FINAL CONJUNCTION

Oneda city lay empty, sprawling silent at Godzilla's feet. The sense of challenge he had felt now charged the air, electric! His senses were heightened, instincts all firing at once. Conflicting signals which caused him to hesitate, to halt his inexorable advance. The indefinable tension became too much too bear, and he lifted his head and roared, unleashing a blast of energy from his maw!

Again Godzilla roared his challenge, his nuclear beams sparking, cleaving through the heavens like a searchlight to the Gods. Again he raged, and again! Then suddenly, there came a response...

From out of the jungle came a low hissing shriek. A wave of mist rolled in, carrying with it an unnatural chemical spoor. The scent was familiar, it was the smell of the beast from the lake! Godzilla turned, and the true purpose of his journey became instantly clear, for there stood the Obake, Varan the Unbelievable!

Varan hissed in outrage and charged! It's long slumber had been disturbed, shaken from sleep by some strange compulsion. But the chemicals that kept it dormant were still at work. It could not move. Another day passed, and again the Urge had come, but this time it was different. A new wave of chemicals was permeating the lake, penetrating Varan's scaly hide. Assaulting his own biology, as well as the still toxic waters around him. He could feel his body leeching the minerals from the lake, absorbing them. Processing the saline and converting it into raw energy! Varan rose from the water then, hungering for more...

A group of humans had scattered at his advance. Then, Varan saw that one had remained. It was making tiny songlike noises, and Varan had paused to listen. Another of the small creatures approached to join it's fellow, and the Obake swept them aside. He had caught the scent of the invader, saw the scorched earth that marked it's trail, and Varan followed.

Now, he grappled with the beast, smashing and clawing! There was vast power in this creature, power for which Varan hungered!

It was silent on the shore of Obake lake, save for the anguished sobbing of a tortured soul. Kyoko Iso cried in grief as she knelt beside the lifeless body of her uncle Matsu. Nearby, Kenji crossed himself as he closed the eyed of Captain Goro for what would be the final time.

Slowly, Ken rose from the sand and joined Kyoko. It was getting harder to believe this was the same woman he would have gladly strangled only yesterday. Seeing her so hurt, sharing the grief of Matsu's death, he began to realize just how much in love with her he really was. He caressed her then, held her sobbing in his arms. For a little while at least, there was nothing they could say.

"I'm sorry, Kyo." Ken finally broke the silence. "This time, I'm the one who must take responsibility."

"No, Kenji. Do not blame yourself. Matsu did what his beliefs dictated he must. As did Goro, as did we all. Only, it all seems to have gone so horribly wrong! I fear it shall only be the worst aspects of the Koshida prophecy we will see fulfilled."

"The final conjunction is tonight, Kyo. Any idea what we can expect?"

"Hai. Unless the monster Varan can be defeated, the destruction it will cause will not be limited to Kunashirashima. It is said the beast will journey, much as I have done, to the island temples of the other Wild Gods, destroying their people and gathering their powers. It may well become unstoppable then. It may destroy mankind!"

"Kyo, our folks managed to defeat the beast forty years ago, using the prototype on which my current formula is based. Goro's jeep is close by, I'm taking it back to Oneda. If there is truly nothing left of the stockpile they once kept at the port, then I should at least be able to synthesize a sample from the equipment at my cottage. The Defense Force or whoever can take it from there."

"Kenji, you cannot go back there now, those monsters will tear that city apart!"

"So you're saying we're supposed to rely on Godzilla and Varan destroying each other?"

"No. I'm saying that I love you Kenji, and I could not bear to lose you too."

He held her then, and swore to himself he would never let her go. "I love you too, Kyoko. But this is something I've got to do." He kissed her sweetly. "I promise there is nothing that will keep me from coming back to you. Will you be alright here with the Koshida?"

"Hei. We will keep Goro's body at the temple, and prepare uncle Matsu for the sacred rite of passage, from this world to the next."

"Sacred rite of passage?" Ken inquired.

"It is his final duty as their spiritual leader," she replied. "His body, as well as his spirit, will be given back to Obake lake."

Dawn was rising over Oneda city. A dawn stained red with the blood of monsters. The battle had raged for hours now. The combatants, though unevenly matched, were equally relentless in their fury. The stellar forces that had driven them to this conflict now held the two behemoths in an unshakable grip. Locked in a struggle which could only be broken when one of the beasts lay dead!

Commander Yoshi Nakano observed the battle from his vantage point atop the lighthouse. His troops stood ready to advance at a moments notice, and would remain so until he signaled otherwise. Captain Goro had left specific orders to hold the forces at the port in reserve for as long as possible. His own garrison had been destroyed attempting to hold off Godzilla alone. Attacking them both would be little more than a suicide run for these soldiers.

Luckily, the monsters struggles had not intruded much into the city's perimeter, yet. How long, he wondered, could they keep this up? Even beings as powerful as these must tire eventually...

The King of the Monsters was tiring. He had been battling this spike-backed enemy for most of the night. Smashing it with his tail, burning it with his beams, and every time he struck it down, the beast had come back for more! Godzilla bled where the creature had bitten him, the wounds burning as if filled with acid instead of saliva. There was something in the smell of the beast, in the mists that hung around it, that seemed to be draining Godzilla of energy. He was weakening fast, and Varan renewed the attack!

Varan's long whiplash tail snaked out, entwining Godzilla's legs. Its crystalline spikes pierced his flesh, pinning him like some immense iron maiden. Grappling at such close quarters, Varan grabbed for Godzilla's jaws and wrapped his webbed claws around them, clamping them shut. Godzilla too grabbed hold of his opponent's spiky flesh. He dug in his claws, and looked the maddened beast right in the eye...

His dorsal plates flared, sparking into a radioactive nimbus that erupted all around him. From deep within the core of his own atomic mass, Godzilla generated a devastating nuclear pulse! Shockwaves of pure power blast outward, ripping into the Obake and hurling him smoking into the jungle!

The King of Monsters was spent. He may well have let himself fall then, were it not for the length of the Obake's tail that had ripped away from the creature, still digging into his legs. Painfully, he pulled it from his flesh, and hurled it away. He staggered forward, toward the form of his fallen enemy. The creature from the lake lay singed and bleeding in a sink hole formed by its own impact. Godzilla saw the beast was still breathing, Varan was still alive! Consumed by both the irresistible compulsion which held him here, and a burning rage that was all his own, Godzilla raised his scaly head and howled, preparing to finally incinerate the enemy with a direct blast from his maw. The beam shot forth, and suddenly, the beast was upon him!

The Koshida had lain the body of Captain Goro at the foot of the shattered idol, and begun the slow procession back to the lake. Kyoko sang a mournful dirge for her uncle and mentor. The leader of the natives, whose body they now carried behind her. She was their leader now, his place had become hers. The Koshida carried Matsu's form, but it was her duty to carry his spirit, his legacy, back to Obake lake.

It was well past midday when they lifted his body from the palanquin into the boat, launching both he and Kyo from the shore. The natives gathered in and among the immense footprints that lined the beach, and continued the chant as Kyo paddled slowly out onto the lake.

"Matsu," she whispered. "You were like a little brother to my parents, Kenji's too. Every time I saw you there was that same mischievous child they always spoke of. Yet here on this island you were almost like a king. You pursued these peoples forgotten knowledge, and you passed it on to me." Kyoko lifted the body as best she could, then rolled it up and over the side of the boat, to be slowly swallowed by the lake. "I promise you, uncle. That knowledge will survive."

Godzilla's force bolts ripped across the landscape, becoming weaker, losing intensity. Varan's jaws were clamped tight around his throat, keeping the creature out of reach of the beam. Godzilla flailed at the beast, and went down!

Varan could feel the intruder's energies flowing into him, leeching out along with the minerals and isotopes in it's blood. It had fought mightily, but surrounded now in a cloud of toxic mist, the intruder finally succumbed! Varan drank deep of the cup of victory.

Atop the lighthouse, Captain Nakano had seen the monsters fall. Now he watched in disbelief to see Varan alone rising from the parting mists! The beast had changed. Its wounds were healing, and energy danced around its form, generating a cosmic aurora from its spikes. Then the beam burst forth from the creature's mouth, blasting into the structures of Oneda city! Somehow, the beast had absorbed Godzilla's powers. Varan hissed in exaltation, as Nakano finally gave the order to attack!

The jeep spun out into a screeching halt, then stalled. Just as well, Ken thought. There's no way anybody's gonna be driving around that! The road was blocked by a huge section of what could only be the tail of the monster Varan. Spiky crystal projections, some now broken, ran from its tip over fifty feet away, to its shorn and oozing end. Ken touched it, and a chill ran through him. "Damn. Now I'm gonna have to hoof it into town. I'd worry more about heading into a battle zone if I weren't so sure my luck could simply not get any worse!"

Resigned to his dilemma, Ken continued his trek to Oneda on foot. In the distance, he could hear the sounds of artillery fire mixing with a monster's screams. He made a mental note then, to remember to thank his mother for arranging this little trip for him in the first place!

The moon was rising over the Koshida village, and with it rose a low, coiling mist. It crept from the surface of Lake Obake like a serpent, flowing along the jungle trails. It was heading directly for the temple.

The chanting of the natives abruptly stopped at its approach, and it flowed into the temple, filling it with its essence. With a sense of peace, and redemption.

Kyoko bolted awake, touched by the feeling. "Matsu?" She gasped, her uncle's name springing unbidden from her lips. The mist swirled briefly around her, then retreated to continue on its windswept journey. The hour of the Final Conjunction had arrived.

Ken Bradley's trek had not been an easy one. He was exhausted. His injuries sustained in the destruction of the Defense Force garrison were slowing him. His entire body a dull ache he had to force to keep in motion. The distant sound of artillery fire had ceased, his only guide now was the dim glow of the fires that raged throughout Oneda. He had to pause, to rest for just a moment. That's when the mist overtook him.

The mist was like a whirlwind now, a maelstrom! Ken dug in as the unearthly gale whipped past him, yet as quickly as it had appeared, it was over. The strange clouds lingering dregs crept slowly after the main body of the phenomena, leaving behind...a feeling. A subtle sense of peace and well being. Somehow, Ken knew, it was Matsu!

In the distance, Ken watched as the mist began to shimmer and coalesce, settling on what had appeared to be an indistinct area of the landscape. Now, defined by the cloud surrounding it, Kenji could see the true nature of the mists destination. The now glowing nimbus had settled upon the form of the fallen Godzilla!

Godzilla lay motionless, defeated by the beast from the lake. Somehow, it had leeched away his atom spawned energies, replacing them with the chemical toxins which had surrounded it. The King of the Monsters was left dormant and helpless.

A warm wind rose, blowing in from the jungle. It felt...pleasant. Godzilla forced open his eyes, and above him saw a cloud of shimmering mist. Slowly it settled upon him, penetrating his massive body. Imbuing him with a strange sensation. A feeling only half remembered from some dim and ancient past. It was the feeling of peace.

The saurian rose to his feet. His breathing regulated, his strength returned. There were no great flashes of radiation, no lances of power to herald his return. Only a soft golden glow that filled him, giving him purpose. Surrounding him like a halo. Like a fog.

Revived now, his sense alert, Godzilla searches the air currents for his enemy's spoor. There! The Lakebeast has entered the human city, a trail of flame and destruction marking his path. Oneda burned with the power of the atom. The power that is the birthright of the King of the Monsters. The birthright that Godzilla would now reclaim.