Chapter 30
Neox walked into the grey area, a bit upset about the incident that occurred at breakfast. He wished that Calixa was there to cheer him up, but she was on an over night mission in Port Royal. The boy sighed and lay on the couch in the gray area, which was not exactly a good idea, seeing as he blended in with it in his current out of uniform clothes. As he should have expected Xero came and sat on him. Though it was questionable if he did it on purpose or it was an accident. "AHHHH! GET OFF!" the kid bellowed.
"Cricky!" Xero jumped up and looked at him. "Sorry mate, didn't see ya there."
"You're really heavy..." Neox grumbled.
Xero tilted his head to the side in confusion, "Something bothering you?"
The kid seemed a bit hesitant about answering. "Calixa is gone... and Roxas and Xion are recovering from the last punishment they got from their most recent prank. It's boring here!"
"Well go bother Saïx, he'll give you a mission I'm sure," Xero suggested.
"It's the night of the full moon" Neox said bluntly.
Xero still being fairly new didn't know what that meant, and gave the boy a confused look. Neox smirked. "Go tell Saïx to fetch and then throw a book in the direction of the moonlight. See what happens and then run."
Xero raised his eyebrows at him, didn't know what would happen but figured that it was best not to do what he said. Neox stood up and walked over to Saïx, and Xero backed up on instinct. "Scarface, where's Cali? Wasn't she supposed to be back by now?"
Saïx stared at him, looking pissed. Neox forced himself to look unfazed by the glare, and the blue haired man started to breathe heavily. "Ok ok. Saïx. Happy now?"
He summoned his claymore, about to go into berserk mode. It was already too late. Neox squeaked. "SUPIRIOR!" he shouted, running out of the room, with Xero close behind.
The sounds of breaking, smashing and crashing was heard as the two males hid in the closet. "Understand now, why I didn't want to ask him?" Neox asked.
"You sort of asked for it calling him Scarface," the older male pointed out.
"He acts like this whenever there's a full moon. I always call him Scarface and he just does the huffing and puffing part. Never goes berserk."
Later that night Neox walked into the kitchen for dinner and noticed that Calixa wasn't there. It was only an overnight mission; she should have been back by now. So he decided to go to Saïx again, hoping that he would be calm now. Thankfully he did seem calm, "Um... Saix..?" Neox said shyly.
Number seven looked at the boy, "What is it number fifteen?" he asked, always acting like he never kept his memory past a few minutes.
"What time is Calixa scheduled to come back?"
"9:30am on the fourteenth," Saïx replied.
Neox blinked, "She isn't back yet and it's nighttime!"
"I said she's coming back on the fourteenth," Saïx repeated.
"TODAYS THE FOURTEENTH!" Neox shouted, wondering how dense someone like Saïx, all serious, could possibly be.
"It is...?" he asked.
"YES!"
"Oh... I should go tell the superior that she never RCT'd"
"Ya think?" the child mumbled below his breath.
Saïx left, and Neox sighed anxiously. The child found himself unable to sleep and kept pacing the grey area. It was late, long after most members went to bed and he still hadn't heard anything. He couldn't find Saïx or Xemnas when he tried to find them. "Ohhh... Cali..." Neox wailed in despair.
"Wat arya moanin bout?" a Scottish voice asked from behind him.
Neox looked behind him, startled. He might have had a heart attack, if he had a heart. Then he glared, what was SHE doing up so late. "Like you'd care!" he shot.
"Wat macks ye say 'at?" she asked.
"Since when do you give a dusk's tail about anyone?" he asked, making Bàli actually think, due to her never seeing if a dusk actually had a tail.
"I dinna know dusk's 'ad tales..." she mused.
"Oh my... what are you doing up at this hour anyway?"
She frowned slightly, as if a very bad memory suddenly came back to her. "Coundna sleep..." Neox nodded, somehow sensing her feelings. "Where's ye friend?" Bàli asked him trying to change the subject.
Neox seemed to simply become depressed at the mention of Calixa. 'She's not here... her mission was supposed to be over this morning but she's not back yet..."
"Oh… I see," Bàli replied awkwardly, unsure what to say.
Neox suddenly looked at the entryway to see that Saïx had come back, "What are you two still doing up?" he asked them.
"Where's Calixa?" Neox asked, glaring at Saïx
"We are not sure, a rescue team will be sent out first thing in the morning."
"Why not now?"
"It is too late. Seventeen, you should get some rest, you are apart of the rescue team."
"What about ME?" Neox said, adamant at this point.
"You are not needed during this mission," Saïx replied coldly.
"WHAT?"
"We have already chosen the members best suited to go on this mission, and we dont need a forth member."
"B-but..."
"No buts now get to bed both of you!"
Neox was on the brink of tears as he slowly walked back to his room. Saïx, emotionless as always simply told him to move faster. "Sir, who 'els is goin with I" Bàli asked Saïx.
"Number thirteen and number eighteen."
"Oh..." she frowned with the thought of the annoying Australian going. Ever since he saved her from the snake, she hadn't totally despised him, but she still didn't like him very much.
"Go to bed number seventeen," Saïx ordered, and she turned her heels and stalked out, mumbling something under her breath in Gaelic.
The next day, Roxas was in his room packing up for the rescue mission. There was suddenly a knock at his door. Thinking it might be Xion or Axel come to wish him good luck, he went to open it. But standing there was not either of them, in fact, nobody was there. "Huh?" he asked himself looking around.
Absolutely nobody was there. With a shrug he closed the door and went back to packing. When he was done, his suitcase felt heavier than usual, but he didn't worry too much about it and went to the Grey Area. Bàli and Xero where already waiting there, Bàli sending him dirty looks, "Oh boy, now I'm going to be between them..." Roxas thought.
"Are you all ready?" Saïx asked, opening the portal.
"As reada as I'm gonna be..." Bàli mumbled.
Saïx ignored her and motioned for them to go though a portal he just created. They all left, Roxas trailing behind with his really heavy bag. "I don't recall packing so much," he huffed.
After they had searched around the town of Port Royal a bit, the decided to rent a ship, thinking perhaps that she went out to sea. This was easily one of Roxas's worst missions. Every time Xero made a comment Bàli would snipe at him, in multiple languages at times. "Why do you keep yelling at me?" Xero asked her.
"Cause ye bein a divit!" she shouted at him.
"A what? Now you're just making stuff up!"
"Divit! It means idiot!"
"Well how was I supposed to-"
"Would you two shut it?" Roxas shouted at them.
The two became quiet, a bit intimidated by the younger teen, as Roxas rented out the ship. "... So what boats ours?" Xero asked after a short silence. The blonde boy pointed to a large ship that looked brand new. "Are we going to man that ship just the three of us?"
"Yeah, you're first at the wheel so good luck. I'm going to go rest," Roxas said exhausted from carrying that heavy bag around.
They all went to the ship, and Roxas and Bàli went to the lower deck. "Da ya know how tae sail on of dees?" Bàli asked Roxas.
"Um... sure. I've seen it on TV a bunch of times."
"Wat were ye watchin exactly?"
"Some movie called Treasure Island. It seemed pretty real."
Bàli sighed, "We're doomed!"
Roxas patted her back reassuringly and went into a cabin. Bàli sighed, and looked at Xero who was by the ships wheel. He seemed to be operating it efficiently, "Hey Bàli could you set the sails for me?" he asked her.
"Do it yerself! Don be lazy," She huffed.
"Ok," Xero replied without complaint but he had a smirk on his face. The Aussie let go of the wheel and the ship violently swerved to the right, making Bàli fall over with a thud.
"Ouch! Wat did ye do 'at for!" she shouted with anger.
"You told me to do it myself." She started mumbling very unkind words toward Xero in her first language, but decided to assist him in putting up the sails. Better that then have the ship sink.
Meanwhile in Roxas's room, he was lying on the bed resting, after lugging that bag around for so long he was beat. Suddenly, he heard the weirdest noise... an unzipping sound. "Huh!" he looked around and saw that his bag was... unzipping itself. "What the..." It finished unzipping itself and a person in the organization's uniform popped out, "NEOX!"
"Hiya Roxas," the child greeted with a smile.
"What the hell are you doing here!" he asked.
"Duh! I'm here to help rescue Cali."
"But you weren't assigned to the mission..."
"And? You weren't assigned to taking money from the coin jar last week to go get sea salt ice cream."
Roxas froze, "I-I don't have the slightest idea what you talking about..."
"Oh? Because I seem to remember a certain light using, keyblade wielding blonde take 500 munny for some ice cream."
Roxas growled, "You wouldn't!"
"Oh really? You want to try me?"
"GRR! Fine you can stay…"
"YAY!" the boy jumped up and down, beaming.
"Maybe you could help me; Bàli and Xero are driving me crazy! They won't stop sniping at each other."
Neox looked up at him, "Did you expect anything other than that?"
"Why the superior sent the two of them, I'll have no idea..."
Neox shrugged, "Maybe to punish you."
"But- What did I do!"
"Remember the peanut butter and jelly in the toaster incident?"
The blonde fell silence blushing madly, "Come on lets go see what the two foreign members are doing.
Neox nodded, and they went up to the deck. When they got there, it was obvious that Xero and Bàli weren't working as a team. "LET GO!" Bàli bellowed.
"IM SUPPOSE TO BE STEERING! YOU LET GO!" Xero shouted back clenching part of the steering wheel.
"NAE!" Bali screeched holding on to the second part of the wheel and trying to turn it with all her might. "Ye are doin it all wrong. I'll do it!"
"YOU'RE GONNA CAPSIZE US!"
"YOUR BOTH GOING OT CAPSIZE US!" Roxas roared at them.
They both stopped... and idiotically, both let go of the wheel. The steering wheel started to turn vigorously to the left jolting the boat hard to the right making everyone fall to there backsides. Xero scrabbled for the wheel, and took hold of it, steadying the boat at once. "YOU IDIOTS!" Roxas roared, clutching his head.
They both stared at him innocently, and suddenly noticed that an extra member had joined them. "What's Neox doing here?" Xero asked.
"He snuck into my suitcase," Roxas replied.
"How did you not manage to now notice that?" Xero asked in disbelief.
"I thought it was heavy for me over packing it."
Both older members rolled there eyes, "We don't have time for chat! We need to save Cali!" Neox reminded them all of there mission.
"Oh yeah" All of them said, making Neox face palm.
They continued sailing for awhile, and Neox was beginning to pace up and down the deck. "Ye are goin to war a hole in de deck," Bàli pointed out after a moment.
"Cali... where are you..." the boy pondered worriedly.
"Don't worry mate," Xero said reassuringly patting the boy on the back. "We'll find her."
Roxas glared at him, "Steer the ship. I don't want to fall overboard into shark infested water."
"Why don't you steer it for awhile," Neox asked noticing how bossy Roxas was getting.
Roxas looked at him, "I have the worst headache thanks to tweedle dee and tweedle dumb over there," he said, ignoring the two older members saying "HEEEEY!"
"Well your attitude is starting to annoy me," Neox said bluntly.
"Oh shut up..." Roxas yawned.
The sailing went on for another few hours. Neox sat up in the crows next looking for any site of land or ship. He eventually spotted land out in the distance, "LAAAAAANDDDD HOOOOOOO!" he shouted, making everyone looked up at him. "What?" he asked them.
"Maybe you should have yelled a little louder. I don't think two world over heard you!" Roxas called up to him.
"Okay!" Neox said, and then started to take a deep breath.
"Just shut up and get down here," Roxas ordered.
"Ok!" Neox said then jumped down. Bàli screamed in fear as he fell toward the deck. Neox then simply fell on top of Roxas, landing on his stomach, "Thanks Roxas."
"Don't mention it," Roxas gasped trying to catch his breath.
Neox stood up as they neared the large land mass. Xero and Roxas worked together to doc the ship on the island, and they all stepped off the ship. "How are we supposed to know if she's in this island?" Neox asked.
"We don't, we just need to ask around and see if anyone has seen her," Roxas said.
"Ask who?" Xero asked.
"Anybody we see. There must be some civilized people around."
"What about them?" Neox suggested, pointing to a group of people who were heading into the forest.
"Let's go ask," Xero said.
"Not all of us," Roxas objected, then pointed at Bàli and Xero. "You two stay here."
"You really think it's a good idea to leave them alone together?" Neox asked.
"I can't trust either with us, and we need someone to watch the ship."
Without waiting for them to answer, Roxas ran off. Neox followed, not wanting to be left behind. Xero looked at Bàli smiling nervously. This was met with a glare, which make him gulp. "Aw c'mon! What did I do?"
Before she replied there was a sound behind them. "What the?" both asked, turning around.
Two people that looked like natives stared at them. Xero waved at them. "Well... 'ello mate."
They spoke to each other in fast voices that weren't English, and started toward them. Bàli started to get a bad feeling, so was Xero. "I think we should get out of here," he whispered to Bàli and started backing away.
The blonde stood there frozen as the natives came closer. Xero had already turned around and was running in the other direction. A scream made him stop and turn around. The two natives had taken hold of Bàli and were now dragging her away. Without a second though, Xero ran to save her
Neox hit another one of the pirates and jumped back. "Dammit.. pirates. Of all the things!" he growled.
When they had gone to ask the people they saw dragging something into the woods, it wasn't long before it was known that the men were pirates. They had gotten into a fight once the pirates tried to rob them. "Damn things!" Roxas swore as he knocked one more out.
"Don't knock them all out, we need to question them," Neox reminded Roxas as the blonde knocked out the last pirate.
Neox stared at him and sighed heavily. Roxas blushed in embarrassment, "Woops, sorry hehe," the older boy said stupidly.
"Neox... Roxas...?" a panting voice asked behind them.
Both looked around and saw Calixa standing behind them. They gasped at the state of her. Calixa must have lost her shirt at some point because she was only wearing the normal organization pants, and what looked like the tattered remains of her organization coat, which was so shredded that it didn't cover her bare bruised chest. A sudden noise from behind the red head made her quickly swing around, with her back toward them. Then they both knew why she didn't have any shirt. Long angry red welts covered her back, some oozing blood. Calixa looked back at them, total fear in her eyes.
"Oh, Kingdom Hearts…" Neox said, "Cali who did that?"
With a shaky hand, Calixa pointed at the unconscious pirates lying around them. The boy glared and threw his Keyblade at one of the pirates, striking him in the face. Roxas on the other hand quickly walked over to Calixa unzipping his coat and placing it around her to cover her nudity. "Neox we don't have time for this, we need to get her back to the castle." Roxas said.
"Fine," Neox sigh, making his keyblade reappeared in his hand.
Roxas brought Calixa's arm over his shoulder, to help her walk as they headed back to the ship. As they did so, Calixa explained what had happened to her. Apparently, she had ran into the pirates and after insulting them they kidnapped her. They forced her to do labor on the ship, and whipped her multiple times to subdue here. Neox's face got angrier and angrier as the story was told. He dearly wanted to go back and beat the pulp out of those pirates, but Calixa was visually getting weaker and they had to get her back to the castle.
When the trio got back they found that Xero and Bàli weren't there anymore. "... This isn't happening," Roxas said, and face palmed. Calixa wasn't doing very well by this time. She looked barely conscious, and groaned as they moved. "Cali doesn't have time for us to find them," Roxas said. "Neox you take her back to the castle and have Vexen look at her, and I'll find Xero and Bàli. I'll bring them back if I haven't killed them yet."
"All right," the younger boy agreed, and Roxas gently transferred the girl over to Neox. He sagged a bit under her weight, though managed to walk though a portal.
Meanwhile Bàli and Xero, were held captive in a cage. "LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT NOW DAMMIT!" Xero said, shaking the bars like a caged monkey.
Bàli was sitting on the ground, calm for once. She rolled her eyes at Xero, "Give it a rest alreada."
"I'M INNOCENT, I TELL YA! INNOCENT!" he bellowed, then fell back. "I don't believe this."
Bàli didn't reply. A silence fell between them, and Xero looked over at the girl next to him, "Hey Bali?"
"What do ye want?" she asked crossly.
"I've been wondering… why do you hate me so much. I mean… as far as I know I've been nice to you ever since I arrived… Was there something I said or did that offended you?"
Bàli remained silent, she didn't look at him. As she thought about maybe telling him, she realized that the real reason she hated Xero was quite selfish. Xero patently waited for her to respond, "Coz... tis nae fair..." she said very softly. So softly Xero almost didn't hear it.
"What do you mean...?"
The girl explained, her accent getting thicker as she went. "When ye joined, everyone loved ye. Yoo're th' most in th' gang bodie in th' organization. An' everyone has 'ated me, ever since mah first day. Ah guess Ah thooght 'at if Ah hated ye, 'en yoo'd at leest feel some of what Ah feel evera day..."
"... Oh..." was all he said. "... Well... I don't hate you... I never did..." he said quietly. There was a silence, and Xero continued. "When I found you really sick, I wondered why no one noticed. I mean, no one deserves that. It doesn't matter what you did." Bàli felt the coolness in her chest warm a little. "I felt really bad about that... It confused me up to now. But..."
Tears were rolling down Bàli's eyes now. Xero offered a hug, and Bàli surprisingly accepted. The orange haired nobody held her tight, and then looked into her eyes. Bàli leaned in and kissed Xero on the lips. The male teen was taken by surprise, but after a few seconds, he returned the kiss. The two continued to kiss deeply.
"Number 15?" Saïx exclaimed in a rare moment of surprise.
Neox, who was barely supporting an unconscious Calixa suddenly, came though a portal. "Help! She's hurt!" Neox pleaded, as Demyx and Axel rushed over.
"What happened to her?" Axel asked.
Neox didn't answer, since after Demyx took Calixa from him he collapsed. The carrot haired girl was taken off to Vexen's lab, and Saïx looked around wondering why the team he sent out didn't find her. Neox slowly stood up panting, only to fall to his knees A portal suddenly opened and Roxas Bàli and Xero all walked though blushing in embarrassment. "What is the meaning of this?" Saïx asked them.
"Um... we found Calixa but Xero and Bàli were caught by some natives. Neox brought Calixa back and I went to find these two. I eventually found them," Roxas blushed even more. "And um now we're all back."
"Why is your face red?" Neox asked weakly.
"N-nothing," the blonde replied, as Xero and Bàli blushed even redder.
"Um okay…" Saïx replied, then directed them all to the superior's office, where they could tell the story in more detail.
Wow chapter 30. Roxas sure had something shoved up his butt this chapter :P