This chapter contains brief graphic violence and gore.
"Like skeletons?" Sheptilah sounded hopeful that things wouldn't get too gorey. Thunderbolt shook her head.
"Expeditions to the great north from this long ago often ended in tragedy. When people die out in these conditions their bodies mummify in the cold. The corpses are going to look somewhat fresh." The chinchilla explained.
"My concern is any lurking viruses and bacteria that may be hiding out on these corpses."
Eggman hesitantly approached the hull and knocked on it with his knuckle. It sounded solid and sturdy.
"What are viruses and bacteria?" Sheptilah asked.
"Microscopic things that make you sick." Eggman explained it as succinctly as possible.
"I will heal you if you get sick," the witch sighed, "You know that."
"You're exhausted; we'll build a fire and camp out for the night. Stay out here with him. Thunderbolt and I will explore the ship's deck for supplies, and only the deck."
"Wait, out here? In the dark?" She was terrified of being in that level of blackness after having suffered it for five millennia.
"You're an adult; you can handle it." Eggman shrugged off her anxiety and made his way to some chunks of ice that would allow him to reach the deck. Sheptilah held the sleeping hedgehog even tighter.
"Why don't you want me to go with you?" She sounded terrified.
"Tilly, just stay there." He said forcefully. He then landed with a heavy thump on the deck. With the faint light of Thunderbolt's cybernetics the two looked like a ghost wandering the vessel aimlessly.
Why is he treating me this way? She asked herself.
Eggman walked around the deck looking for supplies they could salvage and for wood to burn. The ship was in a shambles and the planks creaked underfoot. The chinchilla was grinning ear-to-ear because lord Eggman decided he wanted to spend this time alone with her.
He took another tentative step forward, slowly putting his foot down on the brittle deck. The ship groaned as if it was in pain. His mustache bristled as every hair on his body, which was mostly concentrated to his back, stood on end.
He froze in place for a moment and then relaxed when nothing happened. He chuckled softly to himself with relief.
Then there was a snap.
Tundra and Akhlut, with a handful of Egg militia in tow, rode their snowmobiles to the last known location of the sled. When they found that it was under the ice they immediately drilled a hole into it and sent the orca into it to rescue Orbot and Cubot who were still in sleep mode.
"There's no sign of Eggman, Sheptilah or Shadow down there except for this." Akhlut tossed Shadow's waterlogged bag onto the ice along with the two robots still in their compacted forms.
"Any blood or torn clothes?" Tundra was punching info into his handheld computer. Although his sense of smell was acute it became useless underwater and thus the scent trail ended where they stood.
"No, but the windshield is broken and Thunderbolt's mecha is empty." Akhlut said. "I'm going to keep searching in the water. You search above the ice." The orca disappeared back into the sea before Tundra could punch the damned dolphin in the face for daring to tell him what to do.
"Shadow? Shadow, wake up." Sheptilah nudged her nose against his cheek.
The hedgehog groaned and rubbed his face with his hand. "What?" He was still half-asleep. He nestled back into the crook of her neck intending to resume his nap.
"You're very cute but I would like to put you down now."
"I'm not cute." He squinted in the pitch blackness.
"You're very cute and you are very heavy for someone who looks like they should weigh as much as a loaf of bread."
"Stop saying I'm cute." Shadow the Hedgehog is a seventy-seven pound war machine and he demanded to be treated as such. "Yes you may put me down."
"Fine, fine. You're not cute," she unbuttoned the cloak with one hand and let Shadow jump to the ground, "You sleep like the dead."
"Where's Thunderbolt and Eggman?"
Sheptilah closed the cloak and crouched down. She closed her palms together and slowly pulled them apart, creating a smoky wisp of light.
"He went off with Thunderbolt to explore the ship we found." She stood up straight and rolled the wisp around in her palm to make it grow to the size of a basketball.
The cave was now illuminated bright enough that she could see several yards away.
"An old exploration vessel," Shadow knocked on the wooden hull with his knuckles, "Really old."
"Ivo says there's bodies in there."
"He's probably right but why did he leave us behind?"
Sheptilah shrugged. "I've got no idea."
The brittle planks gave way under Eggman with a loud snap and he tumbled down with a loud crash into the bowels of the ship.
The mummified, freeze-dried corpse of a human fell on top of him. Eggman screamed with horror. The body was hard and heavy - the face was pulled back in a grotesque grimace with disgusting stained teeth bared as if the person died laughing. Tiny beady black eyes like marbles stuck into the sockets stared blankly ahead.
Thunderbolt, equally terrified, instinctively unleashed a sharp bolt of electricity that shocked Eggman to within an inch of his life.
The surge of static made the witch's hair stand on end.
"Eggman!" Sheptilah called. She ran off with Shadow on her heels and the wisp following behind her lighting the path. With the aid of magic she hopped up on the piles of ice and quickly bounced to the deck of the ship. Shadow was able to keep up with her but still felt the exhaustive effects of having drained most of his energy earlier.
She kneeled over the edge of the hole he fell into and peered in, the bright light hovering behind her like a halo.
"Sheptilah?" Eggman looked up and saw her. "Are you an angel?"
"Whatever happened to you just now is something you deserve; every bit of it!" She shouted with annoyance into the pit.
"Nope, not an angel."
Shadow put his hands on his hips and leaned forward. "Are you hurt?" The hedgehog asked.
Eggman looked around and saw he was nearly impaled on a sharp chunk of wood that was sticking up by his armpit.
"No," he coughed, "Except when Thunderbolt electrocuted me into the next century."
"Ow." Thunderbolt sat up.
Shadow jumped in and pulled the corpse off of Eggman. Sheptilah floated down, her wisp following and lit up the messy deck.
"I'm so sorry, my lord!" Thunderbolt apologized profusely.
Eggman stood and brushed himself off. "Thank you for asking, Shadow." He shot a look at the witch.
Sheptilah went up to the corpse and looked it over with an unimpressed expression. "Sometimes we were mummified by baking in the sand. It looked like this, but we took the eyes out first and glued the lids shut."
"I'm gonna be sick." Eggman heaved.
"I wonder what killed them?" The witch said to herself.
"Is anybody worried about me?" Ivo smoothed out his mustache.
"I am!" The chinchilla was quick to answer.
"Please don't touch the corpses, Sheptilah." Shadow was grossed out by her careless handling of it.
"I'm just wondering if whatever killed them could kill us." She backed up from the corpse and took a look around. They were in a kitchen. She spotted a small iron pot on a hook and went over to it. She picked up a piece of wood, carefully lifted the heavy lid with it and peered inside.
"They probably died of starvation." Eggman felt dizzy and stumbled a bit when he walked around.
"Cannibalism," the witch said, "Human hand and neck bones in an empty pot? They clearly were resorting to cannibalism. They did starve to death. We should keep looking around."
"I want off. I don't want to fall through the floor again." Ivo was anxious and very aware of every little creak the ship was making.
Sheptilah let the lid slam shut. Eggman jumped at the noise.
"You can go if you want; but then you'd be all alone in the dark." The witch was clearly bitter about being left behind.
"I'll stick around." He quickly changed his mind. "Look for oil or alcohol... something to make the wood burn more easily."
"We're camping out here?" The hedgehog was hesitant to stay in one place.
"Sure, outside the ship on the sand. You slept all this time so you don't get to be picky." Thunderbolt was peeved at the whole situation.
Sheptilah continued to poke around in drawers and cabinets but found nothing of any real use. They explored the ship further, each going their own way but not straying too far from the wisp giving off light. Shadow opened a closet and found a human corpse hung by the neck: a clear suicide. The gruesome image made his quills stand on end. He gently shut the door and propped a plank of wood under the doorknob so it couldn't open from the inside. Just in case .
"I found something," Sheptilah was holding an old notebook, "Captain's log." It was written in a shorthand form of Cyrillic. The script started off neat but became excruciatingly sloppy toward the end. They were deep in the bowels of the ship and knew they wouldn't find anything else.
"What's it say?" Eggman was curious.
"Let's build that fire first, then I'll read it to you." Sheptilah tucked it under her arm.
"How are we getting out?" Thunderbolt held onto Eggman's leg.
Eggman ran his hand against the ship's wall. He took a step back and punched a hole directly into the side. Wood splintered and landed softly in the sand directly below. Sheptilah and Shadow exchanged unnerved glances.
"So strong." Thunderbolt's voice sounded dreamy.
"Yeah, I'm aware of that despite having my head caved in just days prior." Sheptilah spat.
Eggman looked back over his shoulder and frowned. "I told you it was an accident."
"How do you accidentally crack open someone's skull?" Shadow said.
Ivo didn't answer the question. He stepped down from the newly created porthole onto the sand and waited for them to follow him.
Tundra immediately called for a helicopter to pick him up. He instructed a few underlings to follow on the ground while he flew overhead. They found nothing.
Akhlut was right at home in the frigid water. The darkness made it hard for him to see so he shut his eyes and relied exclusively on echolocation. After several minutes of picking up nothing he was able to locate the same herd of seals that Sheptilah had found only two miles away.
He communicated with them telepathically to find out if they had seen anything. To his relief they were able to point him in the right direction. The seals remembered them as 'nice warm strangers that scratched our heads that disappeared behind the ice.'
The group built a fire in the sand a good distance from the ship using the planks Eggman punched out earlier. Sheptilah sat with Shadow across from Eggman and Thunderbolt with the fire crackling between them like a protective barrier. She dissipated the wisp she created earlier and began reading the captain's log by the firelight.
"Still nothing?" Eggman asked the hedgehog who was fiddling with his communicator.
"Dead air. Could've been damaged in the fight but it's most likely all the ice." He was falling asleep again. He silently cursed himself for being so reckless; that was the witch's job.
"I'm so hungry I could eat Axel." Thunderbolt sighed.
"That'd be impressive seeing as how I'm sure he's had shits bigger than you," Eggman laughed.
"I'm not that little!" The chinchilla whined.
"How was it you described yourself? Compact? Lightweight and built for travel?" He grinned at her. He loved teasing his underlings. Sheptilah stood, walked to Eggman and crouched in front of him. She stared directly into his eyes for a moment, unblinking.
"What? What do you want?" He furrowed his eyebrows.
"Prove to me it was an accident." There was anger and hurt in her voice.
"How? I already told you it was an a-" He was interrupted by Sheptilah gripping his shoulders and pressing her forehead to his.
She forced his to share his memory of the incident while it was still fresh in his mind. It was from Ivo's perspective. She saw her own figure staring at the ocean and felt his emotions. She perceived the thought he had of strangling her at that moment and throwing her lifeless body into the sea. She saw Eggman gripping her throat and understood that he had no real intention to hurt her- only scare her.
Eggman was hesitant to reach out and grab the witch. He knew it was risky to even approach her but he was not going to lose his life's work to some random woman. He understood her frailty when his thumb could touch his fingertips when wrapped around her throat. She was so small, underfed and weak. He could kill her with the same effort of opening a bottle of soda.
How could a queen be so skinny? Why was she such a waif? Damned vegetarians. Real queens should be strong. She reminded him of the smallest matryoshka doll in a set his mother had when he was a child. Each one smaller than the last and painted with great detail by a skilled hand.
"Don't be so heavy-handed," his mother would scold him, "You'll crush the hollow dolls."
You'll crush the doll. He was caught between anger and pity. Somewhere inside he wanted to nestle her in a sHell and then another to keep her from breaking. He couldn't risk her getting hurt since it hurt him, too. Shells.
She hooked her finger into the collar of her sweatshirt and tempted him to grab the Oracle Stone. He didn't look down at her chest though he knew she wasn't wearing any underwear beneath the GUN scrubs. Now was not the time for distractions.
Then came the stabbing. His guts erupted in flame and, without meaning to, he threw the witch down. The sickening, wet crack the sound of her skull breaking against the rock brought him back to his senses almost instantly.
He was on his knees gasping for air. He looked at the woman and regretted everything. The moon's destruction, waking her up, killing her. He regretted everything. Panic swept over him.
The pathetic sounds she made as she struggled to breathe since she punctured her own lungs. Frothy blood bubbled up from her wounds. Her face was misshapen and bloody. He never hurt anyone with his own hands so badly in all his life.
I've killed her, he gritted his teeth, I fucked up!
What amazing cruelties people can inflict upon one another without meaning to.
"S-Sheptilah?" His head started to ache. He tried to crawl forward but was too shaky. The bitter taste of hot copper welled up in his throat. For the second time that week he was drowning in her blood.
It was then that her body began to heal itself. The smallest matryoshka doll was always the hardest to break because it is solid.
Sheptilah broke the mental bond by pulling back. It had only lasted a second but it felt like eternity for the two of them. She had tears pouring from her eyes. It was unclear if she was crying her own or Eggman's.
Our actions have consequences.
"It was an accident." Her voice wavered.
"What was that?" Eggman swallowed hard.
"Memory sharing." She hung her head. "I saw everything from your perspective exactly as it happened. Everything."
Thunderbolt was grinding her teeth. How dare she get so cozy with him!
"I should've never attacked you." She blamed herself for everything. She dried her stinging eyes with her fists.
"I never should've threatened to kill you." He admitted. "You were defending yourself."
She slowly leaned in and embraced him in a tight hug. He held his hands out at first but after a moment he returned the gesture, holding her chastely.
"We can't end up like the people on Blossoming Snow." She buried her face in his shoulder. "They killed themselves and each other. The diary talked all about it."
Real human contact. It had been years since another person touched him without it being an assault.
"Chalk it up to the language barrier," Eggman chuckled nervously, "We'll call it even and start fresh."
She sighed softly as the weight on her heart lifted. Everything was back to normal.
"Alright, alright, break it up!" Thunderbolt kicked sand toward Sheptilah. "Paws off!"
The woman let go of Eggman and turned to Thunderbolt, smiling like a cat that caught a canary. "Are you jealous?"
"Jealous!?"
"You are!" Tilly pointed accusingly at the ever-reddening chinchilla. "Thunderbolt is jealous of our bond, Ivo." She said sing-song.
"I think you have manhandled Lord Eggman enough, that's all!"
"Miss Thunderbolt, would it make you feel better to know I prefer women?"
"What?" The chinchilla squinted at her.
"I'm not that picky but I really like women more than I like other genders."
A pause.
Thunderbolt frowned. She was trying to calculate how much 'really like' actually meant.
"Ugh, for heaven's sake." Shadow sucked air through his teeth. "Thunderbolt. Sheptilah is Sapphic."
"I get that, you idiot," Thunderbolt's tail stood straight out, "She said she prefers women. It means there's still a chance she has disgusting ulterior motives with Lord Eggman! He is one Hell of a male specimen; it's to be expected." She brushed nonexistent dust off of her shoulders. "I'm trying to protect him."
"From hugs, T.B.?" Eggman joked. "You really think banana-butt over here is going to try to seduce me or something?"
"Oh, Ivo," Sheptilah said dramatically draping her arm across her forehead, "It's that mug in your office with your face on it. I must have it or I'll die. I'll do anything to have it."
"Right here? With the dead bodies?" Eggman played along. "Won't you get cold?"
"Not if you do it right."
She and Eggman burst into laughter. Thunderbolt sat with her arms crossed and her face sour.
"I'm going to be sick." Shadow threw some more sticks into the fire.
"Alright, alright." Eggman picked up Thunderbolt by the back of her coat and rested her inside his hood. "Enough joking around, we need to recuperate."
The chinchilla sighed contentedly, nestling her soft cheek against Eggman's.
Sheptilah laid on her side and beckoned Shadow to join.
"I'm good." The hedgehog refused. "Someone has to keep watch."
"Shadow," Tilly frowned, "There's nothing here. Come on, I'm not sleeping." She scooted over to give him room.
He looked at her for a moment before shaking his head. She instead got up and went to him, sitting behind him and draping her cloak over him. She held him close and nuzzled his face with hers. The warmth between the two soothed his small, aching body.
Tilly brought up her hand and gently stroked Shadow's head to help him relax. Shadow focused on the fire, watching the orange flames flicker.
The only sound was their quiet breathing and the crackling of the fire.
After an hour of silence Sheptilah leaned down to kiss the top of Shadow's head. He did not object to this gesture and the tiniest of contented smiles appeared on his lips unseen. He felt like he did when he was a hoglet in Maria's arms aboard the ARK. He felt like he was home.
"Hello?" Akhlut's tired voice called from far away. "Lord Eggman?"
He sat up, letting Thunderbolt tumble out. "Akhlut?"
"Sir!" The orca rounded the corner. "Finally!"