Days after the excursion to the lair Sheptilah invited Shadow to her hut for training.
"Why do you nap so much?" Shadow sat in Sheptilah's lap as she brushed his spikes with a wide-toothed comb. The forest was quiet except for a few cicadas chirping. Dots of sunlight filtered through the trees providing dim illumination.
He himself was falling asleep because of how relaxing the sensation of having his spines cleaned felt.
"Because I can be back home as I remember it." She placed the dead spines next to her on the ground. "Honey, I don't understand how you can pull this back into a ponytail. I've seen Sonic walk around with his mop tied back and I just can't figure out how it's done without magic."
"It's not easy which is why I mostly just let my spikes do as they please."
"How do you even sit with a tail like that? I guess I just have a hard time understanding how Mobians do anything."
"How do you walk without a tail? Where's your balance?"
"That's a good question," she tapped her chin with the comb, "How in the Hell do humans get around without falling over?" Sheptilah continued to groom him. When she was done his spines felt lighter and healthier.
"I think it's your toes. Anyway, what do you even see in the Doctor?" Shadow sulked. "I don't understand it."
"You know, he asked me the same thing and I said it was because he's tall." She patted the top of Shadow's head. "It's actually pretty sad. He's one of the few people in my entire life that actually treated me like a normal person; I guess that's why. Unlike the doctors at GUN, Ivo has stopped harassing me for a blood sample."
"They're still after you?"
"I'm surprised Tower hasn't summoned me and forced me to give it up. Shadow, maybe healing Mrs. Cabbot was a mistake." She began to scratch Shadow just under the ears.
"It wasn't a mistake; you've made that family so happy," he leaned his head back, "A little higher… ah."
"I guess it's selfish of me to keep my blood to myself. I sometimes lay awake at night thinking about all the people dying of complex and incurable diseases who only receive palliative care because that's all there is for them. I think, yeah I could heal them in a second. They'd get back to their families who wouldn't go into serious debt trying to prolong an ending life.
"And then there's children who get cancer or are born with illnesses like your Maria. Accidents and natural disasters, medical negligence… Clove wouldn't have been drafted into Eggman's army if her sister wasn't dying. Nephtys' face could've been repaired without the use of cybernetics.
"I'm just… afraid. I'm afraid of what it could do. Wouldn't it put millions of doctors out of work? Stop the genuine advancement of medicine because there's a magical fix now? What if the population explodes in several generations because people live even longer and have stopped dying as frequently?" She stopped scratching his ears and rested her hands on his shoulders.
"Tilly." Shadow leaned back and looked up at his witch whose face was deeply lined with worry. "There's only so much your magic can do in regards to healing in the first place. You can't regrow limbs and you can't cure away mental illness or disabilities. We will always need good doctors to help with that.
"But in the end it is your body, your blood and your magic. You don't have to do anything."
"I guess you're right." She went back to scratching the base of his ears. "These are so cute. Hebat's ears weren't visible so I couldn't enjoy them. She was sort of like Knuckles in that regard. You know there's ears there, but where exactly remains a mystery."
"If you tell anyone about this I'll kill you." Shadow yawned.
"No, don't fall asleep! We have to practice your magic!"
"If you don't want me to fall asleep then don't scratch my ears." He yawned again, which in turn made her yawn.
"Sleepiness is contagious." Sheptilah stood and brushed the leaves off of her clothes.
Shadow tilted his head. "Why do you wear so much black?"
"Amy tells me it's the color of witches. In my culture, it's the color of royalty."
"I must be really royal," he looked down at his own fur, "In our time black is the color of mourning."
"Red is our color of mourning." She shrugged, "Which makes sense because every time I look at Ivo I get sad!" She laughed to herself.
He chuckled politely. "He does wear too much red. He looks like a tomato."
"A very tall and mustachioed tomato." Sheptilah stuck out her tongue. "It's time to practice. See that boulder over there?" She pointed to a large rock.
"Yes?"
"Make it levitate."
Shadow held his hands out and concentrated on focusing his energy to his fingertips. His spines slowly began to rise upward. His eyebrow twitched and beads of sweat formed on his face.
"Tilly, it's just not happening."
"Open your eyes." She shouted. Why did it sound so far away?
He did so and saw that the boulder was not levitating but he was. He looked down and felt his heart nearly leap out of his throat when he realized just how high he was. He yelped and fell only to have Sheptilah catch him in her arms.
"Okay, so you can get the magic flowing but you have trouble with aiming it. Maybe if you name your magic it'll help. Sort of like when you yell Chaos Spear and the like." She put him on his feet.
"Maybe the problem is my magic and the Chaos energy inside me are incompatible and it doesn't work correctly."
"We all have our own magic," she smoothed down his spikes with her hand, "And our own way of using it. Try again but with your eyes open this time."
He shook off the tension and focused once more on the boulder. How does Silver do it? He thought. Telekinesis is a kind of magic, right? If only the magic wasn't invisible…
Wait. That's it! He remembered Silver's telekinesis is electric blue.
"Sheptilah, why is your magic invisible?"
"It's not, I just make it so it's invisible. Fancy decorations waste energy." She held out her hands and formed bright purple flames of energy. She then made it flash a rainbow of colors before dissipating it.
Shadow thought for a moment and chose to imagine red magic. It formed around his hands in the shape of billowy smoke. He imagined it stretched out to the boulder and enveloped it. The magic followed suit and completely engulfed the large stone.
"Now raise it." Sheptilah grinned.
Shadow was excited to see the magic working. He slightly raised his hand and the boulder was lifted a foot off of the ground.
"You're doing it!" Sheptilah cheered. "So good!"
"Please don't distract me," he furrowed his brow, "Okay, gonna set it down now." He lowered his hands so that the stone was back in place.
The witch was hopping up and down. "Yes! Soon you will move mountains!"
"Very small mountains, maybe." He couldn't help but grin. "Anthills."
It became a habit for Sheptilah to sleep in Eggman's now overgrown garden. You can take the woman out of the wild but you can't take the wild out of the woman , he would joke.
At least once a week she'd make a point to stay at GUN overnight just so she could sleep up against Shadow's face in the form of a cat. While on her astral plane she would teach him things about his new magic abilities. Time moved differently when in dreams so she could squeeze an entire month's worth of lessons into one night.
Sometimes she would even sleep in the lair when she felt the iron didn't bother her so much.
Eggman's alarm clock shrieked at six in the morning every day without fail. Sheptilah groaned and rolled over under the blankets, trying to muffle the sound by shoving her head under a pillow.
"Why do you wake up so early?" She valued her sleep more than most things.
"Because I have stuff to do." Ivo sat up and turned off the alarm. She felt him lay back down and snuggle up to her.
"Cute." She brushed her hair out of her face. "I know this is a sore subject but has Katella contacted you?"
"Only to say she hasn't found any live specimens yet, just evidence of where they've been."
"What all did she do to you?" Tilly rolled over to look at him. "If you wanna talk about it." I want to know if I should've killed her, she thought.
He snuggled up closer. "She was really rough; liked to wrestle and fight. Sometimes she'd jump out of nowhere and tackle me. I was okay with it for a while because it was exciting but she didn't have respect for personal boundaries or the word 'no' because she took it as rejection. If you didn't drop everything to be with her when she wanted you you were in big trouble. She always got what she wanted to matter what.
"I once had the nerve to turn her down for sex because I wasn't feeling well due to having a cold. Well, she decided to 'convince' me by wrestling me into submission and that's when she broke my arm in three places. Supposedly it was an accident."
"I'm sorry." Sheptilah frowned.
"Oh, it gets better," he yawned, "She tried to force me to marry her and Sonic actually saved my ass by calling my mother."
"Sonic saved you?"
"Yes! My mother destroyed Katella and she was screaming 'I don't want a battle axe like that for a mother in law.' In retrospect it was hysterical seeing my mom get into it like that." He smiled a little. "I doubt Sonic even remembers that. He was really young back then."
Sheptilah lightly rubbed the tip of her nose against Ivo's. "I'm sorry you felt you had to call Katella in the first place."
"It is what it is; plus I have you as my bodyguard." He kissed her cheek.
She giggled when his mustache tickled her. "Yes and I'm not afraid to play dirty."
"Have you really forgiven me for what I said I planned on doing to you…?" He cupped her cheek with his hand and ran his thumb back and forth across it.
She looked at him for a moment, blinking slowly. "No; I'd be a moron to do that. I choose to look past it. It probably also makes me a moron, but maybe less of one."
"Fair enough." He drew her into a kiss. "I have to get back to work building the Syzygy Cannon; you should probably go check on your magic staff thing."
"It should be done any day now." She sat up, her hair a frizzy mess.
"I have been thinking," he got out of bed and dressed, "We shouldn't go to the moon. I'm going to send a robot there to check it out instead."
"That's a better idea." Tilly laid back in bed. "An even better idea is me going back to sleep."
"Get up! You slept for five thousand years; you should be well-rested."
"Nuh uh." She pulled the covers over her head. "It's nice and warm in here."
He pulled the comforter off of her, exposing her naked form to the air conditioned space.
"Ah!" She yelped. "Cold!"
"What's on your mind, Shads?" Sonic lifted a cup of crushed ice to his lips, tapped a few pieces into his mouth and began to chew on them.
They were in his hut waiting for Sticks and Amy to arrive so they could try out new video games.
"I can't talk about it." The black hedgehog scrolled through his phone. "Must you chew on ice? That's bad for your teeth." His ears kept involuntarily swiveling toward the annoying sounds coming from behind him.
"Dude," Sonic walked around the sofa and sat next to Shadow, "I don't have many vices. I don't smoke, I don't drink and I certainly don't mess around with drugs."
"It's your mouth, not mine." Shadow said. He knew better than to argue with Sonic about anything.
Sonic leaned in toward Shadow's ear, chewing as loudly as he could.
With each crunch the black hedgehog became increasingly enraged.
Crunch.
Shadow's ears twitched ever so slightly.
Crunch.
He clenched his jaw and crossed his legs.
Crunch!
Shadow did his best to ignore Sonic but it was just not happening. He picked up a cushion and smacked Sonic in the face with it.
The blue hedgehog yelped. "I bit my tongue!" He said between laughs.
"You deserve it!" Shadow hit him again with the cushion.
"Boys." Amy shook her head and clicked her tongue at their behavior. She walked in through the door after the assault but knew that Sonic probably did deserve it.
"Don't start a wrestling match without me!" Sticks took a defensive stance. "That's just not fair!"
"Sonic was chewing on ice right by my ear." Shadow tattled.
"What have I told you about chewing ice?!" Amy scolded.
"Let me have my one thing!" Sonic wailed.
"Hey, where's your witch?" Sticks pointed at Shadow.
Shadow rolled his eyes. "I don't know; she's probably at her house."
Just then there was a very bright burst of light that flooded through the windows, briefly coating everything in blinding whiteness.
Evidently the staff was finished and Sheptilah took it for a test drive.
"My retinas!" Eggman's voice howled.
"Or she could be right on the beach." Shadow sighed.
The staff was as long as Sheptilah was tall. Its silver body was slim and decorated with small reliefs of her mothers holding up the pearl in the center which was nestled in a pale pink blooming rose-shaped setting.
She had healed the man's eyes and leaned up to kiss him when out of the corner of her eyes she saw the kids approaching and recoiled.
The Mobians ran out to greet the Overlanders. Tails flew in overhead and landed near Eggman.
"Woah, it's beautiful!" Amy's eyes sparkled. "So pretty!"
"Want to hold it?" Sheptilah held the staff out. "Only Shadow and I can use it so there's no danger in you touching it."
"Can I?" Amy took the staff and marveled at how light it was despite its size.
"Please don't shoot things like that off into the sky! You could blind a pilot and send a plane crashing down." Tails scolded her.
"I'm sorry," Sheptilah rubbed the back of her head with shame. "I didn't know it was going to be that strong. It wasn't even full power."
"Incoming call from Ulala, Doctor." MARI chirped. "It's about that bright light she saw. I will tell her it was just a practice shot."
Shadow's phone beeped. He took it out and looked at the screen: it was Tower asking what that bright light was since he was in the vicinity of its origin.
Sticks went up to the pearl and sniffed it suspiciously. It didn't smell like a rose therefore the paranoid badger couldn't trust it and hissed. Things that don't behave the way they look were never to be trusted, according to her.
"You pissed off GUN again," the black hedgehog smirked, "And apparently a space DJ." He texted Tower back that it was the witch testing her weapon.
"Tower can kiss my ass," Sheptilah waved a finger, "Until he leaves me alone about my blood I don't even want to hear his name."
"How is Ulala? Tell her I said hi!" Sonic waved at Eggman's gauntlet.
"Someone tell the blue pineapple I do not work for him," MARI spat. "I'm connecting you to Ulala now, Doctor."
"Hello, Ulala," Eggman spoke into his gauntlet, "Sorry about the bright light."
"What was that, anyway?" There was a noise that sounded like CD cases being shuffled together, "I do have news otherwise. Our people haven't spotted a darn thing in regards to those yucky wiccaphages. Just a weird increase in oceanic quakes."
"Hi, Ulala!" Sonic yelled into the gauntlet, "It's me, Sonic!"
"Hi, Sonic! Got any song requests?" Ulala's voice was cheerful.
"To Another Galaxy by TGP!" Sonic was practically hanging off of Eggman's arm.
"TGP? Oh, Tokyo Ghetto-" Ulala was cut off abruptly.
"Yeah, don't say it!" Sonic chuckled. "But I like that song."
"Thanks for the update, Ulala," Eggman shook Sonic off of his arm and glared at him. "Go away, fanboy!"
"Really, Sonic?" Amy shook her head disapprovingly. She pointed the staff at him.
Sheptilah took the weapon back from Amy and balanced it in her hand. "How am I supposed to walk around with this thing? It won't fit in my headspace."
"How did your moms carry it?" Tails asked.
Tilly shrugged, "Like a walking stick."
"Maybe the grimoire says something about it?" Shadow reached for the staff.
"Good point," Sheptilah let her familiar hold the weapon while she pulled the royal grimoire out and flipped through it as it floated before her.
"You are way too short for that weapon." Sonic teased.
"Thousands of years of information and not one goddamned thing on the Lunar Staff. Looks like I gotta lug it around the old-fashioned way." She put her grimoire away.
"What can it do?" The blonde fox looked it over apprehensively. "Besides kill wiccaphages?"
"Whatever I want it to, I guess. There's almost no information about it in my book."
"You know, if it was anything like that shining light we saw just now I'm wondering if other people wrote about it." Eggman crossed his arms, "And that bright light was only a fraction of the power but it was seen all the way from space… You can't just seal a bunch of monsters in the moon and nobody notices; even in a desert."
"I know where this is going," Shadow smirked, "You're going to visit some museums and paw through untranslated archives, aren't you?"
Eggman nodded.
"Can I come with you?" Amy's eyes were wide. "Oh, please? I love that ancient stuff!"
Sheptilah looked over at Eggman and raised her eyebrows.
His shoulders dropped and he hung his head. "Fine, but we're probably not leaving the island for a few days."
"I thought we were planning my birthday party." Sonic shook his head.
"Oh, that's right!" Tails' ears stood straight up. "I almost totally forgot your birthday is in two weeks." He coughed. Gee, I hope I'm not getting sick…
"And Shadow's birthday is four days before that." Eggman reminded them. Shadow glared at Eggman with such hatred the man was worried he might be set on fire.
"How old are you gonna be, Shads?" Sonic teased.
"Seventy." He replied flatly. In reality I'm going to be twenty, he thought, when did I get so old?
"Old man! I need you to come with me to the movie theater so I can get senior discounts on my ticket," Sticks went up to him, "But if you ask me you don't look a day over fifty."
"Gee, thanks." Shadow forced a smile.
"It's also Ivo's birthday," Sheptilah grinned, "Same as Sonic."
Eggman's mustache perked up when he heard she remembered.
"So we'll just throw a big block party," Amy spread her hands, "I think defeating the wiccaphages might be a slight bit more important."
"We still need the rest of the Chaos Emeralds," Sticks spat, "'We've got what, like, four of them now?"
"Three," Shadow corrected her, "Dubai is still fighting us tooth and nail on it. We may actually have to go steal it and replace it with a fake."
"So that means we still have a couple more to grab," Tails scratched his head, "Great, just when I thought we were getting closer to being done with everything."
"Incoming call from Katella," MARI chirped.
"Katella!?" Tails and Sonic yelped in unison.
"Oh, I forgot to mention her," Amy's ears drooped, "Yeah, she's around looking for the wiccaphages."
"If she's calling me that means she probably found one." Eggman muted the call. "Which may or may not be a good thing."