"You're my WHAT?" Summer stared at Rick with mouth agape. "I-I don't understand what you-"
Suddenly, a very loud groan interrupted Summer's train of thought. There, at her feet, the pig-faced man was beginning to stir.
"SHIT-he's waking up! Let's GO!" Without hesitation or warning, Rick snatched Summer's arm in a vice grip and opened a portal, shoving her inside and instantly following suite.
Summer tumbled to the floor of the garage of the Smith family home. She was shivering uncontrollably, unable to move.
"JESUS…" Rick stepped out of the vehicle and walked cautiously over to her. "Did that pig-faced asshole hurt you-?" He reached out towards Summer but Summer slapped his hand away. "If you're NOT my grandpa," she demanded back coldly, "who ARE you?"
"I just KICKED ASS for you, SUMMER," Rick snapped back, "I THINK I deserve a little THANKING for-"
"You've GOT to be KIDDING ME!" Summer jumped to her feet in a fury. "You want me to THANK YOU'? What the hell for!? For RUINING my LIFE!? And Why the fuck do you even CARE?" Summer stood glaring at the man who had just saved her from certain doom-a man who she couldn't stand the sight of, and if she had any choice, would be far away from in a heartbeat. "You're just as bad as HE is!" Summer bellowed at the top of her lungs, "You're BOTH sick fucking PERVERTS! Except you're WORSE-" her voice began to falter, "because you fucking HURT my MOTHER-"
"DAMMIT, SUMMER!" In his fury, Rick kicked the chair in one swift motion; it tumbled swiftly to the floor with a loud resounding clang, causing Summer to jump with shock. "I-it wasn't fucking ME who DID that, SUMMER! It was the OTHER ME! Don't you-don't you fucking get it!?"
"NO," Summer hollered back, "I DON'T! And you better explain it to me, RIGHT NOW," she warned, "or I'M gonna call the COPS-"
Rick towered over her dangerously, his voice was like ice. "Don't be a MORON, SUMMER," he hissed with a muted and barely suppressed rage. "You call the cops, and I get sent to jail, and they get social services involved, and you get thrown back into the stupid foster care system-"
"I'd RATHER be THERE than living with a LYING SICKO RAPIST!" Summer hissed.
"FUCK YOU-" Rick roared in her face, "-and I'm NOT a fucking RAPIST!"
"Oh, I'm SO convinced," Summer snorted, somehow managing to keep calm even though her mind was screaming in agony. "Yeah, you really sound like someone who's not totally fucking insane." Summer stood several feet away, hugging her book bag to her like a shield. "I read the goddamned diary, RICK," Summer hissed accusingly, "if, you know, that's even your REAL name-"
"Summer, listen to me RIGHT NOW and listen carefully." Rick was slowly stalking towards Summer, but with every step forward he took, Summer took a step away. "The universe is not as simple as you think," Rick declared, "It's a very COMPLEX organism full of intricate complex design-made up of MULTIPLE layers, each of which contain MULTIPLE TIMELINES-"
"In ENGLISH, please." Summer was not falling for any fancy secret code talk this time.
"JESUS I guess I have to spell everything out for you." Rick groaned loudly and turned to face her. "I'm NOT your original RICK."
"What?" Summer could only respond in disbelief.
"It's SIMPLE Summer if you actually LISTEN to what I have to SAY to you." Rick gave an aggravated and exaggerated roll of his eyes before continuing before he lost his nerve: "I AM your grandfather, Summer." Rick faced her calmly and directly. "Except-I'm not from this Earth."
"Hooooly fucking SHIT-" Summer sprang backward in shock. "You mean you're a fucking ALIEN!?" She started to run for the door. "OK, I'm calling the fucking COPS-"
To her horror Rick snatched her arm and held her in place with surprising strength she wouldn't have ever expected him capable of. "Let GO of me-" Summer tried to disengage, but his hold was too strong.
"LISTEN to me!" he hissed back, "I AM from EARTH! Except: I'm from a different dimension! A different dimension, with a different Earth-and a different Beth-and a different Jerry-only this Beth and this Jerry didn't have a daughter as they did in this dimension-but, they did have a son-who they named Morty-who looks exactly like your brother on this planet, because he IS your brother, only he's an alternate version carbon copy from an alternate dimension that's ALMOST the same as this one only DIFFERENT." Rick had to stop for a moment; he was out of breath. After pausing for a moment to catch his breath, he began again: "In MY dimension, your brother was almost sixteen-"
"-was…?" Summer echoed in complete and utter shock and confusion. Completely baffled she could only stare at Rick in near speechlessness. Different dimensions? She'd seen some sci-fi films, and she'd watched the X-Files, but she'd never suspected anything like this could ever possibly be true.
"Yeah…" Rick's voice was suddenly much quieter, and Summer felt a sudden sinking feeling in her chest as she noticed the unusually exhausted and solemn expression on his face. "...'was'..." Rick turned away from her and cleared his throat. He wasn't used to this type of communication, and he'd never told anyone about Morty. "He...uh…" Rick cleared his throat again. "He…." Rick held onto the desk to keep himself aloft; his legs suddenly felt extremely weak and tired. "Morty died-right before he turned sixteen. But..." Rick pinched the bridge of his nose; his head was suddenly aching and his mouth was dry. "It wasn't the same way as your Morty."
"You mean…" Summer was beginning to understand, but she wasn't sure if she believed it. "...you had a different Morty than...than my Morty?" She looked about the garage as if seeing it for the first time. "...and you're a different Rick than-than my mother's father Rick?"
"BING-GO." Now that he could breathe, Rick turned slowly back to face her. "So-now that we've sorted all that out," he added tight-lipped, "I'mma gonna go get fucking wasted-unless you have a better idea." Rick strode past her towards the exit, only for Summer to block his path. "Summer get the hell out of my way." Rick didn't have the energy for this.
"How am I supposed to believe ANY of this?" Summer demanded sharply. "You could be totally lying to me about ALL of it-"
"FINE!" Rick threw up his hands in defeat. "You wanna see the truth, Summer? FINE-I'll SHOW you the truth!"
Before Summer had a chance to protest, Rick retrieved his portal gun from his coat pocket. With one hand he took hold of Summer's arm in a vice grip; in the other, he pointed the portal gun at the wall and fired. A swirling green mass appeared before them.
"Let GO OF ME!" Summer tried to pull away but his grip was too strong. "Are you SERIOUS? I am NOT going through that-"
"You want your proof, don't you?" Rick sneered at her. "SO: I'm GIVING you proof!"
Before Summer could protest he swung her by the arm and shoved her abruptly through the portal, quickly following suit.
_
Suddenly, Summer found herself in what appeared to be a large metropolis. There were futuristic buildings to her left and to her right. Summer gazed above her mesmerized; people zipped through tubes at higher altitudes. High above her was a large dome-like structure, which had taken place of the sky. And all around her people were scurrying. They were all wearing white lab coats and their hair was a bright electric blue-
Summer gasped. These weren't just any regular people. These all looked EXACTLY like the man who claimed he was her grandfather!
"Oh my God…" Summer murmured, as Rick emerged through the portal. She turned to stare at him. "All these people look EXACTLY LIKE YOU!"
Rick groaned. "That's because they ARE exactly like me, Summer."
"What IS this place…?" Summer turned slowly around in shock and awe. "I've never seen anything LIKE this! Are-" she gulped. "-Are we in the FUTURE?"
"Thankfully no." Rick snorted back at her with a mixture of unapologetic disgust and sickened bemusement. "Welcome to the Citadel of Ricks, Summer," he announced dryly as Summer looked about in awe. "It's a place where all Ricks from across the multiverse converge-a place that exists completely out of space and time."
"Wow…" Summer breathed in shock. "...a whole society of..Grandpas…?"
"Heh." Rick snorted again. "They wish."
"I-I don't get it-" Summer turned around in a full circle. "How are there so MANY of you?"
Rick just rolled his eyes. "Guess it's interdimensional education class 101, huh? You see, Summer-there's as many Ricks as there are alternate dimensions and alternate timelines-you come from dimension D148-and I come from another one entirely. You dig?"
"So…" Summer's head was reeling. "...we're not really related?" She was getting confused all over again, and seeing so many different versions of him was making her head spin. "...is there a Citadel of Summers, too?"
"They wish," Rick retorted again with a snort. "No, Summers aren't...erm….smart enough to have a Citadel-"
"Hey FUCK YOU!" Summer snarled. "You don't even KNOW me! And if ALL Ricks are like you then YOU ALL SUCK!"
"Except we're not all RAPIST ASSHOLES, SUMMER!" Rick gripped his hair with both hands in complete frustration, nearly pulling out clumps in the process. "What the fuck do I have to do to-" He halted in mid-sentence: Summer wasn't there. "DAMMIT!" Rick looked all around, but all he saw were a swarm of Ricks running or walking to and fro. "DAMMIT SUMMER!" Rick swore and took off running. When would she ever learn!?
Of course, of all the times he'd forgotten to bring the fucking locator.
Summer had been prepared to read Rick the riot act when she'd seen something that gave her pause: a flurry of yellow in the middle of all that white and blue….it looked exactly like Morty's shirt….
She took off running in the same direction, eyes scanning wildly for that unmistakable yellow her brother had always loved. She halted in front of an alleyway when she saw the same exact yellow shirt-and the individual it belonged to, who was rummaging around in a garbage can.
Summer's heart began hammering wildly in her chest.. Could this actually be….? She approached the garbage can slowly and cautiously. She didn't want to frighten him.
Even as she took one soft careful step, the short person froze, and Summer's breath caught in her throat: he was exactly Morty's height, and he was wearing Morty's dark blue pants and his white shoes. Except he looked like he'd just been in a fight because he was covered with dirt and his hair was in complete disarray. His shirt was stained with what looked like blood, although it looked like the stain wasn't recent and had been there for more than a day. His arms had several bruises and he looked painfully thin.
"M-m-MORTY?" Summer croaked, and the boy froze at the sight of her. "I-is that really YOU?"
The boy didn't answer. He was staring at her, obviously in shock. His eyes were wider than she'd ever seen them. He didn't say a word.
Even though her legs suddenly felt like jelly, Summer stepped closer, reaching out towards him. "I-it-it's really YOU-" Before the boy could run, Summer threw her arms around him and began to sob. "Oh my GOD-! I can't believe I've FOUND you-!"
Surprisingly, the boy didn't move once he was embraced, but seemed to relax into it, and leaned against her shoulder, which only made Summer cry harder. She did something she'd never done back on Earth: she rocked him gently and lovingly stroked his hair.
She hugged him again, then pulled away to look at him. He was smiling shyly at her, but he still looked anxious, as though he were afraid that something bad would happen. His appearance was appalling and shocked her to her very core. "What HAPPENED to you, Morty?" Summer demanded, as gently as she could. "D-did somebody hurt you-?"
Suddenly, a bright green light emerged as if from nowhere, nearly blinding her in its brightness. Wincing, Summer shielded her eyes as a booming voice that sounded eerily like Rick's caused both her and the boy she held to jump and freeze in place with shock.
"HALT!" it said. "WHAT BUSINESS HAVE YOU IN THE CITADEL'S MEGAMATROPOLIS DISTRICT?"
His voice filled her with terror but still, Summer turned around, all the while still keeping her protective arms around Morty. There standing one foot away from them was Rick-or at least, he sounded like and looked a lot like Rick-his hair was a different style; it was slicked back instead of spiked, and he was waring tainted shades, and he also wore some strange kind of shiny iridescent looking metal pin above his right breast.
"Th-this is my brother." Summer's voice shook in spite of herself.
"He is NOT your Morty." The Rick look-alike began to walk steadily and slowly towards her. "He is MINE….Come, Mortimer….You know better than to communicate with OTHERS." He spoke the word 'Others' as though it were something horrible and maybe even evil; his voice made Summer cringe, and she only further tightened her hold around the boy's waist.
Morty however did not tighten his grip; instead, he had begun to loosen it, and Summer looked at him in shocked bewilderment. He was pulling away from her? Why was he listening to this stranger? "M-Morty?" Summer stammered, "D-don't you remember me?" His face blurred in her vision, but she remained still. "I-I'm your sister, Morty…" She reached towards him, but Morty, his expression neutral and devoid of emotion, was beginning to back away, closer to the Rick that almost stood towering right above her. "Morty-" Summer choked his name out, even as she could hear her voice faltering. "-I'm your sister S-S-Summer-"
"GET AWAY FROM HER!"
Another voice silenced Summer and caused the intruder as well as Morty to freeze. All three whirled around and Summer froze in shock at the sight of Rick, who was pointing what looked like a laser gun at the other look-alike Rick, preparing to fire.
"Are you HER Rick?" The other Rick's voice dripped with amusement.
"YES." Rick's voice darkened with a warning. "And if you lay one single hand on her you're DEAD."
"Tsk tsk tsk." The other Rick was shaking his head solemnly. "How very foolish of you to lead a Summer into the heart of the Citadel? You have made a BIG mistake my friend…" The other Rick had taken hold of both the boy as well as Summer's arm. "She is MY Summer now!"
By the time Rick fired the laser gun, it was too late. The other Rick had jumped through the portal, taking both Morty and Summer with him.