A shot of Ex turning Hels good, as requested by 25kowen
This took forever to write because of school stuff, and also my brain just decided to go and say "haha wtf is writing" about a third of the way through. But we made it!! I hope it's okay, I really like the end result. Plus I'm thinking of a part 2 that's just HEX shenanigans (~‾▿‾)~
Also this was my first time writing a fight, so excuse the fact that it's probably choppy. I am learning.
Edit from my future self: This chapter is inspired by Lilo and Stitch, as after I read the prompt I was givin it was all I could think about.
Warnings:
-Theres a fight, but it doesn't last for long and is very inexplicit.
If I missed anything let me know and I will add it ASAP as possible-
Thank you <3
Wordcount [~1.8k]
~3rd POV~
Ex rustled through the foliage as he made his way through the forest. The crisp crunch of the leaves and quiet sound of the wind gently kissing the trees was all he could hear. Quiet times like these made Ex slightly miss the lightning trail that used to drag behind his figure with every step, he may not have liked thunder storms all that much, but that was different. He loved the way bolt after bolt narrowly missed him and set ablaze to everything in his trail like TNT.
Wait, no. He thought to himself as he held onto a branch to avoid slipping in the mud. I'm supposed to be good now. I promised Xisuma.
Xisuma had been skeptical at his proposal to stop the evil shenanigans. He had told Ex that trick wouldn't work a second time. It hadn't even worked the first. But Ex had promised. He knew this time that promise would stay secured, sealed up tight with unspoken reassurances. He knew Xisuma believed him, too. Because this time, he had an extensive stay in the void as punishment for being bad. He craved the chaos, but Ex would rather not go back there.
Thus far, that promise had been kept. Ex had been a good servermate and tried his best at this friend thing, but he tended to avoid the other Hermits as much as possible. If you ignored his blatant lies in the past, theft, griefing, stalking, attempted destroying of the server on multiple occasions, and of course his overall evil demeanor, he was practically a good guy all around.
Not everyone's track record is spotless.
But this time, he was serious. This time, no thievery other than a few workbenches here or there. No lies, and especially no destroying of the server.
But today wouldn't be about him learning by himself. In fact, today Ex had planned to learn alongside another self-proclaimed 'evil' piece of work. The one Helsknight, who he had seen on multiple occasions, though never spoken to. Ex had vague instructions on where to find Hels, go to Wels' house. Maybe he knows. Somewhere in the forest behind Vintage Beef's Hacienda. Ex had managed, even without an elytra.
The purple roof soon came into vision through all the green. Ex stumbled out of the forest, brown with mud stains, sticky with sweat.
He relayed his mission to Wels.
"I mean, do you really think you can do it?" Wels asked as the two had taken a seat inside at Wels' rather lavish dining table. Despite there being so many seats, they sat directly next to each other.
Ex wasn't sure about the response, he really wasn't. Hels seemed to literally be all the bad parts of Wels personified. Instead of letting his worries frame this whole day, he calmly took a sip of his coffee and nodded. "Do you know where I can find him?"
The Knight brought a fisted hand to his face, absently scanning the room. "Last I saw him, he ran into the nether. He's probably still sulking. Or planning something."
"l will just have to find him before he can do anything bad,"
Wels opened his mouth to speak, but let his eyes wander to the bay window just across from them. Instead of words, the knight laughed. It was quiet, airy, more like a chuckle. "Well, speak of the devil."
Ex followed Wels' gaze, fixing on a figure crouched near the nether portal. He swayed, holding onto the frame of white concrete for a moment.
"It's like he knows when he's being talked about," Wels added, getting to his feet and walking towards the door.
Ex stood as well, quickly strapping his helmet back onto his head as he followed Wels. "At least it makes my job a bit easier."
Ex suspected the dark knight would run, leaving for a either a dramatic chase sequence or a pathetic attempt at an introduction. The clone was rather pleased when Hels stayed in place as he approached, leaving Wels behind on the porch as a spectator. The glare Hels gave was practically cementing him to the grass.
"Hels? I'm E-"
"I don't care who you are. Get to the point so I can get away from you quicker."
That hadn't been what Ex was expecting, but he wasn't not expecting it either. He tried his best to seem unbothered. He wondered loosely if he came off this rude when he was evil.
"You've been perceived as a threat to the server. I'm here to help you."
What followed was a laugh. Not a giggle, but a genuine, gut busting laugh. "You're here to help me?" Hels repeated, brandishing a partly busted golden sword. "You'll be the one that's going to need help."
Ex hadn't noticed until then, but Hels was already beat up pretty badly. He was not only sporting a busted lip, but many scratches and improperly healed scars that looked painful. How long had he been living in the nether for?
"Hels, I'm not here to fight you," he said calmly, casting a glance back at Wels with a hand signal to stay down. "I want to talk."
Hels was the first to move, darting at Ex so fast he almost didn't dodge. "I won't talk to you unless you can beat me."
Ex didn't have time to weigh his opinions, grasping his steel sword out of its holster to block another hit coming from above. Hels came back fast, kicking Ex square in the stomach and knocking him back. Rolling, Ex got to his feet and backed away, readying his sword out in front of him.
Hels stayed away, mirroring the actions of his opponent. They circled, eyes locked.
"I don't want to fight!" Ex confirmed.
"If you didn't want to fight, your sword wouldn't be aimed at me." Hels rushed forward, swinging relentlessly at Ex, who continued to do his best on the defensive. A few hits landed, mainly cutting the thin material of his jacket and slicing his arms. But still, Hels craved more blood.
What Ex hadn't expected was a savior, or rather fighting help in the form of Wels. Being the only one with a more than decent weapon, Wels used the power to drive Hels away, but never actually hit him with his sword, but that much was not said for a couple of arbitrarily thought out punches or kicks.
"You can't even beat me on your own!" Hels taunted, though his breath was soon enough escaping his lungs in deep wheezes. With one more swing to Wels' shoulder, the golden sword of his defense shattered into millions of pieces, leaving Hels behind with nothing but a pointed stick.
Wels was quick to act, knocking his counterpart to the ground and placing a metal boot firmly on the peak of his chest. "He may need help, but you're still the one who lost."
"I believe you promised you'd hear me out now."
---
Oh boy, did Hels hear Ex out.
He might have heard him out a little too well. First came the laughter. Next the judging stares as he realized Ex wasn't telling a joke. Then the eye rolls that spelt out very clearly what Hels was thinking.
"Your plan is to rehabilitate me? A being who was brought into this world to only know hate? To only be capable of evil?"
Woah, clam down there Edgelord-
"Listen," Ex said, rummaging through his chest monster of a storage system to find bottles. "I want to teach you how to get past that, to be more than just an evil version of Wels. Look, I've drawn it out for you,"
Ex set down a slightly crumpled piece of notebook paper on the stone floor in front of Hels.. On it was a crudely drawn image of what appeared to be a figure in red ink. Hels stared, unimpressed. "Is that supposed to be...me?"
"Yes," Ex nodded, drawing more, even worse looking stick figures in the background in pencil. "These are the hermits. My guess is that right now they either don't like you, or fear you all together."
"As it should be,"
"But," Ex started expectantly, nodding at Hels to continue on with the right words.
"But...they can't be afraid if I want them to be my friends?"
Ex smiled, lightly grabbing the knights shoulder and shaking. "Yes! Learning already! You'll get the hang of it in no time, I'll help you out!"
Hels rolled his eyes again, glare shifting away slightly as a rather forced sounding sigh escaped his lips. "I suppose you won't leave me alone otherwise."
"Nope," Ex chucked, throwing the final ingredient into the brewing stand. He took the potion out and handed it to Hels.
"What is this?" He asked, eyeing the pink liquid suspiciously. "Are you going to poison me if I don't follow your orders?"
"...What? No- poison is green. I don't even have the ingredients to make it anyway. That's a health potion. To treat your wounds?"
Ex watched Hels a moment longer, quiet and puzzling while nothing happened.
"Part of your goodness training is learning to trust people,"
Hels paused, popping the cap off the bottle. "You made that up," he muttered, downing the whole thing in one go and visibly tensing up. After a moment, he looked at his arms, watching the scars and scabs practically vanish. "So it seems your intent was not malicious."
Ex laughed, taking a seat directly across from Hels. "The courteous thing to say is 'thank you',"
"....Thank you...?"
"See? You're doing great already! Next step is to make friends and not destroy the server! We can head to the shopping district for that!" Ex grabbed Hels hands, pulling him to his feet.
"Your enthusiasm over this is starting to get annoying."
"Okay, duly noted that we need to work on your brutal honesty," Ex nodded to himself, looking around once more in his chests. "You don't happen to have an elytra, do you?"
"No."
"It's fine, a boat will do nicely."
---
"I don't think a boat did it," Hels coughed, slamming his soaking body down onto the shopping district shore.
"Look, friend potential!" Ex pointed, shaking the water from his long hair. "Your first assignment; make friends with Keralis. It's practically impossible to mess up. Think you can do this one on your own?"
Hels got to his feet, surveying the situation. After a brief shrug, the knight approached the Pole inside his book shop. Ex followed loosely, keeping his distance enough so that he could barely make out what was being said. It seemed to be going well, with Hels offering a handshake just like Ex had taught him. Keralis accepted, smiling.
They talked for a couple more seconds, everything seemed to be going fine until Keralis seemed alerted. The Pole jumped back, brandishing a bow and pulling an arrow, locked and loaded on Hels.
It seemed the knight had a few more things to learn, but this already seemed like progress.
~~~