Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Godzilla stood alone in the desolate wastes of Tokyo. As the humans continued to assault him with their freezer weapons, desperately fighting for their lives as his own came to a bitter end, he looked down at the lifeless body of his son. A single tear evaporated from the corner of his eye as he contemplated whether or not things could have gone differently. But this was the world they lived in. A cruel world that had no place for Junior’s kind soul.

Godzilla slowly closed his eyes, and let out one final roar as his body began to melt away. Flesh dripped off of his bones as they crumbled into the molten nuclear slurry, and the world faded to white.

Humanity breathed a huge sigh of relief as they gazed upon the vacant space where Godzilla's burning visage once stood.

The king was gone.

Or so everyone thought.

Godzilla's eyes slowly opened his eyes with a dreary groan. He felt cold, which was an odd sensation for him to be experiencing. Even when he was being blasted with freeze rays and cadmium, he could only feel the intense heat billowing out of his body. But now, he felt an ice-cold wind blowing across his snout, and the snow beneath his claws. Godzilla slowly rose to his feet and looked around in confusion. He found that he was no longer in the ruins of Tokyo, but instead in an icy tundra devoid of any human activity.

Or so he thought. Soon, Godzilla heard the screams of two men in a ravine beneath him. He peered down into it and saw the two men panicking as they fled deeper into the ravine. However, while distracted, Godzilla was suddenly attacked by another giant creature that bit down on his neck. While not hurt by this attack, he was quite surprised and furiously threw the quadrupedal creature off of him.

After shaking off the attack, Godzilla looked down at his attacker, finding it to be a sixty-meter-long creature with a spiked carapace, a crown of horns, and a sharp horn protruding from his snout. The spiky monster’s tail swayed in the air as he dragged his paw against the ground like a bull ready to charge. Godzilla was impressed by the bravery of the creature, to stand defiantly against a monster nearly twice his height and vastly stronger than it, but that bravery could only get it so far. As the monster charged, Godzilla spun around and smacked him with his tail, launching him across the icy island.

As the spiky monster’s howl faded into the distance, Godzilla roared triumphantly, before turning and leaving, hoping to find out where he was and what happened to him. While marching towards the ocean, he saw a plane fly overhead but shrugged it off. He wasn’t in the mood to fight and simply wanted to rest after all he’s been through. Slowly, Godzilla collapsed into the ocean and swam away.

Meanwhile, over in Japan, the news of Godzilla’s return and the arrival of a new monster had the entire Japanese military on edge. The island nation rapidly began deploying the entire self-defense force. After determining the trajectory of the two monsters, they deployed troops in Osaka. Planes flew across the dark, cloudy skies, and tanks slowly approached the shoreline before stationing themselves with a clear shot into the ocean.

After that, it wasn’t too long until a crown of spikes breached the surface, and the spikey monster that the Japanese people had dubbed “Anguirus” emerged from the water. Flairs fell from the sky, drawing the attention of the quadrupedal monster as the military directed the evacuation. Anguirus slowly stumbled back into the ocean with a noticeable limp. Recalling the report from the people from the island, they surmised that Anguirus was still recovering from his battle with Godzilla, which brought them some hope that he’d be less willing to attack in his weakened state.

However, that was all for naught, as a police chase that led to an oil refinery explosion quickly turned Anguirus’ attention back to the mainland. Phase 1 had failed. Now it was time for phase 2. The military began to bombard Anguirus with everything they had, but he was unphased by all of it. Anguirus crawled onto dry land, trampling everything in his path. The commanding officer of the military, Shogo Fujimoto, fell to his knees as Anguirus continued his death march into the city.

However, as people ran in terror from the colossal, quadrupedal behemoth, a sudden, high-pitched screech echoed throughout the city. Anguirus stopped in place and looked up to the sky as the clouds began to part, and a gentle fluttering whistle could be heard as a new monster descended from the heavens. The enormous creature was larger than Anguirus, with wings that dwarfed even Godzilla. Anguirus looked upon her with awe and fear as the goddess before him gazed down with a cold, callous glare.

With the simple beating of her wings, the moth goddess swept Anguirus off his feet and sent him tumbling onto his back, while burying him beneath the rubble of the buildings he had destroyed. Anguirus attempted to roll over, but before he could complete the motion, the goddess grabbed him by the tail with all six of her legs and dragged him up into the air, before throwing him down to the ground again.

Anguirus clambered to his feet and roared at the goddess, who did not reply, instead smacking him in the face with her tremendous wing, which dazed the monster, before once again knocking him backwards with her beating wings. As Anguirus was pelted with rocks and debris, the military joined the fight once again, sending bombing runs down on both monsters. This irritated the goddess, and she briefly turned to screech indignantly at the jets. However, this gave Anguirus the opportunity to leap up and tackle her.

The goddess screeched once more as she and Anguirus both fell to the ground. The goddess curled her wings around herself, protecting her face and the back of her neck from Anguirus’ assault, but then felt herself tumbling about as Anguirus batted her around with his spiked maul of a tail, before slamming down on her chest. The jolt of pain caused the goddess to unfurl her wings, giving Anguirus the opportunity to lunge at her again and begin ripping into her. The moth goddess scratched furiously with her claws while Anguirus swiped and bit repeatedly. The goddess could tell she wouldn’t win this war of attrition and started looking for a way out. That’s when she saw the scar across Anguirus’ chest where Godzilla hit him before. She unsheathed a stinger from her abdomen and stabbed it directly into the scar, injecting venom straight into him. Anguirus gagged in shock and confusion as the goddess smugly stared into his eyes before removing the stinger from his chest and sucking it back in.

The goddess pushed Anguirus off of her as the venom quickly did its work, shutting down all of Anguirus’ nerves and slowing his heart rate substantially, before he eventually succumbed to the venom and collapsed. His body was quickly failing him, and as everything went dark, the goddess grabbed his limp body and carried him out to sea.

The military watched in shock and confusion as the moth carried Anguirus away instead of turning her fangs on them. However, this surprise was not unwelcome after everything that happened today. Between Godzilla’s return and two new monsters appearing, having one of the new monsters kill the other and then not attack them was a welcome turn of events.

Speaking of which, deep within the ocean, Godzilla was in the midst of his own mission. After studying the layout of the ocean, he was able to deduce that there was something different about this world, meaning that he either time traveled, something about the world itself changed, or he was in another version of Earth that was similar to the one he left behind, but with some crucial differences. None of these seemed likely to Godzilla, but they were also the only explanations he could think of for why the oceans he swam through so many times before seemed so different now. However, while pondering this, Godzilla was suddenly blasted by a bright red heat ray which struck him right in the dorsal fins.

This strike enraged Godzilla, who turned to see where his assailant came from, only to be shot in both of his eyes and temporarily blinded, as a net was cast around him, which delivered powerful shocks throughout his body. Godzilla wasn’t injured in any way by this net, but the shocks it was dealing to him were not meant to deal physical damage to him. Instead, somehow, the jolts from this net bypassed his godlike toughness by activating his body’s pain receptors directly. Godzilla screamed in absolute agony, too stricken with pain to think of anything he could do to escape this. Or anything at all, for that matter, other than the absolute pain he was experiencing at this agonizing moment. He wasn’t going to die, but a part of him wished he would.

Before Godzilla passed out from the pain, he caught a brief glimpse of a regal, gilded submarine with a glass dome at the front of it, revealing the crew piloting the vessel, as well as what appeared to be a queen sitting on a throne towards the back. She made some sort of gesture with her hand just as Godzilla finally lost consciousness.

Chapter Text

Godzilla’s golden eyes slowly opened. His vision was blurry, and his ears were ringing, but despite that, he attempted to make sense of everything that happened to him. The last thing he remembered, he was suddenly attacked by some sort of net that inflicted him with so much pain that he fell unconscious. Upon awakening, Godzilla realized that he was being held in what looked to be a gladitorial arena, characterized by circular architecture that appeared simultaneously ancient and futuristic. Lining the walls were murals of a titanic serpent being worshiped by several humans, likely the same ones who trapped him here for unknown reasons.

Godzilla looked down at his arms and saw them in shackles massive enough to wrap around his wrists. Yet they were still far too weak to hold him, as proven when Godzilla grabbed the shackles and shattered them in his grip. As he shook the residual specks of metal off, the room he was in began flashing red as an alarm sounded throughout wherever he was.

Godzilla marched forward, snapping more chains that he didn’t even notice were wrapped around his legs and tail as he approached a colossal gate across from him. He assumed that whatever was in there was either an opponent or something that could lead him out of there. As he approached the gate, someone in an observation deck above him lifted a microphone up to their mouth.

“Release Manda,” they demanded.

Godzilla paused as the gate slowly opened. The doors ground against the cold stone floor, leaving white scratches as bubbles billowed through the water around them. Godzilla growled and got into a combative stance as he awaited his opponent. Then, within the blink of an eye, an enormous sea serpent erupted from the water, baring its sharp teeth at him. Godzilla snarled as the creature slammed into him and attempted to bite into his throat. However, the teeth couldn’t even break skin, so he instead attempted to constrict around Godzilla, which was not only ineffective but allowed Godzilla to grab the serpent by the torso and tear it in two.

The entire kingdom of Mu watched in shock, horror, and disbelief as the king of the monsters defeated their god and moved on without even trying. After defeating Manda, Godzilla decimated the underwater kingdom unopposed, before bursting out of the side of an underground mountain with a mighty roar of victory. He then swam up to the surface of the ocean, where he saw the moon glistening radiantly in the night sky.

However, as he gazed up at the moon, he saw something descending from the sky towards him. His dorsal spines flashed blue and his eyes narrowed as he prepared for yet another battle. This tense mood only rose when he saw that the monster approaching him was none other than Mothra, one of his earlier enemies. While he never once saw her as a threat, he wasn’t in the mood to deal with her at the moment, especially not after breaking out of that kingdom. Not to mention, Mothra was so much bigger now, that Godzilla expected she may actually be a problem for him this time around. However, as Mothra gently glided down to face him, Godzilla didn’t sense any sort of ill intent from her.

Mothra could sense that this Godzilla was not like the one before him. Despite radiating a power far greater than anything on Earth, she could tell that he would not be a threat to the world any time soon (at least, not intentionally.) Realizing this, Mothra arrived not to battle this new, colossal Godzilla, but to negotiate with him. To perhaps offer him a position as a fellow guardian of Earth, fighting by her side to defend the world from those seeking to destroy it.

Godzilla squinted at this offer. While he had some experience defending the planet from those wishing to destroy it, that was never his objective. He did not fight for the world that hated him, and which sent wave after wave of adversaries to try and destroy him. He fought for his son. The sweet, caring, kind-hearted little kaiju who saw him as a comforting figure. The bright spot in a bleak world that detested his very existence. But now, that son was gone, and Godzilla was not motivated at all to protect anything.

In the tongue of the kaiju, Godzilla promised Mothra that as long as he was left alone, he would not bear his fangs at anyone. He would be neither a destroyer nor a protector, but a neutral force.

Before Mothra could question this decision any further, Godzilla returned to the depths of the ocean. Mothra called out to Godzilla again and again, but it was all for naught, as Godzilla had vanished beneath the waves once again. Mothra let out a disappointed sigh and flew away. She found this encounter with the new king of the monsters frustrating, but also deeply conflicting. She could tell that there was something that this new Godzilla left unspoken. This mighty beast of incomprehensible power had a strange sadness in his voice when he spoke to her, and that drove her to want to understand him further.

So, as Mothra flew back to Infant Island, she promised herself that if she and Godzilla ever crossed paths again, she would find out the answers to these lingering questions he left her with.

While Mothra flew back to her home island, Godzilla went back to traveling through the ocean, attempting to gain a better understanding of this strange new version of Earth. He was at the very least relieved to know that this version of Mothra wouldn’t be bothering him any time soon and hoped that the same would apply to that annoying brother of hers, assuming he was still alive here.

But while he swam along, he passed by an underwater chasm and suddenly felt a strange sensation. He could sense ambient radiation nearby, but it was accompanied by an eerie feeling that he had stumbled upon something sinister. So, he swam down to check it out, and there he found something shocking.

Inside the underwater chasm, he was greeted by the bodies of dozens of other Godzillas, most of them half his height or less, and all of them pale and withered, as if their life force had been sucked out of their bodies. Their carcasses were covered in grizzly red scabs from head to tail. As Godzilla cautiously placed a hand on one of these bodies, his mind racing with questions, he recoiled as the lightest touch caused the scabs on it to visibly writhe until dozens of tiny, arachnid-like creatures burst out of it, letting out repetitive whistling noises as they scuttled out.

These things, these parasites, reminded Godzilla of the little black mutant ticks that fell off of his body when he attacked that ship back in his early days. Whatever these parasites were, they got the better of these Godzillas, as the king could not see a single survivor down there. With a heavy heart, Godzilla’s dorsal spines glowed a somber blue, and he ignited the bodies with his atomic breath, immolating them and the parasites still clinging onto them. The fires burned on and on for hours, but when they finally subsided, Godzilla stood among the ashes and sighed deeply, paying his respects to the deceased remnants of his own species, before returning to his aimless ocean journey. 

Unbeknownst to him, however, this act of his, destroying the parasites that feasted on the smaller, weaker relatives of the king of the monsters, would attract the ire of their parasitic progenitor, awakening her from her deep-sea hibernation.