Chapter 24
Neox was reading a book on pranks that cost well over 200 munny to buy, and Calixa was writing in her diary. They were both currently sitting in Calixa's bedroom. The girl suddenly closed the book and announced, "I'm bored."
The silver haired boy pretended he didn't hear her, hoping she would just leave him alone. Calixa, who didn't like being ignored, threw one of her boots at him. "OW!" Neox yelled, rubbing his neck where it hit him.
"Let's do something!" she whined childishly.
"Like what, Cali?"
She thought for a moment, "You know Bàli was being a real prik this morning. Let's pull a prank on her."
"How was she being a prik?" Neox asked, lying down.
"She was talking too much, and also somehow kept predicting who was going to lose the poker game the older members were playing."
"She came out right, every single time."
"Yeah, byt doing it in the most annoying way, 'I woodno play agin, cause ya gonna lose dis time,"' Calixa gave a bad interpretation of Bàli's accent.
"You suck at impersonations," the boy sighed, sitting up. "But fine."
"So got any prank ideas, out of that new book?"
"Well, one. It says, make annoying people quiet... No wait, that's for you."
Calixa stuck her tongue out at him, "How about we go mess up Vexen's lab and make it look like she did it?"
"Vexen would know it was us, he has cameras."
Now Calixa was starting to get really upset, "Then you decide what to do!"
"How about this?" he pointed to something in the book as she came over to see.
"What's that?" she asked staring at it.
"A plant. It says 'chop up this plant and stick it in the victim's food... then sit back and laugh your pants off.'" Calixa stared a few more moments, and slowly an evil grin crossed her face. Neox blinked, not really like that look...
"Let's do it!" she said with excitement.
"Fine... it says the plant is in the world I bought this from... so Port Royal."
"Come on, lets go get it!" she grabbed his arm and ran though a portal.
A little while later, they were in the kitchen. "How should we get it into her food?" Neox asked.
"Easy, cut it up until its ground to dust, and then pour it into her bowl. We're having stew tonight. It'll be easy."
When dinner time came, Neox was sitting at his seat, head on the table, half asleep. Calixa was eagerly watching Bàli about to eat her food. The blond didn't seem to find anything wrong with her meal, and she continued to eat. Calixa was actually quite disappointed by this reaction. Maybe they got the wrong plant…
Bàli held her head and turned pale, suddenly not feeling well. Calixa grinned as Bàli stood up, and teleported out of the kitchen without another word. No one liked her, so no one even looked up or wonderd why she left. Neox was still asleep at the table, having been woken up by Zexion so he could eat, but fell back asleep as soon as his meal was done. Unfortunately Calixa woke him up again, "Come on Lets go see what happened to Bàli. We're not going to get her just hide away so no one will laugh at her."
Neox mumbled sleepily as Calixa dragged him away, which was easy since he hardly weighed anything. They knocked on Bàli's door, and received no answer. "Bàli?" Neox called.
They still got no answer, so Calixa opened the door. They looked inside, and was surprised to see sitting on the bed, was a little child, with long blonde hair, and large blue eyes sucking her thumb. Neox and Calixa stared at the child for a bit, the oversized organization cloak she had on was a clear sign of what happened. "Bàli?" Neox asked.
The child looked at him; though he couldn't exactly call it a child... she wasn't much younger than he was. "Who're ye?" she asked in the familiar Scottish accent, though it was much higher and squeakier then normal. This for some reason didn't sound as annoying, almost cute actually.
Neox wasn't affected in the least, "What the hell happened to her!" he asked angrily.
"Ooooh!" the child Bàli said, giggling and pointing at Neox. "Ye said a bad word!"
Neox glared at her. "Shut up." This made the tiny blonde pout, lip trembling. Tears started to moist her uncommonly large eyes. "You going to bawl? Go ahead! Nobody cares." The kid said with a spiteful look. He was actually angry that he kept getting woken up, more then angry at Bàli.
The little girl then went into a fit of sobs, which annoyed Calixa. She raised her hand and hit Neox on the head, "Apologize! Get her to stop!"
"What are you talking about? I don't know anything about babies!" Neox bent down to eye level with Bàli, and said very firmly, "Stop crying this instant!"
This only made it worse. Calixa pushed him out of the way and picked her up, holding her gently. "I'm going to kill you Neox," Calixa hissed, as she was able to slowly calm the crying girl down. Thought it looked like she hated every minute of it. "I hate kids..." she mumbled.
"Hey!" Neox said, standing up.
"What!" Calixa replied testily.
The boy just sighed with frustration and dropped the matter, "Let's tell Xemnas."
"And what are we going to tell him, we put something in her food that turned her into a rugrat?"
"Yes. And that it was your idea."
"No it was your idea, you showed me the book!"
"You gave me the munny."
"It looks like you're both a fault," a voice said behind them.
Both looked behind them, not noticing anyone come in. Zexion was standing there with Saïx, and Neox immediately opened a portal and ran through, closing it behind him.
Calixa was left standing here with a thumb sucking four year old Bàli in her arms. She gave her signature, nervous laugh, "Ha, ha, hi Zexion."
The schemer didn't respond, but started to walk towards her. "So this is supposed to be number seventeen?" he asked.
Calixa nodded meekly, handing the child to Zexion. Bàli dint struggle at being passed around, and the red head sighed with relief as having the annoying girl being taken away from her. The constant thumb sucking habit was really annoying her. The younger child looked up at Zexion, then giggled. "We should have Vexen start an antidote. She certainly won't be any use to this organization, like that," Saïx pointed out.
"Yes. We should... and fast," Zexion said as Bàli put her entire hand in her mouth to suck on.
Zexion turned to Calixa, and set Bàli down on the ground. "Ok as punishment for doing this, you and Neox have to watch her until the antidote is finished," Zexion said.
Calixa's jaw dropped. "What? N-no! Please Zexion!" she begged.
"You brought this on yourself Calixa, now you need to learn." with that both senior members left.
Bàli looked at Calixa then began to move toward the door. "Um... where do you think your going?" Calixa asked.
"Nae wike ye!"
"Yeah well I don't like you either, but we're stuck with each other so deal with it," Calixa walked over and grabbed her arm. "Let's go find Neox."
"Let go! WAAAAAAAAH!" the little girl cried.
"Shut up!" Calixa dragged her though a portal into Neox's room.
Surprisingly, Neox was in his room instead of hiding somewhere else. Unsurprisingly, he was asleep. Bàli finally managed to pull away from Calixa, and ran over to Neox's sleeping from. "Please donna make me stay wit de mean lassie!" she cried out jumping on Neox.
"OW! My back!" Neox cried out. He looked at the younger girl, who was almost half naked from the large organization coat barely hanging onto her shoulders. He then looked at Calixa. "What the hell?"
"Guess what Zexion's punishing us by making us take care of her," Calixa explained as Bàli hugged Neox with a vice grip.
Neox sighed. "Can I ask why she's still wrapped in this thing?" Neox asked, holding up the coat that had fallen off her shoulders and was now wrapped around her waist.
"I don't know, she's too small to fit in any of our clothes."
"Neox do you remember that organization uniform you shrunk in the wash, maybe that would fit her," Calixa continued.
"I guess." he replied, handing her back to Calixa.
But Bàli struggled, and wined, "Nae, nae, I don wan ta go wit 'er!"
"Well why leech onto me?" Neox groaned.
She didn't reply, only snuggled her blonde head deeper into his coat. He sighed and picked her up, walking toward his closet, and pulling out his shrunken uniform, which turned out to fit almost perfectly. She was hesitant though, "Lassie's are nae to wear dis," she continued to say while Neox forced her to put pants on.
"Well be a dude for today!" Neox growled.
Calixa giggled, "This reminds me of her first day in the organization. Remember how she refused to wear the uniform."
"Yes, and the elder members didn't go through as much hell as I am getting her to wear it now!"
Calixa just laughed at his expense, and Neox looked at her with a death glare then returned to dressing Bàli. Once she was dressed, the child went back to sucking her thumb again. Which annoyed the heck out of Calixa, "That's really starting to annoy me."
"Why? I used to do it, and I'm sure you did too." Neox asked, picking up the little Bàli.
"She looks old enough to have the habit kicked," Calixa replied and sat on the bed. "So what do we do with her now?"
"Just give her something to do," Neox replied setting Bàli down on the ground.
"Like what?" Calixa asked.
"Um... how about the TV, that's always a good babysitter," Neox suggested.
Before Calixa replied, Bàli started tugging at Neox's organization coat, trying to get his attention. "What is it?" he asked, looking down at her.
"I needa go lavvy," she said.
"What?" Neox asked thinking he might have misunderstood her.
"I needa go lavvy," she said a little more desperately.
"What's a lavvy?" Neox asked Calixa.
"How am I supposed to know," Calixa replied shrugging her shoulders.
Bàli continued to tug on the boys coat, doing a particular dance, "I needa go!"
Neox's eyes widened with realization. "OH HELL NO! Don't you dare piss in here!" he said, picking her up and running through a portal to Calixa's room, running into her bathroom. Neox set Bàli back on the ground, "Ok um... go do what you need to do," he said awkwardly.
Calixa followed them through the portal and watched him. She was thoroughly enjoying this. It got even better when Bàli seemed to be having a hard time undoing the button on her pants. Neox whined and looked at Calixa. "If she pisses in here, it's YOUR floor that'll be messed up!"
Calixa laughed, "I don't care, and this is just too funny."
Bàli tugged at Neox's coat again, "I canna get dem off!"
Neox whimpered and helped her pull her pants down. Thankfully once that was done, she seemed to be able to handle everything else ok. Neox turned around blushing with embarrassment. "I'm gonna get you back sooooo bad!" he growled at Calixa, who continued to just giggle histarically.
After a few minutes she pointed behind him, "She needs help with the pants again."
Neox turned around to see the blonde four year old struggling to re-button the black pants. With a shake of his head, Neox walked past the older girl. "You do it." he said simply, exiting the room, leaving no room for argument.
With a sigh, Calixa walked over to help her out. Unfortunately though, Bàli wasn't having any of it. "Nae, I don wan ye 'elp," she backed away from her.
"Neox left! He isn't here to help you!"
"Den I willna wear dem," Bàli said stubernly.
To Calixa's horror she started talking the black pants back off. "No! You aren't streaking in here!" Calixa said, forcing them back on the four year old.
Bàli screamed, and ran past the red head. Calixa started chasing her, "Get back here!" Unfortunately Bàli had run from the room, and had already disappeared into the hallway. Once Calixa was out in the hallway, she looked about, but couldn't see the younger girl. "Great! That's just really great!" Calixa said face palming
Neox appeared behind her. "I'm sure it is." he growled
Calixa turned toward the boy, "Don't be blaming me, this would never have happened if you hadn't left me to deal with your problem!"
"MY problem? It was your idea TO PRANK HER!"
"Um guys?" a voice asked. Both kids turned to look at Roxas who was standing there holding a small pair of black pants, "What were these doing in the middle of the hallway?"
Neox and Calixa looked at the pants, then at each other in horror. "OH NO!" they screamed, running out of the room to find Bàli, trampling Roxas as they did so.
Roxas laid there on the ground, staring up at the ceiling in confusion. "What was that all about?" he asked himself.
The two kids ran as fast as they could, looking around the area trying to find Bàli. But the castle was huge, it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. "Cali what If someone else finds her?" Neox asked.
"We get spanked, is what happens! We can't let someone else find her before we do!" Calixa replied.
"Especially considering she's not wearing any pants," Neox added.
"Exactly!"
Neox and Calixa continued to search the castle up and down, for another hour. Then they finally spotted Bàli, standing in front of a room door, knocking loudly. "There she is!" Calixa announced.
Before the child could see them, Neox sped up and grabbed her. "Gotcha!"
The younger nobody cried out in surprise, and Neox glared at her. "Where have you been?"
"Hidin from de mean lassie," Bali replied.
Neox looked at Calixa, "Hey don't look at me," Calixa defended herself.
"She's referring to you though. Whose door is this anyway?" he asked, having lost track of what floor they were even on.
Calixa suddenly paled, at seeing the burns on the door that were only made my lighting. "Oh no..." Neox whimpered, and then turned to run. Calixa turned to follow them, but was grabbed by her hood.
"Not so fast," a wicked voice spoke.
"Oh no..." Calixa whimpered then screamed when she was put in a tight headlock. "Neox help!"
Neox turned around and swore loudly before running back to Calixa. Bàli followed, mostly because Neox still had her in an arm lock. The boy glared at Larxene. "Let her go! She didn't do anything! It was her!" He said, pointing at Bàli.
Larxene stared at the miniature Bàli for several long seconds, and Neox shifted the little girl to his right arm, being only able to summon his keyblade with his left hand. The blonde woman let go of Calixa, who fell to the ground gasping for breath. Larxene slowly walked over to Neox and stared closely at Bàli. The little girls innocent eyes stared back at the woman. Just a tiny bit of fear, swam in her blue eyes. Larxene suddenly did the most unexpected thing. She gently picked Bàli up and held her, quite expertly to her hip. "Where did a toddler come from?" she asked smiling uncharacteristically at Bàli.
"Its Bàli... thanks to Calixa, we accidently turned her into a baby..." Neox replied.
"What do you mean, thanks to Calixa!" the red head shouted, "It was your idea to use the plant!"
"Your idea to prank her!" Neox shouted back.
He looked at Larxene, and the woman just nodded slowly, "So why isn't she wearing pants?"
"That was Neox's fault," Calixa replied.
"No it wasn't! I told you to put her pants on! You didn't and she ran away!"
"She wouldn't let me help her! You should have stayed and finished your job."
"I've been doing everything for her from the moment she shrunk!"
"That's because she wont let me do anything for her, she only lets you do it."
The two suddenly heard giggling, and looked over at Bàli and Larxene. The older blonde was tickling Bàli belly, smiling as the toddler giggled. Both Neox and Calixa's jaws dropped. Neither ever expected Larxene to like kids. It seemed so... unnatural...
Larxene then took Bàli into her room, and the younger nobodies looked at each other, "Um... so are we done?" Calixa asked.
Neox nodded. "Let's leave her with Larxene." he said, turning to leave until Larxene suddenly said. "Get in here or its freakin' wedgie city!"
Both gulped, and shuffled there way into the room. They watched as Larxene put some pants on her. Though they were pink, and they both wondered why she even had pants in child size, but they were two afraid to ask. Thankfully they were sweat like pants easy to slip on and off, so she wouldn't need help with buttons. Calixa watched but then notice Neox was leaning slightly backward and suddenly remembered that Neox runs extremely fast, which meant that when he stopped running, he was very tiered.
The boy eye's started to droop. Calixa luckily caught him as he fell asleep standing. Larxene and Bàli both looked at them, eyebrows raised. "What's with him?" Larxene asked.
Calixa looked at her, holding Neox in her arms. He wasn't really that heavy, not even a hundred pounds yet. She shrugged, "How should I know?" Neox was fast asleep in her arms. "Can you watch her while I put him in bed?"
It looked like Larxene was barely listening, she was smiling at Bàli while tickling her stomach, "Yeah sure," she replied distractedly.
Calixa looked on Larxene's dresser, seeing several expensive bottles of body spray. She blinked, looked at Larxene, then shrugged and took a few with her. So she made a trip to Neox's room to put him on the bed, then a trip to her own room to put away her new bottles of body spray, and then back to Larxene's room. When she returned to Larxene's room, Bàli was in a fit of giggles. She and Larxene were building a large fort, made of blankets, pillows, and chairs.
Calixa just stared in shock; this was definitely a side of Larxene she had never seen before. She liked it, but what would happen when Bàli was normal again. This started a train of thought, of what would happen if Bàli stayed this way. On the positive side, Larxene probably wouldn't be mean anymore. And Bàli being so young, can easily be swayed to being more cool then the annoying person she used to be. Plus growing up with them would downplay that accent greatly. She was really starting to like this idea. On the down side... Calixa heard that Xemnas was initially furious that there was a child nobody when Neox was created. She weighed both sides, trying to figure out which would be better.
On the negative side, Zexion wanted Bàli back to normal NOW. So that would probably not end well for them. With a regretful sigh, she realized that it would be best for them to get the old Bàli back. "Uh… Larxene?" Calixa said.
"Yes?" the woman asked in a surprisingly warm voice.
"We... we need to bring her to Vexen."
"What!" that sounded more like the normal Larxene.
"EEP!" Calixa squealed running out of the room.
Larxene looked over the child Bali, "I won't let you go back to normal, I like you better this way."
Calixa whimpered, having heard her say that outside the door. How would she handle this? She would have to get Neox's help, but he was fast asleep and would have to wait. Calixa left for her room, knowing that Bàli was at least in safe hands.
The next day, Calixa barged into Neox's room. "We got a problem," she announced.
"What is it?" He asked looking at her, apparently getting dressed since he was only in pants.
"Larxene wants Bàli to remain a rugrat."
"That isn't my problem. Your prank, your issue."
"Just remember, that Zexion put her in OUR charge. That means we're both in trouble, if this doesn't work out."
"... I hate you," he sighed as he looked at her.
"I'm not too fond of you either at the moment, especially since you're not willing to take your part of the blame."
"It isn't my fault!"
"It was your idea to use the plant!"
"Your idea to prank her!"
"You didn't have to agree to help!"
"Well why don't you agree to get out my room!"
"No!" Calixa glared daggers at him.
"Out! Or I'll push you into the dirt!"
The red haired girls eyes narrowed, "Fine, I'll leave. And don't expect me to ever come back!" with that she stomped out of room and crashed the door shut.
Another day went by, and Calixa finally decided she should probably go rescue Bàli from Larxene's smothering, and find out what's happening with Vexen and the antidote. So, first was getting Bàli. Trembling slightly, she knocked on Larxene's door. When she got no reply, she opened the door and peeked in. Larxene didn't seem to be in there, though she could spot Bàli napping on her bed.
Quietly as possible, she tip toed to the bed and grabbed the little girl. She still had the annoying habit of sucking her thumb, and made a mental note to use that against her when she was big again. As she was leaving, Bàli started to stir. The little blonde opened her eyes, and stared blearily at the older girl. Calixa stopped and looked at her afraid that she was going to suddenly scream, but Bàli didn't seem to recognize her. She was in too much of a dazed state.
It took Bàli all of ten seconds to get her proper site back, and then she realized who was carrying her. With this realization, she began to scream her head off, and thankfully they were already out of Larxene room and into the hallway. So Calixa was easily able to teleport out of the room. One thing she didn't remember, was that Larxene wasn't in her room, "Help help! She's tryin ta kidnap me!" Bàli screamed.
Calixa slapped a hand over the younger girl's mouth. Larxene, however, had heard her evidently. "My Baby!" she cried out jumping up and running toward the direction of where the noise came from.
Calixa ran faster, hearing Larxene. She ran right into Vexen's lab and shut the door.
Vexen looked at her in alarm. "Please tell me that the antidote is finished," Calixa asked him.
"Why yes, it is," he said, looking at her. "Just finished."
"Thank Kingdom Hearts," Calixa set a crying Bàli down. "Please fix her, quickly."
Bàli tried to run out, but Vexen picked her up, injecting a syringe into her arm. A loud squeal of pain came from the childs mouth, and she burst into loud sobs. Vexen then placed a large robe on Bàli so that she'd be covered when she grew back to normal size. Within seconds, Bàli was her normal, fifteen year old self.
She looked around in confusion, "Wat am I doin 'ere?" she asked looking down and see that she was wearing nothing but a robe. "An what am I wearing dis for?"
"... You'll find out tomorrow. For now. GET OUT OF MY LAB!" Vexen roared at them.
They both shuffled out of the lab quickly. Larxene suddenly came running down the hallway, "I'll save you Bàli!" she yelled but suddenly stopped when she saw fully grown Bàli.
Calixa immediately opened a portal, and walked into a hallway, appearing beside Neox. She glared at him, "Good news, the brat is back to being the big pain the ass," Calixa told him.
"Oh she's changed back?"
"No thanks to you," she said coldly.
"Well like I said your pra-"
"Just shut up!" Calixa did something she had never done before. She slapped him in the face. The boy stared at her, stunned. Tears formed in his eyes from the pain of her slap, but his eyes darkened with anger and hatred.
Suddenly a large crash of lighting went all the way though the castle followed bye a scream of rage. It didn't take a genius to figure out who it was, and Neox turned and ran full speed into a different hallway. Calixa was following close behind him, but unfortunately, a hand grabbed her by her hood, and pulled her back. The carrot head looked into the horrible angry face of Larxene. Neox was behind the corner listening as Calixa let out a huge scream. This was followed by a loud ripping sound.
If Neox wasn't so angry with her, he would have felt sympathy. But now he was so angry, he almost wished, he was the one that did it. With a sigh he turned his heels and teleported back to his room.
Here's next chapter, don't know what else to say... :)