"You look …troubled."
He pressed his arm across his eyes, blocking out the light as he laid his head in her lap. "It's just… a lot of things."
"May I ask why?" she asked, brushing a loose lock of hair back from his face.
He paused then sighed. "It feels like history is…repeating itself."
"Repeating?"
"There's a saying here on this planet," he started, letting his arm drop to his side. "Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it."
"…And is it?"
"…it feels like it."
She quietly digested his words leaving him to stew in the silence. It took several moments before she tried to speak. "If our current situation comes from not learning the past, what is the lesson we are not learning?"
He pondered the question. What were they not learning? That they should, what, permanently remove the criminals? That it was necessary to justify killing to save others? But then, when was killing ever okay? What gave anyone the right to decide that someone else didn't deserve to occupy space? "What makes us so arrogant?"
"I do not believe us to be arrogant."
He blinked and looked to her.
She continued. "It is not 'okay' to let other people harm others. While this country's government says that people have a right to pursuit of happiness, it also says people have a right to life. When someone infringes on another's right, they willfully give up their own rights, correct?"
He sat up, turning his back to her. "But what gives us the right to be the ones to stop them?"
"Those who fail to learn from their past are doomed to repeat it, yes?" He blinked and looked at her. "If you were to watch someone die and you had the ability to stop it, could you sit there at let them die? If a doctor sees someone having a heart attack, would they not try and help? To sit by idly while someone is in need…is that not just as bad as committing the crime?"
"…huh."
"I do not want to live with…regret," she admitted softly. "If I can help, then I shall. Even at the risk of my own life."
"…what if…one day you do lose your life?" he asked.
"…then I will die without regret."
He watched her for a long time before smiling. "I think so too."
Perhaps they were learning.