Grian gasped when he saw Jimena sit up and look around, blinking. "Jimena, you're alright!" He shouted, hugging her. "Uh, yeah, I am..." She said, sounding distracted. "Oh, and, stay away from Grumbot." Grian told her. "He just sucked the power right out of a Watcher and I do not want to know whether he'll do the same to us." "He what?!" Jimena squeaked in alarm.
Then Grian got an idea. "Let's lure the other two Watchers to Grumbot so he can steal their power." "Other two?" Jimena frowned. "Weren't there four of them?" "Yeah, but then one turned into a human and the other was swallowed by Sausage's dog." Lizzie said as she dragged a dead body into a growing pile of dead bodies nearby.
Grian and Jimena both started when they realized just how many corpses there were. Grian began to panic when he recognized them. "Lizzie, I'm not dead!" Cleo shouted, annoyed, from inside the pile of corpses. "You technically are! You're a literal zombie!" Lizzie shouted back as she started sprinkling a line of blood and salt around the pile to presumably do the resurrecting stuff.
"I'm undead! There's a difference between dead and undead!" Cleo shrieked as she jumped off and ran away. "Now I'm going to break Watcher legs!" Lizzie just hummed like this was perfectly normal and then went back to doing her resurrecting stuff.
"Well, don't just stand there gawking," Lizzie told Grian and Jimena after eying them for a second. "Go ahead and fight! And get Grumbot to un-Watcher those Watchers!" "Un-Watcher is not a word." Jimena muttered, but she and Grian both ran off to find a Watcher to lure into their trap.
They found Scott and Gem dealing with the yellow one and Joel was fighting the gray one with some of the hermits and emperors who weren't too injured or dead. "Do you want to take righty or lefty?" Grian asked Jimena. "How about both at once?" She asked. Grian nodded and they simultaneously shot beams of red and purple energy at the opposing Watchers.
They started and whirled around, snarling. Then the Watchers realized that they were slowly being surrounded and immediately shifted to the defensive, making color-coded shields out of their magic. "We need to get them to Grumbot!" Grian shouted. Everyone looked confused for a second but they went along with it anyway.
They started attacking again in such a way that the Watchers were slowly being pushed towards Hermitopia. Then those who could fly turned the fight airborne with those who had projectile and long-distance weaponry shooting from below. Slowly, little by little, the gray and yellow Watchers were being pushed to the top of Hermitopia.
Then two giant gloved metal hands came out of nowhere and grabbed the two of them. "Everyone get away!" Grian shouted, just in case Grumbot got any ideas. Everyone backed off as there was a grayish-yellowish flash and Grumbot was holding two humans instead of two Watchers.
"Uh... since when could Grumbot do that?" Scott asked perplexedly. "I suggest we don't go near him." Gem said cautiously, backing up even further. "Power." Grumbot mumbled. "I have so much power." "Yeah, let's leave the super powerful power-hungry AI alone and maybe help everyone else deal with False and Martyn?" Grian said, looking down.
Everyone looked back on the battlefield. The clone False was busy taking on several different people at once despite how injured everyone was. Martyn was running off into the nearby woods while being pursued by some of his friends. Everyone landed and cautiously approached False, who was viciously slicing up anyone who came close to her.
"False! It's over! The other Watchers are no longer a problem!" Jimena called, rushing forward. But Grian looked at False and what he saw chilled him to the bone. "Jimena, I don't think she can hear you!" He called, reaching forward to call the girl back. False's eyes were blank and empty and she just had this sadistic little smile on her face that was in no way natural. She'd been fighting for too long that she was now full of bloodlust. She didn't look like she was going to stop anytime soon. She was just unhinged now.
But that didn't stop Jimena from trying to reach her friend. "Go deal with Martyn," She called. "I can help False." Everyone looked at each other but silently agreed that maybe that was fine with them. Everyone went off to either get themselves healed up or help Lizzie with collecting bodies or go off to bring Martyn back. But not Grian. He stayed with Jimena.
False had no opponents now and she looked completely drained, like there was no one home. Grian wondered how far gone she was. But it would surely wear off, right? And Jimena was here. Jimena was False's best friend. She could talk her out of it.
"False..." Jimena said softly, moving closer. False tensed at the sound of her voice and whirled around, bloody sword in one hand and bloody knife in the other. Grian wondered how many people she'd killed that day. "False, it's okay. The Watchers are gone. We're safe." Jimena said, stepping closer. Too close. With one swift motion False stabbed her sword right through Jimena's heart. And then she stabbed her knife right through Grian's.
---
False was someplace else. She was still in her body, technically, but the fight... she was killing and killing and killing and suddenly nothing else mattered. She'd gone completely crazy. But then when the thick veil of the bloodlust lifted...
False stared as she saw Jimena. Jimena, with a sword in her heard. A sword that False was holding. False just stared as she gutted Grian with the knife her other hand like it was second nature. And maybe it was. Maybe False was just meant to be crazy.
And then False truly comprehended what she'd done. "Jimena...?" She asked shakily as the girl slowly slid off the blade of her sword. False dropped the incriminating weapons and bent down to hug the girl. "No... you're not dead... you can't be dead. You're not dead, are you Jimena?" There was no answer.
False just sat there, staring for a second. What have I done? The other False asked hoarsely. The bloodlust... What have I done?! False screamed something intelligibly and picked up the girl, cradling her in her arms. Then she walked away, taking Jimena with her and being nearly oblivious to her surroundings.
Nearly oblivious. As False neared Hermitopia she saw one hermit in particular sitting alone, tending to her own wounds. False. Hermit False. Without really thinking about it False picked up a rock from the ground and set it smashing down on the hermit's head. Without so much of a scream the inventor toppled to the floor. False picked her up too and walked back to Cogsmeade with the three of them in tow.
---
Jimmy panted heavily as he ran. His right arm, which he was pretty sure was either broken or sprained or something, hung uselessly by his side and screamed at every strenuous step. But Jimmy kept on running regardless. He had to catch up to Martyn.
Martyn had been running from the fight into the woods. When Jimmy had noticed he immediately chased after him. "Martyn!" He shouted. "Stay away from me!" Martyn shouted as he whirled around and held a sword out in front of him defensively. A bloody sword.
Jimmy skidded to a stop, Scar right behind him. "Martyn, it's okay. The Watchers are gone." "No they're not!" Martyn shrieked hysterically. "That wasn't all of them! They'll come back! They always come back!" Jimmy took a cautious step forward. "And if they come back we'll fight them again." He said boldly.
Around them came Scott, Gem, Cleo, and a few other people. "Martyn, it's okay." Gem said. "We won." "They'll come back." Martyn whispered. Cleo marched over to him and then slapped him in the face. "That's for being a silly crybaby." She said, sounding like a mother scolding her child. Martyn wrinkled his nose.
"Martyn, everything is fine now." Scott said. "The Watchers have been defeated. False and Jimena aren't fighting us anymore. You don't have to fight us anymore." Shedding tears, Martyn dropped his weapons and just ran to hug Scott, who patted him calmly on the back like he'd had to this a lot recently.
"Come on, I'll patch you up." He said, and with a soft cyan glow all of Martyn's wounds were fixed. "Us too, Scott," Jimmy called, waving him over with the arm that didn't hurt. Scott obliged and healed everyone else up too. "Come on, let's go back to Hermitopia." Gem said, and they all went back.
Spawn was a mess of a battlefield but Hermitopia seemed pretty okay. Lizzie finished using her nekomancy to revive everyone and everyone immediately started to chat about what they'd missed when they were dead. It was a rather weird experience. Jimmy knew that because Lizzie had to revive him at least six times that day.
Then Grian walked over to him, looking somewhat pensive. "Have you seen False or Jimena?" He asked. Jimmy shook his head. "Why, what happened?" He asked. "False went into a bloodlust rage like reds do and then she accidentally killed Jimena." Grian explained. Jimmy's mouth fell open in shock. "Well, uh, we need Lizzie to revive her, then." He said.
"Yeah, I just can't find False to tell her that." Grian said, rubbing his head. "If she's not here then she's in Cogsmeade." Jimmy said confidently. "It's her safe place." "I'm worried about what state we're going to find her in." Grian said with a wince.
They regrouped with everyone else and Grian went to help heal those who were injured. Then Sausage, who was standing on the very top of Hermitopia, asked, "Guys, what do we do with these guys?" Everyone went up to see what he was talking about and they found three unfamiliar people just sitting there looking shellshocked.
"Who are they?" Doc asked. "Oh, those are the Watchers that attacked us." Grian said. "Grumbot absorbed their magic." "I want more power." Grumbot's deep voice rumbled somewhat menacingly. "Uh... okay." Jimmy squeaked. "So what do we do with them?" Sausage repeated.
"Just tie them up for now. We'll figure out what to do with them later." Scott said. Sausage saluted and tied them up with rope that he'd gotten from somewhere. Then Jimmy looked at the Watchers who were no longer Watchers anymore and counted them again. "Hey, there's only three! Where's the fourth?"
Then Bubbles strolled out from behind Sausage and started vomiting. Except she vomited a Watcher out like a hairball. And then that Watcher's magic was immediately absorbed by Grumbot. Everyone else who had seen the event looked extremely traumatized.
"I told you that she could swallow you guys whole if she ever wanted to." Sausage said, grinning as he petted Bubbles. Everyone practically leapt off the top of Hermitopia to get away from both Grumbot and Bubbles.
Then Jevin did a headcount and paused. "Guys, has anyone seen False?" He asked. "Which one?" A couple of people asked him back. "Hermit False. Wait, actually, both of them aren't here." Jevin corrected himself, looking around. Jimmy and Grian glanced at each other. "Uh oh." They said at once.