Homecoming | sequel of "Home" [✔️]

Chapter 14

Boboiboy had seen many soldiers rise from nothing. He'd also seen the same soldiers die for everything. Being an immortal was neither a curse nor a blessing. It was just a fact. A fact that could be wielded to his advantage if handled correctly.

He would outlive planets, cultures, and races. One day, he will live to see the destruction of Earth, the eradication of humans. Whether by civil war or by invading forces, they will perish eventually.

But for once in four hundred years, he'd found someone else that he could relate to. By any means, Ali wasn't special in the slightest. He was physically undermined, mentally challenged and downright a quitter. But it was the fact that he was facing expectations larger than his own piqued Boboiboy's interest.

Ah, Boboiboy had said. Guess we're in the same boat.

Soon, he and Ali became friends. Slowly, but surely. Boboiboy would visit this repulsive city and wait for him by the park. He'd listen to Ali complain about his school, his teachers, his bullies for hours.

"Honestly, you're giving me a vibe that says you're not around here."

"Hm? Oh. You're not entirely wrong."

After a week, Ali saw through him. It took a while and multiple hints, but Boboiboy was the one that broke it to him that he was from outer space. A human that lived hundreds of years ago, but was one of the first to remain outside Earth's atmosphere.

As expected, Ali didn't freak. Nor was he particularly fascinated. He didn't see Boboiboy as someone from another world. He saw Boboiboy as a friend he could talk to, not a supernatural being that would see the end of all life.

And that was what surprised Boboiboy the most. Can you keep secret? He'd ask. Ali had nodded and followed up with his own promise. Same here. Can you?

Ali told him about MATA. It wasn't any new information, since Boboiboy already knew about its existence. Still he pretended to be surprised, sympathizing with Ali's stories, as he's been in the same situation, just more light-hearted.

"Do you ever want to leave?"

Ali didn't answer that day. It was a question that remained unanswered.

Until that day.

When Ali called Boboiboy, asking if he ever could leave, Boboiboy helped him. He would give him the chance that he never had. He had the power to help him, and by god's name he was going to do it.

There, in TAPOPS, Ali met Fang. Fang, at first, was hostile towards him. He'd frowned at Boboiboy's direction and gesture towards Ali like he was a vicious animal, saying, You brought a human here? Are you crazy?

Boboiboy being Boboiboy, he simply turned around and ignored Fang entirely. Fang screamed profanities at him, but he didn't even stop to retaliate.

Are you an alien or a human?

Fang paused. He stared at Ali as if he's asked a question that no one asked him before. Alien.

Cool.

You think so?

Yeah. You look really strong.

Fang may have turned away and crossed his arms, but he was attached to the young child in a heartbeat. Ali reminded him of his younger self, always looking up to Kaizo, while himself knowing that he would never be great as his brother.

The child that was barely 130cm of height, who cried at the drop of a hat, managed to befriend the two most hostile people in space.

Of course, Ali didn't know that. He wasn't aware that they were the leaders of TAPOPS too. (He knew this afterwards when Fang stormed around the station yelling at incompetent workers.) He trained with the two, but mostly with Fang. Boboiboy was always distant and somewhere else, never in one place for too long.