Ending 1, Part 6 (or Part 68)

Maria glanced at Michael as they drove along an old unmarked highway, the heat of the desert rising before them. She didn't know how he had gotten the vehicle, but it had been waiting for them behind a particularly raunchy little bar in some town she had never even heard of. He had been on edge the day before when he had come home but he had refused to talk about whatever was bothering him. He had waited until dinner and then announced that they were leaving after dark, but his answers to her questions had been short and clipped.

They had driven all night, switching vehicles more than once and always in places that were remote and sparsely populated. He was careful to leave no trace that they had stopped and switched vehicles and she had realized after the third switch that he must have arranged it because they hadn't once stopped for gas. They had stayed off of the larger highways and interstates, sticking to the lesser-traveled roads, many of them not even on the maps she had been studying.

It was late afternoon and they were less than an hour from the Granolith. She had respected Michael's unspoken request for silence, but she couldn't help but wonder what was going through his mind as he stared at the road ahead of them. Did he have regrets about leaving? Second thoughts? Was he excited about traveling to her universe? Happy about meeting others like him?

Michael was staring at the endless miles of desert that stretched out in all directions around them as his thoughts ran rampant. They had passed a road that would have led them to Roswell a while back and he wondered if the orphanage he had grown up in was still standing. He didn't have many good memories of the large brick building or the people who had been charged with his care. Sure, he knew his childhood could have been a lot worse than it was, and he had heard some of the horror stories from kids adopted out and then returned like damaged merchandise because they didn't fit into a so-called normal home life with their new families or because the families had later been found to be unfit. Either way, by the time the kids had returned the damage had been done and in most cases there was no way to fix it.

He had stayed at the orphanage until he had taken off at 17, but from 13 to 17 he had lucked out and had someone around who had genuinely cared about him and tried to make a difference in his life. He had put up with different forms of brutality and not all of the caretakers had been that caring, but he had survived it and at least he had never been handed off to people who just wanted him around for the monthly check.

The Company had saved his life and stolen whatever soul he had still possessed at that age but it had provided him with a life that was successful and he had survived more close calls than he probably had a right to. It had given him the opportunity to have a few important people in his life and he knew despite losing one of them recently he wouldn't change the path he had chosen.

Choices dictated the paths people followed in life and somehow, some way, somewhere along the line he had made a choice that had eventually led him to the woman silently sitting beside him. And now another choice was taking him away from everything he knew, everything familiar, and leading him down the path that led to a life with her. He didn't regret the choice, especially after that conversation with Xavier the day before, but he couldn't help feeling a little introspective the closer they got to the Granolith. One-way, no return, no changing his mind; once they did whatever it was they had to do to travel from one universe to the other his life here would be over, it wouldn't exist anymore.

He glanced at Maria from the corner of his eye. He didn't know what he was getting himself into with this journey but he knew letting her go alone wasn't an option. He had no idea what to expect in that other universe, what differences he would be dealing with, or even what kind of job he would have. The government in Maria's universe housed a secret branch that was dedicated to hunting down his kind with extreme prejudice. From the talks he'd had with her he knew that it would be dangerous and he wasn't going to have the freedom to exist like he did here in his universe.

She was lonely here though, and he knew she worried about what could be happening to her friends and her mother while she was separated from them. He was adaptive by nature and he would figure something out as far as a job was concerned; he was used to living in comfort and he intended to find a way to carry on that preference.

His thoughts shifted to their impending departure when the towering rocky formation rose up before them. He found an area about a mile away from it and parked, climbing out and grabbing his duffel bag, dropping it on the sandy ground behind him. He carefully removed any evidence that they had ever been in the vehicle and as soon as Maria had moved around to join him he climbed up into the bed of the small truck and pulled a tarp out of the otherwise empty toolbox.

He shook the tarp out and Maria realized it was some sort of netted material with a desert camouflage coloring. She watched him as he tossed it to cover the truck, hiding it in plain sight. He jumped down to the ground and tugged the covering over any exposed edges until he was satisfied that it was completely hidden.

He leaned over to pick up his duffel bag, hooking the strap over his right shoulder as he looked around the desert. "We should get goin'," he said. "We've got about a mile of open ground we need to cover and we need to be quick about it."

"Should we wait for dark?" Maria asked, concerned about his edgy behavior.

"No."

"What's going on, Michael?"

"Xavier called me into the office yesterday… released me to active duty, gave me an assignment, and warned me about what happens to rogue agents and the civilians they get caught with."

"You think he had us followed?"

"No, I'm pretty sure we weren't followed, but I'd rather be safe. You don't wanna know how far away a sniper can be when he pulls the trigger and brings his target down like a dog in the streets." He shook his head when he saw the questions in her eyes. "Day or night doesn't matter, Maria."

She swallowed hard and nodded. "We'd better go then."

It took 15 minutes to cross the open area between them and the outcropping of rocks and Maria was breathing hard when they paused at the base of the formation. Michael could have easily made the run in a third of the time, but he wouldn't risk leaving her in the open when he couldn't protect her.

"C'mon," he said as he took her hand. He led the way up the path they had used twice before and he only felt himself begin to settle down when they were safely inside and the hidden doorway closed behind them, sealing them inside.

The Granolith's familiar mechanical hum greeted them as they entered the inner chamber and they stood before it, silently watching it for several minutes as they absorbed the enormity of the moment. Michael set his duffel bag on the ground next to the device and slowly walked around it, trying to visualize the mechanics involved in traveling between universes. He was smart but he wasn't exactly an astrophysicist and this kind of travel wasn't exactly something he had studied in high school.

Maria could see the wariness in his expression and she knew his mind was going over the possibilities, trying to understand how this was going to work. "It's not that bad," she said after watching him circle the Granolith for the third time.

"How's it work?"

"Oh, I don't really know how it works. When I used it to travel here a beam of light came out and surrounded me. Then there was this feeling of… I don't know, being powerless as I was pulled towards the Granolith. I was expecting to collide with it, but I never even felt it as it pulled me inside."

Michael glanced between her and the device. "It pulled you in there? Against your will?"

"Not really against my will because I wanted to be sent wherever it was sending me, but when that beam moves over you it's like you're paralyzed."

He didn't like that. At all.

"Next thing I knew, I was inside the Granolith, looking out through it and I have to admit that I was terrified. But then everything started to move faster and I began to calm down and then it went dark. When I woke up again I was lying on the floor in this chamber, feeling dizzy and sick to my stomach. I don't remember anything else about it."

"Alright, well, we should just get this over with. I don't like just standin' around, waitin'."

Maria moved to stand in front of him and she reached up to cradle his face in her hands. "Are you sure about this, Michael? Because it's a one-way trip; we're not gonna be able to reverse this if we get there and you change your mind."

His hands came up to cover hers and he met her gaze. "When have you known me to make a decision and then change my mind?" He shook his head. "I was completely serious when I said wherever you are, is where I'll be."

They took a step back when the Granolith began to change colors, turning to a deep emerald green as it awakened from its dormant state. "You have returned to undertake your journey?" it asked.

"No, we've returned to have a meeting of the minds, you piece of crap," Michael growled at it.

"We have returned for that purpose, Granolith," Maria said as she took Michael's hand and pulled him back away from the device.

"And you understand that there can be no altering of this journey once it has begun, hybrid?"

Michael's patience was running thin and the Granolith's patronizing tone wasn't helping. "You think I wanna have to deal with you again?" he snapped. "Yes, we're aware our tickets don't come as a round-trip package and they're non-refundable. Can we get on with this now?"

"Once made the journey cannot be reversed."

Maria had a feeling the Granolith knew full well that Michael's irritable response meant that he understood, but the device seemed to get some sort of enjoyment from taunting the hybrid. "We understand that undertaking this journey means that our decision must be final."

"You know this thing understands every fuckin' word I've said."

"Don't piss it off," she hissed.

"What guarantee do we have that it's even gonna send us to your universe?"

"It has no reason to send us to a different universe." She rolled her eyes when he made a face and motioned to the alien device. "Granolith, we require reassurance that this journey will return us to my original universe."

"The journey will end at the beginning," the mechanical voice promised.

"Fine, let's get this thing goin' then." Michael could feel his nerves reacting to the unknown factors of his impending journey and he just wanted it to be over as soon as possible. He grabbed his duffel bag and hooked the strap over his shoulder, his right hand gripping it tightly. He took a couple of steps to bring him closer to Maria, his posture ramrod straight as he looked at the device expectantly.

"We're ready, Granolith," Maria said, reaching down to take Michael's hand and feeling the nervous tension in him. "It'll be okay."

"Be okay when it's over," he muttered.

The process occurred just as Maria had described it and his last conscious thought before everything began to accelerate and he blacked out was that he had no idea what he had gotten himself into.