They agreed to wait for Iman at the train station.
"That was Ali," Moon prodded long after they left the restaurant, "right?"
Alicia couldn't dignify her with an answer, but the slight tilt of her head was as good as any.
When Ali was booted from MATA, the rest of the agents had been given the standard story for his termination, and the details of the procedure remained undisclosed to the general population. All their classmates knew was that Ali was permanently banned from MATA, then he moved away afterwards.
Many theories surfaced, with the next one wilder than the last. They spoke of the possibility of wanting IRIS to themselves, or how they pulled the strings to get Ali's father fired. She'd never been part of them, nor was she there to witness it. She left the Academy after Ali did, and only returned for the internships.
She and Bakar kept Ali's memory loss a secret. It was something only they, the pillars, and perhaps some Techno agents are aware of. It hurt sometimes, to keep her lips sealed, knowing that the lies and truth are rotting behind her teeth, pooling tar and coagulated cooking oil that rested heavy on her tongue.
(She'd never heard of this technology before – her father's never mentioned it, and no villain she encountered wanted it. Messing with the human mind was a science of another degree. Anyone in this line of work would kill to get their hands on it.)
"Maybe he didn't see us," Alicia lied, ignoring the dagger ramming full force into her chest. "He looked busy, with all that work."
Moon put her hands on her hip. "No, I know he saw," she rebutted. "I saw him snuck a glance at us when his food arrived. Strawberry pancakes with extra cream and jam, and he had his sugared honey on the side. That, or it's the shop's homemade brown sugar syrup, but I don't think anyone eats strawberry with brown sugar. Point is, he knows we were there, even if he doesn't look happy about it."
Alicia nearly stilled on her feet, hardly processing what the Invisio agent was telling her. Because of her training, she didn't, keeping a monotonous pace on their way to station.
Moon was bubbly and sometimes clumsy, so Alicia often forgot that she was often more observant than she let on. Moon had been training longer than she had, being born into the program while Alicia only debuted herself as a trainee later in her life.
"Is he jealous? That we're still agents and he's not?" Moon suggested, but reiterated quickly. "Would Ali feel that way?"
He would've, Alicia wanted to say but held her tongue.
The Ali before learning of MATA definitely would have been cynical towards them, envying them for a chance he never had. He'd been unmotivated, reclusive and lethargic for as long as she could remember.
But the Ali she knows all too well, who'd squared up impossible amounts in the short amount of time he spent as an agent, would never. He'd been so painfully compassionate and empathetic to the people around him, treating everyone with the kindness that they deserved.
(Was he any of those things, before Alicia made the effort to get to know him? Were all his negative traits merely her interpretations, conjured by childlike hypocrisy for some morbid sense of superiority? She was taught to judge a book by its cover, but it's a lesson learned in scarred history and remembrances.)
"No," she said instead, mouth drying. "We've changed a lot, after all this time. Maybe you've mistaken him squinting for glaring."
"I know what I saw," Moon defended herself. "But—I can't think of any reason why he'd hate us, unless he became an overzealous zealot in his time away."
The invisible arm clenching her stomach only tightened its hold, crushing her organs from the inside out.
"I suppose so."
She kept her eyes trained onto the station's roof, hoping that the rest of the walk won't be as agonizing as the past minute.
* * *
Alicia was leaving that godforsaken chat.
👁️ deez nuts
Mika: So I asked the science gal, "hey, why do you make zombies that only know how to dance?" and she started a whole monologue about how her dad wanted to be a ballerina, but he got disqualified in his first ever competition because he tripped on the last contestant's sweat, so he had a child just so he can train that child to become a ballerina to live out his dreams y'know
Mika: So he kept training her and training her ever since she learned how to walk; like her very first birthday gift when she was 6 years old was a whole ass $500 worth of Bitcoin for when she gets into dancing school (that stuff is worth MAD prices now) but she didn't want to become a ballerina, she wanted to become a horse doctor
Mika: Then when she explained this she pulled out a whole powerpoint on why horses are the best animals and why we should choose presidents based on how many horses they have, and I think something about the early 2000's horse girl movies should replace Shakespeare and stuff, about how a city girl moves into a farm then grows attached to a horse then needs to win a race to save said farm or god help them, because god forbid Capitalist win and turn the farm into a squirrel factory
Mika: Idk what most of those movies are but they sound kind whack
Mika: Anyway point is, one of the zombies she has is apparently her dad who got run over by a horse stampede, so out of grief she became a mad scientist who turned her dad into a dancing zombie because she wanted her dad to live out his dreams while she can use all of her psycho science-y stuff to make dancing zombies AND do surgery on horses
Mika: So yeah, I had to do a dance battle with a bunch of zombies, including her and her dad in a duet, just so she wouldn't detonate a nuclear bomb hidden inside some mayor's stomach that she slipped into his tacos
Khai:
Khai: what
Bulat: Not to be rude... or insensitive... or...
Bulat: How did you dance????? Aren't you like????? Y'know????
Mika: I did ✨jazz hands✨
Roza: Jazz hands...?
Mika: THEY CAN'T CATCH THESE HANDSSSS BABYYYYYYY!!!! 🔥🔥🔥
Rudy: I hate each and every single one of you.
Moon: Awww! You <3 usssssss!!!
Rudy: NO
Screw leaving the chat or burning her phone. Alicia was going to bleach her eyes out.
"Iman!" Moon cried out abruptly, waving her hand like a madman. Alicia pocketed her phone, looking up to notice that the train doors were wide open, a good portion of the passengers scattering out. "We're here! Iman!"
The Malay girl waved back just as enthusiastically, skipping over to them with a bounce in her steps. "Moon, Alicia! It's so good to see you again! It's been months!"
They caught up with each other, updating one another with the minor details in their lives. Moon was now capable of smoking the perfect satay with her eyes closed, Alicia could balance a tray full of filled drinks on her head while running, Iman could now lift thrice her bodyweight... the usual stuff.
At some point, Alicia dreaded that they would talk about Ali's appearance and behavior, but thankfully they steered clear of it. Either her prayers were answered, or Moon had noticed the war inside her and opted to keep her lips shut. She was grateful either way.
That is, until Iman pointed past their shoulders and straight to a familiar silhouette in the crowd.
"Hey, isn't that Ali?"
... damn it.