A/N: If you haven't seen the SpongeBob SquarePants movie, I suggest you don't read this fic. (Unless you really don't care if I spoil the ending for you.) Spoilers ahoy!
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Solitary Confinement
by SpongeFan SquareFiction
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It's not fair...
It's just... not fair...
A chain rattled faintly in the background as an officer tried to find the matching key to a lock. The key lightly banged against the metal door, trying to fit it inside. A stout prisoner from across the hall cringes at the sound interrupting his thoughts. He scooted as far away as he could from the rattle and stared hard down at the worn out floor with a seethe escaping through his teeth.
My plans...
...In ruins...
Growling in hatred, his eyesight darted back near the door. The officer across the hall had succeeded in opening a far off cell and he heard multiple booming footsteps getting closer. But his thoughts were still squared on one thing and one thing only.
All because of... a stupid kid.
It's gone.
How could I let this happen... I went to college!
"Sheldon J. Plankton," a voice stated just outside the individual's darkened cell.
The prisoner stands, though not making up for anything in size. He was simply a lowly plankton. A plankton with once ingenious dreams and bright futures... now stepped upon the cleated boot of justice. His latest failure has dropped such a hard weight upon his small, almost non-existent shoulders. He no longer finds the energy to speak up for himself.
Not hearing a response, the officer vaguely opens the cell door, a few trapped air bubbles leaking out from the door frame. The small plankton attempted to ignore it, but the door being tremendously large in his sight let in more light than his reddened eye could handle. He squinted at three figures that stood at the doorway. Two were security guards; he could tell right away. But the other...
The female guard looked down with scowl at the lowly invertebrate. "Mr. Plankton," she repeated. "You have a visitor." Both guards turned away and kept their distance as the silhouette of the visitor sat in a stool near the door.
Plankton rubbed his single eye, peeved and anxious. He hoped deep within him it was his beloved computer wife, Karen coming to bail out of this dreadful asylum. But those hopes have been crushed when last seeing her days ago among the crowd that acknowledged his mortal enemy. He was already bringing himself back down to the dumps and what he was about to witness would make it worse. That silhouette was square-shaped, alright... but it was definitely not Karen.
On the stool and with just a thin screen separating him from the small prisoner, sat SpongeBob SquarePants. Forcing a weak smile, the young sponge clutched his Krusty Krab uniform tightly and nervously close to his knees.
"You..." Plankton uttered his first word in days ever since he was thrown into the loony bin. His voice sounded chalky and his eye was redder than usual, due from either crying or the horrible maintenance of the cells. It's was probably the latter. He took in small deep breaths to keep from bursting, seeing as his veins looked like they were about to. "What... are... YOU... doing here, you porous freak?" he fumed in a dangerously quiet voice.
For the first time ever, SpongeBob felt slightly intimidated in the presence of Plankton. He gulped silently and looked down, unsure of what to say first. His microscopic foe beat him to the punch again.
"Oh, wait... don't tell me," he said in mock astonishment. "You're here to blow it all up in my face again, aren't you? Something else I should know about? That thanks to the stupidness of taking the secret formula straight to the workstations, you won't have to suck my brain out to erase anything?" He slumped down, his back against SpongeBob's shocked physique. "Go ahead, gimme your best shot. You can't crush me any lower than what you already have, Mr. Manager."
SpongeBob sighed. "Actually, Plankton, I think that--" he caught himself and replayed the last sentence Plankton had spoken out in his head. "Wait... how did you know that...?"
Plankton crossed his arms over his chest and turned to face the spongy individual half-lidded. "Well, for starters, the evidence is cold in your hands," he pointed out. Sponge looked down at his uniform which read MANAGER in bright, bold letters. He blinked and glanced back at Plankton. "Second of all," he continued, "what you pulled off back there in the Krusty Krab 2 surely deserved such a reward and trust. I'm not really surprised, I suppose."
An awkward silence followed... mostly awkward for SpongeBob. He drummed his yellow fingers against his knees and bit his lip in thought. Finally speaking up, he still did not dare to look at Plankton in the eye. "What happened to you, Plankton?" he said softly with a hint of sadness riddling his high voice.
Plankton scoffed, his back once more turned from him. "What are you talking about?"
"You weren't always like this."
"What? Are you blind?!" he suddenly yelled. "After so many years of diabolical scheme after scheme being revealed at your feet, you didn't think I had the potential to really rule Bikini Bottom?!"
SpongeBob stammered. "But, I thought you--"
"You thought I was kidding!?" Plankton became more enraged. "Well, I think I proved you wrong enough!!"
"I don't mean that," SpongeBob said. "I just never thought... I'd see you so bloodthirsty for power. Ever." He leaned back, adjusting himself to the uncomfortable stool. "You've been after a burger recipe for almost twenty-six years and you've come to this." He glances around the asylum to prove his point.
...sigh...
"Didn't you once say anything was possible if I just believed in myself?" Plankton whispered after a pause, his anger mildly settling. SpongeBob looked down and saw the small plankton staring down at his hands tiredly, leaning against the wall.
"Well... yes, it's true," SpongeBob admitted, recalling the time.
Plankton closed his one eye and scratched at his antennae. "That Krabby Patty secret formula was the only goal in my life... besides owning a 4x4. It was the key to my success." He groaned. "I was pushed, pulled, thrown and stepped upon at every try to reach it. And I just about gave up. Then you came along. You... you called me a winner. And I listened." Plankton stared into SpongeBob's eyes coldly. "You must say that to everybody, don't you?"
"No, Plankton," SpongeBob said. "You were a winner, you really were. But to make it through life, you didn't need a piece of paper... you needed something else."
"Which is?"
"You needed a friend," he said earnestly. He no longer felt the knot in his throat and he began to speak up from the heart. "That's why I was there. And you didn't take the chance." SpongeBob leaned closer to the screen door. He felt his eyes moisten. "And that's why I'm here now. Please, Plankton... don't make the same mistake... give friends another chance."
Another chance...
Never have I heard this babbling fool sound so earnest.
Something stirred in that tiny little heart of his for what may have been a second. But it sank back down when greediness and rage took it over. Plankton shook his conflicting thoughts in his head, the stress starting to build up once more.
But... if it was a friend that he wanted...
He should have been on MY side!
SpongeBob hoped he had striked some goodness in the tiny invertebrate's heart, but what he saw instead was an angered eye staring right back at him. He could even hear the gritting of his teeth as he clenched his fists tighter and tighter until his knuckles were white.
"Get... out..." he said furiously between clenched teeth.
"But--"
"GET OUT!!! GET YOU OF MY SIGHT, YOU CURSED CUBE!!!" he screeched as loud as his lungs would allow him to. "I never want to come across your face again for as LONG AS I LIVE!!" His level of insanity reached its peak as he started screaming out words incoherentlyat the young, soft-hearted sponge. SpongeBob stood up, soaking back all the tears. He didn't wish to leave him this way... but what else was there to do?
"Fine," SpongeBob said with a trembling chin. He stood in his place, though. He waited until Plankton was quiet once again and the tiny prisoner fell into a feeble position, his eye bright red, this time because of the tears. It was then that SpongeBob started to walk away.
"But just remember..." he said, turning his head back towards Plankton's cell. "I'm not the one who walked away from it."
And with that, he left.
The two officers returned without comment, slamming the cell door and leaving Plankton again in the darkness. Plankton rocked himself back and forth, calming himself down. But the thought of betrayal would never leave from his mind. He would see SquarePants as an enemy for the rest of his days.
Stupid kid...
It's... not... fair....
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THE END
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A/N: Well, this is probably the only angst fic I'll ever write... but you never know. Plankton's one of my favorite characters and I just wanted to write at least a one-shot of him before I get stared on my chapter stories. (which I PROMISE I'll do! I just have so much work, that's all.) Reviews are highly appreciated and flames are not welcome.