Chapter Text
It was pouring rain when Godzilla left the city.
It wouldn’t be ideal on a bad day, but Goji had been having a relatively good day. Enough that he’d felt energized enough to go out to the city in the first place and look for the (frankly absurd) number of ingredients he needed for weekly pancakes instead of kicking Monkey out of the house to do it.
The stall person he’d met with had been polite and hadn’t automatically given him that blank, wide-eyed stare that a lot of the city-folk did, so that experience was relatively nice, too.
This weather was decidedly not nice.
It wasn’t that Goji wasn’t a fan of rain, ‘April showers bring May flowers’ and all that, and Godzilla had always liked the spring, it was just… an odd sort of unease, looking up at an unnatural darkness. Something in the pit of his stomach told him something nefarious was waiting in the dingy sky.
And he was so much smaller here. He could actually feel every independent cold, big raindrop when they fell on him. In their own universe, he had the slight comfort of knowing a normal storm, and even the big ones, couldn’t hurt him like they could hurt the humans, at least up until Ghidorah was behind them, and even then it wasn’t bad.
This weather was… not ideal. Goji wasn’t cold inside (he physically couldn’t be) but the outside of his body was freezing and the two warring with one another was a very uncomfortable feeling.
Goji slid the bag down his forearm to the crook of his elbow and rubbed his palms across his biceps in an attempt to replicate what humans seemed to think worked when they were cold.
It didn’t help.
Should’ve sent Monkey out here. He also probably should’ve known it would rain. He used to be pretty good at predicting bad weather.
Goji shuddered as the wind picked up, almost turning into a howling noise around him, and he nearly lost his goods when the handles of the bag ripped off and the whole stupid trip would’ve been for nothing if he hadn’t caught it.
Lightning flashed violently across the sky, bright enough to light up the hills around him and the city behind him, and was followed a split second later by a deafening clap of thunder that made Goji lose his grip on the bag completely to cover his ears.
His heart, already moving faster than Godzilla would’ve liked, started pounding hard against his ribcage like a trapped animal trying to escape.
Well, there goes the grocery run, he thought dizzily.
The entire world flashed white, and within the deafening crack of thunder, Goji blearily saw the tree to his left burst into flames between the black spots in his eyes.
Some long, distant mechanical wail started up from the city, and Godzilla, somewhat belatedly, realized they must be tornado sirens.
Godzilla stumbled forward, moving one talon to his chest like it could slow the slamming motion of his heart. Thirty minutes from the city, however long home. There was no way he was making it back to either.
The lightning, near constant now, finally lit up what the black clouds had been hiding- the swirling vortex of a massive twister.
Lightning flashed across the sky, the thunder almost drowned out by Ghidorah’s piercing call- louder than the storm, louder than the tornado sirens, louder than nature.
Godzilla couldn’t show fear. Not in front of him. Ghidorah was his oldest enemy, his most bitter rival, and showing fear was like throwing gasoline onto a raging fire.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t have woken Russell up?” Mothra questioned, soft voice breaking into his thoughts. The fluffy kaiju had landed on the building next to him, perched with her tarsi keeping her in place atop the windows.
Goji let himself feel a touch of relief for a moment that she was here, with him, that he wasn’t alone in the world. Then he shrugged. “He was pretty beat from our last fight with Gigan. I kinda just want to give him a break, y’know? He got hurt and I just… I don’t want to ask too much. Besides, we’ll be fine unless Ghidorah finds, like, an entire power grid to fuel him or something.”
Mothra lifted one of her legs to point over across the city to the dragon. “Like the one he just found?”
“...It’s too late to call in Russell now, isn’t it.”
“Oh, one hundred percent,” she told him with a sympathetic shoulder pat that felt like sunshine, almost amused.
“Ah, well. We can handle this.”
And Ghidorah swooped down and landed in front of them. He’s missing a head.
That was odd. Goji could’ve sworn he’d had three just a few… minutes? Hours? Days? ago.
Godzilla didn’t wait for Ghidorah to land the first blow. He lunged forward first, barely registering the dragon practically tripping over himself backwards to escape, and clamped his teeth around the middle head’s neck, using his own weight to bodily unbalance the dragon and tackle him backwards.
The middle head was the one in charge- unbalance him, the other two were easy.
Ghidorah slapped Goji's head with his wings, then kicked him backwards and down the side of the hill. The wind snapped at Godzilla’s spines, forcing him to crouch downwards once he rolled to his feet.
Funny, his storms aren’t usually this strong.
“You could’ve called the apes,” Mothra suggested jokingly, landing beside him and trapping Ghidorah’s mouth shut with her webs (which has to be the only reason he hasn’t used his lightning yet), “They might’ve even wanted to help.”
“Please-” Goji half wheezed, half semi-hysterically giggled, courtesy of the still-healing ribs that Ghidorah had definitely re-broken, why is it so hard to breathe?, “-We both know the only reason the apes help is ‘cause they’d prefer me in charge and not one of these bozos. Besides, I hate Kong.”
No response. It was almost like the last statement was factually inaccurate, like Goji’s mind was trying to point out some flaw, something not quite right with the surroundings, with the fight, with the hill he was tumbling down-
The buildings he slammed into crumbled to the ground. Godzilla would’ve felt guilty, but he could tell the city had already been evacuated- a fortunate foresight on the human’s part. Goji pushed himself back to his feet and whipped around to face his enemy, freezing rain lashing into his eyes and lightning causing black spots to fill his vision.
“We’re going to win-”
“-trying to help-”
There’s blood in his mouth.
“-this time.”
“Not on my watch,” Goji growled back, “Not this time.”
Not ever.
Godzilla lunged again, firing up his blast and shooting at the chest of the dragon, who hastily threw themselves to the side to avoid the hit, white eyes strangely wide with what seemed to almost be… fear.
Ghidorah had never been afraid of Godzilla.
Which means I’m doing something right this time.
But what?
“Stop that!”
“Stop! You’re going to-”
Goji shook his head from side to side, trying to ignore the strange echo of Ni’s voice.
Godzilla shot at the dragon again, chasing them in almost a circle and gaining distance. It was hard to keep up with them with the tightness compressing his chest, almost slipping on the grass under his feet.
Wait, wasn’t I in the city? Godzilla blinked rapidly and took another step back, suddenly dizzy. The storm was starting to die down, but the wind was still violently shoving against him.
What’s so wrong here?
He’d been in the city. He was fighting Ghidorah in the city.
Why am I fighting Ghidorah?
He wasn’t in the city. There wasn’t this much grass there, and too hilly to be-
Where am I? And where was Mothra? She’d been with him, hadn’t she?
Goji took another step back, trying to get his bearings, something uncomfortable stirring in his chest. Like he was taking a set of stairs too fast and missed one and-
Godzilla took another step back, and the dragon lunged forward. Goji bared his teeth and prepared to strike, bracing himself by taking another step back, into-
Nothingness. Godzilla flailed, suddenly off the solid earth and scrambling for a hold he couldn’t catch.
He slammed against the side of the cliff- he was on a cliff, how even- and couldn’t manage to dig his claws in, clambering for a purchase that didn’t exist, and then his skull hit the ground, hard.
His last thought wondered if this was the fight where Ghidorah would finally kill him.