A/N: Making a wobbly return to one-shots for the school holiday period. Huzzah! :D

I am currently working on a lovely SRMTHFG collab-fic with MonkeyMindScream, titled What Lurks in the Darkness. It's posted on her profile, on both and DeviantART. If you like villains, death, sorcery and assassins, plus this real scum-bag …well, I'd appreciate it if anyone reading this right now went over there and had a read. We'd kill for some constructive critique!

Inspired by 'Incident on Ranger 7' and 'The Producers'. Like, the fourth or fifth best musical I've ever seen!!! XD And only because it comes after Phantom of the Opera, Jekyll and Hyde, and Les Misérables. Comedy-wise, BEST MUSICAL EVER. Maybe even better than Avenue Q…

Disclaimer: "I VAZ NEVER A MEMBER OF ZE NAZI PARTY! I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW DERE VAZ A VAR ON! Ve lived in de back! Right next to Svitzerland! All ve ever heard vaz yodeling! Yodel-lay hee-hoo- What do you vant?!?!"

Betrayed

High up in the sky, not at all like a big pizza pie, hung the pale, domineering hulk of the Ranger 7 mental institution. The infamous Moonbase Beta prison complex sat upon the powdery surface of Shuggazoom's moon. In it was-

Silence. Why is it always so quiet on Mondays…?

"Pppsszzttt! … t!"

"Yo, Krink! We got you something good this week. Lift your hiney out of that six by eight and look!"

A rectangular slit appeared in the surface of the metallic door, and in it two yellow eyes. "You two knew that I'm allergic to fish sticks," the eyes said morosely. "You KNEW."

"The other prisoners took the calamari rings, all right?" retorted a whiny voice, coming from the direction of the floor. "The only thing left was the fish sticks. Gotta be better than what they feed you in solitary, in any case."

"Never mind the pipsqueak, K-man," said the taller figure cheerfully. In its twisting, purple appendages sat a small bundle, wrapped in white cloth. "Say hello to your new cellmate!" Cloggy Colon Creature proclaimed with a gummy smile, lifting the white bundle up to the slit.

The bundle mewed above the indignant cry of, "You called me pipsqueak! How dare you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you all! You'll be eaten alive by a pack of rabid dogs by nightfall! Bwaaahahahaa!"

"Sakko, shut up." Cloggy Colon Creature turned back to the white bundle, gazing adoringly at it while it stretched and meowed.

At once, the yellow eyes melted and reshaped into wide, gaping and tear-filled orbs. "Aw, guys…" Gyrus Krinkle choked. "You. Are. AWESOME. I swear, if I knew the combination to this door, I'd give you guys a gigantic hug! Best friends forever, guys!"

"Gyrus…" Sakko said nonchalantly. "You do know the combination."

"You're right!" The metal door slid open with a reluctant grumble (but its reluctance was decreasing each day). The expert engineer swept his friends into a group hug with his knobby-elbowed arms. He had to stoop to get Sakko, but he managed.

The bundle meowed again, this time with shock at the movement.

Gyrus pulled away a flap of cloth, uncovering a furry orange face, striped with dark red streaks. Its blue eyes blinked for a moment, a one hundred percent waterproof mark that it came from Planet Cute B. "What'd you name her? Or him?"

"One: we're not sure of its gender. Two: he or she's all yours, K-man."

Gyrus Krinkle allowed a tight smile to spread across his face, filled with sincere gratitude.

"Gyrus, please stop smiling. You're scaring the kitten."

"How did you find out?!"

Alarms. Loud, endless, screaming alarms.

"You can't do this! It's not fair!"

Footsteps; heavy, running footsteps on a metal floor. The tread of an army!

"Maxi! You can't take Max away!"

Gyrus Krinkle, expert engineer and Class A patient, fell to his knees. His head was bowed, his hands pressed against the floor of his cell. The dirt between the yellow-green tiles got beneath his ragged and chewed nails.

"It's just a matter Quarantine, Gyrus. You'll see your pet again soon." Dr Prevarius looked into his violet flask of liquid again. Krinkle liked to think it was because the doctor couldn't bear to witness his grief, but in actual fact Dr Prevarius simply enjoyed looking at the purple bubbles more.

"I am," the doctor continued, still not looking at Gyrus, "admittedly, quite surprised and impressed that you managed to keep the dear creature a secret from us for so long. But worry not," he turned on his heel and headed for the door, his white coat swirling crisply, "the cat will soon be returned to where it belongs. It makes you very happy, doesn't it, Gyrus?"

"Yes," Krinkle mumbled.

"Maximilien, you named it, correct?"

"Yes."

"Very good," the doctor said, which means nothing at all.

A minute figure sauntered along, pressing his body against the cold grey wall so that no one passing by could trample him.

He lifted his eye patch for a minute, massaging the empty socket. The he continued on.

This patient knew what 'Quarantine' meant. It had taken a bit of work to break into the 'Quarantine' room, knock out all the staff there, then get on with the rest of the job. He had to stifle the feeling of pity, which was strangely more powerful than the sensation of guilt.

"Nine times, I had to stab it. Nine times."

R&R, anyone? In which the cat paintings are explained, and in which everything ends much darker than when it started. ^^;

Sorry about that.