"Saki," Sokka shouted. "You have to hold on!"

I grimaced, feeling my fingers slipping. I tried to tighten my grip, for Toph's sake, but that only seemed to make it worse.

"I have an idea," Sokka shouted. "You've gotta trust me, though. Do you trust me?"

I nodded. "Yeah," I said. My hair was blowing in my face, blurring my view of Sokka. "Yeah, I trust you, Sokka."

"Let go," he instructed.

"Sokka!"

"You said you'd trust me! Please, Saki, you have to trust me. I know what I'm doing."

I inhaled sharply and let go of the platform. Sokka latched onto my wrist, clinging as if our lives depended on it — and, quite frankly, they did. He reached down for Toph's hand, and I pulled her up to make it easier for them both.

There I was, dangling from Sokka's hand, our fingers locked together as he used his other to hold Toph. I could see the pain in his face as he clenched his jaw, no matter how hard he tried to disguise it. Toph was slipping, and soldiers were closing in on us on the ledge. No boomerang, no space sword, no earthbending or metalbending. We all weren't going to get out of this in one piece, and I knew that Sokka was beginning to come to the same realization.

"Sokka," I said, looking up at him. My shoulder felt like it was on fire as gravity pulled at my body. "Sokka, you can't save us both."

"Saki, what are you talking about?" He grunted. Without needing me to elaborate, his eyes widened. "Don't talk like that! We're getting out of this!"

I uncoiled my hand, slowly slipping through his tightening grip. He yelled for me to hold on, saying we could make it. My voice sounded foreign when I said, "Make me proud, Sokka." My hand slipped through his fingers, and I began falling like a ragdoll as Sokka screams my name.

You'd never know this, but I had imagined my death so much that it felt more like a memory. This is where that got me: free falling into the sea with no intention to submerge myself in a life-saving spiral of water. The wind bites at my back as I fall, my hair and limbs reaching upward for the hands that wouldn't save me. I glance over my shoulder. Flashes of red in the distance. The occasional stream of water, occasional boulder. Aang was determined to defeat Ozai, and I prayed to the spirits that he would.

I began thinking of Zuko, my best friend, my occasional enemy. If only I had told him everything....

I wish I had told him everything: from sabotaging his plans to capture Aang, to how much I had loved him, how proud I was of him, to how sorry I was that I had lied to him so much.

Katara...more than my best friend. My sister. I prayed that she was okay against Azula. My heart ached at the thought of them. I pictured their faces as I listened to the waves that crashed below me, my body nearing it like metal to a magnet. I closed my eyes.

My lips parted and I took in a breath of salty air as I watched my hair whipping like blades of grass in a storm. "Make me proud," I whispered. "I'll see you on the other side." A sharp pain enflamed my back, the water feeling like glass being broken against my flesh. Arms reached down for me, clear through the rippling water as I drifted limply. Their smiles greeted me, as warm as ever. The familiar man said softly, "Our beautiful daughter.... you've made us proud. You've redefined your legacy."

The last of my breath escaped in four bubbles, disappearing with the rest of the world around me.