Y/N's POV
How could anyone have forgotten? That was the real question: how could anyone forget what she and Nao had suffered for at least eleven years? No one. "Nao... before you tell me that I changed the subject again, I'll tell you." She stared at her booted feet, the scuffed brown leather coated with a thick layer of dirt and muck. Nao looked up at her, waiting, knowing to let her begin in her own time.

"I don't want to be what I am, I suppose. I don't want to be what that... that place made me." Y/N sighed. "I'm so full of hate, hate towards them, towards the guards who did nothing, standing back, money before another human's life and chastity. That hate... I've let it shape me. I'm not me, I guess. I'm just a humanoid blob of hatred." Y/N snorted softly, eyes still firmly fixed on her boots. "But... that's not the point. Nao, I want to become Hanji's assistant."

Nao gasped audibly. "You want to be an assistant to that psycho?"

"I'm not sure she'd be the psychotic one out of the pair of us," Y/N muttered.

"Have you actually met Hanji? She's a suicidal maniac!"

"No, she's not."

"What?"

"My... my dad used to tell me about her."

"What?"

"I know, I never talk about my parents. My dad, he was the best scientist you'd ever meet. Hanji was his favorite apprentice. She was only a little older than me, and I wanted to be just like her, just as good as Hanji. I wanted to be her partner." The tears were sudden, unbidden, and bitter. "She was my childhood role model, after my dad. Seeing her today... Hanji feels like home. She makes me remember. More than I ever want to. How much everything..." Y/N closed her eyes, tears squeezing out from underneath her lashes. "I..." Her voice was hoarse, broken, so soft Nao had to strain to here Y/N's next words. "I want... I want to go home."