#96. Fleeting
I watched the finale on Friday (amazing! even when it's not the first time) and saw this whole airship part, so I couldn't help writing this. I'm fairly sure it's cliche, but still. For the record, this scene is probably going to be reused at least twice more (not soon, but during my 100), although hopefully not quite as angsty...
Disclaimer: Don't own AtLA.
Above him: the scarlet hull of an airship he'd helped invent.
To either side: soldiers who are waiting for him to try anything funny—but, of course, trying would be as far as he got.
Below him: an altogether too narrow walkway, the waiting drop into the jaws of gravity, and his best friend, dangling in midair.
"Sokka," she says, "Sokka?" A question. She's petrified: he can tell because her voice trembles, and—her being Toph, and all—that isn't how she sounds. Ever.
Of course, he's petrified too. But seeing as she's the one hanging over the aforementioned drop—and he knows she is, because his arm is very nearly being yanked from its socket—he has to be the brave one. With a calculating gaze that's been cultivated over the last year or so, he glances from side to side, and then, he moves.
His sword flies, knocking the soldier on his left from the walkway. The man's cry fades as he tumbles down, along with the sword Sokka made himself. He swallows regret and whips his boomerang to the side with a flick of his wrist. It hits the second soldier in the head, and he, too, goes spiraling down. Boomerang hurtles away from Sokka, and the sight nearly kills him.
But then his arm doesn't hurt any more.
He stiffens; he rolls over in an instant, ignoring the flash of lightning up his leg... and he's still far too late. She's suspended in midair, screaming: she doesn't know what's happening, or why his hand suddenly isn't holding her safe any more; she doesn't understand. She'll die confused and frightened, let down by the person she loved the most in the world. For a moment, she is a speck of green above a backdrop of red fabric, but then the airship below her explodes, and fire swallows her whole.
And then, silence.
He wishes he could look away, but his gaze is riveted below, to the patch of sky that just stole his best friend from him. She can't just be gone. It's so wrong, so... so undignified, for her to slip and fall and die in all of five seconds.
But it happens. Then the moment is over, and everything keeps going: Suki saves his life, and then Aang saves the world. But apparently Sokka couldn't even save the thing in his life that was worth the most. What he wouldn't give, to be back in that moment, and to have held on for just a couple seconds more...
And so while everyone else is cheering and crying, he's just standing there, a fragment of time replaying itself behind his eyes. Funny, really, because it's only one moment, but he still knows it'll haunt him for the rest of his life.
What did you expect? 'Fleeting' is a hard prompt... :P