I'm trapped. In a prison cell, in a foreign aircraft, with no means of getting back home.

The panic's already set in.
There's no going back.
I'm past the point of no return.
Way past it.
I've lost my sanity, every last bit of it thanks to the stress of the situation I'm in.

My hands are locked in place above my head, my legs dangling, barely scraping the floor with my toes. I'm in a hopeless situation.

No, no, no. I can't let this happen again. There's no way I'd let myself get to this point again.

Calm down, just breathe. This is fine.

No it's not, I'm going to DIE!

No.
Stop.
Think.

Take a good look at your surroundings, Gwen. There's a silver lining hiding somewhere in this cell, you'll need to be calm enough first in order to find it.

"Alright, let's do this—"

The swish of the doors swinging open startled me, shutting me up quickly as I watch a figure dressed in a black skin-tight suit with short greasy brown hair.

"Hi Gwendolyn."

"Tammy..." I sneered, balling my constrained fists. "You really can't let the past go, huh? You can't just let my family live in peace? You're that miserable with your life—?"

She chortled. "That's hilarious coming from you."

"You gave me good reason not to trust you. It only took me one red flag, just the one, to know you had other intentions. For a 'secret agent', the bad vibes you gave off were just through the roof—"

"Shshshshshsh!" She put one of her greasy sausage fingers up to my lips, pressing them shut hard.

"You know, some dry shampoo will fix that little problem of yours real quick—"

She punched me square in the gut, momentarily knocking the wind out of me and making me short of breath.

"That pathetic excuse for a family is the least of my current concerns. You know who it is I want..."

I furrowed my brows at her, shooting her the iciest of glares.

"He's outsmarted you dingbats before, he'll do it again! What makes you think he'll come for me?"

"Oh, he'll come. We know he'll come, Mrs Sanchez." Tammy cackled. "After we capture Rick, we'll have him lobotomized right in front of you before discarding you into space. Mr Sanchez is going to service his sentence one way or another. Oh believe you me, I'd tear this place down brick by brick just to get my hands on that slippery son of a bitch again."

Tammy smirked, pinching my cheek. "Enjoy the rest of your miserable little life!" She strolled out of the cell, letting the door slide shut behind her with a whir and a thud.

I immediately got to work trying to swing myself up so my feet could touch the wall opposite of me, my cell was just that small. Tapping the sole of my shoe, I opened it up to expose a secret compartment that stored a file that I kicked up into my hand.

I missed....

.... shit.

.......

... thank God I've got a spare file.

I attempt another kick, it successfully reaches my left hand which I start violently filling away at the cuffs. It took me a while but I finally broke free out of my first restraint. Filing through the second one was much easier as I was getting anxious and a lot more impatient, so I began to tug at it until I bridge free.

I landed on both of my feet, the sound of metal bars clanking and rattling as they shook and vibrated. Still riding off of that impatient high, I jump with all my might to break through the gated floors. The snapping of the bolts startles me, but not nearly as much as the sensation of plummeting from a once trusted platform down a rabbit hole so deep that I could not guess what could be waiting at the bottom for me.

I squeezed my legs together and pinned my arms to my sides as I fell, falling faster down, feeling my heart accelerate.

The sudden light and the change in platform caught me offguard when I landed wobbly, almost dropping to a knee to recoup myself. I was on another level on the ship, on a catwalk it seemed at first. The white light cane from underneath the gated floors of this level, but the lights on the walls were much different. From where I was standing, where I was facing led down a tight tunnel with luminous purple lights down either wall.

Before I could make my first stride down the tunnel, I feel something wrap around my waist and lift me up into the air.

Of course this made me yelp, instinctively making me want to kick and scream till my lungs gave out, but then I felt myself being spun.

I was hugged from behind with such warm intention that it couldn't possibly have been a guard, I knew who this was and it made my face flush red.

"You scared me." Rick nuzzled his head in the nook of my neck, whispering this to me. My hand found its way to his hair, tussling it playfully before feeling the effects of this newfound confidence. I'm going home! I'm sure of it!

"How did—? Where are the others?" I turned to face him.

"In the space cruiser, waiting to see Grandma escape from prison." Rick chuckled, grabbing my hand and racing with me at his side down the long winding tunnel.

"Wait! So there's no chance that we'd run into any guards, right?" I gasped, trying to keep up with Rick. How was this old man running at the speed of light like that and still could carry conversation? "You took care of them before finding me, yeah?"

We ended up in a teal-coloured room, dimly lit and with a multilayer of gated platforms over head that I only noticed when I looked up.

"Well... not exactly."

It was filled to the brim with alien guards. Every platform, every corner you looked was another lanky bug alien armed and ready to fire. This, of course, sounded very familiar to me.

"Rick," I whispered, motionless besides him, hoping they hadn't noticed us yet. "Did you bring any of my things?"

Rick chuckled deeply, his voice hearty when he whispers. "Thought you might need them." He reached into his lab coat and pulled out what first appeared to be a folded sheet of metal. When he began to unfold it, that's when the guards fully took notice of us.

Out popped the space cruiser I built, still as sharp nosed as I had remembered it.

"Ready, men... fire!"

We raced for either door, making it in almost cleanly. I had a bullet graze my left shoulder, making me gasp when I realized I had been bleeding. I looked at my hand before looking over at Rick, subconsciously looking for a reaction. He growled, tightening the grip he had on the steering wh—

Steering wheel...?

I look out in front of me. Oh, crap, I'm in the passenger seat. I forgot I designed the wheel to be on the right. Dumb move now, but Rick's a good driver. I really thought I'd be the getaway driver.

The cruiser was taking a lot of damage as it vibrated with such force that I feared that it would start to give up on us.

"Put it into cloaking!" Rick obeyed, quickly finding the button and pushing it hard.

Nothing changes around us but the looks on every guard surrounding us. Rick put the ship into gear, lifting us up. I designed it to be silent, running on only a battery that couldn't make a ruckus like Rick's clunky old ship. Nothing bad against his, I'm just glad I made a few upgrades to my sleek space cruiser.

Rick reached into his coat again and pulled out a pistol, handing it to me. I thanked him before bringing down the window slightly as Rick began to fly about the ginormous room.

I watched as Rick pulled out a pistol for himself, rolling down his window slightly to aim out of it.

Without a trace of detection by the guards, we shot down every single one without fail. We couldn't care enough to get them all so we sped off, up into the glass ceiling above us. Rick sped up, putting the cruiser into another gear before putting both hands on the wheel again tighter than before. "Brace yourself, Winnie."

Only now do I put on my belt, as the force pulling me to the back of my seat becomes unbearable, I struggle to move. I watch the impact of us smashing through the glass and escape out through into the dark abyss of outer space. We float for what feels like a second before firing forward and flying straight towards a familiar disk.

The whole family's there, I see them!

I feel my heart flutter with relief as I watch them grow closer, but I know I called the shots much too soon. The pull of something invisible caught us near the noise of the confederation's ship, startling me as I watched Tammy in the window above watch with a sinisterly gleeful look.

Who was that besides her?

"Rick!" I gasped. "Sweetheart, please don't look!"

I shouldn't have said anything, because now he was staring right up at that window too. It was Birdperson, only it wasn't him at all. Like a zombified version of himself, built like a resurrected piece of machinery. I watched in horror as we were quickly sucked back into their ship, they'd somehow saw us through our invisibility cloak and stripped us of it. They've drained us of power, the cruise won't start and I can tell this has pissed Rick off trying to start it up again.

Robotic Birdperson makes his way, stomping with each step as it vibrated throughout the cruiser, towards us with the intention of forcing us out and making us bend to Tammy's will.

This is when I began to panic.
It can't be over, it can't!
I...

I won't let it end like this.

I look all over the space cruiser for a silver lining before my eyes landed on something in the back.

My eyes gleamed with pure excitement when I saw it. I wasted no time throwing myself into the back seat, with great struggle, and reaching out for the blue-and-purple pistol sitting on the white leather seat.

The sound of glass breaking made my head snap up to catch sight of Birdperson breaking through the windshield with his bare fist. I panicked, "Rick! Get down!" Aiming and firing it with little precise, I shoot and miss, having the bullet ricochet off the window hitting every bubbled window in the cruiser, causing it all to shatter and land on the seats. I hugged my head into my chest, slowly rising up out of it when I heard a struggle.

Birdperson had caught a hold of Rick, gripping him by the neck as he lifted him up in the air. I was left in the back of my destroyed cruiser, alone, but not for long.

A slow clap emerged from the red-tinted dust as Tammy walked through it to face me. "Well," she smirked. "Isn't this just the saddest thing you've ever seen?"

"I got this far, didn't I?" I snapped back at her.

I watched as she walked around the nose of the ship and towards the back where I was seated, stopping right at the now windowless door.

"Sure. But who will give a shit just how far you've come when it's me who's already won the battle?" With a quick swipe, she pulled me by the hair and yanked me out of the ship, throwing me onto the floor. I'd left the pistol on the seat. I had no idea she would through me out of the ship with such volition.

I hit the ground hard, gripping my side as I watched her advance on me. "I..." I weakly groaned. "I'm giving you a chance. Call off your cyborg and I won't kill you."

Tammy guffawed, snorting loudly in response.

"Not on your life." She kicked me down, knocking the wind of me as I rolled out over onto my back, stirring in pain.

"Can't say I didn't warn you, Tamantha."

When she came back again to stomp down onto my chest with her heeled foot, I quickly kicked the back of her knee, causing her to drop and hit the back of her head on the cold metal floor. I wasted no time getting up and sinking my teeth hard into her thigh. She howled, but as if that would ever stop me.

I climbed on top to saddle her down, punching the ever living hell out of her. With each strike to her face, a meaning accompanied it.

For Beth.
For Summer.
For Morty.
For Rick.
For the pain you've caused my family.

"Never again." I grunted in between. I must've gotten so carried away and so tuckered out so quick that I had not realized that Tammy was soon getting the upper hand again. She put both of her heeled feet on my chest and launched me across from me, she kicked me so far and with such force that I nearly fell out of the ship.

I recovered, gathering myself up again before charging at Tammy again with my fists balled and right to attack. She had both hands behind her back in an attempt to show off her skills, only using her ability to deliver strong kicks to defend herself.

She caught me by the hair again, flinging me like a ragdoll away from me. I felt myself slide across the floor until my back hit something hard and cold.

I imagined it must've been a wall of the ship, I looked to find my back against the busted up cruiser. I spit out blood before wiping away at my lip, gathering what little strength I had left to get up onto my feet. I watched in horror as Tammy charged at me, realizing what I had been reaching for.

I had flipped myself backwards into the cruiser again, swiftly snatching the pistol and aiming it straight at her head.

The bullet entered through her cheek and I watched as her body reacted to the bullet ricocheting off of every bone in her body, until finally exiting out her side. She was stunned the entire time, but I knew she was still very much conscious as she stood twitching still in her feet.

Climbing out of the car, I leaned in close to her ear, "Don't ever come near me or my family again." With a push to the forehead, she collapsed, folding like a lawn chair at my feet.

Squawking pulled me out of my triumphant moment. The sound was just so sudden, I searched above until finding a beaten down and bruised Rick unable to fend for himself anymore.

I waited for the right moment to take the shot, proceeded and watched as he reacted to the ricocheting bullet. I ran up behind him with the last bit of might in me, launching myself into a flying powerhouse kick to the back of his head, causing it to fly off.

Morbid? Yeah, I guess it was.

The head landed right on top of Rick, who couldn't react to his decapitated friend at all due to his weak state and overwhelming fatigue. "Gwen...?"

"I'm here, Rick. Let's get you home."

Picking him up was a lot easier than I had anticipated. He was so skinny and so tall that I didn't really even struggle carrying him over to the gaping window, waving over at Rick's space cruiser, hoping and praying that the family would see me. Anyone of them.

Just my luck, Morty gains control of the wheel and flies up to land next to my spacecraft.

No better than ever to kiss my contraption goodbye, it served us well.

Carefully helping Rick into the back of the cruiser, I slid in besides him, Summer and Jerry. Rick was just soaked in that cyborg blood, but machines don't bleed so God knows what that stuff was. I couldn't care less right now.

Just the thought of returning home after this hectic mess was all that gave me sanity.