Two Monsters, Same Blood {Nimona Movie}

The Deal

Bal's eyes slowly open, his vision slowly becoming clearer to show a worn-down roof with a hole revealing the night sky. With a sigh, he moves his head slowly to see that he's on a couch. He then turns to see a few lit candles and a mug with a nice smell from the hot drink inside. Bal doesn't take concern at this and closes his eyes with a small smile, thinking that this is a normal day. Suddenly, a clatter of metal causes his eyes to snap open. He cautiously sits up and looks over the back of the seat to see Nimona in the kitchen, dancing along to whatever is playing in her headphones. While she's muttering whatever song is playing, Areli walks in and looks at Bal.

Nimona smirks and jolts the pan up, sending the food on it flying over her. With ease, she catches it all on the pan turning around. She notices Bal staring at them and smiles. "Ah, hey boss!" She greets as she pours the food into the taco shell. She pauses the music as she and Areli approach the confused knight. "How long was I out for?" Bal asked as Areli sighs and lays herself on the back of the couch with Nimona, looking downcast before she answered, "Fifteen years."

A sudden flash of lightning fills the room, making the girls' eyes go white and Nimona's shark-like teeth showing, but Bal ignores the sight. "Fifteen years?!" He asks, hoping he heard wrong. Areli giggled and said, "Don't be so gullible, it was only for a few hours." Nimona chuckles before pulling up a tray. "Breakfast tacos?" She asks and hands them out to each person. Bal rubs his head.

"Wait. Wait. The last thing I remember, I was in a supply closet. And now... how did I get here?" Nimona looks up in thought, crossing her arms. "I dragged you for a bit." Bal leaned forward a bit. "What happened?" He asks and Nimona rests her head on her arms.

"Your head bounced on the sidewalk a couple of times." Bal stares at his hands in confusion. "It's all so foggy." Nimona smirks before hopping onto the couch as she said, "Really? You thanked me, said you'd forever be in my debt, and that we'd always be best friends." She shows a picture of pulling the corner of Bal's lips with her thumb while smiling into the camera.

Bal looks at Nimona with an unconvinced look, and the punk quickly picks up on it. She flicks the picture away. "Totally happened." She then smiles and hops off the couch. "Hey, Areli and I spruced up the lair. We arranged the weapons in order of deadliness, unchildproofed the place, opened the poisons lying around, pulled some rusty nails one centimeter out of the floorboards. Overall, just made it more evil lair-y in here." She picks up a mace and put it over her shoulder.

She then gasps in realization and grins madly before saying, "Evil Larry. That's a great villain name. You should change your name." "Never gonna happen." Bal retorts with a tired expression on his face. This makes Nimona frown. "Whatever, Larry." She sighs and slams the mace into the table and grabs a hook hanging on the ceiling to glide to a certain spot.

"And I updated your murder wall." She kicks the wall to turn the lights on, but a picture falls. She picks it up, dusts it, and put it back on the wall as Bal walks to it. "Plus, I drew up plans for revenge, torment, and good old general malfeasance." Nimona said as Bal looks back at the pictures she drew and something clicks in his head. "Rhinoceros." He slowly turns his head to look at the pinkette. Nimona notices this right away.

"You looked freaked." She said as she points at him accusingly, "You promised you'd hold it together." Getting in front of Areli, Bal goes to his waist for something as he said, "You're not human." Areli gets in front of him and said, "Mister Ballister, it's all right. She doesn't mean harm. If she did, she would've done something to you while you were asleep." Bal keeps an eye on Nimona as the girl folds her arms before he said, "She's a mo-" Nimona cuts in, moving Areli away with her eyes trained on the knight and questioned, "What? Marsupial?"

"Mariachi? Meatball?" Bal backs up into the wall, holding the tacos to his chest. "You're a monster." He mutters and Nimona snarls, "Do not call me that!" Bal shrinks and said, "No. No, no, no. Of course not."

"You're obviously not a massive fire-breathing, you know-but you do- do the shifty-shifting-shape thing. And you're a girl who can turn into- what are you?" He finally asks. Nimona does not relieve her glare as she looks up at him and answered, "I'm Nimona." Bal shakes his head. "No, that's not an answer. People just don't just turn into things." Areli corrects him, "Nimona's a shapeshifter."

Bal thinks for a moment and said, "That makes sense, but I still have a million questions." Nimona swipes two tacos from the tray, handing one to Areli and said, "You get one." She turns away and munches on her food. Bal thinks for a moment, setting the tray down. "Why are you helping me?" He asks, not understanding at all. Nimona simply shrugs and answers, "Because I'm bored." She slouches further and adds, "And everybody hates you too." Areli looks at Ballister before she said, "Nimona looked like she needed a friend, and so I became her first."

Bal looks over at his "Murder Wall", looking over everyone on it. His eyes stay on Ambrosius for a bit, a mix of feelings coming over him. He snaps out of it and looks next to it. "The squire has to know something. He's the one that gave me the sword. The sword that... that..." He trails off as he looks at a picture of the queen. Nimona perks up and said, "You need the squire? Then let's go kill- get him." She stops herself in time to not be berated by Bal and talks more gently.

"Let's go get him." She gestures at the three of them. "You and me." Bal rolls his eyes and said, "No, absolutely not. The thing you do? It's too much. No." Areli then said "I think what you're trying to say is, 'Thanks for saving my life'.

Nimona held three fingers up and adds, "Three times, if you're keeping score." She then acts happy and grabs Areli by the arm and said, "But you're right. I'm sure you can do this alone, with every knight in the entire kingdom gunning for you. Good luck." She hops away, keeping an ear open. Bal tenses his body in frustration, knowing that the punk was right.

"Wait." He says in a hushed tone, but it reaches Nimona's ears, making her stop reaching for the doorknob. "Yes, Evil Larry?" She asks with a maniacal smile going from ear to ear. Bal sighs and goes to ask her for help, but the girls are suddenly in front of Bal and Nimona said, "We're in." As Bal tries to figure out how that happened, Nimona speaks up again, "Here's the thing. When we clear your name, then I am your official sidekick forever." She holds out her hand and add, "No take-backsies. Deal?"

Bal side eyes the girl and said, "I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that." Nimona waves her hand. "Don't overthink it." She dismisses. Slowly, he reaches out to grab her hand when Nimona suddenly turns into a shark, surprising him. "Can you just be you, please?" He asks. Nimona shrugs and said, "I don't follow."

Bal put his arms to the side and rocks on the balls of his feet. "Girl you." He clarifies. Nimona brings her fin down, frowning and said, "But I'm not a girl." She then grins. "I'm a shark!" She snaps her teeth twice and holds out her fin again. Bal sighs and quickly shakes it.

Nimona smirks at him and asks, "Hey. You ever put your head in the mouth of one of these?" She sets her jaw loose, opening her mouth widely. Bal briskly walks away as he muttered, "Should ve just stayed in jail." Nimona whines, ""Come on! You know you wanna!" She flops after him, but Bal stops at his tracks and realized something. He turns to Areli and ask, "How about you, kid?"

Areli looked at him before he said, "What makes you an equal?" "I'm more mature." Areli answered.