Watching and Listening - An Empires SMP AU

And then there were two

           Gem said she would and flew off. Then Oli's stomach rumbled and he realized that he hadn't eaten lunch yet and he flew away with the power of music to go home and do that. Katherine and Pix both said that they probably had important appointments at their empires so they said their farewells and left. So now only Sausage, False, and Jimena were left. "What do you two want to do?" He asked. "Aren't you the team leader?" Jimena asked. "Well, yeah, but a leader must be a listener," Sausage shrugged. Jimena made a very contorted face when he said that. 

           "I want to talk to the hermits," False said. "Didn't we do that two Tuesdays ago?" Sausage asked, frowning. "Um, yes, but I'm going to ask them about other stuff," False said. "They're making me suspicious." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a couple of curious hermits peeking at her from behind chest monsters and gasp as she spoke. "Uh, I can see you guys, you know?" False told them. The hermits shrieked and ran off. Why would they run from me? And with another set of well-worded word, another trigger for long-lost memories. 

           She was surrounded by flames that reached the ceiling. There were long hallways of the house blocked off by the tongues of fire. False grinned manically and laughed at the sight. The other people's replies were screams as they burnt themselves trying to escape. "You're not going anywhere," False said pleasantly. They turned their frightened faces toward her and False smiled. They shrieked and ran down a corridor that False knew would take them nowhere. "Why are you running from me?" She asked mockingly. "I'm a nice person!"

            False blinked several times until she'd chased the memory off. Why do I have so many awful memories of me hurting people?! False realized that she was breathing heavily and her forehead was beaded with perspiration. Jimena gently touched her shoulder and for once, the paranoid tinkerer didn't flinch back. "False? Are you okay? You just stared into space for a while and I couldn't reach you," Jimena said, the fear in her voice fading to relief.

            "I'm okay," False mumbled. She looked around. "Where did Sausage go?" "He left; you just didn't notice," Jimena said. Because I was lost in a memory, False finished for her. "I remembered something," False told her. Jimena gasped. "Really? Tell me about it." She's happy that I remember. But what I've seen that I've done... I'm not sure I'm happy that I do. "I don't want to talk about it," False said, biting her lip again. "It's not a good memory." 

           "Oh," Was all Jimena said. After a few seconds of hesitation, she said, "I kind of had one today too." False tilted her head at her. "When Sausage said something about listener and leader, I suddenly felt this feeling that I really hated the idea, for some reason. I didn't really zone out like you did, but there was something... something at the edge of my mind. I just couldn't reach it!" Jimena said in frustration. She sighed. "How come your memories are coming back faster than mine?"

            "I don't know." False said. She tried to comfort the girl but ended up just awkwardly patting her on the shoulder. "Maybe you just need something to trigger your memory. Like the fire would trigger mine. Or certain words." "Okay." Jimena said softly. She looked up at the sky and her wings twitched. "You know, it seems like a good day for flying." "Well, don't let my presence stop you," False said. "Just go and fly around up there while I talk to the hermits." "Okay," Jimena smiled, and in a white and purple blur of feathers and clothes, she took off into the sky.

           False walked back to Hermitopia and was quickly aware of voices coming from it. Voices speaking urgently in low, hushed tones. Like they didn't want to be heard. 

           "Gem was here. Our Gem. The elf-"

           "She told False about you!"

           "And then she asked about clones."