AUTHORS NOTE: I do not own Rick and Morty. It'd be pretty cool if did though. Enjoy!

Morty had died, and all there was to show for it was an empty, black, nothingness. A nothingness that wouldn't ever be filled. A nothingness that couldn't be sensed.

Well, it had been that way. For a while.

It felt kind of like waking up from a really long nap, but with the added physical feeling of pins and needles— like when your foot falls asleep and you're trying to wake it up. Except, it was all over your body.

Then, there was the more unpleasant feeling Morty got— he felt like he was suffocating. For a few moments he couldn't get himself to suck air into his burning lungs, but once he could, he pulled in a large gasp, his whole body violently shaking. He shot upright, his eyes snapping open as wide as saucers.

His hand darted up to his chest, bunching up the fabric of whatever-the-fuck shirt he happened to be wearing right now. "Wha-?" Was all he could manage out, his breathing rapid and heart pounding in his ears, slamming so violently against his rib cage that Morty though it might leap out of his chest. "How?! What?!" He knew that he should be dead. When it had happened, he knew it was too late save him. He was supposed to be fucking dead!

For a person who had been dead meer seconds ago, his sight was sure as hell fucking clear. It was dark, wherever he was, and there were dirt walls surrounding him. But that didn't surprise him as much as the sight of Rick standing above him, covered in dirt, looking exhausted and holding a glass vial above him.

"R-Rick?!" Morty's voice was shrill. Physically, Morty somehow felt amazing. Yet his mind was in a completely different place. "W-w-what the fuck?! Shouldn't I be dead?! What the— how the fuck am I here?!" The teen remembered dying as clear as day. How was he here?! How?!

Rick collapsed to his knees in front of Morty, pulling him into a bone-crushing hug, and Morty gasped again, not expecting that to happen at all. It was a rare occasion for Rick to hug anyone. "Fuck you, Morty." The old man's voice wavered as he spoke. "F-Fuck you for doing this shit to me. Fuck! You!" Despite the harsh words, Rick only held on tighter, making it hard for Morty to breathe again.

Tears filled Morty's eyes, spilling over as he remembered himself dying over and over again inside his head. He remembered how it felt when he was bleeding to death on the cold hard ground while Rick had sobbed over him. He remembered looking up into his elders eyes, and seeing how hurt he was. He remembered the searing hot pain that radiated from his chest, and how at some point his whole body had become numb to it. He remembered how foggy everything had started to get, and how tired he was, and how hard he was struggling to just keep his damn eyes open, because Rick was pleading him to do so.

He remembered in his final moments, regret consumed him— he didn't want to die. He was going to miss so much in life. He was going to hurt Rick by leaving him like this. He didn't want to die, fuck, he didn't want to die! He wanted to live! He wanted to go on more adventures, he wanted to graduate highschool. He wanted to pick stupid fights with his sister, and help Rick with random shit in the garage. He didn't want to die—

But after that, everything was black.

Everything was black until now, with tears streaming down his face, and Rick's arms wrapped tightly around him.

TBC