More Than
You look and think he's just a monster. You fight and think he's insane. A psychopath, a rabid beast to be put down forever. Death is the only solution for him you can think of, and death is all you offer.
Yet he escapes your mercy. Instead you watch him loaded into a rocket and launched into space, thinking he'll just go even crazier. At least you would have given the benefit of eternal sleep, the mercy of release from the madness he had programmed in him.
But then you wonder, was he more than what you thought? Was there more under those crazy red eyes, that wicked smile? A sentience that could think, feel, decide just like you? You're perplexed by these thoughts, and perhaps a little afraid. You don't sympathize with the enemy... and yet here you find yourself, watching his rocket shoot into the sky, wondering what he's thinking.
Can he think? You're not sure. He didn't seem to when you met on the battlefield, but you saw feral instinct in his movements. He wasn't mindless; the fact he could defeat you one on one was evident of that. So you assume he could think. Feel? Maybe not in the way you think.
He was a demon and a threat to the world. Perhaps you should have killed him and not let others sway your opinion. But that last time you looked into his eyes and saw nothing but passiveness, an almost acceptance of his defeat, you hesitated. He displayed more than what you thought him capable of, and it struck you in the heart like the weakling you could be.
You pitied him. A monster, a demon. No matter the face he wore he was the enemy and you knew that. But you let him live, even if it was forever in isolation.
You should have killed him.
He's capable of thought, of feeling. He's just as able to function like you... he'll feel the madness in his isolation. He'll feel the thirst of revenge against you. His anger will flare, but he won't submit to it. He's too smart for that, too cunning. He was bloodthirsty and a warmonger, but he was a conquerer, and now that you think on it, his killings were calculated. Calm, almost. Sure, he laughed, he smiled, when the blood was poured onto the ground. But it wasn't insanity.
He's perfectly sane. Sane, dangerous, a threat. More than a monster, more than a demon. He's more than anything you thought.
You let him live.
You're so damn weak, X.