Chapter Text
It started with a fight.
Because that's how things always started between him and Rick. They were revisiting the recently re-destroyed Citadel and were currently stealing expensive tech and parts that were no longer of use to their previous Ricks. But Rick now wanted Morty to crawl through a vent to access whatever this Rick was keeping in the vault at the back of his electronics store.
Morty wasn't stupid.
If he knew Ricks, which he did, then it was highly likely the vent was rigged with traps and biometric scanners, maybe even turrets, to keep out unwanted thieves. He wasn't in the mood to lose any limbs or risk death just to see what was behind a heavily secured vault door. Knowing Morty's luck, there would be nothing in it and he'd end up losing a limb for no reason. "No way, Rick."
"Come on, Morty. Don't be like that. Where's your sense of adventure?"
"I already told you I'm not risking my life for this stupid vault. For all we know, there's jack shit in there." He returned the glare Rick was giving him and crossed his arms over his chest, refusing to back down for once. Besides, there were other ways to get past a vault door. Morty knew his grandpa was just being lazy and trying to use a solution that required little effort on his part. "Why don't you just portal in?"
"Because, Morty, no Rick is stupid enough to leave their vault vulnerable to portal travel. There's likely a sub-ether barrier surrounding it."
Morty didn't know what that was, not that he was going to admit that out loud. No reason to give Rick more ammunition to tease him with. If he had to guess, it was something that prevented portal travel. Either way, he still wasn't going to change his mind about crawling through the vent. "Then blow the fucking door open. You've done it before."
"You little bitch." The one time Rick needed Morty's cooperation, for something so simple too, his grandson just had to be difficult. "If you aren't going to help, then stay out of the way. I am getting this vault door open, one way or another."
"Whatever." As soon as Rick started settting up explosives, Morty wandered out of the building they were in. Rick clearly no longer wanted his help and Morty wasn't going to just stand around and let his grandpa insult him.
He knew it probably wasn't smart to freely wander around the Citadel without Rick. Even though the rift was now closed, there was no telling what interdimensional horrors had moved in after Evil Morty first ripped a hole in the central finite curve.
But then again, Rick did say they were in relatively safe area.
In fact, Morty recognized the area they were in. He had been to this part of the Citadel before, when he got that shitty aging serum to try and emotionally blackmail Rick into coming home. He spared one last glance over his shoulder - Rick was far too focused on setting up explosives to pay any attention to him - and set off in the direction of the shop.
It didn't take long to reach it and Morty's jaw dropped when he saw the building. Being exposed to the elements for months had left it in horrible condition. The display windows had been shattered, moss hung from the awning, and the bricks were slowly turning green from weather exposure.
He cautiously climbed into the store through the display window and winced when glass crunched loudly under his feet. He reaaaally hoped the Rick that owned this place wasn't here anymore. This shop had tons of cool stuff and Morty didn't want to get shot if he tried to take anything. He didn't think his Rick would be too amused either, if he had to drop what he was doing and come rescue Morty from another Rick.
He jumped down from the display window and let out a cry as the wood splintered beneath his shoes, sending his foot right through the floor. He froze and frantically waited for the Rick to come out, yelling about Morty being a thieving piece of shit, but the store remained silent. He wiggled his foot out of the floorboards and cautiously crept across the store, doing his best to not fall through the floor again.
Most of the vials on the shelves in the store front were either gone or broken, likely looted or destroyed by Ricks or Mortys who'd remained on the Citadel, and the potions that had survived all this time were lame as hell.
There was a potion that'd make him six feet tall, but he didn't have a problem with the height he currently was. There was another aging serum which Morty quickly hurried past. When he looked at another unbroken potion, he saw it was a hangover prevention and couldn't help rolling his eyes.
Fucking Ricks.
The 'Employees Only' sign on the wall behind the counter caught his eye and he hurried over to the curtain covered doorway. Morty poked his head through the curtain that separated the front of the store from the back, cautiously looking around, but there was still no sign of the Rick. There was an office, a restroom, and a set of stairs leading down to a basement.
As Morty snooped through the office, he found some Blips and Chitz tickets taped to the underside of the desk, which he immediately pocketed - after all, the Rick no longer had any use for them - and then he moved on to the only other place of interest in this shop: the basement.
The wooden stairs creaked loudly under his sneakers and Morty winced with every step he took. If the Rick was going to be anywhere in the store, it'd be down here and, as horrible as it was, Morty really hoped the Rick had died. He'd rather not encounter another version of his grandpa. The Rick might have been friendly enough when he was selling Morty that aging serum, but he definitely wouldn't be friendly if he discovered Morty stealing from him.
The stairs ended on a balcony, overlooking the rest of the basement, and there was another set of stairs that presumably led down to the lower level. Morty wandered over to the edge of the balcony, running a hand along the wooden railing, but jerked away when it wobbled under his hand. It appears the inside of the store was just as dilapidated as the outside of it.
He cautiously leaned over to see what was below and realized this must be where the Rick made all his potions. There were several counters and workbenches with chemistry equipment, as well as numerous vials of either finished or in-progess potions. It was an impressive set up and Morty couldn't deny he was a little sad he couldn't see how all this stuff worked. He knew it would have been a fascinating process. Maybe if Rick found him here, he could have his grandpa explain it. It was likely his Rick would know what all this stuff was for and how it all worked.
Morty had barely taken a single step forward, when a loud booming sound suddenly disrupted the silence. It was undoubtedly from the explosives Rick was using on the vault door and the impact of the explosion shook the entire building. Despite his struggle to maintain his balance, Morty stumbled into the railing as the building rocked on its foundation and he let out a cry as the rotting wood splintered under his weight.
He fell over the edge of the balcony and landed painfully on one of the workbenches, wincing as vials and beakers shattered beneath him upon impact. He had no idea what was in any of these and he prayed that it wasn't anything acidic or corrosive. His head cracked painfully against the edge of the countertop and the last thing he remembered was falling off the workbench onto the stone floor.
~
Rick swore his back was turned for less then ten minutes and, in that time, Morty had apparently wandered off. Rick groaned as he finished setting up the explosives and he left the shop, hoping Morty had simply stepped outside to wait.
No luck.
His grandson had indeed wandered off, which meant Rick needed to hurry because the chances of Morty getting himself into trouble were high.
Extremely high.
He took cover behind a hover car and pressed the detonator, triggering the explosives he'd hooked up. The explosion was far louder than he would have liked, shaking everything within three blocks and he really hoped no rogue Ricks had heard that. The last thing he needed was his nosy dimensional counterparts starting a shootout because he was stealing from them.
He hurried back into the building and grinned when he saw the vault door swinging on one hinge. Inside was a variety of high value items: untainted portal fluid, Plutonic quartzes, dark matter prisms, and weapons of all kinds. He could hear Morty's snarky tone as his grandson theorized there was nothing in the vault.
"For all we know, there's jack shit in there."
Ha, take that, Morty.
He dragged as much of the stuff as he could out of the vault and shot a portal underneath it, transferring it to his sub-basement. He'd go through everything and organize it later, but he currently had more pressing matters to deal with.
He had to find Morty.
He activated the tracking beacon and his watch projected it in the air in front of him. Morty hadn't wandered too far thankfully, but Rick was still pissed that the little shit had ignored his warning to not wander off.
He hurried away through the streets of the Citadel, following the blinking dot on his holomap. It had yet to move, which meant Morty had yet to move, and Rick didn't like what that was implying.
Best case scenario, his grandson sat down somewhere.
Worst case scenario, he'd been seriously injured or worse.
Rick looked up from his holomap to find himself standing in front of a potion shop.
What could possibly be in here that made Morty want to go poking around?
It was obviously a Rick's shop, if the name was anything to go off of - Rick Potion No. 9. He tried the door handle and, when it didn't budge, he kicked the door in. If there was a Rick here who hadn't been aware of trespassers before, then he'd definitely know someone was snooping around his shop now.
"Morty? Where the fuck are you?" He checked the back rooms, but the Rick's office and the restroom were empty. That only left the basement. "Morty!"
As soon as he reached the bottom of the first set of stairs, it became obvious Morty had been here. A big section of the balcony railing was missing and, when Rick peeked over the edge, he could see the pieces of it on the lower floor. Morty was nowhere to be seen, but it was likely he was somewhere below. Given the broken railing, Rick had to assume he'd fallen and injured himself.
"Morty? You in here?" He cautiously descended the second set of stairs, cringing each time the wooden steps creaked under his weight. He really hoped he didn't fall through them.
He reached the bottom without incident and immediately began looking around. Half finished potions and dusty equipment covered the countertops. But there was one counter in particular that caught his attention.
The one right underneath the balcony.
Shattered glass and splinters of wood littered the top of it and colorful puddles of liquid were dripping from the sides.
It took Rick less than a second to figure out what had happened. Morty must have fallen from the balcony onto the countertop, landing right on top of all these potions.
"Fuuuuuuck. Morty?! Where are you, buddy?" He needed to get Morty home immediately and decontaminate him. There was no telling what any of these potions were or what they'd do to him. He hurried around the edge of the counter and immediately stopped in his tracks when he caught sight of his grandson.
Morty was laying on the floor in front of the counter, unconscious and covered in whatever mysterious potions the Rick had been making down here.
That isn't what he was concerned about though.
Morty looked no older than three or four years old.