated the light of the atomic beam to form a protective energy barrier around him. Eight seconds passed, and Godzilla finally cut off his signature attack. Blinking in shock, the Monster King stepped back as the King of Terror cackled loudly. The souls of the dead were now more worried than ever. Apparently, this Ghidorah was not only larger but far more powerful than the guardian monster of old.
The three-headed terror screeched with laughter as his throats began to build up with golden light, heralding the discharge of his own signature weapon. Getting a good idea of the horrifying attack that awaited them, the souls moved to have their vessel brace itself as their opponent let loose.
King Ghidorah fired his almighty Gravity Beams at the nuclear destroyer, who roared out in pain as the powerful rays of energy blasted huge chunks of flesh off his torso and sent him toppling to the ground. Cackling sadistically, the space hydra fired again, this time the gravity beams didn’t let up and pushed Godzilla continuously until he finally smashed into a massive building, sending it toppling and crashing down upon him, burying him in hundreds of tons of glass and steel.
It didn’t take too long for the God of Destruction to reemerge from his man-made tomb, bellowing in defiance. The spirits were both horrified and amazed all the same. The Yamato Guardian’s own gravity rays had been a powerful attack, but nothing he had ever used compared to that! A few more hits from those, and they very well could be inhabiting a useless, broken vessel. And if that happened, it wouldn’t be long before the three-headed monster took full advantage and sought to consume each and every one of them, one by one…
With a powerful roar, Godzilla barreled at the tri-headed dragon, shaking the earth with each angry footfall. King Ghidorah cackled in response, daring the insignificant husk to try something stupid. Sure enough, the possessed saurian did not give in to fear and continued to charge, looking like an angry god all the while. Snarling viciously, the dinosaur spirit lunged at the extraterrestrial horror. Slamming into the dragon with his godly strength, Godzilla managed to stagger King Ghidorah for the first time. As the hydra reeled backwards from the impact with a surprised cackle, the nuclear saurian charged up and fired a second atomic ray. At this close range the beam of death could not be deterred by Ghidorah’s light barrier, and the dragon howled in outrage as the atomic ray slammed into his upper torso, sending him falling to the ground. While the attack did possess impressive kinetic strength, it didn’t do as much to injure Ghidorah as the spirits wanted- all it left was a burnt splotch mark on his chest.
Without hesitation, Godzilla pounced onto the downed dragon and began to assault him with every weapon at his disposal. Slashing and punching at his golden scales as hard as he possibly could, kicking and stomping on his stomach, and occasionally firing repeated bursts of his nuclear ray. The King of the Monsters unleashed his vengeance on the interstellar evil, trying to search for any possible weak point in his enemy’s armored body. But his assault soon came to an end when Ghidorah’s three heads snapped up and fired their Gravity Beams at close range, sending Godzilla staggering back long enough for the King of Terror to float back to his feet using a zero-gravity field. King Ghidorah, infuriated by the demon’s earlier attack, decided to torture him for his troubles. Folding his great wings forward, the hydra fired off twelve pink Antigravity beams from the pointed tips of his wings. The possessed Kaiju roared out in anguish as the electrical bolts zapped and seared his tough skin in repeated bursts, smoke filling the air that gave off the revolting stench of fried flesh. Godzilla fired his atomic ray in response, but his attack ended once again in failure when it simply washed over the hydra’s light barrier. With his signature weapon all but helpless, Godzilla could only try his best to hold his ground as King Ghidorah continued his torture, reveling in his suffering with his demented laughter.
As the Galaxy Killer kept up with his assault, he failed to notice a second set of spines break the surf in the oceanic distance, swimming speedily towards the fiery battleground. These spines, slightly larger and more jagged but near identical in appearance to Godzilla’s own and running down a back composed of charcoal black scales, cut like knives through the water as the unseen combatant prepared to join the monster war waging on land. Surviving civilians hiding in whatever untouched outskirts of the city remained noticed the sudden arrival, watching in awe as the giant surfaced from the shore and took its first step onto land, its yellow eyes shining hard and proud.
King Ghidorah paid no attention to the newcomer, he was too busy playing with his food. So, he was caught completely off guard when the new beast charged him from behind and tackled him, sending him falling flat onto his belly. Bellowing furiously, King Ghidorah looked around behind him to try to find whoever it was that dared hit him with a surprise attack, threatening to tear it apart.
Standing there, firing its very own atomic ray upon his back, was a second Godzilla.
As the possessed demon righted himself, his pure white eyes fell upon the newcomer, and the souls driving him immediately panicked. No, it wasn’t possible! There couldn’t be ANOTHER Godzilla! They didn’t entirely know why, but something told the troubled spirits that this creature may somehow spell doom for their mission of revenge through their possessed vessel. How, they couldn’t put their finger on. But whatever it was, they did know that they had to end this fight fast before this newer, younger Godzilla set to messing everything up.
His dorsal spines aglow, the demon fired his atomic ray at the younger king. Caught off guard by the sudden act, the younger Godzilla screamed in agony as the attack struck his torso, eliciting a large explosion. This creature was another of his kind! Why did it attack him so suddenly?! Was there something wrong with it? Had it perhaps lost its memory?
Before the young one could attempt to communicate with him, the white-eyed beast launched yet another atomic ray. This time, the silver-spiked saurian turned to present his shoulder to take the hit. While it did significantly reduce the damage he took, it still didn’t completely prevent him from sustaining injury. Roaring in defiance, the younger Godzilla took the time to stand up as his spines flickered and crackled with inner radiation, before an atomic ray of his own launched from his fanged maw, striking the demonic Godzilla in the face and sending him careening back with an anguished bellow. Charging up once again, the young one fired off another heat ray and swept it along both of his opponents. King Ghidorah, however, took no damage whatsoever and only replied with a cackle of annoyance.
Bursting to his feet, the King of Terror took both Godzillas by surprise and swept his gravity beams over them in a continuous arc, bringing cries of pain from the two kings. The possessed Godzilla charged through the onslaught, digging his feet into the ground as the hydra turned his full wrath on him, but no matter how hard he struggled the assault was just too strong and he was floored. Ghidorah screeched in temporary victory before preparing to fire off another burst- only to be once again caught off guard when the younger Godzilla tackled him from the side. As King Ghidorah struggled to remain standing, the young once snapped around and smacked his tail across his center head, fazing him long enough for him to shoot his center head with an atomic ray. The three-headed demon recoiled before letting loose two gravity beams from his other two heads, striking the saurian in the torso and forcing him to back off. The youth stood fearlessly as he eyed his gigantic nemesis, baring his teeth with a savage growl. King Ghidorah was not having it, deciding to take a new approach with these oversized animals. Flapping his wings and letting his manipulation of gravity do the rest, King Ghidorah lifted off into the air before proceeding to fly overhead the younger Godzilla, raining down a storm of gravity beams that blew open horrible wounds in his charcoal black flesh. The young one roared in defiance as he held up his arms to try and block some of the beams, all while the King of Terror moved his sights to the other saurian who was just returning to the combat.
Godzilla roared in pain as the golden rays lanced through his hide like hot knives through bread, his soulless eyes focusing on the demented dragon who attacked him. The young one tried to blast the horrible hydra from behind but was yet again met with failure at the formation of Ghidorah’s light barrier. Noticing his younger counterpart, Godzilla charged and fired an atomic ray in his direction, striking him and pushing him back a ways before then proceeding to aim it up at King Ghidorah’s left wing. This time, the light barrier didn’t form fast enough, and the heat ray seared a hole through the thin membrane, eliciting a pained screech from the dragon, which gave way for Godzilla moving the attack to the base of his necks. As the nuclear ray scorched the hydra’s scales to black, King Ghidorah retaliated with repeated blasts of his wing energy bolts. Godzilla roared out in unison with the millions of ghosts residing within him as his body was repeatedly zapped and burnt asunder- and was taken aback when the younger Godzilla charged in and knocked him out of the line of fire, his ebony scales taking a small amount of damage himself before his wounds began to heal.
The demon roared in rage as he rose to his feet, an atomic ray building in his throat. The young one roared back to him, but in a far different tone. The jagged-spiked saurian attempted to communicate with the possessed husk that stood before him…and now that he was this close he was able to clearly smell the scent of the beast. And his eyes widened when he recognized the scent. He hadn’t smelled it since over half a century ago, back when he was nothing more than a newborn chick.
He shuddered internally as memories came back from the day that changed his life forever.
An undersea paradise flourishing as any natural ecosystem should, many of his kind swimming about in small herds through the huge kelp forests, a tiny little infant darting playfully around the larger silhouette of his mother… and then a violent quake, followed by a blinding flash that encompassed the entire underwater kingdom, engulfing many of the terrified dinosaurs…the child’s father bellowing helplessly as he swam at top speed towards him and his mother, reaching out to them mere moments before the blast overtook them all…
Him reawakening after the blast; his mother dead, his entire herd and habitat destroyed and poisonously contaminated, his father nowhere to be found. How a few years had passed, his body hideously scarred from the radiation, and he at one point had detected his father’s scent. How he had traveled to the bay not too far from where he stood today, finding a lifeless patch of rock where he smelled his father, but found no trace of his body. How he had mourned, grown up alone and mutated over the years, swimming undetected by the species that took his old life away in the deepest, darkest oceans.
The young leviathan’s eyes widened as a full-powered atomic ray to his stomach knocked the wind out of him and brought him back to reality. Unsatisfied, the possessed dinosaur fired a second nuclear ray into his relative’s chest. Stepping back as he attempted to keep himself from falling over, the young one reared his head back high and let loose a horrible, earth-shaking howl of pure agony that echoed across the island of Japan, all the while King Ghidorah watched the entire scene take place with sinister interest.
Something happened in that moment. The souls within Godzilla would have gasped if they could, as the roar echoed through the bowels of the beast. In the deepest part of that void, the comatose spirit stirred awake. Even the countless other ghosts who fought to keep it stagnant were helpless as the larger spirit heard the leviathan’s call, and in that moment something broke. Something snapped. Memories began to flood its awakening mind at lightning speed, memories comprised of horror, tragedy, and sorrow. The advent of the nuclear age, the atomic blast that destroyed its home and killed its species, its subsequent irradiation, the fiery destruction of Tokyo and its death at the hands of a determined human whom had taken his own life in activating a terrible chemical weapon now lost forever. The spirits panicked as their vessel’s true owner sprang to life, immediately proceeding to seize control of it from them. Now that it was awake, there was nothing they could do. This reawakened soul was far too powerful for any of them to control anymore, and as their vessel’s head hung low and its blank eyes dimmed for a moment, they all cried out in an unearthly howl so loud it was heard by the ears of the living as each and every one of them were banished from their precious vessel, inside of which another entity now began to take power...
The young leviathan and the King of Terror watched the possessed vessel fall limp, standing still like a dead tree. While the mutated dinosaur was unsure of what exactly was going on, King Ghidorah could see it all. The souls had actually been exorcised from the blank husk! Cackling in glee, the three-headed dragon flew towards the invisible cluster of ghostly wraiths that screeched horrifically at him, their faces warping into demented shapes. Their scary howls and demonic faces would have sent waves of utter horror through the bravest of human beings, but not King Ghidorah. Not the King of Terror. No, their pathetic intimidation tactics only amplified his yearning to feast.
And he did exactly that.
Countless citizens watched in horrified fasciation as a chorus of malevolent cries of invisible entities turned to inhuman screams of terror as the hydra hovered in place above the motionless Godzilla, his body glowing with golden light. One by one they died out until an eerie silence was all that remained, and King Ghidorah smiled with wicked joy as he felt millions of life forces fuel his awful power. It was a truly delightful feast indeed! But one meal was over. Now, it was time to destroy the silver-spiked saurian below him and make dessert of its life essence…
King Ghidorah let gravity take hold as he plummeted down towards the unfocused dinosaur, slamming his feet into his body and crushing him into the earth beneath his colossal weight. The young Godzilla bellowed mightily in protest, but he was pinned underneath the King of Terror’s feet as the hydra continued to stomp him into the ground, eliciting sickening crack after crack that rang in the air. The dragon cackled with joy as he tortured his enemy, unaware of the catatonic vessel suddenly curling its clawed fingers.
Before he knew what hit him, something hot and incredibly strong struck his stomach and forced him to topple onto his back, cackling in rage. A powerful roar shattered the air, one far louder than any ever uttered in this battle. It was not the ghostly, screeching wail uttered by Tokyo’s destroyer moments earlier, but rather a deep, booming baritone bellow that was in of itself an echo of the distant past. A roar that gave off no paranormal presences, but something else. Something familiar. Something… alive.
Godzilla lifted his head as his face curled into a devilish glare, his white eyes focused on the horrendous dragon that now lay wounded not far away. King Ghidorah began to rise back up, but another atomic ray to the chest forced him back down. As the younger leviathan looked into the saurian’s white eyes, he felt the presence of something different. Before, he had seen nothing but two blank, soulless orbs devoid of any life. But now, he sensed an entirely different presence. No longer did he feel like he gazed into the artificial eyes of a statue of mindless rage and hatred. But instead, he felt as if he looked into the eyes of a thinking, feeling animal not at all unlike himself.
And that’s when he knew.
Rearing his head skyward, the King of the Monsters released yet another baritone roar that shook Yokohama to its core. His heart beat healthily for the very first time, his blood flowed cleanly, and his soul was free. His body and internal workings were all his to control once again. He was alive.
The original Godzilla was back.
His thunderous footsteps rang in King Ghidorah’s ears as he neared, his muscles and bones cracking pleasurably as he worked them all on his own for the very first time. The space dragon lurched upwards and fired off his gravity beams, but despite the damage he took Godzilla seemed to feed off the energy at the same time, his dorsal spines sparking with golden electricity for a split second before fading away. The reborn King of the Monsters seized hold of King Ghidorah’s two tails in his hands, and with his herculean strength lifted the dumbfounded dragon into the air before slamming him back down into the ground. King Ghidorah screeched in protest as Godzilla continued to sling him up and down in a repetitive pattern, finally able to vent all his rage that he had been storing for so long.
The younger Godzilla saw his reborn father continue to unleash his wrath on the tri-headed demon and roared out to him, telling him to lift the hydra again. The former vessel obeyed and lifted once more, and his son ran forward until he was at close range, took aim and shot his atomic ray at the hydra’s middle head. The superheated beam struck its target, and King Ghidorah recoiled in pain at the shot before Godzilla slammed him back down to the earth. Lifting him up one last time, this time Godzilla turned his body around and heaved forward, sending King Ghidorah soaring a good distance away before crushing a medium-sized building in his fall.
Taking a moment to finally look upon his successor for the first time in over half a century, Godzilla grunted to his son, who responded with a small roar of his own. The two atomic reptiles exchanged low rumbles and growls to one another, communicating and conversing in a language only they could understand. Father and son stood under the light of the sun as they heard each other’s voices for the first time in sixty-six years, their loneliness and pain seemingly all but put to an end.
A third voice- or rather, a series of voices- broke their reunion as King Ghidorah rose from the pile of rubble, a lethal fury seething from his red eyes. Godzilla bellowed a deep roar at the interstellar demon, his pride and joy copying the action. The King of Terror flew straight at the two leviathans at top speed, firing off his gravity beams. The younger Godzilla roared as the beams tore into his torso, the older saurian swiping overhead at the hydra to protect his progeny. But as he neared King Ghidorah dropped his legs forward and smashed them into the older Godzilla’s face, flooring him. The three-headed dragon laughed before raining his wing lightning upon the two saurians as he passed over them, relishing in their cries of pain.
Godzilla’s pupil less eyes glowered furiously as he bellowed at the space dragon, demanding he come down and face him head-on instead of flying overhead like a coward. Ghidorah didn’t give a damn, and simply flew a good distance away before turning around for another go. The silver-spiked Godzilla looked around for any objects he could use. If they couldn’t shoot him out of the air, then he would have to use a different tactic to take him down to ground level. A zapping noise caught his ears, and he jogged to the left to avoid the attack he knew was coming. But the original Godzilla wasn’t fast enough and screamed in agony when three gravity beams struck his chest at full force and sent him skidding back a good distance away. King Ghidorah fired a second round at the Monster King, and as he struggled vainly against the force of the attack Godzilla fired an atomic ray in reaction to the searing agony. But his attack merely warped from existence upon touching Ghidorah’s light barrier.
With a screaming cry, Godzilla fell to the ground.
King Ghidorah smiled with glee- which soon turned to glares of anger when a building smashed into him from his right, sending him falling to the earth. As he stood up straight, the younger Godzilla charged him with a defiant war cry as he took over for his wounded predecessor. King Ghidorah stomped over to meet him, screaming the vilest of death threats imaginable. The young king ignored the searing pain of the red energy bolts that fired from the hydra’s wings as he smashed his full weight into his evil opponent, temporarily throwing him off balance. Grabbing hold of his left and center necks, the young Godzilla first fired a point-blank atomic ray that, due to both its close position and explosive power, managed to blow a cauterized hole big enough to birth a sauropod dinosaur in the dragon’s chest. Then, he fired another atomic ray at the center neck, but before he could keep it up long enough to blow the center head off the right head snaked down and bit the left side of his face with all its jaw power. Bellowing in pain, the youth lifted the golden dragon by his other two heads before smashing him back down to the ground, just like his father had done earlier in the battle. Over and over he repeated this motion, but no matter how hard the blows the right head would not let go.
Cackling loudly, the other two heads each fired off a gravity beam that struck the young king just below the armpit, forcing him to let go at last. As the second Godzilla recoiled, King Ghidorah took full advantage of the situation and kicked up to his feet, lunging forward like a viper and seizing the leviathan’s shoulders in his left and right mouths. As the two sets of fangs bit through the charcoal black flesh, the middle head fired a continuous gravity beam into the dinosaur’s chest. As the young Godzilla bellowed in pain, King Ghidorah did not let up and continued to use the gravity beam to drill through the flesh of the saurian’s torso. The irradiated reptile attempted to fire an atomic ray, but the left head briefly released its grip and fired a gravity beam straight into his face, causing him to fire harmlessly into the sky before screaming in pain. The left head subsequently chomped back down on its former position as the middle one kept up its brutal assault.
The King of Terror heard the original Godzilla’s furious roar from not too far away, and his eyes narrowed angrily. The former vessel charged with a vengeance, intending to take the hydra from the back, but was only met with failure when he was smacked upside the head by the dragon’s two spiked tails.
The younger Godzilla summoned all the strength he had left and fired another atomic ray, this time striking the offending head and finally causing it to cease its assault. With his attacker letting up, the atomic reptile shot another heat ray just below where the hydra’s three necks joined, and the other two heads released their grip. Behind the King of Terror, the first Godzilla was attempting to rise to his feet, but King Ghidorah would not let it be so and took a leap backwards, landing on the recovering monster and crushing him beneath his feet once again. The silver-spiked king backed off, screaming horribly as a smoking, gaping hole now shone on his chest.
It was then that King Ghidorah revealed yet another horrifying attack.
His three heads joining close together, the galaxy destroyer let loose all three of his gravity beams at once. At such proximity, the three beams combined into one golden, jagged super beam that struck dead-center into the gaping wound on the young Godzilla’s chest. The King of Terror would have smiled if he could while firing as he watched the younger king howl horrifically into the heavens, the combined gravity beams piercing into his body and electrifying his muscles and internal organs, all the while widening his grievous chest wound. Swaying like a tree, the poor creature was teetering on the edge of unconsciousness. His vision was molten white, his body now starting to feel numb from the King of Terror’s unforgiving wrath. Below the crushing feet of King Ghidorah Godzilla screamed out for his son, struggling with every fiber of his being. But even his herculean strength was rivaled greatly as the golden terror kept him stagnant, forcing him to watch as he tortured his offspring right in front of him.
King Ghidorah kept the attack up until he began to run out of energy, finally ceasing fire as the young leviathan stepped back with a sickening groan. The scarred king struggled hard to stay standing, the unfathomable amounts of agony racking his once proud form in unrelenting waves. His avian eyes, wide with pain, almost seemed to water as the maimed monster lifted his head and bellowed a cry that reverberated through Japan for miles. And then, as the roar faded to a low echoing drone, the young Godzilla’s legs finally could handle no more and the weakened animal toppled to the side, collapsing with a thunderous BOOM!
The first Godzilla watched his child fall, and his paternal instincts kicking in he struggled ever harder. King Ghidorah cackled in annoyance as he began to have a hard time keeping the monster king down, staggering as Godzilla thrashed like an enraged Mako shark. The horrible hydra exhaled his gravity beams upon the nuclear giant, but Godzilla used the pain to fuel his fury. Snapping his head up in Ghidorah’s direction, the King of the Monsters let loose an atomic ray that struck the three-headed devil in his center chin. When the middle head snapped back in recoil Godzilla pushed off with all his strength, throwing the destroyer off him. Roaring in freedom as he rose to his feet, Godzilla rushed King Ghidorah without hesitation, attempting to distract the hydra’s attention from his injured offspring in any way he could. King Ghidorah let loose with his antigravity beams in reply, but despite the pain Godzilla charged through the electrical assault, his dorsal plates seeming to absorb portions of the alien electricity before going dim once again.
The King of the Monsters grabbed hold of Ghidorah’s right head and yanked downward, causing the golden terror to hunch down far enough for the saurian to lunge in and clamp his jaws down on his middle neck for the second time. Godzilla’s jaws, no longer limited nor controlled by the actions of malevolent spirits, were like a trapdoor ant’s mandibles. Their grip was an unforgiving, tooth-lined vice that held firmly to King Ghidorah’s serpentine neck with strength that started to make the King of Terror nervous. King Ghidorah’s six eyes gave off a glare so vicious that if looks could kill it would have burnt an entire planet full of life to a smoldering husk, but Godzilla was undeterred and continued to bite down harder, his fangs starting to veer through the gaps in Ghidorah’s scales. The dragon thrashed and cackled furiously, his left head firing a gravity beam at Godzilla’s head. But the radioactive giant lifted his head up, subsequently putting Ghidorah’s center head in the path of the attack. As the center head bellowed in pain the left one cut off its attack as fast as it could, realizing that if he kept it up, he would behead himself.
Godzilla’s jaws and King Ghidorah’s golden scales, two of some of the most powerful forces on the planet, clashed in a duel of physics and strength as the two monsters stomped and thrashed about, each trying to immobilize the other, a battle which Godzilla currently had the upper hand of. He didn’t shake his head like a dog to tear the wound; he simply continued to put all the pressure in his jaws in a fight to breach the hydra’s supposedly impenetrable scales. The planet killer’s left head lunged forward like a cobra, but Godzilla’s left fist batted it away. Enraged, Ghidorah’s six eyes narrowed into slits before the left head fired a gravity beam.
However, this one was not aimed for Godzilla- or not the first one, anyway.
The beam of golden lightning flew right past the two and struck the injured younger Godzilla in the chest, blowing off more chunks of flesh and eliciting a groan of agony from the nearly comatose dinosaur. Godzilla’s white eyes widened, and he put down more pressure in his jaws, his teeth beginning to prove victorious in the battle against the dragon’s scaly skin. Tiny droplets of red began to appear between the monster king’s fangs, but King Ghidorah kept up the blast, a sadistic smile creeping across his other two heads.
Godzilla, knowing that his bite wasn’t breaching the dragon’s scales fast enough, reached out with his other hand and grabbed hold of the left head’s horns and yanked it upwards, finally causing the gravity beam to stop welding into the gaping hole that used to be the younger Godzilla’s chest and change course into firing harmlessly into the sky.
With a loud, teeth-grinding CRACK! King Ghidorah’s scales gave way at last, and Godzilla’s snake-like fangs plunged into his flesh, bringing forth a spray of red blood that ran profusely down the hydra’s middle neck. The King of Terror’s scream of outrage was so loud it rattled the bowels of the earth and caused Godzilla’s ears to bleed. But the King of the Monsters’ resolve was unbending, and he now shook his head from side to side in an attempt to rend the head from its neck. King Ghidorah was now more violently desperate to break free than ever and pointed his wings at Godzilla before firing off his antigravity beams at close range. The nuclear giant yanked and shook his head ever harder as the countless beams of purplish electricity lacerated his timber gray flesh repeatedly.
As the galaxy destroyer continued to flay his saurian opponent alive he noticed that, once more, the electricity began to divert to his dorsal spines, lighting them up with a pinkish hue before dimming back to their normal bone-white color scheme. King Ghidorah didn’t know what that meant, but he had no hopes of finding out. Ceasing his attack, the three-headed devil resorted to using his brute strength instead. Lashing out with his foot, he kicked Godzilla in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to fall to one knee dry-heaving in agony. As Godzilla slowly regained his breath, he saw out of the corner of his eye King Ghidorah turn around to lash out with both of his tails. In the nick of time, Godzilla held up his arms to block just as the two tails smacked into where his face would have been had he not pulled a block, but the strike was strong enough to send him skidding a good fifty-five meters back.
King Ghidorah, his middle neck throbbing hellishly, turned back around to face the King of the Monsters- and his eyes widened when he saw a neon blue glow in Godzilla’s jaws. Somehow, he knew the true purpose of what the incoming atomic ray meant, and a cold chill went down his black heart.
With precise accuracy, Godzilla fired.
A third of the three-headed monster’s mind was banished to oblivion while the other two thirds rang with endless agony when the atomic ray struck the middle neck where Godzilla had bit it, sending the center head flying into the air no longer a part of its body. The other two heads writhed and screamed like demonic banshees as they mourned its loss, golden scales and red smoke flying from the stump like glitter clouds before a second atomic ray catapulted from Godzilla’s gaping jaws. Due to being so close, Ghidorah’s light barrier did not protect him and the beam struck his chest with powerful force, sending the golden terror falling to the ground with another horrific wail.
With the hydra rendered temporarily incapacitated, Godzilla finally took the moment to take a breather as he limped back towards his wounded child, his own injuries racked with burning pain. They did not heal like they should have- they remained open, bleeding or burnt. Apparently, his time spent as a puppet for the souls of the dead had taken a toll on him. It would more than likely be a while before his regenerative abilities ever came back.
A deep grunt escaped his throat as he finally knelt beside his son, and his eyes widened at the sight before him. The young Godzilla’s chest was nearly nonexistent. His fried insides and burnt bones were exposed to the world, easily visible from the massive hole that once was his torso. Once more, the injuries weren't healing. Godzilla didn’t know what was wrong. He had seen his son’s wounds heal in the battle before! Why wasn’t it now?! He didn’t understand what was preventing his offspring’s revival, why his wound continued to remain open and exposed instead of beginning the process of knitting itself back together. Maybe he was healing, just starting slowly?
Godzilla growled to his progeny, trying to keep him awake. The young king’s eyes were drooping in and out, his pupils changing every few seconds. He seemed to be falling out of it, weak rasps of breath barely managing to cast themselves out of his throat. The former demon roared weakly as he curled his hands around the ebony saurian’s neck, desperately coaxing his pride and joy to remain alive as he seemed to cradle him in his arms. The silver-spiked dinosaur, his heartbeat getting weaker every second, summoned all the strength he had left in him to lift his head, facing his father.
For all his life since infancy, he had been living the life of a lone wolf. A life that no member of his kind should ever live. His species were social animals, accustomed to living in family groups. Being solitary was not their natural instinct. But, through dealings of the cruel hands of fate, it came to fruition for him, and he grew up with a life of depression and social neglect as a result. Seeking as much solace as his broken heart could allow him to feel in the deepest trenches of the oceans, rarely coming to the surface to see the light of the surface.
But now, here in his twilight seconds of existence, he had finally found it. As his eyes began to still, his heart began to slow, and his movements started to cease, he uttered a weak moan towards his paternal savior, a final thank you. After all the years believing he was the last of his kind, he had found that he was wrong. And in these final moments of his life he finally felt at peace.
In those last seconds before he left the world, he was no longer alone.
And a low rumble escaped Godzilla’s throat when his son’s yellow avian eyes closed, his heartbeat coming to a full stop. The sound of the fallen saurian’s heart halting felt like a loud bang to the Monster King’s ears, and he reared his head up to let loose a loud, mournful roar to the heavens. The cries of a grieving father echoed through the island of Japan like a funeral requiem, begging whatever equivalent to the fates there might be beyond to not take his child away.
But the fates, if there were any, were as sadistic as ever as Godzilla continued to scream his heartbroken cries to the world.
A pair of gravity beams struck the King of the Monsters in the back, causing him to lurch forward with a roar of pain. A terrible growl exited Godzilla’s throat as he turned to face his child’s murderer, his teeth bared in a sneer that would have made even the Devil himself shudder in fear. King Ghidorah was on his feet again, his two remaining heads glaring back at the nuclear dinosaur, unafraid. Fear was all but a stranger to King Ghidorah, even in the face of odds that looked to be stacked against him. The only thing that mattered to him was to destroy this insolent fool who had dared to injure him so gravely. If it really had the nerve to cripple him so, he would answer its stupidity in blood!
With a loud cackle King Ghidorah fired off both his gravity beams and his wing lightning. The electrical assault struck Godzilla with blast after blast that blew off chunks of his gray flesh…but with each attack that struck him his dorsal plates absorbed their energy regardless of the damage he took. Godzilla roared as he fought through the pain, slowly inching his way closer to the King of Terror. The dragon shrieked in rage and fired again, this time striking Godzilla in the face, but as he recoiled his dorsal plates began to glow once again. Not blue, like usual, but a hauntingly beautiful gold with pinkish sparks zapping around them. Ghidorah’s assault came to an end, his eyes widening at the sight. Godzilla blinked, his white eyes seeming to glow with unimaginable power. Even during his time spent as a vessel, he remembered how he had taken down the smaller mockery of Ghidorah eighteen years ago. He didn’t know if this power was a product of his time spent as a puppet, but he didn’t care. He had it now, and he would use it to avenge his son’s death. He may have wiped out the smaller Ghidorah with a powerful attack, but the attack he was about to unleash would exceed even that.
An earth-shattering roar echoed from Godzilla’s jaws, informing the King of Terror that his time had come, before he took a deep breath and fired forth a full, furious blast of the hydra’s very own terrible power back at him. A golden atomic ray wrapped in pinkish spirals catapulted from the King of the Monsters’ fanged jaws, so hot that even the ground below it melted into slag in a straight line as it rushed towards the three-headed monster. King Ghidorah’s final outraged cry was quickly drowned out before an unearthly flash overtook the land. At first, every lifeform in the vicinity didn’t know if it was a brilliant explosion that signaled the end of the King of Terror’s reign, or if it was the gates of heaven itself opening right before their very eyes.
When powerful shockwaves disemboweled the earth’s crust and countless flaming bits of flesh shot in all directions it was quickly proven to be the former.
*****
A lid of scaly skin lifted slowly to reveal a solid white eye that stared all but blankly as it slowly regained its focus. Godzilla didn’t know how long he had been laying here, how long it had been since he had fired the shot. He couldn’t remember whether or not he had even succeeded in destroying the galaxy killing abomination known as King Ghidorah. All he knew was that he was exhausted beyond comprehension. His muscles felt numb, his bones like jelly, his ears barely able to make out even the loudest of sounds. Had it not been for the slow, steady beating of his heart the world would have declared Godzilla dead for the third time.
It was only after a good five minutes did his eyesight finally restore itself to its former glory. And the atomic reptile’s heart shattered apart all over again when he caught sight of a familiar set of jagged spines only three hundred or so meters away.
The nuclear dinosaur closed his eyes as he mourned, his face curled into an expression of pure agony as he lay still and silent. He made no sound at all, didn’t even twitch aside from the slight rise and fall of his back as he breathed. History had repeated itself all over again for him. He had lost the only family, the only companion he had left in a world that had taken everything from him, a world that wanted nothing more than to see him suffer. He was alone in a world that saw his existence as a stain that must be erased. He would now be forever left hurting, forever suffering internally for the rest of his pointless life. He felt no victory over triumphing over an indescribable evil, no satisfaction over destroying his son’s killer, no sense of freedom over having regained his body from the souls of the dead. He was the last of his kind. He had no chance in life anymore. He didn’t even have a chance to start over.
All he could do now was lay here and pray that the fates would be merciful on him for once, and he’d leave this world at long last.
It was then that he saw, out of the desolation of what was once Yokohama, a young woman step out into plain sight, slowly approaching him. Frantic gasps of nervousness escaped countless hiding survivors as she walked right up to the Monster King’s face, right where she could look at him from eye-level. Even though he was a towering colossus and she was but an insect in comparison, Godzilla’s binocular vision enabled him to get a good look at her. The radioactive reptile went completely still, the unseen crowds entering a state of stunned silence. If this woman knew the high risk of obtaining radiation poisoning from being so close to Godzilla, then she was undoubtedly insane. And yet, with the calmest expression on her face, she stood there in front of the dinosaur’s tooth-lined muzzle as if it were nothing. So, if the sight of her standing in front of the most powerful creature on the planet was enough to fill the minds of thousands with dread, then imagine the sheer shock that everyone, including Godzilla himself, felt when she took one step forward, and reached up with one hand…
And lay it upon Godzilla’s scaly snout.
The Monster King’s eyebrows widened ever the slightest as, for the first time in his sixty-plus years of life, a human being brought upon him a gesture that did not intend harm. Instead she showed a trait Godzilla thought humanity all but incapable of: empathy. As if on cue, the radioactive saurian began to feel the presence of another mind melding with his own. Not in a linguistic sense, but instead an emotional one. One that Godzilla could understand. Godzilla didn’t know how she was doing it, but this woman was somehow providing a mental link from her mind to his. Empathizing with him, understanding his pain and loneliness, sharing the same pain with him that she herself had suffered at some point in her life from the same tragedy: the loss of a loved one.
Godzilla released a low, sorrowful grumble as he closed his eyes. Welcoming the warm gesture as he continued to silently mourn the loss of his only family, while Miki Saegusa stood silently with a look of pity on her face, giving the grieving father some company during his time of sorrow. From the shadows other survivors began to emerge from their hiding places, some of them beckoning for Miki to back away. But the psychic didn’t reply, simply continuing to stroke the rough, tree bark-textured scales of the stagnant giant.
After what Godzilla couldn’t tell whether to be minutes or possibly an hour, the original King of the Monsters finally flexed his claws as he pushed off the ground, Miki slowly backing away as he began to rise to his feet. Waiting until she had stepped aside completely, Godzilla limped over to the body of his fallen child, bending over to scoop it up in his arms. Lifting his progeny up to chest level, the radioactive dinosaur carried the body with him as he limped back towards the sea. His son had been born there, and so he would return there. When he took his first step into the cool, refreshing waters, Godzilla realized that he was feeling the confines of the ocean for the first real time since his demise in these same waters sixty-five years ago and his ‘resurrection’ as a demonic puppet.
Godzilla let the comforts of the sea, the place where all life on earth began, embrace him as he slowly waded further and further into the waters, looking back upon the half-destroyed city of Yokohama one last time before finally dipping away beneath the surface, swimming off to find a place where he could lay his son to rest, somewhere so deep and isolated that it would never be disturbed by any living being other than him. As he swam, Godzilla felt a small bit of comfort thinking about that human whom had just empathized with him moments ago. He didn’t know who she was or where she came from, nor did he know her full story. Maybe someday he would see her again, but as of now it was best he took his leave. He would be forever grateful that he had met such an unusually gentle life form during his worst moment in life since the day humanity split the atom, and received the solace from another living being he had been longing for so long, even if just for a brief amount of time.
But even so, he had lost his only connection to the past left, and that loss would stick with him for the rest of his possibly unending life.
Godzilla, deciding he was far out enough, closed his stone white eyes as he finally took a dive. The fallen king’s body wrapped tightly in his grasp. Two tragic beings, one formerly living and the other formerly dead having now switched places, descended farther and farther down, slowly headed towards the near pitch-blackness as they slowly vanished into the deepest depths of the ocean, the trail of bubbles they left behind soon being the only short-lived reminder that their presences had even been there to begin with. Someday, one would show itself to the world of humanity once more, for reasons anyone could guess. But the other would remain down there forever, isolated in the watery void. Never to be seen again.
Or so it would seem.
As the leviathans disappeared, the one amongst the living was unaware of the spectral presences that watched him from the shadows. Their ghostly gazes fixed on the corpse he carried with him, their minds pondering over the same idea. They had lost their vessel. They had been broken free of their draconic prison.
Perhaps it was time they turned their eyes towards a new puppet...
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