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It had all happened so fast. Almost too fast, compared to the way everything seemed to move in slow motion now. They had been back to back, Chip and Lizzie, holding the escape while Caspian, Jay, and Gillion were within the Raft headquarters blowing a fucking fake leviathan to bits. They had been back to back, Chip had turned to make a joke just in time to see the glint of steel flashing towards Lizzie’s unguarded side.
Chip was pretty sure she had screamed, but he didn’t know if it was so much a verbal scream as it was an implied one. He had just heard his own pulse as he stepped in to block the steel, guiding the blade away from Lizzie - he hadn’t even really felt it when the sword drove itself into his own chest.
He had fallen, Chip was pretty sure he remembered falling, but all he could see was a curtain of dark, curly hair around his face. A purple glow lingered, emanating from behind Lizzie’s eyepatch as she glared down at Chip - she was probably going to yell at him, but he wasn’t quite sure he’d hear her above the static filling his ears.
“-you absolute fucking moron -” Yep, that was Lizzie, though her words didn’t quite seem to line up with her mouth. Chip tried to regain control, tried to breathe deep, but he was drowning - a cough sent a metallic copper taste to his mouth. Oh. That was blood, wasn’t it?
“Damn,” Chip wheezed, doing his best to keep from coughing more. Lizzie would kill him if he got blood on her clothing. “I… I just need… a minute…”
“You need a fucking medic CASPIAN -” Lizzie turned away, and her scream hurt Chip’s ears. He tried to move his hands to cover them, but was distracted by the amount of blood that covered them. His eyes retraced their path, and caught on the deep stab wound in his own chest.
Oh. He was dying. Maybe that’s why Lizzie was screaming so loud.
“Shit. I’m sorry.” Chip’s hands dropped back to cover his own stab wound, and one of Lizzie's hands pressed on top of them harsh enough for Chip to cry out from the pain. She didn’t seem apologetic, however - her face was twisted into some expression Chip didn’t quite recognize. Was she hurt as well?
“Shut up, Chip. Save your goddamn strength, they’ll be here any minute now. Just hold on .” Lizzie’s words were coated in some kind of magic, but Chip didn’t have the energy to follow her order. He was just focused on getting air into his lungs past the blood - past his own blood .
“Lizz… Lizzie I-” He coughed again, spitting blood up and into his sister’s face. He didn’t have it in him to apologize for that one, “-I’m sorry. I need you to tell them I tried-”
“Tell them your damn self , Chip. You’re not dying here.” Something dripped down from Lizzie’s face, and Chip thought for a second it could be blood. But then there was another drop, and then more, and a steady stream told Chip that it was likely not blood - it was tears. Lizzie was crying .
“If this was all I… all I had to do to make you cry…” Chip tried to laugh, tried to make light of this situation, but his tongue was growing heavier. He was fading… and Jay and Gill were nowhere in sight to provide healing magic.
Lizzie called out again towards the Naval headquarters, but Chip was losing focus. He didn’t know what she said, but she sounded desperate .
“...tell Arlin…I…I tried…” Chip’s eyes blinked slower and slower each second, and he couldn’t quite feel his hands anymore. Lizzie’s touch on him was fading, and Chip could feel himself disconnecting. “...tell ‘im ‘m sorry…”
Chip didn’t know if Lizzie said anything else. His eyes closed, and everything faded.
~
Chip was on the Midnight Rose’s deck. The sun was high in the sky, gently warming his skin as he basked. Around him, pirates shuffled about on their tasks, some occasionally stopping to ruffle his hair or ask where Arlin was. Chip didn’t know if he answered, but they always walked away with a smile.
“-doesn’t have a pulse , Liz. I can’t-”
The waters were calm today. Elizabeth was nearby, learning how to shakily wield a sword from Chey, whose smile boasted her pride in the young girl. Elizabeth was smiling as well even as she stumbled, for she was learning a valuable skill here.
“-something valuable, it has to be worth-”
Drey and Finn were sitting by the bow of the ship, staring down at a chessboard. Drey shifted which eye was covered by his eyepatch repeatedly, seemingly uninterested in the actual gameplay, while Finn’s brow was furrowed in concentration.
“Will this work?”
Rufus howled with laughter at a joke being told, but Chip didn’t quite pick up on the punchline. Every word someone else spoke seemed to be a simple hum of understanding, with no need for dialogue.
“Jay, you can’t… yes. Yes, this will work.”
Somewhere high in the sky, an eagle cried. Drey’s head turned upwards, his family crest shining in the sunlight. Chip found it catching his eye more than it ever had before, for an unexplainable reason.
“C’mon, Chip… you’re not done yet.”
“Chip! Where are you, Chip?”
Chip jumped at the sudden words in such a familiar, booming voice. He was turning, ready to respond to his father, but he found himself rooted in dread. Somehow, Chip knew that if he turned now, he would hate whatever he saw.
“It’s working!”
“Chip, where are you? I can’t lose you again.”
The ship faded, the sunlight disappeared, and the laughter turned jeering for just a moment as a deep ache began in his chest, spreading infinitely across his body as he sucked in a breath of air-
~
And Chip woke up with a gasp, rolling onto all fours coughing and hacking up excess blood into the green grass. The light shining on him hurt , as did the numerous overlapping voices that seemed louder than normal.
Hands were on his shoulders, trying to pull him somewhere, but Chip yanked himself away so he could catch his breath. His heartbeat thrummed in his ears, and his chest burned with a pain he didn’t think he’d ever felt before.
“Give him some fucking space!” Lizzie’s voice grew above all the others, and the voices all died in unison. Chip finished hacking up blood, regaining control enough over his lungs that he could sit up instead of curling in on all fours. His eyes flickered from Lizzie, whose face was wet with a mix of blood and tears; Caspian, whose blue eyes shone in concern and relief ; Gillion, whose hands were raised with some healing on hand for when Chip decided he was ready; to Jay.
Jay looked pretty normal, if not a bit frazzled. Her hair was down, in a way she had enjoyed wearing it recently; her bands were falling into her eyes, and her jacket was missing from around her waist.
Wait.
Her bangs .
Normally, her bangs were held back by the pin of an eagle flying over a sunset. The Ferin Crest; a symbol of her family.
But the eagle was gone.
Before Chip could think to ask what happened and who he needed to kill to get that hairpin back for her, Lizzie had put herself directly back into Chip’s line of sight. Her eye was rubbed red and bloodshot, but she was… smiling.
“Welcome back, dumbass.” Lizzie wound up, and punched Chip straight in the shoulder. He cried out from the brief pain, but that was soon replaced by confusion as she had pulled Chip into a hug. His arms were frozen awkwardly by her waist as she pulled him in tightly - close enough that he could hear her shaky whisper of “don’t you ever do that again.”
Chip sighed, trying to be cool and casual as he wrapped his arms around her in return. He let her press her face into his shoulder, shooting a jokingly annoyed slash revolted look at their crew members. Almost as if to say ‘can you believe this?’ But he did whisper back to her, low enough that only the most perceptive among them - and Chip knew Jay picked up on it by the way her mouth slipped just slightly into a smile.
“Well just… don’t almost get stabbed around me, and I won’t have to.” Lizzie scoffed, pulling away to look Chip dead-on. Chip’s smile dropped just a bit at her concern, and they had a conversation through just looks.
Seriously Chip, don’t do that again.
Wasn’t planning on it.
Good.
Lizzie was soon joined by Gillion, who was reaching a hand forward in concern. “While the revival spell worked, you were still badly injured, Chip. Allow me to heal you some more, just so we can make it back to the ships.”
Chip nodded, letting Gillion work his magic. The familiar cool mist of healing rushed over Chip, and he felt a good chunk of immediate pain fade away. His relief was obvious to Lizzie, who stood and offered a hand out to Chip.
“Come on, bastard. We probably should get out of here while the Navy’s distracted by their broken toy.”
Chip grinned, reaching up a hand to take Lizzie’s. He was pulled to his feet, only stumbling slightly at the sudden rush of blood flow, and they were off to the docks once more.
Later, Chip would broach the topic of how exactly he was alive with his co-captains, and Gillion would talk about the spell that revived him. How it required an item worth a lot , and how Jay had volunteered her own hair pin. Chip would poke fun at her, and she would bite back, but they both knew they didn’t mean it.
Chip was alive. That’s what mattered.