"Let's rock," he says, turning over the engine and taking off down the dirt road at the edge of town. They travel in silence for a while. The truck resembles something like a jeep back on earth, open-air, and despite the road being pretty uneven the drive is smooth.

Kaki kept glancing over to the GPS nervously until eventually, Seventeen had to say something to get her to stop. He had been turning over how to address the bounty poster in his mind since Loquat's, and he had decided he was just going to be upfront about it.

He clears his throat before speaking. "So, Kaki. I saw something… interesting at the market that I wanted to ask you about."

Kaki's arm is raised, where she holds onto the roof's edge as the drive goes on. She doesn't answer immediately.

"Keep to the right. You'll have to make a turn up here."

Her expression is inscrutable, if not blatantly repressing some kind of grim focus, as her gaze keeps flicking up to the road and back down to the map, trying not to get confused between the instances she looks away. She glances at him from the corner of her eye, before looking back forward to the road.

"...What is it?"

He jerks the car over a bit, as she had told him a bit late that a turn was coming up. Taking the turn, they've now left the city, and are on a long road stretching straight for miles, flanked by dense jungle on one side, and a massive empty field of crimson on the other. Seventeen takes his left hand off the wheel and rests his elbow on the open window.

"It was a bounty poster." Stepping on the gas a bit he squints as the sun shines in his eyes, and wishes he had gotten some sunglasses at the market.

"You obviously have a past with the PTO, I could tell that from the first time you mentioned it… But, Kaki," he starts while turning to her slightly, "I left everything I've ever known behind to travel with you. I need you to be honest with me about this."

Kaki lowers the arm holding the map and sighs lightly so as to not be obvious about her displeasure of the topic.

A wanted poster? She didn't think those would still be around, after all these years - not that most immediately recognized her by it, considering that whoever put it together either didn't have or didn't bother to use a recent photo of her. She rolls her jaw, turning away to gaze out into the field of redgrass.

"...I'm a deserter," she says finally, flatly and bluntly. "I left some years ago when they asked me to... do something unspeakable."

That seemed to be all she was willing to say right then.

She looks so tense right now, her hands are gripping the map so tightly it's about to rip. Seventeen hated having to make someone talk about their past they clearly didn't want to discuss like this, so he decided to offer up his own as a peace offering.

"My sister and I were orphaned very young. As teenagers, we were kidnapped by an insane scientist, who turned us into androids against our will, and forced us to crusade for his own personal vendetta."

He watches the road intently as he speaks. Even Rosemary didn't know the extent of what he was telling Kaki right now.

"I killed him. Kicked his head clean off." Seventeen glances over to her. "And I loved it."

She doesn't say anything, so he continues.

"I'm not telling you this because I like talking about it. We're a unit now, Kaki. I have literally no one else within light-years of here that I can trust besides you."

He breaks for a moment to take a shaky breath.

"...Do you understand now?"

Kaki's expression deflates, the defensiveness leaving her and exhaustion taking its place. She runs a gloved hand down her face in guilt, leaning back against the seat.

"Yes. I'm sorry, Seventeen... For being difficult. It just- It has been a long time." Her palm rests over her mouth in somber contemplation. "And… I don't think I've ever really talked about it. With anyone."

There is a long silence between them, where Kaki stares ahead at the road, rubbing at the rigid plastic of the digital map with her thumb.

Eventually, she takes a deep breath, and begins to speak again.

"I was part of Emperor Frieza's army - one of the three under the Planetary Trade Organization. In the last decade of my career, I worked under a man named Zarbon - a general, and the political advisor to Freeza. I worked for Freeza's right-hand man, in short."

She gulps.

"Zarbon… He treated me like a trophy. Like some shiny tool on his belt. My life was nothing but him until I left. I thought it would be over, and I'd never have to think about him again. I even heard that he died in some… freak accident along with the rest of my superiors."

She pauses to chew on the inside of her cheek.. She'll probably sound like a crazy person, saying this to Seventeen.

"...But the thing is, he's still here. With me. I still see him sometimes, when I'm alone, like he's some ghost... haunting me."

Glancing over to her, Seventeen tries to think of what to say. He's quiet for a long moment, which couldn't have made Kaki feel any better, but he really doesn't want to fuck up his response.

Keeping his eyes glued to the road he finally speaks, "Shortly after my sister and I killed Gero, the scientist who made us this way, I was absorbed by another one of his creations. a bio-android, Cell. Sharing his head was… It was awful." He grimaces remembering it.

"He's long dead now, but sometimes I feel like… He's still inside me. He'll talk to me when I'm dealing with poachers, or just at home. Telling me these horrible things I should do to get back at humans for making me this way… My sister, she was absorbed by Cell, too. I would call her crying my eyes out because I couldn't deal with it. Eventually, she told me that she heard him too, but every time she heard him she would tell her husband she loved him, and it made Cell go away."

He sighs. This had gotten so long and meandering... Kaki probably thought he was an egotist right now.

"The point I'm trying to make is that: abuse - it never actually goes away. Zarbon will always be a part of your psyche. But when you have other people to lean on, to share your pain with… Suddenly, the evil that tortured you for so long… It isn't as impressive anymore, because you're not carrying that weight alone."

Kaki remains gazing out ahead toward the road, but not particularly looking at anything.

There's a fleeting sense of embarrassment that was quickly overtaken by a swirling numbness as he'd spoken, because just as he made a connection, so did she. She's briefly reminded of what he told her the day before - about how different yet similar things can be.

Her head turns to look at him again from the corner of her eye, where her expression relaxes just a bit.

Eventually, she shifts in her seat and raises her hand with the map, seeing that the screen had dimmed in the time they were sitting still on the road.

"...We should keep going," she says, pressing a button to wake the screen of the map again.