Homecoming | sequel of "Home" [✔️]

Chapter 5

The tour was concluded with no other remarks, especially after witnessing Fang's foul temper firsthand, where Ali had learned to cleverly defuse it. From updates brought by new messenger cadets, they had yet to break through MATA's signal jamming, which was adding gasoline to burn the fuchsia-eyed alien's patience.

Spoiler alert: he failed. On another note, at least neither Bakar nor Bobby would be keen to go up against the shadow manipulator soon, especially after second-hand witnessing the shadow manipulator interrogate criminals through a video feed, an audible crack of iron echoed through the corridors as he slammed the villain to the ground with his bare fists.

"Any questions?" Ali asked blandly, though his expression barely sold his true intentions: I'd sell you to Satan for one corn chip, and I hate corn chips.

"Matter of fact, yes." Bakar knelt down in front of him, just like he did in the past whenever Ali needed advice or comfort, his patronizing eyes now filled to the brim with disappointment and desperation. "How did you meet your friends?"

Ali stuck his hands in his pockets, though judging by the stance he shifted his feet in, he was prepared to run or fight, whichever came first.

Still, the old memories resurfaced in him: the days where Uncle Bakar trained him with utmost patience; the times where he stuck up for Ali; the moments where he believed in him even if he himself didn't...

Ali's posture relaxed, taking his hands from his pockets and hanging them by his sides loosely. No matter where he went, Uncle Bakar would still be Uncle Bakar. Even if he wasn't human, even if Uncle Bakar was now the general of MATA; some things just don't change instantly, even with the flow of time.

But—would he be so quick to relay information? Especially something as personal as this?

Would he use it just to guilt him into submission?

"I'm sorry." Ali hung his head low, as if he was ashamed, his eyes avoiding Bakar. "I can't tell you."

He felt a hand on his shoulder, firm and familiar. "It's alright, Ali," Bakar said tenderly. "It's your life, after all."

For a moment, he felt like he wanted to cry. But at the corner of his eye, he caught movement. Bobby, he realized, whipping to him with a glare. He was still here. He cannot afford to let his guard down around them, even if it was his own family.

Not here, not now.

He was too far gone to return.

He steeled himself, turning his back on them. "You two are still under my surveillance. That means if you two do anything stupid, I'm responsible for your mishaps," he growled, now deadly serious. "Even if you're without restraints, I am still capable of removing that privilege."

The two agents remained silent as Bakar rose to his feet, his expression torn between grief and defiance, staring at the shell of the boy that he used to be. Ali was family, but he was the enemy; they'd reunited after so long, but it was a reunion that nobody foresaw, a future where they'd meet again playing the roles of a captor and his prisoner.

Ali couldn't blame Bakar for the conflict. He'd felt the same when he met Nikki. The unspeakable pain that someone you trusted with your life would turn on you, like the tale of the scorpion and the frog, where'd the scorpion's nature doomed the two of them to death.

It's my nature, Ali remembered the exact words from the fairy tale.

Once upon a time, he'd resented Nikki for her cowardice. Now, he realized, putting his hands into his pockets as a cold smile crept onto his expression, he had sunk to the same grounds with her.

This was how bitterness felt, how resentment marinated over time.

"Now," Ali spoke. "The cadets will bring you to your rooms. If you try to tamper with anything that's even the slightest bit of suspicious, you're back to the cells."

Like a rehearsed script, three cadets nearby saluted to him, and responded to his impromptu order, with no questions asked. The young aliens armed themselves with their weapons, figures firm despite their wounded body. Ali filled them in with exact instructions, and they left with the two MATA agents, their silhouettes fading into the corridor.

He watched as their shadows slowly disappeared into the far end of the station, he couldn't help but wonder: How's everyone on Earth doing?

He squashed the thought, shaking his head. Earth is in the past. There's a vast universe out there. He couldn't keep looking back to one single place.