Chapter 15: Oni (鬼)

Everyone in Marty's pirate crew's shuttle was about to take off. Thomas stood in the middle of the shuttle's bridge, commanding some of the reploids from Marty's crew who were doing the navigation. Marty sat on the seat on the left side of the shuttle and looked out the window. Tails was sitting in his seat along with his things on the other side of the shuttle. Next to the small fox sat a brooding reploid with blue eyes, an open face, coral-colored armor, and a helmet with small horns on the sides.

"Big sis, we're ready for take-off." Thomas turned to Marty, but she continued to look out the window and seemed to have not heard him the first time. "Big Sis? BOSS!"

"Eh? Yeah, Thomas, let's go." Marty said simply, turning to Thomas. Then she returned to her thoughts again.

"Yeah…Let's go." Thomas said in a slightly sad tone of voice, understanding what his boss was thinking about now.

Tails and Jumper watched this until the coral reploid said:

"She's really worried about him."

"I can understand her." Said a little fox. "I am a little worried about Sonic myself, but I believe that he will cope with X and return safe and sound. Sometimes we need to look at the positive things rather than the negative ones. It can help you relax."

"I can agree, Foxy." A bright coral reploid said with a smile, then his smile faded. "Although honestly, this is not the first time for her that she was worried that someone close to her was going through enemy lines."

Tails looked at the reploid, puzzled, worried, and curious at the same time.

"This is not the first time for her?" Asked a little fox.

"Yeah, but with another person, the previous captain of our team." Jumper answered. "He was her mentor and for her and us he was like a father. It seems like his death is still on her mind."

By then, the shuttle had already taken off along with the Maverick Hunters' medical shuttle.

X. Marty thought, placing her right hand on the glass before clenching her hand into a fist. X, Sonic...We count on you.

Soon two shuttles flew away from this place. The little fox looked one last time at MaVi's castle and the buildings around the "demonic head".

I believe that you both can handle this. Tails thought, having faith in his two friends who were now here.

Suddenly, one thought occurred in his head. That, in fox's opinion, could provide additional assistance to his friends in their final battle. The little fox wondered why such an idea as this had not occurred to him earlier.

"Jumper, can you tell me what happened to the previous captain of your team after I do one thing?" Tails asked, taking out his Miles Electric.

A little fox hoped that after he finished this and listened to Jumper's story, he could find a way to help Marty with her concerns about her close one going to the enemy's zone.

Meanwhile, a white reploid and a blue hedgehog were walking on the street of an ominous city, which was located at the bottom of a "demonic head" with a castle at the top. Whenever Sonic got into enemy territory, he always wanted to get into the action and kick the bad guys' butts. But this time, Sonic had no such desire. Even though the blue hedgehog walked with a straight, serious face, anxiety and concern grew inside him about his friend, X. Lately, a white reploid had been acting cold and rude to others around him. X can be understood, because he recently lost Zero at some point, but a blue hedgehog had the feeling that sooner or later his anger could play a cruel joke on a white reploid. At the beginning, Sonic couldn't gather himself to talk to X, but having gathered himself, he spoke to him:

"X, you don't want to talk to me if..."

"Didn't I mention to you that I don't need help?" X asked coldly.

"I remember that." Sonic said. "But...I can see that you are not okay. We can chat on the way if you want. This way we'll kill boredom on the way, and..."

"I don't want to chat with you." A white reploid answered coldly and gloomily.

"Okay, we can put this off until later." Sonic said and moved on to another topic. "You know, X. During the time when I traveled through your world and studied how it works, I came to one thought. My world and your world are somewhat like to each other. I remember that your battle with MaVi began when the first uprising of the reploids, led by him, against the people began. I know that MaVi was the first to start this and deceived many reploids to follow him. But why did his lies work so well? That problematic situation with humans and reploids is very familiar to me because the same thing happened in my world in the past, but with Post-humans, Garou, and with my kind. Garou are another post-human's species that has animal features like animal ears, tails and so on. They used to be at enmity with each other, and there are few times, when they even wanted to destroy each other. This enmity was caused due to the aggressive policies of the former ruler of the extinct empire from the past, Ares Leox, towards the Mobians and Garou. But 120 years ago, three people from each species, who are friends with each other, began to promote the reconciliation of all three species. They did all this through the philosophy that if everyone worked together and tried to communicate with each other not through violence, but through words, then the world would be a better place. These three ended up changing our world forever, and everyone got along and began to communicate well with each other, although there are still idiots who still treat others outside of their kind with hatred and prejudice. But thankfully, there are few of these people, who hates others because they're not them, and that makes me feel good. But unlike my world, in your world, people and reploids are still learning to communicate normally with each other and are still at enmity. In your world's case it is much harder than in mine. My main point is that all species need to understand that others and themselves have good and bad qualities and try to work to be better for themselves and others. Build connections with not only others of your kind, but outside of your kind is also count that. X, you fight against mavericks and protect people and other reploids, and that's good. But you must admit to yourself that humans...

"Can you shut up already?" X asked with a hint of irritation in his tone of voice.

"I was just sharing my thoughts with you about the problem between humans and reploids and how I understood it myself." Said Sonic. "I didn't want to offend anyone with my opinion about this situation, and I didn't intend to..."

But a white reploid did not seem to hear him and walked further along the road. The blue hedgehog looked towards X in disappointment that he did not listen to him completely. Now he knows how Tails feels when he jumps straight into action.

"Guess I need to work on my "listening to people until the end" problem." Sonic thought, then he looked at the back of the reploid with sympathy. "But with X it's different. I understand him well, although I haven't gone through what he has. I still want to help him...But maybe that's for later if I get the chance."

Just as he was about to quickly walk to X, he suddenly heard a beeping sound. From his bag, where there was three Chaos Emeralds, Sonic took out the device that Tails gave him. Looking at the device, he saw a message from his friend, in which he offered him something.

Thank you, Tails. Sonic thanked Tails in his mind. You always know what things you need to take with you to be useful.

The blue hedgehog pulled out one chip from the device. This chip is designed to penetrate the system if you secure and insert in the place where it is needed. Sonic put the chip back into the device, and he ran to X. He stopped next to him, and started talking to a white reploid.

"X, when we find one of the buildings, I will find a one special room to connect the chip to the system of this place. We can split up, and I will try to do everything quickly to return...You are not listening to me, right?" said Sonic, noticing that X does not paying attention to him.

A white reploid didn't answer, so Sonic took that as a yes. Suddenly a thought came to Sonic. If he goes to fight someone or something with X, where will he put his bag with three Chaos emeralds and Tails' device?

Soon they reached the wall of one of the buildings. X pointed his blaster at the wall and fired. The shot caused a huge hole to appear on the wall, through which the heroes go into the building. When Sonic and X found themselves in one of the corridors of the building, suddenly they both heard a sound. More precisely the melody of classical music.

"Classical music in an ominous place?" Sonic asked. "Noted."

A blue hedgehog and a white reploid walked down the corridor towards the source of the music. Soon they stopped in front of luxurious doors. The strangest thing is that these doors were made entirely of wood.

"Wooden door in a metal building? Also noted." Sonic said, then he turned to X. "Listen, X, we will meet here next to these doors. See you later!"

As the blue hedgehog ran straight down the hallway, X slammed his fist into the door, breaking them in half. The metal room X entered had paintings, a painted ceiling, and flat metal classical columns. There was a piano in the middle of the room. One figure, obviously reploid, was sitting at the piano and playing it. Soon that reploid spoke:

"The piano...What a thing it is. A combination of a man and art. It seems to attract admiration. But art is said to be an idea of the absolution without oneself. I myself haven't seen that. It's nonsense."

After he said these words, he raised his fist and smashed the piano keys into pieces.

"The self-confidence that you and this damned hedgehog possess is the same kind of joke. It cannot deceive my eyes." Said the reploid and his one eye lit up. "This thing...And me..."

The reploid stood up from the piano and showed himself completely. It was Vile. The reploid that Sonic encountered back in New York along with Tails, Rollera and Pazmar. But this time he had an arsenal of missiles attached to his other shoulder.

"We are very similar." Vile continued, looking at the white reploid. "Fate has given and taken from me, yet here I am standing in front of you. I slipped through death and hell, and I've become a real demon! What about this hedgehog...I will make sure that I rip his skin alive!"

"Our captain's nickname was Golden Hind." Jumper began his story to Tails about the previous captain of the Marty's pirate crew. "We didn't know his real name other than the name he gave himself in honor of a ship from the Golden Age of Piracy. In the eyes of others, he was a cruel, sinister, and formidable pirate, but inside he was a teddy bear, although he was greedy. He took care of us all and treated us well. He couldn't stand it when he saw anyone suffer because of others. Like, for example, he once picked up my friend Senku when his human owners abandoned him to his fate. He picked me up when the fishing ship I was on sank in the ocean along with everyone who was there. I...I don't want to remember about that. Golden Hind and Thomas were longtime friends, as he took Thomas first into his pirate crew. Our crew was originally called "Golden Adventure". Well, we all loved adventure and money."

"How did Marty come to you?" Asked the little fox, laughing a little at the reason why the former team name was called that.

"She heard rumors about us, came to us of her own free will, and after some conversations, we let her into our group." Jumper answered. "Marty was a real fighter and helped our team in many adventures and troubles. Because of this, Golden Hind took Marty as his apprentice and began training her so that she could become the next leader in the future if Golden Hind retired. We were all jealous of her, even Thomas. Eh~. There were such times."

"This is so cool!" Tails commented with a smile before his smile fell and he asked in concern. "What happened to the Golden Hind?"

"He died when we fought with the Mavericks from Sigma's army." Jumper answered in a sad tone. "Like X, he also gone through enemy lines. Unlike X, he promised us that he returns alive. But that didn't happen...I don't know the details of what happened to him, since I fought with some mavericks that got inside our ship, except...That he blew himself up along with the enemy ship to protect us all."

Tails looked at the reploid in shock. Jumper continued:

"It was hard for all of us. Especially for Thomas and Marty. I still remember the shocked and saddened look on Marty's berserker face when she heard what happened to the Golden Hind. We offered Thomas to become the next captain of the ship, because he was the oldest from our crew, but he said that he was not a strategist and refused. Soon Marty took the helm of command and renamed our team "Scarlet Rose". No matter how many months have passed, I can still see from her that this incident haunts her. She really didn't want this to happen again to other people close to her, including all of us and X."

"Then that's why she stopped X and asked him that he would return safe and sound!" Tails said, putting two by two.

"Maybe so." Jumper said, then he looked out the window straight into the clouds. "I still miss him. He was too good to leave this world. By the way, what did you write to your friend?"

"I told him to put a chip in the castle's system." Tails replied. "My plan is for the chip to copy only the infrastructure and the structure of the castle and the demon head to help Sonic and X find the Chaos Emeralds and..."

BEEP!

Hearing that something was sent to him via Miles Electric, Tails took the yellow tablet that was lying next to him and looked at the screen. The infrastructure and structure of the castle and the "demonic head" appeared on the screen.

"Got it!" Said the little fox and began to work while Jumper watched this process, while admiring the little genius.

Got it! Sonic thought.

As Sonic ran throughout the building looking for a place to insert the chip to the system, he found one room. This room may have belonged to the Doppler lab that Sonic was in during the mission. Luckily, there was a huge monitor in this room, which, although broken, still worked. Sonic walked over to the computer and inserted the chip into the computer. He began to wait for the chip to completely copy the information. While he was waiting, Sonic began to think about where to put his bag if the fight started. Once the chip had copied all the information, the blue hedgehog took the chip from the computer and put it back into the small device. But as soon as he did it...

BAM

BOOM

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

Sonic turned in the direction where the explosions were heard.

This is X! A blue hedgehog exclaimed in his mind, realizing that these explosions were connected with the white reploid and he ran to check it.

A second later, Sonic stopped in front of that same wooden doors, he and X used to stand next to. Slowing down, Sonic noticed that the wooden door had been smashed to pieces.

X, was it too lazy for you to check whether the door was closed? A blue hedgehog thought as he entered the room. "WHOA!"

Sonic in shock immediately saw that the entire room in which X and Vile had previously been destroyed and full of holes. There were also remains of a piano lying around the whole room.

"What happened here when I wasn't around?!" Sonic exclaimed loudly out of concern for X, like a parent for the child, and quickly walked up to one of the holes that led to the street.

Looking outside, a hedgehog saw that X was firing his blaster at Vile. There was destruction and explosions around the two reploids. Due to the loud explosions, these two were unable to hear the blue hedgehog's loud voice inside the building they were both in earlier. Sonic wanted to join the battle to help X in the battle against Vile and began to step on the edge of the hole to jump into the battle... Until he remembered the bag that he was still carrying. Returning to the room, Sonic continuing to think about where to put the bag. The first thing that came to the hedgehog's mind was to leave the bag here in this room and use Chaos energy to hide it? Good idea, but dubious for some reasons. Jump into battle with a bag? 50/50 dubious.

Sonic, think! Think fast! Sonic exclaimed irritably and sat down on the floor next to the hole so that none of them could notice him.

A blue hedgehog heard the launch of rockets, which were probably in the direction of X.

"My missiles target the opponent automatically!" Vile said loudly so that Sonic could hear him from his hiding place.

For Freedom's sake, I think I've found a drinking buddy for Fang. Thought the blue hedgehog. Who would have known that this dude Vile is such a braggart! Although this is what I am, although I am better than...

"Frost shield?!" Vile exclaimed loudly again. "What do you hope to achieve by using a special weapon?!"

Now he's officially a robotic version of Fang. Sonic thought, remembering that a particular treasure hunter had once told him something like this, but it without special weapons. Exactly a hundred percent. Sonic, collect yourself and don't get distracted by that!

While Sonic was figuring out where to put the bag, he suddenly heard a quiet beep from small device again. The blue hedgehog took out a Tails' small device from his bag and looked at the message and clicked on the message. But this was not about the location of the Chaos Emeralds. After reading the message, Sonic learned something more interesting. As it turned out, there are places in this castle that MaVi himself did not have access to. Maybe this is Dr. Doppler's doing. There is one room in this building that MaVi did not have access to. Fortunately, as it turned out, except for the blue hedgehog, X, Vile and MaVi, no one was in this place. When Sonic learned about the latter fact, he immediately remembered his first battle with MaVi, when the virus controlled Doppler's body for his own goals. Deciding to leave his thoughts on this for later, Sonic thanked Tails in his mind for being able to figure it all out quickly. Then the blue hedgehog ran to that room.

Arriving and opening the darker wooden doors to this room, Sonic quickly took in the location. This room was empty except for some furniture like a sofa, a bookcase, comfortable armchairs, and a huge carpet under them. This seemed strange to a blue hedgehog, but he decided to leave questions for later. He placed the bag under the couch and for added insurance, a blue hedgehog used Chaos energy to make the bag invisible and resistant to detection as he had previously planned.

I don't do this often, but it helps a little if the bag is in a room MaVi doesn't have access to. Sonic thought before he ran out of the room.

"You also became a demon!" Vile exclaimed loudly, directing a stream of fire from his cannon towards X. "After you defeated those Doppler had unleashed, you obtained their energy cartridges! I get! When I'm dead, you'll take snatch away my energy cartridge! To defeat the demon, you've become a demon yourself! A demon versus demon! This should be interesting!"

When he said that Vile fires a few missiles in X's direction.

"I'm excited all excited, Rockman!" As soon as Vile said this, when…

"Hey! Mr. Cyclops!" Vile heard a familiar voice and turned to see Sonic standing straight above him and looking at him with a grin. "Long time no see since I and my friends beat your butt back in New York. Do you want a second round?"

"You..." A purple reploid said furiously before he heard a drill that comes to his direction.

Vile turned fast and took out his shield to protect himself from X's special weapon, which was look like a drill. This special weapon is known as the Tornado Fang, which a white reploid once picked up from Tunnel Rhino. When Tornado Fang collided with Vile's shield, a small shockwave erupted from them and literally created cracks in the ground under their feet.

"Tsk!" growled X as he began to try to break Vile's shield with his drill.

A purple reploid, in his turn, pointed the flame cannon at X with his other free hand. But unexpectedly, Sonic land, and grabbed onto Vile's back. A blue hedgehog managed to grab the cannon and direct him upward away from X.

"GO AWAY, YOU DEMONIC BEAST! THIS IS MY BATTLE!" A purple reploid shouted, then with his free hand he sharply hit the hedgehog in his face.

Before he could do anything, X punched Vile in the head. Sonic jumped away from Vile and landed on the earth. Then he rolled into a ball and hitting a maverick in his "stomach" area. Vile flew away and fell face down onto the ground.

"Sonic, go away." X said coldly to the hedgehog. "Don't interfere with my battle."

"I'm very sorry~." A blue hedgehog said with a grin. "But a little helping hand won't hurt anyone~?"

As soon as Sonic said this, a purple reploid, who was on his two feet, started shooting at him and X. The blue hedgehog quickly moved out of the shooting range while X jumped into the air and from there, he shot two pairs of slugs. These slugs are Acid Burst, a special weapon that X picked up from a maverick he fought once during a mission in the river. Typically, this special weapon could dissolve any enemy it hit. But the two acid slugs, when they hit Vile, did not cause any damage to a purple reploid, because latter managed to speed up back to avoid slugs.

"Is this the level of your demon?" Vile asked, looking at the white reploid.

As soon as Vile said this, Sonic, in his spin dash ball form, hit Vile on the back, nearly sending purple reploid flying. He then quickly stood in front of Vile and began beating the purple maverick with his fists many times. At one opportunity, he would quickly jump onto a wall or the ground and do a spin dash again to deal extra damage to Vile. While Sonic was doing this, X quickly stood behind Vile and pointed the blaster at his opponent. A white reploid began to charge the shot.

Sonic curled into a ball again and headed towards the purple reploid, who already had damage, creases, and scratches on his body. At the same time, X fired his blaster at Vile. Maverick managed to sit down and let the shot pass over his head, then in an instant he quickly stood up to use his hand...to grab Sonic by the throat.

"My best ability isn't my offensive strength, nor my defense skills." Vile said with pride in his tone of voice. Then the purple reploid hit X hard on the face, using Sonic as a baseball bat. "It's speed!"

"Speed and..." Making sure that his enemies were distracted, Vile jumped upstairs away from the heroes. "…My great..."

A maverick directed a stream of fire from his cannon at the heroes. X managed to stand in front of Sonic as a shield to protect him and took the stream of fire onto himself.

"…WEAPONRY!" Vile finished and he ran straight to the burning X, and Sonic heavily standing on two legs. "No. That's not all!"

The purple maverick grabbed Sonic and X by their heads. Then slammed their heads into the wall of the building as Vile ran. Vile began moving the heads of the white reploid and the blue hedgehog along the wall, giving them damage, which gives a purple maverick a pleasure.

"My…" Vile began, reaching the edge of the wall. "...True weapon...Is...!"

Reached to the edge of the wall, Vile jumped with Sonic and X in his two arms towards the top of one tower. A maverick, using the heads of his two opponents, broke through the wall into the tower.

"...The demon that nests inside my body!" Vile finished loudly and threw the two heroes towards the wall.

Sonic hit the wall with his head before slowly falling to the floor. His forehead was bleeding. X hit the wall so hard that he made a hole. Seeing that his enemies were weakened, Vile jumped and smashed through the wall to the outside. In the air, Vile directed a stream of fire from his cannon towards the building. Landing on the ground, the purple maverick began to laugh as he watched the tower burning.

"After all, a demon born from a last-minute cramming cannot possibly defeat a true demon!" Vile exclaimed. "What an irony! I was able to not only defeat the pathetic demon, but also his demon friend! May they both burn and go to hell!"

Vile continued to laugh until he noticed that something shined inside the building.

"Wha-!?" Asked a shocked purple maverick. "The tower is crumbling?!"

Vile watched as the tower crumbled. Many questions appeared in purple reploid's head. When the tower was completely crumbled, Vile walked up and began to explore the remains of the tower.

"What the hell happened?!" Asked a purple reploid and sat down on his knee to pick up dust from the tower. "Judging by this dust…X used a cunning technique. If that…So that's what reduced the tower into pieces."

At this moment, Vile noticed a hand that suddenly appeared from the dust above his head. In an instant, X grabbed Vile's head with one hand and harshly slammed maverick's head into the dust. With his other hand, the white reploid tore the cannon from Vile's shoulder. Vile managed to quickly get out of X's arms and run away from the white reploid. X threw the cannon in the other direction.

"Not just appearance, but his attacks have changed too." Vile speak quietly to himself.

Suddenly, the white reploid kicked dust towards Vile, thus preventing him from seeing clearly. In the blink of eye, X disappeared from Vile's sight even behind the façade of dust.

"Where-" Vile didn't have time to finish speaking when X hit Vile with his fist to the ground from above. Under one-eyed maverick's body, a large crater was created.

"I don't need..." A white reploid said darkly and angrily, then he began to quickly hit Vile with his fists. "... YOUR SAUCY SPEECH FROM YOU! IT DOESN'T MATTER WHICH ONE OF US IS THE "TRUE" DEMON! DEMONS AND SUCH MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO BE IN THIS WORLD!"

"Guh! Then-"Vile exclaimed as X hit so hard that one of the circle thing that was on his left side of his helmet flew off. The purple reploid suddenly and drastically raised his torso and X flew from him. "What about you and your friend?!"

When the white reploid landed on the ground, Vile had already begun to stand on two legs.

"If it's being wrong to be a demon in this world..." A maverick began, then he looked straight at X. "…Then why would you go as far as become one yourself in order to fight?! What about this hedgehog? Why don't you destroy him too? He's also a demon! He is a stranger who came into our world and began to disturb everyone, especially you! It would be much better if he and this damned fox returned to where the hell they came from. Or should I just destroy them both? This hedgehog has already burned to ashes, and when I destroy you, I will go after that fox. I can already imagine how he will beg me for mercy, screaming and crying when I rip his skin off alive! That fox is also a demon who needs to be erased from the face of the earth, so that won't bother you, right?~"

"I became a demon...For a reason..." X answered, and his tone revealed the inner rage that was growing inside him.

"I see!" Vile said with a hint of sarcasm and mockery in his tone. "You did it in order to become the most powerful being in the world, didn't you!"

As soon as he said this, the reploid cyclops noticed that X's face had contorted into a furious demon face, ready to rip Vile to shreds for what he just said.

"To destroy the real demon." X continued. "DO NOT DARE. TO TOUCH. MY. FRIENDS."

"A real...Demon?" A puzzled Vile asked, looking at X. The white reploid stood up on two legs and with a scary and ominous face began to walk towards the maverick. "Who's the demon he's talking about? It is not the one that dwells inside me...His demon…Doesn't seek power...?"

If the purple reploid had an open face, he would have scrunched his face in rage and grounded his teeth.

"Uh…Don't give me that kind of look!" Vile exclaimed furiously and aimed missiles from his arsenal at X.

Because of the anger that raged inside Vile, the missiles hit everything that was around except the white reploid. X just stood there with his eyes narrowed. The flames of anger and hatred were visible in his eyes, looking at the purple reploid. He remembered that before he fired a huge shot inside the burning building, X helped a blue hedgehog to stand up and loudly told him to go to another place, but not far from the battlefield, and prepare so that he could enter the battle again if necessary. Sonic argued about this, but he listened to X and ran away from the burning building. A white reploid could tolerate insults and death threats directed towards him, but towards his allies and friends... He already knew exactly where to direct and vent his anger.

"UAAAAAAHHHH!" Vile shouted in rage, continuing to randomly direct missiles around. "I AM A DEMON! A DEMON! A DEMON WHO HAS SEEN THE HELL ITSELF!"

Then he felt that the missiles were no longer taking off from his arsenal. A maverick looked over his left shoulder and saw that he had spent the missiles in his arsenal. He then looked, laughing at the unharmed white reploid, who stood there.

"I WILL SMASH YOU!" Vile said in an arrogant tone and run towards X, preparing his fist.

As soon as he approached X, latter responded by pointing his own fist in Vile's direction. Noticing this, a purple reploid drastically crouched down, avoiding the attack and...

CLASH

Vile spun around on the ground and lifted his leg, hit X hard against his helmet. Somewhere from the inside of the white reploid's helmet, motor fuel flowed across X's face, which from a distance could be mistaken for a blood.

"Your head is crushed!" Vile exclaimed with boastfulness in his voice. "IT"S MY VICTORY!"

X looked at Vile intimidatingly. To the surprise of purple maverick himself, a white reploid took his leg with both hands.

"Wha-! You still resist!" Vile exclaimed in surprise until he felt X begin to drag his body up.

As it turned out, X began to jump up on the wall of one high building, dragging Vile along with him.

"How…! How high are you going to climb?!" Vile said loudly, turning to X, who had already jumped from the top of the building to another and continued to jump up the wall. Vile immediately understood what X was going to do. "No! That's not how I'm going to die, not that way!"

Before Vile could finish his sentence, X threw him up in an instant before jumping off the top of the building himself. Suddenly, a purple maverick felt that some blue blur hit him hard on his torso area and began to quickly send him down to the ground.

What the?! Vile asked in his mind. What is this...Wait a minute...Isn't this...

Before the maverick could finish speaking in his thoughts, he noticed a bright beam from above, aimed at him.

Ah…Now I get it, X. Thought the maverick cyclops. You don't accept me, nor Sigma. You plan to destroy every demon in this world. Because you want to wipe every demon off this world...You have yourself changed and have been buried by a demon itself...The "demon of Destruction."

Just as Vile finished speaking in his thoughts, a blue blur hit him hard on the ground. A sound wave rang out around them. A crater had formed under Vile's body, and there was a large amount of damage in the maverick's hips, which now prevented a purple reploid from standing up or even moving. That blue blur disappeared in the blink of an eye and...

BOOM

When the explosion occurred, the shock wave reached nearby buildings, thereby destroying them. After the shockwave of the explosion calmed down, Sonic arrived next to the crater with a bag containing three Chaos Emeralds and Tails' device, and looked down at what was left of Vile. Only a few parts remained of the purple reploid, including a chip that contained information about Vile's personality. A blue hedgehog went down to the crater's ground and picked up this chip. By that time, X had landed on the ground and walked up to the crater. Feeling eyes on him, Sonic turned and saw a white reploid. Soon the blue hedgehog run on crater's wall to the high and stopped in front of X. Sonic showed the chip to a reploid. They both looked at the chip in silence until a hedgehog asked:

"X, how exactly did he become a Maverick?"

"Why this question?" X asked, and, to the hedgehog's pleasant surprise, his voice was...Soft.

"Well, what I'm saying is that if we bring this dude back alive, then first we need to make sure that he is an adequate guy who thinks reasonably about his actions." Said Sonic. "But if Vile will return as that person, we fought here…You can destroy him forever."

X looked at the hedgehog in surprise, not expecting this from him.

"I heard what he told you." Sonic explained. "I can tolerate insults and threats directed at me, but in relation to my friends, including Tails and you... That's a different story."

"Sonic." X turned to the hedgehog and the latter paid attention to him. "Forgive me for acting like a cold jerk."

Sonic was in pleasant surprise again. In his heart he was glad that X slowly began return to his old self.

"I knew that you were trying to help me, lift my spirit and support me..." X continued with a feeling of guilt. "But I couldn't accept your help because I was focused on destroying my enemies...That doesn't justify the way I treated you and the others. I'm sorry, Sonic. I'm truly sorry…"

"I forgive you." Sonic said with a smile and X looked at him. "Although I have to apologize a little on my part, because I was persistent to help you."

"You don't have to apologize." X said, turning to Sonic with a smile. "This is all on me. Sonic, what you said and offered to help me earlier on the road... I appreciate it. Can you tell me more about those three friends and how they changed your world? I'd be interested to hear this."

"Well, I'll tell you everything I know." Said the blue hedgehog, smiling with his signature grin.

Soon they both walked further towards the buildings on the demonic head and Sonic along the way began to tell that story to X. What it was about is another story.

Inside one of the buildings on the "demonic head", Sonic and X walked along the corridor. On the way, Sonic looked at everything around him. The corridor was as luxurious as the room in which X met Vile, and somewhat reminiscent of the corridor of a luxurious European palace or the home of wealthy members of society. Along the way, they came across paintings that hung on the wall and images on the ceiling. Soon both heroes reached the door, the same made of wood as the previous one. This time, X opened the doors and entered with Sonic.

In another corridor, they continued to walk until suddenly they both noticed a light in the distance. Deciding to check what was there, Sonic began to approach the light closely to examine where it was coming from. The blue hedgehog noticed that X was not following him and turned to him. He saw that X had a surprised expression on his face.

"X?" Sonic asked him.

But a white reploid did not answer and quickly approached the light. Sonic ran after him a little and stopped. When he looked at the "light" itself, his eyes widened in surprise. It was…

"This is...Zero's laser saber!" Exclaimed the white reploid.

"Zero's saber?!" Sonic asked in shock and confusion. "How…?"

A hedgehog immediately fell silent as soon as he saw drops of motor oil next to the sword. X crouched down and took drops of motor oil on his fingers for a closer look.

"This is from Zero..." Said X and hope lit up in his eyes.

"Seems that Zero is still alive?" Sonic asked. "But if he left not only his sword, but also drops of motor oil... X?"

"And he…!"X's face scrunched up in horror and grief at the very thought that came into his head about what happened to Zero next.

"X." Sonic turned to the white reploid and placed his hand on his shoulder. "I know it may be difficult for you to understand what happened to Zero...But we have work to do. I can help you find your friend after our battle with MaVi if you want."

"Thank you, Sonic, but perhaps this is not necessary." X said to the hedgehog's confusion and a white reploid looked at the sword again. "He left his saber behind for me for a reason."

As white reploid began to stand up to his two feet, he continues: "I cannot...Go back anymore. We will fight him…And I will accept my friend's gift."

…And X took a saber's handle by hand. Then, X abruptly pulled the saber out of the floor and carried it over his head. Like a white reploid, a blue hedgehog was ready to fight the final boss for X's world.

Next time...Final Battle!

What a chapter! Our heroes came victorious in their battle against Vile, and now this time for the final game! Now to few things.

When I'm write this chapter, I have a goal to balance battle between X and Sonic, and Vile. And honestly, it was hard for me, because I want X and Sonic have an actual role in it. What do you think about the battle? Also, during battle Vile make one fatal mistake: NEVER. MAKE.X. . .

Notes from the author:

1) Vile does not know about that "Sigma" is MaVi.

2) I will give hints about what this story is about, which Sonic began to tell X, in the next two chapters of this story.

3) The manga doesn't really explain how Marty became the captain of her pirate crew and how she got to them. For this reason, I decided to give a backstory. I feel Marty and her team deserve attention!

4) The word "gaoru" means "werewolf" in French and this word was applied to post-humans who have animal devils. Although one might traditionally think of werewolves, this also applies to other types of werewolves, such as kitsune and tanuki from Japanese mythology. At first it occurred to me to call them "Faunus", then I immediately remembered that this word had already been used for a specific species from RWBY. I searched the Internet and chose this word to fit the context. In the past, this word was used as a racist and discretionary statement towards post-humans with animal shapes during the existence of the empire that was mentioned earlier in the previous chapters and the late reign of Ares Leox. After the empire collapsed, post-humans with animal shapes... Decided to choose this word as the name of their species for some reason. If you meet one Gaoru and ask why his/her/their species chose this name, he/she/they will tell you that it is a reminder of the hardships they went through and how those hardships inspired them to work for a brighter future. Throughout the day, post-humans, Mobians, even Dr. Eggman are still wondered and asking why the Gaoru decided to take a discretionary term to themselves into the name of their species. Sara, one of Sonic and Tails' friends, is half Gaoru and half Post-human.

5) One funny I notice when researching to write this chapter is that Vile was truly has similarities with Fang in terms how they are both prideful morons, jerkasses to our blue heroes, and both purple. But how Vile said about Sonic and Tails, defiantly makes Fang on the background as an angel in contrast with purple cyber cyclops.

6) Originally, I planned that X will brutally beats Vile and Sonic stop him. But I don't like it later and cut it. I'm also don't want portray X as a huge jerkass in this and next chapter. I'm still needed to work on it.

7) There's also a hint on one aspect of Mavi's personality in this scene, when Sonic learns about what no other mavericks in this place besides him, X, Vile and MaVi himself.

That's all for today! See you next month with the final chapters of this story!