(A/N: This chapter gets rather dramatic, but has a lot of insight, hence the name of the chapter.)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 6: Insight

Nana's heart was pounding. Slowly she crawled out of the bathtub and peaked out the door.

"Mayu, don't…" she muttered quietly.

But Mayu didn't hear her friend as she bent down by the fallen Diclonius' side. "Nyu, are you alright?"

The Diclonius' eyes opened and she slowly sat up. She remained where she was for a moment before turning to look at the large clock. She slowly reached out and ran her hand over it affectionately.

"Nyu, did you hurt yourself?"

She turned to the girl beside her. Mayu, that was her name, wasn't it? And why was she naked? What had happened since she left the lab?

'Do you wish to know the details?' came Kaede's voice.

Lucy didn't want to know, but then again, she didn't need to be told. It was easy enough to figure out. Kaede had slaughtered them all. But she didn't care. She had willingly let Kaede take over, knowing that it would mean the death of people. But she hadn't cared, not if it would bring back to…

Her eyes widened. "Kohta…" she whispered.

"You can see Kohta later." Mayu told her. "First you have to finish your bath first."

She reached for her.

"Don't!" Nana cried, suddenly appearing by Mayu's side and grabbing her arm.

Mayu looked at Nana in surprise. "Nana? What's wrong?"

Not wanting to worry her friend, Nana didn't tell her the truth. "You already finished your bath. I'll take care of Lu-Nyu."

"Oh, ok… You didn't need to sound so worried though."

Forcing a smile, Nana turned back to Lucy. "Come on, Nyu. Lets finish our bath. I'm sure we have much to talk about."

Lucy turned to her fellow Diclonius, her eyes cold. "Yes."

Mayu watched them go back to the bathroom, curious about their behavior. They were both acting strange. Nana seemed to be scared, and Nyu seemed… distant. That was weird; when had Nyu ever been distant?

Back in the bathroom, Nana submerged herself in the hot water while Lucy went to rinse off the suds. The tension was thick in the air. After all, the two of them didn't have a good past. After Nana had tried to force Lucy to return to the lab, to a life of pain and imprisonment, they had battled and Lucy had torn off Nana's limbs. True, Lucy may have saved her life from that one scientist that attempted to kill her, but that didn't make the two of them friends.

When Lucy joined her in the water, Nana visibly tensed. "Relax, I have no intention of fighting or causing any trouble." The former muttered.

Nana frowned, relaxing slightly, but still remained on her guard. "Habits aren't easily broken, and you have a history of bad habits."

Lucy glared at her. "I take no pleasure in fighting or killing. But I do what I must to survive and keep my freedom." Her expression softened. "Truthfully, I'm surprised you've managed to keep your hands clean of blood and still gain your freedom."

A sad look crossed over Nana's face. "Papa was the one that saved me."

"Saved you? That miserable bastard saved you? Now that I find hard to believe."

Scared of Lucy as she was, Nana still got angry. "Don't talk about Papa like that! Papa was a great, wonderful, kind man."

The look in Lucy's eye silenced her. "Great? Wonderful? Kind? You are truly mistaken if it's Kurama you're referring to. He is a cruel man."

"That's not true! He was nice to me, he loved me!"

Lucy gave a snort of humorless laughter. "You believe the lies. The only reason he was so nice to you was so you would have an anchor to hold onto through all the torturous experiments that he himself put you through so you wouldn't lose your sanity. After our fight when he found you with your arms and legs torn off, he didn't shed a tear. He made a living killing our kind at birth, regardless of the parents' pleas. He was one of the ones that made me what I am. A kind, wonderful man? What a joke. He lied, used, and manipulated you. And you still call him Papa? What a fool you are."

Nana had long since covered her ears to block out Lucy's cruel words. "You're wrong! Papa was a good man! He loved me like his own daughter!"

Again Lucy laughed. "Like his own daughter? That's a laugh, considering what he did to his real daughter. He was going to kill her too as an infant, but his wife, on her dying breath, begged him to spare her. So what did he do? He locked his own daughter away in cold darkness. Never once did he visit her. Left her to live on machines alone, half starved, and to undergo the same sick treatments that you and I went through. He even authorized to have bombs planted inside her body so she could be controlled. It would have better if he killed her rather than letting her suffer alone in darkness her entire life. And after all that, when his daughter finally met him, she was happy to see him. And he killed her in return, taking his own life in the process, because he couldn't live with the guilt, with the sins he committed." She leaned back and closed her eyes. "And he said I was a monster. He was the real monster."

"Stop saying that!" Nana cried, tears pouring down her cheeks. "Papa wasn't… wasn't like that."

Lucy raced an eyebrow. "And you, having been locked in a prison your whole life, only to see him on few occasions, would know that?"

"Well how do you know?"

"I was Kakuzawa's favorite specimen. He talked a lot. He was just as cruel as the rest of them."

Nana shook her head. "Papa saved me from him. He helped me escape."

"He abandoned you." Lucy corrected. "He left you all alone in the world with absolutely no knowledge of how to make your way. Had you not come to Kaede House, can you honestly say that you would have made it out there? Especially with those horns."

Nana's hands went to her head. "What's wrong with my horns?"

Lucy sighed. "In my eyes, nothing. But in the eyes of society, you're a freak, an abomination. Simply for our appearance, humanity decided that we are evil creatures that would kill our own parents without a second thought. So they killed us off before we even had a chance to live. And those they didn't kill, they tortured in the name of science. Aside from Kohta, the only things I have ever received from humanity were cruelty and pain. So forgive me for not being able to see beyond their bad qualities."

Nana shook her head. "Kohta's not the only one. Mayu and Yuka are kind and caring too."

Lucy felt a jolt of jealousy at the mention of Yuka's name, but she couldn't deny the truth of Nana's words. "Yes, they are kind. Even when I had my horns, they showed me kindness."

She reached up and felt where her horns once were. She felt jagged stumps in their place. Her eyes narrowed. She hated, hated, hated her horns. She was glad they were gone. It almost felt as if her dark past had vanished with them.

'Then lets sever all ties to our past.' Said Kaede.

Before Lucy could question her, she felt her vectors come out. Nana gasped, sensing Lucy's movements. Ignoing the other Diclonius, Kaede directed her vectors up to her own head and sliced of the remains of her horns.

The pain was intense. Unbearable. A scream got caught in Lucy's throat as she tried to gasp and cry out at the same time. Tears filled her eyes and she nearly threw up.

'Bitch!' she snapped at Kaede.

Her alternate personality chuckled. 'I act upon your desires. You wanted no trace of your horns, so I did what never occurred to you to do.'

With trembling hands, Lucy felt her head. The spot where her horns once were was no longer jagged, but smooth and level with her head, leaving two bald spots hidden by her hair.

"What happened?" Nana asked.

Lucy wiped her eyes. "Nothing. It's nothing."

She sat back and closed her eyes. Nana watched her for a bit, nervous about the awkward silence. Bathing with Nyu was one thing, but bathing with Lucy…

"What happened after we last saw each other?" she asked.

"I was imprisoned again." she said simply. "More painful experiments, heavier security. It was just like old times." She huffed. "Humans and their cruel sadistic ways. And they have the nerve to say we're evil and hostile towards them. What the hell do they expect after the way they treat us?"

"That's still no excuse to kill." Nana scolded. "Killing is never the answer."

Lucy moved a strand of wet hair out of her eyes. "You're so naïve. If you went through what I went through, perhaps then you'd understand."

'So show her.' Kaede told her. 'Diclonius have a special connection. They can sense each other's emotions. Show her yours. Let her experience what you felt your whole life. All the betrayal, the loneliness, the pain.'

'I can do that?'

'I will do it for you. Simply touch her with your vector.'

Lucy didn't fully trust her alternate personality. This one was very different than Nyu. It was capable of acting and thinking on its own, not to mention able to talk to her. But all the same, she extended her vector out to Nana.

The other Diclonius jumped back. "W-What are you doing?"

"Calm yourself. I'm just going to let you experience what I have. Tell me you can still justify humans after you experience what I went through all my life, before and after the lab."

Her invisible hand rested on Nana's head. Nana's eyes widened as everything came rushing into her. Her pupils dilated and her breathing got caught in her throat as she experienced everything Lucy did through their mental connection.

It lasted only a split second, but that second was an eternity in Hell for Nana. "My God…" she muttered.

"Not God." said Lucy. "God didn't do that to me. Humans did. And now I will ask you again, can you still say that after all that I went through that I should feel anything besides hate for those that have done this to me?"

She received no answer, but she didn't need one. Getting out of the bath, she went to dry herself off.

"I may have done evil things in my past, but I am not an evil person. I acted only in retaliation and did what was necessary to survive."

She heard a chuckle in her head and knew it was Kaede. 'Except for that one night at the festival.'

Lucy tried to ignore her. She was just a child. She had viewed all humans as cruel and evil creatures. Nothing but beasts that would hurt her if she didn't hurt them first. How else would a lost little girl that had known nothing but cruelty react?

"Them too." Nana whispered. Lucy gave her a curious look. "Them too. I know that Papa took no pleasure in any of his work. He was afraid that our race would wipe out all of humanity. So he was trying to wipe out the Diclonius threat before it became too great. He too did what was necessary to survive. Just like you did."

Lucy stared at her for a moment, surprised. The girl was actually trying to justify the cruelness their kind hand undergone by humans. "If what you say is true, then I can understand them killing off our kind. But there was no reason we had to suffer so much. They could have just killed us too and we wouldn't have had to go through those sick experiments."

"And what of you?" Nana asked. "Why didn't you just kill me? When we fought, why did you tear off my arms and legs and then let me suffer? Why not put me out of my misery?"

Lucy had no answer. But words from a long time ago echoed in her head. "When someone is miserable, they want to make someone else more miserable then they are."

"You see." Nana continued. "Humans, Diclonius, we're all the same. Both sides are capable of cruelty and compassion. Out of fear, the humans labeled us as evil. Along the way, defending themselves became cruelty to us. So we're cruel right back. Defending ourselves became being cruel to them as well. We're all at fault. I just don't see why all the killing and suffering has to continue."

There was silence between them again. Finally Lucy realized that she had one more thing to say, and then she would be through talking.

"I did what I did in the past because it was all I thought I could do. I knew nothing else. I was driven by the urge to hurt those that hurt me." She wrapped the towel around herself. "But that didn't mean I wanted it. The killings, the suffering, on both sides. I didn't want it. I still don't. And that's why, I'm never going to kill again. I haven't since the day they recaptured me, and I swear that I never will again."

Nana watched her as she went to leave. She sensed that Lucy was being sincere; she truly never wanted to kill again. But hadn't she killed when she escaped again? She had been covered in blood.

"You killed when you got away from them again, didn't you?" she asked.

Lucy paused. "That wasn't me."

Nana recalled the dark presence she had felt earlier. "Then who was it?"

Lucy turned back to her. "No one of your concern."

And she left. But just before she did, Nana had caught an evil glint in her eye that had not belonged to Lucy.

(A/N: Poor Lucy and poor Nana. But they both make good points. Look at it from Lucy's point of view. Her whole life she knew nothing but cruelty from everyone she ran into. The way she saw it, everyone wanted to hurt her, which was why she killed so easily, even though she didn't want to be a killer. The festival, as Kaede points out, was the one exception to that, which is why Lucy feels so torn up over it. But there will be more on that later. As for Nana, she's having her eyes opened to just how cruel the world is, but she's also opening up Lucy's eyes to not see things from just her point of view. But, again, more on that later. For now, just tell me how you liked the chapter.)