Happiness in Peace

“Are you serious?” A blue hedgehog screamed at the top of his lungs.
A yellow fox pinched the skin above his nose, “yes, I’m serious, Sonic. He’s been too quiet so we’ve all agreed to the fact that since he’s your demon, it’s your job to check on him.”
Sonic huffed, crossing his arms. “So what if he’s quiet, maybe he’s taken a yearlong nap for all we know-”
“And not kill anyone?” Tails cut in, frowning from his friend’s absurd idea.
“Exactly!” The azure one roared, flailing his arms out to the side.

“Sonic, quit whining, he is you, therefore, your responsibility.” A red echidna spoke out.
Sonic whipped his head around to where the echidna sat, cross-legged, “Oh, butt out Knuckles!”
Azure sighed, “Fine! If it floats all of your boats I’ll go. But I swear… if I get killed…”
“You’ll do what?” Knuckles chipped in.
A door was slammed shut in response.

---

Red sneakers hit dead grass as Sonic stepped out of the gate between his world and his demon’s.
Flowers hung lifelessly to the ground. The water reeked of acid and blood.
Everything was lifeless except for a creature in the distance.
A figure, identical to the azure hedgehog, sat in the distance with his back towards him.
Sonic picked up his pace and began the jog towards him.

“Stop.” The figure spoke, a deep- dark and dead voice.
Azure stepped closer before sitting down next to his look-a-like. “EXE… You’ve been awfully quiet… haven’t you?”
With a crack of shifting bones, the demon moved his head to face the hedgehog, “I thought you’d be delighted.” His normally glowing red eyes, dulled into a pale red.
EXE stood up, the sound of more bones cracking and locking into place filled the hedgehog’s ears.
“Sounding a little rusty, huh?” He joked, throwing his trademark smirk onto his muzzle.
“I won’t be for much longer.” He hissed before walking away.
Sonic stood up, jogging after him, “Hey! Where do you think you’re going?” He said, walking at his doppelganger’s side, “I’m meant to be keeping an eye on you so I have to go with you and make sure you don’t do anything.” He smirked.
The demon bared his fangs, “Sonic… You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.”
Sonic gave his demon a thumb up before saying, “I’m ready for anything! Just don’t kill me.”
EXE stopped and turned to him, “Well then, you better be ready for Hell, Sonic.”

---

The two hedgehogs walked to the other end of the demon’s dimension before Sonic piped up,
“What’s that!” he shouted, pointing to an iron lid, sealed off with a valve.
“My entrance into Hell.” The demon pointed out plainly.
Sonic laughed, assuming it to be a joke. “yeah, yeah, I’m sure!” however his laugh was subdued by EXE releasing the valve. Steam blasted out before the hatch opened.
A nervous shuffling of a pair of red sneakers and uncertain laughter plucked at the demon’s ears before he jumped down the chamber, into the catacombs of Hell itself. A minute later the blue hedgehog made his way down the chamber via the rickety ladder that had been provided.
“G-gee, couldn’t you have waited.” He stuttered out, freaked out of his mind from what he was taking in. “where are we anyway?”

EXE began walking before he explained, “Far end of Hell.”
Sonic frowned, walking faster, “I thought Hell never ended?”
The demon hissed, frustrated, “I used to be like that… until I took hold of it.”
Azure’s frown deepened, opening his mouth to utter more questions before a loud shriek took him by surprise. His reaction was natural as he curled into a ball, sounding small sobs.

A soft touch on his shoulder brought him back to reality, looking up into his demon’s eyes that glowed bright again in the darkness of the chambers. “C’mon.” He whispered, standing up and extending a hand out to the cobalt one.
His extended hand was greeted by the other’s in a tight grasp, hoisting Sonic up.

Small tears dripped from Sonic’s eyes as they walked  further. A hand that belonged to Sonic, fell on EXE’s shoulder stopping him.
“EXE, I’m scared…” Sonic muttered looking back at the small light that was at the end of the chamber from where the entered.
The demon sighed, “Don’t be, Sonic, it’s just Hell.” The words only seemed to heighten Sonic’s fear.
“Look, no one here will attack you. Just stay by me and don’t cause trouble.”
Cobalt nodded before wiping his eyes with the back of his hands.

---

“What are we doing here-no wait- what are you doing here?” Sonic asked.
The demon stopped, making Sonic bump into the back of him and fall to his backside.
“hey! Why’d you…” His sentence stopped midway as he looked up to a throne where a dark figure sat.

---

EXE stood strong, chest out and hands clenched into fists. “Satan.” His voice dripped with acid and disgust.

The dark figure looked down, “Ah, EXE, what a pleasant surprise.” He spoke smoothly, “Come to apologise?”
Sonic’s head whirled, ‘what’s he talking about?’
EXE bared his sharp teeth, his claws unsheathing, “I’ll never apologise to you. I’ve come to get something back that you still have!”

Satan placed his hand on his chest, “oh, but whatever do you mean… my demon.” He smirked as he said those last two words.
Sonic’s look-a-like flared up with anger, “I’m not, your, demon!” Blood began dripping from his eyes.
“You know what I want!”
The dark figure pulled out a glass sphere from his cape. “Would this be what you seek?”
Sonic watched EXE’s eyes widen.
“Yeah, that’s it.” He spoke strong.
Satan laughed, “Well… catch.” He tossed the sphere to the other side of the room.
“No!” Sonic’s demon screamed, running as fast as he could, diving to catch the sphere…
But he was too late.
The glass sphere impacted with the ground, shattering into fragments that reflected the sheer horror on EXE's face. “No...NO!”' He screamed as he picked up a piece that was intact. 'I-I couldn't catch it...' He whispered softly to himself.
Sonic stood a few feet away as he watched his demon try to catch the sphere but fail. He carried on standing, dead still, as he watched EXE collapse to his knees with the glass in his hands.
“EXE?” Sonic spoke softly as he ran towards him. “Hey, don't worry it's just glass. We can fix it, I'm sure.”
EXE shot a disgusted look to his look-a-like, “Just glass? How ignorant ARE you?!” He screamed, enraged by what Sonic had suggested.
“It's not the fucking glass I'm worried about... it's what was IN it!” His gaze travelled from Sonic to the glass again.
“I didn't see anything in there?” Sonic whispered, unaware of the situation.

“Sonic, I- I haven’t killed in a year.” EXE whispered.
Azure nodded.
“Do you know why I killed?”
Azure shook his head.
The demon sighed, “I didn’t kill because I liked it. I killed because I had to. I fed off the souls of the dead. I wanted to be God and be immortal… so I sold my own soul to Satan, but, I tried to assassinate him and shrink his empire. But he locked me away in my own dimension and cursed me… so that I had to feed off souls to keep myself alive.”

Sonic nodded before kneeling down, placing his hands on his doppelganger’s shoulders.
“I haven’t had a soul in a year.” He breathed deep before saying, “It was my soul that was in this glass sphere… and now, it’s gone.”

He shut his eyes, letting more tears flow.

“What happens if you don’t have a soul for a year?” Sonic whispered.
“I die.”
Azure looked at his demons eyes that had gone dull.

Clapping was heard behind the two as Satan stepped down from his throne, his black and purple cape vanishing into purple and blue flames. “Oh, how tragic isn’t it.” He mocked.

Sonic stood up, snarling before running up to his opponent, “you’ll pay for tha-“
A large force propelled him backwards into the cobblestone wall.
Satan stood with his right arm extended, his hand glowing a purple aura.

EXE snapped out of his state of mind, “Sonic?!” he looked at his look-a-like’s body crumpled on the floor, twitching from pain.
The demon growled, unsheathing his claws to their full length before roaring out, “Today you WILL die!”
EXE charged towards him grabbing hold of his opponents wrists, digging his claws into the flesh.
“You worthless shell!” Satan hissed, throwing EXE off him onto the floor.

Sonic stirred and caught sight of the battle, ‘EXE…’ he thought.

Two metal poles appeared in EXE’s hands, one scythe on each, locking them together to create one.
“Die!” He screamed, holding the weapon over his head.
Satan extended his right arm, trying to propel him back with the same force as Sonic… however the demon’s determination was too strong, a large swing of his weapon, embedded it’s self into his enemy’s chest, a lever was pushed forward as the second scythe sliced him open.

His shrieking filled the whole of Hell as he disintegrated into ash that blew away in a strange breeze that whipped up.

“EXE!” A small voice called out. Sonic came running towards him.
The demon turned around, his weapon disappearing. “Sonic.” He whispered, closing his eyes.

Sonic stopped a foot away from the demon. “EXE? EXE, why are you fading?!” He walked closer.
“I’m dying.” The demon stated bluntly, opening his eyes before smiling.
Sonic reached his hand out before recoiling slightly.
EXE closed his eyes  again, laughing softly.
“EXE?” Sonic whispered sadly.
“I’m… happy.” The demon opened his eyes… His red eyes shone against the white of his eyes, before completely disappearing.

The small glass fragment he had held lay on the ground only to be picked up by Sonic and taken back with him.

---

The sound of the door opening caught Tails’ and Knuckles’ attention.
“And?” Tails raised a brow as he stopped tinkering with a broken watch.
Sonic said nothing as he faced the small table by the entrance, placing something down before turning back and replying, “He’s at peace… he won’t bother anyone anymore.”

Tails nodded smiling, “oh, good! So he changed, how nice.”
Knuckles nodded before saying, “Come on, food’s still on the table, we were waiting for you to get back.”
All 3 walked over to the kitchen, sitting down and dishing up.
Sonic looked back at the small table, watching how the light shone off the broken glass sphere.
‘I’m glad you’re happy, EXE.’

‘I truly am.’