AN: Welp, another dark one-shot from Asori here. This one is pretty serious and abstract - the goal is to make you think because what I'm conveying in this story is extremely important. It's an allegory, so it's very symbolic and requires reader intuition. You might be confused at first, but maybe you'll be able to put the pieces together as you go through the story. A clue: this is stemmed from a concept found in The Plague by Albert Camus.

If you have any questions, leave a review and I will post answers on my profile. Or PM me and we can talk about it.

Warnings: Somewhat graphic descriptions, character death, and an underlying horrific theme. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Lab Rats or any of the characters, just the plot. (Yes, you know all of the characters - see if you can figure them out and why I portrayed them the way I did)

"Look at us," a white-and-brown-patch-pelted rat sighed smugly as he nibbled on a kernel of corn. "We're like kings."

"And queens," the grayish white one prickled, running her pink little fingers through her soft fur.

"Does that mean I get a crown?" the chocolate brown one asked several inches away from them at the food bowl. He ambled up to where the other two sat and plopped down beside them.

"Don't be silly," White scolded. "You're always so silly."

"No time to be silly when you're a king," Patch added.

"Or a queen!"

Brown rubbed his nose. "I'm not being silly – I'm the strongest rodent in the world – shouldn't I have a crown?"

"I'm the fastest," White mused.

"And I'm the smartest," Patch pitched in. "It doesn't take much to be more powerful than mice."

The three of them scanned the view before them; safe in their luxurious cage high above ground, they peered down through the open door at the mice milling around on the floor, minding their meaningless business.

"They're so small," White observed with a touch of amusement. "Especially from up here."

"They look pretty stupid too, if you ask me," Patch commented. "Look at them waddle and bump into each other! Their squabbles are so… so…"

"Silly," White finished.

"We rats would never be so mundane."

"Is that something you can eat?" Brown asked.

The other two rats sighed.

"You're a rat," Patch gasped with wide eyes.

"What? I thought he was a hamster," Brown frowned.

"Stop being so silly," White scolded him.

"I've always wondered about this cage," the newcomer said. His thick black coat glistened.

"I thought we were the only ones. Where do you come from?" Patch asked.

"I come from down below you," Black answered.

"The floor?" White's nose wrinkled in disgust.

"No, no, never!" Black said quickly. "It's filthy down there, and all the mice are practically animals. They aren't like us."

"We agree – we actually talk about this a lot," Patch grinned.

"We do?" Brown asked, but he was ignored.

"I'm closer to the ground than you are, and it's terrible. I hate them," Black spat.

"Why?" White asked.

"They're so weak and pathetic – there's no meaning to their existence except to make us rats miserable."

"They do make us pretty miserable," Brown shrugged. "I'm glad I've never met one."

Black nodded in approval. "You never want to meet one. They're sorry creatures, they are. We rats are too good to allow them to even so much as eat the fleas from our fur."

"Hi Black," White greeted him as he crawled into her cage she shared with Brown and Patch. "Back again?"

"You three are my only friends – of course I'm back," Black grinned.

"But you wouldn't want to get sick," White told him. She was lying on her side and breathing heavily through her mouth.

"I don't get sick from this stuff anymore. I'm practically dead to the plague."

"Plague?"

Black shrugged. "I don't know what it is; I just like to call it that."

"Where does it come from?"

He leaned in to her. "If you ask me, it's the mice – it's their fault."

"Everything's their fault," White coughed doubtfully.

"That's right! That stench we have to live with? That's them. Food shortage? That's them too. Water quality? This sickness, the noise? It's all their fault. Without them, the world would be great."

White glanced across the cage; Brown was in a similar state as she was, but he was asleep and unaware of his malady. She looked up into the tubes where Patch had climbed to be alone and collapsed; she was worried to see that he looked worse than she and Brown. Patch was swelling, and she could smell the stinky heat radiating from his sick body.

Meeting Black's eyes, White let her anger grow. "It's all the fault of the mice."

"I hate them! I hate them all!" Patch paced back and forth across the cage, a crazed energy making him shake.

"They did this to us," White growled, clutching at her drooping ears.

"I'm not sure I get it, but I believe you," Brown called from where he still laid in his sick spot. All three of their fevers had dropped, but Brown still didn't feel well enough to get up.

Patch looked over the two of them, his anger peaking when he saw White's pelt appearing whiter than usual with the green tint of her sickly skin showing through. "They did this to us! I hate them – I'm going to kill them! I'm going to kill them all!"

White would have nodded her approval if the bulging buboes on her neck didn't prevent her from doing so.

"Woah, you guys look bad."

"Who are you?" Brown demanded. He was in too much pain to be his usual friendly self. If it had been Black to return again that day, it might have been okay. But this was not Black.

"I'm a rat," the light-brown stranger answered. When his coat bristled in his nervousness, it almost looked to be a cream color.

"Well go away – we're sick here."

"I can see." Cream looked over the three rats. They were all sprawled on the ground, balloons protruding from their necks, armpits, and groins. All of them trembled in pain, and the heat rising from their boiling bodies was as stifling as it was sickening.

"It's the mice – the mice did this to us!" Patch suddenly squalled. "Kill them all!"

"Kill them all!" Brown and White cried out in response.

"No, the mice didn't do this!" Cream argued with a passion. "Have you ever met them? They're innocent!"

"They're animals!" Patch wailed.

"Haven't you ever seen them? Haven't you ever met them? They're just like us rats – I know because I live with them. They have fur pelts, they have tails, they have whiskers! They are just like us!"

"No, they're little monsters – kill them all!"

"Kill them all!" all three sickly rats cried together. Cream was alarmed to watch their ganglia swell, their skin beginning to tear.

No! If they burst, the puss... the plague will spread…. Cream squeezed his eyes shut. If they burst, they will die anyways just like Black did all those years ago, and it will spread even more. It's too late for them to be cured….

"I'm sorry," he whispered mournfully.

He did the terrible deed, and so saved the world.

Douglas wrapped his arm around Daniel's shoulders, swallowing a sniffle. "I can't believe it…."

Daniel stared straight in front of him, unseeing. "They were so, so… crazy. I was scared."

Douglas nodded. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"If I hadn't, bionics would rule. Regular people would be dead."

Douglas retracted his arm, putting his face into his hands and breathing through his nose to calm himself.

"Dad, how did they get like that?" Daniel asked. "How could they not see that bionics are just like regular people?"

"I think it's my fault," Douglas answered. "I raised them away from everyone else, I told them that they were better than everyone else. They couldn't understand."

"I grew up with everyone else."

"Exactly."

Daniel tilted his head. "But why did it happen now? Why not earlier? Or later?"

"I think Marcus' death really had an effect on them."

"And now four of us are… gone."

The two of them stared down at the three fresh graves. They had been the only ones to attend the funeral.

"I'm sorry," Daniel whispered mournfully.

"No, Daniel. Don't apologize. That's my job."

"I killed them."

"And I raised them for the slaughter."