Ending Two, Part 2 (or Part 78)
Michael slammed the door of his hotel room so hard that a picture on the wall fell off and hit the floor, the glass breaking and scattering on the carpet. He stalked across the room to open the small refrigerator door open with a jerk, shoving the six-pack he had purchased inside. He snatched a non-alcoholic beer out and twisted the cap off, slapping it down on top of the refrigerator. He caught movement from the corner of his eye and he turned his head to look at Maria when she bent down to pick up the glass.
"Leave it," he snapped.
"Michael – "
"I said to fuckin' leave it!" He took a long swallow of his drink and started pacing back and forth in front of the large window that looked down over the parking lot.
"Fine." She held her hands up and moved away from the shards of glass, knowing it would be a temptation. She leaned back against the armrest of the couch in the sitting area and watched him, easily sensing the annoyance seething below his anger.
"I do whatever the fuck I wanna do," he said after nearly ten minutes of silent pacing. He knocked back half of his beer in one shot and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "I don't take orders from some piece of shit alien technology."
She nodded wordlessly, letting him get it out of his system without interrupting him.
He resumed his pacing, running his free hand through his hair and shooting the occasional furtive glance at her. "How do you know that thing's what it says it is? It said one thing in your universe and now it's sayin' somethin' different in mine. And from the sounds of it, the damn thing's tellin' you somethin' completely different than what it told you when you first got here!"
"I don't know, Michael." She didn't really understand it either, but she did her best to explain what she did know. "When I got here it told me I had the power to change the past, present and future. I believed that it meant in my universe… I didn't know what I did here would affect your universe."
"Did you bein' here alter somethin'? Make Earth somehow more open to attack by Khivar?"
She shook her head. "I don't know." She swallowed hard, pushing away the memory of what the Granolith had told her about her Michael. "I don't think so… I mean the others were already gone before my arrival in this universe so I'm not sure how I could affect anything there."
"That machine seems to pick and choose what it intends to do. How do you know someone or somethin' else is pullin' its strings? Tellin' it what it can and can't do?"
"I guess I don't. I know the Granolith is capable of time travel when it's been altered and I know that it's capable of travel between universes. I don't really know much more about it." She sighed and pushed away from the couch to go and get a beer for herself. "Michael, I know that in that other timeline Liz and Serena managed to somehow modify it so that Max could come back to change the past. Beyond those two things I don't know much about it." She took a sip and resumed her previous position. "To my knowledge it is incapable of time travel without being altered and it didn't perform that action of its own free will. What I do know about it leads me to believe that it's unable to act freely."
"But it would have to have some way of protecting itself from allowing alterations that would let it be used in a manner that goes against its programming or whatever, right? A race as supposedly intelligent as these Antarians would seem to be would have to have put something like that in place, right?"
"We don't know that the Granolith is Antarian. We just… assumed it was because it made sense, being discovered in the pod chamber, but…" Maria stopped, leaving room for Michael to talk once more.
"If prior to the potential destruction of Earth the Granolith allowed itself to be altered then is it that time travel and traveling between universes is prohibited? Nothin' with these abilities would simply allow itself to be used. There would have to be protective measures in place, which means it chose to make exceptions in both instances. Liz and Serena, they modified it, used it to change the timeline. You somehow convinced it to allow you to – "
"No! I wanted it to allow me to go back just a few hours, to give me the opportunity to stop that accident from happening. I didn't want to change the events of an entire timeline or travel across universes… all I wanted was to keep him alive."
He waved a hand dismissively, uninterested in going over that again. "What's that thing goin' on about me havin' a mission for?"
"I don't know, Michael. When I arrived in this universe it only told me that I had been given the opportunity to change the past, present and future. It said nothing about this universe's version of Michael being a part of that mission, plan, whatever. Maybe you were part of it all along, I don't know."
He stopped in the middle of the room and stared out at the parking lot once more. "We need more information."
"More information means we're gonna have to go back to the Granolith. If there are any answers, that's where we'll find them." She reached out to touch his arm, feeling the tension in the muscles beneath his skin. "We should eat something first," she said, knowing he would want it over with as soon as possible and also knowing he was in no mood to face the Granolith again.
Michael tossed his bottle in the trash can and rubbed a hand over his face as he glanced at the clock on the wall. "It's about lunchtime. We can grab somethin' and be back out there by mid-afternoon."
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The Granolith chamber was lit by the green glow emanating from the alien device and the floor hummed with its energy. Michael walked around it, studying the base and trying to determine how it could have been altered in that other timeline in Maria's universe. He rapped his knuckles against the smooth side of the cylindrical device, nodding to himself when the color shifted to a darker shade of green.
Maria stood back and watched him, not bothering to warn him away from irritating the thing. He was going to do whatever he wanted to do regardless of her warnings and he wasn't going to rest until he had his answers. She waited until it became apparent that the device was going to continue to ignore him, further aggravating the situation, before she stepped up to it and spoke.
"Granolith?"
"Yes, young human?" it answered in its familiar mechanical rumble.
She stared at it in trepidation, remembering its earlier words to her. She had no choice about going back. Her Michael was still dead. "Michael has more questions."
"Ask, hybrid."
"You said Earth in my universe is a threat to Khivar, that to ensure the survival of this universe I had a mission to complete… what is it?"
"Once the human has returned to her universe you must embark on your own mission. In order to prevent Khivar from successfully taking over your planet it is your responsibility to complete the unit necessary to defeat him."
"Are you tellin' me there're other hybrids on this rock?" Michael barked. "Because if there are, let one of them take on this fuckin' mission."
"The mission is yours to complete, hybrid. The success of the mission rests on your ability to go back and prevent the untimely demise of those you must train to stand against Khivar's armies."
"Wait just a fuckin' minute," Michael interrupted. "Go back and prevent…" he glanced at Maria, seeing the paleness in her features at the implications in the Granolith's words. "What're you talkin' about?"
"After the human returns to her universe you must travel back in time and prevent the deaths of the other hybrids and the two humans essential to the unit."
Michael looked at Maria again. "You see? Time travel's possible when it wants it to be possible." He walked up to the Granolith and thumped it with his fist. "Why allow it in this universe but not in hers? You say she has no choice but to return to her universe but without her hybrid there to stand against Khivar they'll be wiped out. You're sendin' her back with no chance of survival!"
"Hybrid," the Granolith said patiently, "it is your duty to complete your mission and it is her duty to return to her universe. What becomes of her will depend on how the events transpire upon her return. You must focus on the mission at hand. You must revisit your past, prevent the hybrids from being killed in a car accident and ensure your connection to them. Upon assuring their survival you must encourage the young hybrids to confide in their human parents and reveal their true selves. You must then make sure that Elizabeth Parker does not expire on September 23rd in the year 1999. Zan… Max Evans must be the one to prevent her death. Following this event the human, Maria DeLuca, must be healed on March 15th in the year 2000, also to prevent her death."
Maria wondered what that would mean for this Michael to have the alternate version of her alive and aware of his existence. Would they connect? Would they fall in love? She swallowed hard. Would he let her in?
"You expect me to give up the life I know to – "
"This is what must be, hybrid," the Granolith said.
"But you can't make me do it," Michael insisted.
"No. You may choose to remain on your current course and Khivar's invasion will happen and he will be successful."
Michael's eyes narrowed as he stared at the device, certain there was a smug quality to its voice. "If you can't make me carry out some mission then you can't make Maria return to her universe either."
"The human's return is not negotiable, hybrid. It is not within your power to prevent her return."
"We're finished." Michael shook his head and turned to Maria. "Let's go."
Maria approached the Granolith, ducking out of Michael's reach as he passed her on his way to the chamber's only exit. "Granolith, if Michael successfully completes this mission, Earth in his universe can be saved from Khivar's invasion?"
"Yes."
She reached out to touch the smooth, oddly warm surface of the device, feeling the slight frisson of electricity brush against her fingertips. She was going to go back to her universe, a place where she would be without the man she loved. She turned her head to look at Michael and in spite of her heavy heart she felt a sense of accomplishment. He would live in this universe. He would go on and complete the mission necessary to save his own universe even if there was no way for her to do the same for her own. She just had to convince him that it was the right thing to do.
He didn't like being told what to do and she believed the Granolith was being truthful as it spoke of what was required to preserve Earth in this universe. "We'll be back," she whispered before moving to Michael's side and following him out of the chamber.