Disclaimer: I don't own "Rick and Morty".

Author's Note: This is my theory behind "The Council of Ricks" as seen in Ep 1x10: "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind". That is, how it came into being...before the time of Morty's. (If you have your own theories, I'd love to hear them.) I figured there was something more to it than 'just' a bunch of Ricks coming together from different dimensions...

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Rick sat by himself in a chair in the lab. The massive ancient book that Squanchy had given him lay on a metal table nearby. Rick was watching a rat in its cage-the Guardian often kept rats for experiments-running aimlessly about in its wheel. Rick suddenly knew what that rat felt, if it could feel. Its whole purpose for existence was for experimentation. It was simply a cog in a mindless machine. Just like him. He was a cog-a gear-a copy of a blueprint, not even the original.

The book told him everything: how he was one of a million if not more, exactly like him...an experiment in artificial intelligence and human cloning that had gone completely sour. The R.I.C.K.S., initially intended to save the world from destruction; in the end, they were flawed...terribly, irrevocably flawed. Some, resorting to criminal acts, some violent, including murderous... others, completely insane; some, resorting to isolation, removing themselves completely from the rest. In the end, lives upon lives were destroyed, and the R.I.C.K.S. that aged quicker-another part of the experiment-those who couldn't seem to hold onto their sanity-immediately banded together across the dimensions, creating the "Council of Ricks": a group of highly antagonistic R.I.C.K.S whose whole goal was to rebel against anyone who crossed them.

It couldn't be true-

...and yet, it was.

It was surreal-he saw actual pictures of R.I.C.K.s. who were fifteen like him, but whose cells had aged them to look like they were seventy; he read case studies about R.I.C.K.s whose bodies appeared to be around 80, but whose minds were still in their prepubescent phases. He learned about how stem cells were extracted from embryos in order to make carbon copies of DNA-and how the Guardian had successfully copied superhuman artificial intelligence.

Looking through the book, it was becoming more and more clear why the Guardian had resorted to suicide...the experiment had failed miserably...most of the R.I.C.K.s were insane, and were destroying the Universe across multiple dimensions.

As he read on regrettably, Rick quickly felt sick to his stomach. Thankfully Squanchy had left the room to use the facilities, and wasn't there to see him lose all the contents of his stomach in one fell swoop. He bent over and retched violently until there was nothing left. When he was done, he stood up on weakened legs and somehow made his way over to the nearest basin, and washed his mouth out with water. All the while, he was thinking: Why had he never told me? Why wasn't I supposed to know? Why was it kept such a secret all this time? And, of course, two questions he never wanted to know the answer to: Did he ever see me as an individual? Or was I just another insignificant clone, like every other R.I.C.K. there ever was?

A thousand questions ran through his mind, none of them with any easy answers: what were the other R.I.C.K.s really like? What if he met one, and hated that R.I.C.K.? Would it be the same as hating himself? Would he and the other R.I.C.K.s get along? If so, did that mean was just as crazy as the rest of them? Why had the Gaurdian chosen to work just with him all these years? What made him so special out of all the other R.I.C.K.s? Or was it just because he'd been there? The thoughts made him dizzy. He leaned over and tried to close his eyes without feeling the urge to vomit yet again.

At that very second, Squanchy waltzed back into the room. He heard the footsteps come to a halt, and Squanchy said, "Guess...ya read the whole book, huh?"

"Skimmed it," Rick mumbled. He didn't really feel like talking. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do anymore. What was there to do? He could choose to either belong to the R.I.C.K.s-and be seen as just another crazy clone of himself who would hurt everyone he came into contact with-or just go gallivanting across dimensions without rhyme or reason, alone. What choice did he have? His life had been planned out for him from the get-go. He was damaged goods from the moment he was "born".

"Have any questions?" Squanchy asked nonchalantly.

"Leave me alone," Rick snapped. "Take the portal gun. Go back to your planet and leave me the fuck alone."

"So you can-uh-what?" Squanchy mused with amusement, "stay here and stew?"

"Nothing better for me out there," Rick muttered listlessly. "I'm just another asshole who's too smart for the rest of the world."

"Yeah, you've got some extra-challenging growing pains," Squanchy noted, "so what kid? Now that you know...maybe you can make a difference."

"Yeah the kind of difference that can get everyone I know killed." Rick shook his head. "I'm not exposing myself to the universe-there's already enough of me ruining everything out there, there's no point in one more."

"Maybe..." Rick winced at the painfully optimistic tone in Squanchy's voice, "maybe, kid, the Guardian knew that you were...well-"

"Don't say it-"

"-Special? Because he wouldn't just have chosen anyody, ya know," Squanchy added for good measure. "So-where's this portal gun again?"

"You seem to know everything about everything," Rick snapped. "You find it. I'm heading back upstairs."

"What-to your cell? You just gonna stay there forever?"

"Why the hell not." Rick pushed himself to his feet. His legs still felt wobbly; at the same time, like cement. "I'm sure as hell not going anywhere with you."

"Hey." Squanchy clicked his tongue against his cheek with an amusement that irked Rick to no end, "I'm not the one who did all this to you. Don't lay it all on me."

"That's right!" Rick spat, shouting in spite of himself as the rage that had been boiling just below the surface spilt over, "you didn't create a monster from a test tube-he did! I'm outta here." Dizzied by the shock he couldn't shake, Rick somehow managed to run out of the room, leaving Squanchy behind...not caring if he lost the portal gun or not. There wasn't anything out there for him anyway.