Work Text:
Jimmy is falling.
Like a baby bird tossed out of its nest by its mother, like Icarus getting too cocky and flying too close to the sun, like a canary and its curse,
Jimmy is falling.
He feels the air ruffling his feathers, the drop in his stomach when he realizes what’s happened and what’s coming. He hears the thunder and then… there's nothing. It doesn’t hurt like he thought his inevitable death would have - there’s no flashing of his life before his eyes. He simply exists.. and then he doesn’t; an incorporeal ghost of who he was taking the place of his physical body.
All Jimmy can do is stand and watch the aftermath. He watches Joel and Grian react to his death, laughing at how foolish it was, but still mourning nonetheless. He watches the two build a grave for him, saying a few words and leaving offerings for him before leaving. Then everything is quiet (arguably too quiet), and Jimmy is alone for the first time since his death. He finds himself wandering back to the place he died, staring at the lightning-scorched ground that was now blown to smithereens by the TNT minecart he’d pushed off the Skynet. He can feel himself shaking as he looks up to meet the Skynet. That damned Skynet.
“I wasn’t near the edge... I shouldn’t have…” He looks down at his shaking hands, then back to the Skynet, staring it down as if trying to intimidate it.
Canary call, first to fall.
He was so close. So close…
“I was so careful…” There are tears in his eyes now, threatening to spill at any second.
And then he feels it.
That all too familiar feeling of being watched.
He looks up, attempting to locate the source but everyone is too busy avoiding their deaths to pay him any mind.
After all, he is the only one dead. No one can see him anyways.
He realizes all at once what this is.
He can almost hear them snicker at his epiphany, pointing and laughing at him as he falls apart.
“I was pushed. They pushed me. You pushed me.” He growls, balling his fists. Anger fills his entire body, “You promised you wouldn’t interfere.”
‘Yes, Solidarity.’ He hears them say, a hint of a smile lingering on their voices, ‘A canary and his curse, a burden to bare… an entertaining one at that. We are just doing what is required for a good show. Surely, you understand, hm?’
Jimmy falls apart right there. Any sense of anger he felt meer seconds before simply vanishing as wobbly knees buckle beneath him as he falls to the ground. His hands cover his mouth, muffling sobs, and hiccups.
They pushed me, they pushed me, they pushed me.
They simply laugh.
Skizz is second to die, at the hands of Etho, nonetheless. His transparent, ghostly form appears next to him, breathing heavily as the adrenaline from the fight wears off. His eyes land on Jimmy rather quickly, brow furrowing in concern.
“Jimmy?” Skizz reaches werry a hand out, hovering over his shoulder, “Everything okay?”
All Jimmy can do is frantically mumble, gripping his hair and tugging, “Theypushedmeoff… off, off, off…”
“You’re gonna have to slow down. Breathe,” He sits next to him.
But it doesn’t help, Jimmy’s breathing is as frantic as ever..
“Theypushedmeoff.”
The next to go was Joel, Jimmy’s fellow Bad Boy. He gasps when the flash of lightning illuminates his tear-stained face, thunder making him recoil as the rumble shakes him to his very core. Skizz calls Joel over as soon as he reaches whatever afterlife they’ve landed in.
“I don’t know what he’s talking about,” Skizz explains to him, whispering to the man who stands next to him, “He keeps mumbling and I can’t get him to calm down.”
Joel is quick to comfort, or at least attempt to, sitting where Skizz once sat and slowly throwing an arm around his teammate, pulling him in close for a rather awkward side hug, “Hey man, what’s up?”
“Joel…. Joel they pushed me off they-” “Woah, what?” Joel tilts his head, letting go of his friend to get a good look at him, “We didn’t push you, I swear it, we’d nev-”
“No, no, you don’t get it,” Jimmy replies, cutting him off as he frantically shakes his head, “They pushed me.” His eyes are wide and tears still stream down his red cheeks as he tries so hard to suck in breaths, staggered as ever.
“They?”
“They pushed me off, Joel, I know they did!”
“Who are…” Joel trails off, looking to Skizz behind him who shrugs unhelpfully in response.
“I need Grian. Where’s Grian?” Jimmy breathes out, looking frantically for the avian.
Joel is quick to point Jimmy to the parrot who’s readying himself to jump off the Skynet. Wings, though useless with the current circumstances, spread instinctively as he leaps off.
And he falls, just like Jimmy did.
Joel and Jimmy watch with bated breath. Jimmy can hear Joel beside him whisper a silent plea to whatever omnipotent force he believes to be pulling the strings here, a final attempt at bartering for his friend's life.
He’s doing good at first, the water right below him. Jimmy is quick to breathe again, finding himself muttering a quiet “Thank the gods” despite everything.
But then he takes his eyes off Grian for a second. And his comm buzzes on his arm before he can even register the lightning and thunder.
Grian hit the ground too hard.
“What…?”
“No way…”
“He should’ve made that!!”
Grian enters the afterlife coughing and gasping - recovering from the feeling of having all the air in your lungs stolen from you due to the unexpected impact.
“I was so close,” Grian breathes, carding a hand through his hair to unstick his bangs from his sweat-covered forehead.
“Gri…” Joel is first to stumble over to him, leaving Jimmy staring at yet another patch of scorched ground, “What happened??”
“I don’t know…” He replies, acting almost too nonchalant over the whole situation, “Overshot, I guess.” Joel lets Grian take a few minutes to stedy himself, their prior conversation fizzling into silence.
“Jimmy needs help,” He whispers to his friend once he’s sure he’s okay, “He kept mumbling to Skizz and me. Something about being pushed off the Skynet.” Grian’s eyes land on his friend whose eyes still trained on the spot where Grian fell. He nods to Joel, signaling him to stay behind while he talks to him. Joel simply replies with a nod of his own.
Grian is slow to approach, careful not to scare him, “Jimmy?”
He sits next to his friend, tapping his shoulder to get his attention away from the scene that lies before him.
“Grian,” Jimmy croaks as he turns to look at him. Grian holds back a gasp at the puffy and red-eyed man who sits before him. He isn’t frantic anymore. He sounds tired as he speaks, “I think they pushed me. No, I know they pushed me.”
“I know,” Grian smiles sadly, resting a hand on his shoulder and pulling him in for a tight hug, letting his wings wrap around him in a strong and comforting embrace, “They pushed me too.”