At MIT, Zelu trains intensively with Hugo, Uchenna, and especially Marcy, building muscle and learning to stand and walk with the exos despite intense soreness. She avoids contacting her family for weeks, endures unimaginative interviews including one with Rolling Stone, and is haunted by recurring nightmares of being a powerless robot whose battery dies in a deserted parking lot. A hastily provided MIT therapist offers limited help.

After a month, Zelu can walk for about half an hour. Saying tearful goodbyes, she finally calls her parents, only to learn that Hugo has been updating them all along, infuriating her. She calls Msizi, who doesn't answer, deepening her hurt.

At the airport the next day, on impulse, Zelu activates the exos and walks through the terminal. Strangers stare, an airline agent asks for an autograph, and a superfan secretly films her, posting the video with a caption claiming Zelu is becoming her character Ankara. The video goes viral while she sleeps on the flight.

Landing in Chicago, Zelu finds chaos: family, media, and strangers flooding her phone with questions. Her brother Tolu picks her up, awed and supportive, calling her achievement "fucking amazing." She walks to his SUV, exhausted, and they drive to her parents' house, where the entire family has gathered.

The reunion turns brutal. Her mother blames her childhood tree fall on her recklessness; Chinyere mocks her exos as freakish; Bola calls her selfish; her father comforts her mother instead of defending Zelu. The family fixates on managing public shame rather than celebrating her. Worn down, Zelu retreats to her room, resolves to move out, and notes she withstood it without falling or panicking.

The next morning, she calls Msizi, who answers immediately. He apologizes for not supporting her, says he missed her, and they reconcile warmly, with Zelu relieved to still have him.