After a couple of hours, a person who I hadn’t met yet approached my cell and said, “Hello, Vex. You can imagine how surprised I was when I discovered a few minutes ago that you aren’t a police officer. Not anymore, at least. You’re just a former police officer like me.”

  “Why in the hell would you join the Ghasts?” I asked, “They aren’t any better than the police currently are, as you well know.”

  “Well,” the person said, “I quit being a police officer a while back because the leadership told me to go f myself when I tried to sound the alarm about police brutality that had been happening, and for a while I just did my own thing and figured that since I’d quit what the police did wasn’t my responsibility anymore.

  But then I couldn’t help but notice that over time the police department continued to get worse and worse, and I decided that they had to be destroyed by any means necessary.

  And so I bought a sniper and would shoot officers from afar and then leave quickly so that I wouldn’t get cau-“ “Hold the f up!!” I said furiously, “You just shot random police officers!?! Not all police officers have engaged in police brutality, as you well know!!!”

  “What part about “any means necessary” didn’t you understand?” the person said coldly, “You can have your little moral high ground if you want to, but corrupt governments rarely or never get removed from power by the revolutionaries refusing to accept any collateral damage.”

  “But you’re just the other side of the coin then!” I said angrily, “You get mad at our corrupt government for killing unjustly, but then you kill unjustly too; and that makes you no better than our corrupt government!”

  “Idealism doesn’t overthrow corrupt governments.” the person said, “Pragmatism overthrows corrupt governments. And as far as the accusation that I’m as bad as the corrupt government, you’re damn right I am. I don’t give a f about being good. I give a f about overthrowing our government. It’s more likely than not that if our government gets overthrown then whatever replaces them will be less evil than our current government is, and if I have to be as bad as our corrupt government is in order to make that happen then that’s what I’m going to do.”

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  “Well, if your goal here is to convince me to join you and the Ghasts then you’re wasting your time.” I raged, “I mean, I imagine that you already know why I was fired, and what I did was morally questionable but I specifically knew that the two people who I killed were guilty when I killed them. One of them had murdered someone, and the other one had intentionally destroyed the body cam footage of the murder happening so that there was no way in hell that the murderer would be sent to prison for his crimes. I didn’t just murder random police officers like you did.”

  “Oh, I’ve done a lot more than simply kill random police officers,” the person said, “and would it surprise you to know that the police department is telling the public that you just murdered random police officers?”

  “Well, of course they are!” I yelled, “But that’s a false accusation! You, on the other hand, have just told me that you’ve murdered random police officers and done more than that too! I’m being wrongly accused of it, but you are bragging about the fact that you did it!“

  “I wouldn’t say that I’m bragging,” the person said ruthlessly, “and I don’t take any joy in killing people who might not deserve it, but our corrupt government has to be destroyed and I’m willing to do things that I don’t like in order to accomplish that goal.”

  “And what you just said is the same sort of evil nonsense that pretty much every villain who isn’t a psychopath has said all throughout history!” I spat, “The cycle of violent aggression needs to broken, and people like you who perpetuate it are just making the problem worse!”

  “Nonsense.” the person said, “Are you going to seriously tell me that no war where non-combatants have been killed has ever been worth fighting? Because wars don’t get won without some hellish things being done, and there are always people on both sides who are doing hellish things. And this is war, Vex, and I will not allow this war to be lost by my side of the war refusing to do hellish things in order to win. Grow the f up, and stop living an a fantasy world. In the real world, bad things sometimes have to be done in order to achieve good ends, and people like me will not be remembered as heroes, but I’m fine with that because it’s people like me who make it possible for the heroes to win.” and then the person turned around and began walking away.

  “I guess you’ll think whatever helps you sleep at night!” I screamed!, “But you create victims just like police brutality creates victims!, and it’s pure evil in both cases!” but the person just continued walking and soon disappeared from sight…