Chapter 21: Who are you?
Omni should be hiding. Instead, she’s a ticking time bomb in the heart of the Stacks.
The room swam in neon light — lurid flashes of blue and violet, sharp-edged against the metal walls — as Omni crashed to the floor. Blood trickled from her nose, copper-bright, the taste sharp on her tongue.
She drifted into unconsciousness, hearing a voice echo: “Who are you?”
You know me…
She felt light, not like floating, but like something unmoored, slipping away. Curled into a foetal ball on the floor, the question hung in the air, spoken by no one.
As Omni let go finally, those words morphed to her mother’s voice now, honey-smooth but steel-edged.
“You’re my brilliant girl, destined for more than the slums,” she said, hands firm on her shoulders as those green eyes stared into hers.
The night of the fight.
Fragments of her parents’ argument echoed through her mind.
“We can’t keep her hidden forever—”
“Not while she’s so young—”
“She needs training—” her mother snapped.
“She needs protection—” her father shot back.
Their voices clashed like lightning against the metal walls.
She had pressed herself into the corner between her tiny bed and the cold metal wall. Knees drawn to her chest, she clutched her favourite book—an ancient programming guide that felt like armour against the shouting voices and the drumming rain. Each thunderous word made the cramped room feel smaller.
"She's a child, Lira!" Her father's fist struck the wall with a dull, shuddering thud. Omni flinched, the sound rattling through her ribs as she tried to make herself invisible against the wall.
“I’m her mother, I know what’s best for her.”
“And I don’t?”
Omni squeezed her eyes shut, the hot stinging tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I didn’t say that. I just can see her potential, I know what it’s like. She’s too smart —”
“And I know what it’s been like for you, she needs to be a child, too.”
“She deserves more than these slums. The Stacks will stunt her or worse.”
“I know,” said her father, his voice soft, ”We need to be patient.”
“For how long?” Her mother’s voice a whisper.
“As long as it takes.”
“And her opportunities dry up.”
“She’ll always be brilliant— we can’t stop her from learning.”
“You know better.” Her mother’s voice turned steely.
“And you can’t see any other options, just the one you want.”
“Because it’s the right one, and you know it.”
“We don’t know anything, but that will bring the Company down on our heads —
“— not if she’s trained.”
“I won’t have it — she’s only eight years old!”
Omni crouched behind her bed, turning over her tattered copy of “Neural Networks: The Illustrated Guide.” She opens at her favourite part and tries to shut out the fight with the calming words and diagrams. Outside, Cape Town’s shantytown glitters with rain wet makeshift solar panels. Inside, voices crack against the close walls like electricity.
“She could change so much.”
“Why must it sit on her shoulders, Lira?”
The words pierce Omni's mind as she clutches her book closer. She wants to be extraordinary, wants to make her mother proud, but her father's words plant a seed of doubt that takes root in her stomach.
Omni hugs her book tighter, pretending the words could shield her.
Books don’t fight, they just keep their promises.
She wonders if her brilliance is a gift or a curse. She watches her parents fight and fight, their voices getting louder, angrier.
Is it my fault they're always fighting?
Maybe if she wasn't so special, maybe if she was just normal, they wouldn't be so angry all the time.
“She’s extraordinary, Farook. She hacked the district grid at six. You want to hide her here until the gangs claim her or the damn floods take us?”
She remembered her mother's fierce pride when the lights blazed on, contrasting sharply with her father's pale face as he rushed to shut the blinds.
"Brilliant," her mother had whispered, while her father anxiously scanned the windows for Corp drones.
“And if the Company finds her? They’ll take her away, use her up, turn her against us.”
“Or she’ll use them.” Mother’s voice drops low. “You’re so afraid of the risks you can’t see the power. Our daughter could rewrite the rules, not just follow them.”
“Enough, I need space,” her father yelled, the door slammed like a crack of thunder. The silence that followed felt empty to Omni, her heart racing at the feeling of danger.
The small apartment smells of damp metal and cooking oil. Her knees burn against rough carpet as she shifts.
Mother kneels before Omni’s hiding place, pulling her into the light, pressing a simple steel necklace into Omni’s hand. Her small fingers clutch at the small letter X, her mother’s black lacquered fingernail points to it, “You’re exceptional, ok?” her mother’s eyes bore into hers.
Until she pulled her close, “Never let anyone make you smaller than you are.” she whispers. Her mother smelled like home, warm, sweet with a hint of something else.
But the shadow of her father’s departure loomed over the room, and Omni feels torn in two. He was always there — tucking her in at night, waking her for school, brushing her hair. Her mother…
The memory burns like a brand, even as she wonders if being special will always come at a cost. This was one of the last times she saw mommy.
She was gone in the morning. Her father said she left to find work, to get them out of the Stacks. Omni always questioned, most of her clothes were gone, but not all. Father smelled them when he thought she wasn’t looking. Stories were sadder now, mommy did the voices better.
Omni wakes with her mother’s words rising in her mind: “Never let anyone make you smaller.”
She pulled herself to her feet, her fingers brushing the necklace.
“Who am I?” she murmured, the answer forming on her lips like a spark ready to ignite in the quiet room.
Her childhood bedroom, and her childhood long gone. But the question wasn’t about the past anymore. It was about what she would become.
Changelog: This flashback has been inserted on the second release to strengthen Omni’s backstory, deepen the conflict with her father and to foreshadow important elements in book two.