• Published 2nd Aug 2013
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The Bridge: A Godzilla-MLP Crossover - Tarbtano



A devastating battle in the Kaiju universe transports a small group of them, heroric, villainous, and otherwise to Equestria. New bodies, new world, new society. But what happens when something even Kaiju are afraid of follows them?

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Chapter 29, part 2: Dragon Knight

Inside the lake, Monster X’s body sunk down to the depths until he hit the bottom. Knocked limp by the blast wave and unable to swim, he could do nothing but crash down in slow motion amongst a cloud of silt. Upon his neck, Aria’s necklace began to crackle and pulse dimly. Unseeing eyes blankly stared up at the surface far above. He saw not the broken ice sheets on the surface, he felt not the icy cold of the water or extensive pain of his injuries. The only sensory input X could feel was his own heart beat, and a voice. A quiet, singing voice that wrapped around him as Aria’s heart began to usher a consistent glow. Jolts of energy began to spark out of it, causing Monster X’s body to twitch. X’s vision returned as he leered up at the surface, hearing the distant bellowing of Enjin.

-No…-

A gloved hand reached up and clutched the glowing heart.

-Not yet.-

Enjin

Back at the bridge, an unworldly, fiery glow invaded the van window. Adagio Dazzle could hear and feel her pulse racing through her head despite the siren’s ears still ringing, but she was petrified. She slowly looked over towards the source of the glow as it enveloped her face. The deep river below and towering height of the bridge put the road on chest level with the burning behemoth. Part of Enjin’s chest opened up and several tendrils grasped the van, beginning to reel it in closer. But it wasn’t just Enjin she could see. Though it hurt her eyes to look into the brightness the eldest siren could clearly make out a familiar black outline in the haze. She didn’t need to mentally blot out the wings and horns to recognize the long haired being banging on the inside of Enjin’s core to no avail. Adagio lurched out and grabbed Sonata to try and pull her out of the van as it was her little sister’s side that was closest to the monstrosity, but the terrified Sonata reflexively clung to her sibling and sobbed. Adagio stopped trying to fight to free Sonata, accepting that even if she got her out of the van, this demon would still have them cornered on a pillar with no escape route. She stopped screaming for Sonata to let go and run for it, crumbling into her seat and putting her arms around one of the two beings she promised her aunt she’d look after, knowing she’d failed Hymnia for both of the two. The oldest siren patted Sonata’s back as her little sister pushed into her neck. Adagio Dazzle closed her eyes, her hearing returning just enough to detect Sonata's crying.

She could feel the van being lifted off the road beneath it. Well… at least they’d get to be reunited with their cousin soon.

…..
…….
………
………..
………….

A flash of light burst across the outside of Adagio and Sonata’s eyelids. There was the crash of ruptured water and the roar of breaking ice, followed by Enjin grunting. Suddenly the inside of the van was hit with a whiplash and free-fall like a drop on a rollercoaster. The jostling ended almost as quickly as it started. Adagio opened her eyes again as the light faded, greeted to the sight of the stone laden river before her that fed into the lake. Had the feeling of weightlessness not come over her, accompanied by shards of their broken windshield, snow, and fragments of the bridge levitating in midair, she’d probably have fell out of the van and tumbled to the ground below. Instead, Sonata and herself were kept in their seats, clothing and hair floating about as if underwater. The van shifted, gently being raised up and wheels put beneath it. Placed back on the surviving portion of the bridge still connected to the road, the distortions to gravity subsided in a fraction of the second. Shrugging off the jolt, Adagio looked out where her window once was.

Another titan had arrived. While only at half his normal height due to the divide in Aria’s power, the fourteen story giant was still strong enough to equal Enjin’s stature and hold onto his opponent. Having burst out of the river, the newcomer stood behind Enjin with an elbow around the shadow’s throat in a tight hold. Having been previously holding an opened hand out towards the van to catch it with a gravity net and put it back on the road, the newcomer used its now freed limb to catch a snapping hand from Enjin by the wrist. While it was clearly struggling to hold Enjin still, based off its subtly stumbling feet, a dragon’s roar called out from past recurved fangs and it twisted itself around. Enjin’s neck remained unbroken, but that didn’t stop the back throw that hurled it away from what remained of the bridge from dislocating its skull as it crashed into the forest and knocked over another battery of trees. The new kaiju turned to face where Enjin had fallen, putting itself between the downed Aspect and the van. It shifted its head slightly to the side, red eyes glancing down at the vehicle.

While the new entity looked hardly any better than the demon of before and was so alien it was nearly unclassifiable as to what exactly it was supposed to be; it only took Sonata a second to recognize the black and white color scheme on the skin and armor, along with the distinct hue of cinnabar red in its eyes. The fact Monster X was wearing a glowing, giant version of a siren necklace around his neck, with a power output high enough both she and her sister could practically smell the magic coming off him, only confirmed that identification.

“That’s X!”

Sonata yelped, still more than a tad dumbstruck. Upon seeing the alien and confirming her sister’s declaration, Adagio was hit with a sea of confliction. She clenched her jaw, face twitching every millisecond to alternate between a jaw dropped frown, a scowl, and the unreadable as she ripped through thought after thought. She wanted to place all blame on the kaiju, both of them, for causing all of this. For threatening Sonata and swallowing up Aria. She hated them….

The scowl twitched away to a defeated frown. Adagio closed her eyes, scrunching up her face as a tightened grip on her chest crushed in on her. She could blame them, but no amount of pride or aloofness was able to wholly exclude her from the equation. Aria was driven away from herself by her own hand, and now she was in more peril than either of them could have imagined. Adagio grimaced and breathed through her teeth, turning and tearing open the door handle to get out of the van. She opened her eyes and looked through tears before sprinting to the guard rail.

“X!”

She roared so loud it stung her throat. Monster X’s eye shifted, looking down at the siren out of its corner.

“G-get her…. back….”

Adagio stammered, speaking in a mix of crying, shouts, and pleads. She ripped her necklace off her head, ignoring the cold feeling stabbing through her upon doing so as she literally held her magic out at arm’s reach.

“Whatever you need to do! You can take them all if you want, JUST GET HER BACK!”

She wasn’t alone, as a second red glimmer joined Adagio’s necklace. Sonata, having followed her sister out of the van, looked at her necklace briefly whilst chewing her lip. Without a moment of pondering, she slipped it off her neck and held it out to the kaiju. Monster X let a slow breath gush out of his nostrils, forming a veil of mist in the winter air that wreathed over his face. He hadn’t been expecting this. Aria’s heart pulsed beyond its usual glow for a moment, in unison with its cousins’ gems. Monster X looked forward again at the source of shaking earth. Enjin had gotten back up, rearing up and smashing its fists into the now fractured ground beneath it before roaring at the group. Monster X outstretched an arm and pointed a finger in the direction of the road, motioning for the sirens to get out of the crossfire he knew was coming.

The sound of van doors being shut behind him and an engine revving ushered Monster X to alter his stance into a readied pre-guard, arms spread out forward to the sides slightly with his hands uncurled. A snowflake kissed the ground and both kaiju charged at each other. Just before they would have collided, Monster X stopped his sprint and leapt up whilst spinning around. The double attack landed, first a backhand to Enjin’s jaw followed up by a double tail smack that toppled the Aspect as it struck in retaliation and buried its knuckle spikes into its opponent’s chest armor.


================
Kilometers away
================

Heading onto the highway as her namesake began to occur behind them, Sunset Shimmer didn’t know whether she should be vexed, confused, frantic, or frightened to a degree. While Irys and company’s insistence helped set the seriousness of the situation, her friend’s friends were, well, odd. Then again, she probably should have expected such from aliens after the affirmation that they definitely weren’t from Equestria. Megalon, who was humming to himself in the back seat, was nice enough, if a bit ditzy at times in a Pinkie Pie manner; though the older cyborg in the front riding shotgun, Gigan, made her skin crawl even after he put his sunglasses back on to cover up his mechanical eyes. Sunset wasn’t sure if it was just his general mannerisms or the fact over half of him seemed mechanical that was spurring her unease. While this new world of humans did have some more advanced, or at the very least, more widespread technology than back in Equestria; stuff to the grade of what was sitting in the passenger seat was beyond anything Sunset had ever seen. Or perhaps just as Gigan, a being reforged by metal and machinery, was confused, alienated, and annoyed by magic; so too was Sunset, a former student of magic itself, was having a similar reaction to the Nebulan technology. Still, while she managed to keep a calm face during the drive and had been able to near completely ignore the half metal men back at her homestead, the uneasiness was building for Sunset over the course of the extended drive.

That and the pale hands clinging to her chair proved a bit distracting. Megalon and Gigan, both having ridden in container vessels for when the Nebulans would move them planet to planet and system to system, were more or less unsurprised by the sensations of a car ride. The former busying himself in examining any trinket or book he could find in Sunset’s back seat pockets, and the latter focused on scanning the world whizzing past them for energy signatures. Irys had no such experience nor any distraction. As it turned out, she discovered she was terrified of car rides. The gyaos had been a nervous wreck since they closed the doors around her. The claustrophobia and roar of the engine made her react on instinct, clinging to the back of Sunset Shimmer’s chair like a startled cat and had stubbornly refused to let go or drop her wide eyed expression.

Sunset eyed the rear view mirror to check her positioning in the lane.

“Which fores- Megalon could you get Irys down some? Please? Thanks… Which forest did you say he was in?”

Unfortunately it was Gigan, who was busy looking over a roadmap, who dryly answered her.

“We don’t know the exact one, but the visual we got his location had a large lake and rocky uplands in view. Judging from this map, your ‘Everfree National Park’ seems to fit best…!!!”

Just as Sunset went by a road sign with the park’s name and turned onto the parkway to head into it, Gigan had dropped the map, flinched up, and looked in the direction of the park. At nearly the same time, Megalon and Irys did the same; freezing up and looking off in a set direction.

“!!”

“!!

The trio’s heads slowly pivoted around to face 2’oclock. Sunset could feel a strange vibe pass over her, as much from her confusion at the trio as it was almost feeling like something was in the air. Managing to keep her eyes on the road outside of idle glances, Sunset Shimmer broke the silence.

“What-what is it?”

Gigan popped his glasses off to get a stronger reading, rolling his window down and sticking his head out. The readings his eyes picked up were kilometers away, and yet so clear as day even Irys could sense it. In all his years experience, there was only one thing that gave off that kind of power in such a relatively compact, mobile state. Kaiju. And he got two readings. One of which was definitely Monster X, but the other was an enigma and that did nothing to calm his nerves.

“He’s here. That way, go… GO!”

Not having to be told twitce and knowing it had to be serious for Gigan to be acting out, Sunset floored the accelerator and sped down the parkway.


============
National Park
============

Enjin stumbled back across the lake shore, still smoking from being hit with several graviton flares. Catching itself on its heels, the Aspect of Land rocked itself back into a forwards stance and smashed a palm into the ground. A wave of energy shot into the ground below and back into Enjin, the titan quickly expelling most of its excess mass with the blast and shifting back into its speedier form. Caught off guard by the uproar of churned earth kicked up around Enjin, Monster X wasn’t able to block the clothesline the sprinting kaiju threw his way whilst lunging past him. Tremors quaked and armor cracked as Enjin got several lunging passes at the Xilian dragonoid, the latter’s armor being the only thing saving him from being sliced into by Enjin’s spikes that extended with each of its punches or swipes. Digging its arm into the ground after another pass, Enjin kicked off the ground and swung itself around to charge Monster X at full speed without needing to slow during its turn. Monster X managed to brace himself from the impact, but was still knocked backwards a full hundred meters, first through the remains of the bridge and then into the rock wall leading up to a looming plateau that bordered the bridge.

Pulling himself out of the imprint his back caved into the stony face, Monster X shook his head free of the dizziness; clearing it only in time to see Enjin lunging towards him with its extending spikes outstretched. He might have been stabbed had he been the only one fighting Enjin. Deep inside the core, Aria Blaze was still trying to free herself. Condensing her power within herself, the transformed demi-kaiju called out in a sirenous roar that exerted blast waves of gravitons and magic in all directions. The energy burst she gave off was taxing, only worsened by the leeching cold that seemed to be sapping her more and more every moment, but while it did fail to do any real damage to Enjin it did have one desirable effect. The power surge given off by the siren-turned-battery briefly caused Enjin’s core to spark and flash. The Aspect of Land flinched up and was thrown off course. At the same time as the malign power surge coursed through the Aspect, a benign one shot through Monster X, as indicated by the uproar of golden energy arcing out of the necklace and across his body. Born of the siren heart, something directly tied to Aria’s life force and magic, the rush of power he felt instantly shot him like an adrenaline rush. With bolstered strength and a sharpened reflex that seemed to slow down time briefly, Monster X reacted to the oncoming Aspect.

-Time to see if that idea I wanted to test works!-

His eyes flashed with the golden light, but instead of firing the netted graviton energy, the arcs of gold shot down from Monster X’s eyes, through his neck and into his arm as he threw a crackling punch that hit Enjin’s hand head-on just below the spines. The energized gravity magnified the weight and thus the force behind the strike, while also concentrating the energy burst of his eye beams into one point. Having literally just punched his attack into Enjin, the result was obvious enough when the front half of Enjin’s hand exploded from the combined physical and energy outburst. Enjin cackled in surprise, now missing its arm past the wrist; being thrown back a bit and unable to stop Monster X from using a more tried but true energy attack, firing a quick graviton flare at its other forearm that detonated and destroyed that hand. While Enjin was able to start regenerating its hands, its enemy wasn’t giving it time to focus on regrowing its claws. No sooner than it was back up on its feet, Monster X was already set upon it and the Aspect of Land had to make due with fisticuffs. The two began trading blows back and forth, smacks, backhands, and lunge punches from Enjin being fought with rapid fire jabs, backhands, and uppercuts from X. Going back and forth with their duel, the two had destabilized chunks of the rocky uplands above, boulders ranging from man to car size raining down on them with torrents of dirt and snow.

After the armored dragonoid weaved around a strike to launch a jab-cross-jab-uppercut combo into Enjin’s chest and head; the Aspect lunged forward and managed to grab Monster X by the middle with a tackle. Body slamming X into the stone wall, Enjin reorganized its hold and grabbed Monster X by his head; proceeding to repeatedly bash him into the granite. While his armor was more durable than the stone and saved him from being crushed, the multiple bashings on an already cracked helmet was causing chunks of it to splinter or break off. The head-crest on the anterior portion of Monster X’s helmet broke off entirely, as did the left eye guard after the last bash. Enjin charged up a mana grenade in its free arm and swung up, intent on smashing it directly into Monster X’s head for a killing blow. Unable to get out of the way fully in time, Monster X could only swat the hand aside and force the explosive into the cliffside next to it. It blew up about a dozen meters away from his face, blowing Enjin back amongst a tidal wave of debris. Monster X, burned and smoking from the explosion across his armor and exposed skin, slumped against the cliffside under haggard breath, his hearing blown out and his vision blackening in and out every time he took air in past his bleeding jaws. Blackness surrounded him as another voice entered his mind amongst the fractions of seconds ticking by.

-Too weak...-

Flashes of memory shot across his vision, alternating with the real world every passing moment. The forest and cliffside metamorphosed into corpse of an unearthly city under two moons. Hundreds of screaming voices calling out at once in a droning chorus dueling with the howling winter gales. The image of Grand King Ghidorah stretched across his vision, approaching him during the times the visions overtook his sight, and morphing it back and forth into a recovered and advancing Enjin as the real world became visible for brief instances.

A gargantuan roar ripped through Monster X’s mind. Someone was tearing through his mind as if clawing at the inside of his skull, and they wanted out.

-I remember, everything. I’m real. You’re the fake, you’re too weak… You are losing, I’m not letting a fake kill me…-

Kaizer Ghidorah’s voice hissed with dripping venom. A overwhelming power began to overtake Monster X’s body. Enjin took a pause, readying itself as the delirious Xilian kaiju screamed in pain and clutched his head, trying to keep the internal intruder back. The visions of the past flashed before Monster X’s mind too quickly to observe in detail, out of control gravity causing debris to fly about in all directions.

-You don’t belong, you don’t even have a name. Ghidorah is still alive because of you!-

All mental focus was completely gone as Monster X’s psyche was assaulted by Kaizer Ghidorah’s personality, X’s only feelings were those of being torn away from his body as someone attempted to hijack it. He tried to fight it, but it was like trying to hold back an ocean of hatred, rage, and raw power. He couldn’t beat Enjin with his body, and he couldn’t beat this entity with his mind. He’d failed, he’d lost.

Aria Blaze felt a throbbing pain shoot through her head with the last burst, enough to open a cut across her temple and send her ears ringing. With X wearing her heart, the siren was all too aware of what was happening to him. Aria grimaced and looked towards the outer edge of the core.

-It’s happening again, X can’t resist it on his own!-

She was choking on the dark matter that composed Enjin’s core and rapidly losing all her strength, but her determination burned as brightly as her power did. She drowned out all the pain she was in, the crushing cold that surrounded her, and her struggle to even breathe. Her entire body began to light up with energy that was magnitudes greater than it ever had before.

-But he’s not fighting this alone…-

The siren channeled everything she had to reach a peak, feeding both the powers that fed off rage which she duplicated from Monster X’s other side; as well as her inherent magic that drove that discord. Dozens of memories played through her mind, each giving its share of strength in both remembrance and potency.

The loneliness of being forced away from the mermare pod, chased out to the depths.

Being booed off a stage during their first performance at Canterlot.

First crashing down in a trash alley as a naked monkey, struggling even to walk.

Dread and horror when her first attempt to go underwater to sleep nearly drowned her.

The frustration she felt consume her when she realized she couldn’t return to the sea.

The anger at Adagio for bringing them here and never once admitting it was her fault.

Disdain for her cousins upon seeing them become accommodated to this mockery instead of wholly loathing it.

The dull, bickering rooms full of hexed humans at the mall whose praise meant nothing.

Her rage and terror upon her first encounter with a monster in this world, then the second and third encounters.

At first struggling to learn her new powers under a stern teacher that repeatedly felt the need to lecture her.

Her alternatingly loathing her lamented situation during her brief break down last night, and then herself in hindsight for doing that in front of someone.

Storming out a door to get away from her cousins as a human.

Her full flung fury upon returning to the battlefield and seeing Monster X hurt, his blood on her hands….

Aria paused briefly upon that last thought. That memory, that moment, had infuriated her. It ignited the power she’d copied from the kaiju and made her how she looked now so it had to be strong. Why had it done that, why was that memory so strong?..

Her memory trick had worked to reignite the power she could muster, but she’d hit rage’s limit no matter how many more painful or hateful memories she mustered. Even with it fueling her gained powers, it wasn’t enough. She backtracked to the puzzling recollection, her power once again beginning to wane; drained away by Enjin as the milliseconds ticked by. As if it were her last chance, she clung to that last memory, ripping through it to find out why it was so befuddling. She’d become enraged, but not out of frustration, self loathing, or general hatred aimed at those around her. Her fury had been ignited by something else.

The realization dawned on her like being struck by lightning. Righteous indignation, anger for something rather than against it. For something in a selfless way….

-Maybe…-

She pushed side thoughts out of her head and reorganized as her world began to go dark, desperately filtering through memories of a different breed, fewer in number overall but equal in power.

She and Adagio playing in the kelp beds with an infant Sonata.

Curling up and sleeping next to her cousins in a sea cave as a siren.

The rush of cheering crowds of adoring ponies in Canterlot after their first big break.

The first time she managed to levitate and X letting her enjoy the nostalgia.
The calm surge she always felt when X allowed her to sing that weird melody to him.

The distant voice of a mother she never saw, feeling her muzzle tucking her daughter and nieces into a reef crevice to evade a storm.

She knew no face or detail to put to the memory, Aria was too young at the time. All she could remember was what Hymnia was doing. But, the feeling was still strong and she focused on that. Her conscious was jogged, remembering several cords of Hymnia’s voice. Her mother had been singing to them, singing to them a lullaby whose effect was opposite to the other one she’d taught them and they’d been using all these years. It wasn’t a chorus of discord, but something else entirely. Hymnia’s only daughter jolted with the realization. That night Kaizer attacked, Aria had panicked and she pulled something out of her subconscious. A song she’d repeated every time she sang to Monster X to keep him placid. A song she’d heard before from Hymnia.

Her mother’s lullaby had saved her life and given her a great power. And now, as Aria concentrated on the melody and sang it out into the void around her with everything she had, it was giving great power to someone else.

The memories of calm, triumph, and happiness flowed through her mind. A new energy rushed across Aria Blaze. Equestrian magic was partially emotion based. As it turned out, sirens could feed and grow off more emotions than those associated with discord and strife; they just didn’t know it. Until now. Her magic was born of an emotional attachment, and she had a whole new emotion to use alongside her rage fueling the kaiser powers. Nirvana and wrath worked together, ushering out an enormous power surge that ripped through Enjin’s core. Exerting as much energy as she could to the point of exhaustion, Aria Blaze extended a tendril restrained hand towards the outer edge of Enjin’s core. The last thing she saw before darkness overtook the spent siren was the glow of her own heart shining so bright she could see it from within Enjin. Someone needed her help and she just gave them everything she had.

Monster X crumbled to his knee as his body threatened to convulse, desperately fighting through the visions and the alternate personality trying to rip him out of the conscious world. Despite trying his hardest, just like back in Zenith, X couldn’t fight it off and was being consumed by the memories and drowning hatred that accompanied them. Kaizer Ghidorah’s assault only growing in strength and volatility, threatening to rip the rival personality apart and throw X into the cage he’d been trapped in for two hundred years.

-You’re the fake, I’m the real thing. I should have been in control but your amnesia locked me in that cage! This is MY body!-

Just as Kaizer Ghidorah roared out, having fully broken free of whatever mental prison his personality was sentenced to; a third party joined the depths of the tumultuous consciousness. A quiet melody, sung in a language Monster X didn’t understand. While the lyrics were maybe incomprehensible, the soothing tone of the choir and whose voice it sounded like wasn’t lost on him. Pulses of warm feelings washed over X’s body from Aria’s necklace. Each successive wave forced the nightmares back, forcing Kaizer Ghidorah away from X. Someone was holding him back and away from X, fighting back against the more monstrous personality. And both Kaizer and X knew who it was.

-You!-

-Aria…-

The memory of that someone’s voice echoed through Monster X’s mind as a black stillness overtook the visions.

-”X…XX…”-

Kaizer Ghidorah had been calmed by the siren’s song once, when he’d mistaken her for someone else. But all those times he had tried to reemerge and was halted by Aria's song had taught him otherwise. He knew another fake when he saw it, and like anything associated with the personality it loathed, he hated her. The raging dragon roared so loud it blotted out all depths of the shared mind, lashing out and pushing back against Aria’s attempts to reseal him.

-Imposter... Get out of my way!-

For a moment Aria’s influence was shoved back as Kaizer Ghidorah reasserted his power grab. Gold and black overpowering the violet like it had the black and white. The nightmarish visions tormenting Monster X returned with double the force, this time memories of stalking a siren in the forest accompanied them as Kaizer tried to tear the Equestrian out of their conscious. He might have succeeded had his other target not joined back in. Aria’s voice echoed again across the void despite her weakening influence. For a split second, Monster X could practically feel her hand on his face again as she recited her command.

-”Don’t lose.”-

The flashes of memory, this time of a terrified Aria in a forest and his team back in Zenith sent Monster X flying into a rage and on the offensive for the first time. He had a mission to complete, a life debt to pay back; he couldn’t have some nightmare ruining it all! He couldn’t fail! Not here! Not now! Not with who was at stake! He wasn’t letting himself black out and let this thing take over, not again. This time he was fighting back. The two personalities and the siren’s influence grappled with each other for control of their body, literally fighting each other with tidal waves of memories and emotions. Slowly but surely, the combined force of Aria and X was starting to push Kaizer and all of his influence back. The ghidorah’s overwhelming force had finally met its match, dame and knight forcing the dragon back, back into his cage.

-Why do you fight me?! You wanted to remember! I have our memories! Our past! Not this fake life!-

-What’s in the past is gone. If getting my memories back means releasing you and hurting them, then a fake I shall be!-

-You call yourself by a placeholder, I remember our name-!!-

Aria and Monster X shoved Kaizer Ghidorah back into the depths of the kaiju’s deepest subconscious, back into the cage Sonata and King Ghidorah released him from. The chance to remember his name, the very thing his placeholder of a title reminded him of every time someone spoke it, didn’t even give the dragon knight pause. It didn’t matter to him, not anymore. This monstrosity, this dark echo of himself that tried to take control; he didn’t know what it was called or where either of them came from. That origin didn’t matter anymore. He had centuries of memories of his life since waking up in an asteroid, his experiences, his loyalties, his team, and his morals. Those mattered. There was something his team… his friends… his family called him. It’s what Aria called him. It was what they’d use to think about him, so it was a name by every definition of the term. It was what mattered.

-My name, is Monster X… And you are NEVER going hurt any of them again!-

The mental prison door was slammed shut, muting out both Kaizer Ghidorah and all the visions and memories he bore. X regarded his conscious briefly as the very thing he’d been craving for decades died away in front of him like smoke in the wind. The last one to go, Kaizer’s core memory that was buried under all the hatred and devastation, was the outline of an Xilian couple in a private moment, putting their foreheads together as they stayed quiet and looked upon each other. While he couldn’t see the details of it as he let the past go, X knew the context behind the gesture in the dying memory. On the world of two suns and two moons it was the closest equivalent to a kiss the culture had. The glimpsed memory faded away like dust in the wind as the outside world returned to the conscious. Monster X sighed and prepared to return to his other fight at hand, thinking above the container Kaizer Ghidorah was locked in as Aria’s song pushed it into the depths of his subconscious, ushering away the dragon’s presence as his power which Aria had absorbed over the recent past days remained behind. While he had just resigned himself to ignorance of what he’d been chasing for decades, he knew now why the dragon bore so much hatred it had been consumed by it. Usually the worst of furies were often begot by something cherished being lost. As the last of Kaizer’s roaring echoes died down in his subconscious, X brushed the remnants of the memory away and dissipated it entirely.

-I’m sorry…-

The tumultuous second within Monster X’s mind ended. Enjin screeched in agony and surprise as it felt torn into from the inside out by Aria’s energy outburst, letting go of Monster X and thrashing. The lines of burning energy across its body virtually ignited like running lava as its power briefly flew out of control. Just as it was scorched under its own might, a tidal wave of power hit it from the outside. Enjin looked up just in time to see Monster X’s head snap up, eyes already burning bright. The Xilian kaiju let a screaming roar fly out as spiraling graviton beams shot out of his eyes and mouth. Enjin stumbled back from the blow, its foe already lunged upon it before the second was up. He swung a downwards punch into Enjin’s face that hit with so much force it split the air. Monster X felt a familiar rush of energy overtake him. Weakness instantly vanished as he felt revitalized and replenished to a degree even greater than before. Shrugging off his daze and multiple bleeding and bruised wounds, Monster X roared and lashed out at the Aspect.

Energy coursed out of Aria’s heart, literally pumping through X’s veins. He grabbed Enjin, and in a display of titanic strength even for him, twisted around at his hips and threw the Aspect so hard it bore into the solid rock over two dozen meters into the plateau’s side. He rushed Enjin with a storm of commanded gravity, ushering another explosion of snow and solid rock as X crashed into the shadowy demon. Enjin’s kaiser energy detections went off the charts so much that it thought Kaizer Ghidorah was about to emerge. But, there was a different power at play, binding that side of the Xilian Vanguard in its cage and holding it in like a net. Kaizer Ghidorah was being held at bay by a siren’s magic, but his power was still bursting free with X still in the driver’s seat. Physical changes accompanied the energy spikes, the Xilian kaiju already growing several meters taller and adding on literal tons to his body mass. Kaizer Ghidorah’s strength, put to use by Monster X’s skill, and further enhanced by Aria’s magic made for the strongest opponent the Aspect had ever encountered. And Enjin was being completely overpowered.

Monster X threw out a rising uppercut, striking with just as much physical form as he was his own gifted energy, each blow sending a crackling shockwave through Enjin's body. He repeatedly assaulted the Aspect again and again, blasting off chunks of Enjin each time from the sheer force that snapped the air with every crackling blow. Monster X was easily twice as physically strong as he’d been before and Enjin’s sleeker speed form, that lacked its original state’s bulk and armor, meant it was getting manhandled. He’d been launching the Aspect up so much that they left the ground. Monster X unconsciously shot himself up into a forced levitation, digging a trench up the side of the plateau by consecutively punching Enjin through it. With a good chunk of its body broken at this point, Enjin whipped out a desperate attack to clear itself some breathing room. Redirecting much of its own power into its palm, doubling its usual power output for an even bigger charge, Enjin drew out a sphere of mana from the energy and smashed it into Monster X’s chest. The ensuing explosion blew the two apart, sending Monster X rocketing to the ground and launching Enjin skyward. The Aspect, now missing its entire left forearm, tumbled through the air for a few seconds before spiraling beams of gold burst from the dust cloud below and shot it down. Enjin was blown back and onto the plateau itself, knocking over several trees as its smoking form rolled across the ground.

After a few moments, ragged breath echoed across the woods. Monster X levitated himself up to the plateau’s level, one hand on his bleeding torso. While his chest plate had saved him from the brunt of the blast at the cost of completely shattering, it didn’t stop half his front from being blackened and bleeding in many places. The black and white kaiju’s chest was covered in bruises and fragments of destroyed bone armor; the loss of the torso covering also exposing a large, old scar near the sternum just to the side of where the heart would be. In just as many places that had lost their ivory shell however, golden scales were beginning to erupt from Monster X’s skin. In the places white ringed his form, such as on his horns and tail, gold was leaking up the ivory hues and taking it over. A ring of the scales formed up around X’s eyes as he glared at the recovering Enjin. Deciding it was best to trade speed for defense, the Aspect fought through the power surge and shifted back into its bulkier form. Monster X paid close attention to the fact he was touching the ground when the form change occurred.

A flash of memory shot across his mind to when the transformed Aria confronted the demon. It had begun to regenerate from her attacks just like it normally would, but there was one instance it didn’t. When Aria had knocked it into the air and unleashed her onslaught, it didn’t heal.

-That’s it! It needs to be touching the ground to adapt and heal!-

He knew now how could beat it, but it would need the right set up. He glanced about his surroundings and noticed the edge of the plateau peak. There was a good several hundred meter drop over that edge, enough to keep them in the air for a few seconds at most. He regarded the blinking siren heart still slung around his neck. He leered at the rising Enjin’s torso.

-If the hearts are tied to their life-force, then its power might cut off if she dies in there. And if it’s her power that returned me to this, then that means I’ll demorph.-

Enjin charged Monster X as soon as the latter landed. Weaving under the shadow beast’s swing, X spun around and collided a knee strike with Enjin’s torso.

-I might not be able to keep this up forever and Aria’s been in that thing for minutes now. We’re both running out of time, I have to put this thing down quick.-

Throwing caution into the wind, the partially transformed Monster X rushed the behemoth and re-engaged it full on. Shrugging off the return blows it gave him, Monster X busied himself with a full onslaught of everything he had. Punches, kicks, throws, close range energy blasts; anything to force Enjin back and closer to the cliff’s edge. Grunting from the pain of punching the adapting Aspect hard enough he could feel several bones in his hand break, Monster X gave himself a gravity assisted jump and double kicked with both legs to force him backwards. Using the same momentum to leap back, Monster X landed feet first; digging his clawed toes into the ground to stop himself from sliding too far backwards. Repeatedly blasting Enjin with graviton flares from his eyes and now roaring mouth as he slid back, Monster X bought himself a moment’s respite of breathing room.

Enjin reacted instinctively to its prey being out of arm’s reach. Mending its wounds from X’s beam assault, it pooled its own wrath into its core. The lines and stripes across its body burned, the ribcage of tendrils on its chest opening up. It grabbed hold of the mana bomb its core brought forth, hurling it at Monster X before drawing out another. The first was intercepted mid-flight by the Xilian kaiju’s eye beams, knocked off course and sailing off into the lake before detonating. Hundreds of gallons of water and tons of ice were blown apart or vaporized in an instant, the surviving mass being hurled up a full hundred meters into the air. Unphased, Enjin redoubled its efforts with the second energy bomb, clutching it in its gnarled hand to compress more of the Aspect’s might than before. However when the second bomb came sailing at Monster X, rapidly expanding mid-air to double the size of its previous kin, the kaiju didn’t fire back. The milliseconds ticked by, the burning sphere of energy encroaching closer and closer to him, melting the falling snow and scorching the ground it sailed over. It was on a direct collision course, and yet Monster X didn’t get out of the way.

X caught hold of his pulse and centered his focus, practically able to feel all the power around him. The arcs of energy shooting out of his eyes and necklace to course across his body became so numerous and concentrated that they formed an all encompassing aura. An outline of golden energy formed around the kaiju, two flanks of it extending out to resemble a pair of wings. Able to perceive the energy in all its forms, Enjin saw the image of a golden dragon flanked by a violet hippocampus that swam around to its side. X slowly turned his torso around as the energy ball flew closer, concentrating the glow into his right hand. He could feel the heat on his skin, causing several burns as it got close to his fingers and palm. Enjin’s attack was magic in origin, mana based. But regardless of origin, the plasma it contained was still matter. And all matter is subject to gravity. X’s own energy beams were plasma contained within a net of gravitons, so the idea was there. It was just pulling it off that was the hard part. Fortunately, the heart of a siren had given him access to exactly the strength he needed. Kaizer Ghidorah had pulled off this sort of thing before.

Time ticked back into full speed. Engulfing the energy bomb in a net of gravitons projected out of his hand, Monster X compressed and grabbed onto the ball of plasma. Redirecting its momentum, he swung his arm around and snatched it off its previous course. With a shoulder roll and a hip snap, the roaring kaiju spun the sphere’s course around and smashed it into the plateau. The new course for the sphere sent it forward and downward, burrowing through solid rock for dozens of meters. Fractured earth with beams of blazing light searing out of the cracks were the only forewarning before the bomb detonated right below Enjin. The entire last third of the plateau outcropping that the Aspect of Earth was standing on exploded, torrents of runaway gravitons and blast waves of mana throwing everything into the air and over the edge. Monster X’s eyes tracked the airborne Enjin. Ignoring the smoke coming off his hand, he took a crouched stance with his arms spread. Sweeping his right foot across the ground, he tapped into all the energy he could call upon, both from himself and from Aria’s gift. Eyes engulfed with a golden radiance that traveled across his body and down to his leg, Monster X kicked off and sprinted towards Enjin.

The Aspect, seeing the charging kaiju rushing it with a growing luminance, did it’s best to brace itself and protect its only vital. It enclosed its chest and crossed its forearms over its torso to block, even as it began to plummet over the edge of the cliff. Monster X pushed himself to his physical limit, propelling himself forward with a tsunami of gravitons. Practically a blur, his right leg continued to constantly glow brighter and brighter than before, arcs of energy jumping off it and burning footprints into the ground. Monster X roared, reaching a hand out to Enjin and snapping his hand back; causing a brief spike in the gravity above Enjin that yanked the airborne kaiju towards him. He reached the edge of the plateau and leaped off after Enjin, shifting his position into cocking back his blazen leg and taking aim at Enjin’s chest. Rapidly extending his leg into a diving kick, X struck his target dead on. The surging ball of light that had engulfed Monster X’s entire lower leg collided with Enjin’s torso with a blinding eruption that swallowed them both up before exploding out into a smoke cloud.

A low groan flew through the air, both kaiju tumbling out of the smoke cloud and plummeting to the valley below. One of Enjin’s arms flew off in a random direction along with a majority of its chest, bouncing off the corpse of the plateau before falling alongside the rest of its body. The remaining arm was closer to the body, though just barely; free-falling beside the rest of its body. The impact from the “Gravity Kick” had completely destroyed the outer front of Enjin’s torso and ruptured part of its core. The amber-like gem bore a large crack along the front, bright, liquid light bleeding out of the core. Tendrils of solid shadow shot out of Enjin’s shoulder and reconnected to the sole remaining arm. Not even waiting for a stable bond, Enjin roared and lashed out at the kaiju on top of it, grabbing Monster X by his horns and attempting to force his head backwards enough to snap his neck. The alien kaiju, while battered, wasn’t having any of that. This fight was over. Monster X snarled, swatting away Enjin’s malformed limb hard enough to bend its shoulder around the wrong way. He roared, drowning out his foe’s call before plunging his left hand straight into Enjin’s exposed core and jammed his claws into the crack.

Claws and brute force achieved what energy could not alone, Monster X’s taloned fingers breaching the shell and ripped outwards, with the whiplash tearing the core in two. The two halves, not having enough energy to reconstitute themselves after such an extended period of trauma and being away from the ground, sparked briefly before going dead and crumbling away like ash. Enjin, the Aspect of Land, muttered out one last bellow that echoed across the valley and forest, its body quickly evaporating away like scattered smoke. Still plummeting, Monster X only had the strength to control the gravity enough to slow his fall. He turned himself around mid-air, clutching his left hand and its contents to his chest before hitting the ground back-first.

It took several minutes for the exhausted kaiju to regain consciousness. When his eyes finally gave himself something more than blackness, Monster X could see he was laying at the bottom of a shallow crater. Trees lay shattered, or at the very least knocked down, all around him; with walls of snow kicked up in a shockwave. His ears were still ringing and he could taste his own blood on his tongue. Every single part of his body ached and it hurt to so much as twitch. Didn’t stop him from sitting up, he’d had worse. Bracing his burnt right hand on the ground, Monster X cast his tired eyes to his left hand. It was still numb from impaling Enjin’s core, but it was what was in his opening palm that had his concern.

Aria Blaze, the object Monster X had focused on tearing out of Enjin’s core, lay splayed out in the kaiju’s trailer sized hand. Her power having been drained away, she’d returned to her normal human form. However, it was another quick observation upon his tired eyes that sent him into a world of panic. Several seconds had passed, and Aria wasn’t responsive.


-No…-

A closer look confirmed that she wasn’t breathing.

-NoNoNoNo!-

Quickly setting the siren down on a bank of snow, Monster X didn’t hesitate to remove the giant necklace off his neck. The moment it was off his head, the kaiju was engulfed with an encompassing light. Within seconds his form shrunk back down to that of a human, a wave of energy that surrounded him dissipating. Now several meters away from the still siren, Monster X clutched the necklace in his hand; running as fast as he could to her side despite the surge of pain every step gave him and a limp in his right leg from kicking Enjin so hard. Had he been aware he’d torn nearly half the tendons and fractured several bones in that leg, he might have been surprised he could even stand. Granted, his injuries did catch up to him enough that he stumbled to the ground upon reaching the siren and fell onto his knees.

A check of her nose in the cold air. Still, no breath. He held up her arm and tried to check her wrist, but his fright and injuries meant he couldn’t keep his hands steady enough to gauge for a pulse. An attempt to get a pulse from her throat had no such luck either, the muscle shakes were throwing off his sense of touch and leaving him to resorting to putting an ear to her chest to listen. There was nothing, no heart beat. Desperation climbing, Monster X regarded the necklace he’d dropped while trying to search for a pulse. Memories of earlier at the hospital, and earlier still at a creek side, returned to him. A siren’s necklace couldn’t be removed except by the wearer, otherwise there would be a blowback. That blowback managed to jog Aria back into consciousness both times. Holding up Aria’s head, he put the necklace back around her neck. The necklace didn’t give off so much as a dim glow, not even a single candle compared to the brilliant star shine it had once bore. There wasn’t much power left in it after fueling two kaiju, if any at all. Monster X just prayed otherwise.

With ragged breath, he braced himself and swung his hand down towards the necklace. To his dread, there was no magical shield or blowback to keep him away. Not giving up, he tried again, and again, and again; loathing each time he was able to so much as touch the necklace. He wasn’t deterred despite several minutes of failure.

“C-ome on!”

He grunted with a bleeding lip, his voice nearly croaking at this point.

“Stubborn- Sea- Witch! Siren! You saved my- life, so don’t you dare die on me yet!”

He stuttered due to the cringes of pain his movements ensued. He made one last lunge.

“Wake up!”

He shouted, getting nothing in return. Huffing under his breath and slumping over, Monster X slowly picked up Aria’s necklace, surges of sadness and frustration coursing through him. He ran his bleeding thumb over the smooth face of the gemstone, shutting his eyes after a few moments as he dared not to look at it. A warm dampness ran down his cheek, accompanying a clenching feeling within his ribcage. The scar on his mid-torso was beginning to hurt. Invisible to Monster X, even if he had his eyes open at the time, a small trickle of red smoke seeped out of his hand and filtered into the gem. The dim gleam caught his attention through his eyelids. Monster X held his breath and froze, opening his eyes and looking at the heart that lay limp in his hands through a watery blur. The former kaiju closed his lips and lowered his hand before tilting it, letting the necklace slip off his fingers and back onto Aria. The tiny glow it gave off was his only hope.

Monster X cocked back his hand and spread his fingers, making one last lunge for the necklace. An invisible bubble forced his hand away, the force reflecting back into the still Aria. A small jolt of gold energy shot across her, causing the body to flinch and spasm briefly. Aria Blaze’s eyes shot open and she gasped for breath desperately. She had lurched up with her gasps and hard breath, pausing upon feeling a hand on the back of her shoulders to prop her up. Violet eyes with tiny tinges of red looked up into Monster X’s. They both stood still for some time as Aria and X both caught their breath and quelled any raging pulses. At the minute’s end, Aria finally spoke as she looked to the crater beyond them. There wasn’t any sign of their attacker.

“Did, we get it?”

“Yes, for sure this time...”

“Thanks, for pulling me out.”

“You saved my life, I save your life. Only fair…”

“What’s this make us, two to three?”

“Three to three if you count me pulling you out of the river on the first outing.”

“Well you caused that one so I don’t think it counts.”

They spoke to each other in whisper. Aria Blaze shifted her gaze away from her surroundings and up to the kaiju still holding onto her, the absence of her necklace on his neck hadn’t gone unnoticed. The fact her gemstone, her heart had been returned to her caused the siren gently hold onto the gemstone as she closed her eyes and cracked a closed, but large smile. After a deep breath and sigh through her nose, Aria peeked out an eye at X with a semi-sly look on her face.

“You know, I sorta did get the beam thing down with that whole ‘blast scream’. So, kinda won our bet we had.”

She muttered. Monster X flinched slightly before looking back down at her. Aria sat herself up a bit more, displaying something she hadn’t openly in a long time and to only three beings in her lifetime’s memory. Concern.

“Hey. You once called your mask your face, if it’s too much to take it off-”

She had been whispering before the Xilian cut her off by shaking his head and giving a quiet admittance. When he first consciously woke back up in this world, he didn’t have his mask on. He’d had an opportunity to see his face, no mask or helmet obscuring it. He’d been too scared to look, as curious as he was. He wasn’t so afraid anymore, least if someone else did it.

“You won the bargain, so go ahead… Can’t do it myself.”

A few moments passed before Aria slowly reached up towards the kaiju’s face. She hesitated for a moment, only proceeding when she saw no sign of X shying away this time. He just closed his eyes and stayed still while waiting. With aching fingers, she slipped the scarf down and took the mask off their host, the siren finally able to see the alien face to face.

He wasn’t anything exceptional, a fact not helped by the fact he’d clearly been roughed up from the fight with Enjin; though to be fair she hadn’t gone unblemished either. Numerous cuts and bruises stretched across jaw, brow, and cheeks, a still trickling cut on his upper forehead was spurring a stream of red down his brow and cheek after staining his eyebrow crimson. Looking him over, they obviously weren’t his first facial wounds. Several lines of deep scars cut through one of his eyebrows, dug into his nose bridge, and had gouged into his lips. Didn’t matter much to the siren though, she liked the subtle expression he bore on his lips and eyes. He had a nice smile. Aria Blaze cracked a tired smile of her own. She let her thumb trace across an aged scar on Monster X’s nasal bridge down to his cheek just below the eye. She could feel a slight dampness on his skin.

“You look like you’ve been crying…”

“Fight was painful.”

“Hmph, I’d bet…”

Aria chuckled lowly and shifted, sitting herself up some more. Bundling up part of X’s scarf, she dabbed it on a cut going across his cheek and brow to stem the bleeding. Not content with having just himself be dressed, X took the other half of the scarf to wipe off some of the dried blood trickling down the siren’s face from a cut on her temple. They kept at it for a good minute or two, stopping when violet eyes looked into cinnabar eyes and they paused.

Quiet as it might have been, the forest began to take notice of the death that had befallen the demon, Enjin, and came back alive. A gentle breeze, totally unlike the howling, numbing gales that followed the Aspect, filtered through between the trees. Clouds above were gently eased out of the way of the celestials, the lack of trees in the crater X and Aria sat in ensuing a flood of soft moon beams raining down on them. Despite the cool breeze and falling specks of snowflakes around them, both kaiju and siren’s faces felt a tad hot. Wordlessly, X leaned in and put his forehead to hers and closed his eyes, staying like that as the edges of his scarred lips curled up a bit. The necklace around her neck pulsing dimly, Aria’s smile grew into a confident smirk and she sat herself up a bit higher and put a hand on X’s face. She tilted her head a bit to shift the head bump into something else.

It might have been a spur of the moment; but for all the trauma they’d been wrung through, they’d earned this.




Sunset Shimmer’s car brakes screeched as they halted the car shortly after rounding a corner leading into the national park. The road ahead of them was still drivable, but littered with fallen rocks and boulders obscuring the car lanes. Not even waiting for the door to pop open and teleporting himself out of the car and onto the road. On the edge of the safety rail, Gigan slipped his glasses off and let his eyes do a scan over of the lake valley and plateau uplands in the distance. Still thankful this world didn’t have nearly as much magic to play haywire with his sensors, he detected several familiar and several unknown energy signatures all over the forest. The strength of the readings had both become more detailed and yet fainter since they entered the park. More specifications in identities but more generalizations in location.

“Still fresh, he’s definitely down there somewhere. Stray energy readings too strong for anything human sized in several spots, some closer than others, but nothing huge and active right now.”

Sunset Shimmer leaned over and called out from the car window.

“So, no giant monsters?”

“If there were we’d see or hear them from here. Maybe the fight moved off somewhere else?”

Megalon fumbled with the window controls a few times, constantly shutting the window on himself before finally managing to roll it down and pop his head out.

“What about all the rocks and boulders in the road? Was he over here?”

“Probably, or a stray beam shot this way. Would explain the rocks. Fight musta been something else.”

Sunset Shimmer stepped out of the car, still not quite understanding what in the world they were talking about or what Gigan was doing but least able to grasp the reasons and results behind the actions.

“So where is your friend now?”

“Not sure. Magic's involved so it's all over the place, getting one way over in the other direction but several up ahead in random spots. Getting strongest reading from the valley near the lake but they’ve declined a lot since we entered the pack. With all this background traces I can’t get a pin point. In this tiny body the trees of all things are obscuring my readings!”

Gigan grunted and teleported another twenty meters down the road to try and get a better angle of view. He was just about to run another scan when a pair of headlights crossed his figure. Megalon, Sunset, and Irys spotted them too, spying a van heading down the road after swerving around several boulders. Irys, who’d stepped out of the car and was forced to block most of the headlights shining in her eyes, was quick to spot something familiar behind the wheel. She need only a moment to positively identify the orange haired and blue haired young women from Photo Finish’s pictures.

-Those humans who took X!-

As the van rolled closer, the gyaos took a stance in the middle of the road and audibly sucked in her breath. She let out a low hissing sound that gradually built in strength as Megalon, now glad he had fingers to do this, plugged his ears.

“Ooooh dear..”

Sunset, not knowing what her friend was doing was about to lunge over to her to yank Irys out of the car lane as the van sped closer and closer.

“Irys?! What are you doing move-!!”

An ear splitting screech ripped into the night and ushered out a bright purple beam of condensed sound. Like a hot knife through butter, the focused sound sliced through the bottom of Adagio’s van, cutting the front fender along with half both the front and back wheels in one clean stroke. The van instantly dropped several feet straight down and roared to a grinding halt amongst a shower of sparks. While Megalon, Sunset, and Gigan were half baffled as to what had gotten into Irys, the albino gyaos was quick to storm over to the driver’s side and attempt to wrench the door open. Her efforts were invigored by her being able to smell X all over the van, confirming her thoughts. After tearing the door handle off, she’d just resorted to grabbing and starting to pry off the windowless car door itself when Adagio managed to fight past her shock and speak.

“Wh-Who are you?! How did you just?!”

“Where’s X?!”

“You know X?!”

Irys snarled and was about to grab what she thought was her friend’s kidnapper and yank her out the window when Gigan, Megalon, and Sunset grabbed the gyaos from behind. The former two baffled at why their teammate had just lashed out at what seemed to be a random passerby and the latter at just having seen her friend scream and slice a van in half.

“Heel gyaosy heel!”

“Irys! Get a hold of yourself!”

“What did you just do to that van?!”

Adagio, still in shock from her encounter with Enjin and not thinking straight, leaned out of the now broken car door with a dumbstruck expression on her face. The only clearly coherent thought she had was the name this crazy demon had called for.

“How do you know X?!”

Fighting through Gigan’s binding cables, Irys snapped back.

“We’re here to take him back, what have you done with him?!”

Despite Gigan’s attempts to restrain Irys and Sunset forcing herself between Irys and Adagio, a shouting match was quick to ensue with one demanding question just being replied to with another. Megalon stepped away from the strife to try and figure heads and tails of the situation when he noticed another pair of eyes looking at him from the van. Sonata Dusk crouched down in what remained of the passenger seat, shuddering and holding her knees to her chest. Megalon blinked a few times, looking between her and the shouting match. Cracking a small smile, the younger cyborg lowered his head to try and look non threatening as could as he waved at her. Sonata sniffled her half plugged nose, raising her head up from her knees and returning the gesture with a tiny smile. Megalon tilted his head towards their compatriots and Sonata looked over and watched them. The youngest siren frowned, slowly shifting and getting out of the van and walking up beside Megalon.

“Let me guess, you’re more kaiju right?”

“All except Sunset, the pretty lady with red and yellow hair. You?”

Seeing as she wasn’t talking to a human at the moment and the wears of the night having long since stressed her out, Sonata shrugged and saw no need for secrecy.

“Siren. We’re not exactly from around here either.”

The two looked back at the argument going on in front of them, the other four no closer to gaining any information out of the other as the stress and angry broiled.

“Oh boy, looks like another fight's gonna break out.”

Sonata mumbled under her breath, a frown stretching across the siren’s face. The night just seemed to get worse and worse. The ever present questions regarding her cousin’s safety played heavy on the young siren’s mind and offered her little peace. Fortunately however, as he watched the fruitless interactions between the rest of the group, a light bulb went off in Megalon’s head and his goggles flashed a glow.

“Hey wait a minute!”

He chirped, raising and pointing a finger to the sky during his eureka moment. Sonata tilted her head at the kaiju.

“What ya’ got?”

“We’re like a crossover story!”

Megalon might as well have said “My wallet tastes like good” for Sonata to give him the raised brow look she did.

“.... For realzies?”

“Nonono, think about it. How do most crossover stories go when the two sides first meet in groups? They always have a conflict due to misinformation. That’s what we’re in now.”

Sonata combed her brain through the titles of shows, movies, comics, and fics she’d read over the months they’d been here. Superhero meet-ups, manga crossovers, half the stuff on FanFic.net; they all have the two sides square off even if there is a team up in the end. This train of thought was just crazy enough to put the tracks down.

“Okay… So we’re in a miscommunication phase of the process, that causes trouble for both sides. Comics and shows usually fix this by letting everyone punch for a bit and then the real villain shows up… If it’s all the same, I’d like to not do that. Aria’s the one who took up karate.”

“Sooo, how do we avoid that? I’m all for a scrap but yah, we’re kinda pressed for time at the moment and there’s something else that might need a whoopin’! What do folks in crossovers almost never do that could be done to avoid the conflict?”

“Calmly sitting down and explaining stuff like normal folks?”

“Works for me! You hit me with your summary, I’ll hit you with mine.”

They turned around and huddled close to each other, Megalon stealing a glance back at the growing scuffle.

“Though let’s give each other the sparknotes outlines in terms of detail, I think Irys is trying to chew through my big brother’s cables.”

A half minute later at Irys and Adagio’s shouting contest, the stressed verbal confrontation had barely broken any ground when it was cut short by a literal pair of whistleblowers interrupting everyone. Sonata and Megalon, clad in an otherwise inexplicable pair of referee uniforms Sonata had in the van, were blowing into a whistle and holding up a red flag respectively. Sonata, who’d been making the “Time-Out” signal with her hands, spat her whistle out and shouted.

“Aallllrighty-iety! Let’s clear the air here! We already got the required crossover fight done earlier this arc.”

Megalon tossed the red flag away and pulled up a white sign and marker. Quickly scribbling face sketches of his own, Irys, Gigan, and Monster X’s human forms, he held out the sign in front of the dumbstruck quartet of kaiju, unicorn, and siren.

WE are kaiju from another realm. We came here looking for our buddy X, who also ended up in this place on accident.”

Sonata picked up a stick and pointed to the image of X on the sign.

“He, X, got into a fight with some monster and my family and I got pulled into the crossfire. Since we saw him as the best bet at beating the other monster, we helped him out when the first fight didn’t go his way. Since we, my family and I, traveled around in this thing and X was bleeding pretty bad when we rescued him; that is why his scent was all over it. X, after waking up, realized he couldn’t beat the other monster alone and knowing it came after us too, agreed to the team-up.”

“And when Irys saw a picture of them pulling X into their van to save him, she thought they had kidnapped him so she acted accordingly.”

Sonata closed her eyes and pursed her lips as she nodded.

“And thus our van got totaled for the second time in this crossover.”

Either by the realization of just what was going on or the dumbstruck nature of just what in the world Megalon and Sonata just did, the other four actually quieted down. Irys, who really had been trying to chew her way through Gigan’s cables, spat the cord out and managed to speak a coherent question.

“So if he’s not here with there, where is he?”

“Back there,-”

Sonata chirped, pointing up the road and back into the heart of the national park.

“He turned giant and engaged the other monster as it turned giant and got a hold of our cousin. He motioned for us to get to safety, so we were on our way out of the park when we bumped into you lot.”

“Big brother, what’s the visor say about any energy levels up the road again? In the spot Sonata indicated.”

Sonata giggled as Gigan, beyond questioning anything at this point upon reaching this degree of insanity, just turned around. Not wanting to let go of Irys just yet, he opted to tire out some of his warp drive and teleported the both of them about four dozen meters up the road and then checked the direction Sonata indicated. Sure enough, that spot was literally riddled with trace energies. Two of which he didn’t recognize, and two he did. Positive identification of Monster X’s trace gave him some hope, but the worrying amount of slightly different energy readings were giving him some thought for worry.

-It’s not Kaizer Ghidorah… But not exactly X either. And then there is those two other readings… Just what the Daiei went on over there?-

Furrowing his brow, he teleported back to where he had been and startled Adagio for a second time.

“If there was a full scale kaiju brawl, that would account for all the trace readings I’m picking up. But it also confirms what I thought before. If there were kaiju where she says there was, there aren't now. All the readings are traces, no active hotspots to show a kaiju is up and moving.”

He muttered with a shrug. Megalon’s expression flattened a bit into worry.

“S-so.. Did they take each other out maybe?”

Fortunately before any moodiness could settle in, Sunset Shimmer pushed off her own befuddlement and spoke up. Combing through her own memories of the last Fall Formal, she brought up a different theory.

“Well, if she says this X guy was human once and grew into one of these kaiju again; maybe he just won and powered down? If he is human again, maybe he’d be harder to scry for?”

Gigan snapped his neck back with an almost disgruntled and insulted look on his face upon having his abilities compared to magic. Magic made no sense. And after all, he was the teleporting chimera blade happy cyborg made by a race of giant insects, by Tanaka he made sense!

“Scry?!”

Thinking it was a question and not an impulse, Sunset rolled her eyes and continued.

“Sorry, habit. Distant searching, being able to find stuff you can’t see. Your scan thingy can do stuff like that right?”

Adagio’s eyes widened. Her expression shifted to stressed excitement, she charged over to Gigan before he could speak, grabbing onto his shoulder and shouting her plea.

“Wait! You! You can scry here?! Tell me, was there another?! Was there any other kind of signal over there besides the kaiju?!”

“U-ur, there was something weird over there, but I couldn’t tell exactly what. I’d need to get closer to tell for sure.”

Megalon popped up next to them with a half excited, half worried expression on his face.

“Well what are we waiting for?! If X won and demorphed, he’s probably hurt!”

Adagio busily ran her trains of thought through her head.

-If they aren’t giant.. things… running around anymore it’s not as dangerous, and that glasses one says there is another signal that means Aria might!- .. McCarthy please give us some luck here…-

“Come on Sonata!-”

She barked marching towards Sunset’s car.

“Since you clods totaled our van and our cousin is stuck out there with X, you’re stuck with us. Let’s get going already!”

Sunset Shimmer dropped her neck a bit and frowned a bit as she opened the back driver’s side door.

“Y-yes sorry about that. Hop in with us. Might be a bit cramped in the back, but-”

She was cut off by Adagio shoving back her and getting into the car. The action was a tad rude, but Sunset opted to drop it. The terrified look in Adagio’s eyes told her that the snappiness was born out of stressed worry more than hostility.

Megalon and Sonata sighed in relief and high-fived each other before hopping into the back on the other side. Releasing Irys to pile in after them, Gigan seated himself into the front passenger seat. He stuck his head out the window for continued readings as Sunset got into the driver’s side and buckled in. Revving up the engine and starting down the road, she shot a question over her shoulder aimed at two of the members occupying her back seat. While she wasn’t quite as dumbstruck at the two’s antics as the others, she still hadn’t seen stunts like that pulled off outside of Pinkie Pie handling the chocolate milk incident.

“By the way um… Where did you two get those whistles and signs?”

Before the snickering Sonata or Megalon could respond however, a half annoyed Gigan and Adagio spoke in unison.

“Don’t question it…!?”

The duo shot each other a look and earned a giggle from their little siblings. Squeezing her own hands until her knuckles were white, Adagio trained her eyes back out the window as Gigan went back to scanning.

Trudging through the plateau turned rubble and fallen snow, two forms limped along through the snow on the hill leading up to the remains of the parkway’s bridge. Having definitely broken something in his leg delivering the shattering blow to Enjin’s core, Monster X couldn’t protest Aria taking his right arm and looping it over her shoulders to help support him on the uphill walk. They’d just reached the edge of the forest road, thinking it best to follow that to increase the chances someone would find them there as opposed to the middle of the woods. Neither of them were in much condition to spend the night in a snow field with how injured they were. Fortunately favor was at their side when a pair of headlights strobed across them after coming around the mountain’s corner. The car gave a short screech as it stopped about thirty feet away. Due to the bright headlights, both kaiju and siren had a hard time seeing who was in the group piling out of it and thusly tensed up for the worst on instinct.

“Who is it?”

The grip Aria had on X’s right hand loosened a bit in relief when the voices gave her the answer.

“Aria?! Aria!”

She sighed with a tiny smile, whispering back.

“It’s okay, just my family.”

Adagio and Sonata came sprinting down the road towards them. Following suit behind the duo of sirens were a odd-looking trio Aria didn’t recognize and she flinched. Monster X took his arm out from around her shoulders as he balanced on his good leg and gave their intertwined hands a reassuring squeeze to snap her out of her confusion. The edge’s of his lips, still visible from he not putting his mask and scarf back on, upturned. Tilting his head towards Aria, X spoke in a rare pleasant tone as Gigan, Irys, and Megalon, the latter shouting in excitement, raced the siren sisters in who could get to the duo quicker.

“Don’t worry, that’s just... mine.”

X and Aria separated as the double reunion hit them. Adagio skid to a halt about a meter away from Aria after running up to her in a frantic panic. Her eyes quivering, the oldest siren's eyes were quickly dampening but despite her best efforts it was a strain to talk.

"I-I-I... I know y-our angry with me, r-really angry. And, you're not wrong for that... Aria, I remember you tried to warn me back home and I didn't lis-en.."

She held back the tears best she could upon seeing Aria's face flattening into a neutral expression. Cringing a bit and swallowing a lump in he throat, Adagio forced herself to keep a distance before finally spitting it out.

"It's... my fault we're here... I should have listened. I never did. I wanted to make sure we were strong enough, after Aunt Hymnia- I was-!!"

She was cut off by Aria lurching forward and yanking her cousin into a bear hug. Her head planted on Adagio's shoulder, Aria spoke in a quiet whisper.

"I forgive you 'Dagi..."

Adagio was shocked at the hug, but was all too happy to throw her usual aloofness out the window and return it, not surprised at all when a giggling Sonata wrapped her arms around both her relation. Like a worried parent, the oldest of the sirens pushed soon herself away from the group hug and rapidly drove herself down every aspect of Aria’s health that could come to mind, fretting over every blemish from her ruffled hair to her bruises and cuts. The flush that had been on Aria’s face since the car showed up convinced Adagio her poor cousin caught a cold, causing her to spew out rapid fire health questions about how nauseous she was or not. Aria just zoned out from it all, now jokingly wondering if she liked the aloof jerk-Adagio more, and looked at her other cousin. Sonata slyly looked between Aria and X, ignoring the fact the latter wasn’t wearing his usually covering and instead noticing the redness on both their faces. Knowing full well the cause of it, the youngest siren started giving Aria a goofy grin. Aria shrugged and rolled her eyes at her cousins, but was unable to fight a grin of her own as she ignored her soreness and pulled them both close to her. Happiness begot forgiveness, and Aria’s brush up with death and discovery of the new song had changed some of her outlooks on life.

They were the sirens three. They were her cousins, her family. And for the first time in a long while, she couldn’t be happier about that.

It took visibly noticing his limp and Irys and Gigan holding him back to keep Megalon from tackle-hugging X, so thankfully he settled with a friendly forearm bump before shifting position to help prop X up. Irys, not far behind felt her eyes widen as she looked X over. She didn’t particularly like guessing on just how many bones the Xilian kaiju had broken. The scars on his face only slightly calming her nerves with the knowledge this probably wasn’t the first time this sort of damage had happened to him.

“I see you’re plenty roughed up. Where’s your dance partner?”

X winced, speaking in his usual professional tone despite the slight pricks of pain in his voice.

“Dead. Where were all of you? I tried to call for backup but couldn’t get an open portal.”

“Whatever you did, we never got the memo. The master has limited vision in this world so maybe he couldn’t sense you? I’ll explain later but soon as I found out you were here thanks to a human, he gave a portal to get us over here so he should be picking us up soon.”

Gigan came up beside Irys, crossing his arms in front of him as he and X looked each other in the eyes. Back when he had been detecting energy signatures from a distance, he’d picked up a signal similar to Kaizer Ghidorah briefly. And as he looked over X now, it was faint but still there. The color scheme of choker around X’s neck, distinct from the usual black and white, was only fueling some of his caution. He kept a quick draw on his wrist blade.

“Speak now, two things about me my best friend would know. And then tell me right now, who are you?”

Monster X closed his eyes and sighed.

“You stopped that radio incident with the Kilaaks using what I will still consider an ingenious use of your warp drive, my asteroid, and a satellite dish. And your first words you ever spoke to me when we talked during that first military parade our masters held were expletives aimed at your surprise you could understand me.”

Gigan glanced down and to the side, looking back through his own memory and recalling the day to the detail.

“Yes… I was so blindsided I nearly stepped on a hover tank and you used your gravity control to push it out of the way. We nearly broke the pace in the parade…”

X’s mood took a shift. His usual professionalistic expression relaxed, opening his eyes and speaking in a placid manner he reserved for four beings.

“I remember well, Gigan. I am your oldest and best friend, I am X.”

Gigan eased up on his tension and relaxed the draw on his blade. Behind his sunglasses, Gigan raised an eyebrow.

“X, the placeholder?”

Monster X shook his head slightly, letting go of the unknown and the past to take hold of the known and present.

“X, my name.”

Gigan let a few moments pass before a tiny smirk slipped onto his face and he chuckled in relief briefly under his breath. He held his robotic hand up and out with a 90’ bend in his arm, Monster X returning the gesture and bumping the flat of his forearm to Gigan’s. For a duo whose cyborg member didn’t have hands for 99% of his life, it was a century-old stand-in for a handshake between two staunch allies.

“It’s good to have you back, old friend.”

Sunset Shimmer stood by the car and watched the reunions unfold. Irys walked back over to her first friend, briefly flashing a smile upon seeing her new flock all back together without a hint of Kaizer Ghidorah returning to tear it all down again. Letting the smile fade, the gyaos shrugged under her breath and spoke in a downtrodden tone.

“Sorry...”

“For?”

“Dragging you into this crazy life of mine.”

“Everything seems fine with them.”

“You didn’t see them when they’re… not human.”

Standing where she exited, the former unicorn cast her eyes to the forest, mountains, and lowlands all within sight. Beyond the totaled bridge that formerly straddled the river were swaths of leveled forest, a good four dozen trees thick as car lanes snapped over like toothpicks. Looking up to what used to be the plateau on the national park signs, she could see the gouged and in some cases melted marks from where the latter half of the infamous outcropping used to be. At the base of the plateau, just barely visible from the road, she could make out an impact crater. And on the stony wall bordering the crater was a massive handprint, one easily bigger than her car, punched into solid rock.

Looking back to the trio before her and the one beside her as she proportioned the hand to the rest of the body in her mind, Sunset wasn’t able to shake off a slight unease that the knowledge gave her.

“Y-yeah, I can see why… This realm has had some, odd, visitors,-”

She muttered, certain very familiar she-demons coming to mind.

“-but wasn’t quite expecting this.”

“Still surprised you believed us about needing help back at your roost with this sort of thing in mind before you saw me yell and, well, cut a van in half.”

“Megalon popping out of my lawn and Gigan having camera lenses for eyes helped. I used to be a protégé of someone very prominent, in my experience a lot of crazy stuff tends to happen in my life. I’m not exactly from around here either.”

Before Irys could respond or ask what she meant, Sunset Shimmer cast her eyes to the trio of aliens as Monster X looked back at them. Irys trailed her vision, casting a small wave when she saw X’s eyes upon her. The Xilian kaiju nodded, muttering something to Megalon and Gigan before they helped him limp closer.

“Interesting friends you got.”

Irys sighed, nodding subtly. The sight of her new flock all together made it hard for her to fight a tiny smile. Memory of Sunset’s words of wisdom played through her head as she saw her family of choice, her smile becoming too hard to fight.

“Wouldn’t have them without your help. ‘Adopted’ them right after I met you.”

Irys’ smile was infectious to Sunset, who leaned up against the albino. Keeping her excitement or worry reclined by the logic that Irys’ friend must not be mortally hurt, judging from lack of panic from her or her cohorts, Sunset whispered back to the gyaos.

“Well, what goes around comes around I guess. This wasn’t exactly how I imagined out reunion be, but… if it helped someone out in the end, what’s the harm in driving out in the middle of nowhere to pick up an alien?”

Irys put her arm-standing-in-for-wing around the shorter woman’s shoulders and widened her smile, making a quiet clicking noise that was barely audible. In bats, the gesture was something done amongst flock and colonymates to show affection. While the gyaos rarely did it to each other and Sunset’s hearing wasn’t sharp enough to catch all of it, the meaning wasn’t too hard to guess at. Basically, she was purring.

X approached Sunset, signaling Megalon to stop when he was about a meter away from her. Carefully bending his good leg to get more on her level, X crouched down and looked the former unicorn over; needing only a moment or two to recognize her from before. Sunset restrained herself from cringing at the dark skinned man’s scarred and injured face, time as the protégé of a princess helping her mind her manners.

“Recognize you from last time, don’t believe I got your name.”

She said after a breath, holding her hand out to X. After looking at the limb for a moment, X snaked his arm off from around Gigan’s shoulders, leaning on Megalon a bit more in the process, and took Sunset’s hand loosely.

“My name is, X. Megalon here tells me you’re the one who helped them get out here. Without that, them finding me and getting us all back to base would have taken far longer.”

Sunset Shimmer chuckled a tad awkwardly and shrugged.

“Well they kinda crashed into my house asking for help, so what else was I supposed to do? Hehe.. Name’s Sunset Shimmer.”

She shook X’s hand, careful not to try and jostle him and aggravate any of the kaiju’s multiple wounds. If he bore any discomfort or confusion from the gesture, X didn’t show it, only replying back in his typical dry manner.

“You have my thanks, Ms. Shimmer.”

============
Back in Zenith
============

Bagan sensed exchange going on from within his throne with only mild annoyance. True, Enjin had failed, just barely; but today wasn’t a total loss. Harmony’s existence had been confirmed and her connection to the realms severed for now, and Monster X had somehow gained enough stability he could hold Kaizer Ghidorah back and was no longer a liability or wildcard running rampant through Zenith. He and the rest of them would be useful to Bagan’s future plans. If the God of Extinction had to seize the kaiser energy, he’d just do it himself next time. Until then, with no one the wiser as to Bagan’s connection to Enjin, X and his companions would loyally serve him. They’d acquire more power sources for him in the future or be used as enforcers where he’d need them. After all, to them, their master was still their benefactor. A role he’d play as necessary until the time came to free them as well. Why waste a good asset after all?

Reclined, but far from expended, Bagan carved a rune into the air and reopened the portal to the human realm a short distance from the group. Confident to just bide his time again, Bagan closed up the sphere that composed his throne and set himself to continue regrowing his strength. He’d waited over 70,000 years, he could wait some more.

-All in good time…-

===========

The dark portal back to Zenith opened up about ten meters down the road and got everybody’s attention. Gigan looked to it and ran a quick scan, a familiar and yet still baffling energy returning to his registry.

“That’s our ride home.”

Irys’ smile shifted into a small frown, knowing the portal meant their master was summoning them back to base. They definitely had to go, as it was the best way to keep Sunset safe and get X patched up. Still, she liked all four members of her flock being in one place again. Sunset Shimmer, not oblivious to the mood shift in Irys, gave her a friendly bump with her elbow to get the kaiju’s attention.

“Hey, we’ll see each other again. Don’t you worry too much, okay?”

Irys sighed, glancing over to Sunset as she faced the portal ahead. She muttered in a slightly downtrodden tone at the thought of others in the master’s army being deployed here instead of her flock. The idea of Grand King Ghidorah being around here was as nerve wracking as Kaizer Ghidorah being turned loose.

“Just, if another kaiju comes over here and it’s not us, stay away and be careful. We’re not all exactly on the same team.”

Sunset Shimmer didn’t share the low tone, choosing to keep her chin up and try to get Irys to do the same. If her friend was leaving for awhile, they shouldn’t leave with low spirits.

“I’ll keep that in mind, I’ve had more than my fair share of experience with danger before though. Don’t worry too much about me, instead I want you to promise me something.”

“What?”

“How’s about next time you walk with me into the movie theater instead of sprinting away from it? Deal? They got those corndogs you like insiiiide.”

Sunset Shimmer goofily drew out the last word with a chuckling smirk. Irys’ expression lifted after a moment or two. True, she could inform Sunset about the time table missions often entailed, but the happiness she felt, a very rare feeling in her life until recently, wanted to keep the mood up. She’d been depressed, angry, lonely, spiteful, and sad during her life amongst her old flock; so the resolution to not let her life be the same amongst this new one was plenty strong.

“I’ll try my best Sunset. Deal.”

Sunset Shimmer’s smile grew and she turned around, hooking her arms around Irys’ neck and middle for a goodbye-hug. After a bit of surprise about the gesture, Irys flashed a fanged smile and returned the gesture, a quiet, content clicking noise seeping out of her throat as she enjoyed the moment. A nod from Gigan gave Irys and Sunset to memo it was time to go. Irys tightened her grip on her first friend for a bit before they let go. Wordlessly the four kaiju started to make their way to the portal. Gigan took point and stepped through first. After a moment passing, he popped back out of the portal with an affirmed look on his face.

“Alright, this definitely is the right way back. Everyone pile in.”

He grunted before hopping back through. Irys stole a glance back at Sunset and shot a smile her way before jumping in after Gigan. X, supported by Megalon, approached the portal soon after. Just before he could step through however, someone called his name from behind him.

“X.”

The black and white kaiju looked back to see Aria had managed to break free of Adagio’s grip and approached. She’d stopped about three meters away from the duo. Monster X glanced at the siren for a moment, before taking his arm off from around Megalon’s shoulders. Looking to the cyborg, he tilted and motioned with his head towards the portal. Quick on the uptake, Megalon beamed and saluted in a silly manner before skipping into the doorway back to Zenith. Holding back a wince from supporting himself on his leg, X spread a downwards facing hand to alter his gravity field and support himself somewhat. He turned himself around and walked up to Aria Blaze. An awkward silence passed over the two of them as whatever the siren especially was trying to say just couldn’t get past her lips. Instead she fell back to her classic snideness as she looked down and held onto her necklace, though this time there was a subtle, different emotion behind her typical deadpan. She spoke in half whisper so only the remaining kaiju could hear her.

“You know in hindsight, kinda stupid you put my necklace back on me. You’re the first non-siren to ever have one around your neck, and you gave it back not ten minutes after I put it on you. Now you’ll have to come back here again to reclaim it.”

Monster X return the tone verbatim, shaking his head and looking off in a sideways direction.

“Was nearly drained of power anyways, so it’s useless to me right now. I won’t be back here for it for awhile, so consider this being me granting you time to charge it up and make it worth targeting again.”

Aria Blaze rolled her eyes and crossed her arms defensively. While faint, both from how winded she still was and the subtlety of the action, there was small gravity distortion filtering through the air when she grunted. When X looked close out of the corner of his vision, he could still see tiny little red dots amongst the waves of violet in Aria’s eyes.

“Won’t be easy you know. Gotten better since first time and I think I might still have some of your tricks left in this thing.”

Aria’s pout morphed slightly, the one edge of her lifts smirking. While he’d only let her take off his coverings this night as opposed to all the other times she’d seen in him a mask and scarf, and he wasn’t one to grin, Aria had already decided she liked tiny smile X cracked in response to her statement.

“Good, I never did like targeting what couldn’t fight back. Easy pickings never were something I was fond of doing.”

“Oh it won’t be easy, taking a siren’s heart never is.”

“Then I’ll accept the challenge….”

Monster X straightened up and stoicism returned to his expression. The kaiju turned around and stepped towards the portal. If there was any pain in his step, he didn’t show it too well.

“Keep well. I’ll be back.”

Aria Blaze turned back around with a dry expression, stepping towards her cousins. While firm, there was a tiny spring in her step.

“Keep alive. I’ll be waiting.”

Monster X stepped back through the portal to Zenith. Upon re-emerging in the cold, dark realm, he was actually glad the air here was so unnaturally frigid. He wasn’t able to hold back the pain from his multiple injuries much longer and the chill helped numb it. Stumbling a bit on his first step through, he quickly found himself held upright by the blunts of drill and scythes. White wings flapped and bat-like feet gently gripped his shoulder pauldrons to help keep him steady. Aided by his friends, X was helped along for the long haul back to their chamber. Life was mysterious, but well. His team was safe, together, and larger than it had ever been before. The dark half of him that had been plaguing him with nightmares was locked back in its cage, at least for now. As the healing energies that seeped into him and helped start mending his wounds once they arrived in their chamber proved, for the first time he had a master to give his loyalty to, that as far as he knew, who’d reward such loyalty.

Monster X went to sleep soon after, back to back with Gigan with Megalon burrowed below and Irys clinging to the ceiling above. He had a dream during his rest instead of another nightmare, having not had one in so long he almost forgot what they were. Still, he liked it. After all, as another first in memory for his life, he had something to look forward too.

Concurrently to this, Aria Blaze walked back to her cousins. Just when it looked like Adagio, who was still emitting some of the aftershocks of her frantic stress, was about to say something; Aria lurched forward and yanked her family into a tight bear hug. They stayed like that for some time, before Sunset Shimmer placed her hand on Aria and Adagio’s shoulders to get their attention. Silently motioning to her car, the sirens followed suit and piled into the back seat as Sunset revved up the engine and headed back for town. While Sunset was unaware of just what the trio were, as they never directly stated anything suspicious in front of her, her mind wouldn’t fully accept the idea they were just three normal women caught up the same alien crossfire she had. While the threat seemed to have passed, Celestia’s former student was now all too aware of the strange happenings in her adoptive world. She’d make a mental note to increase her vigil for the fantastical in the future, probably starting with the three sitting in her back seats.

The sirens said little on the trip back. Aria’s strain and tiredness caught up with her after the adrenaline ran out, so she slept through most of the ride back leaning on Adagio. The oldest of the sirens was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief as she held her cousin and kissed the top of her head while Sonata slipped her coat off and put it over Aria as a makeshift blanket. Sometimes it takes the traumatic to make realizations about oneself and what's important to you. In the fallout of kaiju incursion, Adagio would relax grip she’d put on their little choir. She and Sonata would tell Aria of the power source they’d discovered at Canterlot High, and Aria would tell them about the new song she’d rediscovered.

The Dazzlings were back together, and would soon be stronger than they ever had been before in this world of man.

Author's Note:

And that ladies and gentlemen is how you kill an Aspect.
-Mass internal damage
-Prolonged beating by one of the strongest kaiju in existence w/ a big power boost
-Weakening their cohesion by waiting for days
-Knowledge of weakness
-Finding the core
-Hitting them directly in the core during said weakness with an attack strong enough to 1-shot some other kaiju
-Overpower their healing ability
-Then with great strength, damage and destroy the core

And before anyone asks about Aria and X; yes, yes they did. And yes, I'm using the L word here to describe the feeling.

Proofing by Faith-Wolff and Lance-Omikron
Illustrations by Faith-Wolff

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE:
Sound of Thunder's hits its finale! Then, back in the Equestria we all know, everyone's favorite baby dragon is having a bit of a question of existence and has some time out with the oldest Guardian Beast.

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