Chapter Text
The world around Ma. Celestina's eyes stopped dead in her point of view, her ears processing of two words that she considerably - and regrettably - did not want to hear it.
Jia Andrews.
Hers, Ariadne's and Madison's best friend.
The deaf Iwi girl and the adopted daughter of Dr. Ilene Andrews and Kong. And Suko's adopted human sister.
And the destined child who awakened Mothra.
Was gone.
She died.
Jia died.
Their best friend is gone.
The human reincarnated Princess could only be stood in stunned silence as those words come from Suko fell deaf in her ears. She cannot hear the muffled voices of her friends; they were all concerned of her first reaction.
When Suko saw that Ma. Celestina is not responding after informing the news, the juvenile ape glanced at Madison and Ariadne, they too were shocked and horrified by the news.
Today is should be a momentous day for a meeting and discussions of summer activities. They planned to meet here at noon on a secluded island where the Princess is currently residing that is unseen by the humans and modern-day technology. Their last member, who is Jia, did not arrive. They assume she is busy with her adoptive mother. Ma. Celestina, however, remains suspicious. She tried contacting Jia since she has a smartphone, but no response came. Ariadne and Madison also tried again, but the results are all the same.
While the three girls are pondering what to do next and waiting for the Iwi girl to come and see them, Suko suddenly shows up from them after emerging from a swirling portal below from Hollow Earth. He was beyond guilt and in pain, judging by the tears on his eyes.
Ariadne is the first to break the silence. "Suko, please tell me if you're joking."
Suko shakes his head. "No."
"Then that means..." Madison covered both her hands on the mouth, horrified by the revelation.
"...She's gone." He bowed his head in sadness.
Ma. Celestina stared at the ground for a few minutes, finally processing the truth.
"What happened...to her?" She asked slowly, trying to fight back the pain on her heart.
"An accident," Suko says, "Her mother picked her up after school and drove straight to visit her mother's family relatives, but then a speeding car came...and she... she-she..." He whimpered, unable to speak thoroughly.
"This is...terrible..." The brunette girl turned back in sheer horror, "What about Dr. Andrews?"
"She survived with minor bruises and slight injuries, but not Jia." The juvenile ape answered.
The hybrid Titan-human girl slowly said, "And what about...Kong?"
There was a silence for a moment when she asked him, then he replied.
"He...didn't take the news well."
Seeing that the Princess was not responding, Ariadne placed her hand on her friend's shoulder, she could feel her body shifted uncomfortably.
"Celest-?"
"Don't."
Suko, Madison, and Ariadne are taken aback by her sudden tone shift.
The Princess's breath turned shallow as the pain in her heart completely overwhelmed herself and her mind. Her eyes shrunken as her powers gone haywire, the aura around her pulsating from various colors depending on the emotions she is currently feeling. Shutting her eyes close, then opened as tears threatening to fall her cheeks, staining the hem of her skirt.
"This isn't true," she muttered, "Please tell me this is just a dream."
The Titan-human hybrid girl hurriedly approach her in an attempt to calm her down.
"Bestie, deep breaths, you have to-"
"I can't accept this."
Madison then joined in.
"Celestina, just take a-"
"It's a lie," Celestina stood up, then looked up to Suko, "TELL ME IT'S ALL A LIE!"
Ariadne gripped Ma. Celestina's arm in attempt to restrain her before she could do harm on either themselves or herself alone.
"I-I swear, Princess! Jia's gone!" Suko backed away in fear, he knows not to mess with Godzilla's and Mothra's human reincarnated adopted daughter of theirs, but this should break the reasons. "Dr. Trapper and Bernie informed the Iwi Queen before she sends me a message and informed my adoptive father, your adoptive Titan family, Shimo and Boots before you and your friends!"
The color of her face drained into a sickly pale one.
"You know what to do? This is all your fault." Her mind echoed viciously, it was not her alter ego, Melantha, speaking, but herself.
"You did not save her."
Ma. Celestina had had enough.
The Princess yanked her arm away from Ariadne's hand and ran straight to the portal, intended to go through the Hollow Earth while ignoring her friends' protests. Clutching her hands on her chest, a pair of rainbow moth wings sprouted behind her back just as she jumped into the portal.
"Oh, shit! C'mon guys! We gotta go stop her!" The hybrid Titan-human girl shouted, also transforming partially with her faded blue and dark purple moth wings appeared behind her back and jump straight into the portal.
"I had to inform Dad and my stepmom and my stepsisters!" Madison told Suko, "Don't let Celestina hurt herself! Go help Ariadne please!"
"On it." Suko acknowledged her as he ran to the portal just as the brunette girl opens another swirling cerulean portal thanks to the magic necklace given by Ma. Celestina in case something happens to her or an emergency and then stepped inside before the portal (and the other) vanished into thin air.
|>X<|
At Hollow Earth, every Titan superspecies are just doing their business when they are interrupted by a loud sound of a swirling portal as the Princess emerges out in a full speed, driving themselves away from her intense aura and fearless display. Ariadne and Suko spat out of the portal just in time as they saw Ma. Celestina's glowing figure now on the distance. The two followed her behind quickly.
"Where is she heading?" Suko asked Ariadne.
"I don't know!" She said, "I tried communicating her telepathically, but she cuts me off!"
"Wherever she was going, we have to stop her!" He told her.
Ariadne would never want her best friend to see her suffer from the news. She already moved on after Mothra Astra's death to start a new life with Ma. Celestina, but she chose to ignore a nagging feeling of her pasts.
Meanwhile, Ma. Celestina is still flying in a speed, her heart and mind racing of Jia's death all the while, whispers of her inner voices begun to threaten her.
You're a failure."
"You don't deserve this."
"I wasn't there to save her."
"Your fault!"
"Disgrace!"
"Pathetic!"
"Worthless!"
"It's yours blame, not the others!"
"Why would fate allow this?!"
"PLEASE STOP!"
"ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!"
She clutched her ears, trying to shield every vicious word played on her mind. Melantha always told these words amongst people and the other Titans who have bad intentions in order to lose their sanity and punished them severely. It seems Melantha did not come to her aid recently.
Choosing to ignore her other concerned consciousness, she immediately made a U-turn and found the huge gaping hole that led her to the Malenka City.
She stopped for a moment to breathe in and out. Her wings flapping as her eyes now fixating on to a bioluminescent silk wall build by Mothra, the Queen of the Monsters and her adoptive Titan mother after the battle of Skar King, the possessed Shimo on his command, and Godzilla and Kong.
Ma. Celestina touched the silk wall, activating the camouflage ability before it parted itself as the Iwi guards opened it. The Iwi people are shocked to see the Princess of the Monsters visiting them as she paved her way inside, going to the three crystal pyramids.
She flew and landed smoothly on the open platform as the Iwi people parted to have space for the Princess. Everybody gathered in the platform as one of the Iwi Queen's trusted guard make an eye contact to her.
"I need to speak with the Iwi Queen, please," she answered telepathically.
He nodded, understanding the topic of what she meant.
A loud gong echoed the entire territory of the Malenka City. The Iwi Queen emerges from the crystalline pyramid, slowly walking towards her. The Iwi guard approached and knelt before her before standing.
She nodded, allowing the guard to stand beside her.
"Come, Star Weaver." She silently gestured Ma. Celestina.
The Princess slowly approached to the leader of the Iwi as they communicate silently, enough to hear the Iwi people of their conversation.
"Is it...true?" She asked, "That Jia, is dead?"
The queen nodded painfully.
"It is the truth as you seek for."
"She had a life ahead. Her adoptive mother. Kong. Her friends!"
"Fate has already decided, and therefore we cannot interfere the cycle of life and death." She silently closed her eyes.
Godzilla and Mothra had taught her the Balance of Life and Death Cycle (which Mothra Astra learned it in the past). You cannot resurrect and interfere the already peaceful physical and spiritual souls of the individuals as they already ascend and lived in an eternal afterlife. It is much likely a strong similarity to the Christianity concept since she was born in Roman Catholic and understand the true meaning of life and death cycle. Good has been brought by the hands of the Almighty God Himself in the Heaven while the Evil were thrown into the endless, fiery pits of Hell where they should be punished eternally for their sins. There are other different concepts of the cycle depending on religious explanation, one was on her list about reincarnation.
Mothra and Mothra Astra were the examples, but each of them has different ways.
Mothra cheats death by laying an egg - whether one or two depending on her attributions of her cycle - in case if she dies. There are often reasons that she would die naturally when not in Titan attacks due to lack of energy (she isn't that type of atomic like Godzilla and other Titans do feed on radiation, Kong is also an exception like her) but still undergoing her reincarnation cycle. Much likely the fleeting cycle of a normal moths she saw in documentaries.
Mothra Astra was far different. She rarely lay an egg for emergency usage, often feed on radiation from the thermosphere, making herself almost a near-immortality status but she still died by King Ghidorah in the first place. Since the Star Goddess fetched her soul and made a second life to live amongst the normal world of the humanity as a human, but her fate and destiny still lingered on the approaching 18th birthday of Ma. Celestina years ago. This was new since nobody had ever talked to this stage cycle.
Some human cultures often offered different accepts: a person dies and is reincarnated as any forms of animals, others chose to become nature like grasses and plants, and much more. Therefore, this is far beyond studying the concepts of the life cycles.
Ma. Celestina clenched her fists angrily. "I need to save her if it's the last thing I ever do!"
The Iwi Queen shook her head in response. "A peaceful soul and a body cannot be awakened, for there were being ascended from the afterlife, Star Weaver."
That was it.
There is nothing she can do.
The Princess backed away, her legs trembled in fear, unable to accept the reality.
But she is blinded by the voices who mocked her.
She did not hear two voices calling out for her to stop.
She needs to stop this!
Gritting her teeth, she glared at the queen, who only looked at her calmly. The Iwi guards behind her pointed their crystal spears at the Princess as if warning her to step back. The Iwi people also backed away in case something happens.
She was marching a step and two when suddenly, she is restrained by Ariadne behind as she flailed wildly like a savage animal. Suko cowered, feeling the immense pressure of anger bought by the Princess.
Tears falling down unto her cheeks as she shrieked in anger and guilt. She is struggling from the Titan-human hybrid girl's tight restrains of her arms.
"THAT CAN'T BE TRUE!!! PLEASE!" She choked as more tears spilled out on her eyes, smearing them on her face. "SHE SHOULD BE OKAY! SHE'S STILL ALIVE! PLEASE IF YOU LET ME-!"
"Celestina! That's enough! We don't have a choice!" Ariadne snapped her, "Jia is already accepted the fate!"
"No! If only I can-!"
"Your father wouldn't want this to break the cycle! He'll kill you for sure! Please, accept it!" Suko exclaimed bravely, wiping away his tears.
The Iwi Queen could only bow in silence, as so does her people.
Finally acknowledging the reality, the Princess collapsed both her knees onto the stone-hard floor, so does Ariadne. She sobbed painfully and cried.
"Why? WHY?!" She yelled, "WHY WOULD FATE DECIDED TO SEAL HER?! WHY?!"
Sensing that Ma. Celestina loosened herself after a tense argument, Ariadne let go her restraints to her as she hugged her already crying best friend in process. She shuts her eyes tightly, trying not to cry in process of the death of Jia.
There is nothing they can do for Jia.
Her future has shattered completely.
They must accept the harsh reality.
"Jia, I'm sorry..."