Retrograde
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"Mr. Gregors?"

"You may come in."

An office door was quietly opened, revealing a figure hunched over a table. He observed the woman that opened the door out of the corner of his eye, tapping the cigarette he had in-hand with his pointer finger over an ashtray before moving it back up to his lips. He spun in his chair to face the other person fully. He moved his left hand, motioning towards a chair near his with a chuckle.

"C'mon, you don't have to just stand there, Ms. Louise. Go ahead and sit down."

She nodded, filing over to the chair near him and sitting down. After a few seconds of silence, she cleared her throat before speaking. "You know my name, you don't have to call me that."

A few more seconds of silence ensued as Gregors stared off. He seemed to be thinking, possibly contemplating actually referring to her by her first name. After said moment, he spoke.

"Right. Carla. Sorry." He eyed her, then back ahead of him, tapping his cigarette over the ashtray once more to ensure that none of the ash went elsewhere. He was especially worried about getting it on his clothes. It wouldn't come out easily, he thought, not at all. "It's alright, Finn."

The male seemed to have tensed up at the name. He hesitated, looking over at Carla and gazing at her in silence for a short while. He took a deep breath.

"What have you come in here for?"

"Oh, no, just- you know what's happening, right?"

He nodded.

"Yeah, so, uh, I wanted to spend the time I have left around you-"

Carla coughed, a way of cutting herself off. Finn raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

Carla was quiet for a while longer.

"Because I… I love you, I enjoy being around you, I know it's stupid, but I really do, and I'm so sorry that I still do."

Silence.

Finn chuckled. He tilted his head down towards the ground, then looked back up at her. He stood, stepping towards Carla, putting his hand under her chin to hold her gaze upwards so she was looking up at him when he stood in front of her. He grinned down at her, feeling some sort of satisfaction at her flushed cheeks.

"Dear, you know I love you. I want to spend this time with you as well. Besides, I need to talk to someone about things, and you'd do just fine."

Finn moved his hand to poke her nose with his pointer finger, then sat back down in his chair, gaze still on Carla. She cleared her throat, looking down at the ground briefly before over at him.

"Like what?"

Finn tilted his head to the side lightly, then let it rest normally. He quietly inhaled.

"Well… I just felt as if I needed to come clean, really. After all, we're all about to die, so it really doesn't matter much, does it?"

He shifted in his seat to get more comfortable, leaned forwards, then met the female's curious gaze with his own.

"First, I'm the result of several on-site deaths. And I don't mean that it was all poor handling; it was intentional. Honestly, I'm surprised that nobody picked up on it. I've had other staff get demoted to D-Class over putting the blame on them, too. God, everyone here's so naive, but it worked out perfectly for me, didn't it? It got to the point where I even got to do it in different ways with different things! Ah, how I've enjoyed it. Nobody here cared about me, so why should I care about them? Either way, I got people as high up as being within the O5 Council to trust me. How did I even manage that?"

He went quiet for a second.

"Oh, and I accidentally broke a vending machine here once. Whoops."

Finn leaned back, examining Carla's shocked expression.

"What?"

"What?! Are you seriously whating me right now?"

"Right, yeah, sorry."

Carla shook her head, standing up. She started to walk towards the door, but was stopped by Finn jerking up and grasping ahold of her arm. She spun to face him, feeling him pull her close to him. She struggled to get away from him, forcefully shoving him back and stepping back at the same time. He stumbled, hitting his table. Carla, however, fell back, her head colliding roughly with the wall behind her. She slumped down against the wall. Finn walked over, kneeling down in front of her. Faint worry was printed onto his expression.

"Carla?"

The room was silent. He sighed, a sympathetic smile on his lips. He picked her up, an arm under her back and the other under her knees. He opened the office door, stepping out and carrying her with him. A deep exhale came from the male. He begun to walk, his pace slow as he made his way through the halls and to the medical bay.

Once there, he stepped inside, not bothering to make sure that the door had shut behind him. He set the female down on a table, then walked over to a smaller one with medical equipment. He sighed, gazing over at her as he picked up a syringe.

"My dear, I'm terribly sorry that I must do this to you."

He walked over to her, leaning over and placing a soft kiss against her forehead before whispering against her head,

"I love you."


Gregors stood at the edge of a cliff, staring across the vast land below it with his hands in his pockets. He sighed, a small smile on his lips as he recalled the now bittersweet memories he had throughout the years.

"Well, this has been a fun run, hasn't it? We're practically in retrograde now."

Chuckling to himself, he sat down on the edge, placing his hands down beside him. His attention was directed to the sky, before down at the flowers beside him. He picked one from the ground, then held it up in front of his face, examining it.

"A Lily."

His smile widened. He let it fall beside him, laying back to rest against the land that was behind him. He slowly inhaled, exhaling as he spoke,

"Of course it's a lily. It all started with a lily."

He laid in the peaceful silence for a while more, feeling the wind gently rustle his hair and his clothes. His right hand moved to rest on his chest. As he did so, he closed his eyes for the last time, opening his mouth and speaking to seemingly no one yet everyone at the same time.

"I'll see you all in the next run."

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