False ran into some hermits chatting and laughing with each other, but their happy expressions died when they caught sight of her. False rapidly glanced at each of them, remembering what she knew about them and calculating the danger level.
Grian. That's Jimena's friend. I think I can trust him. He doesn't seem to be a problem. Joe Hills. Weird cryptid person who's just there and you never notice him until he speaks up. Don't know enough about him yet... That needs to be fixed. Pearl. Very good pvper, rivals the other False in skill. Mainly uses an ax. Get her weapon away from her first; strike her hand so she can't fight as well.
"Uh, hi, False," Grian said awkwardly, waving. False nodded rather coldly back at him. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Pearl surreptitiously reach for her ax and made a mental note to get ready for a fight.
There's the real you, she suddenly heard her other self say. "I'm just defending myself," False protested defensively, not realizing she looked and sounded crazy until after she'd spoken.
You were always crazy. Everyone called you a crazy hermit behind your back. You just never noticed what you truly are because of how isolated you have always been. Until Jimena came along, of course. She kept us slightly saner whenever she was around.
False absentmindedly nodded before she remembered where she was and quickly looked at Pearl. Her hand was more obviously holding her ax now, although her grip was slack and she wore a confused expression on her face. "Who are you talking to?" Pearl asked mildly.
"Fine, I'm crazy, what are you going to do about it?" False challenged, her hand slipping to the handle of her sharp diamond sword. Grian seemed to catch her movement and cautiously backed away a bit. "Just calm down, False, were not going to hurt you," Grian said somewhat nervously.
"Hurt me? Hurt me? You think you can hurt me?" False laughed, sounding a little hysterical. The hermits tensed visibly at the deranged sound. "No, you can't hurt me. I've been hurt way too many times for that." "Trust me, False, we really don't want a fight." Grian said, eying her hand, which False realized had been squeezing her sword handle so tightly that her knuckles had gone white.
"I'm not in a mood for a fight!" False yelled, seemingly contradicting herself. She heard a chuckle in her head and growled in annoyance. "Well, I am," Pearl said, pulling her ax out and holding it with both hands, although False noted how her stance was defensive rather than offensive. She wants to play, but she doesn't want her friends to get hurt.
"I wasn't talking to you." False snapped, her free hand reaching up to hit her head. Maybe she could knock some sense into her other personality. "You need a psychiatrist." Joe said unexpectedly, shocking everyone enough to make three heads swivel toward him to stare. He shrugged, glasses glinting moodily. "What? She does. And I've been to one before; it's pretty fun."
"I don't trust you hermits." False muttered, and the focus was on her and her sword again. She slowly relaxed her grip on it. I don't want a fight. I don't want a fight. It's she who wants a fight and I don't quite trust her just yet. And besides, if I get into a fight, it doesn't do to hold a sword that hard. "And we don't trust you either." Pearl said evenly.
Grian chuckled nervously, easing the tension somewhat. "Um, let's just go before anyone does something they don't want to happen." He said sagely. "Well, we can agree on that." False said, attempting to sound sane. She willed her fingers to fully release her sword but but they merely twitched uncomfortably.
"Let go already!" She shouted, gritting her teeth. With a sudden swift movement, she ripped the blade from its scabbard and flung it through the air. It flew in a graceful round ard before impaling the ground.
False wildly glanced around looking for it until she spotted it, a good few meters away. Internally cursing, she took several steps backward and in the direction of her weapon, looking at the hermits who might take advantage of her weaponless state, although she got a feeling that she could still one-up them.
They'd also moved backward defensively after she'd yanked her sword out, probably thinking that she was going to use it on them. But now she was standing there unarmed and they didn't know how to deal with the tense situation.
"Stay back, hermits," False warned, circling around them like a wildcat preparing to pounce on her prey. But her business was to simply reclaim her weapon and then leave. She didn't need to get involved with anyone yet. "I'm not in the mood for a fight today."
Pearl snorted. "You killed pretty much everyone here. I hope you don't mind that I don't trust anything you say." "Of course I don't mind," False said, sounding unexpectedly pleasant. "The feeling is mutual. But I'm fine with Grian." Joe and Pearl looked at Grian.
"You are?" He swallowed. "Jimena trusts you enough. That's a good thing in my book." False answered, moving ever so closer to her fallen weapon. Joe suddenly looked at her right in the eyes and she froze like a deer caught in headlights, willing her legs to run but trapped in place by the steady gaze. Joe's danger level has now increased.
"Jimena's your friend, huh?" He asked. False found herself nodding. "She's a nice person, isn't she?" Joe said thoughtfully, and once again False found herself nodding and agreeing with what he said. "How are you doing that?" She demanded. "Stay away from me!"
With a sudden twist she managed to break away from his stare and reach her sword. She grabbed it, suddenly realizing how unwieldy it felt in her hands. She glanced back at the hermits, her tense mind stuck in an endless battle between fight or flee.
Then there came a blue of purplish white feathers and Jimena was standing between them. "False, are you okay?" She asked quickly. "I'm fine, are you fine?" False asked.
"I'm perfectly fine. I went to visit the sheriff and then we went to ask Grian about the thing that I can't tell you and then we left and I couldn't find you but then Sausage was at Cogsmeade and he showed me your general direction and I'm glad I have very good eyesight." Jimena rattled off rapidly.
Everyone glanced at everyone else except for Joe who seemed unperturbed. "Are you guys fighting?!" Jimena suddenly asked, looking at the weapons they held in their hands. "No," Grian said. Jimena looked straight at him, something like unsureness and distrust flashing in her vivid violaceous eyes.
"Can I trust you, Grian?" She asked softly. False whirled to face her, keeping an eye trained on the red-sweatered hermit. "You don't trust Grian anymore?" She asked urgently. She noticed Grian looking a shade paler and noticeably panicking when she said that. "No, it's not that," Jimena said distractedly. "I'm just confused now."
"You're not the only one." False said. She slowly unclenched her hands from her sword. "Let's go home before anything happens." To you, she added silently in her head. She didn't want the hermits to know that they could hurt her through her friend, although she was fairly certain that they already had a powerful notion about it.
Jimena nodded, glancing uncertainly at Grian every so often, who returned her gaze with a sad pained expression on his face. False wondered what had happened between them and made a mental note to ask Jimena later. The two amnesiac girls went back to Cogsmeade, feeling the distrustful gazes of the hermits they were leaving behind.
"What happened?" False asked once they were safely inside her house. Jimena knew she was talking about her and Grian. "Something he said triggered a memory." She said breathlessly. "But then it contradicted what Grian said what actually happened. We argued a little bit about it but I'm not sure what's true anymore. Do you think I can trust Grian?"
She looked at False who considered, tapping her fingers on the table thoughtfully. "I don't know." She said at last. "One of you is either confused or lying. Or both. I don't know." She repeated. "There's something wrong with my head." Jimena sighed. False comfortingly caressed her. "It's okay, Jimena. You'll go back to normal soon."
"You're not back to normal yet." Jimena pointed out. False paused, wondering why she felt so wounded at those words. "The me you knew was just from the amnrsia hermit False gave me." She said, parroting her other self's words. "Even if I feel like killing a few people everytime I see someone, I'm still your friend."
Jimena twitched uncomfortably and False felt like every little tic her body made was a dagger driving into her chest. She realized now why she was upset. Jimena didn't know whether to trust her anymore. "You can trust me." She said bluntly, trying to convince herself as well as Jimena.
"I do trust you, False. Despite your name." Jimena smirked slightly at her own joke and False flexed a laugh in an ill-mannered attempt to smoothen things over between them. "I'm just worried about you is all." "I worry about you too," False said softly, pulling the girl into a protective hug.
"Why?" Jimena asked. "Because we're not safe anymore." False said, her voice carrying a hard tone. "Maybe we were never safe. But there's danger everywhere and I'm not just being paranoid." Jimena glanced out the window at the surveillance tower by the bridge. "You're right." She said quietly. "You're not paranoid."
Spurred on by the fact that Jimena agreed with her, False went on. "We need to be both on the defensive and the offensive. Tensions are high. There's a war brewing, Jimena, and it's us against the world. We can't trust everyone but ourselves, do you hear me?" False wondered for a second if maybe she'd scared the girl but then she saw Jimena resolutely nodding along.
"We need to get rid of the tower." Jimena said unexpectedly. "She's not just going to watch. Sooner or later she'll try to do damage." "We'll hurt her first." False said firmly. "We?" Jimena echoed, and False panicked, thinking that she'd overstepped. "Of course I'll help." False relaxed.
"But I need to make you promise some things first." False felt a bit like she'd been stabbed in the back. "Do you not trust me?" She asked painedly. "False, how can you say that?!" Jimena demanded, and False felt another stab, this time or guilt. "Of course I trust you! But it might not just be us against the world. I think there are some other people who we don't have to hurt."
False calmed down, considering. "Make a list." She found herself saying. And it was her other self's idea. "Both of us. Two lists. You make the list of people we can trust... and I'll make the one of those we don't. The people on that list are also on my kill list."
She looked somewhat uneasily at Jimena to see if she worried over the word 'kill', but the girl didn't even flinch. False took a careful look at her. Something about Jimena seemed... different. She had a different light in her eyes and she didn't seem like the girl with amnesia she'd found all that time ago. Maybe she'd grown up a little. Living with False had to have an effect on her, after all.
"You make your list first." She said. "Okay." False nodded. She grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and began to scribble furiously. "The L.O.R.E. team. They hid important stuff from me and I don't trust them at all." "But Sausage is nice," Jimena objected. "He's the leader. He's probably the one who told them to not tell me stuff." False argued.
Jimena slowly nodded, unconvinced. "All the hermits," False said, scratching in their names one by one. "Not Grian," Jimena said quickly. "I'm not sure if I trust him yet, but I don't want to make a mistake. Our friendship had gone through a lot of ups and downs. I don't want to ruin it because of a misunderstanding." False nodded and crossed his name out.
"Which emperors do we trust?" "Jimmy." Jimena said at once. "He's nicer than everyone else." False nodded, thinking of the other emperors.
"Put Scott and Gem on your list," Jimena said abruptly. False out her pen down to stared at her. "Why?" "There's something weird about them," Jimena muttered. "I don't know what yet, but they can't be trusted. Almost everything I've heard them say are lies."
Soon the lists were completed and False was repeating the contents to herself to memorize as to not forget. "When do we get rid of the tower?" Jimena asked, glaring resolutely at the telescope which was slightly visible through the barred window.
"Tomorrow." False said with conviction. "The sooner it's gone, the sooner we're safe." Nice to see you're starting to fight for what's right, her other self said pleasantly. False nodded and Jimena looked at her curiously. False suddenly realized she'd never told her about her other self. "Oh, by the way, Jimena, I have another personality." "You what?"