AN: Again, please read chapter 3 of "The Lines between Ricks and Mortys" first.
The backstory of Shadow Morty.
Warnings: violence, gore, character death, angst, misunderstandings (it's not a happy backstory)
The Mortys and their Stories – Chapter 2: Shadow Morty
He was looking around, not knowing where he was. He wasn't even sure if he knew who he was.
Everything was such a blur – happened so long ago – the memories having almost faded completely…
"C'mon, Morty. Try harder!" he could hear a voice from not very far away.
Morty. He recognized that name. That was his name, wasn't it?
Yes, his name was Morty. He remembered.
"C'mon, Morty. It won't take long. We're just gonna be in and out. Half hour tops." The voice of an old man told him excitedly.
The man was dragging him to a weird vehicle, which looked like it was made out of trashcans and other garbage.
He got into the passenger seat and buckled up while the other sat down in the driver's seat and started the car.
With an abnormal familiarity, Morty watched through the windshield how they ascended into the sky and soon left earth's atmosphere to travel through the vastness of space…
Morty was drawn out of his memory as he heard a voice that sounded like it belonged to him. Yet, he wasn't the one that was talking.
It came from over where he had heard the voice of the man before.
"No. Can't we just stop? I don't want to do this anymore, Rick."
Rick… that name was also familiar…
Yes, it was that man's name. The man from his memory. His grandfather.
Yet, while nothing inside that memory gave him a bad association with that man, the name caused feelings of anger, of hatred and… of betrayal.
Unbeknownst to the specter, his white eyes had changed their color to a bright, dangerous red.
They ran.
Something had gone wrong. Red lights were blinking and a siren sounded – an alarm.
And they both ran. Rick and he.
They were followed by creatures – aliens – that were armed and shooting at them.
He wasn't exactly sure what happened then, but he heard Rick murmuring a curse and then he was shoved to the side, landing in some sort of alcove.
"Stay there!" was all that his grandfather had said.
Then Rick changed directions and ran another way and he could only look after his grandfather's retreating back as he left him behind.
He had abandoned him… he had abandoned him so he could safe his own skin!
Ricks were selfish bastards who thought that Mortys were replaceable and only cared about themselves!
An inhuman screech erupted from Shadow Morty and he charged at the image of his grandfather.
"What the fuck?! No nO NO! WAIT!" the Rick yelled in surprise.
Nothing he said stopped the specter though.
The Rick's Morty only screamed in horror as he watched his grandfather being lifted up in the air by shadowy limbs that looked like tendrils and then was ripped apart.
Shadow Morty crushed the body of the scientist till it was nothing more than an unrecognizable, bloody lump of flesh.
His eyes returned to their glowing white and as he looked over to his mirror image, he saw that the boy had fainted.
The specter didn't pay him any mind. He had to do something. Look for something.
Right. He was looking for something, but what was it again?
He kept looking at the unconscious Morty who laid still and unmoving on the ground, hovering over him.
Of course, he didn't want to be left behind.
Did Rick think that he could just leave Morty here possibly as a distraction for those aliens who had been chasing them?
He would have none of that.
Morty scrambled to get to his feet and tried to dash after Rick. However, he didn't get very far.
It was probably very stupid of him to not check first because he ran practically in the hands of the aliens.
He was shot – first in the shoulder then in his legs – and he stumbled to the ground.
The aliens didn't seem to be ones for taking prisoners because instead of arresting him, they just continued to shoot as he laid on the ground and they stood over him.
He had died, hadn't he? There was no way that he could have survived that…
Shadow Morty looked down on himself. He was nothing more than a floating shade.
He had no physical form just swirling shadows that somewhat resembled the form that he used to have when he was still a living, breathing human being.
"M-my body…"
Where was it? Where was his body?
Maybe if he found it something could still be done. He didn't know what though.
Was he hoping that he could just go back into his body and be alive again?
Or, did he think that he would be able to pass over to the afterlife or whatever was supposed to be there after you died?
He didn't know. Wasn't sure what to expect. But he wanted to find his body – needed to find it!
So, he hovered away again, leaving the mangled corpse of a Rick and his fainted Morty behind as if they meant nothing. As if nothing of what had happened back then mattered.
Because it simply didn't matter.
And still it wasn't just his body that he was looking for.
Whether he was aware of it or not, he was also seeking out Rick – his Rick.
Not necessarily to rip him into pieces like he had done with the other Rick, but to ask him.
'Why? Why did you abandon me?'
Of course, Morty couldn't know. Didn't know that his grandfather hadn't abandoned him.
Not back then and also not now.
Somewhere far off was a Rick. A dead Rick.
His ghost was sitting in a corner, clutching at a photograph of his grandson.
"Don't give up, Morty… I know that you can make it… at least you must survive… be better than me, Morty…" he mumbled over and over again.
He was aware of the fact that he was dead. But he didn't care about that.
His thoughts were all with his Morty of whom he hoped that he had made it out alive.
He wasn't aware of how much time had passed since then. Not aware that his grandson hadn't made it that day.
Rick had been running together with Morty from the Alferians.
They were pretty pissed off because they had just tried to steal a compound that Rick had needed as a source of energy for a new weapon that he wanted to make.
Of course, something had to go wrong and his grandson had successfully triggered the alarm with one clumsy move of his.
So, they were trying to escape from the building, the armed aliens right on their heels and shooting at them.
Rick wasn't stupid. He knew that the Alferians would shoot to kill. If they would get to them, they wouldn't hesitate to kill them on the spot.
They just needed to get to the ship before that happened.
Rick saw that a shutter opened at the side and knew that more Alferian soldiers were just waiting to charge at them and they wouldn't be able to get passed them even though this way was the direct escape route.
Cursing under his breath, he realized now that there was probably no way for both of them to escape – not alive.
So, he made the only choice that felt right to him at this moment.
He grabbed Morty's arm and shoved him into a small alcove on the side. If the Alferians would follow him, they would probably not see the boy as long as he stayed put and then after they were gone, he could flee.
So, he ordered Morty to stay there, hoping he would understand the plan without him having the time to explain it to him as he dashed back and around another corner, trying to lure all their enemies at once after him. He had to keep it up long enough till his grandson could make it to the ship and out of here.
Trying to grasp at all the straws that he had, he fumbled for his portal gun and hoped that he somehow would be able to put a far enough distance between himself and his followers so that he could open a portal and escape to safety. And then maybe even back to the ship if Morty hadn't started it up yet. However, at the rate this was going he saw no chance when to use it.
The plasma bullets that were shot from the Alferian riffles rained through the air and several kept grazing his arms and shoulders, but Rick wasn't willing to give up.
Only after one shot pierced through his chest did he start to stumble.
It slowed him down and so more shots were able to hit their target.
More and more bullet holes appeared, the blood staining his white lab coat, blue sweater and brown slacks.
Rick still tried to push himself, but he already knew that he was done for.
The only thing that he could still do was to try to buy as much time for Morty as he possibly could.
One of the stray bullets eventually hit his portal gun, destroying the green bulb on top of it.
With that his last hope, his only chance of escape had been shattered and his fate was sealed.
Finally, he collapsed on the ground and the Alferians went in for the kill, surrounding and shooting mercilessly at the unmoving human.
Then green portals opened all of sudden around the squad of Alferian soldiers and in a mess of blasts, the aliens were all shot down.
Rick Guards had emerged from those portals and began to check the Rick's corpse.
"Confiscate his broken portal gun." One who seemed to be of a higher rank ordered.
After the Citadel detected an anomaly in space-time thanks to the destroyed portal gun, his unit had been immediately dispatched to take care of the problem.
As he looked around the area, he quickly noticed that something was clearly amiss.
Addressing a small squad of four guards, he ordered. "You go and look for his Morty. He must be somewhere around here still."
While the Rick Guards dutifully swarmed out to look for the boy, the rest of the soldiers started to drag the Rick's body through a portal to later dispose of him.
It was the purpose of the Citadel of Ricks to ensure the safety of all Ricks throughout the multiverse and as such, it was also their task to make sure that no information about Rick-related technology would ever spread to third authorities especially not to the Galactic Federation.
That was the reason why they had to clean up this scene thoroughly.
Also, they would pick up the Mortys of dead Ricks so that they could put them into the reassignment program so other Ricks who had lost their Morty could get a new one.
"What a mess…" commented the Rick Guards that had finally found the Morty that they were supposed to be looking for.
They stood around the bloodied corpse looking with little to no affection down on it.
Who knew how many dead Mortys they had already seen throughout the time that they served in the Citadel's Military.
Since they knew that they weren't supposed to leave any evidence behind, they opened a portal and also dragged the Morty's body through it to later dispose of it.
He would not receive a proper burial as he would have deserved, but more likely just a quick trip to the incinerator before they would throw his ashes into the dimension where the Citadel dumped all its trash.
The guards couldn't know that someone was still looking for it…
At first when he came to, Morty didn't know where he was.
He couldn't even retell for a moment who he was or what he had just done a moment ago.
A loud yelp escaped him as he looked down and saw the bloody body of a boy.
'That's me.' He realized after a few seconds of staring in shock.
It was only then that he noticed that he was floating above his own corpse.
He took in the sight of his translucent body – a form that was not really physical, but looked exactly as he did when he was still alive, albeit completely see-through now and lacking his feet and legs. Not that he needed those seeing as he was just floating above the ground without the need to touch it in order to move around.
He then recalled what had happened.
The aliens got him and shot him. That was the last that had happened.
But what was before that? He had been running and then been shot, but why did he run? Why did he not see the aliens who were able to hit him then?
Right, he was running after someone.
"Rick!"
Ghostly Morty looked around in a panic, trying to remember in which direction he had seen his grandfather run off.
Even if he was dead now, he still needed to find him.
Maybe he wouldn't be able to fix him – Rick had said before that he can't cure death – but at least he wanted an answer from him.
He wanted to know how he could just abandon him like that.
And he wanted Rick to know what had happened to him. Wanting to weigh down on that little bit of conscience that must be somewhere inside the old man with the fact that Morty was dead now because of him. Because of his actions.
And so Morty floated off, trying to look for Rick.
Unfortunately, he wasn't able to find him – not in time anyways.
Eventually, he gave up and decided to just suck it up and return to his body to pass on or whatever.
What did it matter that he'll let Rick know what had happened to him?
The scientist probably wouldn't even bat an eyelash. He could just imagine that uncaring face before he would be off to the Citadel and just get himself a new – a living – Morty.
Even though it kind of hurt to think about it – though he couldn't pinpoint where exactly it hurt since he didn't have a physical body that could feel pain anymore – he knew that it was the truth.
That was just how Ricks were in the end and why should he think that his Rick was any different from that.
He managed to find the hallway that he passed after he left his body behind, but when he came to the spot—
"It's gone!"
His body was gone. There was only a large puddle of dried blood, the only proof that he was indeed at the right place and didn't just confuse locations.
But how could that be? His dead body couldn't have just stood up and walked away.
Someone must have taken it!
Frantically he looked around, but couldn't find any trace of who had taken his corpse away or where it was taken to.
He had been wandering around the place, killing all the aliens that he had encountered on his way in hopes of them getting frightened enough of him to return his missing body, but he had no such luck.
He kept wandering through the building, all over the planet, through the universe, even moved between dimensions somehow.
And the more he wandered aimless through space and time, the more he started to loose of himself.
He started to lose his memories – slowly, one by one without him even noticing – and his ghostly appearance started to fade away to a mass of shadows.
Shadows that had been fueled by his disappointment in his Rick, the anger he felt from having been abandoned and left to die alone, the hopelessness of not being able to find what he was looking for.
In the end, he was merely a shadow of his former self, wandering forever lost through the dimensions until he would find something that did not exist anymore.