“N-nothing?”

“Nothing.” He reiterated. “Your technology and capabilities are far too primitive to stave off a Star Eater.

“So what’s the point in telling me—us all this?”

He shrugged. “Would you rather perish without knowing the reason? At least you’d have time to say goodbye to your loved ones.”

“Wait. That’s it? That’s your only purpose here? To just inform us and… leave?”

“Pretty much. This is why I like you, Agent Lee. You’re less stubborn.”

“The feeling isn’t mutual.”

“I know.”

“Can’t you, like, use your magic or something?”

“I could…”

“Then—”

“...but why?”

“Huh?” She definitely did not expect that question.

“You humans… Not only are you killing off your own kind, but you’re killing off your own planet as well.”

“Well—”

“You’re all humans but you discriminate based on skin color? Hell, even right now, things are all messed up. You have wealthy humans running off of greed and just ruining everything. You’re hindering your own evolution, you know.”

She couldn’t answer. Could she even refute him? What he said was true but… “Isn’t it unfair to judge us for that? We are capable of more, we—”

“—shot at me after I got rid of your enemies. You didn’t even know there were traitors in your midst.”

“That’s right! We didn’t know! For us, it was self defense.”

“You tried to take me down when I surrendered myself peacefully.”

“You appeared out of nowhere! This is a secret location. You could be a threat!”

“I still am.”

“...”

“That’s why you ‘detained’ me as Subject Zero, isn’t it? You humans are destructive creatures. You destroy everything around you and yourselves.”

“We’re capable of more than that.”

“I believe you. But you are rare. People like you are far too few to save this doomed world.”

She wanted to believe it wasn’t true. Majority of the people suffer for the greed of the few. But even in that majority, it was hard to find good people. Most just look out for themselves. Trust was hard to build up. Hope was a scarcity. It’s why one small act of kindness is enough to give hope to some people. That was how low people’s faith in humanity was.

“Tell you what,” he spoke. “I can at least save you and maybe a couple more people. A few of the good ones. Find a nice world where you can thrive. Something like that. Don’t worry about those outside. Right now, they can’t hear nor understand what we’re talking about.”

She pondered for a while but… “No.”

“Pardon?”

“No. There’s no point in surviving like that. All I’d be doing is leaving the rest of humanity to die. I can’t live with that burden.”

He smiled and nodded. “See. This is why I like you, Agent Lee. You’re one of the good ones.”

A miniature sun appeared on the table. From afar, a leech-like creature can be seen wriggling towards it. Subject Zero grabbed the creature. It burst into flames, emitting a piercing screech as its life was snuffed out.

“There.”

“J-Just like that?”

“Just like that.” He nodded. “This is the seventh world I’ve been in. You’re the first to ever make this decision.”

He stretched his arms and cracked his knuckles. “I’d love to take you out for dinner but I need to go. At the very least, allow me to extend some protection to you and your family. Not everyone out there is as good of a person as you.”

He snapped his fingers and disappeared with a pop. Indeed, just like that. No explanation. No sense of closure. Nothing.

“I really don’t like him at all,” she sighed.

For some reason, even though this is 7k characters, reddit was saying it was 10k characters.