Morty's POV
He looked down at the sheet of paper and grinned once again, looks like all that hard work paid off. Summer rolled her eyes, but he didn't pay her any mind as he rushed inside and found him.
"Uncle Ryder," The man was seated on the armchair with one of those knife sharpen rock thingies, normally his dad would sit there and put up a weak fight for the chair, yet with uncle Ryder, his dad almost seemed scared.
Not that he blamed his dad this time round, the knife in his uncle Ryder's hand was a massive thing, the size of his own forearm, it looked like a clunky piece of rock, yet it had jaggard grooves that were highlighted with some red. The possible blood-stained knife could scare off most rational people, and his dad so it seemed.
"Sup kiddo." Uncle Ryder looked up from his blade and gave him his full attention, "How did school go?" He asked as his eyes went to the paper in his hand.
"Great! I passed the test." I thrust the paper to uncle Ryder which he happily took.
"Morty that's great, son." Dad said suddenly as he tried to reach for the paper, though he quickly pulled back his hand when his uncle glanced at the incoming hand.
"Thats wonderful sweetie." Mom said as she brought him into a hug from behind.
Uncle Ryder didn't say anything as he read through the paper, and a sense of panic hit him, he may have passed but only just.
His uncle was probably annoyed that he wasted his time helping him understand the math problems that were stumping him.
Of course, he wasted his time.
Uncle Ryder was the coolest.
He demanded everyone's attention just by being himself, taller than most, great shape, tanned olive skin, and happy amber eyes, that drew attention away from the long scar that started from the bridge of his nose, across his eyelid, to the side of his head.
Plus, he was fearless, he's the only person who kept up with grandpa Rick.
And Morty wasted his time, he wasted…
A fist appeared in front of his face and as he looked at the owner of said fist, the man was grinning brightly.
With a flushed face, he bumped fists with uncle Ryder, "Nice effort, kid. Keep this up and you'll be teaching me a thing or two."
Uncle Ryder passed the test paper to his mom and then he looked over his shoulder, looking at where his uncle was staring at, he spotted his grandpa Rick, standing there with a twitching uni-brow and an annoyed expression.
Why does it feel like he's now in the middle of something?
"Kiddo looks like Snuffles is about to piss himself. Take him for a walk." Uncle Ryder told him but he still was looking at grandpa Rick with a smug look.
Yeah, he for sure is in the middle of something between his uncle and grandpa.
Why else would his grandpa sneak into his uncle's shed turned home with a dart gun and a small device?
This was the second time he's been in his uncle's home, the first time the place was empty, as he just moved in and extended the place with what he called 'bull shit timey whimey tech.' Morty had no clue what his uncle was talking about, so he did what he usually did when either his uncle or grandpa talked about stuff he didn't have any hope of understanding, he nodded and said cool a lot.
This time the home was decorated, a lot of bright colors for someone who dressed in a lot of grey, black and whites.
Yet what was expected was the various weapons that littered the place. Some of the more fancier and alien-looking ones were mounted on the walls.
As they entered the bedroom his uncle stirred, and grandpa quickly shot him with a dart.
"Grandpa Rick!" He shouted which caused his grandpa to cover his mouth with angry look on his face.
"Shut up Morty." He hissed, "I shot Ryder with enough tranquilliser to kill a elephant. Yet your uncle's system will burn it off in a few hours. It's ridiculous if you ask me, Ryder could-could drink everyone under the table, take the hardest of drugs, and be perfectly fine a day later. Yet all he does is fuck around and now question everything I do." Rick continued to rant as he placed one of the small devices in uncle Ryder's ear.
"What-what do you mean grandpa Rick?"
Grandpa huffed, "We were going to use this device to enter you teacher's dream and tell him to give you an A. Thus, getting your teachers and your parents off your back about your grades. But of course, Ryder was against the perfect plan, and just said he'd help you pass." He whispered.
"But I did pass."
"And you'll have to keep passing Morty, you'll have to keep trying. This is easier, this is the smarter way to do it."
"Then why are we here and not at Mr Goldenfold's house?"
"Because Ryder keeps being a stick in the mud." Grandpa hissed, "We're changing that tonight."
"Aww geez, I don't know Rick, this is uncle Ryder we're talking about." I rubbed the back of my neck. Changing Mr Goldenfolds mind with whatever this was seemed bad enough, but to do it to uncle Ryder seemed real bad.
"Good point Morty," Grandpa Rick said as he stood up straight and rolled the other device in his hands, "But can I just point out-" He quickly reached forward and placed the device in my ear, and without any control of my body I slumped onto the bed beside me.
"Dammit grandpaaaa…"
Morty felt the hot sand beneath him, the sun was beaming down brighter and larger than on a normal summers day. There weren't people around them, the sun loungers were empty, and the general atmosphere was peaceful, nothing like a normal day at the beach.
"Where-where-where are we? Where's uncle Ryder?" I questioned as both Rick and I were laying on the ground.
"Of course, we're here." Grandpa Rick grumbled as he stood up.
He walked towards the edge of the beach of as I look over at the sea, I realised that the ocean wasn't there, it was instead, clouds? "Grandpa where's the ocean? Oh, right this is a dream, so it's a make-believe place."
"Wrong Morty as usual." Rick rolled his eyes, "This is a place you uncle got shafted into once. He killed a bunch of people. Practically an armies worth."
"What? Why would he do that?" That sounds like something Rick would do, not Ryder… right?
"They were a bunch of fucking racist assholes, and your uncle is ethnically ambiguous."
"What is uncle Ryder?" I questioned not quite sure.
"A literal fucking alien, Morty, who gives a shit?"
Whatever else I was going to say was stopped as I heard the sound of music being played. We walked towards a stone floor area, where a set of familiar-looking people lingered.
Mom, me and Summer were grouped together happily talking. The copy of grandpa Rick had an arm around a figure of a woman with blonde hair and even with her face was blurred, the real Rick only focused on her.
And in the centre of the area was a young uncle Ryder, maybe around Summer's age, and another unfamiliar woman he stood a foot taller than, swaying to the music. Wow… she was beautiful.
Long black glossy hair that was tied in a ponytail, pale skin and bright blue eyes. Her clothes, a white shirt tucked into a long blue skirt.
A hand slapped the back of my head, and I glared up at grandpa Rick.
"What the hell Rick?"
"Don't be a pervert Morty. Especially not to her."
"Who is she?" Because again, wow!
"Probably the only person Ryder has ever loved." He said and tried to leave it at that.
But I wasn't willing to let it go, Uncle Ryder was awesome but like Rick he refused to talk about anything about himself, and everyone in the family except for maybe dad wanted to know about them more, "So why haven't we met her before, why hasn't she been mentioned?"
"Mentioned? What is this, a fucking TV show, we don't need to expel exposition needlessly." Rick said with a huff.
"Because Ryder did what he does best. Fuck up, run away and let her die." Real Rick didn't say that, Dream Rick did as he was the only one of the dream people to look directly at us.
"Fuck you." Real Rick snarled at Dream Rick, "You copy'n'paste cunt, you don't know shit."
Dream Rick scoffed, "I'm you, you dumber fuck. I'm the representation of you" The Dream pointed at Real Rick, and every time he said 'you' he'd jab his finger forward.
"Then you're not me. All you are, is a personification of daddy issues! A warped version and nothing more."
"By the person who knows you the best." Dream Rick continued on, however Dream Ryder stopped swaying to the now lowering music, drawing my attention.
"Um, Rick." I called out to my Rick as he hadn't noticed.
"Daddy issues that suddenly appeared, or are they justified!?" Dream Rick stated drawing my Ricks attention, "You turned a boy into a stone cold killer."
"I taught my son to be the biggest, baddest thing-" A thunder crack and a downpour of rain suddenly soaked us.
The rain flattened Dream Ryder's hair and covered his eyes, but we could tell he was staring at us with his now still form.
"...Rick…" The slow walk towards us was something straight out of a horror movie and honest to God it was effective in scaring the hell out of me.
"Fuck."
Real Rick suddenly turned around and knocked out Dream Rick, before quickly shoving the dream device into all our ears.
"What are you doing, Rick!?"
"Dream Ryder will destroy us without my tech, but if we go into this asshole's dreams everything will seem to go a hundred times slower. It'd give me time to think of a way out of this."
Once again, I felt myself fall asleep as Rick activated the device.
Paris. That tower of theirs, people talking in what he was safe in assuming was garbled French-sounding words, and there was even a boy walking around with a baguette, and a girl with a poodle dog. This was probably very offensive to the French people and he was surprised this came from his uncle and not grandpa.
That's where they ended up.
Overlooking a nice sunny day in Paris, watching the form of his uncle and the supposed only person he's ever loved, as they sat at an outdoor cafe.
The both of them looked like hell.
Uncle Ryder's youthful face was sporting a black eye, his clothes were torn and covered in dried blood.
She seemed tired and was covered in dirt, yet the lady was still a sight, dressed in a corset that drew the eye to a certain area though he didn't dare to stare longer than necessary as he felt Rick's eyes on him.
"Uh Rick, why Ryder's dream version of you be dreaming of Ryder and the lady in Paris?"
Rick rolled his eyes, "This is deeper into Ryder's subconscious." He answered as if that explained everything.
"So what? This is something he wants to keep repressed?"
Rick looked bored as he leaned back against a lamp-post and watched the two from not a far distance, "Hey look at that, you learning Morty." He even sounded bored.
"Go to hell Rick! This is all so stupid and went off the rails fast, and you're acting as if this is part of the plan. As if you had a plan, and you're not even listening to me, are you?"
"Because this is a memory, not a dream. And of course, I'm listening, even if its vapid and pointless drivel you're spewing. Now shut up."
"So what, you're just giving up?" The woman sneered at uncle Ryder.
He shook his head with a soft sigh escaping him, "We're here Elizabeth. Fucking Paris. He isn't here in this reality. Comstock can't bother you."
"How many others?" She hummed harshly, "You told me there were endless realities, how many Comstock's? How many men and women exactly like him? You taught me how to take." She let out a breath and knocked on the table in between them, "You taught me not to take kicks without returning them."
Uncle Ryder leaned against the table, he ran both his hands though his hair as he groaned, "I turned you into me."
"Ryder." She stood up, "Are you with me or not?"
"Not on this path." Uncle Ryder stood up and tried to reach for her, but the woman, backed away, "Elizabeth I-"
A familiar portal opened, and a less older-looking Rick walked out, his eyes narrowed onto Ryder, and in the brief moment that uncle Ryder's attention was away from the woman, she made a portal of her own, so much different than Rick's yet I knew it was one even before she stepped into it.
"Elizabeth? Fuckin' damn it." Uncle Ryder sat down as he buried his face into his hands.
"History repeats, eh?" Dream Rick said he walked away from Ryder and once again turned to us, "Turning someone you love, into a killer without a hint of remorse. Oh no wait, love… The fuck do you know about that?"
"Really?" Real Rick said, his boredom still at full force, "Subpar emotional manipulation, that's what you're leaning to, to get me angry?"
Dream Rick let out a chuckle, "No, clearly not. But that's what Ryder thinks. Except for blondie at the beach, he sure enough thinks you don't give a shit about anyone else, certainly not Ry-" Rick, Real Rick that is, punched him out yet again.
"What are you doing?" I took a glance back at Dream Ryder only to see him still looking away from us, he wasn't gunning for us like the other Ryder, so I don't understand why Rick was placing another dream device into the other Rick's ear.
"Shut up and keep quiet." He said without any real heat as he activated the device, as I fell asleep I was confused for a moment because his face was odd… he looked upset?
Where we were I couldn't say, there was a massive glass window outlooking water, as if we were underwater, yet the place still seemed to be working perfectly fine, under the sea.
It was dark and miserable somehow.
Uncle Ryder was standing over a girl who was sobbing, but he wasn't paying her any attention as he looked down at a body.
It was her.
Elizabeth.
Dead.
"Ryder… Son…" Dream Rick said as he stood behind Ryder, a sad look on his face as he tried to reach out to uncle Ryder.
"Shut the fuck up, Rick." Was all he said as he kneeled down to her dead body, he didn't cup her face, he didn't gently caress her lovingly, he didn't utter a kind word to her or the girl, he just picked up a strange device from her body and spoke, spoke with such anger and hatred.
This wasn't uncle Ryder, and the soft-sap wasn't Rick, not the ones he's been getting to know these last couple of months.
Real Rick once again laid out his dream counterpart this time without allowing that version of him to talk or even acknowledge them, and before Rick could place the device in my ear once again, I grabbed it from his hands, stopping him.
"No Rick, I want to watch this."
"Trust me Morty, you don't," I still refused to let him activate the dream device.
"Pick up a gun and blow your brains out." Uncle Ryder spoke into the device in his hand, he spoke blandly.
A beat later, "Excuse me? Now whose this boyo?" An Irish voice spoke from the device.
"Doesn't matter who I am, Fontaine. Doesn't even matter who you are," Uncle Ryder shrugged his shoulders, "you're dead."
The accent was dropped, as the voice sounded amused and angry, "Am I now?"
"I could ask for a favour, and teleport near you, and then get to work. Tear off your fingernails, take pliers to your teeth, flay your skin feet up, cutting off your dick and force-feed it to you raw. The usual shit. You'll beg for death, curse out the whore who birthed you. And I will do all of that, I promise you this. But not yet. First, I'm going to tear this place apart. You'll listen as I do. And as I creep closer, your gun will get heavier and heavier… So, would you kindly do yourself a favour, and blow your brains out."
"Jesus!"
Rick grabbed the dream device from my hand and placed it in my ear activating it.
"What the fuck was that!?"
I didn't pay attention to wherever else we ended up, I wanted answers and Rick was the only other person who could give them.
"What the fuck do you want me to add Morty?" Rick snapped, "Ryder found his Elizabeth dead, murdered. And it did to him what it did…" Rick trailed off and let out a sigh as he rubbed his eyes, "What you just saw was one of the worst days of his life. Something he keeps repressed. For obvious reasons Morty. If you want to dredge up the past and ask him about her by all means, go ahead. But all you're going to do is hurt him."
Elizabeth and that portal. That little girl near the end. Fontaine. What the hell happened, and did I really want to know?
"... If that was his worst day, what is he repressing here?"
Grandpa Rick's face scrunched up as he looked around, "This looks like…" A pretty standard room, for Rick and Ryder at least, the place was small with a sofa and plenty of weird alien tech laying all over the place.
Dream Ryder and Rick were younger than we've seen so far. Ryder was a child. He had a blanket draped over his legs as he rested on a sofa, "Urgh, I feel like crap. Is there seriously nothing you can do about it?"
Dream Rick scoffed, "It's a fever kid. I figured you'd want to weather the storm as it were."
Ryder eyed Rick with an odd look on his face, "What's with the bowl then?"
"Noodle soup." Dream Rick walked over and lowered the bowl, "Sit up and eat it while its hot."
"The fuck?"
"Shut up and eat your soup." Dream Rick said as he swatted Dream Ryder's legs so that they were hanging down, before sitting on the cleared space.
"Huh? Don't you have something to make, or someone to kill, or someone to fuck?"
Dream Rick rolled his eyes and picked up a remote and pointed it at a TV, "Your mouth is flapping and yet you're not eating your soup."
Ryder let out a soft chuckle, "Whatever. Thanks… dad."
That was it. That was it?
"I don't get it, why would uncle Ryder keep this memory suppressed?"
Real Rick just stared at the young sick Ryder, not paying any attention to anything else.
Dream Ryder, turned away from his soup and stared at us, the dream version of Rick continued to watch whatever alien TV show was on.
"So, is this a walk down memory lane type situation, or are you hoping to do some rewiring of this place?" He tapped his head with his knuckles.
Rick shrugged, "Little bit of both."
"Rick! Why would you say that to him?" I tried to keep my voice low but it obvious the dream version of Ryder heard us. And it seemed kinda of obvious he's the last person we should be talking to about this.
"Relax Morty, this is deep, deep into Ryder's subconscious." Rick then pointed a thumb to the child Ryder, "Plus he's a memory slash dream of Ryder as a kid when he was also sick with a fever."
"So what? Does that mean you could manipulate him easily? Is that why he's repressed it."
"Nope, that's not why I'm here." The dream version uncle Ryder said with an easy grin aimed at Real Rick as he stood up.
"Then why-"
"Time to start livin' the crazy life, again kiddo," Rick said interrupting me as he reached out for Ryder to shake his hand.
"Viva la vida loca." Ryder replied, with a grin as Rick fiddled with the dream device, but instead of falling asleep I felt my mind move, sort of like when you feel your body jerk when someone slams on the brakes of a car.
When we were out of uncle Ryder's dream, Rick quickly shot him with another dart, I don't know if it was necessary but he didn't want to risk Ryder finding the dream device in his ear and instantly piecing together what happened.
His own worrying about drugging uncle Ryder was proven to be pointless as the man walked with a relaxed smile and a glass of water.
"Is that all you're having Ryder?" Mom asked with an arched eyebrow and a confused look on her face as her brother joined us for breakfast.
"Yeah, I'm about to spoil my appetite." He said with a happy grin, as he hummed to himself while reaching for a saltshaker, "Anything on the agenda today, Rick?"
"You know it Ryder. Hitting up the Zion trail, need to deal with the Crystalist war." He shrugged his shoulders, "They have shit I need."
"Want, don't you mean?" Uncle Ryder joked with a chuckle.
"Same difference." Rick grinned back as he forked some eggs.
"It's gonna be a hectic day." Rick hummed in response so uncle Ryder continued, "Viva la vida loca."
"We're livin' the crazy life," Rick replied and I felt my blood drain, all the while grandpa stared blankly forward as he continued to shove more eggs in his mouth.
Uncle Ryder all of a sudden unscrewed the saltshaker and poured the entire thing into his glass of water. He then quickly drank without an explanation after he stirred the water.
Rick sighed as he pushed back on his chair, allowing it to scrape against the ground.
"Three to the face, five to the chest and or stomach, or one to the nads." Rick listed as he stared forward.
A blue light appeared in Uncle Ryder's left hand, and an arc of electricity ran around his clenched fist.
"What the hell! Do you have magic powers uncle Ryder?"
He didn't answer Summer straight away, no instead, in a blindingly quick movement, he swung back and low, punched Rick in the balls.
Rick went flying back into the kitchen alongside his chair, the sound of his body destroying the door to the garage followed, his pained moans echoed out to us.
Mom rushed to grandpa Rick's aid, as dad was trying his hardest not to smile.
"Nah it's not magic, Sum-Sum. I got a few abilities from something called Vigors, they're powered by the salt and sugar the person consumes, among other things."
"Dope."
Uncle Ryder nodded as he agreed, "It is dope."
I should probably make a reminder that if anything is going on between uncle Ryder and grandpa Rick, I should stay the hell out of it.
The groans of agony coming from the garage would stay with me for a long time.
A/N - Published - 28/12/2023
Yo, thanks all for the support shown thus far.
I've been enjoying writing this one so far though wasn't sure how this one would be received. Wanted to delve a bit into Ryder and a bit of his past without delving too much into other OC's this early, hence why it became entangled with Bioshock and Elizabeth, though that decision was made purely because of the wackness of the tears and Ryder's relationship with portals because of Rick.
Morty's view of his uncle is based on what little he actually knows about him at the moment, will he still respect and have a slight hero worship to him later on, I'm not even sure yet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
