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“Beth?” you knocked on the door of the garage a few times “Beth? Are you ok? I heard sci-fi noises…” silence, there was no response of her and it made you uneasy considering it was really early in the morning and you ran downstairs to see what was going on, you tried the handle, unlocked, so you kept turning it “I’m going in” you said before actually doing it and there she was, right before your eyes, your twin sister Beth Sanchez sitting in the middle of the garage floor staring at the other side of the room only illuminated by a goo-ish green dim light, the source of it was something out of reality, it was a portal just hovering on the nothingness of the air, your felt time froze “You made a breakthrough…” you whispered completely perplexed at the scene, she hadn’t even turned to see you yet, she was just staring at the enormous green gap between universes just as dozed as you, you had to admit it was really hypnotic, the way it fluctuated, the light it emanated and that buzzing sound that echoed in the room, it just was all so surreal.

“[Y/N] I did it…” Beth finally spoke, her voice trembling and then she turned to look at you, tears rolling down her cheeks with an enormous yet wry smile “We can finally go find dad…” your heart dropped.

Dad, your father, Rick Sanchez, damn you barely remember how the man looked, blue spiky hair, his almost cartoonish unibrow from the same shade, dark blue pants and light blue shirt, he had disappeared so long ago, when both of you were still kids, you had understood and actually just given up the hope of him coming back, after all this time you had come to the realization and acceptance of him leaving the house, why? You would never know but you moved on, wish you could say the same thing for Beth, your sister had just bottled herself up in denial convinced that he was uncapable of just leaving his family adrift, she knew him more than anyone after all, she was the one to spend hours in this very same garage you were now standing in with him, crafting and experimenting, she was the closest to him and she never gave up on the possibility of seeing him again.

“Beth… dad is gone… he won’t…” you tried to speak as soft as possible giving her a pitying look while slowly walking towards her, you had endured this whole time but this was going too far now, she had become a hermit, didn’t even went to high school (not that she needed it anyway), and when your mother left you two (she said she would be seeing your grandmother but never came back, yet she constantly sent you both money for whatever was needed) it got even worse, she was completely obsessed with the idea of ‘finding’ him again, seeing him again but you knew there was no chance, or at least tried to convince yourself of that. She didn’t take well the persuasion though.

“OH SHUT UP [Y/N], YOU DON’T KNOW HIM THE WAY I DID, HE WOULD NEVER ABANDON US LIKE THAT, SOMETHING MUST HAVE HAPPENED TO HIM AND YOU KNOW IT HAS TO DO WITH HIS THEORY OF THE INFINITE UNIVERSES” she was the smart one of you two, she was the one who got to be a prodigy kid, you on the other hand had an average IQ level (and you were fine with it), you were the one who went to school, graduated and got a mediocre job that at least allowed you to support her in her research and development of this theory proposed by your dad. She was throwing fists and screaming at you at this point, she really hated how condescending you could get on the matter “If he had left by his own will, he wouldn’t have left something like this behind” she went near her working table and from a hidden compartment, that showed when she pushed a series of buttons hidden under it, she grabbed a broken white gun shaped artifact, the one that you two found the morning he disappeared in the middle of the living room, your guts flipped at the memory of you coming down the stairs and just finding that as if it was his corpse “This has to do with the other Versions of himself, I can feel it, he wouldn’t just leave us… he wouldn’t” a little sob escaped her throat and tears rolled down her face again, she quickly went to dry them up with the sleeve of her white lab coat (the same Dad used) and you as his now only family naturally went to hug her and felt her arms wrapping around your body in response.

“Are you sure of this ‘other Ricks thing’?” you murmured and she looked up at you, her eyes were irritated by her crying and a little bit of mucus was going down her nose but she was no doubt serious about it, she only nodded and gave a soft smile.

“As dad said, there are infinite universes with infinite numbers of ourselves, if I was able to finally find the way between those universes after all these time, He probably did it much more quicker than me in other one” you both let go of each other and stood there looking at the portal before Beth went to grab the artifact that allowed her to create it from the floor, it was in a way very similar to the one you both had found all those tears ago, but with a much more raw appearance, she held it in her hands and stared at it “What I am not sure is why would the other versions of himself kidnap him in the first place, what did he do?” she turned to you looking for the answers she knew neither of you had, something inside you wanted this to end but telling her to just give up after going this far, after basically self-teaching herself all the right ways to science was not going to work, you didn’t want to lose anyone else in your family, you didn’t want to end up alone, you didn’t want her to leave. This was a clear as day call for adventure that both of you were receiving, would you want to take it? For that question you did have an answer.

“Then where should we start looking?” you said sighing making her eyes lit up, excitement all over them “You didn’t think I was gonna let you go on your own in this right?” you smiled at her which she replied with a chuckle.

“Once partners, always partners right?” Beth said, a nostalgic air accompanying those words, all those youth days you spent doing antics that had been long forgotten suddenly came back as vivid as this very moment “I am not sure where to start…” she walked to her home made assembled computer and started typing after letting the new portal gun over her table, you could see on the screen how loads of windows started to pop up “but from the old portal gun I could track the record of the last places it was” she proudly showed you the screen and obviously your mouth hung half open to which she only smiled “We’re now in dimension X-1W7, don’t forget it or we won’t be able to come back home” she pointed at the same combination in the computer screen, you walked over to see it and from all the other strange number-letter combinations one called out your attention.

“what about J19ζ7?” you said and saw her nodding before typing in her own portal gun such combination.

“and awaaaaayyy we goooo” she said before pressing the button and shooting another portal that overlapped with the previous one, you only looked at her with an ‘are you serious?’ face making her eyes roll “I felt that was something he would say, SORRY” both of you stopped for a moment and though about all the things that had lead up to this point, it felt as if you were the Neil Armstrong’s of interdimensional travel, at least on this universe.

“Ready for this?” you looked at her standing by your side and felt her hand grabbing yours before looking at you with the most confident eyes you have ever seen on her in your life.

“Ready” next thing you both knew, you were both jumping through the portal leaving behind your old life to start the greatest adventure ever imagined, you were both siblings with a mission to reunite your family and wouldn’t stop for nothing in the world or worlds, countless adventures waited for you two.

~*~*~*~*~

Time passed, undoubtedly, you both had spent days that became weeks that went to months, how many you didn’t know, maybe at this point it probably had passed 3 years since you two embarked in this mission to find your father (apparently every dimension had their own sense of time), dimension after dimension, crossing paths with your other selves, with the other Ricks (which weren’t at all like your dad) and a kid named Morty (that was supposed to be Beth’s child, you had a nephew in other dimensions, crazy right?) and sometimes you didn’t even find yourself in the other dimensions at all, you just merely didn’t exist (which was way more common than you would like to admit).

Going through greasy grandmas, hamsters that lived in butts, some place where pants didn’t exist, a dimension where dogs ruled the world and a dimension where everyone had turned into cronenbergs, so many timelines, so many ‘yous’ and yet no sign of your father, you and Beth didn’t want to even think that maybe this was all a mistake, maybe he really just left you both to despair, but it all changed when both of you stumbled upon a Rick and a Morty that were escaping from the so called ‘galactic federation’, you helped them out and in return they told you where you could find your dad or as they called him ‘Simple Rick’. This place was called ‘The citadel of Ricks’ a place where Ricks of all across the multiverse sheltered themselves from the galactic government since you had learned by now that most of them were catalogued as intergalactic terrorists gaining the title even of the ‘smartest man in the universe’.

“Are you sure we’re gonna find him here?” Beth inquired the Rick that you both had helped while walking the streets of the citadel, thousands of Ricks and Mortys were everywhere, gaining some surprised and disgusted looks from any other version of your dad, it was starting to make you uncomfortable.

“I knew there were infinite versions of ourselves but never actually took the time to scale it like now” you spoke when saw a manifestation of Mortys going on in the street (apparently there was some kind of election going on in the city), you still couldn’t get used to the idea of so many versions gathering up together, you weren’t a genius but, shouldn’t that have like a repercussion to reality or something? Anyway, even though you said ‘ourselves’ you hadn’t seen any version of you so far, nor Beth’s.

“Listen if you two won’t stop talking is better we go our separate ways” The Rick you had helped, Rick B-325D, spoke up annoyed by both of you stopping in the middle of the sidewalk making all his respective personas stare at you even more suspiciously “I love you sweetie but your friend here is driving -urrp- me crazy” he went to touch the bridge of his nose and looked at you, damn these Ricks were complete assholes, you just wanted to punch him in the face despite him being your dad or a version of him anyway.

“Umm he is your son in another universe dad” Beth came into your defense and he gave a second look at you and just gave a ‘bah’ as response while shrugging, how couldn’t he even see the similarity between you two? You were twins!!!

“Yeah, yeah, look you helped us out and now we’re returning the favor, if you’re looking for Simple Rick he… what?” you could hear this Rick talking but you and Beth and even Morty were looking up at the enormous screen projecting a commercial for some retro wafer snack.

“Oh geez… Rick look up” that was what Morty said before tugging the elder’s lab coat and pointed upwards making him do as told.

“Yeah there” he said reluctantly unamused about it while the commercial played.

<< Sixteen iterations off the central finite curve, there’s a Rick that works more with wood than polarity plating, His name is Simple Rick, but he’s no dummy, He realized long ago that the greatest thing he’d ever create was his children >>

You both stared in horror how a progressive propaganda showed shamelessly the last birthday party you both had with him, the memory of you two sitting in the dinner table with your birthday cakes displayed while he was about to record it, your chest ached like never before.

<< We captured that moment and run it on a loop through Simple Rick’s mind, And the chemical that makes his brain secrete goes into every Simple Rick’s Simple Wafer Cookie. Come home to the impossible flavor of your own completion. Come home to Simple Rick’s >>

Then you saw him, all aged up, sitting with his eyes closed in some kind of factory with a helmet that replayed that memory over and over again, you felt yourself going sick while Beth was just completely frozen and tears rolled down her eyes, your father, had been kidnapped to become part of a sick and twisted source of happiness for all the poor soured Ricks of the multiverse that couldn’t put their priorities in order, he was just an object for all of them.

“Beth…” you looked down and said her name snapping her out of her bubble, she looked at you, you knew she was trying so hard to not collapse right there by the way she was looking at you but also a fiery rage within her was starting to build up.

“Where is this factory?” she demanded from the Rick standing next to her.

“I don’t know sweetie, look it yourself, we’re out, let’s go Morty” and just like that he disappeared in the tumult of Ricks dragging the poor kid behind him, like drops of water in the ocean, you both lost them and just stood there not knowing what to do, Beth was just completely heartbroken, just as you, but you had come this far for this only reason, just as bad as it looked like you couldn’t just go back home with your tails between your legs and let your dad keep suffering for eternity, you had to free him.

“Hey! It’s not the time to just give up, we know where he is, we just need to rescue him, come on!” you cheered her up giving soft pats on her back while saying this “Beth, we can’t give up now” you said softly and she looked at you again, a tender smile on her face.

“I hate it when you’re right” she finally said sighing “I am supposed to be the smart one” with a subtle laugh you both put your feet going to the coffee across the street to get something to eat before starting up the final stage of your quest.

You and Beth asked probably every single Rick around town, from normal Ricks passing by, to builder Ricks, to business men Ricks, to homeless Ricks to cop Ricks, and slowly but steadily you both finally found the way to the Simple Rick’s Wafer Cookie Factory, what you didn’t expect upon arriving was it to be surrounded by the cops and of course the media.

“Anyway, so yeah, the suspect says the Citadel is a lie built on lies and some other shit. I say, appreciate the life you have, because it can always be worse. Back to you, Ricks” you heard one deformed Rick talking to the camera Rick in front of him, he probably was reporting the whole situation to the ‘News of the Citadel’ channel that was on before that horrendous commercial kicked in, he was about to flee the scene but you approached him fast enough to catch him before getting in the van of the respective news channel.

“Hey, what is going on? Why are there so much cops outside?” you were quickly followed by Beth and you saw only the deformed rick roll his eyes and grunt in annoyance.

“Well clearly someone hasn’t been watching the fucking news lately” when he looked at you and then at Beth his expression turned from upset to confused, you could say it even softened a little before he started talking again “anyway, I’m glad at least you’re not a Jerry” he put his mic inside the back part of the van and then walked to the front passenger seat opening the door and let it hang there before continuing “there is a dumbass inside trying to call for attention on his pathetic life by holding hoo -uurrp- ostage the factory, what a guy huh?” he finished getting in the van and closing the door afterwards and then waited until the camera Rick started the engine and both drove away from the place, you and Beth looked at each other.

“Do you think… he’s the hostage?” you asked unsure if you wanted to know the answer to that question

“I don’t think, I am sure” Beth said and went to reach for her improved portal gun inside her lab coat.

“Then what do we do?” your eyes went back to stare at the van until it disappeared in the horizon of the citadel but when you turned your head back to Beth, she was already fidgeting her portal gun, a feeling of excitement already blooming within you “You already have a plan don’t you?” you smiled at her smugly and hopefully, to which she smirked.

“Now that I know the exact coordinates of the factory I can play around with the numbers and just teleport us inside until we stumble upon dad” she finished messing up around the craft and pointed it at the air before zapping open a new portal, your heart at this point was thumping like crazy in anticipation “it’s time to rescue dad” she looked at you before entering the portal herself and then you followed with that only thought, it was time to get him back.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Inside was like an enormous maze, you had teleported luckily into a small cleaning storage room and from then on you made your way around the factory going unnoticed by the Military Ricks that were coming and going from the it, you both followed parallel to them into what you overheard them call ‘core room’ until being hiding around the corner to another hallway, the doors obviously were heavily guarded and you could only imagine inside being just flooded by those Ricks.

“We need to get into that room” you said almost in a whisper and saw Beth fidgeting again with her portal gun.

“Listen [Y/N]…” Beth’s voice sounded so cold it made you get shivers all over your back, she didn’t even looked at you “once we get inside, I don’t know what will happen, I don’t know if we will be able to get back home, I just want you to know…” she finished fixing up a few things and finally looked up, one hand went to reach yours “I want you to know that I love you brother, thank you for putting up with me until now” she gave you a small smile and you just went straight up to hug her.

“Don’t be silly, I love you too sister, let’s get dad back” you heard a soft ‘hm uhm’ from her and the parted physical contact, she pointed at the wall and zapped open another portal.

“What was that?” you heard one of the Ricks say at the end of the hallway and then footsteps approaching your direction.

“It’s now or never” you said and waited for Beth to nod and go through the portal before following her.

The scene you both stepped in was just worthy of a movie, you both landed perfectly in the center of the room inside a barrier protected section where your dad and another Rick were present.

“What the fuck?” the other rick (whom had a bald spot on the top of his head) muttered completely surprised at both of you while you could hear the military ricks all around you muttering curses and just making noises of amusement, even one said ‘that’s my girl’ to which you assumed was for Beth, since apparently none of them recognized you, they all ignored your existence.

“Oh god dad…” Beth said when she saw your Rick, Simple Rick, sitting in the same chair, in the same way as the commercial, she kneeled down in front of him and started crying without any warning, seeing her dad like this, your dad like this was just too much for her and even for you, he was connected to a machine that extracted the chemical component his brain created by replaying memories of you two, he had been used as guinea pig of mass production for flavored snacks, he was had been just reduced into an object.

“Now I want to know what the fuck is Beth doing here? and who the fuck are you?” the other Rick bit back at you furiously not even letting you process the scene before your eyes.

“I’m your son asshole, I am his son!” you pointed at your still unconscious father “Now shut the fuck up and let us go away with him” you yelled at him, he was not your dad and you now understood that, he was just another Rick so there was no point on being even polite to a piece of shit like this.

“Oh, so you think you’re the boss here?” the half-bald Rick snickered and went to grab some kind of gun that was lying on the ground, you felt your heart and soul dropped to your feet “No one is leaving unless it’s me so shut your pussy-mouth and don’t try anything stupid” you held your arms up as a reflex and gave a few steps back, he was grinning like a mad man at this point.

“Ok, Ok, just let us disconnect him at least, we just want him back” you saw the Rick’s eyes darted to the floor where Beth was sobbing like the end of the world and then back at you, whom were just about to tear up yourself, you could see in his eyes something showed, something familiar.

“Fine do as you like dipshit” that was the last he said before lowering the gun and then went closer to the barrier to negotiate with one military Rick.

“I just can’t believe how much of assholes they can be to themselves” you sighed while looked at the Ricks interact with each other and then went closer to Beth and kneeled down to comfort her “Come on sis, help me disconnect him” you said softly and waited until she regained her composure and nodded at you, holding onto you she stood up and both went closer to your mumbling father, Beth went to hold his hand and tried to speak to him but it was useless he didn’t even opened his eyes, your heart ached by watching her desperately call out for the man that you had thought had abandoned you all this time when he was just being profited by his other selfish selves “come one hold his head” you said when eyeing that the enormous helmet on his head was attached to a hose you suspected drained the liquid from his brain, Beth did as you told her and held the shell above his head while you unplugged him, a few moments passed and just like magic he slowly and idlily opened his eyes one at a time, a little bit of saliva drooled from his mouth but it was more than understandable after being forced to live in s loop most of your life, an enormous smile was drawn on Beth’s face when she made eye contact with him.

“Dad, DAD OH GOD DAD IT’S ME IT’S BETH” She began tearing up right above him and got rid of the metallic tool on his head, he was so confused it took him a while before figuring out the words to use.

“B-Beth?” that was the only thing he said before smiling still a little bit stoned by all those years of brain drain, the first thing your sister did was immediately throw herself into him and nuzzle while crying, your dad just held her, and smiled so tenderly you started tearing up too and he heard the choked sobs in the back of your throat making him look up at you standing at his side “[Y/N]?” he muttered, he was slowly coming into his old self and looked less cloud minded, you had to cover your eyes with one of your hands.

“Yes dad… it’s us…” your voice was breaking up so badly and you couldn’t help it but throw yourself as well into him, both of you were crying and sobbing in his lap while he only patted your backs and you could even feel his warm tears crashing down on your heads, all these years and finally you were together again sadly the family reunion didn’t last long enough for you.

“Got your portal gun” you heard one of the military Ricks spoke up and the you heard that familiar sound of a portal opening inside the room after the barrier went down, you quickly looked up to see that now the Factory worker Rick was holding a white portal gun (that reminded you to that broken one).

“Ok time’s up kiddos” that Rick said before grabbing your dad by the arm and pulling him up, throwing you both onto the floor in the process.

“Wait what are you doing?” you quickly got on your feet and saw him grab with his free hand the other gun next to him making you stop on your track.

“Ah ah! Told you not to try anything stupid” he said and more than ever you felt impotent, one shot and you were done for good, you could see your dad was still adjusting at the atmosphere and looked back at you, then Beth and then at the place.

“Wh-where am I?” he blurted out and scratched his head, you immediately felt dread about was going to happen.

“A bad place, but you’re going to a better one soon” was the only thing he said before he programmed something on his portal gun and opened a portal to then put it in his pocket, you could see how a military Rick was desperately trying to call out his attention by punching at the glass and immediately knew that was not a good sign.

“WAIT WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Beth was standing at your side and went to reach out for your dad before the other Rick could grab him any further, she pulled him back with all her strength and clung onto him.

“I don’t want to hurt you sweetie, just let him go” It was clear to you now that Ricks have a soft spot for Beth’s no matter which dimension, you were about to get closer but saw the Rick shifting the gun he grabbed again towards you and moved his head sideways while giving you a death stare.

“I WON’T LET YOU TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME” Beth yelled and made the other Rick sigh before putting the gun aside and grabbed simple Rick starting to pull at him while Beth tugged, both of them started struggling to get your dad on their side and you went immediately to help your sister, you could hear him say ‘oh you son of a bitch’ but didn’t care, you and Beth kept pulling and pulling and just when you thought you were about to snatch him out you heard the clunk of metal falling onto the ground making you three stop dry.

“I’ve seen enough of this sentimental bullshit” one military rick with some kind of device in hand said distracting you enough for the half-bald Rick to grab and push your dad into the portal.

“wait no no No NO! GODDAMNIT” you Heard one of the military Ricks saying and when turned around it was too late, a splash of warm blood stained you, your sister and the factory Rick, the sound of blenders buzzing in your eardrums, you were completely petrified, looking at the crimson fluid covering your hands, torso and face, that metallic smell just filling in the room that seemed just ran out of oxygen, then your brain just snapped, he was gone, your dad was gone…

“A PORTAL TO THE BLENDER DIMENSION?!?! THAT’S THE OLDEST TRICK OF THE BOOK I’M A RI…” he was midsentence when he was shot cold blooded in his head collapsing immediately onto the floor, judging by the trajectory you looked at your side and saw Beth was the one holding the gun he had before, then you blinked and she shot again to the corpse, and again, and again, and again, she started screaming in rage and crying and cursing every single vulgarity you have ever known in your language and even in alien languages, she went closer to him and kept shooting and shooting until the gun didn’t work anymore and instead of stopping she threw herself onto the corpse and started beating it up so badly and so brutally she left it reduced to just a mush of meat, her heavy breathing was the only thing echoing in the room now, all the Ricks and you were completely petrified at the view of her being completely covered in blood and guts, she was just out of herself.

“Beth… sis…” you whispered and saw her turn to look at you, her eyes were just dark… there was absolutely no light in those irises, that spark she had was gone.

“My my we’ve got some clean up to do here gentlemen” another Rick spoke and made everyone’s heads turn up to him, he was dressed in a purple three-piece suit, kind of with a willy Wonka tone to it even with his top hat and golden cane with a wafer as handle, he walked closer to the scene and saw the atrocity Beth had made and then looked at you in haze.

“What is your name young man?” he asked expectantly and booped the top of your head with his wafer cane.

“I’m [Y/N]” you answered almost immediately and his eyes lit up.

“Ah so you’re Simple Rick’s son, nice to meet you finally, I want to thank you and Beth for giving him such sweet memories that we could share with all the Ricks in the citadel” he started speaking but it felt more like he was just making fun of you, he was just making fun about all of this “I am so sorry this happened, we will make sure my employees go through harsh psychological tests before hiring from now on, as for you two” he pointed with his cane at Beth and then at you “I will need you to accompany me to an excluded temporal retirement” you narrowed your eyes in suspicion, this was definitely not getting any better.

“You mean prison…” you spoke up looking defiantly to the man with the cane and he smirked sleazily.

“Exactly my boy” those were the last words you heard before being hit in the back of your head and blacking out, a warm sensation went down your spine and you fell into unconsciousness.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Wake up… wake up you moron” you heard that familiar raspy voice muffling in the room and gradually parted your eyes open, a couple of black suited Ricks were standing at the other side of a glass wall tapping on it, then a swift sound of something sliding echoed “President is waiting for you idiot, get up!” the one at the left said and with all the weight of the world over your body, you slowly composed yourself, it ached but the back of your head was the most sore, you could even feel it pulsing so badly you went to reach it with your hand while walked out of the cell “don’t try anything…”

“stupid, I know” you cut the Rick talking and gained a disgusted grin before being pushed onwards, probably not the best time to try and be funny, but then you remembered “where is Beth?” you asked them both while looking behind you, their glasses made it hard to read the expressions on their faces.

“She’s already with the president” you sighed in relief but then thought a little about this whole situation, why would you be meeting directly with the president? what the fuck? Anyway, you didn’t think they would answer any questions right now in this situation so you just decided to keep walking and comply with their orders.

You finally arrived to a massive fancy door and entered an even fancier room that had a large table in the center with many chairs at its sides, there were curtains with a symbol in which there was an M on top and an R in the bottom decorating the walls alongside a painting of that kid Morty, Beth’s supposed son, in a suit with a very confident yet kind of evil expression and also there was an amazing view to the citadel, you kept peeking all over the room until finally meeting eyes with your sister, whom ran towards you and hugged you tightly.

“Oh, thank god you’re ok” she said happily and you returned the hug, you were glad she was ok and well, clean after all that happened, then the doors closed behind you, the presence of both Ricks still noticeable, she let go of you and stood at your side still clinging onto your arm, like she used to do when she was scared when you were kids.

“He’s here Mr. president” one of the Rick bodyguards said from behind and the chair at the end of the room turned around, revealing the Morty of the painting but with only his black shirt and red tie, holding a glass of what you assumed, by the smell, was brandy, he couldn’t be old enough for drinking, could he?

“Excellent” he said with a disturbingly calm vice, even though he had the same tone as the other Mortys you’ve heard, it had something sinister in it “I’m honored to finally meet you, the twin of my beloved mother, what a rarity in the multiverse you are” he kept talking and you felt already this was not a ‘nice to meet you’ pep talk “You see after what you both did, creating an illegal portal gun, breaking into a factory, viciously murdering a Rick” you saw Beth looked down to the floor “I should give a good example and punish both of you” you felt your guts flipped “but…” he continued “You’re still family, my family and so I wanna offer you both an opportunity” he stood up with his glass in hand and walked towards you, even though you were the ones looking down on him it felt totally the other way around “This citadel is about to witness the beginning of a new era and I want you to help me build it, I want you to be the first members of my new council” he gave a slurp to his drink “since the last one got retired” you saw him smiling subtly, darkly and heard how the other Ricks laughed at the clearly inside joke he was having “so what do you say? Mother? Uncle [Y/N]?” that ‘uncle’ part felt so, so wrong it almost made you want to spit on his face, you were about to say something when Beth interrupted.

“Listen, as much as I would want to, I am not your mother honey, I am just one of those infinite Beths in the multiverse” you saw how the smile on his face faded away “so please, just let us go, we are of no use to…”

“Also you will have unlimited resources to pursue your research for ‘Simple Ricks’” your sister stopped dry and you felt even more sick “I know why you came here in the first place, and I am utterly sorry for your loss but as you said, as much as there are infinite Ricks, there must be infinite simple Ricks, that you can find…” he moved his glass in a circular motion while looking at it “and keep” he made extra emphasis on the last part by looking straight in Beth’s eyes “so what do you say now?” he insisted after a few moments of silence, and you felt the grip of your sibling loosening until eventually she let go of your arm.

“Sis, don’t listen to him!” you scolded and made her look at you with a startled expression “Dad is gone, I know it hurts, it pains me just as much as it does to you, but we have to let it go, as long as we keep his memory alive he will never die inside us…” you said softening your tone and only received an angry look as response.

“memory? MEMORY? WE BARELY LIVED WITH HIM! WE CAN’T EVEN REMEMBER CLEARLY HALF OF OUR MEMORIES FOR FUCK’S SAKE” She snapped back at you and you felt your heart tearing up in pieces “I spent my entire life looking for him, and when I found him he is just, taken away… murdered, I won’t live with that, I want to be him again, I want dad back” she said while slowly walking towards his ‘son’.

“BUT HE WON’T BE OUR DAD! HE WILL JUST BE ANOTHER… SIMPLE RICK!” you yelled and saw her wince from behind before she turned around, you could feel not only your eyes but your mind being clouded by the urge to cry, she was walking away, she was just letting herself being wrapped into this nonsense “Beth… you’re smarter than this… please… please open your eyes… if we’re together we will be ok, just… just let’s go home” you pleaded desperately, your voice broke in the last part “please stay with me… sis” you begged one last time, but she didn’t even dared to look at you.

“Well I think she’s got her mind made up” the president sighed in victory “Take him to the vacuum and throw him into space” Morty commanded both of the bodyguard Ricks and they held you by each side, you wanted to fight, you wanted to kick them in the balls and punch this kid in the face but at this point, would that make Beth change her mind? Would that return you the old Beth? Your sister? It wouldn’t, you were alone now, your family completely torn apart, death looked like the kindest way to end this suffering.

You were about to get dragged outside the room when you glimpsed at her whispering something into the kid’s ear, he was a little skeptical at first but in the end nodded in agreement “Wait, I’ve got a better idea” he side eyed your sister who was just looking ashamed at the floor and then at you “put him out” the kid commanded and again you were tossed into the blackness, just that this time, you very much welcomed it.

~*~*~*~*~*~

You jumped out of your bed, gasping, sweating, shaking, a complete mess, looking at the clock it was barely 3:03 am, you were having that recurrent nightmare again, that one where you lost someone important “Damn it I have a meeting today…” you cursed, once you woke up from that you were never able to go right back to sleep so, as usual, you went down to the kitchen and poured yourself a glass of water when suddenly a loud bump in the garage called out your attention “Shit! Did someone break in?” you whisper to yourself while going to grab your baseball bat from the cabinet under the stairs and with ever so delicate steps approached the garage door before slowly opening it enough to peek inside, there was no one, you sighed in relief before fully opening it and turning on the lights “Just my imagination I gue…” your eyes caught the sight of something broken on the floor “Uh… you weren’t there before…” you went to reach for the object, which had a very curious gun shape, it was like a toy, but for some reason you felt a déjà vu, you felt something like this had happened before but you knew it hadn’t, it was a very strange uneasy feeling, almost as if your mind was trying to remember something important or… was it someone?

“whatever… I’ll throw it in the morning” you said and exited the room with the thing on hands and threw it carelessly into the trash can of the kitchen, it wasn’t the first time something like this happened, lately after your car accident that threw you into a short coma, you’ve been having a lot of déjà vus and an incessant feeling of being not watched but looked for, weird things appearing out of nowhere, things getting fixed around the house, those kinds of things as if something or someone was always with you, even though you’ve been an orphan your whole life, you have never felt that way, you liked to often think maybe in another universe, there was actually someone waiting for you, your other half.