Disclaimer: I don't own the show. I doubt I even own myself.
Author's note: Not much to say. If you like it let me know? There two chapters total for the story. I'm writing the next.
Enjoy.
"I haven't even eaten anything today, Rick." Morty broke the silence between the two with a low whiny voice as he shuffled crouched-down, trailing behind his grandfather. His voice echoed in the dim and uncomfortably humid alien cave. He winced as another explosion in the war-zone shook the ground above their heads, and the clanging of cone shaped crystals threatened to fall on them.
Morty didn't realize he had stopped and was staring anxiously at the ceiling until Rick tugged at his arm roughly. "I don't give a shit, Morty." Rick grumbled and released him when he followed. "We're in a middle of a fucking war with the galactic federation. We're having more casualties with every second. BP and Squanchy can't keep the fuckers busy for long and are counting on our asses to stop the weapon ASAP. Everyone's expecting us to save that goddamn magic rock! And you're bitching cause you missed a fucking meal." He snapped.
"Jeez Rick!" Morty was taken back by his outburst. "I didn't mean to-"
"Shut it." Rick dismissed him with a hand gesture. "I think I found the entrance. Don't fuck this up." He hissed quietly.
Morty kept his mouth shut with narrowed eyes. Rick could have just told him to be quiet and take his bitchy aura as a sign not to screw with his temper.
But he had a feeling the old man was doing all this on purpose, just to piss himself off so he could yell at Morty. Though he didn't even need an excuse for that most of the time.
Sometimes it felt like he was really just viewed as his brain-shield and nothing more. Not a grandson, the son of his daughter. Not a friend, not even a companion he felt necessary to acknowledge. Maybe a punching back for his frustrated days at best.
He watched with a grudging glare as Rick fiddled with his lab coat, pulled out an anti-matter gun and reloaded it, cursing under his breath. He threw it at Morty suddenly, and he yelped as he barely caught it. Rick rolled his eyes and took a long swig of his flask, readying his own. "We're going in. I'm picking up signals from this way. It's probably the weapon."
"And c-could it be a trap?" Morty stuttered anxiously, fiddling with the gun in his hand.
"Unlikely." Rick snorted. "They don't even know that we know they have the thing."
"Do you even know anything about this weapon?" Morty furrowed his brows. His anxiety grew as he took in his grandfather's silence. "R-Rick!" He panicked, albeit in whispers. "How are you so sure you can stop it when you don't know what it is?"
He gave Morty a silencing glare. "Because I'm Rick fucking Sanchez, and these gromflomites are morons. Now take my advice and shut the fuck up. You're going to blow our cover." Then turned around and went into defensive stance, holding his gun in front of him. Morty grumbled about cheeseburgers and mimicked his posture, following him into a much bigger cave.
Morty scanned the place for enemies before dropping his guard and taking in the strange device in the center of the cave.
It certainly didn't look like a weapon, but outside the solar system, it usually didn't. It was covered in cube shaped crystals, in different sizes and a milky white in color. When Morty moved around to examine it, the strange material flashed black to his eyes. When he carefully touched one of the shaped crystals, the black wave shot a tingling sensation through his finger and he pulled back with a gasp.
"Dark energy." Rick burped and muttered distractedly, having heard him.
Morty turned his attention on him. "S-so? What is it?" He peaked curiously over Rick's hunched shoulders.
Rick was quiet as he continued studying the thing.
Morty sighed with a frown. "I promise I won't say it." I told you so, you selfish egoistic bastard!
He heard Rick growl. "You better not."
"So you haven't seen one like it?" Rick didn't respond. "Did you get anything figured out about it?" Morty made the mistake of snapping.
"If you're such a genius, why don't you fix it shit-brains?" Rick yelled as he towered threateningly above Morty. "J-just fuck off! Why do I even keep bringing you along?!"
Morty recoiled, hurt by the harsh words. He broke eye contact and stared at the ground. "I don't know.." He bit the inside of his cheek, praying for the tears not to fall. He felt like his pathetic self was being ripped off layer by layer as Rick kept his stern glare on him.
"60-second countdown, initiated." Said a cold robotic voice. Then, the countdown began, showing the numbers on a screen on the rather plain control panel.
"Ugh, just great." Rick groaned and turned around, forgetting about Morty completely and carefully analyzed the readied laser gun that was ready to shoot the dark swirl of energy giving off wild sparks. Morty saw his eyes widen. "It's a stabilized dark matter hexagon lattice."
"Um, the crystals?" Morty looked at him confusedly.
Rick nodded. "Indestructible."
"T-to protect the weapon?" A lightbulb went on in Morty's head.
"It's also the power source." Rick narrowed his eyes.
"Dark energy." Morty completed, knowing how dangerous the stuff could be once dense. "How d-do we defuse it?" he took a cautious step closer.
"This is the first time I've seen a laser weapon that uses this kind of fuel. My calculations about it are only concluded on paper." His fists clenched.
You have no idea what to do. We're dead. "I-it's okay, Rick." Morty kept his voice calm, though he wanted nothing but to shove Rick's head in his own ass, where it's been for years. "This means y-you know what to do, but there are just risks."
"You're just making this worse." Rick yelled, running an exasperated hand through his hair.
Morty bit his tongue as his eye twitched. "I'll shut up until we're finished with the mission." Morty forced a calm tone. "Then, I quit." He didn't notice Rick tense up and go silent. "You don't want me here, and I just get yelled at, though I try my best to be helpful. It shouldn't be a surprise that I'm not good enough, since you picked me out because I'm dumb."
"Whatever, you little shit." He gritted out through his teeth. "Good riddance. Now, I don't give a fuck if you stay or quit, but my plan's going to need you to follow some hands-on instructions after I'm done." He held up an impatient hand at Morty's opened mouth as he pointed at the timer, which showed 19 seconds. "We don't have time so shut up and listen. I can make the beam go through my own body and not even pass it to reach the sacred stone, and if my calculations are right, I can then direct the energy to the ground, basically acting like a lightning arrester. But there's a high chance I'll die." He shrugged and Morty cringed, eyeing him with worry. "Sooo, when that happens, take a tissue sample of my corpse and get it in the clone-compiler in the ship. Now take cover, dipshit."
Morty didn't say anything as he promised, instead ran to find shelter behind a boulder. He watched warily as Rick situated himself in a weird position, one foot on the ground and the other on the weapon. His hands angled his head with a deep concentration, and Morty broke away his gaze and sat on the ground, hugging his knees as the countdown reached 10 seconds.
He squeezed his eyes shut and gulped. It didn't matter how many times he'd seen Rick die and regenerate, it always made him nauseous.
"...4...3...2...1... Activating, weapon."
There was an explosion, there was blinding light and Morty's eyes only saw white as he opened them. He barely had time to panic about the ringing in his ears as he heard a mind-numbing scream of pure agony, sounding far away.
He collected his hazy thoughts as he stood on wobbly legs. His vision slightly cleared, and even though Rick's plan wasn't a complete success, Morty could see the damage was only limited to the cave, even the ground above was stable enough not to collapse on their heads.
They didn't have much luck with the stalactites, as they had fallen off the ceiling and the shattered pieces were pretty much covering the ground.
Morty rapidly blinked away the flash in his vision and started removing the minerals to find whatever was left of Rick.
His heart leaped with joy as he heard a groan of pain from under the rubbles he was standing on.
Ignoring how that would sound like out of context, he started digging the scientist out of the pile of rocks. Rick coughed weakly, opening his eyes with caution.
"Oh, god. You're alive!" Morty grinned as he cradled his shoulders with affection.
"Don't pretend like you care." Came unexpectedly out of the man's bitter mouth. Morty stared at him, puzzled as Rick continued to eye him with hurt and.. vulnerability?
Noticing he was almost shying away from Morty's grasp, Morty's eyes widened and he gaped. "W-what are you talking about, Rick?"
"I hate this." Rick sobbed-fucking sobbed in his arms, ignoring Morty's question. "This was the last time I'm letting you and myself in such a risky and dangerous mission. I mean, if I'm punishing myself ,why should I torture you? You've done nothing wrong! You have the right to hate me! And you're going to quit and leave me-" sniff "-and it'll be what I deserve! Because-" hic "-I'm a fucking moron!" He was loudly crying at this point.
Morty got over his shock with a shake of his head. "Rick, I don't hate you! Just calm down. You're not a moron, you're just an asshole." Morty cringed at his failed attempt to comfort his self-loathing grandfather. "I-I-I I mean- Jesus Christ! What's gotten into you?" Morty squinted at his face with a lost look and his heart skipped a beat when Rick opened his sad miserable eyes.
Grey irises
Morty dropped the man and jumped back on instinct, pulling out his loaded anti-matter gun. He pointed it at the Rick, who had an uncharacteristic look of terror in his eyes. "Name your dimension." Morty coldly recited his mantra, the way Rick showed him to do when he faced stranger Ricks.
"I knew you hated me!" The Rick moaned in misery. "Just shoot, kid. I deserve how much it'll hurt."
Morty was more and more confused as he babbled on about being lonely, worthless and pathetic. But kept his attitude. "What's your dimension tag? Talk!" Morty demanded, more urgently.
"A-11." The Rick sniffed and hugged his legs to his chest. "It'll hurt less if you just ignore me than to pretend not to know me at all." He said in a sad small voice.
Morty dropped his hand down, not sure to pin-point his current state to bewildered or disturbed. "What the actual fuck-"
His hand shot up again as he heard someone move behind him. He turned abruptly to see-
"Rick?" Morty felt dizzy, taking in the angry face of his grandfather.
Red irises.
"This is all your fault!" The second Rick grabbed him painfully by his shoulders and shook him violently, making him yelp in pain. "Threatening to quit wasn't going to get you shit. It was going to ruin my fucking concentration you bitch! If you weren't such a fucking pain in the ass, I would have figured it out sooner. I would have-" Rick continued to rant venomously about his solution, but Morty could only stare at him. Dumbstruck and dumb by nature, the rest of his speech got to Morty's brain in very conveying words of 'blah, blah, blah..'
He was suddenly pulled backwards by shoulders and into a tight embrace. Morty felt himself fill with dread.
They have me hostage. They found me-
"Don't yell at him, dipshit!" The voice above his head was familiar, but his sympathetic tone wasn't. "He's just a fucking kid! Imagine committing murder and defying morality when you were- oh, I don't know? 12?! He has a right to bitch about it. It's his fucking birthday for fuck's sake! If you're not going to acknowledge that, at least be nice!"
Morty looked up at the oddly kind Rick. "You remembered my birthday?" he was dumbfounded.
Pink irises. What the fuck?
His pink eyes were full of compassion and his smile was radiant and genuine as he looked down to Morty's face. "Sure I did, kiddo!" Morty gaped with wide eyes. Rick's face was suddenly annoyed as he mockingly rose his voice. "But Someone here thinks he's too good to be appreciative!" Morty followed his pointed gaze dumbly to see yet another Rick!
Green irises.
His aura was screaming confidence as he quirked the side of his unibrow. "Ugh, this again. We're not surrendering to the cuteness, people!" He growled dramatically.
Everyone ignored Morty's confused 'Wait, what?' as another purple-eyed Rick stepped out from behind Pink Rick. He looked dishevelled, bored and sexually frustrated.
Don't ask how Morty knew that.
"It's not just about saving face in front of this guy." He gestured at Morty with his thumb. "You also don't let me get laid. Re-remember last week when you kept bitching about Princess Mierda and how she was 'bad for your reputation'?" He made sarcastic air quotes. "Jesus fuck! Just fuck her already! She had four pairs of tits!" Morty thought this had to be a joke. Were hallucinations part of the aftermath of this explosion?
Morty finally detected a pair of blue eyes rise and dust off his lab coat.
"Rick!" He exclaimed as he untangled himself from the kind man's grasp and ran towards his own Rick.
He stopped midway as the man's hollow eyes stared at him.
A different shade of blue.
Morty's smile fell as the quiet Rick walked to the center of the rest of them, who were arguing with each other. "You're all a bunch of losers." The Rick's icy cold voice went ignored by everyone. "How can you be so pathetic? What, you're going to do this right fucking now? We have to get back to the war you fucking-"
Something clicked in Morty's brain as he watched the exchange unfold. Realization dawned on him.
"This is not your internal monologue!" Morty yelled with the loudest voice he could muster. His confidence flattered though, once all the six Ricks turned to look at him with various expressions, ranging from rage to understanding.
Morty gulped and took an uncertain step forward. "None of you are Rick A-11." He quickly continued as noises of protest rose. "You're all my Rick." He clarified with dread as he scanned the faces of Rick.
"That's fucking dumb, you piece of shit-"
"What are we going to do? I'm such an idiot-"
"That's pretty smart, Morty!-"
"Since when are you allowed to be right, you selfish disrespecting little-"
"I just wanted to fuck the princess-"
"EVERYBODY, SHUT UP!" The outburst of the poker-faced Rick silenced them, as well as making Morty jump. He took in the silence, and satisfied with the results, breathed deeply, facing the grumbling Ricks. "Get your shit together. Let's be rational. I don't give a single shit about your proud-asses. Get your damn heads out of it." He pointed at Morty without sparing him a glance. "He's right. Why do you think we're so fucking dysfunctional right now?" He then turned to look at Morty, but his stare wasn't as intense. "Since I'm ripped apart to these shitty pieces, an outsider would be capable of better judgement. Do you have a hypothesis?"
Morty gaped, his brain not fast enough to keep up as more confusion was added on to Morty's head. "Y-y-you're asking for my opinion?" He blinked unbelievably.
"More precisely, your perspective. I follow logic. And logically, you haven't been through head trauma, so you can process the situation more clearly."
At 'logic', Morty's eyes widened. "Your personality was divided into these six Ricks!"
Cold Rick- no, Logical Rick narrowed his eyes slightly. "It went through my limbic system." He muttered.
"Who's fucking fault is that so I can shoot their brains out?!" Red-eyed Rick, or Angry Rick growled, gritting his teeth.
"Hey, tag me along so I can fuck their brains out before you do that. Heh, got that?" The Rick with purple irises-probably Horny Rick- smirked suggestively as he nudged Anger in the ribs. He didn't seem to mind.
"That's really fucking low." Green eyed Rick, probably Egoistic, tsked with disgust. "Ugh, I can't believe I'm the same person as you dumbasses."
Morty stood next to Logic as he worriedly watched Rick's emotions argue and yell. The first Rick Morty talked to, the one with grey irises was crying while pink eyed Rick comforted him.
Misery and Compassion.
"Must be hard." Morty tried, wincing as Anger punched one of the others in the face.
"Do you know what logic has to say about this, Morty?" The cold calculating scientist scrunched up his nose in annoyance. Morty looked at him curiously. "Ricks must die."
Morty froze. "...A-all of them?"
"If it were up to me, yes." He sighed in response. "But unfortunately these retards have a say in this too." Morty followed his gaze back to what he could call the rest of Rick.
"I don't want you to die." Morty confessed. "But that probably isn't valid to you, since you follow logic and all."
"It's not." Was his plain answer.
"Morty?" Morty turned at the curious voice of Birdperson. He had an ugly rash on his wing, but other than that, looked fine. Squanchy and a few of their allies had also entered the cave.
"B-Birdperson?" Morty exhaled in relief. "It's over already? I'm so glad to see you're all okay!"
"Um, yeah. Save the pleasantries for later." Squanchy cringed, pointing at the chaos in front of him. "What the squanching squanch is this?!"
Morty turned to see Logic face-palming while the other five fought each other like animals.
Morty gave a nervous chuckle and fiddled with the gun in his hand. "Uh, you see- it's a reeally long story."
Yup.