What Doesn't Kill You

I'll Go

The submarine dove down and Robin watched Chen work for a minute before he noticed Serizawa looking at a pocket watch. Mark whispered to him, "What time is it?"

Serizawa looked at him, "Time to get a new watch."

Serizawa put the watch away and Mark smiled a little, "Andrew's favorite joke, you never took that watch out of your pocket without him asking that question. If you told me five years ago I'd be trying to save the thing that took my son, or it would be the only way to save the family I have left..."

Mark trailed off and Serizawa looked at him, "Sometimes the only way to heal our wounds is to make peace with the demons who created them."

"You really believe that?"

"Don't you, isn't that why you are here?" Serizawa took his glasses off, "There are some things beyond our understanding, Mark. We must accept them and learn from them because these moments of crisis are also potential moments of faith. A time when we either come together or fall apart, nature always has a way of balancing itself. The only question is, what part will we play?"

Mark gave Serizawa a strange look, "Did you just make that up?"

"No, I read it in a fortune cookie once, a really long fortune cookie."

Mark smiled a little and Robin wondered why Mark hated Godzilla so much, he'd have to ask later. The sub suddenly started shaking and everyone had to stop themselves from falling Crane looked at his crew, "Status on the ship?"

Bowman spoke, "Some sort of vortex got us, it's dragging us, 1,600 feet till impact." They were all thrown forward, "800 feet!" It shook again, "Emergency blow, 200 feet! 100! 25! Brace for impact!"

They all fell forward and many of them fell to the floor, Robin shook his head as he got up and he wondered what just happened. Crane spoke, "Status report."

Bowman replied, "Can't fix our position, GPS is down, but inertial says we're...600 miles from departure."

Crane looked shocked and confused, "That can't be."

Stanton spoke, "I knew it, man! The vortex was a tunnel into the hollow Earth, it's a subterranean tunnel system that-that connects the entire planet. Doesn't matter, I knew I was right, I told you Chen!"

Chen looked at him, "Shut up, Rick."

Crane looked at the monitors before speaking, "We'll take an emergency pull forward." They felt the submarine start to move and Crane looked at Serizawa, "Doctor?"

Serizawa looked at him, "Launch probes."

Crane did as he said and the footage popped up on a few of the screens, Stanton was controlling them and several people were looking over his shoulder. Stanton spoke, "Range, 1,000 meters, camera good, holding range, steady."

A face then appeared on the screen when the light hit it and many of them jumped, Robin wanted to know what it was doing there. Stanton looked shocked, "Jesus."

Mark spoke, "Pan right." Stanton did what he said and the light hit carvings in the remains of whatever structures used to be there, "Looks Egyptian."

Chen spoke, "Or Roman."

Stanton shook his head, "No, this is somethin' different, this is... this is way older." The camera continued moving and it came upon a carving of Godzilla and Stanton's eyes widened a little, "Oh, my."

The camera continued moving over the carvings and Robin was trying to look at everything at once which was hurting his head. Chen looked amazed, "All the legends, the stories, they're true, they really were the first gods."

Stanton spoke quietly, "If only the Earth and stones could speak, the stories they could tell us."

Serizawa spoke, "Dr. Stanton, any sign of Gojira?"

"Yeah, the probe is picking up a radioactive blob just past that ridge."

Serizawa stared at the red spot on the screen, "Set a course."

Everyone was quiet as they headed toward where Godzilla was, those that weren't talked quietly with a few people. Robin gestured for Serizawa to step away from the others and once they were far enough away he looked at the scientist. "Why does Mark hate Godzilla so much?"

Serizawa took a breath as he thought about how to answer the question, "It's a very long story. Mark and his family were on an island with a small community, five years ago two Muto woke up and went to that island. They started destroying the town and Gojira appeared, he killed them both but during the fight many people died, including Mark's son Andrew."

Robin was silent as he processed all of that, "Mark blames Godzilla for his death." Serizawa nodded, "So that woman, Emma, she was his wife and they separated after that?"

Serizawa nodded, "She worked for Monarch until recently."

Robin thought about that for a minute, it was hard to imagine Godzilla doing something like that but he'd admitted to killing other titans. Robin looked at Serizawa, "Thanks, that helped a lot."

Serizawa nodded and went back over to where the others were, Robin walked over as well and Stanton spoke, "I think we should stop."

Serizawa looked confused, "Why?"

Stanton pointed to a small icon in the top right corner of the monitor, "'Cause I still wanna have kids one day, preferably without flippers."

Crane spoke to his crew, "All stop, hover the ship."

Stanton made the cameras go forward and two of them went out, "I got O2, CO2 and methane, it looks like there's some sort of air pocket in there."

The camera flew up above the water and there were orange lights but what was causing them Robin didn't know. The camera turned to the right and they saw the outline of a very large figure, Mark's eyes widened, "My God."

"Zilla." The camera then cut out and Stanton shook his head, "And goodnight, Gracie."

Serizawa spoke, "Pull up the last frame." Stanton did as he asked and he pointed to something, "There, the source of the radiation."

Chen spoke, "That's why he returned here, he's feeding, regenerating."

Serizawa spoke, "This is his home."

Serizawa turned away and started flipping through the pages of a journal, Mark whispered, "This is how he survived for so long. Always adapting, evolving, it's incredible."

Robin mumbled to himself, "You have no idea."

Stanton looked at the others, "So, dude's got this covered, right, he just needs a little nap."

Chen spoke, "No, this process could take years."

Serizawa looked at Stanton, "We have to proceed as planned."

"Hang on, we're gonna launch a nuclear torpedo in order to revive a giant monster, okay this is-this is not like we're just jump-starting a car."

Crane spoke, "We have another complication, our weapon systems were damaged during the crash, we can't launch."

Mark spoke, "Can it be repaired?"

Crane shook his head, "I'm afraid not."

Chen sighed before speaking, "Okay, what if we go inside, set a timer, and blow up the warhead manually?"

Stanton spoke, "No way, if the heat doesn't fry you, the radiation will."

Everyone was quiet for a minute and Robin was about to speak when Serizawa spoke, "I'll go."

Mark looked confused, "What the hell does that mean?"

Chen looked at him, "There must be another way."

Serizawa shook his head, "There's no time for debate, I'll go."