Shifting Secrets, Revealing Realities

Okay, I'm going to be trying something different this time in placing the AN at the start of the chapter rather than the end. Just something I want to experiment with to see if it 'feels' better. Be sure to let me know which you prefer in your reviews. Anywho, sorry for taking so long with this chapter but we were also taking some time to plan out the soon-to-be-coming arcs and plotlines. Now that we have those down and set, it's just a matter of figuring out scene placement and such. Hopefully I'll be able to push this stuff out more quickly now that I have a plan to follow.

Yeah, good luck with that one buddy.

... Wait wha-

On with the chapter!

---

Pentecost took a moment to look around his office, this place where so much of his life had been defined over the past several years. The plain concrete and metal walls showing the hard nature of his work, the small channels of water quietly moving along to provide him a sense of peace in the midst of chaos. The large window overlooking the sprawling facilities of the base below, revealing the vast metropolis in the distance, aimed at the coming sunrise at the beginning of every day. So many things had happened since he first took this office, since he'd become the effective leader of humanity in every sense that mattered. He had made hundreds of decisions and choices, some good, some bad, and all with the weight of the knowledge that it all was his responsibility. In the end, it all came down to him. Every pair of eyes on the planet was directed his way, wanting to see where he would go so they could follow. It was an intoxicating feeling, that idea of how much power he wielded.

And he was terrified of it.

"Are you sure now is the best time for this, Stacker?"

The Marshall came back to the present as he turned to his questioner, giving Tachibana a soft nod of reassurance. "Now is the only time I have, Tazio. Everything that can be accounted for and planned against has been done so. You have your focus in finding the Dawn's last holdouts and capturing their leadership, and have every resource at your disposal to make it happen. The plans for the End War are drawn up and in action, and will be prosecuted by Gordon and Ozaki once they return from the Langoud. Serizawa will start folding the Langoud's projects into Monarch's reach so they can begin conversion and production planning. You all have your tasks to accomplish and don't need me hovering over your shoulder to get them done."

The Admiral sighed with a sad grin. "Yes, of course we don't. We wouldn't be in charge of our departments if we weren't capable. But… well, what if something happens while you're gone?"

And there it was, Stacker realized. That look in his face, that moment of nervousness and need to be reassured that everything would work out. That same look that everyone gave him when they asked the same question. 'Will we make it?'

And Pentecost had only one answer he could give, the same one he always gave. 'Yes, we will.'

No matter how much he was unsure of it himself.

"I'll only be gone a few days, my friend," he said aloud, patting Tachibana on the shoulder. "And I'll be in comm range the entire time. If you need me, I won't be out of reach, but I doubt I'll be needed. We have everything we need to win this war, we just need to take the chance in making it a reality."

The Admiral smiled and nodded. "You're right. With all the support the Defenders are giving us, the Mutants shouldn't stand a chance. I suppose the real difficulty will be figuring out what to do once the war is over, but we can all worry about that later I guess."

'Will there ever be an after, though, with all the other threats this world has to offer?'

"For now, let's concern ourselves with making sure this war goes well. And in my case, finding out what secret it is that Aso has been hiding for all these years."

Taizo's eyes narrowed in thought. "Aside from the obvious question of what, there's the other question: why hide it from you? He was your mentor for many years wasn't he? Why would he feel the need to keep you out of the loop?"

Pentecost shrugged. "I'm sure he has his reasons. It's true that Aso and I were close for many years, and in truth we still are, but he is a very private man who keeps some of his thoughts very close to the vest. And after the events with the CCI and his change of heart regarding Godzilla… he had a great many things to think about."

"In truth, I suppose we all did," Tachibana said. "Alright, I won't keep you any longer. Good luck on your mission, Stacker, and give Aso my greetings when you see him."

Stacker thanked the man one last time before watching him leave and taking a second to look over the room, making sure he wasn't leaving anything behind. He started doing some last minute paperwork - there was always more paperwork to do - and called Choi to make sure the plane and his fellow passengers were ready. After getting his assurance alongside a smothered laugh about something or other, Pentecost got up and got ready to leave, taking one final glance out the window.

All those people out there were about to go to war under his order, along with who knows how many thousands of others all over the globe. It was inevitable that some of them were going to die in one way or another. The Mutants would never go down for good without putting up a hellish fight, and avoiding casualties against them forever would be impossible, as well as self-defeating. More damage would have to be taken before the injuries could finally heal, and all of them would be laid at his feet at some point.

How did one explain to a grieving family that their home was destroyed or their sons and daughters sacrificed to save thousands more people they'd never meet or care about? How was someone supposed to do the cruel calculus of war, picking and choosing who would die and who would live?

Normally Stacker would shrug these thoughts away, reminding himself that duty demanded he stay focused and on task, but with the revelation of Xenilla's true intentions he found the questions coming back to him with greater force. After all, wasn't the kaiju making the exact same choices, just from the other side? It was just a matter of perspective that separated them now, not morality or species. Both were the leaders of their people, faced with the need to determine the fate of those who followed them. And in the end one would have to wipe out the other, for neither could live in peace while both shared the same planet.

Pentecost walked down the hall, trying once again to remind himself that the mutants were monsters in the truest sense of the world. The majority of them weren't even intelligent in the way humans were, little more than aggressive predatory animals that had no place in the fragile nature they found themselves in. But were all of them like that? What about the ones who could think and reason. Was it fair to paint them all with the same brush and treat them as nothing but the enemy?

He snorted. As if humans could complain about the morality of enemy soldiers in its own wars. Innocent people died all the time for the simple mistake of being born in the wrong country and taking up arms when told to. Getting at the real monsters was never easy in normal conflicts, so why should he complain about it in this case? Because he related to their plight, because he felt bad about the bad hand that had been their way? None of that made them any less dangerous, any less aggressive or destructive to human lives and interests. War was a dirty business, but it was necessary, especially now with so many other threats looming on the horizon.

It was just hard sometimes, remembering why it was he did this. Why he was the one the world had to rely on to never break, never falter, never once allow humanity to lose its resolve and morale. Why he had to be Terra's Rock and endure all its suffering with a steady hand.

Thoughtlessly Stacker stepped into the elevator and set it to take him to the top floor where the command lift pad was, the same place the Dawn had attempted to infiltrate the Shatterdome through. Where they had tried to break the sanctity of his home and tried to kill millions. His hands shook with held in rage at the thought of what had almost occurred, at the fact that he had to allow the people behind the act to live because they might still have use in taking down their masters, and because of the chance, however slight, that they could be redeemed.

How much comfort did that bring the families of the paid workers who had been executed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Would they be happy that the person who had order their deaths was given a second chance, treated with kid gloves just because she was forced to admit she was wrong? Where was the line where forgiveness became negligence?

Miki always told him that anyone deserved a second chance if they were just willing to try, but Stacker found it difficult to agree with that at times. He had seen what happened when people were offered a second chance, seen the rejection of it and the destruction and loss that resulted. Being offered the ability to do good didn't mean everybody would take it. Humans could be even worse monsters than kaiju at times, because they knew the concept of morality, of right and wrong, and ignored it all the same. Was this war of extinction against the mutants right, justifiable, or was it just a matter of convenience and self-defense against an equally bad 'enemy'?

Pentecost sighed, resisting the urge to fall back against the walls of the elevator. He just had to have faith in the good side of people, he supposed, even if it was hard to see from where he stood. The elevator dinged as it reached the top level and Stacker put on his normal mask of stern confidence. When the doors opened and he moved to step out though, that mask slipped away into the aether as he beheld a most unusual scene.

At the far end of the pad was the expected lift jet, its engines currently off and its doors open to admit passengers, but all of said passengers were pointedly not standing around talking like Stacker would have expected. Instead, what he got was a rather unexpected crowd of people, laughing rather uproariously at something. Peering over the crowd Stacker saw and, upon getting closer, heard something unexpected.

"No doubt this Rasputin, had lots of hidden charms!"

He could hear Tytanna's distinctive voice singing a familiar song from his younger days, but with a heavier and more metallic tone.

"Though he was a brute, they just fell into his arms!"

Stacker nearly collapsed as he recognized Azusa of all people taking up the next part of the verse, and as he politely forced his way through the small crowd he could see her giddily singing along while clapping to the beat. In the center of the circled group was Tytanna in her near-flawless humanoid form, singing those familiar lyrics in a harmonic voice and dancing those familiar moves with practiced fluidity. Azusa at her side, bobbing happily along and taking on the chorus herself, and Joanne at the other end, gleefully bouncing around in what could be vaguely called a 'fun seizure'. The song reached the final chorus and most of the crowd joined in, causing the volume of the pad to jump sharply.

"RA-RA-RASPUTIN! RUSSIA'S GREATEST LOVE MACHINE! THEY DIDN'T QUIT, THEY WANTED HIS HEAD! RA-RA-RASPUTIN, LOVER OF THE RUSSIAN QUEEN! AND SO THEY SHOT HIM 'TIL HE WAS DEAD!" The trio joined in one final epic move as the song came to a close, Tytanna belting out a loud song-like roar before saying the ending line. "Oh those Russians."

With the song done, the crowd clapped, and Stacker caught sight of Tendo Choi, who had been recording the entire event on his cell phone.

"Mr. Choi!" Stacker said loudly, enough so that everyone turned to notice his presence and alternatively winced, gasped, or froze save for the three dancers in the middle. Stacker looked around the circle, keeping his face a blank slate so as to not reveal his emotions too soon, before finally settling his gaze on his purported assistant and folding his arms over his chest. "Care to explain what all this is?"

The man nearly crumpled under the combined attention of his boss and everyone else looking to see what his response would be. "Um… I just, uh, walked in on this, sir. Was looking for you to ask a few more questions before you left, kinda saw all this and… couldn't help but hang around a bit." He smiled sheepishly, not-so-subtly hiding his phone behind his back.

"And the fact that you were filming?" Stacker said without missing a beat.

"Um… personal interest?" At Stacker's glare, Choi clarified himself. "They're funny to watch and Azusa and the new gal are great singers! Its entertaining!"

"I'm sure it was," Stacker allowed, "but you won't be nearly as entertained when I tear you apart for letting the video leak if you don't delete it in the next five minutes."

Before Choi could do so much as object, Tya stepped in front of Pentecost, looking up at him for once from her smallest form with surprisingly large puppy dog eyes. "C'mon, Uncle Stacker!" Tya said, putting all of her force of adorableness behind her words. "We were just having some fun waiting for you to show up. There's nothing wrong with having fun right?"

Stacker, a man used to all the worst forms of blackmail, manipulations, and backroom dealing that an entire planet's worth of politicians could throw at him, found himself entirely unprepared for an assault of cuteness from someone who normally towered over him. "No, of course not, but we've had more than a few bad leaks lately, Tytanna, and I'd rather not have the public's first view of you be… well, that."

"And why not?" Tya asked, not letting up on the cuteness aura by a single whit. "That is me after all…"

Joanne appeared at Tya's shoulder and pulled her back slightly. "Oh leave the poor man alone dearie. He has a point, there's no use in keeping you secret all this time just to let out the news now for the sake of a viral Youtube video in the making."

Released from the stranglehold of cuteness, Stacker noticed that the rest of the people who had been taking part in the 'event' were quietly making their way to the elevator, hoping to avoid notice. Stacker turned and cleared his throat loudly in their direction, at which they turned to see his steely gaze.

"Not. One. Word. Is that clear?"

A haze of affirmatives came his way in a mix of English and Mandarin, and eventually the Marshall considered himself satisfied and dismissed them with a nod, allowing the group to beat a hasty retreat. Choi, who had tried to sneak into their number, was not so lucky.

"And Mr. Choi, care to tell me what it was you were seeking me out for?"

Tendo coughed into his hand before saying, "Uh, nothing much, boss. Just wanted to know where you were going exactly so I could forward any developments to you without any delays."

Pentecost mulled that over for a moment and decided that was an acceptable answer. "I'm heading to visit General Aso with Azusa for… reasons that have not been made clear as of yet, but I'm sure I will be properly enlightened along the way."

"Ah, alright." Choi glaced at Tya and Joanne then turned back to the Marshall. "How come those two are coming then?"

"To be honest, I am not sure myself. Azusa merely suggested they ought to be brought along as well. If nothing else, I can take the time of the flight to ask them a few more questions about Tya's training and experience, as well as discuss how to handle her revelation to the media at some point in the future."

Choi nodded. "That makes sense. Whelp, hope you have a good trip there, bossman. Give Aso a hi from me, and see if you get a souvenir of some kind for me while you're out huh?"

Stacker smiled as he shook Choi's hand. "I'll see what I can do. Take care of my base for me, Tendo."

"You got it sir." Choi turned to leave but paused for a moment. "Oh, and for the record, who your pilot is for this trip was not my idea. Just putting that out there. Later, Stack."

With that Choi bolted for the elevator before Stacker could try to stop him, leaving the Marshall curious at who his assistant could have been referring to. Shrugging, he turned to address his fellow passengers, who were huddled up and whispering something to each other. "Anything to share?" he asked.

Azusa grinned as she looked up at him. "Not particularly, unless you have any ideas for some music to play for the trip?"

"Hmm… Well, I wouldn't find myself saying no to some Earth, Wind, and Fire. That is, if either of those two are familiar with them."

"Oh, gladly!" Tya said, pulling a cellular phone from the pockets of her oddly normal looking jeans-shorts, "We've got EWF, some Black Sabbath, Lordi." She looked up at Stacker's incredulous look. "... I like rock and metal."

"You can blame me for that," Joanne said shamelessly. "Like mother like daughter!" She smooshed her face next to Tya's as both grinned.

Stacker couldn't help but smile back as Azusa laughed and teased the two about how cute they looked. They both acted so… alive. As if the world's harshness couldn't touch them. Everyone at the Dome could feel the sense of distant doom and danger that loomed large in their minds, and no matter how cheerful they acted they could never escape that unspoken weight of destiny on their shoulders. But these two… they were so much freer. Happier.

And thinking about it, that's what he was fighting for wasn't it?

A world where everyone could feel that way, without having to worry about dangerous monsters or threatening aliens from beyond the stars. An impossible dream, ill reflecting of the harshness of reality? Perhaps, but that didn't make it any less desireable, any less worthy of reaching for.

And as he watched Tya start running around trying to avoid her mother's grasp for a picture with Azusa, laughing and taunting with a broad grin… Stacker felt that, just maybe, this fight was worth all the heartache.

"Oi, what in the heck is taking you guys so bloomen long? We going intercontinental or what?"

Stacker froze, every nerve in his body paralyzed as he recognized that voice. "Oh sweet merciful god no." Unwillingly, his eyes trained up on the open door of the jet, where a woman was hanging from the handle so that she was almost leaning out into empty space.

The woman had the same dark skin color as Stacker, but her hair was a deep midnight blue, carefully dyed so that the edges were lighter shades than the interior, all styled in sharp, aerodynamic lines ending in soft spikes. Her eyes were just as blue as her hair, sparkling with mischievous mirth that perfectly matched her sly smirk. She was dressed in a customized version of the GDF's air forces uniform, sleek black lines etched into the sides in the shape of dark lightning bolts, with a line of medals shining across her chest.

"Hello Luna," Azusa said cheerfully while waving.

"Sup Doc Auz?" She released her hold on whatever she was grasping inside the aircraft and slid down the rails of the stairs, easily landing on her feet. "You gals, and stuffy bro, ready to go to Japan to see the old man?"

"W-why…" Stacker whispered, unnoticed by everyone else.

Joanne, ever carefree, walked right up to Luna and offered her hand in welcome. "Nice to meet you at last. My name is Joanne, I'm an… associate of your brother's."

Luna grasped the doctor's hand and shook it up and down vigorously, along with the rest of Joanne's arm. "Yeah, he's told me a bit about you here and there. Told me you're a bit of a wack job, but in a good way, yah know? And who's the cosplay looking chick here?"

"Hi!" Tya said, "My name is Tytanna Pendragon Johnson! I'm a genetically engineered human, kaiju, and angel hybrid created to fight demons and kaiju and demonic kaiju! Also I pulled Excalibur from the stone! And I can turn into a giant - and sexy - kaiju sea monster!"

While Stacker and Joanne and even Azusa knew how true all of that was, the childlike glee may have just been enough to convince Luna she was kidding around.

Only Stacker knew better. Luna wouldn't care if she was kidding.

Sure enough, Luna whistled appreciatively. "Well hot dang, that's quite a list you got there, kiddo. If only half of that is true I'd be impressed, and with all the crud Stacker puts up with in his stuffy job, I'm willing to bet you're all serious."

"Sugar, you have no clue," Tya responded, leveling a sly grin at Luna before breaking down in giggles.

Luna laughed just as much, before sending a sly look at Stacker. "Man, bro, why haven't you introduced me to these ladies before? I just know we're gonna have frick-loads of fun."

"I've only know Tya existed for a few days," Stacker said lamely.

Luna just waved him off and planted her hands on her hips. "Pfft, like that's even a feathering excuse. You just wanted to keep this cutie for yourself didn't you? Well too bad, bro! I know she's around now, and I'm going to show her my idea of a good time whether you like it or not!"

Stacker's eyes widened in sudden panic, and even Azusa started to get a worried look. "NO! Absolutely not! I will not have you start pulling loops and other crazy nonsense with us aboard!"

Rolling her eyes Luna turned her back to her brother, shrugging her shoulders. "Not my fault you got a weak stomach, Stacks."

"There were veteran fighter pilots on that flight with us, Luna," Stacker responded furiously, "and they couldn't handle it either!"

"Ha! Those guys were all chumps anyway," Luna said dismissively. "Besides, the airframe was fine when we landed. Only needed a few hours of stress testing before it was ready for turn around."

While Stacker started to sputter fruitlessly at Luna as she rejoined with her own catty remarks, Joanne turned to Azusa with an amused look. "Looks like our families aren't the only ones who have interesting quirks, huh?"

Azusa merely smiled. "Oh, dearest Jojo. Compared to them, your whole ship of fools might as well be the Brady Bunch. Don't ask how I know what that is by the way. That's a whole other story of its own."

Brother and sister continued to argue, one playfully, the other exasperated, and Tya could only stare at the back and forth with an excited grin.

"Oooooh, this is gonna be a fun journey."

---

Despite never being built for the purpose, and indeed being distinctly designed for effectively the opposite overall, the leveled out peak of Shatterdome's mountain was a perfect resting spot for any visiting kaiju, as Titano had found out to her weary satisfaction. The rock was dense and stable enough she didn't have to worry about it cracking and collapsing beneath her, yet still smooth and 'soft' enough that it didn't irritate her scales to lay down on it. Having spent the last several days alternatively napping or resting here she was quite qualified to say it was one of the better rock-based nests she'd been in.

But spending several days in the same place with nothing to do except watch the relentless humans bustle about had quickly proved boring, and she was getting to the point that she wished something would happen just so she could something to think about. More than anything, she wanted to have a chat with Tytanna, to figure out more of whatever their… situation was, but the little monsterling was nowhere to be seen. Titano had been debating in her head for awhile about whether or not to try and attract attention from somebody down below so she could get some word on where her newfound daughter had disappeared to, but she didn't want to rock the boat too much with the humans immediately after she promised to play nice, and she had no idea how jumpy they'd be if she tried to insert herself into the madness of the airport.

Given her history, both before and after the 'incident', of bothering fishing boats to steal their hauls and maaaaaybe bump into them 'on accident' a few times, it probably wouldn't go over well.

'Ugh, being a nice person is annoying.' Titano sighed and rolled around to look up at the cloudy sky above, wondering if it was going to start raining again for the umpteenth time since she got here.

A drop landed on the tip of her snout and she closed her eyes in annoyance.

'Seems like it. Never thought water could be aggravating to me of all creatures.'

More water continued to fall from the indifferent sky above, and she groaned. 'Tanaka damnit! I wish something would just happen already. I don't care what it is!'

A sudden whine reached her ears and she tilted her head backward towards the sound coming from the direction of the human airport. Without any other warning a sizeable jet blasted up from the edge of the rock face, soaring past with a roar of wind and heat washing over her. By the time Titano realized what had happened the jet was already far overhead, climbing near vertically at a rapid clip before tilting over so it was upside down. It immediately came back down towards her even faster, pulling into level flight just bare meters over her ducking head and then zooming off into the low-hanging fog. Titano might have been imagining it, but she thought she could also hear the slight sound of someone laughing their head off, but it was hard to tell with the leftover ringing in her ears.

'Well… that happened. Guess I was kinda asking for it too…'

As she sat for a bit rubbing at her ears to try and get her hearing back, she pondered as to who or what had been piloting that craft, eventually deciding that she was better off not knowing. Anyone crazy enough to fly like that was probably not long for this world after all. She was about to settle back for another nap when a second, more sedate jet lifted up over the ridge and hovered parallel to her sight.

'Okay… what's this about?'

The jet rotated so that its side was facing her, a door sliding open along its side to reveal a small human waving its hand back and forth at her. Titano felt a probe of thought gently poking at her mind from the direction of the waving person, and after pushing down an unwilling shudder of phantom memories she let the presence in.

'Hello? Hello there, Miss Titanosaurus! Can you hear me?'

'Yeah, yeah, I can hear you,' Titano said. 'What are you up here for? Somebody finally remembered I'm up here?'

'Actually, we've been watching out for you this whole time but we didn't want to bother you while you were healing. Both physically and… Well…'

Titano felt a pang in her heart and looked away from the jet. 'Oh… okay, yeah. I understand that. Thanks, I guess.'

The boringness of the last several days had given Titano plenty of time to think, time she hadn't just spent wondering as to the status of her daughter. She'd also had time to reflect on both her life over the past few years and the place Obsidious had taken in it… and how to deal with him being gone. She still hadn't come to any conclusions but one thing she did know was that she couldn't let herself wallow in her pain again. She had to live, not just for herself, but for Ob's sake in giving himself up for her.

Didn't make the sting of Ob's absence any easier to push away.

'So…' The little human woman waved again. 'Will you be alright Miss Titano? Do you wish to talk about anything?'

Titano shook her head, both to say no and clear her thoughts. 'I'll be fine. I just need some… more time I guess. A chance to do something other than just wallow here thinking about crap I can't change. Speaking of which…'

'Oh, that's actually what I came to help you with! That and see if you wanted someone to discuss with, but I understand if you want to be more active.'

Titano tilted her head at the human craft. 'So, you got something for me to do then? I hope it's not just more stupid fighting for no reason.'

'Nothing like that. Rather, I was going to… well basically I was going to give you a chance to spend more time with Tytanna by attempting to arrange a mission for you two to work on together.' The voice paused for a moment and Titano felt a mix of amusement and frustration leaking from the telepath's thoughts. 'At least, that was my original plan… That was before I found out that the Marshall had other ideas.'

'Ideas?' Titano asked.

'Ideas like bringing Tya with him on a mission to… do something in Japan. I don't know all the details, which isn't surprising when I just found out they were leaving about five minutes ago…'

Titano felt a brief surge of anger at Tya being taken away without being informed but stuffed it right back down before it could gain a grip on her reaction. 'I… see. And you want me to do what exactly?'

She felt an approximate version of a mental shrug come from the human. 'I don't 'want' you to do anything, Miss Titano. I was just telling you that Tya was leaving so you could follow her if you wished. At this time, the GDF doesn't really have any place for you in our current plans or operations, so you are free to leave whenever or whyever you wish.'

The kaiju glared suspiciously at the hovering craft. 'Okay, what's the deal here? Why are you just telling me this? What's the angle here?'

'There's no angle, I promise. Honestly, all I wanted to do was give you a chance to spend more time with Tya. I… I may have eavesdropped a little bit on some of the Council's discussions about her, and I fear they are so focused on the human side of her and the reactions of the public to her that they are entirely discounting her kaiju side… including your thoughts and feelings as her mother. Even if she is part human, she is also part kaiju, and thus you should have equal say and weight on her time.'

Titano froze, finding that she couldn't figure out anything to say. Despite Pentecost's personal apology from several days ago, she'd found that her opinion on humans hadn't changed much. They were perennially selfish creatures, only begrudgingly considering other viewpoints when they had no other choice. The fact that she'd gotten an apology just showed that they needed her more than they needed the pride to not admit they'd been wrong.

But here was this woman, coming to her apparently on her own volition to effectively counter human influence on her daughter. For the life of her Titano couldn't think of any reason that this benefitted the humans more than keeping her away would. She'd never thought she'd see a day when a human cared more about a kaiju than other humans. But this was a time for changes of worldview it seemed.

'I… I don't know what to say to that. Thanks, I guess. For letting me know.'

Even with how small the human was it was impossible to miss the bright smile she wore. 'My pleasure. If there's one thing I've learned about family, it's that you should take every chance to be together that you can, because you never know when you might be forced apart.'

Titano sighed. 'Ain't that the truth? Well, thanks again for telling me. When's she leaving so I can follow her?'

'Oh. Um… she's… already left. On that jet that went by just a few minutes ago.'

Titano took a few seconds to process what the woman had told her, then had to clamp down on a wave of panic. 'You don't mean the one that was emulating Rodan's stupid flight stunts do you?'

The human winced hard enough that Titano could feel the emotion of it. 'Um… If I said no, would you feel better?'

Titano did not take the time to answer. Instead she immediately flung herself off the plateau and ran down the mountainside as fast as she could. By the time the mental connection severed she was already diving into the cold ocean water, turning to face the direction the insane jet had flown and pumping her tail and legs as fast as they would go.

'When I get Tya off that thing I am forbidding her from ever getting on another human aircraft! I swear to Tanka, if my daughter crashes in that thing I will tear down your entire base and dance on the ashes human!'

From far above the bay Asagi watched with a mixture of amusement and concern at the line in the water Titano was creating as she rocketed out of the city's harbor for the open ocean.

"I'm not sure if that counts as her taking that well or not. I hope she doesn't get too upset at the Marshal when she catches up to them. It's not really his fault after all… That mad sister of his makes Gordon seem sane."

She waved to the pilot, who appeared just as stunned at Titano's sudden departure as she was, marking that she was ready to return to the airport. He nodded and directed them back to the ground, and she took a moment touch her necklace. The necklace was simple and unordained, just a length of chain holding a dark brown piece of agate-like material, cut in the shape of half of a ying yang symbol. As she touched the ornament she closed her eyes, sinking her mind into the now glowing stone and allowing it to come out the other end, connecting to a familiar mind.

'Hello Gamera.'

'Oh, hello as well Asagi. How are events progressing?'

'I've done as you suggested. Titano is now following after Tya, though it was a near thing, as Tya was being taken somewhere by Pentecost. I don't know why, but I do know where, and I can't think of any particular reason for him to bring her along. If I'd had more time I'd have been able to bring them together more naturally, but as it was I was forced to do things more… quickly than I would like.'

The turtle guardian sent a calming feeling to her, saying, 'That is fine, Asagi. As long as they are together, or will soon be such, then that is enough.'

Asagi pursed her lips. 'I must admit, I'm not sure why exactly you want them close to each other. I can easily understand wanting a mother and daughter to be reunited, but the way you urged it to me suggests something more than that.'

She paused, feeling bad for being suspicious of her friend, but continued regardless. 'I don't like lying to anyone for any reason, Gamera, even if it's for a positive goal. Titano's trust in humans is fragile to say the least, and if she were to find a human manipulating her for any reason, positive or not, she would not react well. Please, I know that there are some things you cannot tell me about, things to do with your role as a guardian, but I wish to know, why are you wanting them together so badly?'

Gamera did not respond for several seconds, though Asagi could feel some form of conflict whirling through the kaiju's mind.

'I am not certain I can explain my reasoning to myself, Asagi. There are many events going on concurrently at this moment, too many for me to keep track of on my own. What I do know is that there is something… unusual about Tytanna, something that caught my eye during the battle with the Anteversers. Her mana signature is utterly unique, unlike anything else I have seen, yet it is on the same level of myself and the other guardians in how strong her presence is.'

Asagi frowned as she pondered that. 'What does that mean exactly?'

'I do not know, and that is what has me concerned. Tytanna has yet to show any hint of magical ability aside from her ability to change sizes, yet I am struck with the feeling that there is more to her than there appears on the surface. Thus I would prefer it if she had the eyes of a kaiju on her as often as possible, both to see if we can witness some clue as to her true nature, and to protect her from harm.'

'But didn't she prove she's plenty capable in a fight during that battle you fought alongside her?' Asagi asked.

'She did, but one battle a good warrior does not make. She is young, inexperienced, and overeager. A dangerous combination for anyone who throws themselves into battle. Better for her to have someone to call on for help then rely solely on herself in case of danger. And I can think of no kaiju better to aid her than her own mother.'

'I think Titano would agree with that, Asagi said. Still, why not just tell them that? Why disguise our intentions?'

'Because for all the positivity and hope that Tya showed whilst I was with her, I could feel an undercurrent of something else lurking inside her. Something foreign. Not of this world.'

'Alien?' Asagi questioned, a thrill of fear striking through her.

'I am not sure. It is unlike anything I have ever witnessed. I have no way to know what it represents, and until I do, I must treat Tytanna, and the humans who made her, with caution. I will of course be supportive where I can… but I cannot take the chance of being ignorant of what she really is, whatever that may turn out to be…'

'I understand, even if I don't like it. Still, I can't imagine the sweet creature I saw ever turning against anything good. It wouldn't seem… right.'

'Perhaps you are right, Asagi,' Gamera admitted. 'But do remember: what is good is a matter of perspective. And perspective can mean anything for something not Terran born. Some things are beyond our ideals of good and evil. Some things see the world in ways we could never understand…'

Asagi felt the connection fade just as the craft finally found an open spot in the busy tarmac and landed with a slight jolt. As she exited the jet, pausing to give the pilot her thanks, she went over Gamera's words, trying to extract a coherent meaning from them.

'If Tytanna is made from the blood of Titanosaurus and a human, then where would this 'foreignness' come from? And more importantly… what would it mean, both for us… and for her?'

(Page Break)

Serizawa had dealt with many strange and wondrous situations of the course of his career as a scientist, from his starting years studying biology at Tokyo University, moving to the United States to escape the stigma of his family name, joining Monarch in its first form and seeing a wider world of mysterious creatures. Moving into the new Monarch as it was changed to become the support group for the new GDF had been its own line of bizarre and pressing experiences, as were the years of him moving into leadership of the whole organization, seeing top-down glimpses of the hundreds of incredible projects being worked on around the world, some of which were beyond what he'd ever expected humans to work with in his lifetime.

And all of that paled in comparison with trying to make sense of the mindset of the engineers and scientists of Langoud, especially in their organization methods.

Serizawa was standing right in the center of Langoud's hectic main engineering bay, trying to enforce a semblance of order as samples of all of the group's work was being carried out of the ship for later transport to Monarch labs. Merely dealing with the endless din of noise coming from the place had already given him the beginnings of a headache, but attempting to comprehend just how anyone kept track of anything in the place with the chaotic mess of a filing system they had pushed that all the way into a solid and unending pounding on the inside of his skull.

"Let me see if I understand this correctly," Serizawa said, seconds away from holding his head in his hands.

Sam stood next to the older man, his arms firmly folded over his chest and his face set with a flat frown. "If you can actually understand it sir, then you'll be doing better than I usually do."

"You leave the entirety of your group's organization, a group of over nine hundred scientists, engineers, programmers, and many more, all with their own projects, computers, files, and paperwork… in the hands of only two people?"

"Technically one of those people is Scylla," Theo pointed out, "so it's not all that bad…"

"Oh, don't lie to him dadmum," Scylla said while floating over his head. "It totally is that bad. All I do is keep the software and junk filed and stored where it's easy to access on our networks. The physical stuff is all handled by Mr. Taylor, so really, only one person is in charge of organizing this dumpster fire of creativity and madness."

Theo groaned and shot the hard light projection a glare. "How very kind of you to say, sweetie…"

"She's right you know," Sam said. "The only reason we haven't collapsed under a tidal wave of unsigned papers and logistical issues is due to Nathan's hard work. I swear, that man is a miracle worker when it comes to that kind of thing."

"You could almost say it's his special talent!" Scylla quipped while popping into pony shape.

"That is ignoring the point," Serizawa exclaimed. He grabbed a pair of folders and waved them in front of the pair of younger men. "You cannot honestly be telling me that the whole of your group completely ignores the importance of documentation except for one person!"

Sam shook his head. "Nah, that's not what we mean, sir. What we mean is Nathan, and Scylla, when I can convince her to cooperate…"

Scylla giggled while prancing in place in Sam's hair.

"… Merely take all of the itemized work of all the different groups and convert that into a common organized system. Most of the people on this ship have their own… methods of record keeping, but Nathan is able keep track of them all and translate them into things that make sense to… basically anyone else."

"You ain't exactly innocent of this stuff yourself Sam," Theo needled with a grin. "I've seen that chicken scratch you call handwriting."

"Why do you think I prefer to work with computers Theo?" Sam retorted.

Scylla hovered near to Serizawa's head as the two descended into bickering. "Ah, dadmum and fahdad getting into an argument. Just like normal."

Serizawa spared a moment to think of his two representatives for Monarch in the Shatterdome and sighed. "More common than I'd like. So, aside from the… peculiar method of record-keeping your organization has, any other pressing things to discuss?"

Scylla pointed forward and said, "Maybe ask them first?"

Serizawa looked up to see Gordon and Ozaki heading his way. "Hello, Gordon, Ozaki. Have you seen everything you needed to see?"

"For now, yeah." Gordon said rather confidently. "Learned some new stuff, saw some cool gear, already got ideas for how to make use of it."

"I'd be a fool to say no to awesome powered armor, transforming mecha, badass robotic bodyguards and swords that slice using gravity." Ozaki's giddiness was practically tangible, though only his smile gave it away in his face.

Serizawa blinked. "What was that last… On second thought, I'm sure I'll hear of it later. Is there anything else you need to do before heading back to the Dome?"

Theo perked up and hopped in between the two Councilmen, draping his arms over them. He had a bit of difficulty getting his arm to rest on Gordon's broad shoulders, so he just leaned against the much larger man. "Weell before you go, maybe you could help us figure out a look for the military models of the praetor units?"

"Which are those again?" Gordon asked.

"The human shaped war droids," Sam answered smoothly.

"Aren't they already war droids?" Ozaki asked, motioning to KayCee in the background, who was helping shift several packed crafts to the head of the open bay.

"No," Serizawa said immediately. "Good grief, NO. We are most assuredly NOT having catgirls as battlefield soldiers."

"Chill for a sec, Serizawa," Theo said, holding his hands placatingly towards him. "That's why I was hoping to get your guys' input on it. I always kinda figured you wouldn't really want a furry bot to fight with-"

"After I reminded you," Sam butted in.

"-So I took the liberty of preparing some options for different surface detail options for you to choose from. One of our latest upgrades is a special 'Chameleon Skin' that can change between two states."

"Sort of a Civilian and Military mode?" Lauren asked. "That's… actually rather practical."

"I kind of like that idea," Ozaki added. "While I wouldn't be one to complain about 'cute' robot soldiers," he paused as he heard Gordon grumble something but elbowed him silent, "but we'd still need something practical on the battlefield, and cute and sexy don't always match up with stuff that can be deemed 'practical'."

"So where are these designs?" Gordon asked.

Theodore nodded towards a somewhat large machine near the wall of the bay. "Just a little something I pieced together last week. It uses drift technology to, essentially, read your mind for the perfect Praetor design just for you. Let me go get it real quick."

Theo rushed off, calling to KayCee as he went, presumably to get her help.

"I thought drift technology only worked when two people's minds were melding?" Lauren asked.

"That's not how it works," Gordon said. "It's supposed to let a person's brain interface with tech more easily. The mind melding part is just needed cause running a robot as big as a jaeger takes more brainpower than a single human mind can put out. In the future we might be able to drop that aspect if we can improve interface AIs enough to take most of the burden of running the robot."

"Which is part of what allows the Dragoons to fly with only one human pilot," Sam added. "The other 'half' of the control processing is handled by a Bio-AI, otherwise known as a DNA computer. At least the first gen models will. Future designs might have advanced enough regular AIs to not need that level of 'wetware computing' at all."

Serizawa frowned, his face lost in thought. "I would never had imagined we could step so far away from the old jaeger control program due to the constraints of the system. Using AIs and the like to take shortcuts just seemed too dangerous to pursue when we were first developing the system."

Sam simply shrugged and said, "Sometimes you just gotta take risks I guess. You never know what might pay off." Sam smirked and added, "Besides, the Bio-AIs are, essentially, humans with machine bodies, it's not quite as big a risk as you think."

Serizawa's eyes narrowed. "Maybe, but we would not have thought to try and put human minds inside machines in such a permanent fashion merely to improve mental capacity."

The younger man sighed. "Neither would we, but that wasn't the reason it went ahead with the idea. Sometimes, when life gives you lemons, you make the best lemonade you can, and then hope it will sell for something you can find worth from."

"In short, life doesn't always allow for pretty solutions," Craig said.

Sam nodded. "Exactly. Sometimes the unclean option is the best you're gonna get, and there's no point avoiding it just 'cause it's not pretty when it can get the job done."

Serizawa sighed, looking up throughout the bay, his eyes coming to a rest on the hanging, half-built form of the Dragoon mech still being worked on. "That does not mean we should not always make the attempt, lest we lose ourselves in the 'best fit' solutions…"

The conversation lapsed while the noise around them continued undaunted, a horde of people moving around in a haze of activity. Eventually they saw Theo making his way back to them, KayCee next to him carrying what looked to be a small green orb connected to a stand with a small circlet linked to it.

"The heck is that?" Ozaki asked.

"THIS is the designing module for the Praetor construction device," Theo said proudly. "Basically, I opted to cobble together something to let folks custom-design their Praetors how they want and need them." He signaled KayCee set it down and waved to her as she left to get back to work elsewhere, then motioned for the group to come closer. "Who wants first try? Just slip the circlet on, rest your hands on the orb, and let your mind flow."

Serizawa gave the device a critical eye. "What does it do exactly?"

Theo patted the device stand and made a flourish with his other hand. "Using the drift tech, the system scans your thoughts for a visual image, translating semi-abstract thought into a concrete design that you can alter literally with a thought. It's a great way to get a quick and easy look at what your 'heart's desire' is for your Praetor, and then shift and change it into what you actually need."

"That could be useful for far more than merely designing this one piece of technology, Theodore," Serizawa observed. "In fact, I think I am far more impressed by this machine than most of the other new items I have seen so far."

Theo looked blankly at Serizawa for a few seconds before smiling weakly. "Um… thanks, I guess? I kinda just made this up on the fly as a spur of the moment thing..."

Sam laughed. "That's just like Theo. Creates something uniquely practical in just a few moments and thinks nothing of it, then spends all his time on time minutiae of fantastical designs that will probably never be used."

Theo glared at Sam and folded his arms while huffing. "The painful life of an artist stuffed in an engineer's world. Anyway, moving back to the Praetors. The Chameleon skin, well, KayCee can use it to disguise herself as a normal human in public, but if you're up for it, we can cook up a sort of 'standardized' design as the alt-skin, something more practical for military use."

The military duo stepped up to it, looking over the machine. The pair shrugged and played 'Rock Paper Scissors' to see who touched it first, with Gordon winning and, thus, urging Ozaki forward.

"This thing isn't gonna kill me, is it?" he asked, mock concern in his voice.

Theo shook his head with a grin. "Only if you try to blow it up or something dumb like that while your mind is linked."

Ozaki grimaced, but accepted the ominous statement and touched the orb. His mind was immediately touched by an unknown presence, which announced itself as a Bio-AI and began sifting through his thoughts.

Concentrating, Ozaki tried to form an image of the metal endoskeleton he'd seen KayCee have under her 'skins', reimagining the shape. The form became smaller, sleeker, almost lithe, and he put it through some basic motions to ensure everything still looked like it worked right. Once that was done, he added several layers of armor, both metal plate and the form shifting gel he'd witnessed, allowing the surface of the droid to gain thickness enough to resemble a normal person.

At that point he hit a bit of a snag, as he couldn't think of any way to personalize the design in a way that didn't feel weird. How was he supposed to put a human face on this thing if he knew it explicitly wasn't human? He pondered for a bit, flicking different ideas back and forth before settling on one that might work.

The final design, as it were, blended a bit of cute, a bit of beautiful, and a massive dose of intimidating. The resultant machine looked like what can be best described as a miniaturized, streamlined version of Kiryu. A pair of large glowing purple eyes protected behind armored glass gave it sight, a 'mane' of black cables extended from its head and down its back, between two large mechanical wings. The armor was made of faceted mythril plates fastened snugly over thick, dense bundles of electroactive polymers. Said polymers gave off a bright cyan-colored light that gave the machine an ominous look in contrast with the blackened metal armor plates. The machine had razor sharp teeth and claws as well as what looked to be a katana hilt hidden in the hips. The coloration was predominantly black and cyan, though seams of blue and white were visible amongst the hard plates and machine-muscles. The end result, frankly, looked like a sort of modern dragon knight

Ozaki felt his mind fading out of the machine's reach and back into reality, blinking a few times as his sight returned. He could see a floating 3-D hologram of the very image he'd been building right in front of him and smiled at the results. "Okay… That was a strange feeling, but pretty interesting. So how'd it work?" He turned to look at the rest of the group, pausing as he saw the mixture of confused and impressed looks they wore. "What?"

"Why does that look like a cutesy version of Kiryu?" Theo asked, giving Ozaki a suspicious look.

Ozaki shrugged. "It was the best idea I could come up with. Can't think of any better life-like look for a war droid than a mecha-reptile of some kind. Almost like a ground infantry version of a saurian."

"And the hair?" Lauren asked.

"Hair?" Ozaki looked back at the design. "Oh right. Um… I like long hair?"

Theo took a closer look image, 'grabbing' an edge of the projected background and twisting it so the whole image rotated. "Well… The machine IS meant to give you your heart's desire as a design 'base' for a Praetor. So I'm guessing you just changed it up to what you want. Pretty much exactly as intended."

"Yeah. Kickass, yet cuddly."

Craig shared a look with his wife and whispered to her, "Who thinks a lizard is 'cuddly?'"

Lauren giggled and patted his shoulder. "You'd be surprised, honey."

"Alright, so now that Ozaki is done making his mini-godzilla knight, I'd say it's my turn." Before anyone could say otherwise Gordon stepped up the machine and took Ozaki's place. Ozaki's image disappeared and was swiftly replaced by the base metal endoskeleton again. It ended up taking far less time for Gordon's idea to take shape, the robot under-body rapidly bulking up with extra muscle packs, thick armor slabs, and internal weapons. The exterior followed the same thought process, hard and segmented plates of metal interlocking over strong arms and pillar like legs.

As Gordon came out of the machine's control he turned to face the rest of them with a self-satisfied smile. "Well?"

"That's a robot Kong," Sam noted dryly.

"And what's not to love about that, right?" Gordon said confidently.

Scylla floated in and around the hologram, dressed up in her own sea-green tinted armor around her equestrian siren form. "Not bad, not bad. I give it an A for awesome, but an E for effort. You could have at least added a sick paint job to it." She tapped the image and immediately the robot shifted from plain gunmetal grey to a red and gold color palette. "There, much more kickassy!"

Lauren smirked and whispered to Craig, "Scylla doesn't seem to understand the concept of trademarks does she?"

Craig chuckled and answered back, "At least it's not red and blue and playing The Touch for theme music." Lauren pushed at him as he laughed.

Theo clapped his hands with an excited look on his face. "Well, this all turned out magnificently better than I had expected. Now that we have a couple of baseline designs to work with, I can start sending the blueprints over to Monarch for them to play with and we can get these bad machines running!"

"After we build the Dragoons," Sam reminded. "And the Behemoths. And the Quetzali. And the Battle Platforms. And the exo suits. And the-"

Sam was swiftly silenced by Theo tackling him to the ground, the two young men rolling back and forth across the floor trying to get the upper hand.

Serizawa looked down at the two wrestlers for a moment before turning to Scylla. "Is this also common?"

"Kinda sorta. Depends on how much bickering they've been up to in a day. Not enough fight-flirting and they resort to fight-fighting instead. They never hurt each other though, just take out their annoyance on each other. They'll get over it in about 1 minute and 24 seconds."

Serizawa didn't bother to ask how she knew the timing down to the second and merely turned to the other Councilmen. "I believe I can… handle events from here. You both might as well return to the Dome to get back to work on the war effort. I'll give a report of transference progress at the end of the day, as well as anything else worth reporting about."

"If you say so, Ishiro," Ozaki said. "Good luck with all the other stuff, and remember, try to relax. Weird as these guys are, they've definitely done some good work."

A random throb of his headache struck Serizawa as he spared a glance at the mountain of other materials that had yet to be carried out of the bay. "To be frank, Oz, I don't think I'll be able to relax again until I'm back on the Discovery having a sip of Miss Shaw's tea."

Gordon tipped his head at Serizawa before turning to stalk off. "Remind her to send me a few bags next time you see her," he said over his shoulder as he walked away, Ozaki following with a grin, his hands stuffed in his coat pockets.

Serizawa blew out a puff of air from his lungs, preparing himself to dive into the herculean task before him, only to halt as he heard a cough to his side. He looked towards the sound to see Craig and Lauren looking at him, both sporting unsure but hopeful looks.

"Sooo… um… Do you need any help?" Lauren asked. "We've been kicking our heels back at the Dome for at least a week now and, to be perfectly honest, today's been the first day we haven't been drop dead bored for a while. If we can have a chance to do something meaningful, we'd like to take it."

"Are you offering what I think you're offering?" Scylla asked with a happy grin, her siren tail waving through invisible water eagerly.

Serizawa looked at them for a moment, bemused, then glanced at Sam and Theo still rolling around growling half-serious insults at each other. "At this point ma'am, I'll take any help I can get."

The couple smiled, then stepped forward to stand at his sides at the table, quickly setting to work figuring out which document talked about what and where its physical contents would be located. Serizawa smiled as he joined them in the work while Scylla finally managed to break her two fathers apart from each other.

'I suppose help comes from the most unlikely places sometimes.'

---

"Last reel in, then we set back to dock." An elderly man jovially grunted as he set aside his fishing pole. Sitting in a small, two person dinghy-boat, the man fit the grandfatherly image to the letter with a wispy white beard and glasses poking out of his fisherman's vest and cap.

"Okay grandpa, sorry if we haven't caught much today," his company, a very young boy, mumbled as he pulled in another empty line. Sporting a shirt and hat clad with a variety of anime and videogame characters, the contrast in the generations was evident. The grandfather was old enough to have remembered the years following a time of conflict in his youth, being clear over his early seventies. His grandson has mostly just seen conflict at a distance on television of kaiju battles or simulated them on the latest video game handheld.

The grandfather chuckled, patting his grandson on the shoulder as the latter frowned at their catch bucket, which only consisted of some river water and few small fish hardly worth trying to cook.
"Aaah, don't worry with that. It's the time spent, not the haul that makes it worth it. Your mother and I hardly ever caught anything either when I took her out. Should have seen your grandmother back then," he laughed.
The boy raised his eyebrow, "She got mad? I never see her mad."

"Oh less mad and more frustrated," the grandfather quipped before changing his voice to much higher pitched and squeakier. "Oh why do you two waste so many hours on that boat?! You could have gone berry picking and we'd have a feast by now!"

"I though most berries around here taste bad?"

"Yes, so does the only thing your mother and I could ever catch; river water."

The boy snorted, covering his mouth to avoid bursting out laughing. But just before his grandfather reached over to help get the oars to row back to shore, he paused. The old man took in his surroundings and nodded slightly with a tiny smirk.

"What is it grandpa?" the boy muttered, trying to see what his grandparent was.

The grandfather reached into his pocket and fished out a cucumber. "It's always good to respect one's host, even when he doesn't feel like serving up much."

With that, he tossed the cucumber into the water, not looking back as it started to float off. The boy, clearly confused, looked between his grandparent and the discarded vegetable. "Grandpa, why did you do that?"

His grandfather, starting to man the oars and row them back to the dock, spoke over his work. "Happened only recently, but sometimes old legends have a way of coming back. My grandfather always told me there is a kappa that lives in these rivers and lakes. He said one should always respect it's domain and offer something up when they venture out. Then you'll get the kappa's favor. And they love their cucumbers."

"A… kappa?" the boy muttered. "Grandpa are you sure?" He was familiar with the old legends, mostly due to how much media reused them for their own stories. The kappa, a turtle-like humanoid yokai creature that lived in waterways or under bridges, was a very common usage in his videogames and television shows, so he was well aware of the stories.

His grandparent seemed sure enough and nodded as they got to the dock, stepping off the boat and beginning to tie the dinghy down.

"I tried casting a cucumber out ever since I retired here about ten years ago, had better luck than I have before. So, with any luck we'll get some more fish tomorrow. Can you finish tying it down?"

"Oh… Okay. Go on ahead grandpa, I can handle this," the grandson said as he hopped off. He winced, not really believing his grandfather's words. As the old man walked off and the boy started to tie down the last of the ropes, he bothered to glance up at where his grandfather had lobbed the cucumber. It took him a few moments to realize the reason he couldn't see it anymore and instead only saw disturbed water was the fact the vegetable was missing. Suddenly there was a metallic clanging sound, like something had tapped against the edge of the boat and the boat itself started to get tugged under the dock. The grandson yelped and tugged hard on the ropes, trying to pull it back, but the current, or whatever was pulling the dinghy aside was too strong.

Then, suddenly as it happened, it stopped. The grandson, heart racing, slowly pulled back on the ropes and tugged the boat back into view. There was a racket coming from within it and when the dinghy was back into view he could see the source. A large trout, prime size for eating, flopping around inside their catch bucket. Bewildered, the boy's eyes cast themselves to the edge of the boat and his eyes felt like they were about to pop out of his head. Barely visible on the rim of the boat was a wet splash mark in the rough shape of a handprint.

Something seemed to disturb the water and move away from under the dock, the boy watching it as it disappeared from sight.

"The kappa…" he whispered breathlessly before running off to tell his grandfather of their catch.

About ten minutes later and a full two kilometers down stream and into the forest, something crawled out of the river and into the forest. Cucumber grasped in hand, he took a savory, loud bite out of it before plopping the entire cucumber into his fangs to finish it. It bore no turtle shell, no head dish like the legends of kappa spoke of, for he was not actually a kappa. He did have scales, though more importantly in his mind he was missing something he was rummaging around in the brush for. He found it in the form of a backpack, shaking himself off to get drier and using a towel from the bag for the rest. The sun was falling and in the dark of twilight it was good a time as any to get home. Glancing around the forest trail, in case any stray hikers or bicyclists might see him, he eyed the road ahead.

'Huh, probably made that kid's day. Hope father won't take issue with me making any appearances… Then again, that time I accidentally buzzed that concert caused a bunch of monster hunters to swarm in. Business certainly liked all the tourism.'

He started across the road, still pondering past events to judge the future.

'Then again, mostly old people around this region. They like their quiet.'

His mind briefly wandered just a bit too far. Far enough he didn't hear the roar of tires or the honking of a horn under after he turned into the headlights of the bus. Too late to get out of sight, he instinctively ducked to the side.

Hours later in the neighboring town, both police and a journalist stood by next to the pulled-over bus parked outside the mechanic shop. Yuri Tachibana, daughter of the GDF Admiral and prize journalist from the 2001 'Ghost Godzilla' event, gave the front of the bus a sideways glance and let her eyes trail over the large dent in the front fender. Clearly the bus had hit something either extremely heavy or extremely solid for such a big impact to have been made at moderate driving speed.

"So, you're saying your bus hit a big, upright, spiny lizard of some kind?" she muttered while taking notes.

The bus driver, still pale in the face and rubbing at his head, nodded rapidly before deciding he needed to shake his head. "N-No! It was standing upright! A-And was wearing boxers!"

Yuri paused, not sure if it was hypocritical or not given her past experiences if she should voice any incredulousness to the claim, "... Right. And did it have a towel and pack after going for a swim?"

"YES!" the bus driver yelped, "How did you know?!"

---

Winter smiled proudly to himself as he strode down the unlit hall, the casual darkness around him no hindrance to his sight. He continued to grin as he let his darkly tinted sunglasses illuminate his way with a ghostly green hue. His patron may enjoy her dramatics and shadowy intrigue, but Winter loved to sidestep her attempts at sheltering in the dark while seemingly indulging her in the same.

The fact that it infuriated her to no end was simply icing on the cake.

Speaking of angering her, Winter knew that he was rather late to the meeting he was heading towards, and his patron was not known for her saintly levels of patience and understanding. Were it anyone else forcing her to wait as he was now, the odds were good that they would end up serving her interests in a rather more visceral way.

But Winter didn't have to worry about that, because he was worth far more than those measly servants and vassals could ever dream of being. No, Winter was necessary, and he knew he was necessary. And thus, he had power.

And power was all Winter ever really wanted, when he really got down to the meat of things.

The halls he walked through, the suit he wore, the exquisitely designed glasses that let him see in the dark, all of them spoke of Winter's power, power that he had earned through his own work, brains, and skill. Most other people in Winter's position had gained their wealth through the luck of a name, their position through the luck of good time, their style through the luck of fine servants. Winter did it all himself, and he was eminently proud of that fact.

And when others attempted to tear down his works, reduce his successes to mere acts, it struck at him far more directly than just hurting his resources. They were attacks on his character, his very essence. And he could not abide such assaults, not for any reason.

Perhaps that was why he was walking through the shadows of his own palatial home in the dead of night, unable to see the many splendors he had earned and created save through the visage of an otherworldly sight. Why he was working to undo all the acts of those who would seek to save the world, so that he could ascend himself beyond them and achieve his ultimate desire. Power for all time, all his own.

As Winter reached the large, ornate door at the end of the empty wing, his smile grew nasty. Truly, was that such a horrid thing to desire? And if some worthless interrupters and parasites had to be crushed and thrown aside to get there, was that such a great loss?

The door opened soundlessly as he stepped up to its threshold, a massive presence standing within, twice his width in the shoulder and towering several heads above him with an unusually warm, almost stifling atmosphere about him.

Winter allowed his smile to fade into his practiced genially expression. "Ah, Monsieur Max, thank you for opening the door for me."

"You are late." The beastly thing's voice was like gravel being chewed up in a rock-slide, but with an undercurrent of precision and focus that was evocate of a fine blade.

"Yes, well, not all of us are given such menial duties as attending to our Lady's whims." Winter strode past him without showing a hint of concern, an easy feat given he had little to fear from the giant servant. "Some of us have real work to do."

Max growled in the sound of an earthquake but reacted no further, quietly shutting the door behind him. Winter continued into the room, his mind instantly filling in the gaps in his vision with his perfect recall of the decoration of the room he had devised. The hall he had entered was on the medium side, just big enough to be grand but not so large as to be impractical or alienating. Instead, it was enough to convey a sense of grandeur but also closeness, intimacy of those cavorting within. The number of deals he'd sealed within this room was beyond count, and it was his favorite place to do business, current company aside.

Now however, the room was far bleaker, replacing warmth and light with shadow and distance. The table was the same, but cleared of all accompaniments that graced it. Instead, dimly glowing monitors were planted in sequence along its edges, their screens a pale red, only adding to the tense, war-like feel in the air. Fitting for their current activities yes, but to Winter it always felt… overly dramatic he supposed.

Then again, his Lady's grasp of subtlety was limited to manipulation rather than decorum.

"You are late, Winter."

'Ah, speak of the devil, and she shall make herself known.'

Winter laughed at his private joke before turning to attend to his speaker. His patron was seated at the far head of the table, a ring of computer stands and monitors surrounding her, their faces flowing with incomprehensible numbers faster than the eye could track. He smirked as he traced the short, cropped hair she now wore shielding her narrowed eyes.

"And you are wearing another look again, it seems," he rejoined with a casual tone. "I see you failed to heed my warning again of allowing your rage to burn too brightly lest it cost you."

The Lady snarled silently, tapping her sharpened metal nails against his poor table none too lightly. "As I am sure you are more than aware, I had ample reason to be… upset, in recent days."

Winter sighed, stepping to his end of the table and leaning lightly against the back of his own, throne-like chair. "Oh of course. That ingeniously well planned offensive by the GDF on your precious forward bases all across the world. As I recall I believe I warned you that such bases were highly vulnerable to assault should they ever be discovered, and yet you were so adamant that you needed places to operate from abroad. Places that weren't under my control or oversight… Almost as if you do not trust me."

The glowing amber of her gaze locked with his own, Winter smiling calmly back at her thin and angry expression. "Trust is a fool's tool. Trust in any human, let alone one such as you would be pointless and costly."

"And yet, you have trusted me with so much my dear Lady," Winter said. "Trusted me to form your organization from the tattered scraps of a failed domination group. Gather you funds to expand, to develop new technologies and materials, to feed your everlasting hunger for resources. To search in all the places you could not reach on your own, to progress your plans thousands of times faster than you could achieve by your lonesome."

Winter placed himself in his chair, taking a moment to enjoy the enveloping feeling of the custom cushions. "Who is there on this Earth you could trust more than me, Adeline?"

His table suffered again as her nails scratched thin grooves into its surface, but she relented before more damage could be dealt.

"As much as I despise you, Winter," she started with a low burn in her voice, "I find I am forced to concede the point to you. It is true that without you, my plans would be decades from success, rather than mere weeks. But it is also true that my need of you will one day falter, and when that day comes…"

Her hidden face smiled, in that falsely kind way that he had grown used to seeing.

"You shall have to find some new reason for me to 'ally' with you."

Winter's eyes narrowed slightly while his smile remained untouched. 'So you believe, my Lady. But there are things I have learned that even you are not aware of. And when that day does come, it will be I that you must appease.'

Vocally, he merely responded. "I suppose that I shall have to ensure that day does not come for a long while then, shan't I?"

"Let us see how you manage that," the Lady said. "You can start by helping me to assess damage done to our timetable due to the losses we were dealt."

Winter laughed softly and shook his head. "To be quite frank my lady, I see no real loss at all, not to the core of our goals at least. What need has we for conventional military power when we have Wu's work to incite our beloved terror? Why should we desire strong faraway bases when a single agent could cause more destruction and damage once Reisenforth's formulas are complete?" His gaze drifted to the massive man hovering at Adeline's back before smirking. "And given how effective your servant has been thus far, I can't imagine that project will take much longer." Max hummed in his chest, the sound vibrating through the room strongly.

Adeline looked away from Winter, her eyes darting back and forth between her various screens at inhuman speed. Winter watched passively, knowing this stance of hers as a method of intense calculation, processing her various plans and creating masterful alterations on the fly. If there was one thing he admired most about his patron, it was her ability to plan and scheme in any situation, no matter which way events had unfolded. A familiar trait of his own he could easily recognize.

"Yes… I suppose you are correct. The original use for the bases has been fulfilled, their research into the old world for evidence of our primary target done and over with. Their secondary purpose of widespread assault can be handled by other avenues." Her gaze returned to Winter. "As for Reisendorf, I find it strange that you continue to mispronounce his name after all this time."

Winter scoffed. "Please. That man is far too proud of his name which has no real achievements to it. He is merely a hanger on who wants to latch himself to a far more famous and deserving name. Now if only we had managed to find that final descendant before he disappeared…"

"It is unimportant," Adeline interrupted. "His ability to complete the work is what is important. Once his final touches are finished we will be able to enact the first stages of the primary plan, ensuring our work goes unopposed for enough time to allow our success."

Winter stroked his chin in thought before saying, "I'm still not sure of this plan of yours. I can understand the majority of it well enough, but how can you be sure to get our agents close enough to the Dome to make sure it's taken out? Their security is the toughest in the world."

Adeline grinned, in that special way of hers that would chill the blood of most men, and certainly sent a shiver down Winter's spine. "You are aware no doubt of the source of information we have within the GDF that grants us such wonderful information? Well, let us merely say that their access does not just include data networks."

Winter lifted an eyebrow in surprise but nodded at her. "If you can guarantee such access, then I am sure we will have no issues. Our test with Vishnu already showed the effectiveness of the remote control method, and some tinkering with the design should allow us to upscale the device to the size you required, so that part of the plan is ready for the next step. For now, I would recommend that we focus on securing any further weaknesses in our supply network so that we cannot be discovered again at someplace that actually matters."

Adeline frowned, steepling her fingers in front of her face as she pondered. "Most of our resources are already stockpiled and hidden safe from prying eyes, our finances covered by your manipulations and connections."

"Not all of them," Winter warned. "Some of our funding companies require access to the standard market and thus may be vulnerable to being tracked by hacking teams. Also, we still have need of smaller materials that we cannot produce ourselves, most notably the specialty items the Runners have been giving us. Those in particular are vulnerable if that bastard Chou decides to finger them as our other potential avenue of weaponry."

Adeline tapped her fingers on the table once again. "For the time being, I have received no hint that the GDF is aware of our connection to Venuz, nor about the true nature of his material. However, we cannot expect such a relationship to remain secret. Contact Venuz at the next opportunity and warn him of likely GDF or IBI investigation in the coming days. Tell him that he is to avoid or delay contact with them for as long as possible, and that he is strictly prohibited from engaging them directly. Doing so will only infuriate them and cause them to focus more assets on his apprehension."

"You want me to tell that nut job to play it cool for a while?" Winter asked disbelievingly. "You might as well try to control your own temper for all the difference that will make."

Adeline ignored the jab, instead saying, "He may be unpredictable and violent to all others, but he will heed my commands, if no others. Tell him the orders come from me and he will comply."

"Very well," Winter said while bowing his head. "And for the electronic side of our vulnerabilities? I don't have to tell you just how worrying the number of active AIs the GDF has at its disposal is for my business do I?"

"Leave that to me." Adeline reached out to stroke her metal nails along the glass of one of the computer screens, the data within blurring and streaking as the sharpen points passed. "I will handle that aspect myself. For now, focus your efforts on ensuring all projects are proceeding to schedule. Our searching for the primary target is almost complete, and once we have located it we will need to act quickly to obtain the prize within and put ourselves in the place to use it."

Winter smiled and nodded. "Of course, my Lady. I do worry though that we won't have enough time to reach our production goals by the time the GDF has finished their war against the remaining Mutants. Combining humanity's mechs and the Defender kaiju together has made them a far more potent force than planned, even with the losses of Godzilla, Mothra, and the other two. Without Xenilla to keep them in line, they will all fall in twos and threes."

"I am aware of this, Winter. While we could of course attempt to bolster their numbers once again, doing so would slow down our own work to an unacceptable rate. Instead, we will have to improve the quality of the forces that remain, and we have just the method to do so."

"The remote control system?" Winter guessed. "My Lady as powerful as we have proven that to be, we can't go around to every part of the globe and manually control each mutant to follow our orders. It would be far too taxing on both the machinery and the telepaths to accomplish long term, and would make us very easy to spot and track while doing so."

"Which is why we won't be the ones using the system," Adeline said with a smile. She reached out and picked up the small tablet set at her place on the table, tapping its screen a few times as she spoke. "What we need is not full subjugation, but rather a slight and steady amount of subliminal control. A hinting system that makes the mutants more susceptible to suggestion. And, to ensure we are not recognized for this control, we will put its use in the hands of someone else. Someone who has everything to gain by taking control of the mutant faction, as well as the drive and skill to handle the job with effectiveness."

Winter sat in silence for a moment, wondering who she could be referring to, then paused in his thought when he saw the tablet in front of him light up. Curious, he picked up the device and studied the image it showed, then grinned madly. "Oh yes. Quite clever indeed my Lady. The perfect candidate. The GDF would not suspect a thing, for of all the creatures on the planet who better to take up the mantle of leadership than Xenilla's clever little enforcer?"

"Indeed," Adeline purred. "But we will not bring him into our fold just yet. First, we need to be sure the device can work at the settings needed, to convince a kaiju to act upon what they believe was their own initiative, not merely dominant control. With that in mind, I will require you to send two teams out with the devices to take over a couple of groups of mostly independent kaiju. I will send you the details of the missions and the orders for the monsters later."

Winter bowed, recognizing the dismissal in her voice. "As you wish my Lady. I will leave now to carry out your wishes. Max, would you be so kind as to get the door for me again?"

The grey-skinned servant grumbled again at Winter's patronizing tone but move to comply at Adeline's motion. As the two of them were walking to the door however they were stopped when Adeline called out to them.

"Hold, the both of you."

"Yes my Lady?" Winter asked as he turned to face her.

"I have received a new bit of information from our informant. It seems that Pentecost himself is leaving the safety of his beloved Dome for a secret trip abroad, bringing no security team with him. It seems he is relying on secrecy to protect him." Adeline laughed, a cruel but clear sound that jolted Winter's nerves. "A foolish mistake."

Winter rolled the information around in his head, immediate dreams of striking out at the man who had lead the ruin of his career dancing about in his vision. "And I presume we will be taking advantage of his lack of foresight?" he asked with undisguised hope in his voice.

"Oh yes we shall, but there is more to the prize than just the Marshall. It seems that this mysterious kaiju hybrid is going along with him, as well as the scientist who created her. Doctor Joanne Johnson."

"That woman?" he asked immediately. "Oh, I should have known she was behind that. Wu told me more than once of her skill in genetics, along with her lucky streak of finding the things she needed to do seemingly impossible things just when she needed them." He smirked and folded his arms. "Wu did not seem very impressed for the most part."

"Perhaps, but we should not discount the presence of either. In fact, we should be glad that they are traveling with him, because it enhances the value of the opportunity we are presented with."

"I do not see how we are supposed to use it though," Winter said. "If he has that hybrid creature with him then it could more than make up for a full security team. Moving the forces into position necessary to take it on and subdue it would be difficult to keep secret."

Adeline's evil smile returned, visible even at this distance from the malice it projected. "Oh, but why send in normal soldiers, hybrids, and telepaths after them when we could test two projects with one target, Mister Winter? Tell me… how far along is little Ida at this point?"

Winter's eyes widened in brief concern for a moment before he mastered his emotions and steadied himself. "She is… I suppose at an acceptable level at this time, my Lady, though I doubt her ability to act in a discerning or subtle manner if you wish to keep this a secret in any way."

Adeline waved his concern away dismissively. "Leave that concern to me. I will make sure that the timing of the strike is conducive to keeping our shroud in place. Now then, if Ida is ready, I presume that the rest of her project is ready as well?"

Winter nodded stiffly. "Yes, though the production numbers are still limited. We've been lacking some of the necessary bio-material to produce more units faster, but I am sure the amount we have will be adequate for our needs in this case. The bigger question is how will they get there? I cannot imagine many smugglers in my employ would be willing to haul a cargo quite this… exotic to where they need to be."

"And that will be the second part of our testing," Adeline answered smoothly. "The transference devices have been done for some time yet we haven't had a reason to test them in the field… I suppose it's time to fix that."

"Aaaah, I see. Yes, that will work nicely. No way for them to be tracked back to us that way. Once again, a very clever plan, my Lady."

Adeline grinned in a more subdued and pleased way. "That is why you work for me, Cameron. Because I am the only one on this world who can provide you what you need, at the level that you can truly work with."

"My only superior, Lady Adeline," Winter said honorably.

'And soon I will prove to be your equal, one way or another.'

Winter gave a final bow as Adeline sent him to complete her orders, and as he stepped out into the darkened hallway beyond, in his sight Winter could only see the world getting brighter and brighter.