Sheptilah found Rouge's bed comfortable but small. Instead of maintaining her human form she again turned into the fat cat and cuddled up against the bat's side.
She had a hard time falling asleep and tried to remember her younger days at the ziggurat.
"Mama Lulu! Mama Tiamatu!" A younger, teenage Sheptilah embraced them. Tiamatu shaved her head bald and was a tall, imposing woman with very dark skin.
Lulu kept her short black hair tightly braided against her scalp. Like Tiamatu, Lulu also had very dark skin but was a much shorter, heavier-set woman. Both queens were decked out in black robes and gold jewelry and their Oracle Stones glistened like suns unto themselves. The queens were lounging at the top of the ziggurat on plush pillows eating fruit. Their familiars, a cat and a jackal, were also lounging about doing nothing.
Sheptilah stood out against them being a much lighter brown skinned girl and having white hair. Tilly herself was only wearing a purple sarong around her waist but no top or shoes. Instead of gold she opted to wear a simple bronze circlet.
"I have been looking all over the ziggurat for you," Sheptilah sniffed, "The citizens were mean to me again."
"Where is Hebat?" Tiamatu asked.
"She ran off crying. Moms, I don't want to be queen." Warm tears ran down her cheeks. "Why can't you adopt another child?"
"The throne is yours when we retire whether you like it or not. You can do this, Sheptilah. It's one ziggurat, how hard can it be? Lulu and I spend most of our time not doing much but guarding the structure." Tiamatu was stroking Sheptilah's hair comfortingly.
"It's hard when kids throw stones at your familiar because she's half-and-half. It's even harder when her own parents aren't around anymore."
"You're a witch, use your magic to teach them a lesson." The jackal spoke up.
"He's right, you know." Tiamatu nodded.
"It's the principle of it! She's not hurting anyone, why are people so mean? She's just an armadillo."
"Mrrow," the cat familiar stretched, "Princess, you know changelings have unstable magic. People are just afraid of what could happen to them. You have to defend your familiar with your life, regardless of who or what they are. This also means you need to stick up for Hebat."
"Sometimes people won't respect you unless you flex your powers." Lulu chuckled. "Listen…"
"I don't want to hurt a bunch of kids," Sheptilah wiped her nose on her forearm, "They're just dumb kids."
"You don't have to hurt them, just scare them." The jackal laughed. "Turn one into a toad!"
"Go find Hebat and be with her." Tiamatu squeezed Sheptilah's shoulders gently.
The memory of her first act as queen intruded on her mind. She was barely twenty years old when her mothers retired and left the throne to her. More and more outsiders came to live at the ziggurat who were unfamiliar with the concept of witch-eaters. The queens did their best to hide the fact that these parasites were slowly destroying those with Oracle Stones like a communicable disease.
An outsider was caught committing a heinous, unforgivable crime against a child and was swiftly sentenced to death by the courts. The punishment was the classic beheading. There is no coming back from that.
Nobody had been sentenced to death in so long that Sheptilah had never done it before. As queen it was her duty to carry out the sentencing she did not even lay on the prisoner. The man was old and weary, drugged to keep still. His arms and legs were bound with heavy rope and his head placed on the pedestal at the top of the ziggurat.
Sheptilah was dressed in a white sarong and leather sandals. She wore no jewelry as was the custom for executions. Her mothers and their familiars looked on with expectation and pride. Along the steps to the top of the temple people had gathered to witness the execution.
She gripped the iron machete's ivory handle nervously. Her hands were shaking and she was sweating.
"Ti-ti, do you want me to do it?" Hebat stood next to her witch.
"I have to do it," she swallowed hard, "I have to be the one to do it. If we want the people to respect us I have to carry out the sentence." I've never killed a person before, though, she thought.
"Alright, but if you want I can do it." Hebat clasped her long claws in such a way that it resembled a dagger. She intended to behead the criminal with her own hands.
The man moaned. The drugging was wearing off. "Where am I?" He slurred his words, struggling to open his eyes.
"The gates of Hell," Hebat spat on him, "And you've got a one-way visa."
"For your crimes committed against my people I h-hereby condemn you to the netherworld." Sheptilah lifted the machete above her head. She hesitated for a second and then brought down the weapon with great force.
She missed the man's neck by several inches and only managed to lop off the top half of his head at a strange angle. The chunk of skull and brains flopped to the ground flaccidly.
The man was still alive but having half of your brain chopped off didn't allow for much understanding of what had just occurred.
Sheptilah raised the bloody weapon and tried again. This time she managed to cut his neck but it didn't go all the way through and his head hung on by the thinnest bits of skin.
The head turned up to look at her. It was Shadow.
"You can't do anything right," his head laughed at her, "You can't do anything right."
She woke up when Rouge yelped. The bat had hit the floor when Sheptilah's glamour broke and she returned to her full size, shoving Rouge off the bed.
"Rouge!" Sheptilah leaned over the edge. "Are you okay? I'm so sorry!"
"It's…" Rouge looked up at the digital clock. "Four in the morning. What happened?"
"I'm so sorry, I had a nightmare. I dozed off and messed up… I wasn't able to dream lucidly. I was bouncing between memories and dreaming. I guess I got so upset I changed back to my normal form."
Rouge crawled back into the bed. "No more nightmares, okay? That kind of hurt." Sheptilah scooched back to make room for the Mobian.
"I'm so sorry," she wiped sweat from her brow, "This is usually why I sleep alone."
The bat yawned, "Well if you want I'm sure Shadow will let you stay with him. He never actually sleeps. He doesn't need to. He just sits up and reads all night."
"I don't want to bother him," she sulked, "I'll be okay."
"But will I be ok?" The bat giggled. "Don't sweat it."
I should've stayed at the lair, she thought, at least if I kicked Eggman I could say he deserved it.
The weather at the shopping arcade was warm and sunny. Sheptilah had warped them to a warm, southern part of the country at Rouge's recommendation.
"Ladies, can we get a move on?" Shadow was impatiently sipping an iced coffee while Sheptilah and Rouge were window shopping. He insisted on going with them because he didn't trust the two women alone.
"What? We're waiting on you!" Rouge tapped her foot. "You can't bring in food or drinks."
"I'll wait out here." He sucked on the straw loudly.
"Don't make me invite Sonic." Rouge wagged a finger threateningly.
Shadow pulled the lid off the drink and guzzled it, ice and all. "Now will you get a move on?" He smacked his lips.
"You… didn't even chew the ice!" Rouge's wings drooped. "Do you not have a gag reflex?"
"Nope." He flawlessly tossed the cup into the trash.
The trio enjoyed the day although Shadow himself would never admit it. He even got himself a new pair of sunglasses. They stopped to get lunch at a cute bistro, their little table surrounded by shopping bags. Rouge had to read off the menu items for the witch one by one.
Sheptilah even convinced Shadow to take a selfie with her. He frowned in it, of course; he had a reputation to uphold.
"This century is so cool… once I get used to being surrounded by so much iron I'm sure I'll be comfortable enough to carry on like a normal person in this time would." She sipped her sangria between bites of salad.
"May I see your phone?" Shadow held out his hand. Sheptilah nodded and gave it to him. The hedgehog thumbed through the pictures. She was already taking pictures of random things like pigeons and dressing room mirror selfies. Then he saw the photos with Eggman.
"I still don't understand how alcohol doesn't affect you," Rouge raised an eyebrow, "That's honestly just odd."
Sheptilah shrugged. "It sucks, though. Everyone without a stone can get a buzz and have fun and I'm over here like the designated camel driver."
"Yeah, well, most alcoholic drinks taste like crap anyway. The point is to get the buzz." The bat opted for a dark cola to go with her cheeseburger.
"Rouge, you are not missing out. This is glorified fruit juice. What is the drinking age, again?"
"Twenty-one. You are way over the age limit." The bat grinned.
"Oh, you have three years, that's not that long." Sheptilah stuck out her tongue. "Mind your elders, little lady."
"There's elder and then there's ancient artifacts. You, ma'am, belong in a museum." Rouge winked.
Sheptilah gasped as if she was greatly offended, "Well I look damned good for my age. I put the 'great' in great grandma."
"When did you take these? Don't tell me you're getting all chummy with the good Doctor." Shadow placed the phone on the table.
"What? Oh, I asked him how to use it. Up until that night I didn't know what I looked like. I made him take that photo of me then I asked for one of us together and he made me make that stupid face." Her cheeks were slightly pink, "I was trying to butter him up to get information out of him about the injectors."
Rouge chuckled, "Oh, that captive scrying nonsense? You've never seen what you look like until now?"
"Nope, and I am damned cute." Sheptilah looked at the back of her hands, "My skin used to be darker, though. I guess being out of the desert sun for five thousand years sucks the color out of you."
"What did you find out?" Shadow asked.
"They can't be removed. He never devised a way for them to come out. He said if I survive the whole ordeal with the eaters he would be forced to invent a way to remove it. They are also embedded into the bone." She sighed.
"So he lied when he said he'd remove the injections back at the north…" Shadow was disgusted.
"Can't trust him worth a damn." Rouge scoffed.
"I don't trust him," Sheptilah said. She finished off her drink and chewed on the ice.
They were quiet for a bit as they finished off their food.
"I still want to go to the club, though. It sounds like fun." Sheptilah grinned.
Rouge gasped. "Yes! We should go tonight. The theme is outer space according to MARI's blog."
"Why does the robot have a blog?" Shadow narrowed his eyes.
"Hello? It's all about marketing!" Rouge snapped her fingers.
"Outer space, huh? Sounds cool. Are you sure I'm not too old for clubbing?" Sheptilah blushed. "I feel like I would be out of place."
"I'm pushing being a century old, if I'm not too old you aren't too old." Shadow brushed back some of his spines.
"I always forget you're a vintage piece, Shadow." Rouge teased. "One of these days I'm going to buy you a big box of those lemon candies you love to carry around like a grandpa."
"The joke is on you seeing as how I would enjoy the hell out of that gift." He crossed his arms.
"I prefer bubble gum," Rouge paid for the meal and gathered up her bags, "Let's go back to shopping! That is if you two aren't feeling achy and arthritic from being out all day."
"Silly me! I left my orthopedic skates at home. I guess I'm done for the day." Shadow smirked, picking up some shopping bags.
"I saw a purse in the window of the store we're going to next I think you'll love!" Rouge left a nice tip on the table. "It's shaped like a banana!"
"Thanks, MARI." Eggman lounged on his sofa watching a soap opera when the robot sent him a message.
"Absolutely. They talked about you." Eggman had quietly uploaded MARI's app into Sheptilah's phone when he had access to it the night before. The app itself was small and allowed the device to connect to MARI's main servers remotely. With this app sitting in her phone the robot could monitor her as long as the device was on and connected to wifi.
"Anything nice?"
"Actually, yes," MARI's tinny voice chirped on his gauntlet, "They're coming to your club tonight. You should dress up and go meet them. Tonight's theme is outer space."
"Hmm," Eggman stroked his mustache, "I know exactly what I'm going to wear."
"One other thing-" MARI displayed a frowny face.
"Yes?"
"Shadow knows you lied about the injectors coming out of the Egg Army militants."
"Shadow is an idiot if he believed for one second I was going to do that," Eggman laughed heartily, "Thank you MARI. See you in an hour. Tonight I am going to paint the town red."