Ending 1 – Part 1 (or Part 63)
Maria opened the door to her hotel room the next morning, stepping back when Michael barged right in without so much as a single word. She watched him as he moved around the room for a few minutes, almost as if he were acclimating himself with the room. His mood was… unusual, she mused, trying to pin it down. She followed him with her eyes when he sat down on the foot of the bed.
"Did you manage to reach the dreamplane?" she asked.
"The mission was successful," he answered vaguely.
She frowned when he didn't elaborate on his response, but she bit her lip as she gave him a few more minutes.
Michael stared at the wall across from the bed, his eyes seeing the last few minutes he had spent with his double in the dreamplane. It hasn't lasted very long but it had felt like an extended period of time had lapsed while he had been talking to that younger version of himself. He didn't know what he had expected when he had decided to try and reach the dreamplane, but it hadn't been witnessing the crash or seeing actual aliens.
His double had gone through so much just to avoid being separated from this crazy Maria girl even in death. He had loved her, still loved her, that much. What did that mean for him? For his life? For Maria and their future, if they even had a future together? How could he tell Maria that her Michael, the man she loved with every fiber of her being, was somehow alive inside of him? Or should he even tell her? Could they go on from this point? She was still clinging to the other man. How could he ever accept that she might not love him the way she had loved the other man?
Maria frowned when he was still silent after nearly half an hour and she wondered what had triggered his pensive mood. He had to have seen or experienced something in the dreamplane that had unsettled him because he was too quiet and distant, much more than normal.
"Michael?"
He grunted in response, slowly turning his head to look at her as if he had just realized she was in the room with him. "What?"
"What happened while you were in the dreamplane?"
"We'll talk about it later, when I feel like talkin' about it." He stood up and glanced around the room. "How long before you're ready? I wanna get goin'; it's past time for me to see this Granolith."
Maria nodded. He wasn't going to talk until he was ready and there was no point in trying to prolong the inevitable. "I'll be ready in half an hour. I was just about to jump in the shower."
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Michael stepped out of the rental car and looked around the desert surrounding the large, craggy rock formation in front of them. The only sound that could be heard was the wind whistling around the rocks, kicking up small amounts of sand. "Hidin' the thing out here isn't too smart; it's not a very defensible position."
Maria rolled her eyes when he went on and on about the location the aliens had chosen to hide the Granolith and the poor scouting that had gone into it. "The path to the chamber is around this way," she said, taking the lead.
His rant immediately ceased when she walked off and he hurried to follow her. He glanced up at the rocky, overgrown path that led up the side and he grabbed her arm before she could start the climb. "What're you doin'?"
"Michael, I've been up the side of this thing more than once," she huffed impatiently. "I know what I'm doing."
He completely ignored every word she said. "I'll go first." He followed the path, easily identifying it despite the overgrowth. He reached an area where the ground began to level out and he stared at the craggy wall before him. He felt Maria's presence as she joined him, but he ignored her in favor of brushing his hand over the face of the rock, jerking his hand back when a translucent handprint appeared. "What the hell?"
"That's the – "
"Shhh," he hissed as he stretched his arm out and waved his hand over the rock again, waiting for the handprint and holding his hand over it when it appeared. His mouth dropped open when a 'door' in the rock suddenly became visible and it slid back, pausing for just a moment before moving aside.
The ground below his feet rumbled as the door moved and he stared into the dark interior that had been revealed. He pushed the button on the flashlight he held as he stepped inside and waved the beam over the cavern. He turned in a circle, the beam of the flashlight bouncing over the floor and the walls.
"Well, where the fuck's this thing at?" he snapped when he heard Maria enter the chamber behind him. "You said it was here… and I'm not seein' any kinda alien artifact that's gonna answer my questions."
Maria rolled her eyes at his surly tone. "Have you ever considered being patient?"
"No." He paused when he realized there was a faint green glow emanating from the far end of the chamber and he followed it. The beam of the flashlight remained positioned on the floor as he stared at the… what the hell were they?
Maria watched him as he slowly approached the pods, his right hand easing towards one of the ones on the upper tier. His expression was one of fascination as he traced over the outer edges of the opening where the pod had been broken through as one of the hybrids awoke and emerged.
He jerked his hand back when he felt an odd sensation graze his fingertips and he glanced at his hand before reaching out to touch the thing again. He moved to the next one before crouching down in front of the last two. One of them was just like the two above, but the last one… the last one was shadowed and contained a small body.
His hand settled over the protective covering and he frowned when he felt a faint flicker of something he didn't understand. If he were a fanciful man he might have said it had a hint of negative energy to it, but he wasn't that type of man and he quickly brushed the thought aside.
Maria stared at the dead hybrid cocooned within the dark pod and a feeling of hostility hit her before she could control it. Tess had managed to screw things up in such a way that the damage had been irreversible and they had never fully recovered from her traitorous actions.
"This one… it's Tess, right? You said Max and Isabel were killed in my universe, so that just leaves her." Maybe he wasn't too far off base with that negative energy thought.
"Yeah, that's her."
He heard the anger in her voice and he nodded in understanding. The hybrid had taken someone from her, someone who had been a friend, a confidant, and one of the most trusted people in her life. "Where's this piece of alien technology that spit you out in my universe?"
Maria motioned to the empty pod on the lower tier and he made a face when he turned to look at it. "You'll have to crawl through that pod. It's the one Max was in before you guys…" she wrinkled her nose and smirked at him, "hatched."
Michael glared at her as he crouched down and turned his flashlight to shine inside the pod, illuminating the interior. He made a face as he looked at it, wondering what exactly it was made of and if any of it was going to get on him when he crawled through it. "I may not remember comin' out of one of these pods, but I can assure you it wasn't like bein' hatched."
"Whatever you say," she said breezily. She crouched down next to him, one hand on his shoulder for balance. "Are you gonna climb through?"
"Yeah, just checkin' it out first, is that alright with you?"
"Sure you're not just chicken? Scared of what might happen when you crawl through and step out on the other side?"
He shook his head at her and turned the flashlight off, shoving it in his pocket and dropping to all fours as he ducked his head into the pod. "This's disgusting," he growled, wincing at the odd, spongy feeling beneath his hands.
"Your people made it," she countered, following him.
Michael got to his feet as soon as he emerged on the other side, wiping his hands on his pants as he started to stand upright. He was barely out of a crouched position when he noticed the odd green light pulsating around him and he lifted his head to stare at the source of the light.
The alien device was shaped like an inverted cone and it emanated a strange humming sound. He straightened up and took several steps forward when Maria hit the back of his right leg with her hand, silently letting him know he needed to move so she could get out.
Maria stood, brushing her clothes off and watching him as he approached the Granolith, his steps measured as he silently assessed the device. He was looking for any threat that the device might pose, determining whether or not it was safe to touch as he moved closer to it with each pass. It took several minutes before he reached out and brushed the fingertips of his right hand over it.
He pulled his hand back and stared at the tips of his fingers. He had felt a frisson of heated electricity as he had touched the thing; it hadn't hurt, but it was an odd sensation. "So, this's the Granolith," he murmured, circling it once more. He made a fist and raised his hand to knock on the device, taking a step back when the color shifted, changing to a deeper green for just a moment.
"What're you doing?" Maria asked, shaking her head at him.
"Well, how d'you get its attention?"
She walked up to it, standing there for several minutes before speaking. "Granolith?" she called and stepped back as she waited for it to respond.
Michael snorted when the humming sound coming from the Granolith was the only thing to be heard. "That's how you talk to this hunk of junk?" He walked up to it and thumped his fist against it several times. "Hey!"
"I'm sure pissing it off will make it talk to you, Michael," she muttered sarcastically.
"Yeah, and your method was workin' so much better," he snarled.
"Look, this Granolith has an interesting sense of – "
"It's not a sentient being, Maria! It's a piece of alien technology that's obviously designed to do whatever its creators…" He took several steps back when the light coming from the Granolith suddenly pulsated. "Whoa, what the hell is it doin'?"
"You've done it now. You've pissed it off."
"It's not talkin' yet." He stood back and held his arms out at his sides. "Hey, you piece of alien shit, stop hidin' and talk to me!" He heard Maria snicker behind him and that only pissed him off. "I'm one of the Royal Four and I order you to talk to me!"
Maria couldn't stop herself from laughing at him. His tone was so conceited and he was so full of himself… and the Granolith was ignoring him. "Stop talking to it like that because it's only gonna continue to ignore you."
"It's a piece of technology, Maria! For it to be ignoring me it'd have to be sentient… you said this thing would answer my questions and so far it hasn't said a single fuckin' word!"
"This hybrid is temperamental," the mellow mechanical voice spoke.
Michael jerked around to face the device. It had spoken. It had insulted him, but it had spoken! He approached it cautiously, walking around it as he tried to determine how it was working.
Maria snorted at the Granolith's comment and Michael's irritated expression. "Yes, he is," she agreed. "Do you remember me, Granolith?"
"I remember all," it answered. "You have discovered what I had to offer?"
She paused as she glanced at Michael. Had she discovered what the Granolith had offered? "Yes, I believe I have."
"You have concluded your journey then?"
Maria bit her bottom lip. "I don't know… maybe. But, Michael, the temperamental hybrid, has come to ask you some questions. Will you answer them?"
"These questions must be resolved for the hybrid to be pacified?" it asked.
She snickered at the Granolith's choice of words. "Yes, it is necessary."
"Only one of us is a member of the Royal Four," Michael interrupted, annoyed by the conversation between Maria and the device. "And it's not her!"
"I have agreed to answer your questions to pacify you."
Maria bit the inside of her cheek so she wouldn't laugh at him when he turned to glare at her. She hadn't expected the Granolith to screw with Michael the way that it was and she knew he was getting irritated with its behavior.