“…So, we’re not going to stop by Sugaria?”, Hex asked as we passed by the candyland. Workers were busy shoveling up ice cream and mining sweets from the ground.

  Phoebe shook her head. “I’ve seen enough of Fluffygrin. Besides, I… I’d like to head to Mechadream to have a proper funeral for my sister”.

  Hex’s eye widened. “…You know, I’m surprised you don’t hate me for what I did”. It came out as a whisper, but everyone heard it.

  “What a rude question”. He winced. “Hex, I also killed someone important to you. If you’ve come to understand what I did, then why do you think I couldn’t do the same? ‘Forgiveness’ is too strong a word, but when I think that you did all of it to protect your kind… it reminds me that I did the exact same thing”.

  Hex nodded, in contrast to his next question. “Even though you said I kill with no remorse?”.

  Phoebe finally looked at him. “The very fact you remember that line is telling. No, you felt remorse all along. Your mistake was ignoring it”.

  “…Humanity is a monster. It invades every corner of the Earth and exterminates others without mercy. I could kill humanity without guilt… so that’s exactly what I tried to do. But an individual person is different- they have empathy, restraint… they can be reasoned with. It’s all so vexing”, he shook his head.

  “You know, my sister really hated ghosts. She thought they were all evil. But someone started to change her mind”, she nodded at me. I felt Hex’s gaze on my back.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “Well, it’s a really hard problem”, I said. “None of us can solve it ourselves. I’m not even sure we can create the lasting change you want just by working together. But what’s the alternative?”.

  Hex pondered it. He had tried so many times in the past to convince people. But maybe that was all he could do? Continue speaking to them, and never stop… could it really work?

  “I’m kind of curious”, Phoebe interrupted his train of thought. “…How do you speak slime?”.

  He blinked. “Well, it’s a language like any other, of course”. The two stared at each other, smiling patiently at the stupidity of the conversation.

  “Teach us a few words!”, I asked. “Like, what’s ‘Hello’?”. “Cxffs”, came the reply.

  “Cx- what?”, Phoebe spat out the word like a yucky vegetable.

  “Cxffs”, Hex patiently corrected. “I’m not sure a human could vocalize the sounds. I’m not even sure if a slime could speak human, now that I think about it. I might only be able to speak both because I’m a ghost”.

  “Wait, so does that mean I could become bilingual too?”, I replied excitedly. “Better watch out, Hex! I might steal Globert from you…”.

  Strangely he didn’t react and just stared straight ahead. Then he lifted a wing and pointed.

  I turned and saw Mechadream. Only it was… empty.

  An arsenal of guns and lasers pointed up at the sky in all directions, frozen in their final stance. We could see many smashed windows and a few battered robots. Still, there weren’t many signs of a struggle… given Mechadream’s defenses, they must’ve simply been overwhelmed in an instant, annihilated before they could organize and fight back.

  There were no people around, not even any corpses. They had all disappeared.