[Misi Neo timeline, altered]
"We detected an unknown presence in the top bunker."
Alicia jolted from her thoughts and focused on the intercom coming to them. She inserted the bullet she had been fiddling with for the past thirty minutes back into the tube attached to her waist. They have been hiding quietly in this room, lying in secrecy, waiting for the next order.
"Clarify his identity," Bobby replied. "It could be a staff working overtime."
"We're still trying to process, gimme a sec."
"We don't have a second," Alicia interrupted, agitation laced in her voice. "It could be him."
This is not just some mission.
-
Ali Ghazali has been MIA for two months and during that time MATA had been working hard to track that missing boy. His actions were branded as a crime, assisting a ghost organization in raiding Vikhram's secret ports where he illegally stored high-tech weapons, droids and jars of Azurium. After they were done 'cleaning' the ports, they began to target black markets, often the ones where the big names of underworld crime organizations would be attending, like Abang Bear or Madam Khoo and many others.
Alicia had tried interrogating him, to know the reasons behind his activity and it resulted in Ali leaving her in anger. He did not drop any explanation, let alone hints. When Alicia failed, Uncle Bakar stepped in to bring the kid in for investigation. Like her, the Combat agent believed his nephew must have his reasons to turn to treason. Ali ran off, and on cue Bobby had to chase him down.
And you know the rest.
They failed to catch him. Ali could not be detected after that. Alicia suspected he did something to alter his coordinates. He knew very well that MATA could track him anytime by using the satellite. Strangely, Ali was always three steps ahead of them.
The Neuro agent had tried to approach his house.
"He just went out. He said he wanted to go to Viktor's house," Mr Ghazali said.
She went to Viktor's house.
"Ali just left. Why do you want to find him?" the boy asked curiously.
"What?" she half-shrieked. "Do you know where he went?"
"No idea," he shrugged. "Eh? Since when are you looking out for him?"
Alicia brushed off his teasing and asked for him to pass a message for Ali:
"You can't run forever."
-
There was a slight crackle when the guy on the other end tried to deliver his words. Alicia and Bobby shared a look. It was an indication of what will happen.
They've been intercepted. That's what they thought. Both agents were quick to get on their feet and dashed out of their hiding place.
"There are two other presences coming out! They're assisting the first one!"
The Inviso agent activated his IRIS Neo and immediately ran scans of the perimeter of the building they're in. The IRIS detected three people running out from the bunker and to the level above. An identity scan panned out. One stood against the others.
"Target identity confirmed. Ali Ghazali: rogue Tekno agent."
Alicia held her breath upon those words. She felt her leg muscles carried her faster. There was a nagging voice in the back of her mind, squishing her already mixed emotions together. What if it wasn't Ali? What will she do if she actually gets to see him? To be face-to-face once again after not meeting each other for two months? Is it really two months? Alicia was sure it had been longer than that.
What if Ali runs away like last time?
She sped into a corner but Bobby was quick to grab her wrist.
"No, no, wrong way. We're not going there."
The Neuro girl turned pink in embarrassment.
"Sorry," she muttered under her breath.
"Get your head right, Alicia," he said, not looking back at her.
Those blunt words hit her like a pallet in the head. Alicia scolded herself in her mind. Her emotions should not interfere with logic or else she won't be able to come up with rational and realistic decisions. Mission always comes first. That should be placed as number one in her priority as a MATA agent. But will she be able to carry it out if her partner was the one they have to capture alive so they can bring light to the chaos and injustice he had committed?
-
They split up.
"Run to the rooftop. They're probably heading there."
Alicia fleeted through the stairs, her breath slowly becoming ragged. No, she could not let anything slow her down. She was this close already. They cannot afford to fail again this time.
The door above slammed open, the sound of the bolt colliding harshly against the stone wall echoed through. Her eyes caught a green blur making its way to the top.
"Ali!" she screamed.
The person halted and peered over the banister. There was no mistake, it really was him in person. The green hood of his casted a shadow over his features but Alicia could clearly see the surprise and excitement inside his eyes behind the blue-tinted glass of the special device. Nevertheless, Alicia had whipped out her sling shooter and blasted a few bullets at him. Ali yelped and jumped back to avoid being hit. The two continued the chase.
The boy reached the door and swung it shut behind him. Alicia saw to that and propelled herself forward, kicking the door wide open before Ali could lock it. They tumbled onto the floor. Alicia regained her footing and aimed her bullet at Ali, who was crouching on the ground, his yo-yo in one grasp. The hood was pulled back, revealing his face in the light.
"We don't have to fight, Ali," she said, lowering her Blastique.
"You expect me to surrender, Alicia?" he shot back.
"This whole thing could be avoided if you just give in! Heck, why are you doing this? What are you trying to prove?"
"I believe Uncle Bakar had explained that to you,"
The calmness in his voice was unnerving.
"Using your late mother's name as your excuse does not mean you should just betray MATA,"
Ali scoffed. "They don't need me anymore, right?! I figured I should work with people who actually do rather than the ones who don't," he jeered, "and believe me, there are a lot of them who need my help."
Their mission was to capture a rogue agent alive.
"So be it."
Alicia would see this mission to its end.
-
"Something in your mind?"
"What? Nothing."
"You sure? You've been fiddling with that bullet for a while now."
She looked at the silver thing rolling between her fingers.
"Look, I know this is going to be hard for you, granted if we actually succeed in carrying out this mission tonight. He's your partner."
"Ex-partner, yes."
"Partner, ex-partner. Right. Okay. My point is, whatever doubts you've been hoarding, whatever nervousness or any related feelings you've been carrying, I need you to drop it right now, okay? They're going to hinder you from accomplishing what we are going to do. Do not, I beg of you, do not even think of sparing him. He is a rogue agent. We need to bring him to MATA. That's the right thing to do."
Do not even think of sparing him. Those words tore through her and she wasn't sure how to patch the hole back.
"I'm not saying this out of revenge just because he knocked me up in the head months ago. I'm saying this to you as an agent who swore to protect Cyberaya. Do you understand agent?"
"Understood, agent."
Yet the weight in her heart refused to go away.
-
The same weight had been dragging her movements as Alicia fought against Ali. It was a metaphor, of course, but since when did metaphor become reality?
Bullets flew and clanked against the blue shield. Ali flung his yo-yo to blast her but the girl was quick to roll out of the way. Alicia launched a wave of bullets in his direction. Ali skipped from side to side, dodging them and with the aid of his aeroboots, boosted forward, the blue shield appeared again with the intention to push the female agent off her feet. She jumped high, twisted her body in mid-air and landed a kick on the boy's back, sending him sprawling on the rough concrete.
Soon, the spar shifted, from the battle of weapons to hand-to-hand combat, both young agents traded punches, blocking kicks, sending jabs, throwing each other off their balance just to gain momentum for themselves. The Blastique and the yo-yo had already found themselves tossed far away from their respective owners.
From afar, Alicia noticed her fellow Inviso agent was coped up in his own showdown against a tall, lanky man, one of the two who was with Ali earlier.
It was disheartening to witness the fight between them, who used to work together before, now fighting each other with their clashed beliefs and different morals.
As the duel on the rooftop progressed, Alicia slowly gained an upper hand. She faked a punch on his left and Ali was quick to block it. She immediately dropped herself, swinging her leg to deliver a solid kick to his face. The blow stunned him and he staggered back. Alicia spun herself around and kicked his legs, sending the Tekno agent on the concrete.
"That's enough, Ali," she said, standing up and dusting her hands.
The male agent used his elbows to lever himself up. He coughed.
"Agreed, let's stop, then."
Ali tossed something out of his jacket towards her at the speed of lightning and Alicia barely had time to duck. The mysterious objects made contact with the stone wall and the chain-link fence behind her, the force of it sending them back to Alicia. He tossed another object again towards the Neuro agent, creating a force field upon impact and the magnetic wavelength pushed Alicia down to the ground, rendering her useless.
Alicia struggled to hold her head up, her mind hadn't yet finished processing what the hell just happened.
What the- is that a spinning top?
Ali walked towards his yo-yo and stuffed it into his pocket. He turned towards Alicia.
"I apologize that we had to meet in this... undesired situation. I was so happy when I saw you on the stairs."
"Ali, let me go right now!"
Lifting her body off from the rough concrete felt like a chore. He was going to run away again!
"I'm sorry, I'm really really sorry about this, about everything that has happened. But I don't have a choice."
"You have a choice!" she cried out. "Ali, please. Come with us. Come back to MATA. We could still fix this."
A flash of uncertainty passed his face. Her words sent Ali's thoughts on mulling over it.
"There is still a way to fix this," she pleaded. "They could still forgive you. I will forgive you."
Ali inhaled and closed his eyes.
"No."
"...no?"
"No. I don't think I could go back anymore," he let out a shaky sigh. "I couldn't afford to let you guys get ahead of me."
He turned and made his way to the edge of the rooftop. Alicia desperately pushed through the magnetic force. A little more, just a little more, so she could get to him first. Ali pulled his hoodie over his head and glanced back at the girl.
"Sorry, Alicia."
There was a sad smile on his lips.
"I have to go now."
Alicia extended her fingers towards him, the despair clouded over her face.
"Ali! Wait!"
The boy let himself dropped over the ledge.
"ALI!"
Just then, a gray figure dashed past her, running towards the edge of the rooftop where the rogue agent had stood a few seconds ago.
"You are not going anywhere this time!" Bobby shouted and jumped after him.
"NO! ALI! BOBBY!"
The magnetic force disappeared and Alicia stumbled forward.
______________________________________________________
A/N:
"Maaf, Alicia. Aku pergi dulu."
"Ali, tunggu!"
HELLO YES I AM EMOTIONAL RIGHT NOW
AU where Ali managed to escape from MATA thus declaring himself a rogue agent. The two people who was with him were Andik and Surya. Ali stayed off the grid during those two months and they didn't know about Pinggiran yet.
That sentence "And you know the rest." was me trying hard to un-remember that one fight scene. I know it's a great scene (coz hey, my bae was being so cool) but no. Nuh-uh. Nope. I love it and I hate it.
The part where Alicia and Bobby had a little conversation? Yo that wrecked me for good I was crying while writing this oh my god okay I'll give you my permission to come for my throat now.