How many times was Gem going to get interrogated by the L.O.R.E. team? She really needed to review her fake story before she slipped up. Or maybe she already had, based on the expressions of the hermits when she started talking to False about the other one. But at any rate, she probably needed to get out of there.
Using the slightest bit of her powers to make everyone not focus on her, she drank an invisibility potion and quietly slipped away. She couldn't risk teleporting, not with the rift possibly making her powers malfunction. Gem managed to make it a safe distance away when the potion wore off and she immediately shapeshifted to her Dawn persona and doubled back to Hermitopia.
She wasn't even entirely sure what her plan was, all she was trying to prove was that she could sort of be in two places at once. Because it would be disastrous if someone noticed that elf Gem and empress Gem were never at the same place. Because then they might figure out that elf Gem and empress Gem were the same person.
But now she had an interior to finish. Her treehouse looked good on the outside but it was pretty empty on the inside. Her idea was that her furniture would be handmade and rustic and looked like it was cobbled together. Gem figured that it would look good with her aesthetic. And she had a good idea who to ask for help.
"Scott?" Gem called out, landing by his megabase in Chromia. She looked around for the colorful collector. Maybe he was at the llama pen. "Scott? Are you around?" "Yes, just give me a minute," A voice replied, and Gem recognized the accent. It was definitely Scott. "Where are you?" Gem asked, walking around. "Look down," Scott said, and Gem did.
It turned out that a llama with an orange carpet had dug a hole and then had fallen into it and Scott jumped into the hole after it to rescue it. "How did a llama dig a hole?" Gem wondered aloud in disbelief. "You do not want to know," Scott said, shaking his head. He tied a rope around the llama's middle and tossed the other end up to Gem. "Help me pull." "Help you pull? You're not pulling-" Gem started, but Scott shimmied up the sides of the muddy hole and climbed out of it all by himself, none the worse for wear.
"Oh," Gem said. Scott grinned and grabbed the rope. "Are you helping me pull or not?" He asked jokingly. So the two of them hauled the llama back up onto firm ground. Once they did, the llama spat in Gem's face. "Ew! Scott, you need to teach your llamas manners!" Gem protested, wiping her face. "And why is the saliva green?!" "Llama saliva is green for some reason," Scott said. "And I tried teaching the llamas manners. It didn't go very well. See, spitting is a very integral part of their culture and-"
"Okay, okay, you can stop now! I don't want to know," Gem said quickly. Scott grinned. "So, to what do I owe the pleasure of the visit of the princess of Dawn?" He asked, bowing extravagantly. Gem shapeshifted into her elf persona and Scott eyed her clothes in an interested manner. "Actually, this one needs your help." She said, and explained her furniture issue. Scott listened with an eager expression. "Okay, that sounds fun. And I've got experience in this kinds of things, so you came to the right place."
Scott was telling the truth. He was very good with his hands and he probably didn't need Gem helping him at all. The two of them fashioned a table out of a chopped tree log that had been waxed so it wouldn't decay. Bamboo sticks were stripped and woven together to make intricate netlike chairs. Scraps of carpets and llama wool became patchwork blankets and curtains and comforters and rugs. Crooked iron bars and bent hangers were fixed together and candles were added to make a chandelier that was polished till it was gleaming.
"Thanks, Scott," Gem said gratefully. "Least I could do," Scott said, and Gem smiled. She was honestly pretty worried that Scott would be... less nice to her after he found out what she was. But apparently her species didn't phase him. "And I thought you were too pretty for manual labor," Gem teased him, and Scott laughed. "I'm not just a pretty face, you know," He said, waving a finger in her face. "I was the winner of Last Life and technically Double Life, remember?"
Gem smiled in agreement and then she froze when she registered what he just said. "What?" She asked quietly. "What did you just say?" Scott too froze when he realized what he just said. He clapped his hand to his mouth and muttered a foul word or two under his breath. "I though you didn't remember that..." Gem said. "I thought Joel was the only one in this world who remembered." "Well, I remember too," Scott muttered. "Even if I'm not supposed to. I'm really good at irritating them, aren't I?"
Gem nodded slowly. "Yeah, he really doesn't like the stuff you do in the life games; it's like your every move is supposed to make them hate you. But uh... I'm pretty sure the plan was to let the players remember the games... But then when they're in other worlds they just think it's a game they play, so it helps their mind recover from the trauma." "Wait, the players' memories weren't erased? I was pretending I didn't remember for no reason?" Scott blinked.
"You were pretending?"
"Yeah, I assumed they wiped our memories so I had to pretend it worked on me even if it didn't."
"Wait, his power doesn't work on you? Why?"
"Gem... I'm not supposed to say."
"'Everyone's got a secret', you said. This is yours, isn't it?"
"Well, yeah. But I'm technically been told not to tell so it's not really keeping a secret, it's more of me not disobeying orders. But then again, I've never been a stickler for rules. I'll just say that there's a reason why I know what goes on behind the scenes in the life games."
"What does that even mean? Wait... wait, you're a- you're a-!"
"Yes."
"And you still don't care that I'm a-!"
"Gem, you're my friend," Scott said firmly, cutting her off. "And I saw the way you protected Jimmy. You really care about us. Not like the rest of them do. So I don't care what you are or what I am, I'm staying by you. Don't ever forget that."
---
The cogs in False's head were turning erratically as she left Hermitopia after her interrogation that hadn't gone very well. She knew now that she couldn't trust the hermits. They were hiding things from her, lying to her, gaslighting her. Did they really think that they'd fooled her, pretending that they'd never hidden her other self from her? And False knew that when she went to talk to them, they were trying to give the other False a chance to hide or escape. She remembered hearing her voice so clearly...
The other False. Why was she trying to hide from her? What was her agenda? False wanted to know. But she'd been hidden under the radar for so long, how was she supposed to find her? I have to find her, False thought determinedly. She might be the key to unlocking all my memories. And maybe she can explain the bad ones. Maybe there's a logical explanation and I'm not a villain with amnesia.
False absentmindedly flew home to Cogsmeade and immediately fell asleep on her bed. Her dreams were ravaged by glints of a bloodied sword and the bright orange light exuded from flames. And then her surroundings shifted to that of a laboratory. Scary-looking scientific tools that looked ready to tear her apart and cages, so, so many cages set up to hold the lab rats. And False was a lab rat.
False came to a start as Jimena shook her awake. False was pleased that this time she didn't attack the girl for forcibly waking her up. And she was glad that she'd been shaken out of a bad dream. "False, it's dinnertime," Jimena said. "Already?" False blinked and glanced at the copper watch that wrapped around the girl's wrist. It was nearly seven in the evening. She'd slept all afternoon. At least she hadn't slept all day like she did that one time. It was a good thing Jimena was around to periodically wake her up.
"False! Open up!" A voice said from outside, knocking urgently on the door. False got out of bed and noticed that she'd gone to sleep with her shoes on again. Jimena opened the door to find Sausage standing there looking unhappy. "Sausage? What's the matter?" False asked. She glanced at Jimena and shot a double take when she noticed the girl's expression. She looked exceedingly happy that Sausage wasn't. What? That doesn't make any sense...
"False, you killed my chickens! In front of me even though I told you not to! That's the matter!" Sausage shouted unhappily. "I did what?" False blinked several times. "Yes!" Sausage shouted at her. "But- but I've been asleep all afternoon," False stuttered. Now it was Sausage's turn to blink in confusion. "But I saw you there..." "I can vouch for False," Jimena cut in. "I think. I definitely wasn't creepily watching False sleep all afternoon. But I definitely didn't see her leave Cogsmeade."
"Then... who killed my chickens?" Sausage asked. "The other False?" Then he glanced at False sort of awkwardly. "Uh, and I'm sorry we didn't tell you about her." "Wait, you knew?" False gasped. "The rest of the L.O.R.E. team did," Sausage admitted. "We didn't want to tell you about the other version of you because we were worried the multiverse wouldn't like that. It has a lot of rules about interdimensional stuff. After all, the rift and the hermits messed with my dreams so we didn't want to know what kind of damage two Falses would do."
False bit her lip and nodded slowly. She could understand where Sausage was coming from; she understood what he was saying after soaking up hours and hours of the L.O.R.E. team's multiversal research. But now she wasn't sure if she could trust them anymore. Apparently the hermits weren't the only ones who hid stuff from her. It's like I can't trust anyone with the truth. Then realization hit her. If Sausage had just seen the other False at Sanctuary, then maybe she finally knew where the other False was. And she had to get to her quickly.
False grabbed her elytra and flew off without another word. As soon as she was in Sanctuary a few disgruntled hareons asked her why she'd killed the chickens for no reason and now she had to pay for them. False hurriedly explained that there were two of her and she asked where the other one went, and finally a naive villager told her that the other False had declared that she was heading to Dawn next, so she flew there.
In Dawn she discovered that False had blown up a fountain and water was spilling everywhere. A plumber trying to clean up the mess said that she'd stolen a horse and ridden down the path to Gobland, so False flew there next. In Gobland, she found a message written on the rocky ground in gunpowder, and a lit fuse was slowly creeping toward it and threatening to blow it up. False quickly extinguished it and read the message, which said that False was at the Evermoore.
By the time False had reached the Evermoore, she was exhausted from chasing her other self all over the empires and was wondering why there was apparently a trail laid out just for her. The note was especially confusing. I thought she wanted to stay away from me... Why did she tell me where she was going? Did she want me to follow her? False was so confused and tired that she flew into a tree and crashed next to a very surprised elf and Chromian.
"False! Are you okay?!" Gem asked concernedly. False waved her off. For whatever reason, she didn't feel any pain. "Have you seen another version of me?!" False asked urgently. Gem and Scott shook their head in confusion. "Do you happen to have a map of the Evermoore?" Scott asked her. False didn't. "We got lost on the way to Hermitopia," Gem explained, rubbing her deer antlers. "You didn't fly?" False asked. Scott gestured at a wheelbarrow full of handmade furniture and False reddened in embarrassment. "Right. Can't fly carrying heavy stuff."
Just then, a very muddy witch came stumbling out of the thick swamp. "Oh!" She said, bumping into Scott. "What are you three doing here?" She asked, adjusting her floppy lime hat. "Getting un-lost," Gem said promptly. "Oh. I can help with that," Shelby said confidently. She turned around and beckoned to them. "Come on, this way to my house!" The three of them followed the witch to her little settlement and she served them some tea.
"Don't worry, it's not poisoned, I'm a good witch," Shelby told a hesitant Gem. Then she looked around at them. "Hey, have you guys seen my amnesia potions?" "You had amnesia potions?" Scott asked. "Yeah, they make you forget like the last hour or so or something. I might've misplaced my whole batch of them," Shelby muttered, looking down. False felt weird, like she should know what happened to the potions, but she obviously shouldn't. "Those potions don't sound like something you can just misplace," Gem scolded.
"Yeah, I know," Shelby said in shame. Then she perked up. "Or maybe I just accidentally put them with the shapeshifting potions. They look identical." "Shapeshifting potions?" Gem asked, a hint of something more than just curiosity in her voice. "Yeah, you just get a bit of blood or hair from someone, mix it with the potion, and when you drink it you'll look like that person until you drink milk," Shelby explained. Scott and Gem shared a look that False couldn't decipher.
"Have you seen another version of me?" False asked the witch. "Another what?" She blinked. "There's apparently a hermit False," False told her. Shelby thought for a moment and then shook her head. "Sorry, haven't seen her," She said, and False's spirits fell. The long trail had gone cold. She'd lost her other self. And maybe she would never find her.
---
Gem's thoughts were whirling like crazy. With those shapeshifting potions, she could more effectively pretend to be two different people rather than being one person cosplaying as someone else. She glanced at Scott, who nodded almost imperceptibly. He was thinking the same thing she was thinking. Since he was the only one who knew Gem's secret, he could help keep it. By pretending to be her.
"Hey, False, can I have those shapeshifting potions?" Scott asked. "Okay, why?" Shelby asked. Scott shrugged casually. "Because why not? I can think of a certain sheriff who would be so confused if I showed up to Tumble Town as someone else. Think of the pranking possibilities!" "Oh, okay, well then, help yourself to my stash," Shelby said, showing them her potion shop. The witch opened a cabinet and gave Scott and Gem the potions labelled 'shapeshifting'. "Thanks, Shelby!" Scott and Gem called over their shoulders as they left. "You're welcome! And if you find my amnesia potions, give them back!" Shelby called back.
Scott and Gem went to Hermitopia and somehow managed to sneak up all her furniture into her treehouse without anyone noticing. After they'd arranged the interior just the way Gem wanted it, Scott pulled out one of the vials that Shelby had given them. "You ready to try this?" He asked. "Yeah," Gem said. She shapeshifted into her Dawn self. "You don't know how my elf persona acts, so this one should be easier for you."
"I hope the potion works even though you're shapeshifting," Scott said, and Gem suddenly worried that the potions wouldn't work. "Only one way to find out," She said, plucking a strand of fiery red hair from her head. Scott took it and dropped it into the phial, where the potion turned a shade of bright pink. He quickly drank it. "Tastes like honey," He murmured, and then he glanced at himself in the mirror. "Woah!"
His blue hair was growing longer and shifting to a sunset hue. His heterochromic eyes blinked and then turned green. Then his exceedingly colorful clothes changed into Gem's pink princess dress. Scott took off Gem's sunglasses and did a twirl in front of the mirror to see how he looked. "I'm a girl," He said, and his voice sounded just like Gem's. She giggled. "Time to be in two places at once," Gem said with a grin.