Chapter Text
Jimmy woke up in a very loud room. Okay maybe it wasn't loud but it echoed around him. It was the very familiar sight of bubbles floating past that Jimmy realized he was actually underwater. And that wasn't the only unusual thing.
Jimmy was in full merman form, codtail, gills and all. Stones lined the walls and ground and Jimmy found himself gripping them with sharp claws.
'Okay, well the last time i was like this...Empires! When Fwhip and i blew up the server and i ran away.'
Empires season 1 was fun, but it had left a bad taste in Jimmy's mouth and he knew he wasn't the only one. First runs on new servers were usually bad anyways but the codman had more important things to worry about.
Jimmy pulled himself up and out of the water. He was in a dark cavern that had codfish carved into the walls, each one jutting out and leaping over a stone walkway. He dove back under but there wasn't enough room to truly swim so he crawled along the ground until the sound of pistons echoed throughout the chamber.
Jimmy turned over onto his back to watch two blurry shapes, other players judging by the shape. He tilted his head slightly above the water to find Grian and Scar. Grian looked absolutely dreadful. He lwas covered in seaweed and sported an overgrown beard. Was that a fishing net bag holding a fishing rod on his back?
There are many types of weird and yet Grian is somehow always in his own category.
Scar, at least, looked normal. His outfit reminded Jimmy of Double Life and a bittersweet song bubbled up inside him. He opened his mouth to sing, momentarily forgetting he was underwater, and the seawater entered his lungs.
He coughed until his gills took over but was yet to be noticed by either man above on the walkway. Which was was weird since Jimmy was probably the loudest person ever.
Jimmy could still feel the song sitting so he decided to break free from the water and sing. Maybe this time they would notice him. It was a song without lyrics but something Jimmy sang at each of their final deaths. The other lifers would know it instantly
"Grian, do you hear that?"
"You're hearing things Scar. Did you and Cub do something with the Vex again?"
Jimmy sang louder, now above the water, yet not seen by either man.
"Oh, i do hear it. But Jimmy isn't here, do you see a canary anywhere?"
Scar shakes his head. "No songbirds here except the one in front of me."
"Scar i can't sing."
"I've heard you sing before. Sure it was with BigB but i dont mind. I just love the sound of your voice."
Grain turns red and hides his face.
"Ugh why did i get stuck with these two, of all people? Mother is surely laughing."
But if Lady Death could hear him, she didn't give any indication. Huh.
"Grian, Scar im right here!" Jimmy says before singing again.
"Well i certainly hear something now."
Both men looked around and Jimmy used his tail and his claws to climb onto the walkway. But they looked right through him like he didn't exist.
"Big brother? Scar?"
Jimmy's heart clenched tightly and he inhales shakily.
"Okay okay, now is not the time to panic Jim. We just gotta find our way out of here."
Jimmy looked around but saw nothing that indicated fresh air and sunlight. He dove back under, thankful for his night vision which allowed him to see an opening underneath the piston door that was above him.
He clawed his way over but found the opening was too small for him in this form.
'Maybe i can change fully into a cod?'
It had been a few years since he last transformed but he still remembered the way his body shrank and the way scales and fins took place of his hair and limbs. His gills were much easier to use in this form and he chuckled at his successful completion into a literal cod.
Bubbles escaped them and Jimmy nearly forgot his original goal in exchange of chasing after the bubbles. He's reminded when he sees the opening again and remembers why he never used this form very much.
He swims through, just barely small enough and it opens out into similar chamber. Jimmy changes back, stretching and twisting each limb out, this time with more room. He doesn't hit the bottom and he dives to check how deep it is...and immediately hits his head on the bottom.
"Ow," He groans. "That was just rude."
The sound of the piston door opening echoes through the water again and Jimmy swims up. He tries to sing but he reaches the same conclusion as he did in the other room and he grumbles.
The codmer can hear them talking but doesn't really focus on it until he hears his name.
"Im really worried about Jimmy. He's probably going to get himself killed or something by annoying whoever is holding him hostage."
"What if he ran away?"
"I can see him and Lizzie doing that, but not Fwhip. And they wouldn't have left Joel behind or if they did, they would have told him where they went. What if-what if They took them? What if They decided to hurt me by taking them?"
That last question was whispered and Jimmy wanted nothing more than to comfort him. Grian had been missing for years, all because of the Watchers, but something told Jimmy that this wasn't one of the Watchers games this time.
At least he had Scar to comfort him.
"If they wanted to take someone to hurt you, why not me and Mumbo? Or Iskall and Pearl and Impulse? G, you can't blame yourself for what They did. You had no control over anything. Let's go back up, get some sunshine and hotguy our friends"
Grian matches Scars' grin and runs away from his friend.
"Have to catch me first!"
Jimmy laughs as Scar nearly sends his wheelchair off the walkway, chasing after the avian.
Jimmy waits until they are both gone before he dips under the water again. He swims around the piers but finds nothing useful. Whoever built this clearly did for decoration purposes rather than any hidden secrets but one could hope.
He slumps against the moss and finds him grabbing clumps of it. Little bits of cobble stick to it and well, Jimmy never claimed to be a terraformer or even much of a builder. He can't access new blocks(weird), but he can move them and surely whoever built this wont mind some redecoration?
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Later that night, Grian returned to his base. Instead of fishing, he sat on his dock and opened his book.
The singing from earlier started up again, although it was faint, and Grian opened his Eyes to try to see what, or rather who, was making the sound. Nothing came up, which was odd. It meant a god or something else entirely, was blocking his Sight, and that wasn't a good thing.
Another Watcher was a possibility but Grian would know for sure, more familiar with their magic than any other kind of magic that existed. Even his mothers' magic, whose presence made itself known nearly as soon as Grian thought of her.
"Mum?"
'My little mischief maker, how are you?'
Grian smiles sadly before frowning and the singing stops for a moment.
"I am... I'm worried for Jim and Lizzie ad Fwhip. We can't find them anywhere, not with the rest of the Emperors on SOS or Empires or FantasyCraft. Not here with us, and Tango and few others even went back to season nine. Martyns' kept his ears open for any song Jim- Mum! Jimmy's been singing! Scar noticed it but we never found a canary."
'Jimmy is not just a canary, Grian. But I will talk with your father and my other angels. We will find them, Grian.'
The warm breeze swarmed around him and he could almost feel his mother's arms around him. She needed to possess someone in order to have a physical body and there were certain requirements for her hosts. Grian, although being her son, met none of the requirements and was unable to hug her outside of her realm.
The breeze faded away and Grian slumped against his dock pillar. His feet made little splashes in the river.
Scar's words from earlier echo inside Grian's head.
'𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘔𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘰?'
Grian starts humming his own little toon and Jimmy- It has to be Jimmy. No one else sings that song- sings along too. Grian closes his book, gets up and goes to sleep underneath the dock roof.
He dreams of swamplands and find himself standing in amongst a group of people. Some folks stand out, a pink axolotl who stands next to a human that reminds him of Joel, a dragon with bright red hair, a purple witch and a lady with a green dress and sunflowers in her arms. There is also a pair of twins with one being clung too by another man with parrot wings, a man with knight armor but carrying a wizard staff and two more ladies that both sport flowers although one is significantly shorter than the other.
Their faces are obscured and Grian can feel his mouth moving but he hears nothing. He feels his tail- his tail? He checks and finds that he does in fact, have a tail. That's a new sensation.
His tail lashes back and forth and he can see the way everyone is positioned themselves for a fight. He feels himself walk forward, towards the dragon yet he's not moving at all. Grian gets thrown out of nightmare as soon as the dragon punches him and he opens his eyes, inhaling sharply and coughing.
Once he catches his breath and finds his bearings, he realizes he is in the Chamber of Cod.
"Did i sleepwalk?"
Something is off. It just feels different and it isn't until Grian walks up to his painting that he figures out the terrain has changed. There are now moss covered cod leaping out of the water and what looks like a little village that is slowly climbing its way up the side of the pillar.
"What are you doing, Tim?"
Something splashes behind him, followed by a clink and then another ploink.
The singing starts again before cutting off. There is no rhyme to the song and it's wordless.
This time, Grian sees a flash of something mudcolored and vaguely fish shaped and snatches it from the air. It's a key in the image of a codfish.
'Codfish dont sing,' he thinks. 'What does Jimmy, who is a canary, have to do with a codfish?'
The nightmare, likely a memory although Grian's never lived in a swamp nor does he plan too, is fading quickly. But he does think the pink axolotl was likely Lizzie and Joel was probably the human. He looks at the key one more time before running out of the chamber and flying torwards Joel's base on the otherside of the mountain.