Kijani gave him a weak smile. "Connor, to go up against Waller, you have to be willing to get your hands dirty. You're... too hero for that. I didn't want to put you in an awkward moral position, so I went to someone who didn't have any morals." She picked idly at the grass, going silent for several moments before she started to talk again.

"I was left alone a lot as a child. My parents... well, they conceived me, birthed me, and... well, that was more or less the extent of their major involvement. My powers showed up when I was young, but they told me to hide them. So I did, when I was in the house." She shook her head a bit. "I'm rambling. Facts, Kijani..." Pushing back her hair, she started up again. "I was eleven. I was in the park, alone, practicing my powers with a school notebook. Some people in white uniforms snatched me and threw me in a van. They drugged me. I..." Her voice choked up, and she clenched her jaw before moving forward. "I woke up on a lab table. They... they experimented on me. There were others. Younger mostly, none older than 13. Every single one of us had powers. The people who took us were called Alpha. They were trying to brainwash us. Turn us into an army." Her voice was becoming more and more hollow with each sentence. "They did... horrible things. Eventually my powers receded, and they decided to dispose of me." Her side was starting to burn like the scar was a fresh wound, and she flinched, pressing her hand against it. "They tried to kill me. I resisted. I ran. I made my way home, alone. Rule number two learned: You can only depend on yourself." Her hands were shaking.

"My parents didn't want to hear it. They told me to keep my story to myself. I... I retreated into myself. When I was fourteen, I took my parents to court and sued for my emancipation. I won... but then, they didn't exactly fight to keep me, did they. Waller took me in not long after I left my parents for good. She showed such interest in me, she said I was capable of great things. Said that she would be a child that she could be proud of. She taught me, trained me..." She jerked forward a bit, her grandmother's words bouncing around harshly in her mind.

"It was all lies, Connor. All of it. My parents never wanted me, my grandmother only saw me as a weapon, Anthony never gave a shit, and..." Her head picked up, and she looked him in the eyes. Her eyes, which were usually so full of energy, or pride, or anger, were brimming with tears. "And you keep saying you care, that you don't want anything of me. That you won't leave. You're a scientist, Connor. All the data is piling up over the course of my life, and when it comes right down to it... the chance is much more likely that you just haven't betrayed me yet."