Prologue

Author's note: Okay, so I currently have a lot of fics going, but a friend of mine (who I'm hoping is reading this. I think you know who you are) has encouraged me to start this one particular one.

It'll be human-centric for the most part, though the kaiju will most likely appear. Don't like, don't read. I honestly think we need more human-centric Godzilla fics out there.

Disclaimer: All publically recognizable characters and publically recognizable info about these characters do not belong to me. They belong to Toho Kingdom

The war was won.

Or so most of them thought.

Why wouldn't they? The humans standing outside their damaged ship knew that they had won what was probably the largest kaiju battle in history. Never before had so many appeared in such a short time, never had they wreaked the level of almost total destruction that they had, never before had the fighting taken as long as it had. From the first shots fired within the EDF complex by the M Organization's Alpha team (and Captain Gordon, who wasn't a member but was the commanding officer for two of them) to Godzilla's final spiral ray, those who had watches and still cared to check them had learned that the war had gone on for a few hours more than three days.

Not much. But still. Never before had a near-continuous fight involving Godzilla, the humans allied with him, and whatever was opposing them lasted more than six hours. Occasionally, there would be several little scrimmages that came in fairly quick succession over the course of a few days or so, but never a continuous fight.

Of course, winning the massive fight brought a sense of accomplishment to everyone from Ozaki, who had defeated the Xilian commander in single combat unaided and then had gone on to give Godzilla the power he needed for striking the final blow, to the three former prisoners of the Xilians, who hadn't done a great deal but had survived all the same. And now, watching Godzilla and his son retreat into the ocean, everyone except Ozaki also felt a feeling of closure.

Ozaki had always been a particularly perceptive individual. While he was no psychic, he had always had a sense of others' emotions (including Godzilla's) and had gotten feeling that would slightly foreshadow events from a young age onward. He'd know from the start, even before the Otonashi sisters, that the aliens were bad news. He'd told no one until Miyuki, who had a calm head and an unshakable sense of logic, had realized something was off. Then he'd opened up freely. Boy was he glad he had. And now, he was feeling that something was not quite right once more. Nothing about the beautiful dawn suggested anything of the sort, but Ozaki was sure.

The more he thought about it, the more apprehensive he grew. Even though his friends were all out of danger, either standing near him or having lost their lives in the war, even though the woman he loved was now sharing a smile with him (he showed none of his apprehension on the surface), even though Godzilla had eliminated the vast majority of the kaiju and was now leaving them alone, Ozaki felt that all was not right with the world. He felt as though they had won the battle, not the war.

Kazama would accuse me of being paranoid…

Ozaki shook himself. Thinking of his fiery teammate wouldn't bring him back to life. Being a Keizer (who had evolved within the past few hours), Ozaki had nearly godlike powers. However, try as he might, he had no power over life and death. Meaning Koji, Yoko, Sensei Ogira, Kazama, and all the others who had died were staying dead. All had lost their lives in the past 72-or-so hours, direct or indirect casualties of the Xilians and the kaiju they had under their control.

Koji hadn't even been a hostile! All he'd been was the technician working in the EDF headquarters who specialized in translating messages from other countries' EDF bases. From the first day Ozaki had set foot in the EDF complex, Koji had always treated him with nothing but respect and kindness despite the fact he'd still been a kid at the time his training had begun. He'd always had a joke to tell, always had a great deal of optimism and energy. Ozaki knew he hadn't survived. He hadn't left the EDF headquarters. As a matter of fact, few had. What was left of the building was now a smoking crater.

Yoko's death had been unfair too. She'd been Ozaki's teammate and a close friend, a mutant who also thought about more than death and destruction (well, really, a lot of them were deeper than people generally thought. They'd been trained to be aggressive, and didn't exactly hide it). Being the secondary pilot of the Gotengo, she and Ozaki had trained together often. Thanks to her gentle personality, she and Ozaki had shared a close platonic bond that Ozaki had had with very few others. She'd been like his sister. And now she was dead, having been one of the mutants X had taken control of who had still been in the EDF building until it had fallen on them in Gigan's attack. Ozaki knew there was no way his beloved sister had survived. Even if she had survived the initial collapse of the building, she hadn't survived the asteroid containing Godzilla's final foe's impact.

Sensei Ogira, the commander of the mutants, had also been a very personal loss to Ozaki. Having never had a family of his own, Ozaki had viewed his commander as something of a father figure. As he'd entered the training program at the age of thirteen, he'd known Sensei Ogira for twelve years. For all twelve of them, Ogira had trained Ozaki to be a brave soldier, while offering him emotional support. His last small to Ozaki while he'd held off the other possessed mutants had reminded the last free member of the M Organization that he had to keep going. Ozaki was sure his commander was dead. No one could survive the wrath of the entire M Organization. Particularly when their DNA was most probably altered by the Xilians. Ozaki was hurt that someone would dare do that to his teammates. As though they were lab rats or something. And he had been unable to save even one of them. Not even Kazama, the only mutant to have had his control broken, was alive now.

Surprisingly, it was the death of Kazama, who had been his bitterest rival for almost half his life, that hurt Ozaki most of all. The two had never been close. As a matter of fact, the nicest thing Kazama had ever done for his teammate had been to literally drag him to the med wing of the M Organization after breaking Ozaki's arm in a training match. And that had been within the first year of Ozaki's joining the M Organization. It had gone from bad to worse. Kazama, who was two years and a world of hatred older than his teammate, and had resented him for… Ozaki honestly didn't know. He claimed Ozaki was 'too soft' and such, but somehow, Ozaki knew that that wasn't what was wrong. Still, despite their reasonable dislike of one another, Ozaki had always had a grudging respect for his teammate. He'd almost managed to save him, too. He'd broken the Xilians' control on him (and had broken half his ribs and damaged several of his organs in the process) and had taken him to the Gotengo sick bay to recover. However, Ozaki had underestimated his fierce teammate. He had counted on Kazama's injuries to keep him from fighting. He learned the hard way that Kazama was tougher than that. If anyone who probably was in critical condition medically was able to go into battle, it was Kazama. Injured though he was, Kazama had picked the lock of the med-bay, hacked into the Gotengo's system, located the Dogfighter, and had run all the way to it's hanger, piloted the small jet into the center of the mothership, and had managed to crash it into the shield generator. He'd lost his life in the process, but had guaranteed the Gotengo's penetration of the Xilian mothership. Ozaki had been stunned by the suicidal mission. So stunned, he'd teared up. Despite being more sensitive than most of his teammates, Ozaki rarely cried. But he had at the death of Kazama, who despite his endless bullying of Ozaki and the others had turned out to be the greatest of them all. It had taken a great deal of courage and selflessness to do what Kazama had.

And now, all of the people Ozaki had known so well were gone. Ozaki wondered how many people all over the world had just been at the wrong place at the wrong time, how many had been crushed by kaiju when they were unaware of it, how many had offered to stay behind to try and offer their loved ones a chance at safety, how many sacrifices had been made so that more people would survive. How many were even left?

"Thank goodness," Miyuki said softly next to him, shaking him from his thoughts. Even with her extremely tall high heels, she still only barely stood to his shoulders. She was a very small woman, short and finely-built, but it was her natural beauty that was the real winner for her. She reminded Ozaki of what Helen of Troy must have looked like. But that wasn't why Ozaki had fallen in love with her over the course of their adventure together. He had fallen in love with her for her incredible intellect and her levelheadedness, not to mention the ability to think quickly.

"It's all over at last," she continued, smiling dreamily. Ozaki turned to her and simply watched her for a moment, not willing to ruin her pleasant feeling, then spoke himself.

"No, it's not," he replied, watching the smile fade off her face. "It's just the beginning of a new war."

She looked at him, startled, and he at her, savoring the moment, as Godzilla turned to roar at the small group of survivors. Then, as he and his son continued wading away, Miyuki spoke again.

"So more people are going to die?" she asked worriedly. The minute the question was out of her mouth, she realized how stupid it sounded. Ozaki did too. He didn't care.

"People die every day. But yes, more lives will be cut short before this is over. More will die before their time," he replied. "Including us. We may not be so lucky next time."

She fixed him with a level gaze, and he knew at that moment that she wasn't scared of death. No, the worry in her eyes was about something else.

"I know," she replied. Then, after a moment, she stepped a bit closer.

"Do you know when they'll strike again?" Miyuki asked.

"Who knows? Maybe in an hour, maybe not in our lifetimes. The thing is that they will strike again," Ozaki replied.

"Our hours may be numbered," she murmured, stepping even closer. "If they are, I'm not going to hold back anymore."

"Neither am I," he replied. He knew what she was going to do the instant before their lips met for the first time.

Until that point, neither Shinichi Ozaki nor Miyuki Otonashi knew how it felt for their hearts to have wings. Joy that their love wasn't unrequited blinded everything except the need to keep kissing. As a result, they didn't see Miyuki's older sister, Ana, elbow Captain Gordon and smirk.

"I knew it. Give me those 100 yen you promised me if I was right," she announced, the smirk never leaving her face.

"How 'bout I give you this instead?" he replied with a question, holding out a beautiful diamond ring which Ana knew instantly was an engagement ring.

"I'll take it," she replied. She'd been pleased all in all with her proposal. Unemotional but very sweet. Then, however, she remembered something. "But you still owe me 100 yen."

Ozaki and Miyuki finally broke apart several minutes later, feeling as though they'd been swimming and were reaching the surface to breathe. She smiled softly and leaned closer to him. He put an arm around her softly, allowing his hand to caress her hair briefly before resting on her shoulder.

"I'm so happy right now," he told her softly.

"Me too," she replied. "I hope we aren't the unlucky ones this time around. Regarding the war, I mean."

"Well, I'll promise you right now," Ozaki spoke loudly enough for all of them to hear, "that we won't be. We'll do our best to live on. No one else is going to die in what's left of this war. Come what may, but we will not back down. And we will all make it." A resounding cheer was heard.

Ozaki thought back to Koji, to Yoko, to Sensei Ogira, to Kazama. They had never gotten a second chance. Ozaki promised their souls that no one was joining them.

Author's note: Well, this was sort of angst and sort of fluff. Hope you enjoyed!

Please be nice in your reviews-even with my friend's encouragement, it took a lot of courage for me to publish this. Okay?