Chapter Text
The World had a cruel way of guiding you through life.
Chip had learned that early on. He spent the first few years of his life in an orphanage with a name that didn’t feel right. A name that he couldn’t even remember nowadays. Nowadays, that would have been a fine backstory. But the world had a way of screwing him over.
When he met his dad, Arlin James, Chip thought life was really looking up. Chip thought that everything would be better. He’d live like one of those kids in the books he read. And for a couple years, he did.
But his world came crashing down when Arlin went missing. Chip James was thrown back into the system. And there he’d stay until he aged out of it.
Shortly after Arlin went missing, Chip started getting these dreams. They varied, but they all featured one similar thing.
A Triton.
Chip had learned years ago in his classes that Tritons had gone extinct centuries ago. Scientists weren’t even entirely sure they existed in the first place sometimes. So many people he’d told (and himself, of course) were incredibly confused by these dreams.
Sometimes, it was him and the Triton, on a ship. Sometimes, they were fighting a monster together. Sometimes they were fighting each other. Sometimes, they were having soft, calm moments. Either way, it was always him and the Triton.
Come high school, Chip started to get the bigger picture in some of these dreams, because they’d feature his Best Friend, Jay Ferin.
“I’m convinced you’re making them up.” Jay always told him. Even now, as college students. She knew he wasn’t making it up, but it was always fun to tease him about it.
Currently, she was in the driver's seat of his car. They were on a little road trip from an event their school forced them to go to. And of course, even with it starting to get cold outside, and the hours they had to drive… they had to make a detour for the beach.
“I’m not.” Chip insisted, sitting up in the passenger seat after taking a small nap. “They always fuck me up.”
“I know, Chip.” Jay said, reaching over and patting him on the back. “We’re just about at the beach. Where do you wanna stop? Near the Sham Burger, or the cafe?”
Chip looked out the window, blinking his eyes as the beach began to come into focus. They were driving pretty slow now, as beachside speed limits always seemed to be less than 30. (It was annoying if you asked Chip, and hazardous if you asked Jay… but only when Chip was driving.) As Chip began to take in the sight of the sand, and the water… the lights from the other side of the street illuminated something strange.
“There.” He said, pointing the the big rock-like thing washed up ashore. “Let’s go check that out.”
Jay slowed the car down, following Chip's finger to the big rock. “Shit, how’d that get here?”
“I don’t know, but it’d make for a pretty cool picture spot.” He said with a smile. So, Jay pulled off to the side of the road.
They weren’t really supposed to park here, but considering the fact that it was 1 am, neither of them really cared or thought anyone else would care. Besides, they would only be here for a few minutes to take a couple of pictures and play in the (admittedly and expectantly very cold) ocean.
Descending the stairs down into the sand, Chip could tell a little clearer what the giant thing on the shore was. It wasn’t a rock, it was a giant block of ice .
“God, it’s not that cold, is it?” Jay asked as the two of them approached it. She touched her hand to it carefully, but only kept it for a moment as it was almost too cold for her to touch.
“I mean, It can Hail in Florida so, I’m sure this is from somewhere colder that never melted,” Chip explained away, taking a closer look at it. There were a couple cracks in the ice, that seemed to make a strange shape. Chip couldn’t tell what it was.
There was something off about it. Something that drew Chip into tracing his finger along the cracks of the ice. It hurt to touch, but he couldn’t stop. It felt… natural. It felt… like it’d happened before.
“Seriously, I can’t think of how this could have gotten here.” Jay spoke up, walking around it. Then, she paused, backing up. “Uh, Hey Chip?”
Chip didn’t look away from the ice. “Yeah?”
“Does it look like this ice rock is glowing to you?”
Huh. Yeah. it was. Wasn’t it?
As Chip took in this fact, his hand hit the peak of the crack he was tracing, and it was too late for him to move away before the rock cracked more.
And then it exploded.
Chip found himself on the ground not too far away. If not for the fact he knew better, he would have sworn he’d been lying there for hours because it didn’t hurt. Chip wasn’t sure if that meant maybe he’d broken something beyond feeling it, but after a bit of movement, Chip found that wasn’t the case.
Sitting up, Chip could swear he was hallucinating, because standing where the ice rock once had been… was the Triton.
He looked majestic, with the greenish-blue triton skin, and green fading lighter hair tied up in a bun. He looked exactly like the figure in Chip's dreams. His eyes were closed contently, but only for a moment, as they opened their eyes, and looked at Chip.
“I am Gillion Tidestrider. Champion of the Undersea, Hero of the Deep, The One… Uh..” The Triton- Gillion -Paused, thinking for a moment… then he continued. “Destiny needs a Hero… So Here I-” Gillion stopped, placing a hand over his mouth, before falling to the ground and passing out.
“Holy shit…”
“Some hero he is.” Jay perked up, in a quiet voice. She’d been knocked back near Chip, but from what Chip could tell, she’d dragged herself to be closer to Chip.
Chip reached out towards her, grabbing her arm roughly. “Jay. Jay that’s the- that’s the guy from my dreams that the..”
“Ow ow ow, ARM!” She ripped her arm away from him, rubbing where he grabbed with her other hand.
Chip scrambled to his feet, carefully approaching the figure on the ground. “This is the Triton from my dreams!” he insisted, turning to Jay. He’d spent 10 years having these dreams over and over again, and now this guy… this thing was real.
Jay pulled herself to her feet, looking down at the Triton that had just collapsed on the ground. “Shit… you never told me they were blue.” Most drawings left from the Triton race never had any colors in them, many scientists assumed they looked like them but… Chip knew better. “What are we gonna do with him…? “
Chip turned back to the Triton… Gillion. He felt so familiar and… Chip couldn’t leave him here.
“We’ll take him with us.” Chip insisted. “There’s room in the backseat.”
“To the apartment?” Jay asked, walking up to Chip and holding onto his shoulder. He turned to face her, and he could tell she did not like this idea. “Dude, that’s a long drive, and… why not just take him to the police or something?”
Chip looked back at Gillion. He knew in his heart there was no way he was bringing this guy to the police. “No way. They’ll see a Triton like him and… they’ll wanna experiment on him or something. I don’t know. “ he breathed. He knew realistically that taking Gillion back to their apartment was not a good idea… but he wasn’t sure any other idea was any better.
“What’s that thing you always say? ‘Not My Problem’? Well, I think that’s what this is let's just get back in the car and-”
Chip pulled away from Jay, leaning down and picking Gillion up as best he could. “We’re taking him with.” Chip insisted.
Jay stared at him for a moment, then groaned. “Fine. We’ll take him, but you’re sitting in the back with him. “
“Fine by me.”
The ride the rest of the way home was quiet, save for the radio connected to Jay’s phone. She was still driving, and had on some quieter music, while Chip sat with Gillion in the back.
He knew, somehow… that Gillion was supposed to be here. That he and Gillion were meant to meet. And Jay too. He wasn’t sure if this was the exact situation they were meant to meet in, but Chip knew it was some kind of fucked up destiny.