"Back home, the threat of war loomed over the whole planet. Some scientists even turned to...trying to design enhanced humans who'd make good soldiers. Stronger, faster, better senses, better minds. Countries would buy these perfectly designed soldiers for their armies. Though sometimes the labs would be discovered, destroyed."

She tells it like history, like it's not her own story, like she's not revealing something deeply personal to him. She removes herself from her own past--but then, hasn't she been talking around herself this whole time, in a sense?