Rick and The Loud House

It was late at night and just about everyone was asleep apart from one person. Lucy quietly opened the door to her room and crept into the bathroom, making sure not to wake anyone up. With her, she carried a flash light and some kind of book. After entering the bathroom, Lucy closed the door and put down the toilet seat lid for her to sit on before turning on the flash light and reading the comic book. The book being titled 'Princess Pony'. Lately, Lucy had started to become sick of her usual activities. She needed a break from the darkness. After accompanying Lincoln to the comic book store, she had spotted the book and on a whim, she had bought it in secret. As much as she hated to admit it, this story about colourful, cutesy ponies actually seemed appealing to her. She knew there'd be risks though. She knew how the rest of her siblings would react if they found out someone like her was reading something like this. She didn't think she'd be able to handle the teasing. This was why she reading it now in secret.

Lucy then jumped as she suddenly heard someone's door creak open. She started to panic. Not having enough time to think of what else she could do, she got up and threw the book into the toilet and then hid behind the bath curtains before a groggy Lincoln came in. Once he had done his business, flushed the toilet and left, Lucy quickly left the bathroom, closing the door behind her before creeping back into her own room.

...

The next morning, Lucy awoke to the sound of water splashing and her sister, Lola, screaming. "LINCOLN!"

Lucy got up and left her room to see Lola in front of the bathroom, which had water spilling out of it while the rest of her siblings were lined up behind her. Lola glared at Lincoln. "You clogged the toilet again?!"

Lincoln frowned. "What makes you think I did it?"

"Because every time the toilet gets clogged, it's always been you!" Lola argued.

"Ok, true but this time, it wasn't me. I swear!" Lincoln rebuffed.

"W-What's going on?" Rick grumbled as he came upstairs. Unlike everyone else, Rick's room was downstairs, connected to the garage as he had built his room himself.

"Lincoln clogged the toilet again!" Lola tattled.

Rick glared at Lincoln. "Oh good job, Lincoln, you clogged the only toilet in the house."

Lynn also glared at Lincoln. "Yeah, great job, Lincoln."

As this was all happening, Lana had gone into her room and came back carrying a heavy plunger. "This looks like a class 5 clog. I'm gonna need Big Bertha for this one." She entered the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Not too long after, she came out holding a soggy, crumpled up comic. "Well, here's the culprit."

Everyone there looked at the comic in confusion. "Princess Pony?" Lori asked.

"Yeah, I wonder who'd read something like this?" Lana squinted her eyes at her twin. "Lola."

Lincoln glared at Lola. "Of course! It must have been Lola!" He pointed at Lola. "You're the only one who'd read something like that. And you tried to pass the blame onto me!"

Luna gave Lola a disappointed look. "Not cool, dude."

Lola looked offended by the accusations. "Um, excuse me? That is not mine! I may be girly and pink, but I do have standards!"

All the siblings and Rick started to argue amongst theirselves apart from Lucy, who kept out of it, trying to stay in the background and Lori, who raised her hands to get everyone to stop. "Everyone, be quiet!" Lori called out, making everyone stop. "Look, there's no real proof that either Lincoln or Lola did it, so until there is, we should just let Mom and Dad handle it for now. Ok?" A couple of the sisters muttered in agreement though Lucy noticed Lincoln and Lola were still glaring at each other.

...

After being informed of what happened, Lynn Sr. had contemplated grounding everyone until the culprit revealed themselves until Rick argued on their behalf, arguing that grounding everyone for what one person did was unfair (though Lucy suspected the only reason that Rick defended them was because everyone being grounded would interfere with his adventures). Lynn Sr. relented and decided to let everyone off before he and Rita tried to investigate who could have done this. Lucy felt bad for letting Lincoln and Lola take the blame but with no real proof that either of them did it, Lucy thought that the whole incident would eventually be dropped. She doubted they would ever suspect her anyway. Later on at night, Lucy pushed it all out of her head as she sat on the couch next to her Edwin bust to watch Vampires of Melancholia. Lucy smiled. "This is it, Edwin. A whole new season of our favorite show, can't wait to watch it." She picked up her bust. "Just you and me."

"Hey Luce."

"Scoot over."

"Yah!" Lucy jumped out her seat. For once, she'd been the one to get scared as Lori and Leni sat on the couch. Recovering from the scare, Lucy cradled her bust as she looked at her older sisters. "What are you doing here? 'The Dream Boat' is on Monday nights, remember?"

"Duh, we're here to watch VoM!" Both Lori and Leni said simultaneously as they smiled at Lucy.

"First, please don't call it that, second, you guys have never been interested in my show, why are you-"

Lucy was unable to finish as both of them looked at the TV and squealed. "Ah! There he is!"

On screen, a taxi had pulled up to a creepy looking castle. A buff, handsome looking man stepped out of it. "Woah, this place looks sick."

Lori and Leni squealed again as they flailed their legs in excitement. "Blake Bradley!"

Lucy frowned. "Who?"

Lori blinked in surprise before picking Lucy up to look at her. "Duh, literally the cutest actor ever."

Leni took Lucy from Lori. "Didn't you know he was gonna be a new character on VoM?"

Lucy pushed both of them off of her. "Sigh, it's called-"

"Yo, anybody home?" Onscreen, the character Blake was playing had entered the castle.

Lori sighed, infatuated with the actor. "Why is he literally so dreamy?"

The scene then cut to a vampire going through a door at the top of a staircase. The vampire was carrying a candle as looked downwards towards the other man. Lori and Leni's expressions dropped. "Yikes, who's that creepy guy?" Leni asked.

"That's Edwin, the main character." A frustrated Lucy answered.

As Edwin came downstairs, the character Blake was playing approached him. "He-Hey, Uncle Eddie!"

"Tristan, my great-great-great-great grand nephew, this is a surprise." Edwin said monotonously.

"Looking good, are you sure you're really three hundred?"

"What brings you to Melancholia?"

"Just thought I'd crash at casa creepy for a while."

"Well, I must confess, I'm not really custom to sharing my castle with mortals."

"No worries bro, I can hang with anyone, now bring it in. Bro hug." Tristan hugged Edwin, who looked rather uncomfortable.

Lori and Leni had clasped each other's hands. Lori sighed. "So gorge!"

"You can just tell, he'd be a great boyfriend." Leni added.

Lucy was sat in between them. "What is happening?"

Later on as the credits were rolling, Lucy had her arms folded while Lori and Leni were still swooning over the actor. Lori sighed. "That was literally amazing."

"Totes, this is definitely gonna be our new Friday night thing, Lori, me, you, and VoM." Leni said as she rubbed Lucy's head affectionately, unaware of Lucy gritting her teeth. She did not want to spend every Friday listening to Lori and Leni squeal over some actor. It was obvious to her that was the only reason they'd watch this. Neither of them had watched an episode beforehand and Lucy couldn't stand the fact that they'd only watch it for such a vain reason. Lucy supposed she could just use interdimensional cable to watch a version of the show without Tristan but she and everyone else felt that if they used the cable to try and find perfect versions of the shows they watched then there wouldn't really be much point in even watching TV. Which was why in that regard, they kept to the shows from their own universe. She had to think of a way to put them off the show.

Before Lori and Leni could get up and leave, Rick entered the living room. "Hey, if you're done with that vampires of whatever show, anyone wanna join me for a ride through space?"

Lori raised an eyebrow at Rick. "Really? This late?"

Rick rolled his eyes. "It's only 'this late' on this side of the planet."

Lori then got distracted as her phone started to ring. She turned back to Rick. "Yeah, I'll pass." She answered her phone as she got up to leave. "Hey, Tammy. How are things?" Lori had to admit, she was grateful for Rick upgrading her phone so she could talk to people across the galaxy.

After Lori had left, Rick turned to Lucy and Leni. "You two?"

Leni smiled. "Sure, I'll go."

Lucy shrugged. "Sigh. I suppose I'll come."

Rick nodded. "Alright, looks like it's just the three of us then."

"Wait, Lincoln's not coming?" Lucy asked.

Rick rolled his eyes. "What, do I have to take Lincoln on every adventure now? Just felt like mixing it up for once. Come on, let's go."

...

Lucy was sat at the back on the cruiser while Leni sat up front with Rick. Lucy rather enjoyed flying through space. Staring out into the cold, dark, endless void gave her a few ideas for her poetry. She had to admit, this was kind of awkward though. Now that she thought about it, she and Leni rarely ever hung out together. This was mostly due to the two of them just being way too different. Lucy noticed Leni seemed to be thinking about something before she turned to Rick. "Say, Grandpa Rick, you're like, smart right?"

Rick raised an eyebrow at her before concentrating on where he was driving. "So I've been told."

"Do you have any idea who could have clogged the toilet?"

Rick shrugged. "Well, to be honest, I don't think either Lincoln or Lola did it. Whoever put that comic in the toilet obviously did it in a panic. I think the person who did it is someone we'd suspect the least. Someone who would rather die then be caught reading something like that. Right, Lucy?"

Lucy jumped at Rick suddenly calling her out. Did he know? "Um, y-yeah I guess." She replied nervously. Luckily, Leni didn't seem to notice anything wrong and before the conversation could continue, everyone suddenly heard beeping.

"Oh yeah, distress beacon! Yeah, baby!" Rick cheered.

"You're happy about this?" Lucy asked.

"The first rule of space travel kids, is always check out distress beacons;" Rick explained. "We'll either rescue a bunch of aliens and get rewarded for it or if the aliens are already dead, we get a bunch of free shit!"

Leni looked concerned. "Isn't that, like, stealing?"

Lucy shrugged. "I suppose the dead won't have much use for it."

Rick turned his cruiser around to track down the distress beacon signal. "Course there's always a chance that its a deadly trap, but I'm ready to roll those dice!"

...

After making it to the ship the distress signal was coming from, the three explored the ship for any signs of life. Looking around the metal corridors, Leni felt unnerved as the lights were out and some of the alien technology looked broken. "Guys, I think something really bad happened here."

Rick, who was carrying a flashlight, smiled. "Yeah. Cha-ching. Oh yeah, if you find a room full of eggs, don't shy away from it, give one of them a shake. Those facehuggers are worth more than this ship." Suddenly a door opened up behind them, causing Leni to yelp. Six ship crewmembers came out from the door. Rick smiled nervously. "Oh, hey! You're alive! Thank God."

The crewmembers were blue-skinned humanoids with three yellow-tipped protrusions on their heads. They all wore green uniform. There were five males and one female. The female one approached them, looking frightened and out of breath. "Can you help us? Our planet was taken over by some kind of...entity! It absorbed the minds of our people!"

"We didn't notice until it was too late." Another crewmember added. He started to sweat as he stepped towards the three. "The people it takes over, they look like your friends, your family, your leaders, but they're not themselves any more. They're part of It."

Rick folded his arms. "And how do you know it didn't get on the ship with you?" Rick pointed at the two crewmembers standing at the back. Unlike the others, their sclera was yellow instead of white. "Those two ding-dongs seem pretty calm about the whole thing."

The two then let out inhuman screeches and walked towards the other crewmembers. "Hey! No, no- uurgh!" They then grabbed the other crewmembers and started barfing some kind of green substance into their mouths.

Leni screamed in horror as she and Lucy went to hide behind Rick, who still had his arms crossed. "Called it."

Once they were finished, all of them stood up and turned towards Rick. All of them had yellow sclera now, indicating they were under something's control. Rick got his laser gun out just in case they were about to attack. To his surprise, all of them put a hand on their hips and smiled flirtily at him. "Hello, Rick. Long time no see."

Rick's eyes widened. "Unity?"

Lucy and Leni looked at Rick in confusion. "You...know it?" Lucy asked.

Rick put his gun away and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Oh boy. Uh, these are my grandkids, Leni and Lucy. Leni, Lucy, this is uh, Unity. We sort of used to, uh, date."

Both Lucy and Leni's jaws dropped.

...

Unity had taken control of the ship and flown it towards its planet. A peaceful planet that seemed to be more technologically advanced than Earth according to how some of the alien looking buildings looked. Its sky was yellow and it had both green and blue grass along with purple bushes and lavender-colored mountains. After the ship landed, Rick, Lucy and Leni were greeted to a purple haired woman wearing glasses and a dark, scarlet suit. This appeared to be Unity's main body. Or at least the one in charge of running the planet. She had two bodyguards behind her along with a crowd of people. "Quite an operation you got going here Une." Rick folded his arms. "You're a whole planet now, huh?"

The woman spoke. "After we broke up, I spend some time wandering through space,"

"then I found this world," One of the bodyguards continued.

"where I was better able to focus on my passion for unification." The other bodyguard finished. By this point, it was obvious to Lucy and Leni that everyone here was under Unity's control.

Leni was still unnerved by all of this. "I don't get it. That's not a planet, it's a creepy alien thing that...takes over people's heads!"

Rick facepalmed. "Leni, rude. Why don't you kids run off and play with Unity while Unity and I do some catching up."

"They're not gonna barf into our mouths and absorb our minds, right?" Lucy asked.

Unity gave Lucy and Leni a reassuring smile. "You're guests here on my planet, you're free to be yourselves;" It glanced at Rick. "I've never been good at disappointing Rick."

Leni cringed. "Ewww..." She then begrudgingly walked off with four other blue aliens with Lucy following behind. While Leni may be disgusted, Lucy couldn't help but be somewhat impressed. She thought dating a vampire would be exciting but her Grandpa Rick had gone way beyond that.

After walking through the streets for a bit, Lucy and Leni stopped as Lucy noticed a newspaper stand and went up to read the newspaper headline. "World peace achieved."

Leni frowned. "This is so not world peace. Everyone's like, the same person here."

"Sigh. Truly, that would be the only way for world peace to be achieved." Lucy remarked.

"What?! No it's...not..." Leni tried to argue though she was a little unsure herself.

Lucy couldn't help but think about how her siblings would react to her reading Princess Pony again. "People are always attacking each other over small, petty differences. We'll never get world peace. That's just how people are."

Leni noticed the aliens following them were nodding their heads before she gave Lucy a look of concern. Sometimes it troubled her how Lucy always looked at things in such a dark way. Though she supposed Rick also looked at things that way as well. Maybe Lucy got it from him.

...

Meanwhile, Rick walked through the streets alongside a woman in a yellow suit. "So what's next?" He asked.

"After I become a type-one civilisation, this world will be invited into the Galactic Federation. You can imagine where things will go from there." The woman replied.

Rick grinned. "I like that. Destroying the federation by assimilating all of it. Oh, that's pretty sexy." The woman nodded before getting onto a bus while an old lady got off. "Hey listen, where can I get a drink around here?"

The old woman walked with Rick. "Recreational substances were phased out here. There's no need for escape from the self when your world is one."

Rick put an arm around her. "Unity, Unity, who am I talking to? I watched you assimilate a whole police station just to get your hands on the evidence locker."

The old woman entered a house as a delivery man approached Rick. "Rick, when we met, I was a young hivemind with the population of a small town." He got into his delivery truck. "People...change."

The delivery man drove off as a nearby busker, sitting down with a guitar, continued the conversation. "Especially when I change them. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but...I've grown."

"Hey, listen, I've grown too." Rick noticed a few people passing by giving him a questioning look. "I have! See, I've-I've reconnected with my family."

"Hm, why is that I wonder?" A nearby policewoman, leaning on her police car, asked as she gave Rick a seductive look.

Rick approached the policewoman. "Maybe it's part of getting old." He then took her hand. "Maybe I just miss being with...a collective."

The two put their arms around each other and started to make out. A small crowd then gathered to watch. "Yes Rick! Yes! Yes!" All of them moaned.

Rick then pushed Unity off him. "Wait, wait, stop! H-Hold it! Not like this." Rick grinned. "We need a hang glider. And a crotchless Uncle Sam costume. And I want the entire field of your largest stadium covered end to end with naked redheads! And I want the stands packed with every man that remotely resembles my father!"

...

Lucy and Leni were sat down in luxurious lounge chairs, eating hamburgers and being fanned as they watched a mountain get carved into Lucy and Leni's heads. While Lucy was relaxed, Leni still seemed uncomfortable. After noticing this, Lucy asked. "Are you ok Leni?"

Leni shook her head. "This is so wrong! Everyone's lost their indy...inda...umm..."

"Individualism?"

Leni nodded. "Yeah, that. This is just creepy!"

"I can hear you." Leni's fan holder stated.

Leni shuddered. "Ugh, see?" Leni sighed. "Can we just go back to Grandpa Rick?"

The fan holder looked away awkwardly. "Now's...not a good time."

...

Rick, dressed as Uncle Sam, flew into a stadium in a hang glider. "Oh yeah! I want youuuuuu!" Rick bellowed as he flew in.

The men in the stadium started to chant. "Go son go!"

...

Later on, Rick panted as he left the stadium, wearing a yellow bathrobe. "Oh my God. Oh my God." He leaned up against a lamp post before drinking from a bottle of water.

Three of the redheads followed him out, also wearing bathrobes, along with four bespectacled men wearing white shirts and ties. "Oh Rick, it was so bad."

"What's this 'was' stuff? I just need to hydrate and then we're doing that again!"

Rick and Unity then looked up, noticing a few rectangular space ships had flown in, stopping above them. Unity's eyes widened as it realised who this was. "Oh damn."

Rick was about to walk off. "Listen, if this is an invasion I gotta sit this one out, but I'll-I'll be back to have sex with the survivors."

"It's a neighboring hivemind species, Beta-7." Another redhead explained as a smaller, pyramid shaped shuttle, slowly dropped out of one of the ships. Once it landed, it opened up, revealing six boxes, each with identical, somewhat short, pale skinned, male humanoids which were all part of the hivemind. They almost resembled cyborgs as each of them also had one mechanical eye. "Our planet's maintained a practical alliance for exchange of vital resources." As Beta-7 approached Unity, it whispered to Rick. "So be nice!"

Beta-7 smiled. "Unity." He then looked at Rick and started to get nervous. "Is it a...bad time? Are all...present lifeforms...assimilated?"

One of the men stepped forward and gestured to Rick. "Beta-7, this is my single-minded friend from Earth, Rick."

"Rick...Sanchez." Beta-7 frowned bitterly. "Unity has spoken of you."

"All bad I hope." Rick laughed. Rick then patted Beta-7 on the back. All the Beta-7 then screamed and pointed at Rick causing Rick to jump back. "Whoa, Jesus Christ!"

"Beta-7!" They stopped screaming and looked at one of the redheads. All of Unity had its hands on its hips. "If my allies are a problem for you perhaps our alliance is as well."

Beta-7 approached it nervously while Rick went over to look at his shuttle. "Our alliance is beneficial. When Beta-7 expresses concern it-it's only...be-because..."

"Oh snap!" Everyone's attention was now on Rick as he held up two bags of powder. One green and one purple. "Powdered neutronium? Amphetetron? You know what I can make with this stuff?"

Beta-7 gave Unity a concerned look while it looked unsure. "Oh...Rick, I-I shouldn't..."

"Come on, it's not every day that I'm in town! It-it's for old time's sake."

"Uh..." Unity then smiled and walked towards Rick. "Okay, what the hell!" It took the green powder from Rick. "We can purify the resin and make fractal dust!"

Rick shrugged. "Oh, I was thinking velocitinis, but..."

"Aww, old man Rick can't party with the whole planet?" Unity teased. Rick and Unity laughed while Beta-7 watched them, frowning. Rick walked past him with his arms around two of the redheads. "I can do whatever you do and more, baby."

"Hrmm..." All of Beta-7 lowered his head as he started to leave.

Rick grinned as he watched Beta-7 leave. "You know, I think Beta-7 over there is hoping your alliance can be more than practical." Unity laughed along with Rick.

...

As Lucy and Leni walked through the streets, Leni leaned down to Lucy to whisper to her so that Unity couldn't hear them. "We should totally do something about this."

Lucy shook her head. "Sigh. We shouldn't interfere, Leni. Besides, Unity's been pretty nice to us so far."

"So? How do you know its not just pretending and just...start being mean out of no where? Besides it's wrong!" Leni suddenly shouted. "It's wrong, wrong, wrong!" Leni then suddenly grabbed a bespectacled man with a ponytail passing by and started to shake him. "Snap out of it! Stop...being...mind controlled!"

"Leni!" Lucy called out as Leni started to slap the man.

This didn't have any real affect on the man as he readjusted his glasses after Leni finished. "Why do you hate me, Leni?"

This made Leni pause. "Uh...I don't...hate you?"

Unity sighed. "Leni, before I took over this planet, this man was a registered sex offender."

Leni gasped. "He went around offending women?"

Unity blinked in surprise. "Well...something like that."

A woman stepped forward. "This woman was a..." Unity tried to think of a way to phrase this. "Well, she was in a very bad place. Almost on the verge of killing herself. Now she's a marine biologist."

A bespectacled man with a moustache and a goatee stepped forward. "I know taking away their free will may seem terrible to you but please understand, I have transformed life here into a paradise. Prostitutes are now scientists. The homeless are now phisosophers."

Leni looked confused. "Phisosophers?"

"Philophiluh...phiphophibup..." Unity babbled. It was starting to look sick.

"Phiphophiphophipholers?" Leni asked.

"I'm feeling...urk!" The man puked before falling to the floor. As he did, the people around them fell to the floor as well.

"Are you okay? Do you need help?" Lucy asked in concern.

"I'm fine." All of them replied.

...

At Unity's main house, a building that resembled a red version of the white house, it was currently throwing a party as all the people there danced to the techno music. It leaned on its desk as it looked at Rick with a flirty grin. "Do you know what I love about you, Rick?" It got up to lie across its desk. "You're the only single mind I've met who really sees the big picture."

Rick was sat on the couch, drinking. After he finished, he turned his head to it. "You got that right. But...baby, listen. Y-You're talking about taking over this planet and the federation, you gotta...you gotta just...remember to let go sometimes, you know."

It sat up and grinned. "I can let go!" She got up and gestured to Rick to come look out the large window behind her desk. "Hey, look! You see that town across the river? Watch this."

Rick watched while Unity put an arm around him. His eyes then widened in shock as a bunch of missles were suddenly fired at the town. "Whoa!"

"Ha ha! Woot!" Unity cheered as a nuke was then fired at the town.

"Whoa! That's not what I meant!" Rick shouted, panicking.

Unity laughed, leaning onto Rick. "It's okay! It's okay, I evacuated! I evacuated the town, look!"

Rick noticed a large crowd of people in the distance. "Hey! Right here! We're fine!" All of them said at once.

Rick started laughing nervously as Unity walked off. "Oh, that was awesome! My grandkids weren't in that town, right? A-Are my grandkids alive?" He looked at his cup. "H-Hey, my drink is empty."

...

Around town, more people were starting to puke while cars were starting to crash into each other. Lucy and Leni just narrowly avoided a car crash before Leni noticed the ponytailed man from earlier. "Unity, is something wrong?"

"Who's Unity?" The man asked. He then grinned creepily as he approached them. "You kids have nice feet." He got out his phone. "Mind if I take a picture?"

Leni recoiled in disgust. "Eww, no!" Leni took Lucy and walked away from the man as they looked around at all the people that were puking.

"Is Unity losing control?" Lucy asked.

Leni thought for a moment before shouting. "Do you guys, like, know who you are?"

A man in a red shirt looked at his hands as he had regained control of himself. "Yeah. My name is Ron Benson. I'm...an electrical engineer. Father of two, and as you can see from my flat concentric nipple rings." He grinned as he ripped his shirt open, revealing his ringed nipples. "I'm a member of this planet's top race!" Some of the other aliens cheered for him.

Leni tilted her head in confusion. "So you like...racing?"

Lucy started to get nervous. "I don't think that's what he meant Leni."

A bearded man with a yellow shirt stepped forward, glaring at the other man. "I'm Daryll Jefferson. I'm a landscaper." He pointed at the other man. "And I'll be damned if that ripple-nipple bitch's race is superior!" He took his shirt off, revealing his coned nipples. "The cone-nipple people will rule this world!"

"You shut your mouth, you dirty knife-nipple bastards!" Ron shouted.

"What'd you say to me, you target-chested piece of shit?" Daryl shouted back.

"Race war!" Someone shouted as everyone then started brawling with each other.

As riots started to break out throughout the town, Lucy and Leni had run off to hide behind a car as they watched the destruction. "Sigh. I'm beginning to realise why Unity chose to assimilate this planet."

Leni scratched her head in confusion. "So...the thing taking over people's minds was...the good guy?"

"I suppose when you put it like that, it is kinda hard to believe."

One of the rioters noticed Lucy and Leni behind the car. "Hey wait, what race are you guys?"

Lucy and Leni stood up, raising their hands defensively. "We're neither!" Lucy shouted.

"We're totes not even from this planet." Leni added.

"Hey! These two freaks have no race!" The rioter called out to the others.

Lucy and Leni started to run as the rioters chased after them. Eventually the two ran into a corner. "Oh no." Lucy said as she and Leni turned towards the slowly approached crowd. Realising that they had no where to go, the two hugged each other and closed their eyes, preparing for the worst. "Leni, I'm sorry for all the times I scared you."

Leni sniffled. "I'm sorry I didn't try to hang out with you more until recently."

Lucy gave her a surprised look. "Wait, what?"

Before the rioters could attack, three SWAT team members still under Unity's control, came down from a rope hanging from a hovercopter. The three blocked the rioters with their riot shields as a fourth one came down and picked up Lucy and Leni, bringing them up to the hovercopter. After the other three came back in and sat down, one of them opposite where Lucy and Leni sat spoke. "Hello, Leni. Hello, Lucy."

"It's okay! You're safe now." The pilot shouted back at them.

Lucy looked at the SWAT team member sat next to her. "Unity?"

"Yes."

Leni sighed in relief. "I'm sorry Unity. I guess I should have trusted you after all."

Lucy looked at Leni. Usually, Leni was the first to try and find the positives in other people. While she could understand being put off around someone like Unity, she wondered why she didn't even try. "Why didn't you try to give Unity a chance?"

Leni scratched the back of her head. "I dunno...I guess after the whole Mr. Needful thing, I thought that maybe I shouldn't trust these kind of people so easily." Lucy nodded in understanding. Again, she couldn't really blame her for not trusting someone like Unity.

"Oh, Leni, you did nothing wrong!" The pilot reassured them. "I'm having fun with your grandpa! Lost a little control. Probably shouldn't be piloting a hovercopter, nor should I be...running two hundred thousand pediatric hospitals and twelve million deep friers, but hey! It's not like this planet can take its business elsewhere!"

Leni started to get worried. One important thing she remembered from her driving lessons was to never drink and drive. "Uhh, maybe we should stop and get a coffee or something?"

"No, no, if I wanted to be sober, I wouldn't have gotten drunk!" Unity cheered as it clumsily flew the hovercopter away from the city. "Wooohoooo!"

Trying to ignore the possibility of the hovercraft crashing, Leni's thought drifted to something else, causing her to sigh. "What is it?" Lucy asked.

"I just don't get it. Why was everyone fighting over dumb, small things that didn't matter."

"Sigh. I don't really get it either." Lucy suddenly felt guilty upon saying that. Didn't she have a gripe with Leni and Lori earlier over something small and petty? Was she a hypocrite, no better than the people down there rioting? Thinking about it, she decided she needed to talk to Leni and Lori whenever she had the chance.

...

Entering Unity's house, Lucy and Leni saw that the whole place was a mess with blue aliens strewn about everywhere, all of them looking like they were about to pass out. Unity's main body had lost its jacket and was slumped over on its desk. "This place is such a mess." Leni remarked.

Unity suddenly sat up. "Oh, it's cool! The part of me that's the cleaning lady is coming on Friday." Unity gasped as it looked at its watch. "Oh my God! I have a meeting at the Galactic Federation in an hour. Oh, I'll never make it! Ah, I'll push it to next week."

Lucy and Leni glanced at each other, concerned with Unity, before Lucy spoke. "Maybe we should take Rick and leave."

Unity waved its hand dismissively. "Nah, it's fine, don't worry about it. This just looks a lot worse than it really is. We're just having a good time. Why don't you both relax for a bit? You can chill here."

Lucy frowned. "Sigh. I'm gonna go look for Rick."

Unity's eyes widened. "W-Wait! Don't do that. Look, I'll bring him here, just wait a moment."

About a moment later, a shirtless Rick, wearing a sombrero and a fake moustache, stumbled in, holding a bottle of beer. "What the hell...is your problem?"

"Grandpa Rick, don't you think we should be going home now?" Leni asked.

"Fine, geez!" Rick stumbled over to a table full of empty bottles. He pushed them away to find his portal gun before picking it up and firing a portal. "See ya!"

"You're not coming?" Lucy asked.

"Tend your garden, kids, I'm kinda doing a thing here." Rick put his arms around a man and a woman who cheered and giggled in response.

Leni approached Rick with a look for concern. "Grandpa Rick...are you hurting Unity?"

Rick blinked in surprise as he let go of the two aliens. "What? No, I'm not hurting Unity. What makes you say that?"

Leni rubbed her arm. "It's just that...when we got here, everything was all nice and peaceful but...now everything's going wrong and Unity kinda looks sick. Did you do something bad to Unity?"

Rick felt uncomfortable at the look Leni was giving him. In fact, he couldn't stand the look Leni was giving him as he tried to look away. "No...no I didn't do anything to Unity. Look it's fine, really. Unity and I are fine." Rick didn't sound totally sure of himself as he started to gently push Leni and Lucy towards the portal. "Look, you kids just go home and don't worry about all of this, ok?"

Leni gave a worrying glance to Unity before leaving through the portal. Lucy also turned Unity. "Take care of yourself, Unity."

After she left, Rick turned to Unity. "I'm not looking for judgement, just a yes or no. Can you assimilate a giraffe?" All of Unity looked at Rick with an unsure expression.

...

Lucy and Leni exited the portal into the living room where it was now daytime. At that moment, Lori also walked into the living room, texting on her phone. Her eyes widened upon seeing Lucy and Leni. "Guys, you're back! Where's Rick?"

Leni sighed. "Grandpa Rick wanted to stay behind for a while."

Lucy then spoke up. "Lori, Leni, I need to confess something."

Lori and Leni turned to her. "What is it Lucy?"

"Remember last night when you watched Vampires of Melancholia with me?" Lori and Leni nodded. Lucy rubbed her arm. "I wasn't happy about that. In fact I was thinking of a way to try and make you both stop."

Lori looked slightly upset. "Why?"

Lucy's arms slumped. "Sigh. Because of dumb, stupid reasons that don't even matter. I shouldn't have thought like that. I shouldn't have judged your reasons for watching it. It's fine if you still want to watch it with me...though I understand if you don't want to now. I'm sorry."

Lori and Leni glanced at each other before Lori spoke. "Lucy, Tristan may have been the reason we got into the show but to be honest, it also gave us an excuse to hang out with you more."

Lucy looked surprised at that. "Really?"

Leni nodded. "Yeah but, if you don't want us to watch it with you then..."

Lucy shook her head. "No. Actually, I think I'd like to watch more of it with you guys now."

Lori smiled. "Well we could watch the older episodes of VoM together if you want."

Lucy smiled. "I'd like that." Lucy couldn't help but be grateful that Lori and Leni were so understanding. Though, as she heard the faint sound of Lincoln and Lola arguing upstairs, she wondered if they'd be as understanding if they found out about the comic. She almost wanted to confess that as well but she ultimately decided to keep quiet about it.

...

Rick was sat on the couch, watching TV with Unity. "Ok, ok, now make him cry. But happy cry. Now make 'em all make fun of the blonde one. Now make 'em all do it on the table! I can't believe you created a whole show for me. Now cancel it! Ok, now put it back on. Haha!" Rick folded his arms."Alright, I'm bored."

Unity turned to Rick. "Rick, is there a way for you to call Leni and Lucy? I feel bad that they-"

Rick waved his hand dismissively, interrupting it. "Don't worry about them." Rick got up, about to go to the bathroom. "Uugh, I'll be right back. Look, they're good kids, but they're way too needy and hyper-emotional. It runs in the family. They're the kind of people that try to act they know right from wrong, only to start crying once they find out they're in the wrong about something. You know what I mean?" Unity looked downwards in response. "Back in a flash."

After Rick had finished his business, he went to the sink to wash his face and hands. He looked at himself in the mirror. "Best weekend ever, Rick! I agree, Rick! Let's see how long we can go!" Once finished, he made his way out of the bathroom. "Hey Une! You got any more-" Rick paused. The whole room was completely empty.

He looked around until he spotted a note on Unity's desk. He picked it up and read it. 'Rick, forgive me for doing this in notes. I'm not strong enough to do it in persons.'

Rick left the house and went into the empty town. More notes were strewn around. Rick picked one up. 'I realise now that I'm attracted to you for the same reason I can't be with you. You can't change. And I have no problem with that, but it clearly means I have a problem with myself.'

Another note. 'I'm sure there's no perfect version of me. It doesn't matter who I unify. It wouldn't even matter if I unified the whole Federation. I'm sure I'll never really be complete.'

Another note. 'But I know how it goes with us. I lose who I am and become part of you. Because in a strange way you're better at what I do without even trying.' Rick's thoughts briefly drifted to Lisa before concentrating on what he was reading again. 'Yours, and nobody else's, Unity. P.S. I don't know where those coal miners were before they got assimilated. You might want to get checked.' Rick dropped the note and put his hands in his coat pockets as he went to find his cruiser.

...

After coming home, Rick could hear Lincoln and Lola arguing upstairs over something that was probably irrelevant. He went into the living room to see Lori, Leni and Lucy watching Vampires of Melancholia together. He had a dull expression on his face. "Hey."

Leni turned to look at him. "Grandpa Rick, you're back!" She got up. "What happened with you and Unity?"

Rick shrugged. "Eh. You were right Leni. Me and Unity? We just wouldn't work out, you know. Anyway, I'll be in the garage."

As Rick left, Lori turned to Leni and Lucy. "Who's Unity?"

"A hivemind that could take control of other people's minds." Lucy answered.

Leni smiled. "It was nice!"

Lori smiled as well. "Wow...I could literally have gone without knowing something like that exists out there."

Once Rick entered the garage, he downed the contents of his flask until it was completely empty. He then tossed it behind him and rested his hands on his desk, a depressed look on his face. He looked towards his equipment. He bent down and opened the cupboards. He took out two red light bulbs and put them onto his desk. Before he could do anything else though, he heard a voice behind him. "Grandpa Rick?"

Rick turned around. The voice had come from Lana as she had just entered the garage. "What?"

Lana looked somewhat awkward. "I was just wondering, I know you said your space cruiser was too complicated to fix but..." She clasped her hands and had a pleading look on her face. "Could you please teach me about it? I really wanna try working on it someday."

Rick thought about it for a moment. He had to admit, Lana was a natural when it came to machinery and fixing things. Imagine what she'd be able to do in twenty years. And hey, it'd be nice to teach something to his grandkids that didn't upset them for once. He smiled at her. "Sure, Lana."

...

"Unity! Unity! Unity!" The next day, an angry Rick had taken his cruiser to a diamond shaped space ship.

A screen popped up from inside Rick's cruiser, displaying a transmission from Beta-7. "How can I assist you?"

"I wanna talk to Unity. Beta-7, I know it's in there!"

Sat next to Rick was Luan who had folded her arms, giving Rick an annoyed look. "I thought you said we were going to a movie."

"We are!" Rick snapped.

"You're classified as a hostile entity and Unity doesn't want to talk to you." Beta-7 calmly explained.

Rick scowled. "I know your game, Beta-7, I've met a billion of you, you little on-deck in-the-wind shoulder to cry on!"

"You are classified as a hostile entity."

"Oh, you're just loving this, mother f-" Rick grabbed his head and tried to calm himself. "This isn't gonna shape out like you think, pal! Unity's not into other hiveminds! It's gonna suck you in and use you up and a month from now I'm going to be making out with all of you in a bunch of red wigs!" Rick grabbed the screen and shook it. Beta-7 smirked in response. "Unity! Unity! Unity, I know you can hear me! Get out here!"

"Weapons systems engaged."

"Oh, in your dreams you have weapons systems."

"Guess he should be called Alpha-7, because it looks like you're the beta now!" Luan joked before laughing. Rick growled in response.