Prologue.

Darkness.

All he saw surrounding him was nothing but endless darkness, like the night sky when it was covered by clouds or even the tunnel that he had crawled into once, only to get stuck and thus force his father to come and pull him out. It was times like those that he knew he was loved and cared for, even if his father had yelled at him for wandering into the tunnel. But this darkness was different. There was no comforting warmth, like the darkness that came when he fell asleep. There was no indication that this darkness would eventually end, and he would be able to see once again. No. This was something he had never felt before.

And for Godzilla Jr, this terrified the young Kaiju greatly.

His whole life began to flash before his eyes. He saw himself hatching from the egg in a laboratory surrounded by humans. He saw the moment in which he met his father for the first time, and how he gave him a home. He even saw his father teaching him how to use his atomic breath, which he had been one of the happiest moments in his life.

But it was not all happy memories.

He saw the pteranodon terrorizing him and a human he was fond of, and while the winged reptile might have thought he was protecting the little monster, Junior did not feel the same way. He saw himself saying goodbye to the human, knowing they would never see each other again. He saw a creature that looked like his father trapping him in a crystal prison, so his father would get himself killed trying to save him. And the he saw…...It. He had fought It much earlier, when he heard It attacking innocent humans, and killing them with glee. While his father hated most humans, he had never felt the same and rushed to defend them from It, and actually won his first battle. He wanted to tell his father about his first victory, but when he was finally able to meet him again, It came back. It was much bigger than before, and then…...he fully remembered what had happened.

It killed him.

And now, he was passing on to some place that he had no idea existed. He had failed to protect his father, and now he would never see him again. A faint voice rang out, and he heard one sentence...

"It's not your time, you must live."

The darkness began to disappear, and then he began to take in his surroundings once again. He was the very city in which he and his father had met, and where It had returned to kill him. Junior began to get up slowly, and began to realize that something had happened during his time in the other world, for he had changed in appearance. He was much bigger now, about the size of his father, and he had bulked up as well. His spines also fully grew out, and he could feel the power within himself. Junior's heart dropped when he turned around and saw a skeleton lying in a small puddle, and realized exactly why he had changed in appearance. With a sorrowful roar, Junior turned around and left the city behind. He was now King of the Monsters, but he didn't want it.

He just wanted his father back.

Junior, however was quite unaware of what else was happening at this time, both above and below him. In space, a meteor the size of a micro-nation was suddenly redirected away by the Guardian of Earth, who began her long trek back to earth, as her mission had been completed. It had taken her several years to reach her destination, and it would take some years getting back. Humanity had of course bid her good luck on her mission, and she still remembered how many times they had called out, "Mothra" to her. However, she was quite unaware that a group of strange spores drifting through space began to merge together, thus paving a way for a being that in her absence had attacked the earth in an effort to kill its best defender.

His father to put it lightly.

He decided to lay low, and wait until the Divine Moth was out of his area, and then make his way back to earth to finish his mission. It was a good thing that she was slow, for diverting the meteor had taken much of her power. It would also give him time to pick out a name for himself, for he cared little for the name the humans had given him, "SpaceGodzilla" or something like that. He would pick a name that he felt was worthier than what the limited imaginations of mankind could come up with.

The two monsters began to traverse through space back to earth, one to defend it, and one to attack it.

The city was a ghost town by the time the military and civilians had cleared out of the area, and it most likely would be for years to come due to the high levels of radiation. The only thing left besides rubble and towering skeletons of skyscrapers was the liquified skeletal remains of Japan's greatest threat, and the scattered remains of…. It. The last few days had been fierce and harrowing, and many lives had been lost, but It loved the destruction It caused, and the amount of life it took from the puny humans. They were so fragile, and It laughed when they tried using their "weapons" against It. They called It "destroyer" as they watched It slaughter people and topple buildings like dominos, and It thought that name was a fitting moniker. It preferred "Destoroyah" personally but It knew that humans wouldn't be able to understand what It thought. It didn't care, It just enjoyed causing pain and destruction. It was having fun.

Until It saw that damned whelp.

It thought that the young Kaiju would be easy pickings, only to discover that the whelp was stronger than he looked, and soon enough, It began to develop a hatred of this whelp. As It began to burn from the flames coming out of the whelp's mouth, It memorized the whelp's name so that once it evolved into another form, It would be able to find the whelp and kill him.

Gojira was the whelp's name, or so It thought.

It relished in using the new stronger form It evolved into to torment the young whelp, especially as his father watched in horror. And seeing the whelp's body hit the ground with a sickening thud made It pleased. It especially loved seeing the life leave his eyes, and cackled with glee now that It had killed the one who had ruined the day. Too bad that his father attacked It, and too bad that the military used their weapons to freeze It solid, robbing It of the satisfaction of destruction.

They thought It was dead, but they failed to notice It in a smaller form quietly escaping as the military destroyed the rest of the body. It saw the whelp rise once again, but knew that It would be no match for the fully-grown whelp. The burning anger kept It fueled as It scuttled away, and then It heard a voice. It knew then that the being speaking to It was one that was very old, much older than It.

"You seek vengeance. I will give you what you desire….in return for your service."

It took the deal.

As these creatures continued on their paths, whether it was to deal with a loss, to return home after a long quest, to finish a battle, or for retribution, they were quite unaware of the being watching them. Most of them anyway. He was fine with that, because his plan was working beautifully. He was quite old, some would say, and he himself remembered the formation of the Earth. He remembered the emergence of mankind, and the extinction of dinosaurs caused by a creature called the King of Terror, one of his finest creations. The humans actually created their own King of Terror, but he was far inferior, and it was no surprise that he fell in combat. Regardless, he felt it was about time that humanity learned their place in the world. And so, he began to quietly organize disasters of all kinds and shapes, so he could feed of their despair and fear. He began to create new minions for his own purposes, and soon enough recruited ones who had only heard rumors of his existence. In many ways, they would be integral to his plan, whereas others would only be useful as fodder, so as to test just how strong his opponents would be. In time, humanity had called him many names despite only seeing some of the acts he pulled off and not him physically: Yahweh, Shiva, Ares, Yama, Czernobog, Morta, Al-Shaitan, and many more names, even ones for dead languages. He would make sure they would know his true name.

For he was the beginning and the end of life.

And thus, Earth's greatest battle began with a simple deal between a destructor and a true evil.

Inspired by the creations of Toho Studios.

GODZILLA: Rebirth of the King.

A story by The Black Swordsman.