Watching and Listening - An Empires SMP AU

Mind games

           Grian assumed that meant she was remembering, and took a clsoer look at the memories to see what they were about. To his surprise, some of them were still fully gray, and he soon found out why. There was a layer of deep blue magic wrapped around them like magic chains that prevented anyone from reaching them. I wonder what's in there that 2 doesn't want Jimena to remember, Grian thought. 

           He turned back to the memories that had returned and soon found the one he was looking for. He peered into it. He could see the purple figure of Jimena flying fast. She was in her vivid violet-tinted Watcher form, and when Grian looked closely enough at the surroundings, he realized that she was fleeing the void that the Watchers resided in. But what's she running to? Or from? 

           Then a second Watcher came into view. Qiron. He reached out with his navy magic and tried to snare Jimena in it, but she countered with a flash of purple. "Herodias!" 2 screamed. "Don't you dare!" Jimena said nothing and flew faster. "If you leave the void I will-" Qiron's face contorted in fury and Jimena just flew on even faster, a blur of violet. She escaped the void. 

           And then there was a bright flash of blue as 2 hit her with a powerful beam of pure power. There was a shriek as Jimena flailed semi-consciously, a mess of singed feathers. She started to fall. Then a lone spark of purple erupted from her fingertips and she teleported to another world. 2 swooped down on where she'd been a second ago and screamed. 

           Grian had seen enough. He backed away and left Jimena's mind to return to his own body. Soon he stumbled back, in the real world, and fell backward on the grass in exhaustion. Timmy and Scar concernedly crowded around him, saying things like that he'd started twitching uncontrollably or shouted in pain, but Grian wasn't paying attention. 

           She really was running from him. Trying to escape the Watchers. That last beam 2 fired at her must've nearly killed her. Except she managed to teleport away at the last second. To Cogsmeade. Probably hit her head when she landed and got amnesia as a result. Or something. Grian surmised. He glanced around and saw Jimena still lying on the ground with her eyes shut. Something's wrong.

           "Jimena?" Grian said, getting up and moving to her. She didn't move. Gently, he started to shake her to wake her up. She still didn't move. "Jimena?!" Timmy ran over as soon as he saw the problem. "What's wrong with her? Jimena! Wake up!" But the little girl didn't wake. 

---

           False paced around anxiously in her bedroom. She'd been planning to start investigating on the murders that day, but there was this odd headache she got that was making her doubt things. She talked to herself, trying to calm down and assemble her thoughts in order.

           "Come on, False, let's go investigate those killings."

           Clear my name.

           "Clear what? Why am I thinking that? Uh... I need to get out of the house."

            Murder.

           "Yeah, to investigate the murders."

           This will be fun.

           "Fun? Why would I find this fun?"

           You do it a lot and laugh.

           "Huh?" False mumbled to herself. "My brain is conflicted why am I thinking weird things uh I need Jimena." But Jimena wasn't around. She'd left a note on the kitchen table saying that she went to talk to Grian about something, and also informed False that she disposed of all the eggs they had so she couldn't possibly ruin them.

           False tried to make breakfast but she kept on adding ingredients for two people instead of one. And then her mind started to swim and vision blurring around the edges, and when she forced down some pancakes that she accidentally burned because she zoned out while cooking she just threw it back up again, dizzy and nauseated. So False just skipped breakfast.

            "Ground me... ground me..." False mumbled. "Need something to calm down... get rid of the headache..." Maybe if she did something distracting it would dostract her from her pressing migraine. False looked around and her eyes settled on a nearby bookshelf. She didn't remember when she got it. But it had some books that would surely be distracting to read.

            False slid a book off the shelf and checked the title. "Jekyll and Hyde," False said, reading. She'd never heard of the book before. So she settled down in a chair to read. By the time she finished the book about a man who had an evil self living within him, False felt like her migraine had gotten sufficiently better.

           "Time to investigate the murders now."

           Yes, time to find out who actually did it. But you know that already.

           "No I don't, that's why I'm doing it."

           You know it already.

           "You're no help. Ugh, why am I thinking weird?"

           You've always thought weird.

           "Get back on track. Need to find out who did the murders. Somehow."

            Somehow.

            "Help. Maybe I should get help."

            Not Jimena.

            "Why not Jimena?"

            Don't want to hurt her.

            "Keep Jimena safe. Keep Jimena safe. Maybe someone smart to help. Yes, I'll get Pix to help."

            Yes, get Pixlriffs. Get him.

            Satisfied that she at least agreed on that, False donned her elytra, checked its durability, and flew off to the ancient capital. Soon she found the archaeologist in his museum, standing in front of an empty glass case. He hadn't noticed False yet.

            "No, my emerald ore! It's gone!" Pix wailed in a voice that sounded not like him at all. False smirked and snuck up behind him. Pix was still too busy lamenting about his missing museum exhibit to notice her. False slipped an amnesia potion and harming potion from her belt and poured both simultaneously on the historian. "Oh, I feel weak! Oh, it's killing me on the inside! Oh, my poor deepslate emerald ore, don't worry, I'll save you!" Pix declared before he zoned out and died.

             False waited for a while in front of the empty glass case, waiting for Pix to arrive. Surely the historian would visit his own museum, right? False really wasn't sure where else to find him. The ancient capital was quite a maze of ruins. But she was sure that Pix would come back for the small pile of stuff he left on the floor, although False wondered why the tidy archaeologist had left a mess in his museum.

            Soon enough, Pix soon arrived on scene. And he immediately bolted for the empty glass case False stood in front of. "No, my emerald ore! It's gone!" Pix wailed. He turned to False so fast that she jumped back in surprise. "Have you seen it anywhere?!" "Um, no," False said. "Sorry. Uh, I came here to ask for help-"

           "I must go searching for the ore at once!" Pix declared. He ran to the other end of the museum and pulled a compass out of its case. To False, it looked like a recovery compass, although something seemed off about it. "This is the compass of lost things! I will use it to find my missing deepslate emerald ore!"

           "Pix," False started, but the archaeologist was already racing away, following the spinning needle of the compass he held. False sighed. Guess I'm not getting any help from him. She dejectedly flew home again and plopped down on the chair to relax. To her surprise, she realized she was sitting on something, and got up to find it was the copy of Jekyll and Hyde that she'd been reading.

           False decided to re-read the book, and some time later she finished it, shuddering. How did I not find the story creepy earlier? She wondered. And then a voice, her own thoughts, piped up from the back of her mind. Because it reminds me of me