The Call

Author: Karen.

Rating: Pg13

Disclaimer: I own neither Oz nor any of the other characters in this story.

Feedback: I'd love some.

I wrote this specifically for Ems. She asked. I wrote. So there.

In the middle of the New Mexico desert, a lone figure walked, silhouetted by the setting sun and coming darkness. He was the picture of loneliness as his hands trailed along the cooling rock.

As his fingers touched a piece of rock, delicate senses in his fingers told him something was wrong w/the small depression. Investigating the wall of rock, he felt a hairline fracture. It was almost an opening. Pressing against it, he managed to trigger something. The wall opened up into a sizable hole. He stepped inside the hole, curious.

Inside it was dark, but the man's eyes adjusted quickly. He wasn't as normal as his spike hair would lead one to believe. Lines of light ran along the walls like circuitry. The floors sounded metallic underneath his feet. If he were talkative he might have exclaimed something about aliens and Roswell but he wasn't. He just sniffed the air. The air was dry. But something coated it. It wasn't human. He walked farther into the dark.

There were footsteps in the dust and air swirling it around. So, he had no fear when the hole closed up behind him. He wouldn't suffocate. Something in there was calling to him. He followed it into the bowels of what could only be some crashed alien spacecraft. Pods of some weird material, lay split open and recessed into the walls. Control panels winked at him. But he had no time to stop. He just walked past.

A door opened. He tilted his head following it.

An open chamber with an obelisk in the center, called him. He could feel it like a physical thing. Someone stood in the shadows next to it.

"Hey Oz."

The man stared at the voice from the shadows. "Do I know you?"

"Nah, but you know." He stepped out of the shadows. He was taller than Oz but Oz was used to that. He had light brown messy hair. "It calls people, sometimes." He glanced up at the giant obelisk. "The granolyth. I should really tell someone about it. It's kinda unnerving to come in here and see visitors."

"What are you?" Oz asked. Staring at both man and Granolyth.

"Michael." He jammed his hands in his pockets. "Get on with it."

Oz stared at him, wishing for an answer or hint.

"See, I never tell anyone about these visits because of how they end. So, Oz, get on with it." Michael's eyes were dark and full of a lot of the same things Oz's were, secret pain and inhumanity. "Do it."

"Not sure what I'm sposta be doing." Oz responded, instinctively moving closer to the Granolyth.

"What do you want to do right now?"

"Touch it." Oz responded. Then blinked. He'd had no idea that he wanted to touch the obelisk. "Why?"

"It'll kill you. Vaporize you. Transport you. Not sure. It's some ancient alien artifact. It does ancient alien artifact stuff. You touch it. You disappear."

Oz walked around the perimeter of the Granolyth. "Why do I want to touch it?"

"Beats me. But you do."

Oz did. He reached out. "I'm not happy about possible outcome here, Mike."

"Hey, it happens. Go with it. You obviously want to do it or no call. I've seen this happen three times. Always on my watch. Not sure what that says about me but whatever. Just do it, Oz. Before Iz comes in here and freaks."

"Iz?" Oz reached out.

"Nevermind. Touch."

"If I don't touch?"

Michael sighed, "I'm going to have to kill you anyway because I can't let you out of here knowing one of our secrets."

"At least one way, you'll know why you were called here. My way's pretty messy." Michael shrugged. "Nothing personal. I've got to protect my own."

Oz nodded. He could understand that. His fingers reached out and touched the slick mirrored surface of the Granolyth.

And he was inside it. He could see Michael watching him with mild interest. Inside his head everything exploded.

The wolf howled and leapt from his body, spinning around him like a real animal. Willow appeared in front of him. She was gorgeous and ethereal. His arms encircled her but she wisped away. And then he was in his life. Not the life he'd been living for the last six months. But the perfect version where he never left Willow.

They had a house. And a dog. And three kids who were curse free.

Willow was kissing him awake in the mornings and kissing him goodnight in the evenings. It was all too beautiful. He couldn't bear it. She loved him as he cooked everyone dinner. She loved him as he changed into the wolf. She loved him as they both grew old together in an instant that spanned a lifetime.

And then one night, she walked into his room. His hair was so gray it had turned white. He'd dyed the tips blue. She told him she loved him. He tried to tell her but his mouth wouldn't open.

He was dead.

The maelstrom around him screamed in again. The wolf leapt back into his body and the world became pain. Oz felt his body rip apart and fall into nothing, becoming the humming power of the granolyth.

Isabel touched her hand to the rock outside the ship. She was late for her turn on watch. Michael would be bored and grumpy. She rushed through the antechamber and past the birthing pods to the Granolyth chamber.

"Michael, hey, sorry. I was running a little...Michael?" Isabel swiped her long blonde hair back away from her face as she peered at her friend. He seemed lost in thought, a sad look on his face. "You okay, Michael?"

He blinked. "Yeah. Yeah, I...tired I guess. Plus Maria's going to be mad I'm late." He shrugged off the look and patted her on the shoulder.

"Anything weird happen?" She asked, studying him.

"No." He looked down and then into her brown eyes. "See ya."

The End.

Questions, comments, feedback to Karen

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