Chapter Text
Omega wasn’t supposed to be there. Nala Se insisted she kept a regular sleeping routine, and she never had problems sticking to it before.
Before. Before, she had been an only child.
When she’d slipped out of her bed, she had been sure she’s going to be back in a couple of minutes. She just wanted to check that her brothers were alright. Zero-three didn’t sleep much at all. Zero-four was always cold since he’d started to lose the baby fat - another thing she was worried about, but Nala Se brushed it off as a harmless by-product of his mutation - and needed an additional blanket. Zero-two sometimes woke up in the middle of the night hungry. Eyzee could take care of it, but Omega preferred to do it herself. Zero-one…
Zero-one was gone.
The day before, Nala Se seemed to be especially interested in Zero-one, and now his bassinet was empty and he was nowhere to be found. Omega could feel her hearth climbing up her throat, beating so fast she couldn’t hear anything else.
Her brothers were less than half a cycle old. It wasn’t too late to re-start the whole experiment.
She ran out of the lab.
In the half-light of the safety strips, the halls of Tipoca City seemed endless, filled with rows and rows of identical doors. She punched the opening plate of the first ones, but they remained stubbornly closed. Scanning the entrance card only produced a shrill beep - access denied. She tried the next door.
And the next.
And the next.
Denied. Denied. Denied. The most she could do was to press her ear to the duroplast, hoping - fearing - she would catch any sound of her brother inside. But the whole floor was silent. Maybe she was late. Maybe Nala Se picked him up hours ago, and it was already over. Maybe in the morning, she would bring his cold, empty body back so Omega could learn what had gone wrong with him, and how they could fix it the next time.
She swallowed the sour wave that was filling her mouth. She couldn't think like that. She couldn't give up on Zero-one so easily. She needed to think.
The sound of the endless rain was somehow clearer. The door to the surface was open.
She could barely see between the ropes of rain that were soaking through her tunic and plastering her hair to her scalp.
"Zero-one!" she called out, coughing as water filled her mouth and found its way into her lungs. Her voice cracked. "Zero-one!"
Her shoes, never made to be worn outside, slipped on the deck. Pain flashing through her bones. She bit her cheek to keep herself from crying. She was scared and cold and palms burned where she'd skinned them, but she knew crying was no use.
There was a blurry shape on the edge of the deck. Too scared to stand up, she crawled forwards on her hands and knees.
"Zero-one?" she asked again.
She grabbed him, pressing him to her chest. Zero-one whimpered and tried to wriggle out of her arms, but she held him as tight as she dared. “You are not going anywhere,” she said, voice wobbling slightly.
Only now she noticed there’s something clasped in his hand. She carefully peeled his fingers open, and a tiny flying fish slid away and flopped on the deck. “How did you catch it?” she asked, and Zero-one babbled something in answer. She smiled.
“You are going to be a hunter one day, aren’t you?”
Carefully, she shuffled back to the door where she could finally stand up. Zero-one finally settled in her arms, eyes closed. Omega just hoped that would be the end of his little outing.