Last Time (paperhat)

Due Dates

Black Hat slammed his fist against his desk, making 5.0.5 jump and even Dementia flinch a little.
"So you idiots really have no idea what to do?! No ideas for what to make next?" He shouted at the two, who only looked back up at him with fear and confusion. Dementia raised her hand and started to say,
"Well Black Hat, Flug did take all his blueprints with him, and we don't exactly know how to decipher the notes he left behind so uh, no not really."

Black Hat growled and Dementia let her arm fall back to get side while 5.0.5 cowered behind her. Black Hat pressed his palm over his eyes and sighed angrily.
"We have a catalog due to release, and you're telling me we have NOTHING?!"

"Well uhm, we have the stuff we already have." Dementia tried to sooth, taking a small step towards the desk.

"The catalog is for NEW INVENTIONS! You MORON!" Black Hat roared back at her, making the walls tremble and the glass in a picture frame on his desk crack. 5.0.5 let out a terrified shriek and ran out of the office while Dementia stood frozen in place. She stared at the man she'd found herself infatuated with so long ago, and denied that any of this was his fault. She blamed Dr.Flug for this, he'd been weak. He couldn't handle the job, in her mind, and she hated him for it. She hated the attention he got from Black Hat, even when it was negative. She stood there staring like a deer in the headlights until Black Hat ordered her to get out.

Once he was left alone to his thoughts Black Hat sighed and shook his head. He looked at the broken picture frame. The photograph was black and white, of himself and Flug in front of the soon-to-be BlackHat Organization. They were so young he barely recognised himself, let alone Flug. Black Hat felt a pang of something in his chest. Like he wasn't getting enough air andat the same time was breathing in too much to take.
Regret.
He'd almost forgotten what that felt like. Such a human emotion, so long lost to him. Flug was right, he was pathetic. He broke too easily. Black Hat grimaced and picked up the picture frame. Running a gloved finger along the thick crack across the center, then the webbing hairline cracks threaded around it. He stared at himself in the photograph. What was that? Eighty years ago? One hundred? He couldn't remember anymore. He stared at the face grinning at him, too happy and too human. Too everything. Then at Flug, what he'd been before the accident, before everything. His smile was soft and confident. With an almost knowing raised eyebrow and glasses low on his nose. They always would fall and need to be pushed back up. Black Hat tried to remember the last time he saw that face. What it had become because of him.

Black Hat remembered vividly the day it all happened. They'd prepared everything, Flug taking care of setting up the sigils and placement of items, and Black Hat himself contributing the necessary ingredients for the ritual. All was accounted for except for their lack of understanding. They didn't know what they were unaware of, that is to say they had thought they knew everything about what they'd planned. But the moment Black Hat had finished the chant and the gateway opened, it was too late. The power that coursed through Black Hat only syrpassed by the fear they both felt. But fear was soon replaced with anger and malice and then that was all Black Hat had been left with. The last thing whatever shred of his humanity was left could do was use the power he'd been given to heal them both. Subsequently cursing them both to never die. Black Hat, blinded by sudden power and loss of humanity, had seen it as a blessing rather than a curse, but Flug had realised as they stopped aging while their peers continued to, that they now only had eachother. And Black Hat was no longer the man he was when they'd met. Black Hat supposed all the years had finally worn the doctor down and he'd finally snapped. Black Hat should have been angry then. He should have lashed out, or laughed at Flug and reminded him that he was all he had left. But he didn't. He slinked away and hid with his tail between his legs. Why was he even surprised? He should have known this was going to happen.

Black Hat shook his head again and set the frame on the desk with the picture facing down, pushing back the memories. It couldn't be helped. What was the past was the past. Black Hat decided he didn't need Flug's old blueprints. He could think for himself and carry his own weight.

But the deadline was coming close, and his reputation was in the line.