#FIRST posted JRWI FIC WOOO

[donnieluvsthings]

built to fall apart

(ao3)

words: 491

characters: jay ferin, niklaus hendrix, chip (background)

content & warnings: JRWI RIPTIDE EP 81 SPOILERS! thats it really tho lmao

summary: Jay makes a deal.

—————

It’s cold, when the deal seals itself.

The pearl is between them, Niklaus smiling down at her as she snatches it out of his hands. In the split second that they’re both holding it, a crescent-shaped chill presses itself into Jay’s shoulder, not quite cold enough to be painful but just frigid enough to send a shiver through her entire body.

She thinks she might be trembling, but she can’t be bothered to notice when the key to Gillion’s prison is in her hands, when she’s just agreed to something she doesn’t even know, when Niklaus Hendrix has them all firmly in his grasp.

They defeated one puppeteer just to become tangled entirely in the strings of another.

All she has to do is get struck by lightning. Sure! There’s a godlike doctor roaming their world and an artificial leviathan being built somewhere and the Navy is hunting for them and there’s a moon on her back. Getting electrocuted to free Gillion is the least of her concerns.

“It’s tonight,” Niklaus says, stepping onto the water. The frozen sunlight shines on him like he’s some sort of hero, the self-satisfaction on his face clear as day. Jay glowers, hoping that with all his power, he can feel every ounce of hatred and fury seething within her. The deal was cold, but now she feels like her anger could boil the silent sea below. “You don’t want to miss it. This is your chance.”

And then he turns as if to walk into the ocean, and time resumes in an instant. A wave crashes down over his head, and when it levels out again, he’s gone.

Jay stares blankly at the water for a moment, her hands going numb around her death grip on the pearl. She looks over towards the dock, once again bustling with people. Chip is walking away, his gait unsteady and slow. There’s an empty, hopeless look on his face that she can see even from so far away.

Her knees give out, and she sinks to the ground, blank expression crumbling as a sob shoves its way out of her mouth. Curling up against the side of the ship, she lets herself cry, forehead against the pearl as she mumbles, “You’re coming back, Gill.”

Thunder rumbles as a storm—the storm—approaches, the air thick with anticipation even as the sun shines down brightly. Chip has disappeared into the distance, now, broken and battered and falling apart in ways Jay can’t even see. Her tears drip off the pearl, landing on the deck in near-silence, interrupted only by a loud CLANK as something drops out of nothingness and clatters onto the ship.

She doesn’t even need to look to know that it’s Gillion’s sword, trying desperately to return to its owner.

Jay stares out towards the giant waterfalls, dark clouds swirling dangerously above them, and hopes destiny’s blade gives them just a little more time before striking them down.