149. Fate

"Hamon is the basic element of life. The gods' Ultra Instinct forms come from Hamon and Ki. It is gained through one drive... The drive for power. Even immortals have mortal drives of selfish wants and needs," Black Pearl said, as she sat on the ground and showed them holograms from the pearl of her naval. "That is why I don't trust you Fortisites... always obsessed with power and struggling for power. Your quest for unlimited power is what I believe to be psychotic. No different than the Saiyans of the DBZA Universes nor the Grimms of the D4C Twin Universes. It is also the only way out of this Swamp, the Swamp of Fortune..."

"Yes... What an... interesting topic. Truly!" said Kapitan Dirigma. "Yet... You teleported a New God like she was nothing using Boom Tube that is imbued with Spin. I saw energy spinning around that Boom Tube. Could you please teach us how to use such a powerful form of Spin?"

"Did-... Did you not listen to anything that I said at all!?" asked Black Pearl. "I just said why I won't teach you this!"

"Teach us what?" asked Lord.

"Ultra Spin," she said, as she immediately covers her mouth.

"Ha! Fell for it!" laughed Lord, as he offers a high five to Steven. Steven smiles and gives him a high five. Lord offers Kapitan Dirigma one.

"No," said Kapitan Dirigma.

Lord stares at Kapitan Dirigma for a while.

"Anyways! Ultra Spin?" asked Lord.

"Ultra Instinct is a form for ultimate defense. Ultra Spin? Ultimate attack," said Kapitan Dirigma.

"I wasn't asking you, Baka-!" said Lord.

"Oh, Jesus... JoJo..." said Kapitan Dirigma. "That's fucking cringe. And I'm an alien immigrant when I was on your planet. I shouldn't even know your world's web culture."

"Ew," said Steven Universe.

"Lord, darling... No. Just, no," said Lei, shaking her head.

"Just..." said Lord, squeezing his eyes closed. "What's the thing? Ultra Spin?"

"Ultra Instinct is a form for ultimate defense. Ultra Spin? Ultimate attack," said Kapitan Dirigma.

"Oh!" yelled Lord. "It's the opposite of Kuya Miguel's special ability," said Lord.

"That's what I fucking-... Tch-..." said Kapitan Dirigma.

The group had set up camp on the remote seemingly deserted planet. They had created tents around a single purple tree in the middle of a large grassland. The group laid in the grass as they stared up into the stars. There are about five moons above them currently, shining blue, red, yellow, green, and orange.

"Boy..." said Zed. "This is pretty Goddamned boring."

Zed stands up and walks away.

"Where are you going?" asked Celine, looking rather annoyed as usual.

"Finding life," said Zed.

"You don't want to do that, Zed," said Rick.

"Try me," said Zed, smiling and whistling "Papa was a Rolling Stone" by the Temptations as he walked away.

"We need him for magic," said Rick, standing up.

"Uh... Rick? I thought you hated magic," said Morty.

"I hate things when they aren't useful to me," said Rick. "Now, git, Morty!"

"I wanna follow, too!" smiled Celine, standing up and following.

"Me, too!" smiled Star, standing up and also following.

"If Celine's going, I'm going," said Yang, standing up and following them, too.

"Alright," said Van, standing up and following after.

"Ooh! Content!" smiled Ryle, as he stood up and followed them.

Later...

The group reaches a beach at the end of the mass of land they were on.

"Well!?" asked Rick. "Now, what!? What? What now, wizardo? We've reached the end of the line."

"That confirms it!" smiled Zed. "There's life on this planet."

"What!?" asked everyone else.

"You're not the scientist who knows every known planets' ins and outs," said Rick, pointing to Zed in annoyance. "I'm a god, Zed. There is nothing in this world that I can't destroy, create, or control. I know everything, wizard!"

Zed takes something out of the sand.

A shell. Specifically, a shell resembling a broken piece of a plate.

"What!?" asked Rick.

"Huh... something that Rick doesn't know," smiled Morty. "Haha! What do you know!"

Rick clenches his fists. "Fine."

Zed sighs. "You're thinking about abandoning this mission and killing all of us, aren't you?"

Rick's eyes widen. "I'm not."

Zed chuckles. "Talk about Grade A Pathetic. You think you can just do whatever the hell you want. Well? You can't. You're not a god, Rick. You're a human being. You're nothing. That's why I can't respect you, Sanchez. Not until you tell us. You knew that this planet had life, didn't you?"

Rick takes out an anti-magic gun as Zed whistles. The gun transforms into butterflies as Zed uses his Stand to beat Rick to the ground.

"Amazing. You had technology in your pockets the whole time and you didn't use them at all to help us. You don't care about helping us at all, do you? You're scared of something."

Blue Dabadi grabs Rick by the neck.

"You think you're a god but you're an animal. No different than everyone in this fucking miserable Universe. Now, I'm sick and tired of all the shit you don't tell us. WHY... ARE YOU... HELPING US!?"

Rick presses a button as a laser gun emerges from his spin, but Zed snaps his fingers and all his technologies are now disabled.

"Zed..." said Yang.

Zed blasts Blue Dabadi's fists toward Rick's face as he drops to the ground, trembling, bruised, and battered.

"You're thinking about it, aren't you? Replacing your Morty. Replacing us. Going to another Universe and starting this mission over. What aren't you telling us, SANCHEZ!? TELL ME!!! TELL US!!!"

Zed prepares the darkest spell as his eyes glowed white.

"Or... die... I mean... I wouldn't care. There are infinite amounts of Ricks, after all. Right?" sneered Zed.

"Holy shit... You're fucking insane... You're fucking... *cough cough...*" Rick slowly stood up as he raised his palms, telling Zed to stop. "Uncle... Uncle... *cough cough...*"

Rick slowly sits down.

"Stefan," said Rick.

"Stefan was defeated five years ago. He's dead," said Zed.

"No... No, he fucking isn't," Rick trembled in pain. "This planet is a planet destined for a chain of events that causes him to be awakened."

"Who!?" asked Zed.

"Bill Cipher... The man who starts the Goddamned Apocalypse..." Rick said as blood drips from his mouth. "But in the main Omniversal Timeline... There's only one Zed... One Lord Marvel... One Reaper... One Jotaro Kujo... One Giorno Giovanna... One Morty Smith... One Rick Sanchez... One Bruce Wayne... One Peter Parker... One us... There is only one you, Zed... There are versions, but one you. And every you have a purpose in their own timeline. Us? Our specific versions? We're special for a reason... We're the ones destined to battle against Stefan and his army. We're more than just our flaws and our struggles... I've acknowledged that... I have... That's why I wasn't planning to replace any of you by swapping dimensions and destroying your own. I've accepted that your world is the only one I'm stuck with... Something that I can't control but I can neither just stand by and let it be destroyed. I've found my purpose... And that's to help this world not get destroyed by that psychopath. Stefan is destined to destroy our Omniverse... and we've been suffering over and over... looping in very different versions of ourselves in God and The Author's cruel minds. Please... I'm just trying to live my purpose... So live yours."

"Did we die before?" asked Zed.

Rick went silent.

"Did we die-!?"

"Yes," sighed Rick. "You all died... Killed by Stefan's old incarnation... The Anti-Monitor. Join me, please... I beg of you. So we can save everything and everyone from yet another cruel death and a more cruel Omniversal Loop."

"You remember, don't you?" asked Zed.

"Yes," said Rick. "I remember everything... My death... The world's destruction. Everything. It was different each time... But every 73rd year of my life... I remember."

"Thank you," said Zed. "For telling us."

"May God help us-..."

*click click click click click*

The group slowly turns around to see a giant circular crab-like creature with eight eyes, large claws, and legs. It had a large insectoid mouth with millions of razor-sharp spikes in its mouth. It is about 5 meters tall and 20 meters wide.

"It's a Crawn," said Rick, as he backed away.

"SO!?" asked Celine.

"Run," said Rick.