The clone's regular personality took over long enough to take the finished disc out and then pop in the next one. False managed to catch a look at the label and it was called The Mind Electric, while the previous one was titled The Heart Acoustic. As the song started to play, the hermit was struck by how cold and robotic the mind's voice sounded. So soulless and emotionless. Is that how False thinks of me?
"Resident Heart is feeble and frail a scourge to purge; due diligence is all. Silent, sad outbursts, inaudible wails, dictate he never does as he's told. Fathers of fathers, brothers of sons, deterred from being what they know they can. All because Heart refuses to run; this creature hardly resembles a man." False winced as she listened to the song lyrics. Because not so long ago she had pretty much a similar sentiment. It hurt.
"My logic is the absolute, his pity parties simply harm these chances at an apt repute: esteemed regard in place of mockery." The song said, and suddenly False knew what to say to state her case in this mad trial. "If you'd just listen to me and my point of view, we could've made up a long time ago!" She said. "But because of your revenge now we're stuck here like this!"
The other False giggled. "And isn't this trial me trying to listen to you?" She asked, and False felt like she was struck dumb. She didn't know what to say. Because her clone was right. "It looks like I'm not the one who should be listening to her other self." The other personality said dryly.
The song went on unhindered while the hermit grappled with the fact that she might not be as blameless as she thought she once was. "I'm sure it seems from his point of view that I'm a simple, cynical machine. But is it so hard to see the whole truth? I merely seek a Soul that's pristine." And then False knew what to say again.
"All I ever did was so that I could fix you!" The inventor cried. "I just wanted you back to normal. Or at least as close as that as possible." And the song backed her up. "I can't claim that I enjoy this, covering for a tortured boy that's slowly tired of all his toys, his wiles and woes ring like white noise. And I know that it's hard to see my rhyme behind the entropy but if he'd just once humor me, he'd see we need to live life logically."
"So you're under the opinion that you're innocent?" The clone's regular personality asked. False opened her mouth to reply but hesitated. Because the way that this trial had been going, she was starting to see the three of them in a new light. And she knew that this was mostly her fault. If she hadn't done those experiments on her clone in the first place...
"See how The Heart plays profound," The mind in the song said, just as the heart made a reappearance. "See how he lies!" He shouted. "But the depth is insincere; a pathetic, thin veneer. All the pain, regret and fear still resound." The mind said, talking over him. "See how his feet miss the ground and he falls inside a hole he dug for me. The kind of irony you'd read in Bible stories. Maybe my existence might be by design. A simple fact that he'll refuse to see."
The clone looked at the defendant. "So you think that it is all our fault? That you have done nothing?" She asked. The hermit tried to find an answer but nothing came to her. "You had better hurry up." The clone's regular personality told her. "Because the song won't wait for any of us and your allotted time is running out."
And just as she spoke the song started to end. "Though I seem harsh in all my assessments, we each seek a life lived in the light." The song said, and False seized her chance. "I was trying to help you..." She whispered. "Yet, there lies our Heart, engulfed in resentment, stubborn, pale akaryocyte." The song concluded. It was done and gone, along with any chance she had of winning this trial.
---
Jimmy watched as Gem closed her eyes, using her strange Watcher magic to try and find the Falses. "Have you found them? Where are they?" He asked as soon as she opened her eyes. "They're somewhere in Cogsmeade." Gem replied. "Where exactly?" Doc asked. "I don't know the specifics," Gem said, sounding irked with herself. "The way Watcher powers work we can see everything at once but it's hard to focus on tiny details."
"Those tiny details are our friends, Gem!" Someone shouted. "We're all tiny details in this one universe!" Gem yelled back, sounding stressed. "Guys, calm down!" Jimmy started. "Come on, we know that they're in Cogsmeade. It's not a really big empire like Sanctuary so we don't have to look too much. Let's just thank Gem for narrowing down their position. Thanks, Gem."
Everyone simultaneously thanked Gem and she turned to the sheriff with a grateful expression. "Thanks, Jimmy." She said. "Okay, so we're going to Cogsmeade." Scott said. "Who's coming?" Everyone looked at each other. "Not all of us are going?" Jevin asked. "If we all go we might spook False. The clone." Grian said. "And Lizzie says something about how she needs the body to still look like a body to actually resurrect it so..."
"Don't complete that sentence." Cleo snapped. "I'm going. Who's with me?" Doc raised his metal arm and stepped forward. Then Jevin did too and Jimmy right behind him. "I'll go along too." Grian decided. "And me." Martyn said, stepping forward. "False has a lot of traps over there." He explained. Jimmy shuddered as he remembered the barbed wire and the explosion.
Martyn continued, "I know where some of them are. I can help you avoid them." Grian nodded in agreement. He looked at Scott and Gem. "You can handle things over here, right?" "Go ahead and leave the chores of cleaning up spawn to us." Scott said. Grian nodded and the group set off to Cogsmeade.
"I suppose we'll have to do this on foot." Doc said as they flew up the mountain. "Can't we just avoid the traps and fly?" Jimmy asked, twitching. "We're not going to find the Falses in the air." Cleo pointed out as Martyn and Grian snickered. "Most likely is that they're holed up somewhere." "And besides, you guys have me to help your watch out for traps." Martyn said as they landed. "What could possibly go wrong?"
And then when they landed the paving stone that Jimmy out his foot on sank into the ground. Everyone whipped around to face him and froze. "Landmine." Martyn breathed. He started to back away. "Everyone, get back." "What about me?" Jimmy squeaked, his heart racing as he remembered the last explosion that he'd faced not too far from here.
"Tim, just hold still." Martyn said, and then he launched himself at the sheriff. Martyn grabbed his waist and pulled him off of the landmine, using his own body as a shield as the explosion rocketed them forward. They skidded to a halt, breathing heavily. "You okay, Tim?" Martyn asked. Jimmy nodded. "Good, cause I couldn't let you blow up here twice."
They made their way back to the group, where Martyn immediately reminded them that he said that he knew where some of the traps were. False hadn't really let him go out that much because of the threat of traps and Martyn hadn't really seen the point to it back then either. "I suggest we stay away from the road." Doc said, eying the paving stones. "At least for now." Everyone agreed and they walked on the grass beside the streets.
For most of it they just walked in silence without talking much. "Why is it so quiet?" Cleo wondered. "What do you mean?" Grian asked. "No birds chirping, no squirrels jumping from tree to tree, this is a ghost town." Cleo said. "Maybe the traps scared them off." Jimmy suggested. Cleo hummed in acknowledgement but didn't say anything.
Then as they walked closer to some buildings it wasn't quiet anymore. Jimmy could hear the unfamiliar chaotic ticking of False's many clocks all striking up their own little rhythm. The odd sound made the hairs on the back of everyone's necks stand on end. "Are those... clocks?" Jevin asked in confusion.
"Yeah, but who made them sound like that?" Cleo said. "I think it's obvious." Martyn said. "False." "I never did get why she was so obsessed with clocks anyway." Grian muttered. "Jimena said that False just started hanging them up in her sleep." Jimmy told the group. "She even sleepwalks weird." Doc said.
Then they heard a metallic clanking noise that didn't sound like the clocks at all. It sounded like an- "Iron golem!" Martyn yelled, just a bit too late as the automaton came crashing out of the trees and then punched Jimmy. The sheriff flew several feet away into a wall. Surprisingly, he was still conscious.
"Look out!" He yelled to Grian as the Watcher ducked under the golem's iron fist. Doc and Cleo circled around the back, attempting to stab it with their diamond weapons, but the automaton's iron hide was too tough for them to easily pierce. Then the golem spun around and smacked the two of them into the woods, where the sound of tripwires activating echoed across Cogsmeade.
"Cleo!" Martyn and Jevin yelled at the same time as the iron golem turned to them next. Martyn jumped out of the way but Jevin just got the golem's hand stuck in his blue slime. The iron golem paused for a second, processing what was happening in confusion. Jimmy, Grian, and Martyn took their chance and they all jumped on it at once.
Grian activated his Watcher magic and the golem's head rolled off, severed by a ruby blade. "Cleo!" Martyn bellowed, rushing into the woods. Everyone else followed and they found the hermits strung up by their ankles in the trees. "Watch out for tripwires!" Doc warned them just as Jimmy tripped on one and he was yanked off of his feet and pulled into the branches.
Grian carefully cut them down. "I hear something coming!" Martyn suddenly said. Everyone paused and then they heard it too. The sound of heavy mechanical footsteps. Like the iron golem that had attacked them earlier. Slowly, out of the woods strolled two dozen iron golems staring at them menacingly.