Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Castle Bravo, Outpost 54, Bermuda

Early June, 2032

“Come on, get her Maddie!”

“You can do it, Clair! Kick her butt!”

The cheers and encouragement from the others spurred the two opponents on, locked as they were in their epic battle, on the screen that is.

Clair thumbed the controller as her character cleared the corner of the road, racing against the only other character in the race. Bowser was trailing behind Mario on the stadium road, trying to overtake his adversary as they crossed the finish line for the final lap.

Clair may have never really gotten into videogames, but she made exceptions to a few, such as Mario Kart. It wasn’t nearly as violent as other games and had more of a fun quality to it. And she could appreciate that. And it was a good way to decompress after training.

After they had returned from the two-day stay at Baas late last night, they continued on with training and as usual, the sparring ended with Maddie being the victor against them all. Though for some reason, Link training had been canceled for the day, clearing the way for some free time, which the others decided could be best used to try and get Clair to play some videogames with them. They finally settled on Mario Kart after she rejected most others, as she had some experience with the game.  

As of now, Madison’s Mario was a quarter of the racetrack ahead of Clair’s Bowser, maintaining the position with a steady lead. What made it more difficult was the mine field she left behind. Banana peels and detonators littered the roadway, causing Clair to weave and make evasive maneuvers to avoid a spinout or a blowup.

When Clair was about to pick out her character, after learning everyone’s favorites, she did not want to pick any of the characters associated with the others and picked a new one, the koopa king standing out to her. He had good stats, and she remembered that she played as him once long ago on the Nintendo console games her grandparents got for her and Jason. Plus, he was a redhead, so it was a no-brainer.

So far, he held his own against his old enemy.

They had all gone a few rounds together, since there were only two controllers, and it had come down to just Maddie and her at the moment.

As Clair endeavored to keep control of the kart, her sweaty hands trying to keep a grip and the nobs and buttons, she came upon the row of mystery boxes. Hitting the second to the left, she was granted the greatest tool one could have for this game. Blue shell.

Lips pulling back in a maniacal grin, she reveled in possessing the disastrous item. “Coming at you, Maddie.”

She pressed the button that deployed the blue shell, and it immediately shot ahead.

“Shit. No, no, nononono!” In unfailing accuracy, it struck Mario, sending the little Italian plumber up into the air with his kart and falling back down while spinning out. Maddie growled in frustration next to her, attempting to regain control of Mario and the kart. It was in vain as Bowser sped past the still disorientated Mario, finally gaining the lead. With her advantage, she wasted no time, and soon enough, Bowser made it across the finish line, being met with cheerful music and confetti, even doing his little dance while pumping his fists in victory.

Clair smiled with the win, pumping her own fists in her seat with triumph as the others cheered for her. Maddie groaned aloud and, despite her loss, gave her a smirk, acknowledging her defeat.

Still high off her elation, Clair felt a nudge on her shoulder.

“Not so bad, huh?” Dante asked. “We just needed to find the right game for you.”

“I haven’t played Mario Kart for a while, but it was fun to play it again.”

“Okay, yeah, yeah,” Amy interrupted. “Now stop hoggin the couch so we can play again, I want a rematch with Jia for driving me off the road last time.”

With a challenging smirk, Jia signed, You’re on.

As Clair and Maddie moved out of the way for the girls to get started, with Amy picking out Princess Peach and Jia picking Donkey Kong, they moved behind the couch to watch with Dante and Eu-meh.

As they bickered about which track to use, finally going for rainbow road, they talked a little more amongst themselves.

“I’m glad you like this game at least, it’s fun to play with someone new,” Maddie commented.

“It’s not bad,” Clair admitted. “But I know it can get a little boring after a while.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you started on some other ones if you’re up for it,” Dante chimed.

“You guys have been really sick playing with each other, huh?”

“You kind of learn each other’s moves and it gets predictable really quick,” Maddie explained. “You though, your fresh meat, so it should be a little entertaining.”

“Entertainment being someone looking at the screen and screaming.”

“Screaming?” Eu-meh asked.

“My brother, we’d hear him all the way downstairs in the basement when he played videogames up in his room. It became background noise after a while.”

“Sounds like he played a lot,” Dante said.

“At least he wasn’t like that when he tried to have me play on one of his Halo games. Though he never got through to me on it.”

It was a nice memory of them trying to bond over one of his favorite activities, before they started to drift apart.

Continuing to watch the game, Princess Peach was just ahead of Donkey Kong when she grabbed a mystery box that had banana peels. Amy quickly released them behind her and Jia panicked as Donkey Kong spun out of control and off the road, quickly falling into the abyss of space.

“Revenge!” Amy crowed as Jia slumped in her seat, losing the race. Clair snickered at the scene, not the only one as she heard the chuckles from the others as Jia signed furiously for another rematch.

“Clair.”

At the sound of the voice, they all turned around to find Chen standing behind them. Amy and Jia paused the game, letting their attention focus solely on Chen. The doctor had been absent since they got back, barely even her daughters had seen a glimpse of her.

As Clair regarded the doctor and her sudden appearance, she noted the gait of Chen’s posture, the unwavering attention in her eyes, appearing serious and calm at the same time.

Her heart quickened at the sight. “Chen, is everything alright?”

Chen seemed to hesitate for a moment, looking warily around the room. There were just a couple of Monarch personnel occupying the space besides them, but she closed the distance to be right in front of Clair and spoke in a low voice.

“We found your match.”

Clair stopped breathing for a moment as her eyes widened. The words didn’t register for a second, as if they were uttered in a foreign language. Until disbelief clouded her head as she finally understood them, then that disbelief made way for an overwhelming excitement. Giving out a few stuttering breaths, a smile slowly lighted up her features. She almost couldn’t believe it. This was really happening. They finally found her Titan. She looked back at the others who only shared in her elation at the news.

“Finally,” Maddie breathed.

Dante clapped her on the shoulder. “About time.”

“Who is it,” Eu-meh asked, excited as well.

Chen’s eyes landed back on Clair. “Come.”

Clair followed Chen without question out of the rec room, hearing the others say they’ll find her as soon as they cleaned up the area from their snacks before they could follow too.

As they went through the base, a smile would split Clair’s face from time to time, unable to keep the giddiness inside as the thoughts in her mind began to run wild of who her match might be. Her elation was so overwhelming, she was shaking as if she were cold.

After a while, Clair was led to the same hall that the conference room where they first introduced her to the program was held on. As they neared, she saw a group standing before the doors, apparently waiting for them. She recognized Dr. Ling, Dr. Price and Directors Guillerman and Russell.

Once they saw the two, they opened the doors for them and they all entered, closing them shut behind. The room was dark and concealed, closed off from the rest of the base as far as Clair could see. She watched as everyone went to the other side of the room, the farthest end from the door. Chen, Ling, and Price took their seats at the end of the table. Guillerman and Dr. Russell stood and Clair took her seat across from her mentors. As she looked at everyone, she noted the mood that filled the room. The seriousness of the pairing was to be expected but there was also an air of unease to it, something unpleasant tainting the tone of what should be a joyous moment.

She shook off the ominous feeling, going back to the mood of her ecstatic self and focused solely on the Chens.

“So, who am I paired with?” Clair asked with a smile, ready to finally be a Link.

Chen gave a small hesitant glance at the others before producing a tablet and sliding it across the table to Clair. She picked up the device, its dark, inactive screen reflecting her dubious appearance, and she looked questioningly at Chen. Her mentor’s face was blank, not conveying any emotion or showing any sign of what she was about to see. And the others matched her. Clair noted the stillness in the room as everyone watched her, barely breathing as if holding their breaths. Chen gave a nod for her, prompting her to continue. Preparing herself as she held onto the optimism within, Clair pressed the button, and gazed upon the screen.

Titanus Ghidorah.

Any happiness that resided within suddenly vanished, snuffed out in a whisp of smoke as if it never existed. Gone. In its place, a horrifying, cold dread hit her in the stomach, weighing it down and making her lose some of her breath as her eyes widened. Clair had become so still that the steady, yet increasing beat of her own heart could be felt pounding in her head, drowning her world in its rhythm.

…what?

No.

No, no, no, no, no, this couldn’t be right. It couldn’t.

What was this? A trick? A joke? Surely this wasn’t real. Surely, they weren’t serious.

The binomial name stared her straight in the face as the file displayed on the screen had a picture of the sinister Titan, blurred as it was in rain and shadow. Clair's widened eyes finally blinked as she did a double take to make sure she was reading the pixels correctly, thinking her sight had tricked her somehow. But it was as plain as day as she registered that she had been paired with the most dangerous Titan the world had ever seen.

A sense of unrealism enveloped her as she continued to stare at the screen. The skewer of a cold chill thrust itself down her spine as her heart sank. It felt as though the very screen had physically punched her, ejecting the fantasies she had daydreamed about for the last few months. With trembling hands, Clair’s body stiffened as she gently set the tablet back on the table, never taking her eyes off the screen. Her breaths started to shorten in shallow gasps as she grasped this new reality.

Finally, her gaze shifted to the three women across from her, singling out Chen. There was no hint of amusement or feigned sternness, with her only looking ashamed of what was on the screen.

Her face becoming stone as she closed her mouth and breathed through her nose, Clair looked Chen straight in the eye, her voice stern yet calm. “What is this?”

Finally, she showed something in her expression, and it was guilt of all things. “You’ve been matched to Ghidorah.”

“No,” she said with a shaking resolve, trying to be firm in their incorrection of this result, desperate for it to be an error. “No, that c-can’t be right. It can’t be.”

She looked around at everyone in the room, finding the same pitying look in all of their down casted eyes. She then began to grasp that they were serious with this. The horror and dread of this new reality was setting in, all the way into the foundation of her bones, it becoming a fact. It was if she were in a waking nightmare.

Clair didn’t want to see the screen anymore. Quickly, she pressed the button and the screen went dark, making the image disappear, yet the sight of what she saw did not fade to her frustration. She regained some of her composure, demanding with as much grace she could muster under the strain of outrage, “How is this possible?”

“After the algorithm ran the first time, it came up with this result. After running it multiple times, it still came up with the same result. We then have come to the conclusion that you should be paired with Ghidorah. The results from your tests have shown that you have the capability of linking with him.”

Clair could barely understand what she was hearing. “Why?”

Chen hesitated when she spoke. “We have been looking for months for someone who could possibly connect with him. Because of the complexity of Ghidorah’s minds and his ruthless nature, we needed someone who had strong linking capabilities while also being of sound mind and who had a strong mentality. All of the tests you have taken show that you are the best and only candidate for this.”

“You knew I’d be paired with him?” she asked incredulously, feeling a sting of betrayal in her breast.

“We weren’t sure until the algorithm said so. We didn’t want to concern you if it didn’t happen.”

“But it did!”

Pausing from the shout, Clair pulled herself back from the outburst, trying to regain her calm even as she felt like she was crumbling inside.

Chen then spoke tentatively to her. “When we learned that Dante could link with Rodan, it showed us that even destroyer Titans could communicate with humans. And that was the basis of the entire project, to find someone who could possibly connect with Ghidorah. When the government learned that we could bond to the Titans and know what they’re thinking, they tasked Monarch to find someone who was qualified enough to link with him. If we didn’t, they would take matters into their own hands and attempt something like the Link program, only they would use people to try and control him.”

Disbelief was added to the whirlpool of emotions she was feeling as the information was given to her. She was basically meant to be a living tracker.

“He’s not even part of our world,” Clair began to counter, trying to deter them from this course. “What makes you think that I could have the slightest chance of linking with someone like him?”

“Clair,” Price said, “you have shown linking capabilities beyond what we could expect from just anyone able to do it. The likelihood of you connecting with him is as high as we’ll ever expect it. You’re the only one for this.”

“He’s an alien,” she reiterated, desperate to get them to see reason. “He’s not like the other Titans. And he’s trying to destroy our world. How could I be expected to bond with someone like that. I thought the entire purpose of the Program was to understand and build relationships with the Titans. Not use it to spy on them. That’s what cameras and drones are for.”

“But the problem is that Ghidorah can go off grid,” Ling spoke up, “which makes it more difficult to track him at all times. We can only predict his movements from what the Titans can tell us and even then, it’s too late. We don’t know if he can do this at will or if it’s just our systems failing us.”

“Why can’t you just put a tracker on him?”

“We’ve tried,” Dr. Russell interjected, “but every time we do, the tracker malfunctions and we lose the signal. It could possibly be due to his bioelectrical nature that’s affecting them. Or he finds them on his body and destroys them. Currently, there’s no effective way to locate him.”

“Except one.” Guillerman looked at her purposefully.

The realization of what all this was then came to her. They just needed her to keep tabs on him. She wasn’t expected to have a bond like the others, not meant to have a real connection. She was just a means to an end. “I’m just a tool then.”

“We are all tools in this, Clair.” Chen said to her. “Tools to help make the world a safer place. To prevent lives from being lost. We need you for this.”

Chen’s words did little to soothe the turmoil rising within her. “There was no one else?”

Chen shook her head.

Despair was slowly giving away to the rising flames of anger, with fists curling in her lap under the table. It brought a sheen to her eyes that she desperately kept back. She wanted to say no. She wanted to refuse all of this and the bond to the monster they presented to her.

Her immediate answer was lodged in her throat though, choking her off, keeping her silent. She stared at a spot at the far end of the table, letting her mind think.

If she did react according to her current state, she knew she would reject this news, refuse to bond to the monster they presented to her. But what she didn’t know was what would happen if she did refuse. Would they kick her out of the program or blame her for the lives lost the next time Ghidorah attacked? Her emotions were boiling over and this was not the place nor the time to decide. She didn’t have a clear enough head for it. So, she came to middle ground. 

“May…” her voice trembled, barely above a whisper, “may I have time to think about this?”

Chen’s gaze turned sympathetic. “Of course.”

Slowly rising out of her chair, Clair stood stiffly. Before she could take a step, the tablet was nudge towards her. “Take the tablet,” Chen encouraged.

Not meeting her mentor’s eyes, her hand swiftly grabbed the device and tucked it to her side as she made for the door, refusing to look back.

Keeping her eyes on the floor, she exited the room and entered into the hall, finding the others waiting just outside.

Madison bounded up to her, her tone cheerful. “Hey, so who is—Clair?”

Clair glanced up, finding all her friends with slowly rising concern in their eyes where anticipation had once been. Clair just as quickly averted her own eyes and kept walking. She didn’t have the courage to tell them. What would they think of her?

“Clair, what’s wrong?” Madison tried again, walking with her.

Clair silently shook her lowered head, keeping her mouth pressed into a firm line as she kept walking. She couldn’t talk, not now.

As she walked away from the others, leaving them confused and bewildered, she turned the corner, her pace quickening until she got into the elevator. She was grateful it was unoccupied as it took her to the desired floor, letting her breathe in the way where it felt like anxiety might choke her out. The elevator let her out on the dorm level where she dashed out as tears started to brim her eyes, falling just as she reached her door.

Once it opened, Clair furiously chucked the tablet across the room, with it landing softly on her bed. The door independently closed behind and she doubled over, hands on her knees, a hand covering her mouth to muffle the audible sobs. 

Shattered.

The perfect word for what she felt happened to her hopes and dreams. Blindsided by the bomb that had been dropped on her.

Straightening, she paced the room, running shaking hands through her hair, stroking her face to have some semblance of comfort, smearing the tears over her nose and cheeks. The crushing anxiety started to make her shake, unable to make her sit still, certainly not for this. She felt like there was air in her stomach, making a queasy feeling within that did not help her at all.

Clutching her chest, she angled her head up at the ceiling, looking at the smooth greyness of the room she found herself in, feeling too small and not private enough.

“Please, please, don’t let them do this to me,” she whispered in a trembling prayer, hoping that it would be answered, that this was all a horrible dream she could wake from.

Yet all of her damned senses told her this was reality, that this was real.

The anger came quickly, fueling the rage that made her finally lash out, targeting her dresser with a powerful punch. She heard a tiny crack within the wood as her fist collided with it, but it did not break. The dull throb in her hand felt inconsequential to her tormented soul.

Then came the flare of her power, rising at the sense of a threat and the brief anger. At its presence, Clair’s mind quickly shifted, going from aggravated to calming, trying to stamp down the sensation. It was the last thing she needed to deal with now.

As she calmed with controlled breaths, learned through her meditation, the anger quickly dissipated to be replaced by despair again, forcing her power to subside and making her drop to the floor.

Tears rolled down her cheeks as hiccupping sobs shuddered from her lips, she curled up against the abused dresser, a hand to her forehead with her thoughts turning depressing. She thought she would have a connection. A connection to someone that would understand her. When she saw the others with their Titans and how they conveyed their happiness around them, she wanted that. She wanted someone to understand her.

And now she was matched to the least understanding one.

Why? Why did she get paired with him?

Of all the Titans she thought of linking with, Ghidorah wasn’t even considered as a possibility to be concerned with. He wasn’t even on her list of potential Titans.

How though? How could she be compatible with him and him with her? There was no history or interactions whatsoever between them. Yet the results said that she was the most compatible candidate they had for him. But they couldn’t be more different. She loved the earth, he hated it. She wanted to create; he wanted to destroy. She was good, he was evil. There should be nothing that connected them.

Right?

Blue guarded eyes darted over to the tablet on the bed, resting lifelessly in the sheets.

As she looked at it, her thoughts became infected with a sense of uncertainty, feeling an inquisitive tug towards the tablet. She had only known Ghidorah through media outlets that have depicted his rampages and fights with the other Titans. The others and many people have mentioned their intense dislike and desire to see him dead again.

But she really didn’t know him.

She immediately disregarded the thought, thinking it as a betrayal to herself if she entertained any sort of indication of her willingness to accept the pairing. Still though, the thought niggled in the back of her head, making her questions about how this was the outcome all the more prominent, and that maybe the answers lied in the files on that tablet.

But she wouldn’t know herself what exactly made them be paired together.

Staying in her sport for an undermined amount of time, undetermined in which warring side to take in this situation, one finally won out in the end. Shaking her head as she huffed out a breath, she came to a decision, cursing her damned curiosity. She wasn’t going to learn anything sitting on the floor.

Rising to her feet and kicking off her shoes, she sat on the bed with the tablet in hand, turning it on. The unpleasant feeling of seeing the image of Ghidorah made her still for a moment, making her question if this really was the best time. Although, if she did give the files a glance and still said no, at least she would have a reason to. With furrowed eyes, she shrugged it off and swiped the image away, coming to the homepage. There were just a handful of icons to choose from, her eyes darting over each before landing on one that said History. She figured that was as good as any place to start and tapped on it. A list of files came up, documents and videos listed by date, from newest to oldest. She scrolled down, having some rudimentary knowledge from the latest events.

When she finally made it to the very bottom, the first file was listed as Prehistoric Records and Legends. She clicked on it. Pictures of murals and art pieces depicting a three-headed dragon filled the screen. They ranged in the timeline as early as before ten thousand BC, which was amazing to consider since there were so few artifacts before the cutoff of early human history. She focused on the one that was carved into a wall of stone and apparently had fish swimming around it. The description underneath stated it was found in a sunken city, in the temple of Godzilla’s old home.

The next two were from Skull Island, before it was washed away in the devastating storm. A shadowed painting of Ghidorah appeared first with limited information, seeing it was one of the first images of him before the other one. Next was an image of a Ghidorah-like figure surrounded by storms and skulls as it faced off against Godzilla and humans. Her heart sank a little from the image, seeing death depicted with the Titan. Not a good sign.

She quickly switched to the latest images after the cutoff, seeing numerous paintings and carvings with very little context for each of them.

To be honest there was barely anything to go off of. It was only images with dates attached to them but no written word as to why they were created and of what exactly. It was almost as if Ghidorah was a taboo subject to speak about. A note from Chen on the last picture tells as much, as if early humans didn’t want to be haunted by the memory of the sadistic Titan.

Clair looked at the next file that was labeled Antarctica 2016-2018. There she learned of the expedition lead by Dr. Vivienne Graham that found Ghidorah’s icy tomb. They had quickly established Outpost 32 on the ice, around the frozen Titan to study him. No one thought he was alive at the time, but there were reports of strange whispers coming off the wall of the ice he was framed in, what they called The Wall of Serpents, ones that induced paranoia among the outpost’s occupants. Dr. Graham seemed to suffer from it too, watching as her notes became more sporadic and sparser. One of the last notes she left before she was called away to deal with meetings in the U.S. Senate read as such.

“The devil has three heads.”

Consciously gulping as an unsettled feeling overcame her with the doctor’s words, Clair wondered what she exactly meant by that before continuing.

The file ended on regular updates from the base after the doctor’s departure, nothing becoming amiss in her absence.

Clair paused in her search to understand Ghidorah for a moment, mind wandering to Dr. Graham’s notes. The devil has three heads. Her brain was trying to pick apart the phrase. Ghidorah was obviously the subject, with the three heads part. But the devil?

Clair never paid much attention to her christen heritage, opting for another path. But what she did know was a few snippets of what the bible told of who the devil was, yet it depended on the source. What source was Graham referring to? She pushed the thought aside to ruminate on later for answers, taking a breath to refocus on what she was currently doing.

She got out of the current file and looked at the next one. She paused.

It was a video file, labeled as Antarctica, May 2019.

Noticing the significance of the date, she looked at the files above it, seeing ones titled as Isla de Mara, May 2019. Washington D.C., May 2019. And Boston, May 2019.

2019. Thirteen years ago. The time when…

She stared at the next file, having a feeling of what it contained.

She hesitantly clicked on it, the screen turning into a white page with a black box of where the recording would be, an encircled play button in the middle of it. She turned the tablet to its side, watching as the entire screen became engulfed in black. The white play button the only light.

She had an idea what she was about to see, what she didn’t know was how exactly it was going to play out. For a second, she almost pulled back, unsure if she could handle what was on the video.

But the thought of who she had been paired with and why she was looking at these files in the first place compelled her to make as thorough of an examination of her potential bonded as she could. The information was here, at her fingertips. And like it was with her signing the contract with Monarch, she would be a fool if she didn’t go over all the contents.

And Clair was no fool.

She tapped the play button.

***

“You can’t do this to her!”

Ilene gave a slight wince from the volume of the shout, hoping she wouldn’t lose her hearing anytime soon. Of all the people who learned who Clair was to be paired with, Madison’s reaction was the strongest. It was expected, Mark even warned against it, yet the truth needed to come out to all of them.

The others reacted along the same vein of outrage, her daughters’ voices joining Madison’s as Jia threw rapid signs that Ilene only caught half of, showing various expressions of anger and disbelief. Dante looked a little more subdued, glancing at the door Clair exited out of moments ago with a worried look before returning his attention to them and voicing his own objections.

Ilene took all of their complaints with a passive expression, knowing it wouldn’t change anything now that Clair knew the results. And it was only adding to the guilt she was feeling when she dropped the news on the poor girl.

“You can’t be serious,” Dante asked.

Amy pleaded, “Mom, this is a mistake.”

Maddie’s voice drowned them all out. “You can’t pair her to him!”

Ilene sighed, finally having enough. “Maddie, we don’t have a choice,” she argued gently, trying to get her pupil to see reason. “You know we can’t keep fighting Ghidorah like this. We need to know where he is and what he’s thinking so we can prepare in time for his attacks. He’s picking off our populated cities one by one. How long do you think it’ll be before we become an endangered species? And his attempts to get into the Hollow Earth, that will only lead to disaster if he succeeds.”

“But Clair shouldn’t be paired with him! She should be paired with one of the Titans who is trying to stop Ghidorah!”

“All of the results say she wouldn’t be a fit match for any of the other Titans,” Price chimed in. “Ghidorah is the closest one she got. And that was what we needed when we put out the survey.”

Ilene subtly grimaced from the mention of the survey. She rejected the idea when the government presented it to them, after they learned of the ability of certain humans being able to communicate and bond to the Titans, more or less pressing Monarch’s officials, her and Ling, to find someone who could bond to Ghidorah, no matter how much she thought it was a mad idea to try and control an uncontrollable Titan.

“So, what.” Madison demanded. “We’re just supposed to be okay with this, that she’s linked to the Titan who is trying to kill us all? What if he decides he doesn’t want to have a Link? What if he decides to kill Clair the moment she tries? And what’s to stop him from coming after us when he learns what we’re trying to do?”

“Which is why we are going to teach her how to build mental defensive walls in her own psyche to block any attacks he may launch against her. To make sure that sensitive information is kept from him,” Ling was quick to say.

Maddie looked at Ling as if she’d lost her mind, before turning back on Ilene. “Chen, you told me once that the link only works if there is complete honesty, that we are open with our Titans. That there is trust. You taught that to me, to your daughters, to Dante and Jia. Do you really think her link is going to work or at the very least be healthy if she keeps secrets from him?”

Ilene hated to admit it, but Madison had a point, that the link would most likely be unhealthy.

And Clair was one of the most promising psychics she’d met. She’d practiced her abilities within a few months when it could take up to years to master. Having matched with Ghidorah honestly felt like they were sacrificing potential that could have been best used elsewhere.

And Ilene could not deny the gnawing guilt she was holding in. Seeing Clair’s reaction to the match, with her face going pale and Ilene could have sworn she saw something fragile breaking behind the girl’s terrified gaze. It was like a punch to the gut. It almost made her want to reach across the table to take the tablet back and break it over her knee, saying that it was all a horrible mistake and comfort Clair for the error.

Sadly though, this was the reality they were all facing, and they needed to come to terms with it.

“Madison,” Guillerman spoke up. “Monarch is being depleted of its arsenal with every attack. Being able to predict Ghidorah’s movements would ensure not just the protection of human life, but save resources that could be used with better efficiency.”

In other words, they were running out of missiles to fire at a being that could regenerate at the snap of a finger. And they weren’t just running out of resources.

The Titans were tiring. She’d seen it from the readings Rick got off of Godzilla, having less and less energy after every fight, even when he’d returned back to Baas to feed in his underwater lair. And she felt it along the faded bond with Mothra, knowing the Queen was just a few fights away from being forced to rebirth into a new body.

If they were too weak to fight, and the other Titans couldn’t possibly hold their own against him, then there was no stopping the alien Titan.

Ghidorah was chipping away at their defenses every time he attacked. With Clair keeping track of him, it would hinder his advancement to dominate the Earth and give them time to recover and regroup.

They needed her.

“Clair’s matched to Ghidorah,” Ilene confirmed with dead certainty, looking at Madison. “There’s no changing that.”

Maddie fumed. “Ghidorah’s going to eat her alive, figuratively and literally. You know this, but you’re going to send her to die anyway.”

“It’s either Ghidorah or no one.”

“It’ll be like aunt Viv all over again!”

A stillness came as the name hung in the air like a phantom had entered the room, chilling everyone to their cores. It forced Ilene to break eye contact with Madison, lowering it to the varnished wood. She still remembered that terrible night, when the golden terror was released onto the world and his first victim had been her long-time friend. She couldn’t help the sense of sickening dread that lingered in the pit of her stomach that they were possibly sentencing Clair to the same fate.

An overwhelming sense of something more than fondness surged through her, bringing a mist to her eyes. She had grown close to Clair, coming to care for her in the time she’d been here. Gifting her that bracelet was proof enough that there was an attachment.

But this wasn’t about Ilene or Madison or anyone else. This was about Clair and what she needed. And the last thing Clair needed was to become isolated from the group that could offer her support. Ilene had to make sure they were all on Clair’s side.

“Maddie,” she pleaded, “we know this is difficult for you, for all of us. But this is especially difficult for Clair. She’ll need us now more than ever. She’ll need help when she faces him.”

“Has she said yes?”

Ilene thought it was wise for Clair to ask for more time to take in the news, but it wasn’t a yes. “Clair’s still deciding.”

“She’ll say no.”

“Maybe, but she hasn’t yet. And if there’s a chance that she will accept, will you help her?”

“Help her with what, give tips to Ghidorah on how to attack Godzilla? How to easily kill the other Titans or how to get into the Hollow Earth? We’re giving him inside information with this.”

“Madison, we need your cooperation as well as the other Links. Clair is going to need your support if she decides to do this. It won’t be easy for her.”

“Oh, I know, it’s not even easy for her now. She wouldn’t even look at us when she came out. She just ran away.”

Ilene understood this was difficult for Clair, but perhaps she was underestimating how emotionally distressing this news was. The thought of Clair panicking in her room strummed her heartstrings painfully. A part of her said that she should give Clair time to herself, to let her figure this out on her own. But if she recalled, Clair always seemed to calm a little in her presence, possibly taking comfort in knowing that she wasn’t alone. Perhaps she could bring some comfort to her now. Rising from her seat with the compelling guilt, Ilene decided.

“I’ll go talk to her.”

***

“Ambush! Ambush! We’re taking heavy losses! Hold your fire, we got friendlies!”

Clair didn’t think she could pull her terrified eyes away from the screen, her breaths coming in shallow shudders every few seconds, having to subconsciously remember to breathe.

From the views of multiple helmet cameras played in a single video, she watched the footage of Monarch forces going up against Alan Jonah and his eco-terrorists, saw how Emma Russell betrayed the world, witnessed from a first-person perspective of how the Rise started.

How a Titan encased in ice for thousands of years rose from death.

A cold dread had blanketed her as she watched the footage.

Three devilish smirks that arose from the icy tomb, greeted the disheveled soldiers lingering on the ice. Flashes of lightning and roars erupted from the screen, Clair couldn’t tear her eyes away. She covered her mouth as she watched men become disintegrated by gravity beams. Heard the terrified screams from inside the Osprey as it was being crushed from the outside. Viewed from ground zero as Godzilla arrived and fought Ghidorah in a ferocious battle.

Watched how Dr. Vivienne Graham died.

That scream, jaws snapping shut, Director Russell standing there with disbelief in his eyes, the ice breaking between the teeth. The horror of seeing a human being devoured alive.

And then she was gone.

Something ripped inside of her, like a piece of her had just been torn away from her being and lost to the abyss, never to be retrieved. Her body was shaking. A trembling hand gripped her sternum where she felt the pain. The images replayed in her head as she tried desperately to forget them.

And to think she was to be connected to that monster.

It was too much.

The tablet immediately went dark as she pushed it away from herself as if it were sin.

She was horrified. It was sickening. The images replayed over and over again in her head, now branded into memory. It was like watching a terrifying scene from a movie that you swore you never watch again as long as you lived. Bile rose up in her throat, burning her, like she wanted to spit the doctor out herself.

She got up from the bed, breaths coming rapidly as she tried to get air in her lungs. She could feel sweat beading along her forehead.

That scream, that terrible awful scream.

The room was spinning. The video pushed her over the edge.

That scream, accompanied by that cackling roar, almost sounding like a scream too.

Screams from the video, screams from her nightmare.

She’s heard too many screams. Too many. Too many.

Too much.

Too much.

Too much!

Too much!

Too much!

Fear and anger were driving her now, and the sensation rose with these feelings. She tried to calm herself, to get it to go back behind the door, but the gravity of it all was too great.

She needed a jar and she needed it now.

Rushing to the dresser, she got a jar out and placed it on the concrete floor, with her sitting crossed-legged before it. Allowing her power to take over, she concentrated on it, hoping she wouldn’t crack the window that had the weight of the entire ocean behind it. Her feelings swirled inside, making the sensation fluctuate with whatever one became dominate at the moment.

The jar shook violently, trying to fight against being broken.

She let it consume her being, wanting it over and done with as soon as possible. She didn’t want this. She didn’t want him. She hated him!

So consumed with her anger and fear of Ghidorah, she didn’t notice the knocking on her door until it opened. Chen poked her head in. “Clair, can I—?”

Clair gasped.

The jar exploded.

Shards went flying in every direction. Clair yelped as she held up an arm to shield her face just as a cry sounded out, feeling the stinging cuts along her forearm.

Once there were no more projectiles, Clair looked up and saw that Chen was gone from the now open door. Overcome with worry as she registered what had just happened, she rushed to her feet. “Ah!” she hissed as the sting of broken glass lodged through her socks into her bare feet, ignoring them as she reached the door and looked into the hall. Clair froze at what she saw.

Chen was hunched over in the hall, a hand cradling her face as crimson blood dripped through her fingers.

“Chen! Oh my, God. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it.” Clair was at her side in an instant, panicking as she tried to assess the damage she’d done. “Let me see. Let me see.” With wide eyes and shaking hands, she gently tugged away the hand on the doctor’s left. She let out a sharp gasp as a gash running along the cheek was revealed, blood already gushing from the wound. A few more centimeters and it would’ve gotten her eye.

Then her gaze locked with the doctor’s, seeing the shock and disbelief at what Chen had no doubt witnessed. Watching a flicker of fear ignite in those dark eyes.

Clair’s mouth gaped like a fish out of water as tears came to her eyes, at a loss for what to say. How was she going to explain to Chen what she’d seen, that it was not what it looked like? How was she going to get out of this?

What had she done?

Voices came rushing up from the doors that were thrown open at the commotion. Men and women came up to the two, assessing the damage and helping them get to their feet, even when Clair let out a pained cry as the glass became more imbedded into her feet. She was practically carried away with Chen following behind as a woman held a cloth to her cheek.

Yet it didn’t stop the bloody droplets left in their wake.

***

“So, tell me how this happened, because I’m having a hard time picturing it,” Dr. Russell asked as he paced back and forth between the beds with the medical doctors tending to Clair and Chen’s wounds. There were a few scrapes on Clair’s arms but her feet got the worst of it, flinching every time a piece of glass was plucked out. Though none hurt worse than the guilt at seeing the wound she caused to Dr. Chen.

The shard from her cheek had already been removed and a doctor was now examining the damage, stemming the flow of blood. It would probably need to have a stitch or two.

Amy and Eu-meh hovered over their mother in concern as Ling lingered nearby, only adding more remorse to what Clair had done.

Almost everyone from earlier came to find out what happened and to check on Chen. Dante and Jia remained by the door while Madison and her father stood between the two patients, the former looking between the two, most likely wondering the same question.

But it was to Chen they all looked at for an explanation. Her keener insight along with her long-time relationships with these people giving her a better voice than Clair could ever have.

Looking up at Dr. Russell, Chen turned her solemn gaze towards her. Fear pulled at Clair’s heart as Dr. Chen regarded her. A sense of dread rose its ugly head inside her chest. Was this it? Was this the moment she would be revealed and treated like she was some sort of freak that needed to be locked up for the rest of her life?

Turning her eyes away from Chen, Clair picked a spot on the tiled floor to look at as she waited for the truth to come out, fingers digging into the bedding beneath as her heart began to stutter. She tried to remain stoic, to not to make a scene with the emotions that were colliding and wailing to be expressed. Yet tears welled up in her eyes with the knowledge that these might be her last few seconds of freedom.

Finally, after what felt like eternity of suspension, Chen spoke. “After I left the room and went to check up on Clair, I had opened her door when she’d just thrown a glass jar in what I believed was in anger. It shattered against the door frame and a shard hit me. Clair attempted to help me but got glass in her feet from crossing over the mess. The next thing I know, we are all here.”

Still fixed on the floor, Clair’s eyes widened a fraction. She snuck a glance up to see Chen looking Dr. Russell straight in the eye with a calm visage, nothing betraying her words.

“You threw a jar at our mom?” Amy accused indignantly, with Clair slightly recoiling.

“Not at me, Dà bǎo,” Chen clarified, assuaging her eldest. “She didn’t see me when I came in. It was an accident.”

“But you’re hurt,” Eu-meh pointed out.

“It’s just a scratch, I’ll live.”

Her daughters seemed hard to accept that, as they threw accusing looks her way.

“Please, don’t be mad at Clair,” Chen continued to say. “This has been a difficult day for her, as I’m sure all of you can understand.”

Guilty expressions replaced the ire everyone wore, remembering what exactly Clair was facing, loathe as she was to acknowledge it at the moment. She just let the rest of the conversation pass over her like an inconsequential wind, keeping the subdued calm over herself as if it was a lifejacket in a sea of the unknown.

After they were stitched and bandaged up, the doctors said Chen’s wound would take a couple of weeks to heal as they recommended for Clair to stay off her feet every now and then so the cuts could heal.

Once the doctor’s finished, Chen spoke to the remaining visitors. “I’d like to speak with Clair for a moment. Would you all mind…?”

Everyone shuffled out of the room, some giving lingering glances at the two as they made their exit, leaving Clair alone with Chen.

When the door shut closed, they sat in silence, neither able to speak a word at the moment. Clair’s eyes were stubbornly glued to the floor as she knew Chen was looking at her. She wanted nothing more than to find the darkest corner of the base and curl into a ball, maybe curl herself so tightly she would make like the snake Ouroboros and pop out of existence.

“Clair?”

Chen’s voice was gently calm, yet it didn’t stop the subtle flinch her own body made.

Clair didn’t move, too afraid to face whatever expression Chen was wearing at that moment, whether it was contained anger or disturbed fear.

“Clair,” Chen called more adamantly, demanding her attention now.

Tears brimming her eyes, Clair finally glanced up at Chen. Nothing was there that she feared, only a worried concern filled her dark eyes that internally surprised her. As they stared at one another, the doctor assessed her tormented appearance, indecision plaguing her usually tranquil demeanor.

Then slowly, she stood and walked over to Clair. There was a bed between them, so Clair could see the expression the doctor wore all the way to where she sat, with guarded caution. When Chen stood beside her, she gave her a once over and knelt down to have her attention even with her lowered head. “Are you okay?”

Even with so much time spent with the woman, Clair scrutinized the question, suspicion infesting her entire being as distrust warred with the current trust she had with the doctor. After everything that had happened in the last few hours, the distrust was winning as the knowledge that Chen withheld the reason why she was even here in the first place became apparent.

But as she continued to look at Chen, her eyes drifted to the bandage across her cheek, the wound underneath sewed up with two stitches. If that shard had been a centimeter or two higher, Clair would have caused her permanent damage. As the guilt from hurting Chen began a new cycle of regret, an old guilt rose up within her, combining with the guilt that she had broken the promise to herself and her family that she would keep her power hidden at all costs. And now it was out in the open in the worst situation possible. Clair exhaled a shuddering breath, letting the tears come as the pain of the triple guilt ate away at her from the inside. They streamed freely as Clair tried to move away from the doctor, curling more in on herself. “I-I’m sorry. I… I d-didn’t mean for it to happen. I… I just…”

Chen surged up to take her in her arms, holding her firmly. “Clair, Clair, it’s alright. You’re okay. You’re not in trouble. You can tell me whatever you want to say. I won’t ask unless you want to tell me.”

Feeling the touch of another person wrap around her, feeling protected, Clair cried harder. The guilt, regret, fear and anxiety had all been too much to handle, forcing her to purge the emotions in the best way possible, allowing Chen to continue to hold her as she got them out in body-shaking sobs.

As the strength of the emotions began to abate, leaving Clair a hollow version of herself, she shifted in Chen’s arms, ready to be let go. Chen complied, her arms drawing back as she pulled a nearby chair closer to Clair’s bed, giving her space as Clair pulled her knees in.

Finally getting through her emotional breakdown, Clair’s gaze landed on the door the doctors just went through, leaving her alone with Chen, and with her feelings running rampant in a vulnerable situation, she turned back to Chen with a questioning look. “Why… why didn’t you say anything?”

Chen had lied for her, that was a fact. She could have told the truth that Clair had exploded a jar with her mind instead, but she didn’t. Why? The distrust came creeping back, Clair thinking that Chen would use this knowledge against her to coerce her into taking the match. But her current behavior acted against that thought, showing a genuine concern for her.

Chen gave a slight pause before answering. “I didn’t think it was my place to tell what exactly happened. I barely understand what I saw.”

Clair judged her response, weighing whether if it was a truthful statement. Chen seemed to see her suspicion as she went on to say, “Clair, I won’t tell anyone. I just want to understand how you could do that.”

Seeing and understanding her genuine concern, Clair debated how much to tell her. She then looked down at the bracelet on her wrist, the silver of the dragon head catching in the light. Despite everything that had happened, she still kept it on.

Hearing Chen gave a small sigh in what she thought as resignation to her silence, Clair spoke.

“I… I never knew I could telepathically talk with other people until I met you. All I had were my… abilities. I told you I’ve never met anyone like you or the others because I haven’t met anyone like me. Someone who… can do what I do. I don’t know if you understand but… I’m different... In a way that’s scary. And I think you know what people do when they’re scared.”

Chen gave a contemplative look before saying, “I’m not scared of you, Clair. I’m just concerned.”

“About what?”

Chen almost looked bewildered, as if the answer was obvious. “You.”

Chen’s empathy was beginning to pierce the walls Clair had erected around herself the minute she saw the blood, letting the trust back in.

“So… you’re telekinetic too?”

“I guess.” Then Clair backtracked. “No. It’s not like that. It’s… something else. It happens when I’m really stressed or angry.”

Understanding dawned in her eyes then. “The news of the paring triggered this, didn’t it?”

“…Among other things.”

“Like?”

“That video on the tablet…” She finally looked Chen in the eye. “The one in Antarctica.”

Chen’s expression became pained at the mention of the video, looking away from her. “I… I wanted you to know what you would be facing if you decided to…”

Clair closed her eyes, trying to focus on anything else that wasn’t Ghidorah related. But it refused to go away. Anxiety gripped her like the jaws of a crocodile, crushing and suffocating.

“Does it happen a lot?” Chen inquired.

Managing to keep the anxiety at bay, she kept going with the conversation. “Not… quite a lot. Just… when things get too intense.”

“And you use the jars to curb this… ability?”

Clair nodded.

Chen gave her a long hard look. “Clair, I want you to know that you don’t have to be afraid around here, around me. You’re safe as long as I’m in charge. Just tell me what you need and I’ll help you.”

Clair was quick to jump on the offer. “Don’t tell anyone else about this, please.”

Chen hesitated, before agreeing. “Okay. My lips are sealed. No one needs to know about this until you say otherwise.”

It sounded like a promise, and Clair intended that it be kept. “Thank you.”

“Is there anything else you want to tell me?”

In other words, did she lie about anything else. The door to her subconscious and what lay behind it came to the forefront of her mind, but Clair kept silent. She didn’t want to say too much about her power, let alone her other half. She settled with, “Just know when I need my space and time to myself.”

Chen nodded, then a moment passed when it looked like she wanted to talk about something else but held back, seeming to think better of it. Clair knew what it was nonetheless, asking her own subdued question.

“When do you need an answer?”

She knew she had limited time to make a decision, given the urgency that they made the case for in the conference room. She probably had until Ghidorah showed up, but his attacks were sporadic and they needed time to prepare if she said yes. They needed an answer soon.

“We can give you a week at most. After that we need an answer.”

A week? She needed two at least, a month would be better. Suppressing the internal panic at the short window of whether or not she would accept the match, she nodded silently at Chen’s answer, accepting the time limit.

Chen then asked, “Do you think you can walk?”

Clair gave a few flexes to her feet, feeling the dulled pain as she creased them, but it felt manageable. She nodded her answer.

“Alright. Come on then, it’s been a long day and it’s almost dinner. You should eat something.”

Clair really wasn’t in the mood for food, still feeling queasy from all of this, and stress now added to her hunger strike. But she barely had any of the food in the rec room earlier and knew she would be hungry later. She would probably just have a few bites and call it a night.

Letting a soft sigh out, she began to rise from the bed, swinging her feet out and taking Chen’s offered hand for her to steady on, with the same hand that wore the bracelet gifted to her. Placing her feet on the ground before leaving the bed, she tested whether she could handle the discomfort. When she put her full weight on them, a pained hiss escaped her, feeling the dull sting of her wounds spread across her feet. She gripped Chen that much tighter as she got used to the feeling when they began walking out of the medical wing, silently thanking her mentor’s help as she supported Clair.

That night after dinner, Clair tossed and turned in her bed, unable to find sleep in the dead of night. Anxiety curled tightly in her chest as a solid rock of dread settled deep into her gut, making it nearly impossible to find any amount of rest. She honestly thought she was going to throw up.

It had gone all wrong so quick.

She was matched to the Titan nobody wanted anything to do with, and now Chen knew about her power, compromising her.

Tears she thought were long dried up, now prickled at the ends of her lashes, shaking as overwhelming stress wracked through her body. What had she gotten herself into?

***

She was alone in her room; she’d been alone for the past two days. She gave the excuse that her feet were hurting too much to do any sparring, and the excuse that she was having painful headaches to do any Link training, though that one was truer than the other.

Currently right now, Clair had her duffel bag out on the dresser, open and ready to get filled with clothes and other accessories if she decided to call it. But now she was trying to distract herself with cute and amusing things she found online, attempting to get into a better mood and to clear her mind to make a definitive decision. Sleepless nights were starting to become too regular as anxiety shook her all throughout her body with tears soaking into her pillow as she tried to stifle her sobs. Her mood had soured from it and she had tried a couple of times to look back on the memories from the last two months, but all she felt from them now was a bitterness. She had no desire to socialize with anyone as she tried to figure out what to do. It brought on the depression that greeted her like an old friend, cloaking her world in a dreary gray darkness.

Closing the laptop in frustration as nothing was helping, she looked out into the sea, thinking it would calm her enough. As she gazed out into the vast ocean, fish swimming around her window, Clair then saw dark shadows appear from the blue, morphing into a pod of sperm whales.

She watched them swim, a young calf dancing around its mother as she tried to conserve her energy. The young whale seemed spritely to Clair. It brought to mind a memory of a whale watching tour their family had taken in the San Juans. Their boat had come upon a humpback called Wendy. She was playing with another boat, ignoring theirs. Clair wanted so desperately to interact with the whale, to see what it was like to play with a creature that was acting on its own free will. Everyone on their boat tried to call her over, but it was Mom who truly got Wendy’s attention. Using her operatic voice, she had called to the whale and Wendy came right over, mugging their boat for a good twenty minutes. Rolling around, sliding up against the hull, spraying everyone with whale snot from her blowhole, it was such an amazing experience. At one point, Clair and her parents were at the back of the boat when Wendy went under. Everyone except them scrambled to the front to get a view of her again. Just as her fluke went up, it paused for the briefest of moments, stilling before them, she clearly wanted to be touched. Clair, seeing the opportunity, leaned out to touch her, knowing that it was illegal at the time. As her parents held onto the back of her jacket and let her touch the whale, Clair brushed her fingers against the skin of the mammal. She could still recall the rubbery cold layer of the beautiful cetacean.

It was one of her best memories. She only wished that it didn’t have that tinge of sadness to it. Her parents were gone and she had given up on working with whales and orcas to be here. Maybe this was a sign to go back home.

A knock sounded on her door, startling Clair out of her thoughts and daydreaming. Reality had come back to torment her and she didn’t know if she was ready for it. She didn’t want to have her peace disturbed and almost didn’t answer, hoping whoever it was would take the hint and go away. However, a tickling sensation knocked against her mind, and falling back on her training, she opened up to it.

May we come in?

Hearing Madison’s voice, she finally gathered the energy to trudge across the room, open the door, and found the familiar sight of Madison and the others, but unlike last time when they came to her door, she saw armfuls of candy and junk food.

“We thought you might be hungry. Can we come in?” Madison asked again more shyly.

They all wore worried yet hopeful expressions, almost looking desperate for their offer to be accepted.

“I…” She almost wanted to deny them, but it was bested on a whim. “…sure.”

She left the door open as they came in, looking about the room as if were a brand-new place they had never seen before.

“Your room’s really clean,” Eu-meh commented.

The last time she saw them was in the medical wing, where they threw accusing glares at her after she had cut Chen, and she couldn’t help the hurt feelings from that encounter. “Thanks.”

Clair returned to her spot by the window as she heard the scraping of chairs from the little table in her room being drawn closer. In the corner of her vision, Dante and the twins had the chairs while Jia pulled the swivel chair from her desk to sit in. Feeling a presence beside her, she looked back to see Madison standing next to her bed, gesturing to it. Clair nodded and the other girl plopped down beside her.

“How are you holdin’ up?”

Clair gave a small derisive snort. Did she really need to ask?

Silence met her answer, the others unsure of what route to take to get her to open up to them.

There was a rattle beside her, looking down to see an open bag of potato chips being offered. She looked up to see Maddie giving her a wan smile that was knowing too. Her stomach gave a weak gurgle as the salted smell of crispy slices of starch wafted into her face. Taking the offer, Clair reached in and grabbed a few chips, signaling to the others that it was fine to eat the food they brought in. They ate in silence for the moment, none wanting to address the Titan-sized elephant in the room.

Clair saw a few glances snuck at her that were quickly diverted back to the food. Briefly she wondered if any of them were communicating through thought, but she honestly didn’t care. How could she when she was in a situation that was all based on thought and telepathy. The familiar weight behind her eyes returned, indicating she was on the verge of tears soon.

She then caught Maddie looking at the empty duffel bag on her dresser, a small frown forming.

“Are you thinking about leaving?”

She gave a small sigh, and mumbled out tiredly, “Maybe.”

The others shared a stricken look at the admittance. Still wearing the frown that grew a little bigger, Madison glanced out the window, most likely seeing the whales. “G calls them the great swimmers. The whales.”

She gave the whales a cursory glance. “Hm. Fitting.”

Her disengagement from starting conversation seemed to make the others hesitate, but Maddie, always the stubborn one, continued to attempt to get a real response from her.

“He likes to swim with them sometimes, likes to hear their songs.”

She had no response to that, and that seemed to make Maddie break whatever restrictions they put on themselves when they came in.

“Clair, you know you can talk to us, right? You’re not alone in this.”

“None of you are paired with him,” she said bitterly.

“No,” she began to say. “But we want to help you get through this, and we can only do that if we understand what you’re feeling.”

“Why can’t you guys just look inside my head to see how I’m feeling.”

“We read thoughts, not emotions,” Dante clarified. “You have to tell us, Clair.”

“How could any of you understand, you all probably were thrilled when you learned of your bonds.”

Jia got their attention. Then make us understand what you’re going through. You need to tell us so that we can help you. What are you feeling now?

Clair took a breath, settling from her outburst. They were just trying to help her make a decision, whether it was good or bad. She began shifting through her feelings, dissecting them until she could put names to them. “I feel… angry, frustrated, bitter… and sad.”

What do you feel when you think of him?

She curled up a little more, examining the new emotions she felt towards the Titan. “Anxiety, fear.” She lowered her eyes. “Hopelessness… I never thought it could go this way. I honestly don’t know what to think right now.”

The others shared worried glances.

Clair tried to break the tension a little. “Guess I… broke the streak, huh? For girls to be paired with protectors.”

“Only if you decide to break it,” Madison clarified.

“Have you decided?” Eu-Meh asked.

They all stared at her intently, holding their breaths for the answer.

Clair couldn’t meet their gazes, looking at the floor instead with her brows knitted together. She really wanted to say no when they told her, but what ifs were starting to take root in her mind. “I don’t want to…”

“But?” Amy prodded.

“I don’t know. All I know is that one minute I’m having the time of my life seeing you guys and the Titans bonding with such… love. And the next…” she waved her hand around generally, “all of this is just dropped on me. It’s almost cruel, that I was shown what you guys had and I… I probably won’t have any of it. Why couldn’t they just tell me, instead of letting me get my hopes up.”

They all seemed speechless for a moment, until Madison spoke. “I think we’re partially to blame for that. You know we’re close with our Titans, Clair. We share their feelings and they share ours. And they all hate him. And we all hate him. When you came here, we had no idea who you were or who’d you’d be paired with. They wanted us to be friends with you first. I think if we knew who you’d be paired to… We all might have had a bias against you, even if you were really nice.”

“You all know now though,” Clair lamented.

“And we still like you,” Amy affirmed, getting a round of agreeing nods. “The bonds between us are just as important as the bonds to our Titans. Not being friends with you would be detrimental.”

They still lied to her and to them. A small white lie that could prove consequential in the long run.

“Do the Titans know about this?” she asked.

“Not yet,” Dante admitted, “we’ll have to tell them soon though.”

“I take it you guys aren’t expecting great reactions from them.”

“I think it’ll be safe to say that warning the bases ahead of time for a rampage would be a good idea,” Maddie said.

“Yeah, good idea,” she agreed. A thought occurred to her then, one she hadn’t taken the time to ponder on. “Do… do they know if something like this has ever been attempted before? A bond between Ghidorah and a human?”

“They haven’t said anything about it. Or if he’s had one before.”

“You’ll probably be his first,” Eu-meh said.

She huffed at that. “Lucky me. What am I going to do?”

“What do you want, Clair?”

Clair silently looked at the empty duffel bag, and felt a slowing growing loathing towards it. She knew one answer at least. “I do want to stay here at Monarch with you guys, but I don’t know if I can.”

“You don’t have to leave. We’ll help you, Clair. Whatever you need, we’ll be here for you.”

She looked at Madison, knowing she was connected to the most powerful creature on Earth. She didn’t have a root connection to him like the others did with their Titans, she was a completely new line. Just like her.

She then asked, “Did you hesitate, with Godzilla, when you found out you could bond to him?”

Maddie paused, thinking back. “Yeah. I mean… it was a little daunting knowing I’d be connected to Godzilla. But… I’ve always had this feeling that there was something between us. …I think I’ve known it ever since San Francisco. At first, it was strange and I didn’t know what I could say to G. Compared to him I was just an ant telling him to not step on our hills. But we figured things out. We talked to each other, and became more familiar with every conversation. Our relationship didn’t just happen overnight, it took time.”

“I doubt Ghidorah would ever give a human a second of his thought. I doubt he would even tolerate me. How can they expect me to—” Manipulate? Control? Was this the relationship she was really about to get into? “—suggest to him to stop fighting. I don’t know what I could say to him.”

Maddie face contorted, as if she were warring with herself, before finally saying. “If you don’t want to then you don’t have to. They won’t force you to pair with him. It’s still your choice. They know that this is a lifetime gig and they’ve never forced anyone who wasn’t willing to go along with it.”

“But it’s not his choice. And it probably never will be so long as he keeps treating humanity like an infestation. And how are you all going to deal with me being connected to him?”

“We just will,” Amy said. “Like we said, you’re part of the group, and there’s no way out of it. We’re all in this for life.”

A smile tried to tug at her stubborn lips at the memory of that moment in the cafeteria, it was a sweet sentiment, but it couldn’t fix all the glaring problems with this.

She then remembered how they looked after coming back from the battles, exhausted beyond recognition. What kind of person would she be if she left them to continue on with that? What would happen to her when she got into a battle?

“Three heads. They all belong on the same body but they’re completely different. Three separate minds. How am I going to handle that? I can barely handle when all of you are in my head for a few minutes.”

They gave no answers to the conundrum she faced. It was all overwhelming, but then she tracked a train of thought that showed up, wondering something. Was this really a lifetime gig, or was there a way out? She needed to know.

Hesitantly she asked, “Is there way to sever the link?”

Silence followed the question, their eyes becoming way too focused for Clair’s liking, as if she had spoken an unspeakable evil. All eyes then turned to the twins, having the longest familial connection to their Titan.

“Only one,” Eu-meh admitted quietly. “You have to die.”

Death.

Suicide.

Clair’s heart sank with the answer. She was not unfamiliar to the concept, having contemplated it before in the past. But a faded conversation with Jason after he found out about her thoughts brought her back to the now. Seeing the desperation in his dark eyes, which were reminiscent of her father’s, his broken voice commanding, begging her to never have those thoughts again, telling her that it would break him.

She never contemplated it again and feeling the weight of guilt pool in her stomach at the whisper of the thought. She banished it immediately, latching onto the promise she kept for her brother. She wouldn’t go down that path, not if she could help it.

So there truly was no way out if she went through with this, being connected to him forever, however long that lasted.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, hearing Maddie’s voice. “You can say no, Clair. You don’t have to do this.”

It was hard for them too. Knowing that she was paired to the monster that they all fought with blood, sweat and tears. But it all came down to her and what she decided to do. And her thoughts were still all mixed up together, and she needed to disentangle them herself.

“I… I need more time to think about this.”

Maddie retracted her hand, speaking quietly, “Okay.”

Clair became quiet, silently appreciating the company the others gave her now as they reassured their support for her, no matter their hesitation in regards to her potential Titan, and caught her up on what she missed in the last two days. And even as she chewed through the snacks they brought her, barely able to taste the differing flavors with a constant blandness in her mouth, she truly felt undeserving of the people with her now.

After they left as they reiterated they were there for her, Clair returned to the comforting embrace of her bed, finding no tears rolling down her cheek, even as her heart continued to pound.

***

After one more day of squandering her time in her room, Clair couldn’t put off training any longer. As of now she was currently heading to the meditation room to meet up with Chen. Despite not having made a decision yet about the pairing, Chen impressed upon her that she couldn’t become lax with her priorities, needing to make sure she was in top shape. Clair was apprehensive to see the doctor again after what had happened, but she tried to suppress the feeling, knowing it would lead to discord if not managed.

“We need to strengthen your blocking,” Chen explained, sitting up in her chair as Clair took hers.

At her quizzical look, Chen continued, “It’s just a precaution in case you do decide to take the pairing. And just because we have an emotional and telepathic relationship to our Titans does not mean that they will never turn on us.”

So this was very necessary for her, incase she took the pairing. “Has that ever happened before?”

“No, but it’s a skill that should be developed nonetheless, especially in the case of spillovers.”

Clair nodded at the answer, preparing for the session.

Since she had learned what she’d done during the exercise, she had a better grasp of what she did, but she was hesitant to let her power out again, especially in her current emotional state. And she didn’t want to risk slipping up with it and cause another accident, especially now with Chen in the room, still wearing the bandage. She would try to do it on her own, hopefully being strong enough to repel her teacher’s thoughts.

It was more difficult focusing this time, trying to get her mind off of her current problems and into the now. For the first time in a while, she had to close her eyes just to concentrate, clearing away all her lingering worries and doubts and finding a calmed peace within.

She went to the back of her mind where the door was to open it, but received a small surprise. The door had undergone a change between now and the last time she saw it, no longer a door of red wood and iron, but of solid steel. It was unexpected to find it like this, but changes like these were nothing new, the mountain in her mindscape being an example.

Accepting the new addition, she went on with the practice and made the connection with Chen. After a few moments of getting used to her presence, she felt more thoughts being sent her way, starting to overlap. Remaining calm, Clair attempted to push Chen out of her head. Using thoughts and memories of her own, ones she could cement herself in, she tried to close the door, not letting her foundation be shaken. Chen pushed back on her though, bombarding her with multiple thoughts that were laced with negativity.

Unable to keep her out, the block broke and her mind became flooded with unwanted thoughts. Clenching her teeth, Clair attempted to block Chen again, using memories that were stronger for her.

This went on for a while, with multiple failed attempts to block Chen out. A pressure came to the door of her subconscious after she failed on the fifth try, but Clair pushed back on it, needing to do this on her own. She had to. Following a similar tactic from what she felt that day, Clair used the memories that were filled with happiness and nostalgia to expand and wrap around her mind, creating a protective wall around her. She held onto them, pushing them against the door and closing it, desperate for it to work this time.

And finally, she couldn’t hear Chen anymore. The seal, the block worked, even as Clair could feel Chen trying to get through to her, but it held.

“Alright, that’s enough,” Chen said as she psychically backed away from Clair.

Clair audibly sighed as she let go of the block, letting her memories retreat back into the depths of her mind and slumping in her chair. Feeling a little drained from the mental onslaught, she just added it to the list of things that were being drained from her.

Chen seemed to regard her state, looking worried. “That wasn’t too… stressful for you, was it?”

Clair detected the question hidden within the question. “It was fine. Besides, I made it this far, didn’t I?”

Chen nodded, almost looking relieved.

Clair then asked, “How’s the cheek?”

“It’s healing. The doctors said the stitches should come out in about two weeks. How are you’re feet?”

“They’re fine.”

Then Chen asked a question she was afraid to hear. “Have you given anymore thought to… the pairing?”

Sighing once more, Clair tried to think of a response, but just went for a candid, “No, I haven’t.”

“You haven’t gone through anymore on the tablet?”

Clair shook her head in response, knowing the device rested in the far drawer of her desk, away from her bed, having refused to look at it since the accident.

Chen wore a pensive frown, looking contemplative before she reached down beside her chair. “There’s another reason why I just wanted you here today.”

She lifted a bag into her lap and pulled a file out, handing it over to her. Eyebrows furrowing, Clair gave her an apprehensive look before opening it, expecting more information about Ghidorah that hadn’t been downloaded on the tablet. Yet what she saw looked absolutely nothing like the alien Titan.

It was a man, a picture of a man that is. He was lean and rigid looking for someone of Asian descent. Clair had never seen him before. Before she could read the information accompanying the image, she asked aloud, “Who is this?”

“Ren Serizawa.”

Clair froze at the surname, looking up at Chen. “Serizawa? As in…?”

“His son.”

As she looked back down at the picture, studying it, her mind began to fill with questions. What did Serizawa’s son have to do with Ghidorah? But instead, she asked her mentor, “Why are you showing me this?”

Chen was silent for a moment, “Clair, what do you know of the incident in Hong Kong, with Mechagodzilla?”

“Only what the media has told people, about how Apex’s robot went on an unmanned rampage.”

“Do you believe that?”

Clair thought for a moment as a memory of a video the news showed from the incident played in her mind on loop. “No.”

Its movements were too coordinated not to be unmanned, too predetermined. There was someone behind the controls, and anyone with half a brain could have seen it.

“And what do you know about Ghidorah’s revival?” Chen next asked.

“As I say again, only what news reports have said. That somehow Jonah found a piece of Ghidorah and regrew him. Probably from that severed head that was left behind in the Gulf of Mexico during the Rise.”

“Possibly. But what they didn’t say was who Mechagodzilla’s original pilot was.”

Clair’s eyes widened as she registered what Chen was saying, connecting the dots.

“The only knowledge we have is what Madison told us when she infiltrated Apex’s headquarters and what we gathered from the surviving staff,” Chen began to explain. “Ren Serizawa was part of the creation of Mechagodzilla. He planned with Apex to use it to destroy Godzilla and bring the other Titans to heel. He was supposed to pilot the mechanoid in order to do it. Or what they had originally planned.”

“What happened?”

“The controls were in a Ghidorah head as you know. Something seemed to have transpired when a copy of a power source from the Hollow Earth was scanned and sent to Apex to fully power the mechanoid. But the power source, unknown nor tested by man, may have worked too well. Ghidorah has neurons all throughout his body, most likely even in his bones. We came to the conclusion that Ghidorah’s undying mind may have been awakened and transferred over to the mechanoid. And no doubt, since Ren was controlling Mechagodzilla through a psionic uplink within Ghidorah’s skull, he came into contact with the Titan’s mind and lost control not just over Mechagodzilla, but himself.”

Clair tried to understand what she just heard. “You’re saying that… Ghidorah controlled him?”

“Yes.”

The revelation of this information was terrifying to hear, it made Clair reconsider all of what she knew thus far about Ghidorah. “Then what?”

“Ren disappeared. We have no idea what he did during the time after Hong Kong, only that he was found in the remains of Ghidorah’s prison, unresponsive and barely clinging to life. We believe he may have played a part in Ghidorah’s release.”

A little sense of pity filled Clair’s chest as she looked at the picture of the man, not knowing if this was a fate that was deserved for the son of Serizawa. “Where is he now?”

“Currently right now, he’s hidden at an undisclosed location, presently in a coma. Going on from the time of Ghidorah’s return.”

Clair lost some of her breath. He’d been in a coma for that long?

“Nicole and many other specialists have diagnosed him,” Chen continued to say, “but the most likely outcome they all agreed on is that he may never wake up again.”

She ended the story with a pained expression, looking away from Clair.

“Why tell me all this?”

Regaining her composure, Chen’s look turned serious. “Because, as far as we are aware, this is possibly the worst Ghidorah could do to a person psychologically.”

Clair blanched as a growing fear was beginning to take root inside her, realizing the power Ghidorah had over the mind. “You’re saying… he could control me? That I might end up in a coma?”

“It is a possibility, which is why we are trying to prepare you, Clair. To give you the strength you need to fight back. We know so little about him, that every precaution must be taken if we go through with this. If you do this.”

She slumped back in her seat, taking in the fear-inspiring information. “I got to say Chen, with every word, you make me want to back out more and more.”

“But you haven’t yet,” she countered. “Clair, I know this is a decision that cannot be taken lightly, but we need an answer soon.”

Clair’s body became tense with the rising anxiety, her fingers twitching and scratching at the denim of her jeans. She wasn’t ready, she needed more time. “Why the rush?”

“Because we need to start preparing for when Ghidorah comes back. And he will. If it’s possible, maybe we can find an opportunity for you to make the bond while he’s here.”

“How can I make the bond with him? It’s a mutual thing, right? I doubt he would want to make it with me.”

“We believe the best way to do it is when he is unaware of your presence. When he is in a state of calm.”

Clair had never seen Ghidorah in any state of calm. As far as she knew, he was a workaholic in trying to take over the planet. “When does that happen?”

“When he is in a state of rest. Such as when he sleeps.”

“Ghidorah sleeps?”

“Very rarely from what we’ve seen.”

“What if he attacks when I haven’t made a decision?”

“Then we will wait for another opportunity to rise, if you agree.”

“And what if I don’t?”

Chen gave her a look, as if there was a conflict going on behind her dark eyes. “Then we won’t make any attempts to approach Ghidorah.” She sounded very tired when next she said, “Everything will remain the status quo.”

The status quo being Monarch running out of funding and the Titans and their Links being driven to the point of exhaustion. Something Clair would be responsible for if she didn’t make the right choice. She slumped in her chair and looked away from Chen, feeling as if she were caught between a rock and a hard place. She didn’t want to leave the others to that fate, but she didn’t know if she could handle it either. There were consequences on both sides.

She let out a long, tired sigh. “I have three more days, right?”

Chen nodded at the confirmed amount of time left for her to make a decision. Knowing the lesson was over, Clair got up and walked to the door, she had her hand on the handle when she said, “Just give me a little longer and I’ll give you an answer.” She left without another word.

***

“Can I talk to you?”

Dante turned at the sound of her voice, stopping in his walk towards the cafeteria with the others. At first Clair was hesitant to approach him about this, but she had questions that only he could answer.

Shaking off his confusion, he nodded his head. “Sure.”

“Okay, let’s talk somewhere else.” Turning from their intended path, they went in the opposite direction.

“Clair? Dante?” Madison asked after them, seeing them leave the group.

Dante waved her off. “Go ahead, we’ll catch up.”

Nodding, Madison continued on down the hall as Clair and Dante went back in the other direction.

Coming upon an enclosed sitting area, with a window to the ocean taking up the opposite wall, Clair made sure no one else was around before entering with her friend. She preferred that this conversation be private so as not to let the others make insinuations and so that Dante could speak freely if he wanted.

Gravitating towards the window, Clair, with arms crossed for comfort, faced Dante. “Dante, I know this is a touchy subject for you, but you’re the only one of us that has a destroyer Titan, and you’re the only one that could understand what I’m going through.”

An understanding look crossed his features. “Just tell me what you need to know.”

She was a little hesitant to ask, but she did anyway. “Can you tell me what it might be like at the beginning of the bond.”

He took a moment to gather his thoughts. “It’s not going to be easy; I can tell you that.”

“I didn’t expect it to.”

“Rodan and I didn’t exactly hit it off at first. For the most part, he was standoffish and arrogant, kinda looking down on me. I found it very hard to tolerate him sometimes. It was like that for a while. But as time went on and we continued to talk to each other, he started to warm up to me, and so did I. We really began understanding each other and that in turn helped the bond grow stronger.”

It was a sweet way to tell it. But Clair needed more information. Their relationship kickstarted the entire reason on why she should be paired to Ghidorah. Of course though, Rodan didn’t seem like the type to willfully try and destroy the planet, along with everyone else on it.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

For a moment, Clair hesitated with her question, wondering what sort of can of worms she’d be opening up for Dante. “What happened on Isla de Mara?”

Immediately, the gentle smile was wiped off his face as his look turned troubled, staring at the floor between his feet. A good amount of time passed when Clair was just about to ask a different question to get him to respond when he finally said, “I lost half of my family.”

The revelation sent shards of ice through her chest, coming close to piercing her heart as she gapped like a fish before him. “I’m so sorry.”

His breaths became shallow as he tried to speak. “What do you know about my culture?”

“Not as much as I would like to think I know,” she truthfully admitted.

He accepted the answer with a nod. Looking out at the ocean, he spoke. “During the early days, my family was close. Still is close. I would play with my cousins and help do chores for my uncles and aunts. Our houses we’re just separated by a hill. Most of my family lived in the town, but they would always trudge up the mountain to see us and have an entire family dinner together every Sunday night.” He paused a brief moment as a smile crept onto his face, reminiscing in the past with glistening eyes. Then a frown replaced it. “But when the Rise was happening, Monarch came in to evacuate the island as fast as they could. It became pandemonium for the town, everyone running and crawling over each other just to get out of there. Most of my family got caught up in it.”

Clair remembered seeing it on the news, hundreds of people fleeing through the streets to try and find safety or escape. She wondered if any of those people she saw on the screen were Dante’s relatives.

“Then Rodan woke up.” He didn’t need to explain what happened, it being a well-known story. “After the Titans left the island, people came back to collect the remaining bodies. We even found some of them. Some were trampled and crushed, broken in so many ways that it was hard to believe. The other half were blown away like leaves on the wind.”

Clair could understand the pain Dante went through with that. A hurt of her own rising up at the sympathy she felt for her friend. His eyes closed with a tear sliding down his cheek, as if reliving the horrible nightmare again in his head, his voice gaining a trembling wet tone.

“Everything was messed up for a while after that. We tried to find our place in the world again. I thought Mom was crazy when she wanted us to settle down at Rodan’s new nest. But we ended up there and then I started to feel the pull to Rodan and Chen came along and I became a Link.”

Clair then tentatively said, “But yours happened naturally, didn’t it.”

He nodded, wiping at his eyes.

That was one of the problems with this entire thing. She may have a choice with this, but Ghidorah, who probably doesn’t even know about her, had no say about this. She would be forcing the bond on him if she said yes. And that idea rubbed her the wrong way. She didn’t know if she could do that, even to someone like Ghidorah. No matter how much she or anyone else tried to justify it.

Dante seemed to see her struggle, even as he struggled himself to say what he could. “Just… Do what you think is right, Clair. I know it’s not what you expected it to be, but it’s still important. You need to come to the decision on your own. But we’ll still be here whatever you decide.”

Clair remained silent at his proclamation, thinking about all he had shared with her. He left then, leaving her standing alone with her conflicting thoughts.

***

She was in her room, laying on the bed again, staring up at the ceiling as her mind was going a mile a minute, going around in circles. It always came down to her choice. But wat did she want?

She didn’t want to be in this situation, that was for sure. The thought of going home was more tempting than it was ever before, her temporary contract would expire at the end of the month, and she would have no obligation to Monarch.

But even that felt wrong to her. The morals that had been drilled into her since childhood said that it was abandonment she was thinking about. Leaving everyone here to clean up without her help. She remembered how the others looked after the battles, exhausted and drained. She would let them continue on with that cycle, if she decided to leave.

And what would she even do if she went back to Washington, continue on with her original plans and ignore the world again? Leave all the people she’s made ties with? Expect Chen to keep her secret?

She’d been dodging the responsibility of taking this seriously, ignoring the problem as she tried to distract herself. She knew then she would only find the answer with herself and no one else. It was her choice and she intended on making the right one.

Getting up from the bed, Clair opened the drawer and took the tablet out, turning it back on and reading through the files. This would be as close she could get to knowing Ghidorah without being linked. She decided to avoid any videos she came across, not wanting a repeat from a couple of days ago as she started with the basics.

Unknown in origin, the meaning of his name read as the One Who is Many. But each of his heads had a name of their own, given by the infamous Emma Russell.

Ichi, the middle head and the designated leader of the three. He was smart and he was ruthless, sensing danger before either one of the other heads could detect it, Ghidorah’s main driving force in total world domination.

Ni, the right head and second in charge. He liked to instigate the fights, eager for bloodshed and prominent in battle. But he was also pragmatic when it came to a fight, showing that he too was capable of intelligence.

San, the left head and the sentry. The least aggressive of the three heads, he displayed a curiosity towards some things, while also being alert and being the main look out for Ghidorah. But also lacking focus in some situations. Also, the one who the internet had dubbed as Kevin.

She had only debated on the subject a couple times in the past, whether to call Ghidorah a “he” or a “they” as they all had differing personalities and no one single sentience. It was still a vexing subject for her, ultimately using both pronouns interchangeably.

She moved onto the legends of his origin, which stated that he fell from the stars, giving him is extraterrestrial origin. Once Monarch let slip that he was of alien nature, there had been a major uproar from the scientific community, especially from NASA. She briefly wondered if there was a custody battle between the two organizations of who should have more subject authority over him.

But even with this important fact, she tried to apply logical Earth biology to a space Titan, attempting to understand him a little.

Space was a completely new area, an abyss of a sea filled with radiation and dangers. From what she remembered in the astronomy class she took, there was no such thing as zero gravity. If you were out in space, you were always gravitating towards something. The wings probably came in handy for that, catching on the cosmic winds to steer away from the object that was pulling you in. And possibly those thick legs were reliable when landing on a planet with undetermined gravity that could crush a regular person in a second. He probably came from somewhere where gravity may have been unreliable.

But why three heads? Usually more than one head meant a mutation, two embryos fusing together to share the same body. Yet those kinds of mutations were usually awkward and uncoordinated. Ghidorah was anything but that, his movements smooth and determined. Their natural telepathy possibly coming into play there. So, it didn’t factor in that he was a mutation, heck there was even a Titan of their own who had eight heads, and it was doing just fine.

Safety in numbers, perhaps? But from what? Others of the same species? Competing alpha predators of a different race? His regenerative factor was off the charts, regrowing a severed head within minutes from a reliable power source. That probably meant a vicious environment that pushed its inhabitants to the extremes to perform such an act.

There was also genetic memory, neurons scattered throughout the entire body like an octopus. They possibly lived in a very hostile environment to require such a thing of an alien, to be able to come back the way he did.

An alien. An invader. Not native to Earth. Stanton and others called him an invasive species. And those never did have a good effect on the ecosystems they were introduced to, causing harm in the environment, and destabilizing it. 

But there were some species that were benign or helpful. Honey Bees were an example. Originally from Europe, they were introduced to America and have since had a positive effect on the environment.

Another example was the cross orb-weaver spiders Clair admired in her garden. They were the only spider she didn’t truly fear and would sometimes feed if she were in the position to do so. Originally from Europe as well, they didn’t affect the ecosystem in a way that would be harmful. She didn't like the thought of not having them there if they were never introduced. She would sometimes watch from a window as they created their webbed masterpieces for the coming night to catch their bounty. She would always be on the lookout in her walk around the house to make sure she didn’t tangle with the silk lines that held the webs together, bending and ducking underneath so as not to ruin their work, hating herself if she did destroy one if to not to continue on somewhere.

Could it be possible to make Ghidorah benign to the Earth?

The answer was met with memories of his rampages, killing and slaughtering at will for his own amusement. The Titans fighting relentlessly to get him to stop.

Ghidorah wasn’t an insect. He was a Titan. Clair highly doubted she could get him to overcome his murderous tendencies. Yet there was always more to a Titan than what was on the surface, she had seen that. The Links and their Titans proved that peace was possible, but it was still a long road ahead to get other people to see that. A small part of her still felt wrong that she had gotten to know the loving bonds between them, seeing them for who they are under the guise of rampaging monsters. But still rampaging.

Clair then remembered what she’d seen in the aftermath of the last battle, carnage and destruction with fallen soldiers, none that would make it home to their families. If she did refuse, how long would it be before she saw her brother’s face among them?

Monarch was running out of money and soldiers, and if they we’re gone, that would only leave the militaries of the world to deal with the Titans. She knew for a fact that Jason would get pulled into it, and there were always casualties.

How many more people were there going to be before Jason, forced to fight a monster and suffering because of his actions?

How long would it be before Seattle became a target?

Her home had been luckier than most, being one of the last few places in the world where tragedy and ruination had not reached it, remaining untouched. It was proclaimed by people to be a safe haven from the Titans. The selfish part of her still whispered to forget about all of this and go back home where it was safe, where no Titans wandered. Yet how long would that last?

But another part of her didn’t want to leave Monarch and the people she had made friends with, leaving the bonds to crumble into dust with the passage of time. She had found some sort of belonging here even with the recent upheaval. She wanted to stay. She could only do that though if she said yes.

But what did that mean for her? If she became his Link, not only would she be privy to his own mindset, she would be held responsible for his future actions to some extent. For the cities he’d destroy, the lives taken, she would be responsible for it all. Could she really take that weight?

Clair stood atop a great precipice of indecision, one that was set before a vast, monstrous storm of the unknown. Its dark, howling depths flashing with glimpses of a possible future, as the space below held an unending darkness with nothing in sight. The question was would she fall or would she fly.

She had few options on the table.

She could try and flee and forget that any of this ever happened, going back to her old life which would be next to impossible. The connections that she had made, the bonds created could not so easily be extricated from herself, emotionally entangled as she was within their binds.

She couldn’t ignore what was to come. She was a part of this. Monarch, the program, the Titans, all of it. There was no going back.

She could face the unknown and dive head first, hoping for the best.

Or she could still say no. It was still her choice.

Clair sat in her bed, hunched over the tablet as her mind warred on which path to take, her body tensing, and relaxing, and tensing again, fluctuating with her thoughts. It was all a whirlwind in her head, deciding whether to choose between right or wrong. Until it all settled. Her body finally relaxed as she held a resoluteness within her.

She made her decision.

Leaving the room, she left the tablet on her bed, having all she needed to know. Going to one of the labs that was very similar to the one at the Temple that studied hieroglyphics, only more tidy and less chaotic, she found both Chen and Ling within, looking over a stone carving.

They noticed her, becoming attentive as she came near. “Clair?” Chen spoke, looking worried and curious at the same time.

Clair seemed to lose some of her breath now that she was before them, her hands flexing in and out of fists with her sharpened nails digging into her palms.

Ling stepped forward. “Have you come to a decision?”

Clair still felt the anxiety in her chest, but a peace was placed over it, letting her stick with what she chose. “I have.”

They stared at her, their dark eyes scrutinizing her appearance as they attempted to make out a sign that would predetermine what she was about to say, waiting for her answer.

Her tongue felt thick, sticking to the roof of her mouth as if trying to prevent the words from tumbling out. Taking a shuddering breath, she finally spoke. “I’ll do it.”

Eyes widening by a fraction, Ling and Chen both exhaled stale breaths at her proclamation, whether out of relief or resignation, Clair could not tell at the moment.

Looking at each other, Chen stepped forward then. “Are you sure?”

The determination Clair tried to convey, staring her mentor in the eye as she gave a solemn nod should have been enough.

“Okay,” said Chen with hesitancy, maybe giving her a moment to retract her words. But Clair was sticking with her answer. “Ling, go find Mark, Guillerman and Foster. They need to know and we need to start preparing.”

Nodding, Chen’s sister left the room to find the directors and colonel, even as Chen kept looking at Clair, possibly waiting to see if she would retract her answer. But Clair had no immediate desire to.

For the sake of all she held dear, she would do this, and there was no changing her mind.

***

Madison sat before the shield, crossed-legged on the cold concrete floor. She had a frown etched with the furrowing of her brow, absently looking at her hands even as her mind was a whirlwind of warring thoughts. The conflicting feelings of the recent development.

Clair accepted the bond to Ghidorah.

It didn’t seem fair to her. Clair had come here not knowing anything and had only seen them with their Titans. And now she was paired to the one they all hated. It all felt like a sick joke.

But it was as real as the Titan before her, now calmly swimming before the base. G’s anger and displeasure was pretty apparent, if the sharp swishing of his tail and the low growls were anything to go by.

She knew the others were having similar conversations with their own Titans, about Clair having accepted the bond to Ghidorah. Madison hoped they were going just as well as this one.

There was no other?

Hearing G’s question, Maddie shook her head tiredly. No. They said no one else would be a good match for her. It was only Ghidorah.

A plume of bubbles rushed out of his mouth, emitting a low rumble that was almost threatening. At least he was calming down. When she first told him, he roared and smashed a few undersea rocks around the base, circling the outpost as everyone inside tried to keep calm and let the rampage continue unhindered.

Look I’m not happy about this either, but she made her decision, and we can’t change her mind about it.

Though Maddie personally thought Clair was making a mistake with this. She felt like this was being rushed too fast. If they had more time, maybe there would be someone else for her, or they could find an error in the algorithm that would explain why she got Ghidorah. There had to be something to prevent this.

G then inquired, Though they said the bond might not work, did they not?

Yeah, but it still might. Something Clair said when they were visiting her flung itself to the forefront of her attention, prompting Maddie to ask Ghidorah’s oldest rival, Has he ever had a bonded before?

G was silent for a moment, thinking. No. Not that I could sense. This will be a surprise for him and he does not take well to surprises.

The implications of what G said ignited more of the worry and anger within her. Since the announcement, Maddie had memories coming back to haunt her, ones from her chaotic youth. She was against it from the start and she still was now. But she really did like Clair, and she didn’t want anything bad happening to her. However, it’s virtually impossible now, now that she planned to go through with the match and Maddie and the others could only watch.

Maddie sighed. She shouldn’t be doing this. She should have someone… who’s like you. A real Titan.

I am displeased as well. The thought of him having something so treasured fills me with nothing short of irritation. Maddie could practically see G baring his teeth at the thought. And you must watch her.

What?

Watch her. She is to be Ghidorah’s bonded, and his influence will likely affect her.

His warning of what Clair might become with Ghidorah in her head filled Maddie with a new apprehension. Chen had been teaching her to block, but it wouldn’t be enough to protect her from the connection. It created more conflict for Maddie, wondering if she would be able to tell if her friend was in her own head.

What am I going to do? We told her we’d help her; can she even be helped?

As I have always said to you, little one, stay vigilant and trust your instincts. They will never fail you.

Maddie smirked, figuring as much. It was how she got to Fenway, how she figured out Apex’s plot. How she found him.

And do not give up on her so easily. She has strength and courage in her, and we must hope that will be enough.

Maddie quickly berated herself for wondering if Clair may have been too fainthearted for this, having gone toe to toe with her herself where she showed she wouldn’t be cowed into submission. They’d given their promise to help in whatever way she needed, in whatever state she was in.

When will it happen? he then asked.

As soon as he shows up. They asked me to ask you to hold back when he comes here, so Clair can have a chance to make the bond.

She knew immediately how that rubbed him the wrong way. If his dorsal plates could move, they would be bristling right now. But they only gave a subtle flash before they darkened. Then he calmed.

Very well. But know that I must maintain my territory, I cannot let him be here for long.

I understand. When he shows up, I’ll give you the green light as early as possible when it’s time to move in.

G seemed to agree to this, and Maddie only hoped it would go well, and that she wouldn’t lose another person she cared about to Ghidorah.

***

Hurtling through the sky at over three hundred miles per hour, Clair tried to make her mind as blank as possible, shoving away the worries she faced and the state she left Castle Bravo in.

The Monarch base had become abuzz with the new objective: To have any and all equipment on hand for whatever environment the mission would take place in and to put all efforts into locating Ghidorah at the highest priority. As well as getting more hands-on deck for the mission.

Clair was given permission for leave to get her affairs in order. But to also go back the Udub. She decided early on that she would walk for her graduation, and it came at the perfect time to go home. She couldn’t be gone for more than a week at most, tabs needed to be kept on her at all times in case they found Ghidorah early and needed her straight away.

Before she returned to Washington, she requested to be brought to North Carolina. Jason had just gotten off training and said that he and Emily wanted to be there for her graduation, and she thought it would be best for them all to travel together. It was also an opportunity to see Jason one more time and to tell him what to do if the worst were to happen, once she got around to explaining who she was paired with. She couldn’t wait to have that conversation. If it was like the conversations the others were having with their Titans, this one would be a rampage too.

Soon, she saw a flat strip of land come into view and recognized—even from this angle—the airfield they were heading towards.

Funny thing about being with Monarch and having a relative in the military, you could just land right at their base if you asked.

The humidity of the North Carolinian air greeted Clair as she disembarked from the Osprey, the smells of swampland, ocean breeze, woodland, and barbeque all mixing together to give the Outer Banks their own signature scent. To her, Camp Lejeune was as common as all the other bases her brother had been at when they visited, just swampier. With sunglasses protecting her from the glaring noon sun, shouldering a small bag back into its place on her back, she searched among the generic, green fatigue-wearing soldiers that littered the flight deck, looking out for the one whom she shared blood with.

Searching on her right, she saw one among them striding towards the helicopter, their deep brown eyes locked with hers. Even with the distance between them, she instantly recognized the facial features that were near identical to her father’s.

Grinning in elation, she took off, running into the soldier’s encircling arms for the usual bone-crushing family bear hug. The force of her ramming hug seemed to have jostled the cap from his head, revealing the crewcut of dark brown hair underneath.

“Hey, Clair,” Jason greeted into her ear.

“Hey, Jase.” She can’t remember the last time she’d been hugged by him. Maybe it was when last Jason came home. They hadn’t been in physical contact for over a year and a half and all she could feel from the hug was a welcoming comfort. And a small sense of relief.

She hugged him tighter. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too.”

His steel arms tightened around her body, but she had some muscle too, all thanks to Barnes and his training practices.

“Oof. Careful, sis, don’t break me,” he grunted, finally pulling back to appraise her. “Jeez, look at you. What kind of routine do they got you on?”

“One that’s probably similar to yours.”

He only smiled at her as they walked off the tarmac, finding and hopping into his grey F-150 and heading for the suburbs surrounding the base. She had only been to their house a handful of times before, managing to scrape up enough money while meticulously planning the best time for her to be away from home.

When they walked through the door, a young woman came around the corner, her brown hair in a ponytail as she came up to Clair.

“Hey. It’s so good to see you.” Emily greeted her, giving her a hug, not quite as strong as her Jason’s.

“It’s good to see you too, Emily.”

Then came the pitter patter of little pawed feet as a black lab, Casey, came trotting over, sniffing and jumping up on Clair as her tail wagged like crazy, with her laughing and petting the dog in return.

Clair got settled into the guestroom and came shortly back down to play some catch up with her family, seeing a grey short-haired cat lazing on the couch. Keiko gave a cursory slow blink in greeting, Clair giving her a rub as she walked on by.

Jason and Emily were currently doing pretty well. Emily’s massage therapy business was taking off and Jason was allowed to stay home for the next couple of months, that is he stilled had to go to the base to do some work. And his long-time buddies were doing good, some of whom were working at Camp Lejeune too. Both were already halfway packed for the trip, Emily also being excited about going back to Washington, getting the chance to see her parents again, reminding Clair to treat them somehow on taking care of the house and Kayley in her absence.

After a good dinner of pulled pork and roasted veggies, they managed to catch up on a few other things, involving Clair’s life.

“So, you excited for graduation,” Emily inquired.

“Yeah. It’ll be great. Can’t wait to see home again. And Kayley.”

“I bet.”

“So, how’s Monarch been treating you?” Jason asked.

Clair gave a slight pause before answering, “They’ve been alright. They got good benefits. Made a lot of good friends.”

“They’re not pushing you too hard, are they?”

“No. Though I do have a couple kinks in my back from Madison. Maybe you could help me out, Emily.” They were more or less from fighting.

“I think I can squeeze you in for a session. Where are they hurting mostly?”

“Upper back, she really likes to go for that area. Just be careful of the bruises.”

“She’s not giving you too hard a time, is she?” Jason inquired then, looking a tad bit protective.

“Nah, it’s just sparring,” Clair assured him. “Got to maintain the comradery, you know?”

They seemed to accept her answers, but Clair knew the truth would have to come out soon. She wanted to talk with Jason about it first, wanting to get the hardest part out of the way. But it would have to wait until tomorrow at least, she didn’t want to spoil the good mood now.

“So, do you guys got any plans to make me an aunt soon?”

They looked at each other, Emily answering with a slight cough. “Well, we haven’t talked about it much. I’m still trying to decide if I could handle a miniature version of your goober brother.”

“That you married,” her brother stated, holding up the hand with a wedding ring on it.

Amusement forced a grin on Clair as she watched the two descend into a bickering argument over trivial things.

“Actually, I think I got the receipt for you somewhere…,” Emily began to say.

“All sales are final,” Clair quickly responded.

Jason threw her a conspiratorial grin, enjoying the annoyed look Emily gave the two of them.

After a couple of rounds on a board game they pulled out, getting some more laughs out of it, Clair settled down for the night, finding comforting familiarity within the room. To be honest, it was a relief just to be here with her brother in North Carolina, away from the current craziness of Monarch. To just be in the quiet with only family surrounding her. People who knew her.

Early the next day, Clair came downstairs to find Emily in the foyer, checking her purse and holding a bag. “Hey. I’m heading out to work, and then the store, do you need anything?”

“Nah, I’m good.”

“Kay, see you later then. Bye.”

“Bye.”

As her sister-in-law went out the door, she quickly found Jason at the counter of the kitchen bar, giving him a good morning that he returned as she walked to the pantry, grabbing a box of cheerios and a jug of milk, making herself some cereal. With the bowl and glass of water in hand, she went to the table and began to eat her breakfast, admiring the vase of sunflowers set in the middle of the table. Looking over, her brother was handling two magazines, placing them side by side as he looked at them from different angles, with a roll of duct tape next to him.

Genuinely curious and wanting to make conversation, Clair called out, “Whacha doin’ over there?”

“I’m trying to put these two magazines together for one of the rifles I have. Just kinda jerry-rigging it right now. Might not work out, but I’m gonna give it a shot.”

Clair hummed. Then she smiled. “Was that pun intended?”

He looked up and gave her a gentle smirk. “No.”

She gave a light chuckle at his answer.

A silence seemed to wedge itself between them then. Clair wanted to speak more to him, but she didn’t know what to say, they’d been out of touch for so long. Their relationship could be called distant on the best of terms. They did love each other; they just couldn’t communicate in a normal way.

As she continued to glance every now and then at her brother, the reason why she wanted to see him weighed down on her, not lost on the fact it was just the two of them now, with him staying home today. The anxiousness of what his reaction might be began to roil within her stomach, making her eat the cheerio’s more gradually. Her best guess is that the news of what she was about to say would trigger an atomic reaction from him, and she was trying to prepare for it. But as she tried to figure out a way to break the news to him, she knew that it would be bad no matter how she started it. He needed to know, there was no doubt about that. She just didn’t want to ruin it all.

Pausing in eating, her right pointer finger began to tap lightly on the cloth placemat beneath her bowl, muffling the sound. With every second that passed the anxiety coiled tighter, pulling all of her with it as she snuck glances at Jason. It was now or never.

“Jason, I need to talk to you.”

Jason paused with his project to regard her, taking in the seriousness of her face and the tone she took. “Is everything alright, sis?”

All her fingers nervously tapped against the placemat now, with her listening to the dulled drumming coming from them. “I’ve got something to tell you about Monarch.”

He put down the magazines and came over, taking the seat adjacent to her, giving his full attention. “Do I really need to know?”

He knew about all of this after she signed the contract, the program, the Links, the Titans, all of it. He needed to know about this. “Yeah.”

“What is it?”

She took a breath, composing herself as best she could. “There’s a mission coming up, and I’m supposed to be on it. I don’t know where it is, or when exactly it’s going to be, but it’s for the program, for someone I’m paired up with. And because of who it is, I…” She took another breath, gulping down the air. “There’s a chance that I... I may not come back.”

His deep brown eyes widened a fraction while turning as hard as steel. “What do you mean, Clair?”

“Uh… I’m… I’m paired with someone really, really bad, Jase.”

His brows furrow at the confession. “How bad? Who?”

The name was stuck in her throat and Clair couldn’t meet her brother’s intense gaze as she tried to say it. So, she tried something different. Lifting up her right hand she splayed her first three fingers, showing them to him.

He looked at her hand with confusion. And then understanding dawned in his eyes.

“No. No, FUCK NO!” He jumped out of his chair, towering over her “You’re with him?!”

Clair was at a loss for words, never seeing Jason this angry before. She tried to hold on to any amount of calm under his rising tone. “Not yet exactly.”

He turned away from her, his back rigid as he ran his hands through his cropped hair, “No. FUCK!” He slammed a fist down on the kitchen island countertop, making Clair flinch. “Why in the fucking hell would they make you work with him?! Of any Titan they could saddle you with, they put you with him? Why?! How?!”

“Because I'm the best they got,” she said in a tone as coolly as she could, feeling the anxiety spreading at her brother’s outrage.

“No. No way. No fucking way! Tell them to find someone else. I’m not letting them lead you into the jaws of that bastard!”

“I’ve already said yes, I can't back out now.”

“Do they have you under contract? Did you sell your soul to them?”

Clair stuttered for a moment. “No.”

“Then you can back out,” he stated as if it was so obvious. “No, you're not going back to Monarch. You’re done with them and you're staying here. I won’t allow you to go anywhere near that monster!”

This was going just as bad as she thought. She needed to make him see reason. “A monster that’s killed thousands of people,” she rose from her seat, standing opposite her brother, finding the courage to look him in the eye. “A monster that’s killed men and woman. Civilians. Soldiers. People who are just like you and our family.”

“I can take care of myself, Clair.”

“You don’t understand! Monarch can’t keep up with him and the Titans are exhausted. How long do you think it’ll be before they can’t stop him anymore? If I linked up with him, it would give us an edge, we wouldn’t always have to keep fighting.”

“Are you even listening to yourself Clair?! Are you this naïve to throw away your life?!”

“I’m trying to help!”

“Help who?!”

“Help you! Help Monarch! Help my friends! Help the Titans! Help everyone! I just want to do something good for once in my life!”

He became silent at the last sentence, eyes holding an astonishment. Clair felt the wall crumbling from her outburst, feeling so overwhelmed in that moment. He just stood there looking at her as small tears began to escape from her eyes. 

Clair looked at him, really looked at him, knowing everything he meant to her.

“I saw the aftermath of one of his fights. I saw the bodies, Jason. Bodies of soldiers. And I thought… You’re the only family I have left. You’re my best friend, Jase. If he attacks again and you’re called into it…” She tried to imagine a world without him in it and there was a shadow of a hole in her heart, one that would end her if it came to fruition. The weight of her emotional turmoil forced her back into the chair, sobbing into her hand. “I can't be left alone in this world, Jason. I can't, I just can’t.”

Anxiety mixed with the heated, prickling emotions she felt, causing her more distress as she gasped for air between her wet sobs, her entire body shaking. Did he not think she felt insane herself for agreeing to this? It was almost akin to throwing her life away. Maybe she was in over her head when she said she would do it. 

A strong yet gentle hand lightly touched her shoulder, coaxing her attention back to Jason. “Clair,” he spoke with such tenderness and sadness, “it was always my dream to go into the Marines. It wasn’t because I didn’t have any other choice, but because it was my choice. I know that you’re trying to do this for me… but did you ever consider what it’d be like if I lost you? Knowing that you, my little sister who I was always meant to look after, was gone. It’d be worse than hell for me. I can’t lose you too, Clair.”

Closing her eyes as more tears rolled down her cheeks, Clair understood. She remembered the pain of knowing they weren’t there anymore, clinging to Jason like a lifeline, and to an extent, him to her. They were all that was left of their little family.

“I just… If I can just change something, then maybe it would start to get better, for everyone.”

He remained silent, his head lowering in acceptance of her decision. A small sound of dripping water broke their moment as they both saw the cracked vase of flowers at the center of the table. Clair’s heart became crippled with guilt.

“Ugh, sorry,” she apologized, trying to hold back the fresh wave of tears. “I’ll… I’ll clean that up before Emily sees it.”

Looking at her with sympathy, he rose to his feet. “I’ll help.”

Moving the broken vase into the sink as Jason grabbed some paper towels, they began cleaning away the water from the table and the floor. They worked in silence, making sure to get as much as they could. However, there was one more thing Clair needed to tell him.

With a graveness in her tone, she spoke to her brother. “Jase.” He looked up at her. “Dr. Chen… She knows.”

He stilled as his eyes widened at the news, before they narrowed into slits. “How?”

“She saw me with a jar. And I accidentally hurt her.” At his aghast expression, she was quick to say, “The jar exploded and a shard hit her in the cheek. But she’s fine.”

Suspicion then clouded his expression. “What does she want?”

“Nothing. She said she won’t tell. She’s promised me that.”

“Are you sure? Can you really trust her?”

Clair thought about the time she had spent with Chen, and the only thing that she’d been dishonest with was the reason why Clair was brought into the program at all. But she knew that was only done to protect her. Other than that, she’d been truthful. “I don’t think I’d be here talking to you if I wasn’t.”

Jason was silent for a moment, looking at her with a grim, wide-eyed expression. He looked scared to her. Then without warning, he pulled her into a fierce hug, pressing her as close as he could. “Tell me if this is really your choice.”

His voice sounded desperate, and it broke her heart a little that he was like this. She nodded subtly against his shoulder. “It is.”

He continued to hold her, unwilling to let go. Clair wondered what he was thinking about all this, not knowing which news was worse.

Finally releasing his grip on her and in a quiet voice, he said, “Okay. She’s in the loop then.” He looked at her pointedly. “Let’s keep it that way.”

Clair nodded, understanding that if any more people knew about her, then it wouldn’t be her secret to tell anymore.

***

Arriving back in Washington, Clair felt that she could finally breathe. The late spring air filled her lungs as she saw how everything had bounced brightly back from the gloom of winter. It felt good to be home, especially now with Kayley, who snuggled into her chest happily when she came through the door. Emily’s parents had done a good job taking care of the house and taking care of Kayley, barely a thing out of place. Being back in her own room was the most relieving thing she had felt in her whole life. And better yet, there was another rose in the garden that was about to bloom, most likely for her graduation. She could finally relax for a while.

That night, laying in her bed while snuggling with Kayley as Jason and Emily slept in his former room, now-turned-guest bedroom, Clair began analyzing all that had happened to her in the last few months. Despite the relief she felt, it was also strange being back home. So much had happened and changed that it was almost as if a complete stranger had used to live in her room before she came home today. She shook the feeling off though, knowing she was safe here as she tried to get some sleep for tomorrow.

The next day, she was standing in front of the mirror, making sure her robe and cap were nicely fitted along with the navy-blue dress she wore. It was a common Bachelor’s black with the Udub seal on the left shoulder and a golden yellow tassel hanging from her cap. It was not lost on her how the tassel was that certain color.

“You look good,” Jason praised when she came out, dressed in a nice-looking dress shirt. Emily, who wore a light blue floral dress that matched her eyes, took a picture of them together in the foyer, creating one of the few memorabilia for this day.

With the sun shining brightly today with just a few clouds to accompany it, they all piled into her truck and headed down to the campus stadium. Clair was directed to go to the waiting area for the graduates while Jason and Emily went to find seats among the growing crowd of gathering families.

After a good hour of waiting for everyone to arrive, the graduates all lined up and walked out onto the field to take their seats before the stage that had been set up.

Soon enough, the university president and other members of faculty gathered on the stage, ready to get the commencement going.

Clearing his throat, the president began his speech. It started off with him saying he tried to invite a certain celebrity for the ceremony, but received no answer. And instead, dressed up as the celebrity with a wig, glasses and scarf and doing impressions, getting roaring laughter from the audience.

The other faculty members spoke as well and honor roll graduates were given a few speeches of their own to say. Then came the walk for the diplomas. They were called up in sections, forming two lines on either side of the stage.

Keeping the butterflies in her stomach, and watching the distance between her and the stage shrink with every departing graduate, Clair presented her name to be announced.

“Clair Cantrell,” the woman spoke into the microphone, letting everyone know who she was. Clair walked up on stage and took her diploma, shaking the president’s hand as they posed for the picture.

“WOO! GO CLAIR!” her brother’s enormous voice called out from somewhere in the stadium seats, some people turning their heads his way, making an embarrassed tint of red creep up her cheeks. She finally spotted them in the crowd, waving at them as she got off stage.

After everyone was given their diplomas, with the very last student cheering “I did it!” with some laughter from the crowd, the president made his closing speech.

“So, there we are. All of our students, present and absent have finally graduated from Udub. Now before we conclude our time here, I just wanted to make one final speech to you all if that’s okay?” A round of cheering encouraged the president to continue. “Okay, okay, settle down. What I wanted to say before we all leave here today, is that so many of us will choose different paths to take after this. Some of you may walk with others down a particular path. And some may go it alone, finding their own way in life. But that’s the thing about life, you never know what it’s going to throw at you, whether it be a new opportunity, a tragedy, or something you can’t quite explain as it changes your world forever. And in a world full of Titans, it’s a lot more likely. The world is so full of possibilities that all of them can’t be explored in one lifetime. All we have now is the time we are given on how best to spend it. And I hope all of you will be able to have that opportunity, whatever path you take.”

Clair closed her eyes for a moment, letting out a sigh with how much the speech resonated with her. If only he knew what path she would be taking.

“Alright, now for the words you’ve all been waiting for. Congrats class of 2032!” Everyone cheered as the graduates tossed their caps up into the air, done with their college careers.

Weaving her way through the crowd, Clair finally found Jason and Emily, receiving congratulatory hugs, and taking a few more pictures with her diploma holder in hand.

As they took the last picture in the stadium and before they could leave to go grab a celebratory dinner, Jason gave her another hug, whispering into her ear, “They’d be so proud of you.”

She hugged him tighter, holding back tears as she sincerely hoped it was true.

***

Spending a couple more days at home, Clair eventually had to go back to Monarch. After dropping off Jason and Emily back in North Carolina, receiving goodbye hugs from them, Jason’s being a little tighter, Clair returned to the base.

She received congratulations on becoming a graduate from her mentors and her friends, happy that she managed to have at least that for herself. She was happy to be back, even as an unease continued to plague her.

Days passed. Then weeks. Life seemed to continue on as normal at Castle Bravo. Chen and Barnes were continuously putting her through her paces, getting her to the point where she would be ready when the time came.

But the tension was just under the surface, ready to rise if she gave into the pressure.

She was going over Ghidorah’s files again, taking little notes in her notebook. As she gathered tidbits about him, she was silently debating whether she should just skip notetaking from a third-party perspective and wait to learn about him from his own mouth, so to speak.

At least she definitively knew she was to be his first bonded, if she heard correctly from the others after their own talks with the Titans.

“G wasn’t happy,” Maddie relayed to her when Clair got to talk with them about the Titans reactions.

Neither was Kong.

“Rodan thinks you’re crazier than last time he saw you.”

“Mothra was… quiet, for a while. She really didn’t approve of what we’re trying to do, but said that if it’s your choice, then she had no intention stopping us.”

So overall, not great reactions, but at least there wasn’t too much damage done, just some torn up earth, a couple of fires and a few underwater geological structures destroyed. Knowing what they were capable of, it could have been a whole lot worse.

Clair gave a slight shudder at the thought of Ghidorah’s reaction when he finally learned of her, wondering what he’d be like when he was really angry.

That is when Foster’s steady voice came over the speakers. “Clair Cantrell, please come to the Hub immediately.”

Her muscles tensed, blood flowing more quickly as her heart began to race. The possibilities of why Monarch’s head of military operations having called for her specifically ran through her mind. Had they found Ghidorah already?

It felt as though she would break and fall apart at that moment, she wasn’t ready, but she took a steadying, shuddering breath, calming herself as much as possible before she left her room and made her way toward the Hub, shaking as she was.

As she neared it, she expected to see activity of people running back and forth, relaying data like it was another attack, which would likely be if they found Ghidorah.

Instead, there was the usual busy calmness of the Hub, everyone keeping to their work station, nothing looking amiss. Although, Dr. Russell and Colonel Foster were standing side by side talking to a soldier who had their back to her.

Yet as Clair came closer, familiarity came in waves as she took note of the soldier’s gait, the broad shoulders, the height which was just a few inches above her, and the dark tufts of hair peeking out from under their cap.

Disbelief clawed up her throat as she croaked out a name. “Jason?”

Her brother turned at the sound of her voice, a placid expression on before it became a small gentle smile at the sight of her.

Bewilderment consumed her entire being as she tried to understand what was going on. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m on special assignment, for Monarch.”

Clair was silent as the emotions within were starting to boil over, her sharpened gaze turning towards the head of military operations for an explanation.

Foster remained calm under her scrutinization as she explained, “We didn’t know he was your brother until he asked for you. He came with the reinforcements we called in.”

In a voice that barely contained her anger, she dared to ask, “What special assignment?”

Finally, Foster gave an indication of her mood, looking uncomfortable. “The snipers that are to accompany you when you face Ghidorah.”

“What?!”

“What’s going on?” Chen came trotting up to them, looking at Clair as if to make sure she was okay.

Clair barely acknowledged her, her attention on Jason and Foster. “No. He shouldn’t be here. You need to send him back,” she told the colonel.

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“He has written orders from higher ups, saying his presence is required on the mission. My hands are tied.” Foster certainly didn’t look pleased that her authority had been overridden at her own post.

Clair glared at her brother, only for Jason to be wearing a complete mask over his face, not showing a sliver of what he was feeling. The air became tense between the siblings, as Clair fumed and Jason stood neutral.

She turned to Dr. Russell, indicating her brother. “Is there a place we can talk, in private?”

He pointed to a door imbedded in the rock wall at the back of the Hub. Clair nodded, signaling Jason to follow. She led him to the nearly empty room, save for a metal table and some chairs, letting him inside first before closing the door with a little more force than was necessary.

“What the fuck, Jason! Why are you here? I know for a fact you’re not a sniper. You told me you had a good score, but you weren’t the best.”

His neutral visage came off, showing his irritation. “I called in a favor, and I managed to get a spot on the group Monarch wanted for your mission.”

“Snipers,” she stated plainly. “For Ghidorah!”

“I needed to know you were telling the truth!”

“So, you thought I was lying?”

“I thought you were being coerced into something you didn’t want. That you didn’t know how to say no to the people that apparently gave you everything.”

She looked at him incredulously. “I told you the truth why I was doing this, and now you go behind my back just to spy on me?”

He pointed his finger dangerously at her. “Don’t put words into my mouth! I needed to know for myself. I promised Mom and Dad that I’d look out for you. What kind of brother would I be if I didn’t?”

“One that I could protect!” she screamed, trying to get through his thick skull. “One that would live!”

“You don’t think I want that too?!” he shouted back. “I want to be there for you! I want to make sure you come home safe!”

“And you want to do that by trying to get yourself killed?! What if Ghidorah turns his sights on you?! I can’t be connected to the Titan that kills my brother!”

“And you expect me to sit by while he tries to kill you?!”

“You need to leave!”

“I’m not going! I’m staying!”

Clair turned away from him, barely comprehending his pigheadedness. She wanted to scream so bad. The overwhelming sense of losing control of the situation which she thought she was starting to get a grasp on slipped from her fingers, feeling like she was in a sort of freefall and didn’t know when it would end.

She paced the room, hands on her hips as she tried to keep her cool, fingers running through her hair as she tried to keep calm, struggling to hold back tears.

That’s when the door opened.

They both turned to the intrusion, watching as Chen appeared, cautiously entering the room as she closed the door behind. Her dark eyes flickered between the siblings, no doubt noticing both of their agitated states. Clair’s mostly. Clair wondered then how thick the door was, and how much of their conversation had been heard by the base.

“What.” Jason’s anger was palpable, it was a wonder Chen didn’t cower from him.

Chen didn’t answer him though, still looking at Clair. With growing tears in her eyes, she turned away from the doctor, not wanting to show her face and how obviously upset she was, before looking back at her to see what she would say.

Sighing, Chen gave a subtle shake of her head. “This won’t work.”

“What do you mean?” Jason demanded.

Chen finally gave him her attention. “Your presence here and your involvement in the mission is causing your sister distress. This isn’t good if she is trying to make the connection to a Titan, let alone someone like Ghidorah. Your presence jeopardizes the mission and your sister’s safety, and that is something I cannot allow.”

“Who are you?”

Clair sighed, knowing this was bound to happen. “Chen, Jason. Jason, Chen,” she crudely introduced.

“You’re Chen?”

“I am.”

Jason eyed her, sizing her up. Clair could see the subtle shudder the doctor gave under her brother’s eye as he moved closer to her, speaking quietly. “You know about her then, you know what she can do. Did you hang that over her head to get her to say yes?”

“Jason,” Clair warned.

“I have done nothing of the sort,” Chen defended herself. “We gave her the choice to choose this. She made her decision willingly.”

“And you’ll keep her secret, even when she hurt you?” He indicated to the bandage across Chen’s cheek.

“I gave my word to her that I would not breathe this to anyone else without her consent.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“Clair does. Do you not trust her?”

Jason didn’t take that well, getting into her space. They stared each other down for what felt like eternity, neither one backing off, with Clair wondering if she would have to intervene.

Then to her astonishment, Jason took a step back, giving the statue-still Chen some space.

Taking in a breath, Chen went on to say, “I know that this is difficult for you. But you must understand this also puts your sister in danger. If she cannot fully concentrate when she links with him, it will most likely fail and possibly lead to disaster if she gives away our presence to him.”

He seemed to understand, but he was still stubborn. “I’m not leaving until this is done.”

“Jason,” Clair pleaded, not wanting to get into another argument.

“This mission is about Clair,” Chen stated, “perhaps she should decide then.”

Put on the spot, Clair looked between them as she was given the choice to send her brother away or to let him stay. She gave Jason a hard look.

At last, he looked apologetic, begging her with his dark eyes. “Sis, please. I want to be there for you.”

Turning away from Jason, Clair pinched her mouth in thought, trying to figure out what to do. It was her call. She could send Jason away, and he would be safe. Or she could allow her brother’s scheme to continue as she prepared for her new life.

The safest option would be the first one, and she almost wanted to pick it. But looking at her brother, seeing how he had come this far just to make sure she was all right, she realized something. If she did die on this mission, and he wasn’t there when he could have been, he would regret it for the rest of his life, and might resent her for never letting him get the chance to be there for her. There had to be a compromise, Clair not willing to risk his life.

She knew her decision, even if she was telling herself it was a bad one.

Clair looked at him. “Okay.” Jason sighed, relieved. Then she added with a firm voice, “But you are not going anywhere near Ghidorah, you’re only going to travel with us, and stay with the rest of the Monarch forces, do you understand?”

He nodded, agreeing.

She put a hand to her forehead, trying to sooth herself, feeling out of breath. “I don’t know who’s crazier, me or you.”

“Definitely you,” he told her.

She gave a breathy laugh as they exited out of the room with Chen.

Jason seemed to settle in quickly to the life at Castle Bravo, no wonder when half of the residents were soldiers just like him and probably gave him the lowdown of how things were run here. Although, Clair heard the earful he got from Emily when she learned what he did and called to give him a piece of her mind. Jason may be a little bad-tempered, but her sister-in-law knew how to handle him, suffice to say, he was fully chastised after the conversation.

Jason came to a few of her sparring sessions, giving her pointers every once and a while afterwards, helping to improve her techniques.

Despite the constant nervousness of having her brother here, Clair came to appreciate his presence, it sort of gave an added familiarity to Castle Bravo that she’d been missing.

Yet it did little to distract her from the upcoming mission, whenever that would be. Almost every day after training, she would go to the Hub to check on things. And as always, the same sight greeted her.

Dr. Russell and Director Guillerman were in the transparent meeting room, going over the running of Monarch. Stanton was at his station sipping on whatever was in his mug, looking for signs of Titan activity. And Coleman was at the communications station, speaking with the other outposts.

Clair went over to Stanton, studying the empty radar of the whole world taking up the screens, looking the same as last she saw them. “Anything?”

Stanton gave her a cursory glance over his shoulder before returning his attention to the screens. “Nah, it’s pretty quiet out there. He probably isn’t going to show for a while after what we did to him last time. Just take it easy, kid. You got some time.”

“Easy for you to say,” she huffed.

Clair backed away though as Stanton continued to monitor the radar for any signs of the alien Titan, looking at the shield and the water beyond. There were very few fish today, almost making the water behind the thick glass seem like a wall of solid blue. It almost reminded her of her room back home.

Someone appeared beside her then, looking over to see Chen. Her bandage was off and the stitches had just come out yesterday, leaving behind a tiny little scar on her cheek, one Clair looked at with a twinge of guilt.

“Are you doing alright?” Chen asked, gazing out at the shield too.

“As much as I can be.”

“Your brother seems to be doing well. I think I saw him and Barnes exchanging a few jokes and drinks together the other night.”

Clair smirked at that, knowing her brother was friendly when he wanted to be, making connections just like her parents did when they needed to. Looking out at the ocean, a thought came to Clair’s mind, making her frown. “If I can’t connect with him the first time, what’ll happen?”

Chen sighed. “If we attempt this and it fails, there’s a possibility that Ghidorah may not allow it to happen again.”

“What? Even if he never knew I was there?”

Then Stanton commented from his desk. “If Ghidorah gets wise, he won’t let us do it again. Probably not with you or anyone else.”

Confused, Clair tried to understand the consequences of this. “Then what’ll happen?”

Chen looked apprehensive. “I don’t know.”

Clair contemplated the answers she just received. So, this was it then. If the bond failed, if she failed, it would be over. She would never be a Link and she would never have another Titan. She was their only shot.

An alarm sounded just as Stanton’s voice rung out. “I got him.”

Her heart seized in her chest, and Clair forgot how to breathe for a second, before her body forced her to take a breath, only to feel her heart immediately sink into the pit of her stomach.

“Where?” Chen asked, gliding over to Stanton’s station, leaving Clair to flounder.

“Antarctica.”

“What the hell is he doing back there?” Dr. Russell exclaimed as he rushed out of the meeting room with Guillerman.

“What?” Coleman came over. “Is he going for H.E.L. again?”

“No, no,” Stanton clarified, pulling up the radar on the wall of screens she stood before, seeing the little blip near the peninsula of the continent, “he’s six-hundred kilometers east from the base, not moving an inch.”

Finally regaining her breath and understanding what she was hearing, Clair became confused with his actions. “What is he doing then?”

“Hold on, let me pull up acoustics.”

The speakers came on, letting them hear the Titan. A low growl filled the room, along with another, as a guttural gurgle joined them. With a shudder rolling up her spine, Clair listened intently to the sounds, not sounding aggressive in any way she could interpret. This went on for a few minutes. Then they all quieted, becoming rhythmic rumbles every minute.

“Ugh,” Dr. Russell groaned, pulling Clair out of her confusion. “He’s nesting.”

“Nesting?” she asked.

“As far as we can tell,” Chen began to explain, “Ghidorah just pops up every now and then, resting in one spot without doing too much damage until Godzilla comes along to chase him off, usually in the general area from the last battle. From what Madison can tell us, Ghidorah does it just to piss him off.”

“Like playing the Titan version of whack-a-mole,” Stanton commented.

“Seems a bit petty for him,” Clair remarked, holding back a snort when she compared it to that childish antic of a sibling invading the space of another by putting their foot in the room and taking it out, doing it repeatedly and driving the other crazy.

“And seems a bit lucky for us,” Guillerman noted. “If Ghidorah is nesting, then he’ll likely be conserving energy. Which means, he’ll fall asleep.”

“Which means this is our chance,” Chen realized, looking at a baffled Clair. “You might now be able to make the link with him.”

At the cold realization, Clair’s chest moved up and down, faster than what was normal, trying to come to terms that this was really happening. Then the alarm went off again, showing another blip on the radar in the high arctic.

“Shit,” Stanton cursed. “Godzilla’s on the move, heading straight towards Antarctica.”

“How long do we have?” Chen asked.

“Fifteen hours at least, maybe less.”

“I thought Maddie could hold him back,” Clair voiced aloud.

“Not indefinitely,” Dr. Russell told her. “His instincts will compel him to drive Ghidorah off, no matter how much Maddie asks him not to.”

They were on a time crunch then.

As the news spread throughout the base, more people filled into the Hub, with Foster coming in and barking orders as Chen and the directors tried figuring out a gameplan when they would get to Antarctica.

Clair stood stock still in the chaos that erupted around her, continuing to stand by the monitor, feeling her body shaking as her heart pounded faster and faster in her chest. It all felt surreal watching the blip in Antarctica slowly pulse, realizing with an extreme clarity, she was about to meet the most dangerous Titan the world had ever known.