Chapter Text
Godzilla watches as her friends sit around a campfire with a knot in her stomach. Her biggest fight in her life was only a few hours away, and she couldn't be any less confident in herself and her abilities, which was incredibly unusual for anyone who knew her. But she didn't want to drag down the moral of her friends, especially not after they'd worked so hard to bring it up as high as it was in the first place.
Sighing, she slowly walks away to sit on the other side of the mountain that overlooks the water. The skies are clear, which gives a perfect view as the moon rises over the ocean and bathes the water in it's white glow. She smiles. It had been a while since she'd simply sat down and looked at nature to appreciate its beauty. In fact the last time had been over 65 Million years ago. Back when she still had...
Her smile falters, and her eyes fall to the dirt. Right, that's why she's stuck to only defending nature and it's order, not appreciating it. Because what the hell did appreciating nature do? She didn't know, other than the fact that it didn't save her friend when he'd needed it the most. The regrets she still felt for letting her guard down and having to be saved by him, at the cost of his own life, would never go away, as long as she lives.
"Miss you... Thomas... Wish you were here to help. I know we'd all appreciate it. You and your quick jokes would have the moral higher than ever." She rests her arms on her knees, smiling and chuckling at the image her brain was drawing up. A tiny man of less than 2 meters doing something stupid and whacky to make everyone happier.
But that smile quickly fades, a new thought hitting her as she remembers things from even further past that day. An image of a crazy and wacky strategy against titans over 70 times bigger than him comes to her mind. "Were you... acting like that against her too?" She looks to the sky, as if the twinkling stars above might give her an answer. Of course, she receives nothing from it.
Continuing this train of thought, Godzilla thinks about her modern battles. She thinks about the way her allies walk into their respective fights, confident in their abilities to win in spite of the danger. Anguirus, Rodan, and even Kong to some degree, they all act like he used to. In the way that, while it brought about her defeat and containment for millions of years, ended up with his own life being taken by the Universe.
In her mind, a sacrifice might as well have been a loss. And the only thing that could've caused him to lose then, when he'd won and succeeded against the odds before, was that whacky attitude that leaked into his fighting style.
"No," Godzilla wrenches her eyes shut and vows to herself right there and then. "I can't let them suffer that same fate. If we survive this fight, nobody will ever take fighting as something that's fun again. I'll protect them in your honour, Thomas." She may have failed to keep her vow years ago, but this one meant so much more than simply keeping that bitch trapped. It meant keeping those close to her alive. It meant not having to deal with that same pain again.
"Goji?" Her eyes snap open and she looks towards the path she'd used to get here, finding both Mothra and Kong to be walking towards her. The looks on their faces tell her that they'd heard more of that than they should've, which was none at all.
"I thought you two would still be talking with the others," she says. "How much of that did you hear?" She asks, despite already know that it's an obvious answer. Neither say anything and simply choose to sit down beside her.
Mothra and Kong look between one another, having a silent conversation without saying a word. Godzilla can't help but find it impressive. Then, after about 20 seconds of this, Mothra finally speaks the question Godzilla knows they both have.
"Who's Thomas?" Godzilla closes her eyes and crosses her arms, not bothering to stop the sigh that escapes her. No point in trying to hide her emotions about this, not when she knows Mothra will just pick her apart in seconds.
"He was an old friend of mine. Old enough that he was there to see me when I grew into a Kaiju." She can't help her smile as she sees the look of utter shock on Mothra's face, and the look of complete confusion on Kong's because of it.
"You said, 'he,' as in, he was a male Kaiju!?" Mothra asks, barely able to prevent herself from falling off the rock they were sitting. Kong meanwhile was just sitting there confused.
"No, he wasn't a male Kaiju, Mothra. If he was, we wouldn't be in the situation we're in right now. Not with the amount potential for growth he had. He was only stage 3," Godzilla explains. While Mothra understands this explanation, and even looks downtrodden at the mention of stage 3, Kong is just looking more confused than ever.
"I'm sorry, what the hell are we talking about here?" She asks, finally earning the attention of the others, who immediately notice her confusion. "What does Stage 3 mean? Besides the obvious? And why does him being a male mean anything?" In response to this question, Godzilla starts rubbing her temples.
"Right, I completely forgot that you grew up alone, and didn't learn any of the lessons on biology that you otherwise would've." It's been so long since she'd had to explain this, and she hadn't ever anticipated having to. Especially since she'd never end up finding a mate for herself.
"Well, let's start with the basics that are needed to understand this." Mothra interjects and looks to Kong with a much calmer gaze. "Do you know why we're called, 'Kaiju Girls," instead of just, 'Kaiju'?" Kong just blinks owlishly at them, which gives them more than enough of an answer.
"It's because there are so few males nowadays," Godzilla explains. Kong opens her mouth to speak about the murals in the Kong temple, which very clearly depicted males, but Godzilla beats her to the punch on that. "The murals in the Kong temple are about your species, which doesn't depict the overwhelming majority of Kaiju." Kong just goes back to owlishly blinking.
Mothra decides to pick up from there, before old rivalries cause trouble. "The Kong's were very different to normal titans. Your ancestors are also the ancestors of humanity, which don't undergo the same process as traditional titans." Understandably, that made about as much sense as trying to catch a fart with a butterfly net.
"Okay, do you know how Kegato's and UrZaka's affect one's body? Or how potential works? Because those are key to this explanation," Godzilla explains. Kong shakes her head. She'd certainly heard enough about them, but she'd never had them explained to her.
"Kegato's are the boost in power you get from getting injured, and not near death experiences like many seem to believe for some reason. Depending on the damage dealt to you, your power can increase by a certain percent," Godzilla explains. "For example, you know how I fought Kiryu when she was first created right?" A nod, "I got a large cut on my arm, and that was able to give an 8% Kegato, meaning my power increased by 8% after I recovered." Kong nods again, still confused but beginning to understand.
"UrZaka boosts function very differently. Where Kegatos boost based off percentages of one's existing power, UrZaka's boost by multiplying the existing power. However, you need to be pushing yourself right to your limits and still be continuing to fight on to receive one." Another nod.
"And then potential is essentially just UrZaka's on way too much radiation." That made very little sense to Kong. "You have a set amount of potential, which isn't the peak of one's strength, it's just the end of extremely rapid growth." Godzilla's explanation leaves Kong stunned. "On average, potential boosts increase one's power by anywhere between 1 and 100 times. And Kaiju usually get around 25 of these boosts across their lifetime." Kong tries to think back to when she might've gotten one of these boosts.
"But they come at times where you go beyond what your body can handle, and can vary greatly depending on what you do in that time." Kong pauses her train of thought and focuses on Godzilla again. "For example, if you trained heavily and got one, but stopped training after that, you may get anywhere between 25 and 30 times depending on if it's your first time or not, and then get as low as a 3 to 5 times boost after you stop." It all makes sense, but it doesn't make a clear connection.
"Okay, but how does this connect to the Stages you mentioned? And how does this make him being a male special?" Godzilla and Mothra look at one another, the latter nodding towards the former. She lets out a sigh and turns back to Kong, giving her information she knows will shock the young Alpha Titan.
"Because males can only become titans through Monsterization, a process that combines both the highest degree of Kegato and Urzaka boosts. Being pushed to their limits while severely injured is the only way for a male to become a Kaiju, whereas us females just naturally grow into Kaiju after hitting a certain age. It's likely where the misconceptions on Kegatos come from."
Kong stares at her with wide eyes and her mouth agape, struggling to get a single word past her lips. She had not been expecting anything like this! She'd had no idea the pain it took males to become titans, and she suddenly didn't feel like complaining about her constant growing pains during her time on Skull Island.
"The Stages go as followed: Humanoid, Half-Monster, Monster, Kaiju-Minor, and Kaiju." Godzilla explains, making vague gestures with her hands that were supposed to support her descriptions. "Humanoid is simple enough, we're the size of normal humans but with our main Kaiju attributes. Like I'd have my tail and dorsal fins, but not my claws and such." Godzilla raises and clenches her fingers in emphasis of this point. "Half-Monster, the stage where their bodies are strengthening to handle the pressure of being a Kaiju. Monster, they're usually wrapped in a hardened shell, capable of tanking attacks from Kaiju-Minors without issue, and even surviving attacks from full blown Kaiju."
Godzilla takes a pause at that, thinking about what might've happened during the fight between Thomas and that bitch. Chances are he would've started advancing further through the stages—albeit no male in history had ever gone up two stages in the same fight—which makes her all the more inclined to ensure that nobody makes his mistakes. If he, with his absurd amount of power as a Stage 3, was able to end up dying as a Stage 4, it could've only have been his carefree style that had led to it.
"Kaiju-Minors and Kaiju are basically the same, just that the former is smaller and weaker than the latter. Usually Kaiju-Minors reach a height of about 30 to 40 meters, or about the size of a born Kaiju child. They're essentially just Monster's on steroids. And Kaiju I don't feel I have to explain at all." A shake of Kong's head serves as an effective answer.
"So, that's why it was so special." Kong looks towards the ground, the understanding leaving her unable to say anything else.
"And his mind, it was completely stable? He was growing into a perfect Kaiju-Boy?" Mothra asks, to which Godzilla nods in response. "So, dare I ask, what happened to stop this growth?"
At this question Godzilla's demeanour changes drastically, the look in her eyes becomes one that both of the Kaiju beside her know is reserved for one person, and that's Solhidora.
Godzilla, seeing that they caught the look and understand, begins explaining. "Me and Thomas had just finished dealing with some childhood bullies—story for another day—and had decided to go cool down in Antarctica. Thomas mostly, he was getting a serious UrZaka boost from the fight. Stage 3 remember, absolutely tiny in comparison. He still beat 3 of them."
"How many were there?" Kong asks curiously. Godzilla suddenly gets a disappointed look, a sore spot they hadn't known about.
"I only took down two of them, albeit they were the strongest of the five. Thomas was just fighting so wackily that they couldn't keep up with him. And his small size just helped him with that." Both girls can't help but notice a slight look of disdain as she says that.
"Okay, so what happened next?" Mothra questions gently, hoping that remembering won't make her do anything rash, like she has in the past. But she also knows very well that anything that's personal to Godzilla is bound to rile her up.
Godzilla herself is pulled into a memory, one that she can't forget as long as she lives, despite how much she wants to.
The cold was definitely soothing on her sore muscles, but she hadn't been anticipating that they'd be laying in the snow to get it working, especially when there's a blizzard overhead, constantly whipping snow into their eyes. Then again, snow in the eyes is preferable to constant pain across her body so...
"What're you gonna do when I become a Kaiju?" Godzilla sat up and looked onto a cliff, where her short friend is sitting on the edge.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She questioned him, although she already had an idea of what he was implying with his question.
"I mean what're you gonna do when I'm a kaiju and obscenely powerful? I'll be unstoppable!" Godzilla rolled her eyes at the statement, even if she knew it would undoubtedly be true.
"That's assuming you don't lose your mind first. Because even I'll be able to beat you if you aren't fighting with your bullcrap style." She replied, to which Thomas smirked down at her.
"Is that jealousy I hear? Is someone jealous that I beat more kaiju than her, even though I'm just a Stage 3 Monster?" Godzilla blushed and stood up, shooting a look down at Thomas, who had just raised a brow at it.
"Shut up! And I don't mean with teasing me!" Thomas's brow raised further. "I mean never, ever, call yourself that again. You're so much more than just a Stage 3 Monster..." She blushed again, harder, before continuing, "You're the best friend a person could ask for."
"AW!"
Godzilla blushes and looks at Mothra, who's smiling at the story. "That's adorable, Goji!" Her blush deepens. She gives her old friend a shove and scowls in her embarrassment.
"Shut up!"
Before Thomas could respond to her comment, a bolt of lightning caught both of theirs attention, and then they both looked to the clouded skies. Thomas even stands up just to get a better look.
"Well, that's different than before," Thomas said. He started moving around in place, stretching and shaking his body and getting it loosened up
Godzilla didn't even bother to turn and glare at him for stating the obvious and just kept watching the sky. Her senses were beginning to roar at her, something was coming, and it was going to be big!
The storm above began to swirl, and lightning began to crash down more frequently, tearing through the mountains of ice and leaving large craters in the ground.
Then they saw the source.
A blonde woman, even bigger than Godzilla—especially since she was still young and not finished developing at this point—slowly floated down to land about a kilometre away from them. Wearing a deep blue flowing dress that sparkled like the night sky, decorated with red heart-shaped roses and pink banners strung between them. Several sun styled markings were on her chest, as well as around her deep blue eyes, and the wind was whipping some well kept blonde curls around, yet couldn't seem to dislodge a tiara.
"Solhidora?!" Mothra exclaims at the description.
Godzilla once again turns to Mothra, with Kong looking around her curiously. Understandable, she was about the only kaiju among them who hadn't seen Solhidora yet.
"Yeah, this was the first time I met her. Things... did not go well..."
She eyes them from there, not saying a word. She seemed to hardly pay Godzilla any mind, only sparing a few seconds to give her a once over before moving on to look down at Thomas, who then received a lot more of her time and attention. Godzilla could practically see it as her gaze seemed to trace over every inch and ridge of Thomas's body.
Thomas clearly noticed it too, because he took a defensive stance only a second later, looking ready to attack in spite of this new kaiju being even bigger than any of the kaiju they'd fought earlier that day.
That sent Godzilla's senses into overdrive, and she promptly smacked the cliff and caused it to shake and throw Thomas off his balance. The response was expected as he glared up at her for it, but she ignored it and started approaching the new kaiju.
"Hi, I'm Godzilla." She tried not to let her defensiveness creep into her tone, but she winced as it was pretty obvious it had. Although it didn't seem to offend the new kaiju, instead she seemed amused by her nervousness. But despite this, she still didn't speak.
She could hear it as Thomas leapt off the cliff, promptly shattering it and landing on her shoulder.
"Ladies first." He said, not even bothering to hide his defensive attitude. Yet it seemingly did nothing but amuse her yet again. The key difference is that Thomas's words actually got her to respond.
"Solhidora. My name, is Solhidora. I come from across the Galaxy, looking for a new planet to call my own." She smiled warmly, though more towards Thomas than Godzilla.
Nothing about her tone, or her words, indicated that anything was immediately off about her. She just genuinely seemed like she was looking for a new planet to call home and was interested in Thomas being male, for obvious reasons.
Yet, Thomas just went even more defensive, even somewhat aggressive after hearing that response. In hindsight, he was definitely catching onto signals that Godzilla wasn't, and should've been.
"Across it? That implies that you've come from more than one planet. Otherwise you would've said, "from the other side of the galaxy". That, plus you wanting to call the planet your own, goes to imply you want to take it over!"
Solhidora's face shifted into something Godzilla couldn't discern, but she knew it wasn't good, and that annoyed her a lot. It annoyed her enough for her to smack Thomas off her shoulder and send him crashing into the base of the cliff he'd jumped from, burying him in the rubble from said jump.
He burst back out, glaring angrily at her. "THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!"
She promptly glared back at him. "You're going to be the reason that a fight starts if you keep talking like that!"
"I'm just saying what I think after what I heard her say. Excuse me for being a little mistrustful of an alien that we don't know what she's been doing, and therefore can't put her words into the proper context!"
"Just be quiet and let me handle this!"
She turned back around, only to jump back slightly. She hadn't noticed, but Solhidora had approached her while her back was turned. Now there was hardly 25 meters of distance between them, which wasn't much considering the overwhelming size of Solhidora's bust.
Looking past that, metaphorically and literally, Godzilla's focus goes back to Solhidora's face, only for it to have completely changed. Rather than the amused expression she was sporting previously, it was now flat and almost aggressive looking. She was about to turn and get Thomas to apologize to her before things escalated, but Solhidora bent down and shoved their faces way too close together for her comfort.
"It seems you're not as intelligent as your friend there. I'd be a lot more cautious if I were you." Caught off guard by the sudden change in demeanour, Godzilla attempted to back up, but every step was met with Solhidora taking one of her own.
"You have a fair amount of potential, perhaps you could even be my second in command someday, if you're trained properly. But your friend," she shivered, and it definitely was not from the cold! "I can't even begin to gauge his potential, not that it matters. He'll be my King regardless." Godzilla's eyes widened further, terror beginning to take root.
"And now that I've said that, allow me to introduce myself properly." She took a step back and spread her arms wide. "My name, is Ra Sol hidora, and I am the Queen of the Ghidorian Empire. This planet is the next in a long line of planets I have chosen to conquer. Behave and you'll be treated accordingly."
With that statement out in the open, Godzilla began preparing an apology for how she acted towards Thomas. She also began preparing to fight back this bitch, even if she knew she was at a massive disadvantages.
"I'd sooner try fucking a piece of magma than you." The indignity that Godzilla had tried to prevent had appeared, and she was all for it. Thomas was now back on her shoulder, glaring at Solhidora. He obviously wanted to be giving her a smug look, but was more focused on Solhidora.
Said bitch just solemnly shook her head. "Such a shame. Powerful and competent fighters are few and far between. Then again, you missed what I said and didn't listen to someone clearly more intelligent. Perhaps it was a sign that you aren't as worthy of him as you seem to think." And before Godzilla could react, Solhidora raised a hand and the clouds opened up just as a beam of fire was blasted at her, not unlike that of a solar flare.
At the last possible second, Thomas leapt off her shoulder. As she was hit and slammed into the cliff and became half buried in the chunks of snow and ice, Thomas's fist glowed white and slammed straight into Solhidora's left cheekbone. There was a nice audible crunch as the bone broke, and Solhidora was sent sliding back as a shockwave rung out.
Neither Godzilla or Solhidora could believe it. "How!? You're just a stage 3 monster!" She heard Thomas chuckle. "No, I'm the best friend she could ever ask for."
"Still adorable!"
"Shut up!"
"Thomas... don't! You can't beat her!" She tried to get up, but the blast had managed to make her unable to move. Likely had something to do with the now bright sunny skies Solhidora was somehow producing against the previous blizzard. She was helpless to do anything to stop her, and Thomas was now being forced to fight in her place.
Thomas meanwhile just flashed her his usual smile at her. "I've got this Goji, don't worry." He then turned back to Solhidora, before he started jumping from one foot to the other, the same white glow of his martial arts forming around his hands again. Once he was done with that he took a stance, and from that stance he exploded forward faster than ever before.
Godzilla couldn't keep up with the fight, and the effects of the blast were getting to her. She passed out just as Thomas took a massive hit from Solhidora that sent him into a mountain.
"So you mean, he was left to fight her all by himself?!" Kong exclaims. Mothra looks about ready to ask the same question but is just barely managing to keep herself in check. Godzilla looks terrible by comparison, broken being the best way to describe it.
"Yeah, and he won in the end too. But not without a massive cost..."
When Godzilla finally woke up again, the storm that had previously been around the ring Solhidora had opened up was completely gone, replaced by a clear blue skies in all directions, as far as the eye could see. She blinked up at it for a few seconds, confused as to what happened. But then it hit her like a meteor and she shot up into a sitting position to look around at the surrounding area in search of Thomas.
But she froze as soon as she made it up, her eyes locked onto the icy tomb of Solhidora. He'd won! Thomas had actually won, and by the looks of things, he’d done so by a big margin! Solhidora is battered, bruised, and her previously immaculate dress is tattered and ruined.
Somewhat impressively though, her tiara is still somehow on her head.
She began looking around for him, but he was nowhere nearby. Not even sleeping on or against a cliff. She even checked over herself to make her he wasn't just in a blind spot of her body.
He wasn't there.
She got up and started frantically looking around for any trace of him, and yet she still found nothing. Not even a trail of blood to indicate where he might’ve wandered off to in order to rest…
...and only then did she see the massive hole in the ice.
She rushed over to it and looked down, only to be greeted by the sight of a Hollow Earth gate, and no sign of Thomas. The sides of the chasm were covered in marks, blood, and even flakes of a monsterized shell. All of this suggested that Thomas's fall had not been smooth, nor had his fight. At that point Godzilla finally fell to her knees, slowly coming to terms with the fact that her best friend was really gone.
Tears streamed down her face as she knelt there, mournful. But she only stayed like that for a few minutes before wiping them away and getting up.
She glared at Solhidora's tomb, feeling more intense hatred towards the bitch frozen underneath the ice than she ever had towards anyone else in her life. She was trembling, barely resisting the urge to fire the atomic breath to try and kill her, knowing it would just set her free. Instead, she chose to make a vow.
"Thomas... you did amazingly. I... I'm just going to miss you so damn much! But I'll never let her get free! I'll defend this planet, just like you did. That's a promise!" And as she said that, it felt as if the area around her grew just a little bit warmer.
Godzilla knows she's crying, but she's too busy trying, and failing, to control her rage to give a shit about them. Her nails had formed several divots in the rock they're sitting on, and both Mothra and Kong were working to keep her from getting up and doing something brash.
"Goji! You need to calm down!" Mothra yanks her left arm back as she tries to get to her feet. "This isn't what Thomas would want you to be like over him! He'd want you to be happy!" Unfortunately, Mothra quickly comes to regret that choice of words, especially as Godzilla's fury now turns towards her.
"You don't know a goddamn thing about him, Mothra! His final act was to seal her away for good, and then he DIED! DON'T tell me to calm down! It's all THEIR FAULT that she's free at all! And that Thomas's memory has been shit all over!"
She already hadn't liked humans, no thanks to them being descendants of the Great Apes that destabilized the Hollow Earth so much that most titans there moved to the surface, where she had to help them adapt and not decimate it too.
But the moment that Solhidora was set free by those activists, her rage had already been at a boiling point, so she'd destroyed the helicopter they were on, and the strange device they were using went with it.
The only reason she had any faith left in humanity was because of that one human giving her a power boost, at the cost of his own life. He reminded her of Thomas in that regard. Respecting titans enough to give his life for one.
"All the more reason to take this opportunity and end Solhidora for good!" She looks back to Mothra, who was now also standing. "Thomas bought you Millions of Years! Now's the time to kill her for good! You even have a new power-up to help in battle!" Godzilla couldn't help but smile at that.
"Yeah, we'll win this one for you, Thomas!" The moon appears from behind a cloud just after she says this, once again giving them a sense of comfort. "And I'll never let anyone share your fate again! Rest well, my Old Ally." She's then dragged off to join the others around the bonfire, which does well to raise her spirits anymore.
The wall breaks from the drill, revealing another cave to those behind the drill. It looks like a small civilization built around a small lake that's being replenished from above.
"General Gyozen! We only have about 10 more minutes before we need to go back and join the fight! The Kaiju are already out there!" Miki Saegusa calls from the land-rover half of Moguera.
"I know! But the scanners detected something massive here, and whatever it is might be able to help!" Gyozen calls back over her shoulder as she walks near the edge of the lake.
She looks up, and is just barely able to see the Hollow Earth gate up above, which has water slowly running through it. It makes Gyozen wonder as she looks back down at the water; how had it not overflowed and flooded this little civilization?
There's no obvious answer in sight, and nothing stands out to indicate that it is the reason for that not happening. So after a few minutes of staring at the water with nothing happening, Gyozen finally turns and walks back to Moguera, which promptly turns and drives out to meet with the flying half of Moguera so they can join the fight.
However, had they chosen to stay in there just a little longer, they would've seen a massive figure claw its way out of the lake. It looks around and utters a single word...
"Godzilla!"