WARNING: This chapter has very GRAPHIC depictions of illness, bodily fluids and medical details/procedures. Those with sensitive stomachs should read with caution.
Status – Unfinished
Chapter 53
Neox lay on his bed, exhaustion tugging at his fatigued mind. He had barely gotten any sleep since returning from Middle Earth four days ago. Every time he closed his eyes, the horrible dark dreams he experienced while under the influence of the black breath came back to haunt him. The boy jumped when someone knocked on his door, "C-Come in," he squeaked out.
His door opened to reveal Xion standing in the doorway, carrying a plate for food in her hands. "Hi baby," she greeted with a sympathetic smile. "How are you doing?"
The only reply Neox gave was a small whimper of dismay. Xion walked into the room, placed the plate of food down next to the alarm clock, and sat on the bed next to him. The silver haired boy crawled up into her lap, and snuggled into her chest while she wrapped her arms around his figure. "Neox, you barely ate any breakfast or lunch. You need to eat more or you'll get sick," she gently rebukes him.
"Just not hungry…" Neox mumbled.
"I brought your favorite," Xion bribed picking up the plate of food with continued beef Sukiyaki, and offering it to him.
Neox looked at the plate for a moment, "Maybe later."
She sighed, putting the plate back on the table. There were several moments of tense silence until Xion finally suggested, "Why don't we go visit Calixa?"
The boy hesitated, it had been a day since he went to visit his sick friend. They had barely been back from Middle Earth two days before Calixa came down with a mysterious illness. Vexen had said it was a waterborne illness, from drinking contaminated water. That's when Calixa was finally forced to admit that she had drunk river water several times while traveling to Helms Deep. He eventually nodded, "Yeah, let's go."
The two left Neox's room and headed for the medical center, where Calixa was currently staying until there was some improvement in her condition. The carrot haired girl was lying on the bed closest to the entrance, wearing the special nightgown Vexen required everyone wear when they were in the medical center. She looked over at them when they entered; her face was flushed with fever and her eyes were dank and gassy, however she managed a smile. "Hi Cali, how are you feeling?" Xion took the initiative to start the conversation.
The younger girl shrugged weakly, "Eh- been better I guess." She giggled a little to try and lighten the mood, and then looked seriously at Neox. Despite the fact that he wasn't as sick as she was, he looked just as bad as she did. "How are you doing Neox?"
"Better then you're doing I'm sure," the boy smiled at her.
"How's your foot doing?" Xion asked looking down at Calixa's left foot which was wrapped up on a cloth.
Calixa gulped, looking wearily at her foot. "Still hurts a little, and it gets blacker everyday… won't be long before it falls off or something."
The room fell into a grave silence, but it wasn't because they really thought her foot was going to fall off. It was how horribly sad the situation was. Calixa still hadn't given a detailed account of what happened to her, but she had told them about stepping into some water with decaying dead bodies in it. Ever since her foot has felt painful and numb; Vexen said that it was all in her head, and that there was really nothing wrong with her foot.
But no matter how much anyone tried to convince her that her foot was fine, she could still barely walk on it. It didn't help fact that her fever was causing delusions, where she could actually see her foot decaying away. Neox removed the cloth to look at her foot which looked perfectly normal to him, "You know I think it's looking a little better."
Calixa shook her head sighing, "I don't think so. It's beyond saving."
She suddenly jumped out of the bed, and hobbled over as fast as she could to the bathroom right next to the entrance. Neox and Xion just looked at each other without saying a word. Calixa had come down with a bad case of diarrhea the day after they came back, it was after she started running a fever that Vexen brought her into the medical center. His reason for keeping her there, was so he could monitor her fluid intake.
Normally Neox would have given her a hard time about it, and milked it for all it was worth. But he couldn't bring himself to do it this time because he felt at least somewhat responsible for what was happening to her now. She saved his life, and though he knew very little about what she actually went through to save him. Roxas had said that he had never seen her look so dirty, which meant that she must not have showered once the whole time she was gone. And she even drank river water knowing what the consequences might be, and she did it all for him. Considering the argument they just had before all of it happened, he wasn't sure he would have done the same thing.
That guilt weighed heavy on him, the boy hadn't even figured out a way to say thanks. The mere words seemed too hollow, and meaningless in this situation. He owned her his life, a debt he didn't even know where to start to pay off.
The bathroom door opened, and Calixa came back out hobbling on her psychosomatic pained foot. She sighed with relief when she lay back onto the bed, "Sorry…" she said weakly. They were interrupted again by Vexen, who came into the room carrying a glass of water. He walked over to the bed and handed her the glass, "Number sixteen. Drink this," he ordered.
Calixa unenthusiastically accepted the glass, and scowled at it. "I'm not thirsty," she complained.
Vexen gave her a cold look, "I didn't ask if you were thirsty. It is critical that you intake enough fluids, the diarrhea will make you easily dehydrated. Now do as I say and drink it."
"You've been stuffing me with so much liquid; I'll soon be throwing it up." Calixa growled with a pout, but took a sip of the water.
The Chilly Academic sighed with frustration, and frowned at the barely touched plate of food on Calixa's bedside table. "Number sixteen, you need to eat more than a bite of your food."
The girl glared, "I had three bites, for your information. That was all my stomach could take."
"Not eating will only delay your recovery. Eat more of that," Vexen ordered before storming out of the room.
Calixa gapped, "Who does he think he is?"
"He's just trying to help you get better," Xion defended gently.
"He could still be a little more understanding," the girl mumbled.
The guilt was getting to be too much for Neox, he quickly excused himself saying something about Zexion wanting to see him and left the room.
ORGANIZATIONDAYS
Xero walked into the kitchen for dinner, and sat down next to Bàli. Her little sister Xacrrie was sitting on the opposite side of the table, trying to have a conversation in there first language Gaelic. But Bàli seemed to be too distracted to participate in the conversation much. Yes, just because he didn't understand Scottish Gaelic didn't mean he couldn't tell when his wife's mind was elsewhere. "Hey hun," he greeted.
Bàli's eyes lingered for a moment on what was currently distracting her before looking over at Xero and smiling. "Hi, how was ye mission?" she asked giving him a kiss on the cheek.
"Long," the Aussie sighed grabbing the platter of mash potatoes and serving himself a large helping.
Looking back over at Bàli, he saw that she was back looking at her original distraction. He followed her gaze, which landed on Neox. The silver haired boy wasn't exactly very friendly with her, so this was surprising. The boy in question was sitting next to Xacrrie one elbow propped up on the table, and the other hand pushing his food around on his plate. "He doesn't look very well does he?" Xero commented deciding the best way to carry on a conversation was talk about what was currently distracting her.
Bàli glanced back over at Xero, then back at Neox. "Yeah… that creature in Middle Earth must have really messed him up."
Zexion came over to there end of the table, "Neox, I want you to finish everything on the plate. Do you understand me?"
"I'm not hungry…" Neox whined with a pout.
"I don't care if you're not hungry. Vexen has enough to deal with right now, without adding you to the list for not eating. Now finish your food," the older nobody ordered firmly.
Neox gave Zexion a menacing glare, but it faulted after a moment. In a way he knew that Zexion was right, and Calixa wouldn't be too happy to find him get really sick after risking her own life to save him. So the least he could do was try to choke down a meal, since he had barely eating anything the past four days. He only managed to eat half the plate before feeling that if he ate another bite his stomach would bring it back up. Xacrrie was kind enough to finish the rest, so it at least looked like he finished the food.
Once the plate was clean, he stood up, "Where are ye going?" Xacrrie asked.
"Just going to go lay down in my room," the boy replied.
Bàli suddenly jumped up from the table, "Neox wait!" she called.
"Not right now Bàli," he growled not willing to deal with her now, and created a portal so that he could get away easier.
ORGANIZATIONDAYS
Calixa forced open her extremely heavy eyelids. Her body was covered in an icy cold sweat, which made her shiver under the blankets. Her head pounded, and her body ached all over. But what was worse was her left foot, it felt like sharp knives were piercing every inch of her foot. Going by the nausea that was currently attacking her stomach at the moment, she knew that it would be a mistake to look at her foot now. All the food she had managed to choke down before falling asleep would just come back up.
Her intestines right below her belly button was cramping horribly, which meant she need to find a bathroom as soon as possible. Ignoring her protesting limps, Calixa slipped out of bed and placed both feet on the ground. Her decaying foot shot with horrible pain at the pressure, but she ignored it and limped over to the bathroom.
She made it there just in time for her bowels to loosen, and deposited her chunky stool into the toilet. Once she was finished, she washed her hands and went back into the room to find Vexen waiting for her by the bed. "Was it watery or murky?" he asked without ceremony.
Calixa blushed. She hated having to talk about this stuff she considered privet, but she knew that she had to answer. At least Neox wasn't in the room, she was surprised he hadn't made fun of her yet. "I guess it was kinda murky…"
Vexen nodded, and wrote down a note on his clipboard. "Was it more watery then last time?"
Calixa nodded without word, and got back into bed. Vexen brought a thermometer out his pocket and handed it to her. "I will to take your temperature now," he offered as way of explanation.
Placing the stick under her tongue, Calixa lay back against the pilling, closing her eyes in hopes of drifting off. She had never felt so horrible in all her life as a nobody. She felt so bad that she barely cared about the fact that she was constantly sweating, and that's saying a lot considering her abnormal hygienic tendencies.
She must have dosed off for a bit because it seemed like only a second went by before Vexen pulled the thermometer out of her mouth and looked at it. He wrote down a note on his clipboard without stating what her temperature was, then handed her a cup of some liquid that wasn't water. It looked a little like apple juice, but smelled like a fruit mixture. After he ordered her to drink it, the red head hesitantly took a sip suspicious of the drink. As expected it was medicine, and horrible tasting medicine. It tasted like fermented juice that someone tried to cover up the taste with strawberry flavors.
Calixa gagged horribly on the contents, almost losing her lunch. "Auk what is that shit?" she asked putting the cup on the bedside table and grabbing the glass of water to wash out the horrid taste.
"It's medicine to help in your recovery," Vexen snapped sounding like he was losing his patients very fast.
"Well I'm not drinking it, tastes nasty," Calixa sank deeper into the bed and pulling the covers over her head.
She felt the temperature in the room drop a couple degrees, which she was pretty sure was caused by Vexen. "Either you dink it yourself or I'll force it down your throat," he threatened.
Knowing that Vexen was serious by the sign of his cold voice, and too tired to put up a good fight, Calixa reluctantly grabbed the cup of medicine again. Just drink it all fast, and get it over with. She told herself, before taking a deep breath and downing half the cup. The horrible taste triggered her gag reflex, which her tender stomach couldn't handle, and resulted in her violently vomiting over the side of the bed.
Vexen looked like he was considering whether it was worth it to just murder her right now. He must have decided that it wasn't worth it because all he did was growl. "That's it! Fine, I give up!" he fumed, snatching the cup out her hands and stalked out of the room, grumbling about no respect.
Calixa lay back against the pillows feeling worse then before. She was only alone for a moment before Neox peaked into the room. "Man Cali, what did you say to Vexen. He looks like he wants to kill the next person that gets too close to him."
"He was being a jerk…" the girl groaned.
Neox sniffed the hair, and made a face. "What's that smell?"
"Oh um…" Calixa blushed red. "Vexen was trying to force me to take this really disgusting medicine, and my stomach didn't agree with it… sorry."
Ignoring his first instinct to make fun of her, Neox smiled sympathetically. "That's ok," he said and sat down on the edge of her bed.
"You look thin," the carrot head stated pocking the boy's ribs. "You eating enough?"
"…Enough," was Neox's vague answer.
Before she could question him further, the door to the medical center opened and Zexion came in with a mop and bucket. "All right, where's the mess?" he asked.
"Over on this side," Calixa motioned to the side of the bed where she threw up. "Sorry."
Zexion didn't comment, just started cleaning up the mess without word. All the sudden, Calixa's left foot went numb. That couldn't have been a good sign, "Oh my God!" she swore pushing away the blankets to look at her foot.
It looked just as back as ever, possibly worse – no it was worse. She could see the blackness start to spread up her leg. The decaying was spreading, it would eventually kill her. Neox and Zexion looked at her with alarm, "What? What is it? What's wrong?" Neox asked hoping she would say that her foot was all better.
"Look its spreading," Calixa squealed.
"I don't see any difference?" Zexion replied carefully.
"No look how far up its gone?" Calixa pointed about an inch above her ankle where the blackness was now at.
"But Cali, wasn't it that far yesterday?" Neox asked.
"No it was only covering my foot, it didn't reach my ankle. We got to cut off the foot, before it spreads further!"
"Now I think we're getting ahead of ourselves," Zexion reasoned. "Lets have Vexen look at it first."
The Chilly Academic took that moment to walk in. Calixa didn't give him a chance to ask what was wrong. "Vexen! The decaying has spread up to my ankle, you need to amputate the foot before it kills me!" The blonde walked over and looked at her foot, "See where the blackness has spread?" she pointed at the blackness that was now up a little past her ankle.
Vexen sighed, and left the room. Calixa assumed that he had gone to get his equipment for the amputation. How would she be able to do her missions without a foot, maybe Vexen would be able to make a fake one. The mere thought made her start crying, and Xacrrie walked into the room to investigate the commotion that was happening. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"I-I- I'm going to lose my foot!" Calixa choked out between sobs.
"Really?" Xacrrie asked looking at Neox in surprise.
The door opened, again to reveal Vexen coming back into the room carrying a large bowl. "Number sixteen, I've been working in my lab the past few days trying to find a cure for your foot. And I've finally managed to create the cure, painlessly and no amputation needed."
"Really?" Calixa looked at him not believing it. "Are you sure it not too late? Look how bad it's gotten."
"It just means you'll have to leave your foot in the solution longer then if you did it when you first returned," Vexen replied and placed the bowl on the floor which consisted of cloudy water. "Just stick your foot into the water, and you should feel immediate relief."
Calixa wearily placed her foot into the bowl of warm water, and was surprised to find it was instant relief. Her foot felt absolutely normal, just like before. "Wow, it really has stopped hurting."
"Just leave it in there for about two minutes, and you should be completely cured," Vexen instructed.
The two minutes ticked by slowly, and when Calixa finally pulled her foot out of the solution, she cried out with happiness to see that her foot looked completely normal again. "Look its better!" she cried out, standing up and tested the foot on the ground. It didn't hurt or pain her in the least bit, which made the girl jump up and down. "Its better! Its better! I don't have to lose my foot!"
Vexen picked up the bowl and started to leave the room, and Zexion ran to follow him. "Number four that was amazing, what did you put in that thing?" he asked.
The older male actually smirked, "Just flour and warm water," he replied smugly. At Zexion's confused look he continued. "It's called the placebo effect."
ORGANIZATIONDAYS
Neox and Xacrrie headed back to Neox's room after Calixa fell asleep. Sure she no longer believed her foot was beyond saving, but she was still very sick. "Maybe ye should go tae bed early," Xacrrie suggested when they entered the room. "Ye look dead on ur feet."
The boy sighed, sleeping was the exact last thing he wanted to do. "Yeah… I guess," he replied but made no movement to actually taking her suggestion.
Xacrrie gave him a critical look, "Can't ye tell mi what's bothering ye? Maybe I can help?"
"Xac…" the silver haired boy began. "I don't want to burden you with my problems."
"Ur making urself more of a burden by not taking care of urself," he blonde grabbed his hand. "Look on the bright side. It look like Cali is starting to show improvements."
Neox smiled, "Yeah. I don't know what Vexen did, but I'm relieved that she thinks her foot is normal again."
His face fell again, and he looked away from his girlfriend. Xacrrie shifted her position and moved forward to look at his face. "It's Calixa isn't it?" she assumed, "She's the one that's making you feel like this."
Neox looked at the girl in alarm, "Don't blame her!" he almost shouted.
"I wasn't trying to!" Xacrrie interrupted speaking in a firm authoritative voice, and giving him a look.
Tears started leaking from the boys eyes, "I- I just feel so guilty…" he finally confessed. "Everything that's happening to her right now is because she was trying to save my life, and she did save my life. I don't even know how to thank her…"
"Ye could start with saying it?" Xacrrie suggested as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Neox almost slapped her for saying something so callused. But he didn't because a part of his mind was saying that she was right. If you don't know where to start in saying thank you, the best obvious start is with the words. "Yeah…" he sighed, voice choking up. "But- I think it's too late. If I was going to say thank you, I should have said it four days ago when we first returned."
"Its not too late," Xacrrie replied. "It's never too late to say thank you."
The leaking emotions finally burst out into the open. Neox broke into sobs, and Xacrrie wrapped her arms around him, bringing his racking body closer to her. The boy sobbed out all his held in guilt, fear, and sorrow into his girlfriends lap. The blonde whispered words of comfort while rubbing his back, until the boy eventually fell asleep.
ORGANIZATIONDAYS
It was in the middle of the night when Calixa woke up, feeling that something was terribly wrong. Her entire body felt as if it was trying to turn itself inside out, and her stomach protested against life. She had never felt so miserable in all her life as a nobody, and probably her life before becoming a nobody as well. She didn't need Vexen or anyone else telling her that she was very sick right now, and she knew that she needed to find help fast.
The carrot head slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position, which caused a severe wave of dizziness to come over her. Bad idea. Falling back against the pillows she groaned loudly in pain, and took deep breaths to keep from passing out.
A cramping sensation from beneath her navel, announced that she needed to find a bathroom. Calixa really didn't want to get out of bed, but she knew that if she didn't things would get messy real fast. So taking a deep breath to ward off oncoming dizziness, she jumped out of bed and ran toward the bathroom as fast as she could without falling over. Unfortunately she was unable to make it before she felt her bowels loosen, and warm liquid start running down her legs.
Another wave of dizziness came over the girl, and her knees collapsed under her. Calixa fell to the ground and burst into tears. She had no idea how long she sat crumpled on the floor, but eventually she heard voices arguing. She was vaguely aware of strong arms lifting her up, and gently stripping off her night gown. The last sensation she remembered before passing out was the feeling of warm water running down her legs.
The next time Calixa came too, she was lying in her bed again, completely naked. If she hadn't felt so horrible then she probably would have felt more embarrassed. The sound of footsteps approaching made her aware of someone else in the room. It was a woman, covered from head to foot in loose clothing, where the only thing that could we seen was her brown eyes. Despite the fact that she couldn't see her face, Calixa still knew exactly who it was. "Mama!" she cried out weakly extending her arms up in the air.
Without words the woman reached down and hugged Calixa. The girl started to cry into the her mothers robes, and Calixa didn't know how long they stayed like that. Calixa's mother didn't say a word the entire time, but the carrot head knew that she was safe in these arms…
ORGANIZATIONDAYS
Neox was drowning in senseless, non transparent black smoke. He desperately tried to keep above the smoke, but he was slowly sinking. His breath was taken away, every time his head sink beneath the blackness. The boy knew that if it swallowed him he would be lost forever, but it was useless he was sinking ever lover. As soon as the black smoke engulfed him, he found himself in the middle of a dead tree forest in the middle of a black moonless night.
He had been in this place before, it was not a good place… bad stuff always happened in this place. "Help! Help!" he cried out running through the leafless trees.
The shadows of the rocks he passed by grew into the hazy shapes of growling wolves, which ran after him. "Somebody please help me!" the boy cried tears rolling down his cheeks. He could hear the shadow wolves gaining on him, and then suddenly he tripped over a log, landing face down on the ground. Quickly rolling over, Neox threw his hands over his face as one of the wolves jumped at him-
"NO!" Neox awoke with a start.
He was no longer in a dark forest being chased by shadow wolves, he was lying safely in his bed at the castle that never was. Even then he burst into tears, this was just one type of his nightly terrors he experienced every time he fell asleep. Why was this happening to him?
In no mood to go back to sleep, Neox was thankful when he looked at the clock and saw that it was almost breakfast time. He found out about Calixa's current condition, the moment he stepped into the kitchen for breakfast. Needless to say it instantly took what little was left of his apatite away, and made him wish he just stayed in bed. "I don't feel so well…" he announced to Xacrrie, who had been the one to tell him that Calixa was now bedridden, with an off the charts fever, and delusional.
The blonde girl grabbed his hand to stop him as he turned to leave the room. "No, you need tae eat som breakfast," she said gently and led him over to a chair.
The silver haired boy plopped down onto a chair, and let his head fall onto the table. Roxas and Xion who were sitting nearby gave him concerned look. Xacrrie quickly filled a plate with bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage, and hash browns. She set it down in front of Neox. "Here eat that," she offered.
Neox looked up at the food briefly, and shook his head. "Not hungry…"
"Please," Xacrrie pouted. "For me?"
Neox managed to eat a few bites of his breakfast, and then he Xacrrie, Roxas, and Xion all headed for the gray area. "Maybe we'll 'ave a misson together," Xacrrie commented hopefully.
"I don't think so," Roxas objected. "Neox has been off duty since we returned from Middle Earth."
"Well maybe I'll be off today, and then we can go to Twilight town and get ice-cream," Xacrrie suggested.
Neox just shrugged, sitting down on the couch. Much to Xacrrie's disappointment, she and Xion had a mission together. Roxas was also given a single mission, which would leave the silver haired boy alone for the day. "Are ye sure yer going to be ok today?" Xacrrie asked worriedly as she and Xion got ready for there mission.
"Yeah…" the boy nodded vaguely, and then forced a smile. "I'll be fine."
Xacrrie nodded, still looking worried. "We'll try and finish the mission really quick, ok?" she squeezed his hand then kissed him on the cheek.
After everyone had left for there mission, Neox decided to just lie back on the couch instead of heading back to his room. He had briefly considered going to visit Calixa, but from what he heard her mind was no longer on this world and probably wouldn't even notice he was there. So he stayed content of lying on the couch trying not to move. He felt a lot worse today then he did yesterday, maybe it was that dream. Zexion approached the couch he was lying on. "Neox are you ok?" he asked gently.
The boy just shrugged, "I don't know…" he mumbled softly.
"You look a little pale," the older nobody commented worriedly, bending down and feeling the boys forehead. "Neox I think you have a fever."
Neox only shivered in response, and Zexion gently picked him up. "Come on, I'll take you to bed," he said gently and teleported away.
ORGANIZATIONDAYS
Calixa tossed and turned in her bed, feeling increasingly uncomfortable with her body covered in sticky with sweat. Her first instinct and desire was to take a long shower to get clean. Unfortunately she could barely sit up without feeling dizzy, let alone take her normal 2 hour shower. The only two visitors she seemed to be having lately were her mother and Vexen, and occasionally Zexion.
Her mother always came alone when no one else was in the room, and never said a word when she was there, but there was a glowing comfort that came with her presence. And that was the reason she spent much of her time calling out for her when she wasn't in the room. Vexen usually came alone, and every time he was in the room he'd try to force either water or disgusting medicine done her throat. Zexion would occasionally come by with Vexen, but didn't do anything but talk to Vexen for a few minutes and leave.
The door to the medical center opened. Calixa dearly hoped it was her mother, and cried out for her. "Mama help me please!"
Unfortunately it was Vexen that walked into the room. He was carrying a cup of liquid, which didn't hold any promises. More often then not, the cup he carried had bitter tasting medicine in it. The blonde walked over to her bed and brought the cup to her lips, "Number sixteen, drink this," he ordered.
Not knowing if this was water or medicine, Calixa instantly moved her head away from the cup pressing her lips together. "Number sixteen, drink it!" Vexen ordered firmly.
"No!" Calixa's hand went up to swat the cup away from her mouth, and collided with Vexen's wrist. The cup jostled in Vexen's hand, spilling some of the contents, but he managed to hold onto it. The Chilly Academic took a step back and closed his eyes. A heavy breath fell from his nose, as he tried to control his rage.
"Sixteen… you will drink this," he told the girl very slowly. Vexen was just about to grab the girl's hair and force the liquid down her throat, but luckily Zexion took this moment to walk in.
The Cloaked Schemer stared as Vexen grabbed a handful of Calixa's carrot orange hair, and brought the cup to her lips again. At once the girl began to struggle moving her head back and forth to avoid the glass, wincing as the hair locked in Vexen's grip pulled against her scalp, "No! No! Mama! Mama help!"
"Would you like some help!" Zexion asked.
Vexen let go of her hair and backed away, he looked about ready to strangle the girl. He was supposed to be a scientist not a doctor, he's never had the patience to deal with difficult patients, let alone child patients. "Be my guest," he growled handing the glass over to Zexion. "She is severely dehydrated, and needs fluid intake immediately."
Zexion accepted the glass and approached the bed. In the struggle with Vexen, Calixa had lost what little strength she had left, and felt even more ill then she did before. She felt the bed depress next to her as Zexion sat next to her, "Mama… Mama help me…" she said weakly.
"Do you know what she's saying?" Vexen asked, and she was way too tried to wonder why Vexen wouldn't understand what she's saying.
"I've been reading up on Hebrew, and she's calling for her mother," Zexion responded, and reached over to gently stroke the top of her fevered brow. "Calixa," he started gently. "You are very ill, and you need to drink this.
"No…" she retorted weakly but did not move away from her gentle touch. Who would have thought that Zexion had such a gentle bedside manner. But since the time both Neox and Calixa joined he had somewhat taken them under his wing and grown to in a way love them as if they were his own children.
"Calixa, its just water. Take a small sip," Zexion coaxed bringing the cup to her lips. Hearing that it was not medicine, was the only thing that stopped her from moving her head again. Though she wasn't sure if her stomach could handle anything much less water, she parted her dry chapped lips and allowed a small amount of cool water to flood her hot mouth. She swallowed the liquid and instantly felt her stomach rebel against it.
The orange haired girl groaned as her stomach turned over completely rejecting what was just put in it. Zexion moved the glass closer to mouth to try and get another sip down her throat, but as the glass touched her lips and gagged as her stomach heaved. Nothing came up, which wasn't much of a surprise since she wasn't eating or drinking anything. The Cloaked Schemer quickly moved out of the way to avoid getting vomited on. Calixa's stomach heaved again, bringing up the water she just drank along with some stomach acid. She continued to dry heave for another few minute then fell back against her pillow barely conscious.
She didn't bring up much, but what she did throw up landed on her blankets. Vexen and Zexion looked at each other gravely. If she couldn't keep down the tiniest bit of water then she was getting worse.
Neox laid in his bed, his head aching.
Calixa felt very, very hot. Like she was in an oven or something. Why was she so hot? She forced open her heavy eyelids and was blinded by sunlight. She reached a hand up to shield her eyes, squinting at her surroundings. She was surrounded by open fields and scattered trees. Where was she? It took a moment for everything to come back. Neox! The fight, and black rider… Her best friend was back at the village deathly ill, and she was heading to Helms Deep to find the person who could save him.
Quickly sitting up, Calixa took in her surroundings once again. She could see Helms Deep at a distance, if she went quickly she could be there in a couple of hours. Why had she stopped when she was so close to her destination. She must have sat down to rest and accidently fallen asleep again. How many hours did she lose by this blunder? She couldn't think about such things. She just had to get to the city as fast a possible.
The orange haired girl stood up and began trudging toward the city far off into the distance. She still felt so hot and sticky, probably from lying in the sun. In her mind she decided that when she got home she would take a long cold shower. She was getting closer, wouldn't be long now-
The ground suddenly gave way under her feet. She fell face down and felt something hard hit against her arms. She began to roll downwards, feeling every sharp bump against her arms, legs, ribs, and head. When she finally stopped moving her head cracked against something hard and sharp. Her eyes scanned her surroundings long enough to figure out that she was lying on the floor at the bottom of a staircase in the Castle that Never Was. Then everything went dark.
Vexen sighed heavily as he looked over number sixteen's latest blood work. Her potassium levels were becoming dangerously low. It would be dangerous to use IV to bring her levels back up, and if she continued to be unable to keep anything orally down, he would have to start looking at less desirable administration methods.
The low potassium wasn't the only thing concerning him. Her fever had been wavering between 103 and 105, and all the vomiting and diarrhea has caused her to become severely dehydrated. If there was not improvement soon, she will probably die… not that he really cared about the annoying girl, she caused more mayhem in the organization then all the other members put together. But the Superior would never tolerate him just letting a fellow member die, and Zexion wouldn't be too happy with him if he didn't do everything in his power to get her better.
The Chilly Academic set the blood work papers down on his desk, and headed towards the medical center. It was time to start IV fluids to get her rehydrated, since drinking them was no longer an option. He stopped short after stepping into the medical center. The bed number sixteen was currently occupying was now empty…
He looked towards the bathroom. It had been days since she had been strong enough to use the bathroom on her own, but maybe she had a sudden burst of energy. The door was closed, though it was always closed, so he stepped over and opened the door. It was empty. Once again he was not really concerned about the girl, they didn't even have a heart to give them the ability to feel concern. However the memory of worry began to tug at him, because of the situation. Sixteen was a very ill girl right now, and wandering around Kingdom Hearts knows where could be lethal.
Vexen walked out of the medical center and back into his lab. Zexion was now there with a stack of paper in this hands. "Number six, sixteen is missing."
"What!?" Zexion looked startled and alarmed. Was that fear in his voice? Taking those two brats under his wing has clearly made his younger lab partner forget that they can feel no emotions.
"She was there last time I checked an hour ago, however she isn't their now," Vexen replied.
Zexion dropped the stack of papers he was holding on the counter and strode towards the doorway. "We have to find her immediately. We need to report to the Superior, and everyone still in the castle needs to be searching for her."
"Given there's something still there to find…" Vexen mumbled thinking that she could be dead and faded away already. Luckily Zexion didn't seem to have heard this comment.
Roxas opened up the door to the recreation room and turned on the lights, "Cali!" he called scanning the room. The superior had just announced over the loud speakers that Calixa had gone missing and everyone now had to drop what they were doing and look for her. No one was to stop until she was found.
Luckily Neox happened to be asleep when they made the announcement, and was shortly excused from joining the search party due to his recovering condition. If he had been awake, then he would have insisted on joining no matter what anyone said; and no one would argue that had enough on this plate right now and didn't need to this to be added to it. He didn't see her anywhere in the room, so he closed the door and continued down the hallway calling her name every so often. He was just about to begin looking into the Hall of Empty Melodies when Axel's voice shouted, "I found her!"
The blond went running towards Twilights View. When he approached the edge of the staircase, he saw Axel down at the bottom of the first flight of stairs, bending over Calixa who was sprawled on the ground. It wasn't pretty, the closer he got. Her face was deathly white, lying in a pool of her own blood. "Go find Vexen quick!" Axel ordered.
Neox slowly opened his eyes, and looked at his surroundings. He was alone in his room, which he found somewhat odd. Not that he was being selfish or anything, but he had almost always been accompanied in his bedroom with either Xion, Xacrrie or both.
Resisting the urge to just roll over and go back to sleep, the boy sat up and stretched his sluggish limbs. It might be good for him to take a little walk, find out what everyone was doing. He had just finished zipping up his organization coat when there was a knock on his door. "Come in!" he called out.
The door opened to reveal Xacrrie, Xion, and Roxas, "Hey baby, how're you doing?" Xion asked while wrapping a comforting arm around his shoulders.
Neox just shrugged his shoulders and asked, "What's everyone been doing?"
"We've been searching for Cali," Roxas responded. "She ended up wandering off in a delusional state."
Concern went though Neox like a sudden jolt of electricity. His best friend was deathly ill and missing! Why wasn't he woken up, why weren't they all searching at this very moment, "Oh no, did you find her? Is she ok?"
"Yeah we found her…" Roxas responded and hesitated a moment. "And I wouldn't say she's ok… but she could be worse."
Neox gave the blond a cold look, demanding without words to elaborate on that. But Xacrrie did it for him. "She wasn't in a vera good state when we found 'er. Got a good bump on de head dat needed stiches, an other den some bumps and bruises she's no worse off den she was before."
Relief washed over the gray haired boy. "That's good, can I go see her?"
"Unfortunately no," Xion chimed in. "Vexen's no longer allowing any visitors until her condition starts improving."
"Well then screw Vexen. She's my best friend that saved my life, and if I want to see her then I damn well can and no dumb ice cube is going to tell me otherwise," Neox growled, and teleported right into the medical center.
Luckily, Vexen or Zexion wasn't there at the moment; so he didn't have to argue his way into seeing Calixa. Vexen seemed to have brought in a curtain to wrap around her bed, because he couldn't see Calixa lying in the bed she had been occupying because of said curtain. The silver haired boy ignored it the same way he ignored what Xion said. He walked right past the curtain and looked down at the girl lying in the bed.
She looked absolutely awful… her skin was pail as death, but still had the fever flush. She had lost so much weight that her skin seemed to be stretched over a skeletal skull. Her lips were cracked and almost bleeding. He hadn't even gotten to the injuries from her fall. There was a large discolored bruise on the arm that was hanging over the bed that he could see, and she wore a large bandage around her forehead. He was willing to bet that there was a lot more underneath the covers. But he couldn't bring himself to look. Neox tenderly reached out and grabbed her hand that was hanging off the bed. It felt like it had been warmed up in the microwave. He opened his mouth to call her name, but a sob came out instead.
The next thing he knew, Neox was kneeling on the floor next to Calixa's bed, sobbing into his hands. It was all just too much, his little shoulders couldn't carry anymore of the burden of guilt he had been feeling since coming back from Middle Earth.
In the empty hole of his chest, Neox knew that his best friend wasn't going to survive this. She had saved his life yes, but at the cost of her own. "Cali you stupid idiot! You should have just let me die, because I won't survive without you!" the boy wailed.
Neox was unsure how long he knelt on the floor sobbing, it could have been minutes or hours, he didn't know or care. He was vaguely aware of hearing the door open and footsteps approaching. Smooth slender arms wrapped around his waist and the crying boy was gently lifted off the ground. He knew at once the person to pick him up wasn't Vexen, much too small to be Vexen. It could have been Zexion, which would be the next person he'd guess to walk into the medical center and find him, but the skin of their arms seemed way too soft, and the person holding him seemed smaller then even Zexion. He didn't have the energy or even care enough to ponder any further about who it could be.
The familiar sensation of being enveloped in warm darkness came over him, indicating that he and the person holding him were teleporting away. He was being taken away from his dying friend. Perhaps never see her again… Neox became to struggle weakly against the arms holding him. If Calixa was going to die, he was going to be right next to her until the moment it happened. "Shhhh…" a female voice soothed.
That explained the soft skin. There wasn't a whole lot of females in the organization to pick through, and even the sound of her soothing tones were enough to recognize the person as the last one after Larxene to be carrying him. Bàli.
Neox briefly wondered why in Kingdom Hearts name was Bàli trying to comfort him. He had been an ass to her ever since she joined the organization and his best friend Cali had if nothing else worse. She should have no reason to be wanting to help him, even if he was dating her younger sister. So exhausted and devastated by guilt, the boy didn't bother wondering anymore. He wished that he was dead, anything would be better than this. Kingdom Hearts just end it now.
He felt Bàli shift his body slightly then she sat down and crossed her over each other so he sat in her lab comfortably. Then her hands gently grabbed both cheeks and tilted his head up. He blearily looked through his tear filled eyes into her concerned looking face. She spoke gently to him, "Ye have a shadow loomin over ye. Been seein it since the day ye came back." The blond girl then wrapped her arms around him in tight embrace and began speaking in Gaelic. "An athair Dia agus Tighearna Iosa Criosd. Tha mi thuige fuil Iosa a nighe seo gille òg ann mo ghàirdeanan."
Neox stopped crying as he listened to the words. He had no idea what she was saying, but he still found it soothing to listen to. "Ease 'inntinn agus anam le d' tairgse fios thugainn. Faighinn seachad air an sgàil sin thuit e ann an ainm Iosa, chan eil seo a 'leigeil le droch spiorad gu dorcha an dorus a' chaisteil seo a-riamh a-rithist," Neox suddenly felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. A warmness crept through his body, starting where his heart should have been and spreading all the way to his fingertips. He had only just realized that he hadn't been properly warm since his attack on the Nazgual. "Tha mi a 'toirt taing dhut airson sàbhaladh seo gille bho s an deomhan air a leòn gu bheil a chorp a thuilleadh air' inntinn, agus tha mi a 'toirt taing dhut gu bheil thu ag èisteachd ri fiù dhuinn Nobodies ùrnaighean. Leig le do thoil a dhèanamh ann an suidheachadh seo. Ann an Iosa naomh agus matchless ainm Amen," Bàli finished her long monolog and began rocking back and forth with the boy still wrapped in her arms.
Calixa opened her eyes slowly. She felt as if she had been run over by a truck, then cooked in a microwave. Why the heck was it so hot, and so cold… her arms felt like they were on fire, while her toes felt like they were icicles. It took her a minute to figure out why she was feeling so miserable, and then it came back to her again. She didn't think it would ever be possible to feel so ill, and wondered if death would be preferable. Anything had to be better than this. She knew that she had reached the peak of misery, there's no way it could get any worse.
Of course as soon as that thought crosses your mind, stupid life throws another curve ball by showing how it can get worse. The ball came in the form of Vexen and Zexion. She looked over as the door opened, desperately hoping it was her mother, only to be disappointed. Vexen was carrying a black bag in his hand, what was in it Calixa didn't care to wonder.
Both older Nobodies walked over to her bed, "Get yourself ready," Vexen said to Zexion as he set the black bag on the table next to her bed and started opening it. She didn't see much else of what Vexen was doing because Zexion put an arm behind her back and lifted her up slightly. Searing pain coursed through her body at the movement and she cried out in pain, eyes filling with tears. When the pain began to ease she found her head resting in Zexion's lap, while he brushed the hair out of her eyes. Then she felt Vexen's hands roll her body onto her side so she was facing away from him, and the pain of movement came back. Her knees were pushed upward so that they were tucked beneath her belly.
Tears were now falling from her eyes, as she wailed in protest. Why were they moving her body so much, didn't they realize how much it hurt? Thankfully she seemed to now be in the positions that wanted her, as Zexion was now slowly rubbing her back and making no more attempts to move her limbs. As the searing pain in her body slowly decrease so did her sobs, and after a few minutes she heard Zexion say, "Ok I think she's ready, let's get this over with."
The blankets were suddenly moved away from her backside and her already naked bottom felt the cool air outside the blankets. What in Kingdom Heart's name were they doing? They couldn't be getting ready to spank her, not when she was so sick, and she wasn't in the right position. She got her answer almost right away. She felt a salved something get pushed gently into her rectum. Calixa began to struggle even though it really hurt to, but she was easily overpowered by Zexion's strong arms holding her still. "I'm sorry Calixa, but you are very ill and this needs to be done."
Calixa didn't care, damn she was sick and you don't stick things there for any reason let alone when you sick. She's never heard of anything like that before. Warm liquid began to fill her bowels slowly, and it didn't take long before she began to cramp uncomfortably. The skin right below her navel began to stretch as she bloated up with liquid. If she hadn't been so sick then she might have been able to take this quietly, but since she was already feeling so unwell and adding the cramping pain of needing to release her bowels but being unable to with something shoved in her rectum; she had no sense of dignity left. So she wailed and cried for them to stop; no longer strong enough to struggle against Zexion's strong grip.
After what felt like an eternity she felt the liquid flow slow down then stop altogether. Large tears still fell from her eyes as she cried into Zexion's lap, the cramping below her navel was almost unbearable, if only they removed that horrible thing from her bottom she'd be able to release and feel better. But these sick bastards weren't doing that, in fact one of them… probably Vexen because he's an ass; seemed to be holding the damn thing in place. It was the only thing that was stopping it from being dislodged as she was pushing her bottom muscles as hard as she could to get it removed.
Another several hours seemed to pass, or at least that's what it felt like to Calixa and Vexen spoke, "All right that's long enough."
Calixa felt her body being lifted up and a bed pan was placed under her bottom. She shrieked in pain as the dreaded whatever was removed from her rectum, but this was followed by blissful relief as she released everything that was pumped into her bowels and probably more. It took a few minutes for her body to release everything, and when Zexion asked if she was done she nodded still not caring about her dignitary. She felt so much better then she did before, she barely even noticed the regular illness pains she had been feeling for days.
Vexen came around and rolled her body to the side off the bed pain, and her bottom was gently wiped before she was rolled back onto her back. Barely a minute passed after that before she was fast asleep.
Neox awoke, opening his eyes and began to blink them rapidly to rid the sleep from them. He felt an odd feeling of peace within him. Once his eyes adjusted to being awake he looked at his surroundings. He was lying on his bed, alone in his bedroom again, it didn't bother him as much as it did last time. It might have had something to do with the fact that he felt better then he had since leaving for Middle Earth weeks before.
Why did he feel so good now? Neox tried to recall what he had been doing before he fell asleep. He remember hearing about Calixa being in really bad shape, and sneaking into the medical center to see her. He felt a twinge in the empty hole in his chest as he remembered how his best friend looked. Then he had a meltdown on the floor of the medical center and then…. Bàli… her holding him, speaking softly over him in her native language. Did that really happen or was it a dream.
Its possible that he had just passed out on the floor by Cali's bed and Vexen or Zexion found him and brought him back to his room. But he remember the feeling of all his worries and troubles being gently wiped away as the Scottish girl spoke tenderly to him. But it could have been a dream and his mind was just filling in the blanks as to answer the question of why he suddenly felt so normal. Well he would probably find out next time he saw the girl.
Tired of debating the subject; Neox rolled the covers off his body and crawled out of his bed. The first place he was going to go was the medical center. He had to go see Calixa again, and make sure she was still alive. He exited his room and walked down the many hallways of the castle, still a bit too tired to use the energy of teleporting. He met no one on the way to Vexen's lab, and when he finally reached the door the boy opened it up without knocking. No one seemed to be around as the lab was empty. The medical center was located in another room next to the lab that could only be reached going through the lab.
Neox crossed the room heading the door to the medical center, but found his way suddenly blocked by Vexen who opened the door. "What do you want fifteen?" he asked giving the boy a cold stare.
"I want to see Cali," Neox responded attempting to walk around the Chilly Academic, but Vexen moved to keep the way blocked.
"Out of the question, sixteen is too ill to have visitors."
Vexen left no room for argument, but Neox being himself tried anyway, "But I have to see her-"
The boy was cut off as Vexen picked him up by the scruff of his organization coat, "Absolutely not." Neox then found himself promptly thrown out of the lab, and as he stumbled on the ground briefly he heard the click of the lab door being locked.
"Jerk…" Neox mumbled brushing himself off. He was just about to teleport right into the medical center when he heard his name called.
"Neox!" Xion was running towards him followed closely by Roxas. She scooped Neox up into her arms in a hug when she reached the younger boy, and asked. "How are you doing?"
"I'm actually feeling a lot better today," Neox responded hugging her back.
He felt Xion's arms squeeze him a little tighter making it a little hard to breath, "That's great to hear!"
"Were you trying to get in to see Cali?" Roxas asked taking a glance at Vexen's lab door.
AN This last paragraph I believe is supposed to happen later on. I think was going to be during the next meal and he was musing about the "dream" he had about Bàli
Something told him that what had happened between him and Bàli hadn't been a dream, and it wasn't something they needed to acknowledge to each other. Neox suddenly felt a new respect of the Scottish girl, and for the first time ever he was able to look past her annoying qualities and really appreciate who she was. They smiled at each other just long enough to communicate to each other that a new friendship had been born, despite what happened in the past.
This was almost finished. I'm pretty sure the rest of the chapter was going to be tying everything together. Neox and Calixa both make a full recovery and Neox becomes official friends with Bàli. In fact the rest of the content that I have, everyone is friends with Bàli even Calixa. The goal was to eventually have everyone come around to Bàli and have them all get alone and be friends. It was just going to be a slow growth and Calixa was going to be the last one to come around.
A part of me always felt like this particular chapter would never officially be posted because of the content in it. I wrote this one by myself, and as you probably noticed its got some pretty graphic details compared to the rest of the story. I don't even think I showed this one to Neox Chan because I didn't know how he'd react to it.