Chapter Text
Morty felt exhausted after getting chased by some weird-slime-looking aliens because Rick wanted their famous jelly, which he said, "tastes so good, it's worth dying for." Morty left the garage after Rick managed to take them home with the slime jelly. Both were covered in purple slime and bruises, but he wasn't in any pain since his adrenaline was still pumping.
Rick was always the one to rush to kill those who stood in his way of something he wanted; In other words…Rick just didn’t want to pay; Morty just felt like he had to go along with it. Morty walked over to the kitchen, passing his dad, who was sitting at the dining table playing that damn balloon game. As he entered the kitchen, his mom spotted him immediately while she was chopping some vegetables.
"Morty! There you are, where have you been?" Beth said, glancing away from her task for a moment with curiosity and slight concern. Morty noticed the concern in his mother's voice, which made him feel weirdly happy, considering he rarely gets any attention from his mother anyway.
Morty smiles and walks past his mother, going behind her to reach into the top cabinets for a cup to drink some well-deserved water after being chased. "Oh...Y-you know, classic Rick tactics...Rick wanted this sl-jelly? Apparently, it's to die for." Morty grabs a cup and walks over to the fridge, opening it to grab the water pitcher.
Beth hums and continues chopping the vegetables, "Jelly? Is he planning to share it with the whole family, or did your grandpa use you to fetch something only meant for him again?" Morty smiles wearily before shrugging, walking over to sit on the stool sitting in front of his mom, pouring himself some water. "I'm assuming he is. We gather a lot of that slime-um jelly...D-don't think he’ll eat all that by himself." Morty responded, sounding unsure if Rick even planned to share all the jelly that HE risked his life for, too.
Beth sighed and hummed softly, “Well, your grandpa should at the LEAST share some with you. I mean..Look at you” Beth uses the knife to point at Morty waving it up and down to emphasize her point. “you’re covered in bruises and look exhausted” Morty nods slightly before waving his left hand dismissingly “I-I don’t mind mom…really, it’s better than sitting at home b-being bored all day…plus pretty good exercise” Morty responds before taking a chug of his water.
Beth sighs reluctantly deciding to just drop it if her son insists on not making it a big deal, she finishes chopping the vegetables and puts it all in a bowl. Morty watches catching his breath and feeling his adrenaline die down. Beth picks up the bowl and turn around to go to the fridge, opening it and suddenly remembers something “Oh! Your father made this new pastry, uh-Turnovers, their in the pantry if you want any” She gives a small smile before placing the bowl in the fridge.
Morty perks up at the mention of pastry, he has noticed that his father is trying new hobbies, like bee keeping, writing, and learning new recipes to make for the family. He really needs to spend some time with father but because of Rick’s constant dragging him away for an adventure, it became rare for him to spend time with his parents one on one.
“Turnovers?…That sounds good,I-I’ll try some” Morty takes a last sip of his water before getting off the stool and walks towards the pantry. He opens it and glances pass the noodles, spices, pasta, before spotting a plate covered in a plastic wrap. Morty takes it out and places it on the counter beside the fridge and unwraps the plastic.
Beth walks over to him, waiting for Morty to finish unwrapping it so she can take one as well. Morty looks at the folded pastry with slightly surprised since he never heard or seen of it before, but it looks very appetizing. Morty grabs one then takes a bite, before his eyes suddenly widened by the very familiar taste of it. The taste of raspberries and blueberries filling in this pastry was so familiar but he couldn’t pinpoint how, then he sees a flash of a small memory.
Morty was being carried around a small alley, he doesn’t remember where or what age he even was, he does recognize the faint figure carrying him. A tall, slender, and blue haired man was carrying him, he knows it’s Rick. The memory becomes more faint but small bits come, he recalls crying as a man screams, Rick patting his back reassuringly, red splattered on his hands. Morty tried to remember, shutting his eyes and hoping to remember why he was crying and where the hell it even took place in?
Suddenly a memory of him holding an arm and biting into it excitedly while Rick is busy eating something else. Morty tries to remember how Rick looked like but the memory was so fuzzy that he couldn’t tell any details.
An arm? He never ate a human much less than an arm until after Rick crushed into their garage…That wasn’t possible…unless Rick did but forgot to erase his memory afterwards?
“Morty…?”
“Morty..?”
“Morty!”
Morty snaps out of it and glances up at his mom who had one of her hands on his shoulder looking worried. “Huh?…what?” Morty asked feeling confused. “You alright? You looked out of it after you took a bite…you didn’t respond to me after I asked you how the pastry was.” Beth said quietly as if feeling worried that Morty would mentally check out.
Morty chuckles slightly and rubs the back of his head feeling embarrassed. “oh I just…remember something a bit…weird?” Morty muttered before finishing the turnover. Beth rubbed his shoulder in a comforting soothing way before letting go. “I think you need some rest, you must just feel traumatized and drained from the advantage” Morty nodded and smiles weakly before walking away to head upstair.
What was that memory?
He never met Rick when he was younger so how?
Why would Rick take him in such a weird location as an alley way?…unless it was in a different dimension?
As Morty was halfway up the stairs, Rick yells for him.
“Morty! L-little buddy! Come here, try this jelly!”
Morty still feeling a bit thrown off by the memory decides to go to the garage in hopes that he can just forget about it…not like he could ignore Rick anyway.
“yeah Rick?” Morty said as he walks into the garage.
Rick spins around on his chair to face Morty with a grin on his face.
“Check it out!” Rick grabs a jar of the jelly they gathered and tossed it towards Morty.
“Woah!-“ Morty stumbles forward to catch it and glances at the jar. The jar is transparent, with the lid being a beautiful dark brown color which is surprising for Rick to even consider the appearance of a jar for some jelly but whatever. Morty did noticed that the jelly was now a pretty pick color which is very unusual since he never seen that color for jelly.
“Oh wow Rick…it looks like r-regular jelly from a grocery store honestly.” Morty smiled and looked at Rick slightly confused on why he packaged the jelly like this.
“Unlike a typical jar of jelly here on earth Morty, this is actually healthier and extremely delicious! Makes you feel completely blissful!” Rick smirked and tilts his head down towards the jar to indicate to Morty to try some. Morty looks down and opens it up before glancing back up at Rick.
“Do I need a spoon? Or…?”
“Use your hands! That whole jar is all yours, we gathered a shit ton to sell them for a fortune Morty!” Rick said proudly and pressed a small button under his desk which made the floor near the shelf open up and revealed a huge stash of jelly hidden underneath.
Morty smiled and used his fingers to scoop up a small bit of jelly. It was surprising refreshing, and not overwhelming sweet. The taste was slightly close to the jelly inside the turnovers but this was much more familiar and it made him feel more freak out now.
“Um…R-Rick?” Morty asked weary and sets the jar on top of the dryer. Rick hummed and stood up walking to grab a couple jars. “Did…did you ever visit us before?…you know before you back into mom’s life?”
Rick grabbed four jars and moved around Morty to leave the garage. “I did visit you guys a few times, but I never stayed longer than necessary. Why are you asking me this? You know that I only visited to see if Prime came back.” Rick answered nonchalantly while walking through the living room to the kitchen to set the jars on the counter.
Morty followed behind him feeling confused and concerned. “Yeah…I know…b-but have you ever taken me somewhere when I was younger? Perhaps as bait?? Or a hostage?”
Rick looked puzzled by the sudden interest in his past during searching for Prime and before returning back to the Smith’s household. “Morty you literally looked at my whole life story when that prick evil Morty scanned my brain. You should know by now that I only returned for quick check ins?” Rick lean against the counter and crossed his arms. “Why the sudden interest now?”
Morty gulped and rubbed the back of his head slightly. “I did but…I got this strange feeling of Déjà vu when I ate the jelly in dad’s turnovers and the jelly we gathered!” Rick scoffs lightly. “Morty you ate jelly before, what a shocker! What the fuck do you mean you get Déjà vu from some jelly? What? N-Never ate a p&j?” Rick mocked slightly as he let out a chuckle.
“Of course I-Rick! It’s not that! I got this weird vision or-memory that I tasted this flavor before when I was younger with you! Y-You were there holding me! In this strange back alley then I heard a man screaming in agony! An-“
“Morty! You’re probably are just getting our many MANY adventures mixed up with previous ones. Your brain is likely creating these false memories due to it protecting itself or something, beside it’s not like we aren’t AREN’T cannibals already.” Rick tried to reassure Morty who looked concerned and…slightly crazy. Rick walked over to Morty and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Look, I get it. These high stake adventures are fucking up your mind and trauma can mix up memories so how about we go to that alien spa and relax hm? Cause right now you’re acting crazy Morty.”
Morty still felt freak out but nod nevertheless since Rick IS the smartest man in the universe and perhaps he was right…Maybe the adventures they been on were starting to get to him.
“Yeah…O-okay”
Later that night Morty stayed awake in his bed, feeling completely thrown off of what to think or even feel towards that specific memory…I mean it was such a strange memory…an alleyway?…being held by Rick…screaming then him eating an arm?…sure cannibalism is looked down upon but after spending so much time out in space and eating so many unique foods…human flesh doesn’t feel that wrong anymore…God he needs serious therapy.
Morty turned on his side to face his window looking out at the night sky. He just wanted to figure out if that moment did happen or his mind is playing tricks on him. Morty knew that Rick had a device that could erase a memory but it didn’t just completely erase it…more like transferring it into a little glass container that he can view later, he could use the device to “erase” that memory then perhaps find something that could replay it.
Morty sat up and felt a wave of curiosity but also determined to figure this out. Morty got out of bed and silently walked down the stairs to head towards the garage. He noticed that the garage door was close so he tried his best to open it as quietly as possible before peeking in hoping that Rick wasn’t passed out on the floor which thankfully wasn’t as often anymore. Morty peeked in and squinted his eyes in search for any sign of Rick. To his advantage Rick wasn’t so the coast was clear for him to enter.
Morty stepped in quietly and carefully closed the door behind him. Morty glanced around and walked towards Rick’s desk to look under it in search for the mind eraser device. He moved things around inside the boxes for a few minutes before finding it.
He lifted it up to look at it more closely to see if there was instructions to transfer the memory into a container. There wasn’t much of instruction and Morty felt worried about operating this device on his own without guidance or supervision.
“Uh…H-hey garage?…hello?” Morty whispered up at the ceiling. “Yes?” The garage responded by in a loud voice which made Morty flinch and wave his hands in the air to gesture to the garage to lower its volume. “S-Shh! Quiet please!” Morty whispered yelled at the garage. The garage obeyed surprisingly? Maybe because Morty was the only one to actually say please and thank you to it so. “It’s 3:25am. Tampering with Rick’s stuff is reason enough for me to alert him” the garage warned but Morty insisted.
“Yeah I know! B-But please I’m not trying to mess with his stuff! I-I need assistance in getting a memory of mine replayed on a screen!..Please garage…I just need some help…I’m not asking for much…”. Morty pleaded in a nervous whisper not sure if the garage would help him or wake up Rick.
“Fine. Place the device against your forehead and erase. I’ll take the device and transfer it to my system to display it against the garage door after.” The AI agreed and Morty felt a wave of relief. “Okay…Thank you garage…I owe you one.” Morty smiled and chuckled nervously.
He stood up and turned the device to face him before placing it against his forehead. He took a deep breath to ease his nerves and clicked the button. Morty eyes rolled back before he turned limp dropping the mindblower, thankful the garage’s robotic arms shot out to catch the mindblower and catch Morty before he fell.
The arms took the mindblower and brought it up before connecting it into a small box into it. They laid Morty down on the floor gently while in the meantime while processing the recent contents on it.
Morty stirred slightly and sat up rubbing his head and glanced up at the ceiling. “G-garage?…did…did it work?…”
“Yes. It’s processing now. It’ll be done in five minutes.”
Morty nodded and stood up. “Great…thanks…S-so it was real right?…was it my imagination? Can you tell…it feels asking you this for something I literally can’t remember now…haha..”
“It’s a memory. A-“ the garage suddenly paused and the arms retracted. Morty felt nervous and confused by the sudden pause. “uh…W-what’s wrong?”
“This memory contains Prime. Must alert Rick.”
Morty eyes widen in surprise and stammered frantically at the AI.
“W-What!? Prime?? What memory!? I don’t know what you’re referring to!” Morty jumped up in a pathetic attempt to grab the a garage’s arms but he slipped and fell on his back. “Hold on!! Don’t call Rick! Please!! What was the memory!! At least show me!! Or I did this for nothing garage!!” The garage arms shot out and grabbed Morty’s ankle to lift him up so he didn’t try to escape.
“Anything relating to Prime must be reported to Rick.” Morty kicked desperately and started to panic, If Rick comes then he won’t know what the memory he just erased was about, it would all be for nothing! “Just show me the memory!! I-I don’t see why you can’t show me at the very least!!” Morty reached up grabbing the arm and scratched it but the action only hurt him. Morty winced in pain and started to tug at it in an attempt to rip it off.
“For fuck sakes! Let me see the dam memory! Why does Rick have authority over my memories! It’s my business!” Morty kicked as hard as he could and managed to kick at the box of the AI containing the contents of the mindblowers.
The box crack open and the arms instantly retracted causing Morty to fall. Morty sat up frantically and glanced at the box seeing the chip in it, he assumed that contained it and he stood up before grabbing a random screwdriver off Rick’s desk throwing it at the box.