Ending 1 – Part 2 (or Part 64)
"Pacify me," he muttered. "You think you can talk to me like I'm an insolent child?" he shouted at it. "I'm royalty, you stupid piece of backwards technology!"
The device made a mechanical rumbling sound that resembled a rusty laugh and Maria stood back, watching Michael as his temper reached the boiling point. He honestly thought the Granolith was going to answer him because it was programmed to obey him. Boy, did he have a few things to learn, she thought.
Michael stalked up to the Granolith and rapped his knuckles against the surface. "Hey, I'm talkin' to you!"
Sparks of electricity traveled over the surface as the color shifted from the placid green to a stormy midnight blue. "You may ask your questions, hybrid, but refrain from such tactile displays."
"What the fuck are you goin' on about now?" Michael growled.
"It just told you to stop hitting it." Maria couldn't help it, she was laughing. To see Michael being bested by the Granolith was highly entertaining.
He turned to glare at her yet again. "Did I ask for your help?" He faced the device once more, arms crossed over his chest and feet spaced wide as he studied it. "Granolith, explain why you sent Maria to my universe," he demanded.
"The hybrid she was bonded with was no more. It was necessary to re-establish this connection."
"So, you what? Just tossed her ass into the first universe where she didn't exist but some version of her hybrid did?" he asked incredulously. What was this thing, some sort of God-like being?
"The journey between universes is not controlled by the Granolith."
Michael stilled, perplexed. "What the fuck does that mean?" Either the Granolith had chosen to send Maria to this universe or it hadn't, and in that case, why was Maria still in HIS universe?
The green light pulsated as the Granolith seemed to ponder Michael's question. "You have formed a bond with the human, have you not?"
"Look, just tell me what we're supposed to do now!" He didn't want to think about the bond he had formed with Maria and he sure as hell didn't wanna talk about it in front of her.
"The decision is yours to make, impatient one."
"Maybe you wanna stop talkin' in riddles and share some thoughts on that." He just barely stopped himself from kicking the damn thing. "You mentioned a decision and that implies that I have more than one option… so what are they?"
"The options are simple; it is the decision that requires thought."
Michael sighed and scratched the back of his neck with his right hand. "Seriously? That is the wealth of your wisdom? I could've gotten that from a fuckin' fortune cookie!"
The Granolith's color shifted to a deep green once again and a sound much like a sigh resonated through the chamber. "The hybrid is not easily pacified."
Maria smirked and shook her head. It sounded annoyed. "No, he isn't." She moved closer to the Granolith and its color began to fade back to its original shade of green. "He seeks answers and he believes that you have them."
"Then he should ask the correct questions," the Granolith answered in a tone that was very close to muttering.
"Well, there you go… all you need to do is ask it the correct questions," she repeated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Michael was grinding his back teeth as his gaze moved between the Granolith and Maria. If he hadn't been so certain that it wasn't sentient he would've suspected that it actually held some sort of affection for Maria. "What are my options?" he grated out.
"To remain or move on."
"To stay or go where?!" Michael asked, taken aback.
"You may choose to remain in your current universe or you may choose accompany the human back to her universe."
"Whoa! Wait just a minute, why the hell would I go to her universe?" he exclaimed, shocked. What the hell was that about? Go to another universe? If he was born in this one, why should he go and live in another one?
"To avoid being alone when the human returns and to maximize your potential… to become the protector you were engineered to become. Earth in your universe poses no threat to those who would seek to overthrow the throne of Antar; the same is not true of the human's true universe."
Michael crossed his arms over his chest again and considered what the Granolith was saying. "Then why go back there? She's safe if she remains here, Earth's safe, and there aren't any unearthly tyrants plannin' to destroy my life."
"You are certain the human will choose to remain here?"
His mouth snapped shut when the Granolith posed its question. He had come to this place with the intention of sending her home and now he was completely contradicting himself. "Why go back if it's just gonna be destroyed anyway?"
"Search within yourself," it rumbled. "You know the answer to that question, hybrid."
Maria bit her bottom lip as she took several steps to bring her closer to the Granolith, reaching out to touch it for just a brief moment. "Granolith," she said hesitantly, "I have a question."
The color shifted to a warm emerald. "Ask, young human."
"My universe… if I return to my universe, will…" she swallowed hard before continuing. "Will my hybrid be alive?" Surely he would be alive; she had spent months in this universe, helping this version of Michael and completing what she believed was her mission with the goal of returning home to find her Michael alive and well.
The device hummed loudly for a minute as if it were musing over her question and behind her Michael cringed. She would always have a part of her Michael if she stayed with him but he didn't want her to make that choice for that reason.
The Granolith pulsed as the shades of green shifted back and forth from light to dark several times before it settled into its usual color. "That decision resides with the Granolith from your universe. As I said upon your arrival, you have the power to affect the past, present, and future."
"Yes, but now you're saying that whether or not he's alive depends on the Granolith in my universe… how does that have anything to do with my, my… mission in this universe?!" she asked, her voice rising.
"Yet I did not say which universe you had the power to change."
"So, everything that I've done has had nothing to do with changing the events in my own universe," she said, angry because she felt like she had been tricked. The anger began to change into devastation because she had begged that other Granolith to do something, anything to save her Michael, and instead of altering the past, sending her back in time just a matter of hours or days to save him, it had sent her to another universe instead. She had no faith in the Granolith from her universe; she didn't believe that it would do anything to help her bring him back.
Michael felt his own temper spiking at the conversation between Maria and the Granolith. It pissed him off because in spite of everything that had happened she still thought about the other version of him first. Even though his first reaction was one of anger, it was quickly matched by another emotion… pain. Pain for the woman ranting at the device because he knew without question that his double was dead and gone, and that no matter how much she railed against the Granolith he wasn't coming back.
He was in love with her; there was no point in denying it. He was a man who knew his own mind and while he was still adjusting to the changes that were happening inside of him, he saw no reason to ignore the truth any longer. He was going to have to be the one to tell her that she would never see her Michael again, that his death was final, and that hurt more than he ever would have imagined. He was the one who would have to deliver that news though because he knew something no one – maybe not even the smartass, wise-cracking Granolith knew – that the essence belonging to the Michael Guerin from her universe was now residing in him. He didn't want to hurt her or make her suffer anymore than she already had, but she needed to know the truth.
He looked at the Granolith again and decided that he needed to wait until they returned to the hotel before he told her about his suspicions. The Granolith still had answers that he wanted and he had a feeling that if he talked to Maria while they were in the chamber with the device and the news upset her as badly as he thought it would, the Granolith would become even more uncooperative with him.
"You have decided to return then?" the Granolith questioned.
His head jerked up when he heard the device pose its next query and he shook his head as he took a step towards Maria. "Why don't we go back to the hotel so you can sleep on it," he suggested.
Maria turned to look at Michael when he spoke up. His voice was concerned, but there was a hint of something else… anger perhaps, underlying his tone. She sighed as she realized how her questions to the Granolith would have sounded to Michael and she nodded in response. "Granolith, we're going to leave for now."
"You will return soon?"
Michael glared at the device and bit his tongue before he could say anything that might piss the stupid thing off. "We'll return if and when we're good an' damn ready to come back," he snarled at it. "C'mon, Maria, we're leavin'." He didn't give the Granolith a second look as he motioned for Maria to hurry up, standing back as she crawled through the pod and back out into the outer chamber.