Jimena had a strange dream that day. She dreamt of waking up in her tower, surrounded by hermits that faded away the more she tried to focus on them, mingled the blue-robed figure reaching out to her, urgently telling her to remember. And then there were flashes of other things. Eavesdropping on the hermits. Princess Gem was acting odd. False. Something about False. Something important. Everything was important. Remember, remember, remember...
She woke up drenched in cold sweat. What was she dreaming about? She couldn't remember. Jimena, exhausted, closed her eyes and groped around on her bedside table for her beloved copper watch to check the time and decide whether she could go back to sleep. The sunlight streaming in through the window was dim and orange, so the sun must just be coming up.
But then she could find her watch, no matter how far she reached. Annoyed, Jimena opened her eyes and glanced around for it. But she couldn't see it on the table. It must've fallen to the floor. Grumbling, Jimena got out of bed and peeked under her bed. But the watch wasn't here either.
Please don't tell me I've lost my watch, Jimena thought. She loved that watch. It was a gift from False, too, and she didn't want to tell her that she'd lost it. And then she felt a familiar prickle on her wrist and saw the copper watch she'd just been looking for strapped on it. Why didn't I take it off last night?
It was so confusing. Jimena wasn't even sure she could remember what had last night, let alone whether she'd taken her watch off before hitting the hay. But she just glanced at the time and found out it was four thirty two. Guess I can go back to sleep. Except Jimena was now fully awake and couldn't get even the slightest bit drowsy.
So she just lay there in bed, staring at the ceiling, waiting for a proper time to get up. She waited to see the sun's morning rays filter in through her window and pull her out of bed. But then something odd happened. The room's shadows grew longer, and the sunlight that streamed inside were dimming rather than growing brighter. The occasional mountain songbird slowly stopped singing, and Jimena's ears were full of the chirping of crickets and bats. She quickly got out of bed and stared out the window at the rising moon. It was nighttime.
"What?!" Jimena exclaimed, shocked enough to say it aloud. "It's nighttime?!" Hadn't she just woken up? Had she just pulled a False and slept the whole day straight? She couldn't be doing that. She was the only one who kept False from starving to death while she was trapped in endless dreams. If both of them continued to sleep like this... Jimena didn't want to think about it.
Jimena practically ran next door to False's house and woke her up. "False, wake up!" She almost screamed. Then she blinked. Why does that sound so familiar? A memory flitted across her mind; False lying down with her eyes closed, Jimena shaking her to wake up. And then it was gone again. "What?!" False shot out of bed so vigorously it took Jimena by surprise. "False, calm down," Jimena said quickly, touching her gently on the shoulder. She drank up all of False's conflicting emotions and soon False was relaxed and Jimena was full.
"We both slept the whole day," Jimena explained. "And there's no dinner." "Ah," False said. "Um... I think we have potatoes we can boil." Jimena made a face. "I don't think I want dinner anymore," She said. She ended up eating more of False's emotions than the potatoes that looked like weird brains. False didn't find her own cooking that appetizing either.
They retired to bed early, despite having apparently slept for twenty four hours. For some reason both were oddly exhausted and a little sore. Maybe that was just a thing that happened when you stayed in bed all day. Jimena was out like a light as soon as her head hit the pillow, and her last conscious thought was to wonder why it hadn't happened earlier.
When she closed her eyes in her room, she opened them in the void. The empty void of her dreams. But it seemed so much more familiar now. And she had wings to fly within it. Then she saw tbe dark figure in blue robes approaching her. For a few moments, they watched each other. Qiron? Jimena wondered. Is that you? <Yes, it's me,> He said, swishing his great wings.
<Now, remember,> Remember what? Jimena asked. <All that had happened today. All that you forgot had happened today.> Just the stuff that happened today? I want to know what my life was like before the amnesia. And wait, wasn't I asleep all day? <Just remember and you will understand.>
Jimena was about to reply a scathing remark about how ridiculously mysterious Qiron always had to be when he reached out his hand toward her. His fingers gently gripped around her head, his palm covering her eyes. Jimena didn't protest. His touch felt... soothing. And familiar. But she didn't have long to ponder on it when the memories came flooding back.
She remembered eavesdropping on the hermits with Princess Gem, who acted strange. She remembered flying as fast as she could to tell False what she'd overheard, and how different False had acted when she'd heard her news. She remembered the fight in the surveillance tower. And she remembered not remembering how she got there and being knocked out by Cleo.
Qiron let go of her head and Jimena staggered back. Her mind felt like a soup someone was stirring roughly. She held her head while her thoughts churned, and Qiron watched her uncomfortably.
What did you do?
<I understand how much you want to remember what you've forgotten. I was helping.>
It hurts.
<I... am sorry about that. Sometimes you can't have both power and precision. But you remember what they did now.>
The hermits... they made me forget.
<With amnesia potions. It was a good thing you were only hit twice. Your psyche is damaged enough as it is.>
Psyche?
<Your mind. I had to be careful handling it. Otherwise your psyche would've snapped.>
Why would my psyche be damaged? Jimena asked. Suddenly she felt a shift. The emotions radiating off of Qiron became walled off and defensive. Qiron seemed to both take a step back and loom greatly over her. <Do not ask. You are not yet ready to know.> Does this have something to do with my missing memories? Jimena asked, ignoring him.
<You are not yet ready to know!> Qiron repeated, and his form seemed to grow even larger before her eyes. He took up most of Jimena's vision; his wings stretching up and out and growing bigger. Jimena spread her own wings and turn to fly away, but our of the corner of her eye she could see the vivid dark blue that Qiron emanated following close behind her. Something about this felt familiar. Too familiar. Now if only she could remember...
Jimena jolted out of bed, sweating profusely like she'd just been running a marathon. She checked the time and then glanced out the window. Morning. The dream with Aircon had taken up the whole night. Her mind still felt fuzzy, though, so she got up to take a walk outside to clear her head.
She wondered as she wandered. What is Qiron keeping from me? What is he up to? And why does flying away from him feel familiar? Like I've done it before? And who is he, anyway? After walking in a circle around the block, Jimena stopped near False's house. Whatever the answers to her questions were, she knew what she had to do. She had to tell False about what she remembered. And this time, they were going to be more subtle about what they did about it.
---
Sheriff Jimmy was mixing up lemon juice and sugar in a pitcher. The lemonade wasn't for him, of course, since toys annoyingly couldn't drink, but be had some friends who were thirsty after coming to visit him in the mesa.
"How's the lemonade coming?" Scar called from outside. "Almost ready!" Jimmy called back. As soon as he said it he dropped tbe spoon he was using to mix into the pitcher. He reached in the pull it out but in his clumsiness he accidentally knocked the whole pitcher over. Lemonade sloshed out all over the tiny toy sheriff. Startled, Jimmy jumped backward and slipped on a puddle of the spilled juice and fell loudly on the floor. He reached for the table to pull himself up but instead grabbed the tablecloth and accidentally pulled it and some dishes and cutlery off into tbe floor where one shattered.
"He's making quite the ruckus in there," Scar observed, still outside and simply listening to the crashing sounds coming from the kitchen. "Not any more than you do," Tango pointed out. Scar made a shrugging noise. "Should we go help the sheriff?" He asked, just as Jimmy broke another plate by accidentally stepping on it while he slipped trying to stand up in the slippery spilled lemonade. "He didn't ask for it, did he?" Tango said. "Help!" Jimmy shouted. "Okay, he asked for it," Scar said, getting up.
Soon the lemonade incident was all cleared up and the three of them were chatting gaily in the shade, taking sips of another batch of the ice cold juice. And then he came. "Hey, you can't have lemonade without me!" Grian protested, flying down and landing next to them. "You weren't invited," Jimmy said. "Eh, the best part of parties is party crashing," Grian shrugged. "Is this a tea party?" Scar asked, eyes shining.
"It's lemonade, not tea," Tango said, pouring himself some more. "Tango, you're drinking all the lemonade!" Grian said, grabbing his wrist. "Hey, I'm hot!" Tango replied, wrenching it away and holding the pitcher out of Grian's reach. Since Grian was short, it wasn't that hard. "Aren't you an ice mage?" Scar said. "Which means I'm having a harder time in hot weather!" Tango said. "Then you shouldn't be in the mesa," Grian said. "Then how am I supposed to visit my rancher?" Tango pointed out, and he beamed widely at Jimmy.
Jimmy smiled back. He fondly remembered their days together as the ranchers in Double Life. The fiery hermit who knew the game and the canary in the coal mine who was always first out. Who knew the two of them could be such a duo? Even after Tango let a creeper blow him up and lost both their first lives, they quickly reconciled and became close.
Jimmy had missed him so much after the enderman strangled him and the two left Double Life. So what a delight it was when Jimmy found out the ice mage had gone through the rift. "Is that my rancher?!" They'd squealed, running to hug each other. And then they immediately caught each other up on what had happened since Double Life, like how Jimmy was a sheriff in this world and Tango had a new icy look to go with his icy profession.
"Timmy, earth to Timmy," Grian said sing-songlingly, waving a hand in front of Jimmy's face. The sheriff snapped out of his trip down memory lane and looked back at him. "Yeah?" He said. "I was just asking if anything interesting happened recently," Tango said. "Well, Shelby told me she thinks she might have a potion to turn me back human almost ready," Jimmy said. "I can hardly wait to stop being a toy!"
"Come on, you look cute as a toy!" Grian said. "I hate being a toy," Jimmy scowled. "And you know that, Grian!" "Hey hey, calm down," Tango said soothingly. "It's just Grian being Grian, nothing to get upset about." "Are you sure about that?" Scar asked, pouring the last remaining lemonade straight from the pitcher into his open mouth. "Scar!" Everyone shouted. "Don't drink lemonade like that!" Jimmy said. "I wanted more lemonade!" Tango whined. "And I only got three cups!" Grian protested. "Only?"
A miniature squabble erupted over the lemonade pitcher and they had no idea how that even happened. "Guys, can we just pretend that nothing happened?" Scar asked, sidestepping the fight. "Okay, fine," Groan said. They all sat and stared somewhat intimidatingly at each other in awkward silence. "So..." Tango said slowly, trying to break the ice, "Anything interesting happen recently?"
"Uh... Sausage said something about that he can now accidentally time travel as well as jump between worlds," Jimmy said. "I just hope he doesn't take me along." "Why not?" Tango asked. "You remember other lives, it'll be fine for you." "No it won't," Jimmy said, "Because Sausage's lore makes my head hurt and you do not want to know the stuff he gets up to that are born for him but are certainly not normal for us."
"Wait, you remember other lives?" Scar asked, and Jimmy clapped his hand to his mouth. "You heard nothing!" Jimmy hissed. "You are doing terrible at keeping this a secret." Tango observed. "Just because I told you doesn't mean I can't keep this a secret!" Jimmy protested. "Wait, you told Tango?" Grian asked. "I only found out when you accidentally let it slip!" "Yeah, well, we started talking about Double Life stuff and Tango wanted to know how I remembered when Scott and Lizzie didn't seem to," Jimmy said.
"So... can you explain remembering other lives?" Scar asked hopefully. Jimmy sighed. "How am I supposed to explain this? I don't know how I remember but I just do." "How far back do you remember?" Tango wanted to know. "Uh..." Jimmy tried to think. "I remember the life games. And the evolution place." Grian inhaled sharply at the mention of the old world they'd used to live in together. "That was a long time ago," Grian said quietly.
Jimmy nodded in agreement. His mind flashed back to the life he'd lived back then. He remembered being the property police with Martyn, and all of his wacky neighbors. And then he remembered the dragon fight, where ten of them had gone to fight the ender dragon alone, and only nine had made it back. Grian didn't come out of the portal when the rest of them did. He was assumed dead and everyone had to move on.
Jimmy shuddered visibly and he three hermits looked at the sheriff in concern. "Are you okay?" Scar asked. "I'm fine," Jimmy shrugged it off. He looked straight at Grian. "Just remembered the dragon fight. The one where you died." Grian paused. "I didn't die, Timmy," He finally said. "You did," Jimmy said, perplexed. "You didn't come back." "I killed the dragon," Grian said firmly, "Like the rest of you did. I didn't come back because... because I was taken by the Watchers."