Velatrix's staff split wider, gears spinning faster in reverse until the air itself screamed.
Time froze in staggered bursts — one second stretching into a minute, the next snapping past in a blink.
The vault's light fractured into amber shards, each moment refracted and trapped like flies in glass.
Rod felt it crawling up his spine, that sickening drag as the chrono-loop tried to overwrite his nervous system.
His muscles tensed against commands that were already outdated the moment they fired.
Beth gritted her teeth, forcing herself to aim despite the stutter in her own perception.
"Rod, we've got… maybe five heartbeats before he locks us for good."
Rod's gauntlet pulsed — once, twice — before flaring so bright the blue halo bit into the shadows.
He closed his eyes for half a second, letting his breathing sync to the slow grind of the planet's gears.
"Not today."
The words were low — like echoes spoken in parallel timelines.
He reached deep into the latticework under his skin — the result of decades[1] of bio-engineering: adaptive muscle filaments threaded with synthetic axons, a nervous system already tuned to process reality faster than baseline humans.
But this time, he pushed it further, overclocking those axons with an anchor into the chrono-field itself.
It was crude chrono-law theory at best — something he'd read in a half-burned manual from the Causality Guild.
The Temporal Resonance Principle:If organic bio-cycles can be phase-matched to an external temporal field, the body becomes its own chroniton stabilizer.
In other words? Make your biology the metronome for time.
Pain lanced through his veins as his cells fought to match the chrono-loop's rhythm.
For an instant, he felt his heartbeat in four separate moments at once.
The aura around his fists shifted — still blue, but shot through with faint gold threads, each one vibrating in perfect sync with Neo-Alpha's planetary pulse.
Then he moved.
To Beth, it looked like reality folded around his arm — a punch thrown not once, but across every fraction of the moment they were trapped in.
The floor cracked in concentric circles, shockwaves rippling through the chrono-loop's architecture like a sledgehammer to a spiderweb.
The frozen light shattered, moments snapping back into place.
Beth didn't waste it — she fired a micro-rocket directly into the spire's load-bearing gears.
The explosion sent molten brass spraying across the chamber, tearing the loop apart entirely.
"Cortana! Now!" Rod barked, still gripping the regulator capsule tight.
The star-runner's grappling clamps punched through the vault wall, seizing the deck with a metallic snarl.
A hatch dropped open, and Beth vaulted inside first, covering the entry as Rod followed, chrono-aura still fading from his knuckles.
The moment his boots hit the deck, he rasped, "Punch it!"
Engines roared, tearing the star-runner free just as the spire's upper half collapsed in on itself, gears grinding into ruin.
Behind them, Velatrix's voice bellowed — not in rage, but in something worse.
A promise."Your name will be counted in the lost cycles, Sanchez!"
Rod slumped into his seat, breath steadying as the gold threads in his aura vanished.
The capsule sat in the storage bay, humming faintly.
Beth glanced sideways. "So… you just rewired your biology to fight a time loop?"
Rod smirked, half-exhausted, half-thrilled.
"I call it chrono-synced biokinetics. It's like giving your heartbeat a license to bully the laws of time."
Beth laughed under her breath, pulling off her visor. "You're insane, big oaf."
Rod grinned wider. "And you can praise me more now."
Beth rolled her eyes, but there was the faintest smile as Neo-Alpha shrank into streaks of light behind them.
The space car hummed as the Neo-Alpha skyline shrank into a fractured horizon in the rear viewport, its golden towers bending and stretching unnaturally under the planet's time distortion. Rod adjusted the flight vector with one hand, the chroniton regulator secured in a containment case between them. The thing pulsed faintly, each beat half a second too early, like it was eager to be anywhere else.
Beth sat in the passenger seat, arms folded, still breathing a little heavier than she'd like to admit. "I forgot how much of a pain your little errands were."
Rod glanced sideways. "Errand? We had to fight a mob of time-casters who can fast-forward your organs while rewinding your bones. That's not an errand. That's a bad Saturday morning."
Beth cracked the faintest grin. "And yet you made it sound like a grocery run."
"I'm managing expectations," Rod said, shifting the car into slipstream. "Also, the less you hype up a job, the less disappointed you are when it tries to kill you."
Beth's gaze dropped to the regulator case. "So… this is actually going to work? You and Rick aren't just—"
"It's going to work," Rod cut in, more firmly than he intended. He exhaled. "I know he's tried before. I know he's failed before. But this isn't his plan. It's mine. And I'm not giving Evil Rick the satisfaction of thinking the anchor can't be broken."
Beth was quiet for a moment, watching the warped stars slip past. "You really think Mom will even want to come back? If she's… aware, like you two said."
Rod's hands tightened on the controls. "If she's aware, then she's been stuck in there knowing her own death is a script she can't rewrite. That's not living. And I'm not leaving her in that loop."
Beth leaned back, eyes narrowing in thought. "You sound a lot like him when you say stuff like that."
Rod smirked faintly. "Genetics are a bitch."
A soft chime pinged from the console — a low-band comm request, encrypted. Rod frowned and tapped the receiver. The channel hissed, then cleared.
And for a second, both of them froze.
The voice was faint, warped by distortion, but it was Diane's."Roderick… stop."
Beth's head snapped toward him. "Was that—?"
Before he could answer, the transmission cut to dead silence. The regulator's pulse slowed… then stopped entirely.
Rod's jaw clenched. "Strap in. We're not taking the long way back."
- - - - - - - - - -
The garage door groaned open and Rod's ship drifted in, thrusters whining before settling with a hiss.Beth hopped out first, still holding the regulator case like it was a live grenade.
"Guess who won the race," Rod said, popping the cargo hatch.
Beth smirked. "Hahaha, of course it's us. Dad doesn't stand a chance racing against both of us with only Morty."
Rod locked the regulator into the stabilizer mount. "Speaking of him—where's the old man?"
The air behind them tore open with a fwoop-bworp.
A green portal spat Rick out, hair half-scorched, Morty stumbling after him coughing and covered in soot. Both reeked of burnt circuitry and something… metallic.
"Oh good, you're back," Rick said, flicking ash off his coat like dandruff.
"Totally didn't take a detour through—uh—a weapons embargo zone. You know, standard errand."
"Uh, Dad," Beth said, eyeing Morty's face, "you smell like an incinerated toaster."
Morty threw his hands up. "It wasn't my fault! There was this—this—thing, and it screamed like—like a haunted vacuum cleaner, and—"
"Morty, you're fine, alright? It's called adventure for a reason,"
Rick cut in, shoving him toward the sink. "Go rinse the blood off your face."
Rod crossed his arms.
"Funny, because the last time I checked, 'character building' doesn't leave scorch marks."
Rick jabbed a finger at the regulator on the bench.
"Yeah, well, not all of us can swipe stuff from a bunch of time-hicks and pat ourselves on the back. Some of us like to work for our prizes."
Beth's eyebrows rose. "You're deflecting."
Rick ignored her, grabbing a sonic driver. "Let's get this thing wired before the chronitons—uh—start throwing a tantrum."
Rod stepped closer to Rick, voice low. "She… she talked to you, didn't she?"
Rick didn't meet his eyes. "Who?"
"Don't play dumb, old man. Diane. She—she's aware. She shouldn't be that aware, old man."
Rick sighed, looking suddenly very interested in tightening a bolt on the nearest console.
Rod's voice hardened. "I was thinking on the way back from Neo-Alpha… you're one of the two Ricks who actually created the portal gun.
Not copied. Not given. Created."
Beth frowned. "Wait, there's two?"
Rick waved a dismissive hand. "Multiverse, Beth. Keep up."
Rod pressed on. "If you're that Rick… then it's logical for me to assume that you've already tried all of the method that's possible. More than once..."
Rick's lip curled in a half-smirk, but his eyes didn't match it. "You think you've cracked the big secret, huh? Congratulations, Columbo."
Rod ignored the jab. "But you've done it so many times she's starting to… remember. That's why she's aware now. That's why—" His words cut short.
His gaze sharpened, and his voice dropped to a whisper. "Old man… how many tries do we have left?"
Rick froze.
"I said," Rod stepped closer, "how many tries?"
Rick looked up, face blank. "What do you mean, kid? What tries? We're—we're just building your part, you finish that, we—"
Rod's voice cracked into a shout. "Y—you old fuck! How many more TRIESSSS?"
The garage went silent except for the low hum of machinery.
Rick's shoulders sagged. His voice came out quieter than Rod had ever heard it. "Excluding your trial before this… one.
One more last try until Diane is… truly dead-dead. No higher dimension, no cosmic loophole, no god-tier BS is gonna bring her back."
Beth's eyes widened. "Jesus, Rick…"
Rick rubbed the back of his neck. "I let you try because… maybe she wouldn't notice it's me if you're the one building the Omega+1 Device.
My attempts were—cruder. No five-dimensional networking like you've got. That's why I think your shot's better than mine."
Rod didn't answer right away. He just looked at the Chroniton Regulator in his hands like it had turned to lead.
Rod's teeth clenched, lips trembling as frustration boiled over.
"F-fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! You stupid old man! Don't you think if I knew this, I'd have built something better first?
Or come up with a plan smarter than my last one?"
Rick slammed his hand on the bench, eyes blazing with irritation.
"You think I don't think about that, you dumb mutt? I built everything except the Omega+1 device.
I've tried every damn way—every way you can imagine, and plenty you can't. Maybe it's because it's my Diane. C-137 Diane."
Rod's chest tightened. He remembered, the topic hanging heavy in the multiverse — Beth from C-137 was gone, too but she's easier to revive compared to Diane.
Rick's voice lowered, raw with something like pain beneath the usual gruff.
"Diane, wife of one of the two Ricks who created the portal gun... she's special in ways even I can't figure out.
It's like… she doesn't want to be brought back. I don't know why.
But the weird thing is sometimes she says things… that makes me believe she's waiting for me to save her."
Rod's voice caught, silence stretching like a wound.
"So… you don't believe you'll just let her stay dead?"
Rick's gaze flickered, steady and unyielding.
"No way. You think I'd leave my Diane dead? Hell no."
Rod's throat tightened. "Then… have you tried talking to her? Like we want to do right now?"
Rick exhaled sharply, the frustration resurfacing.
"I tried. A bunch. It doesn't go through."
Rod's eyes sharpened, determination snapping into place.
"Alright. If that's how it is… then we make it go through. I've got an idea—something new. You wanna hear it?"
Rick's expression flickered—half challenge, half weary hope."Lay it on me, kid."
Rod leaned forward, eyes sharp as he laid out the idea that had been gnawing at him since they left Neo-Alpha.
"Alright, Rick. If a call can't go through—if no channel, link, or frequency to talk with Mom exists—then why don't we just go there?"
Rick's head snapped up, irritation flashing in his eyes. "Kid, are you dumb, stupid, or just plain dumb? I said—"
Rod cut him off, voice steady. "Then our soul, or consciousness, whatever you wanna call it, goes and talks to her directly."
Rick blinked, stunned. "Huh? Soul? What the hell are you talking about?
There's no soul. No science, no biology, no physics—no evidence of any 'soul' in the brain or body.
It's all just neurons firing, memories stored in synaptic connections, patterns in the cortex. You can't measure it, you can't isolate it.
The mind is what the brain does, not some ghost floating around."
Rick's voice grew sharper, listing the facts with the cold efficiency of a man who trusts only logic.
"There's the hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex, neural plasticity, electrochemical impulses…
None of that supports the idea of some ethereal 'soul' that can float free or travel to other dimensions.
It's all biology, kid. All measurable."
Rod smiled, a quiet confidence in his eyes. "Old man, I admit you're the genius of all time.
But if there's one thing I know better than you, it's the human body."
He paused, leaning in. "And from what I've researched, the soul—however you want to call it—is real.
Not metaphysical mumbo jumbo. It's something more complex. Maybe it's tied to energy patterns or quantum fields the brain can't fully grasp yet.
It's not something science fully understands, but it's out there."
Rick's glare softened ever so slightly, curiosity flickering beneath his gruff exterior.
Rod pressed on, "So if we can't call her, if we can't send a message through the usual channels, maybe we can send ourselves—our consciousness, stripped of the body, sent directly to where she is."
Rick rubbed his chin, the gears turning behind those sharp eyes. "You're suggesting some kind of… astral projection?
Mind transfer? Quantum consciousness extraction?"
Rod nodded. "Yeah. Something like that.
The science's rough, but it's worth trying. Because if this is the last shot we have, then I want to actually reach her.
Not just talk at shadows."
Rick sighed, the weight of their mission settling deeper.
Rick leaned on the cluttered bench, swirling his flask, eyes narrowing. "Alright, so how exactly do we do this soul-extraction thing?
Most of what I said earlier about projection and all that—it's possible, but from my calculations, it'll destabilize the time loop we're trying to keep steady to save Diane."
Rod smirked, stepping closer. "Who said we have to use your methods, old man?
I was just nodding so you'd follow along. Come on, follow me—I'll show you my research on the soul.
Maybe together we can cook up something that works. You said this is the last try; we have to make it happen."
Beth raised her hand, voice eager. "Can I come too? I want to save Mom as much as you guys do."
Rick and Rod exchanged a look, a rare moment of shared amusement breaking the tension.
Rick laughed dryly and shot his portal gun at the garage wall, a swirling green gateway snapping open.
Rod flicked his wrist, summoning a shimmering blue portal beside Rick's.
"Beth, dear," Rick said with a sly grin, "just stay home this time. I don't want to have to save you too after we get Diane back."
Rod crouched to ruffle Beth's hair, a soft smile tugging his lips.
"My cute little devil, just listen to the old man. We'll be back soon. I promise."
He kissed Beth's forehead gently before stepping through his portal, Rick right behind him, their figures swallowed by the swirling gateways as the garage fell silent.
- - - - - - - - -
Do you get any of that?
Hahaha, now, just for a disclaimer to anyone that's not too deep in the lore;
Our Rod, Roderick Sanchez, is from C-137 just like our Rick and just like Prime Rick and Evil Morty, our Rod is special like them.
Beth, Space Beth and Summer are from C-131.
Morty is from Prime timeline, yes the same timeline as Prime Rick the one who killed all Diane.
Prime Rick left them, that's why in the earlier season, Beth said that Rick left her for 20 years.
FYI, the Prime timeline is the one that people turned to meat monsters resulting from that oxytocin serum Morty used in getting Jessica heart but she had a flu...
And all things turn to bs.
So yea, in C-137 timeline, both Diane and Beth were killed and our Rod's true little devil is Beth (C-137) but that's another thing entirely.
After this revival arc's finished, I have a few major plot lines but there'll be also minor arc to build them lines up, just like in the TV show but in this case it's not that scattered.
That's all, peace!
[1] It's decades for him as he evolved using his results from bio-engineering which gave him mind space and that mind space gave him superior processing power that simulate years of experience in just seconds. It's the mind that undergoes the experience or you can assume it's the soul.