Eggman woke to find he was alone. At some point the witch had awoken before he did and went back to her hut. His loneliness and guilt returned in full swing and decided to ease the emotional pain with material gain.
Sheptilah's reward for taking out the trash, so to speak, was a brand new iron cauldron. Truthfully he wanted to avoid going back to the ziggurat for the old one at any cost. Throwing together scrap iron and shaping it into a giant pot took no real effort on his part.
When he delivered the thousand-pound monstrosity she was confused by its cream color.
"Is this a giant ghost pumpkin?" She cocked an eyebrow, "Or a giant egg?"
"No, this is a cauldron-crucible hybrid."
"A crucible?!" She laughed. "I'm not going to be smelting."
"Where do you want it set down?" It was hooked under the little Egg Mobile he flies in and it was straining the vehicle.
Sheptilah pointed to a spot next to her hut that was recently cleared. Eggman gently set the cauldron down and got off of the mobile.
"This baby is iron on the inside and coated with porcelain on the outside." He patted the side of it hard. It was so thick it made no sound. "The porcelain coating is so you can touch it."
"That's so thoughtful," she smiled, "Do you know why our cauldrons are iron?"
He shook his head.
"It's to trap the magic in so it can cook itself and not fly off everywhere." She leaned against it, "Thanks for this. I'm eager to get started on making the staff." She could barely contain her excitement.
"What else do you need for it?"
"I have the rings, the pearl, the metals," she counted off on her fingers, "All I'm missing is the permafrost."
Sheptilah opened a portal to the cave where the Blossoming Snow still laid rest. She stepped into it and removed a large chunk of ice from the wall with magic and ran back through the portal.
"C-cold!" She shuddered, "But now I've got ice!" She held the piece up proudly. "Stay here, I'm going to go get Amy!" The witch placed the ice in the cauldron and ran off to get the pink hedgehog.
She soon returned with a very out-of-breath Amy.
"Maybe I should just move in with you." The hedgehog sighed, beads of sweat sparkling on her forehead.
Sheptilah ran into her hut and pulled out the large chest with all the items in it.
"One golden apple," she held up the gold statuette of a red delicious by the stem and dropped it in, "Five golden rings," she named off the items one by one as they went into the pot.
"Eternal fire." She snapped her fingers and summoned a small flame to her fingertip and dropped that into the mixture.
"And finally… witch blood." She held out her arm and rolled up her sleeve. With her other hand she reached into her headspace and pulled the boline from it.
"Does it say how much you need?" Amy was nervous.
"Just enough." The witch dragged her blade across the length of her arm and the blood poured freely from the wound. She let it flow for a moment before healing the cut. Amy noticed she was all bandaged up but didn't ask about it.
The items in the pot began to spark and bubble.
"There," Sheptilah put the lid on it, "Now it's gotta sit for a month or two before it's done forming itself."
"We have to wait that long?" Eggman furrowed his brow. "Well, that gives me time to do other stuff."
"Hey, is this place open yet?" A male gogoba of small stature walked up to the group, "You still take random items for trade, don't you? I got a bum leg and would like you to fix it." He patted his messenger bag that hung off his shoulder.
Sheptilah put the bloody weapon behind her back and smiled innocently, "Uh, sure! One moment; follow me." She instructed the gogoba. He limped inside with her while she wrote this stuff down in her grimoire.
Meanwhile outside of the hut Amy and Eggman were speaking quietly.
"What happened that she's all busted up?" Pink eyebrows were knit with worry.
"She got in a fight with Katella. Sheptilah won. It was pretty bad," he rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"What provoked the fight?"
He shook his head, "Katella deserved it. That's all you need to know."
Amy cocked an eyebrow in response.
The gogoba ran out of the hut and shook his leg. "It's like new!" He shuffled a little and did the Charleston. Sheptilah came out behind him and clapped joyfully at his reaction.
"Thank you! Bye!" The chinchilla-like furry ran off and clicked his heels together in between hops.
"So... how was your date." Amy wiggled her eyebrows mischievously.
Sheptilah's smile became a tight frown. "Nothing happened because we have work to do."
"Yeah, I saw the items were at my doorstep by the time I got back to my house." Amy frowned.
"Amy," Eggman stooped down a little, "Tilly and I are friends and that's more than I deserve."
Amy shrugged, "That's fine, as long as you're both happy, I guess."
Sheptilah nodded, hair bobbing. She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to see what it was. A few more people looking for magical help walked up to the hut.
"I'll get going." Eggman was feeling uncomfortable.
"Thank you again!" She waved to him and then turned to care for the visitors.
He couldn't get her off his mind. Instead of getting any actual work done he decided to exercise. His workout clothes were not much different from his swimming clothes and fit him much more loosely than before.
An hour on the treadmill followed by twenty minutes of cool-down stretches wasn't enough of a distraction. Orbot and Cubot would come into the gym now and again to bring him a sports drink or a fresh towel.
He applied chalk to his hands, shoulders and neck in preparation for weightlifting. With a reliable robot behind him as a spotter he lifted four and five hundred pound weights with little effort.
"More weight." He demanded of the robot. It obliged, bringing the weight up to seven hundred. It still was no challenge.
It wasn't until he had to lift two thousand pounds of combined weight that he struggled a bit. The burning in his muscles felt cleansing. The deep breathing, huffing and profuse sweating reminded him of something more lewd and upset him.
"Boss?" MARI spoke.
"What?" He spat.
"I read your dossier. I think you should go for it."
"Huh?"
"Go for it. Monitoring her vitals when she's close to you is easy. She's hot, wet and open for you. Knock it out of the park, man."
"MARI- stop being disgusting. Who even allowed to you access that data on the gauntlet?"
"You did, sir."
"Ugh. Doesn't matter; I can't bother with that kind of thing."
"She's nuts about you. How often does that happen?"
"It's too risky." And I am in no way good enough.
"Then you should at least tell her you have no interest in pursuing her. You're leading the poor creature on."
Sheptilah packed some sweets she made for Eggman into a basket and went to his lair. She was greeted at the door by Metal Sonic who looked at the basket suspiciously.
"I told you she's a friendly." Eggman came up the hall and gently pushed Metal aside.
"I wanted to make sure you were feeling okay after yesterday so I brought you some candies and cakes." She held up the goodies.
"A witch after my own heart." And arteries, he thought.
They sat across from each other in the dining room and snacked on the foods. Honey bread, pineapple candies and peach cakes spiced with cinnamon made the room smell like a bakery.
"Obviously I grew the pineapples and peaches myself with the aid of a lot of magic," she nibbled on a piece of cake, "But I had to trade for the flour."
"I can't wait to see what you can do when you get your hands on cacao pods," he grinned. "This is really good."
"Thank you." She blushed.
He felt guilty again, the back of his neck burning and his stomach in a knot.
He took a sip of coffee, "Can you help me with my garden? Stuff keeps dying out there."
But he certainly didn't feel guilty enough to stop asking for favors.
"Sure, I'd be happy to."
After they finished eating he brought her to a dying young white willow tree whose branches hung limply in the breeze. The plants around it were wilted and equally sad-looking.
"Ivo, I think your problem is you're trying to plant a tree on stone." She tapped her chin thoughtfully, "Tree roots need to spread out." She stretched her arms for emphasis.
"White willows tolerate seaspray and sun well; that's why I chose it. It shouldn't be dying."
"When was the last time you had the soil tilled?"
"Last week," he sulked, "I think I just got a sick tree."
Tilly touched her stone and pulled magic from it. She laid her hand flat against the tree, giving it the energy. In a moment the tree shot up dozens of feet and branched open like an umbrella.
The flowers at its roots perked up and multiplied into a small field of colorful shapes swaying in the ocean breeze.
"Oops," Tilly backed up, "I gave it too much!"
"Well, that's one way to fertilize a garden," he stepped over a bunch of white cosmos, "I'm going to have to do some major weed whacking to get this back under control."
The tree suddenly burst into flowers with a loud WOOSH!
"I just wanted it to perk up a little and it exploded," she bit her lip, "I hope you don't have any pollen allergies."
"If I did I would be dead right about now. If I wake up to a jungle tomorrow you better come by with a machete and fix it." He chuckled. "That healing magic could make you live forever, couldn't it?"
"Maybe, but why would you want to live forever?" She turned to him.
"Why not?" He bent down and picked up a daisy and put it behind her ear. "I'm pretty sure life is more fun than death."
"Everyone I've ever loved is On The Other Side." She shrugged.
He grabbed her by the hands and started a waltz, "Let's not talk about death. MARI, some mood music, if you please."
"Hmm," the AI wondered aloud. She decided on some slow Latin guitar music.
They danced together with him in the lead for a while to the quiet music playing from his gauntlet.
"So you're lucky to have me as a friend, huh?" She smirked at him.
"Oh, yes," he dipped her, "My darling, I don't deserve a second of your time."
The witch smiled, her slightly crooked teeth making her appear more youthful. "It's not a waste when I'm with you. You're always full of surprises. What if I said I wanted to go further…?"
She wanted nothing more than to make love to him among the blooming flowers in the moonlit garden.
The guilt washed over him again. He looked off at the sparkling ocean rolling in the distance. He decided he couldn't trust himself around her anymore and needed to get rid of her. There was a long pause before Sheptilah broke the silence.
"What's wrong?" She looked him over. "Why are you upset?"
"Sheptilah… " He exhaled sharply. "I know how you feel about me but you do know that a leopard cannot change its spots, right?"
"I know I could never change you," she gripped his bicep gently, "I wouldn't want to. I like you for the good aspects of your personality." She lifted her leg a bit so that her thigh touched his. "Is it safe to say you have romantic interest in me, too?"
He inhaled sharply and looked at her for a moment before pushing her away. "You're a stupid woman."
"What?" Her eyes were wide. "Ivo… "
"Maybe stupid is a strong word. You are naive. Don't bother with your feelings for me or anyone else." He looked away.
"Ivo, why are you acting like this? You pulled me into a dance and now you're telling me I'm an idiot?" She held one arm across her chest with her hand on her shoulder.
He looked up at the night sky. "It would just be you self-harming if you let your feelings get any further."
MARI stopped the music.
"Self harm?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't understand. I know you're not the most celebrated man in the world but you're decent enough to me and my familiar."
"When I first learned of your healing capabilities my initial thought was to lock you in a box and bleed you dry." He swallowed hard. "I even keep a dossier on information about you so I don't forget details."
"Bleed me dry?" She took a step back. "You were going to kill me?"
"No, not kill." I might as well confess everything, he thought. In for a penny, in for a pound.
"The idea was to keep you alive and compliant enough with drugs or anti-witchcraft runes; or, if it came to it, keeping Shadow captive somehow."
"You were going to hurt my familiar? Your own family?" She spoke through a clenched jaw.
"It wouldn't be the first time I hurt my own family. Just ask my niece." He shrugged. The confession only made his heart heavier and chest tighter.
She ran her fingers over her throat, remembering the first and last time he threatened her life.
"I've been scheming for a while to figure out how to get a sample of your blood for testing and when you were all cut up yesterday I thought that it was my golden opportunity. I decided against it."
He waited for her to say something but she didn't. A lone tear rolled down her cheek.
"Even back at Stratosphere I played like I was a sad, lonely man to win your favor so you would trust me. I didn't think you'd actually see romantic potential in me, of all people." He wouldn't look at her.
"Not that long ago I even started sketching out devices I could keep you trapped in so I could squeeze every last bit of magic out of you. If it wasn't for that damned Oracle Stone having the capability to explode and kill everyone I would've already ripped it off your chest."
Her breath became labored. "I figured at first you had that thought but after everything we've been through in these last few months you still had abusing my powers on your mind? You were going to do inhumane things to me…"
He could feel her staring daggers into his back.
"I'm telling you this because I respect you enough to tell you to seek romance elsewhere. Like I said back at your house, I do not deserve your friendship, time or protection."
"Was anything you did for me genuine or did it have some subtle flavor of self-serving for yourself?"
"Everything I've ever done was for my own benefit. Always."
"Except this."
"Yes," he sighed, "Except this."
She pulled the flower out from behind her ear and flicked it away. "So why now? Why would you tell me this now instead of keeping it to yourself like you should have?"
"Katella said some horrible things about you to your face but you still kept cool because you knew I needed her help. It was only when you defended me from Katella's amorous wrath I realized how much you've put up with and forgiven and risked just for my safety.
"You're the one person on this whole goddamned planet that genuinely cares about me without really expecting anything in return for it. I like you and respect you enough to tell you this so you won't waste anymore time or energy on me. Move on and find someone better. You're young, vibrant, beautiful, smart, all that. Go find someone better."
She had no words. She simply opened a portal to the Blossoming Snow and stepped through. Eggman felt the icy rush of arctic wind blow against his back and he turned around to catch see she left without her sealskin cloak.
He sat in the flowers. He felt numb and empty and realized his mistake too late.
She then jumped from the arctic to GUN and went straight to Shadow's dorm. He immediately understood her anguish and embraced his cosmic sister tightly.