The Fall (PILOT)

One wouldn't notice how long a day actually is until they were forced to go through that day in solitude and confinement. It would make someone prefer the mind destroying boredom during a normal day than compared to what he was going through at the moment. Actually he'd prefer the pain of a normal day too… as a matter of fact he'd take one of his normally bad days instead of this day and the upcoming days too, and everyone knows how his luck turns out on his bad days. But alas, Sokka was having the worst day of his life, actually, more like the worst week of his life, and it was only going to continue for who knows how long.

Sokka sat in his dank cell letting the water drip onto his burned leg, the work of fire benders. Namely the most powerful one he's encountered, the fire nation princess. Yes, she's was the one responsible for the pain he was enduring. She didn't care obviously, why would anyone care about the pain of their prisoner? Sokka knew he wouldn't. The water dripped a steady beat from the ceiling. There must be some body of water above him? He couldn't really be too sure. If the ceiling were to collapse for whatever reason then perhaps he'd have a way out. But that would never happen. He'd have to be a very lucky person for such a thing to happen, and he, along with his friends knew of how unlucky he was in life.

Sokka looked about the room. Oh, how he longed to be a bender! He could move the rock wall away, or tunnel his way through. Use the water dripping from the ceiling to heal himself and cut through the doors hinges or bars. There would be so many more options if he could control some element at his will. But no, the rock walls stared back at him as he glared at them. This room was quite spacious for one person. His mind began to wander again as anyone's would if they had to sit in a room for such a large amount of time. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all made out of rock, and had a metal door. It had a barred window. No one was outside his cell. Probably comforted by the fact his legs were burned and would be too painful to actually move them. On the opposite wall of the door was a barred window. At least he got to see what time of day it was. And currently the source of fire bending was setting into the horizon. This reminded him it was time to switch legs. He picked up his right leg and moved it farther to his right, then lifted his left leg and moved it into the dripping water. It hurt to move them into these positions but the pain was soon relieved by the water, but only relief since his burns would have to heal naturally.

How could this have turned out different? He played the situation out in his head yet again. He'd done this countless times since his arrival here. He should've just continued on with Aang and Toph. But no he had to stay behind.

"… My favorite prisoner used to mention you all the time, she was quite convinced you were going to come and rescue her. Of course you never came though, and she gave up on you."

Sokka stopped walking as he heard the statements. "You two go on ahead and look for the fire lord while I stay here…"

Yes, that's where he went wrong… She baited him into staying with her keeping the "brains" of the group away from the others. He was able to question her about Suki's whereabouts but to no avail. He had nothing on her so therefore she wouldn't speak. How foolish of him! He continued to think. His love for Suki clouded his mind. If he just had kept going then maybe the Fire Lord would have been stopped. But, that still wouldn't bring Suki back.

"Where is she?"

"I did warn her of the consequences…"

"Where are you keeping her!" He was practically yelling at Azula who continued to speak while Sokka was questioning and keeping a calm voice.

"She still wouldn't say where you were, still convinced you were coming and saying I was bluffing…"

"WHERE IS SUKI?" His calm outward tone faltered.

"I told her she would be badly hurt but she still resisted, so I had no choice but to end her pathetic life…"

Lies? Maybe. How was he really to say? He could .Only hope she wasn't telling the truth. She would lie to get him to lose control, find his weakness then exploit it. But it could easily be the truth… He was conflicted. He didn't want to believe that it was true, but didn't want to believe it was a lie either, because he didn't want to be wrong. Ifhe thought she were alive and it turned out she was dead then he would fall into an even deeper depression.

His fault. His failure. If he had planned it out better, kept himself composed. Then maybe he wouldn't have doomed everyone else too. At least Aang, Katara, and Toph could get away safely on Appa…. But what about everyone else? His father, Bato, The Mechanist, and all the others that had offered there help to them. How would they get away safely? They may have taken the subs back… yeah… maybe that's what they did… He could only hope.

He began to scan the room for the somethingth time, deciding he was done contemplating his failure and what he could and didn't do. Something was making a noise, sounded like the flapping wings. He looked out of the barred window and saw a bird. But not just any bird. "Hawkey!" He exclaimed in a whisper yell for fear that a prison guard would be approaching soon. The bird perched himself onto the barred window from the outside. Sokka began to reach his hands through the bars and grabbed the piece of parchment in his tube. He removed his hands from the bird and looked at the rolled up paper. He undid it's ribbon like hold and it unfurled to a full length piece of paper.

"Toph's parents." He thought as he read the top of the parchment. He would've continued to read the letter as it would give him a little more something to do if he hadn't heard the door from the hallway open. He began to panic as he rolled up the parchment again and began to search for a place to hide the letter in his tattered clothing. He put it in the back of his shirt and sat back again. He quickly turned to the window. "Hawkey, hide for a bit okay?" The bird gave him some kind of confirmation and hopped out of view from the window. He heard the footsteps stop at the front of his door, which then opened. A guard walked in with a bowl in hand and dropped it to the ground.

"feeding time, savage." He told Sokka as he kicked the bowl over causing the sticky rice inside to spill over. He then walked out of the room, and Sokka heard his footsteps retreating, but they didn't leave the hall that was outside his cell. He'd have to be very quiet about this.

"Hawkey, you can come out now." He said in a barely audible whisper. The animal was again standing on the window. "I'm going to take one of your feathers, okay?" He clarified retaining his whisper. He took one of the bird's crimson feathers who squawked in response. Sokka quickly hushed the bird and went back to his rolled up parchment. He flipped the letter over on the side without any text on it.

"Okay. Now comes the painful part…" He founded a slightly jagged part in the rock wall and began to grind his arm against it until he could draw blood. He stuck the end of the feather into the blood and began to write his distress call onto the parchment. Wincing as he wrote.

He wrote:

I NEED HELP. I WON'T BE ABLE TO MAKE IT OUT OF HERE ON MY OWN.

I'M AT A PRISON NEAR THE FIRE NATION PALACE. I KNOW IT WILL BE

DANGEROUS TO COME HERE SO ONLY COME WHEN YOU ARE READY.

I WILL HOLD OUT FOR AS LONG AS I CAN.

SOKKA

He reviewed his note and hoped that his hand writing would be legible along with the fact that he didn't have enough blood to make it very bold so you could see it. Satisfied he rolled up the parchment and replaced the ribbon on it. He went to the hawk and put the parchment in the tube. "Take this to Katara, Aang, and Toph." He instructed the bird as it began to fly away. Just as the bird was flying away he heard faint footsteps up to his door.

"Would you quit whispering to yourself ? It's getting quite distracting while I'm…" the guard trailed off as he digested what he saw. A crimson hawk flying away, plus a bloodied quill next to the prisoner equals… "My you're in trouble now." The guard picked up the untouched food bowl and walked away from his cell.

"He's probably going to go tell Azula…" Sokka whimpered at the thought. Then he felt his stomach growl and his gaze went over to the rice the rice that was still on the floor from the bowl that had just been in there. "No." He thought as he crossed his arms and looked the other way. "I refuse to be the savage they say I am."

At the western air temple Katara was continuing to heal the wounds of her friends from the battle they just fled from. "We're going to have to stay here for a little while longer." Aang told his friends again.

"But we have to go save Sokka…" Toph and Katara were worried about him. Hell He was too but he knew just as well he wouldn't get very good help if they weren't rested up and healed, let alone not knowing where to go either. "Hey, that's a good point. Maybe I should say that…" He thought, So he did.

"We're not going to be helping him any if we're tired and hurt, besides we don't know where he is." Aang said as he rehearsed it in his mind. The two girls sighed knowing he was correct but not quite liking what he said.

"Whatever, I'm going to bed." Toph said as Katara finished healing the last of their wounds. She then walked over to her the place where she slept and laid down with her back turned to her friends.

"I think I'll do the same…" Katara said as she began to slowly walk to her own respective sleeping space.

Aang remained where he was seated. "Don't worry… we'll find him alive and well, and then we can continue our mission." He said to himself more than to anyone else.

"Who did you send that letter to?" Azula yelled at him.

"Where do you think you psycho?" Sokka yelled back

She lashed at him with another fire whip which added more to his pain on his back.

"Where are your friends then? Where is the avatar!"

"Even if I knew, which I don't might I add, I wouldn't tell you."

"LIAR! You sent that bird somewhere… Now where did you send it?"

"I just told it to find them, I didn't just give it an exact location."

"Very well… I suppose you sent them a distress call? Telling them where you are right now. I'll just set up my defenses and let them come to me. Yes, that is what I will do. I would thank you but, you wouldn't care since you're a savage…" He knew these words were supposed to get to him but he did his best not to. He silently worried until she cracked her whip at him splitting parts of his skin again like they were seems of cloth being ripped by a sharp object. He didn't yelp in objection to the pain. He just grimaced and bit his lip.

"Get this peasant out of my sight." Azula said with disgust in every part of the derogatory sentence. The guard came over to Sokka and disconnected his shackles from the ring mounted on the wall to keep him in place.

As he was dragged back to his cell he couldn't help but wonder if his salvation was worth endangering his friends and sister's well being and freedom. He just hoped that they wouldn't become imprisoned along with him.

His guard through him into his cell violently. He fell onto his burn wounds causing him to writhe and groan in pain. He scooted himself back against the wall into his regular spot in his cell. He felt his stomach gurgle in hunger, wishing to digest something. It looked like he wouldn't be getting fed for a fourth day in a row. "I hope they bring meat…" He said to himself referring to his friends when they come for him.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Alright so… this is a pilot as it has been stated before. And for those of you who aren't familiar with a pilot I shall care to explain. A pilot is a first episode if you will, of a particular series. It is shown to the public and based upon how well it is received is how you decide if you are going to make this series and continue it. So basically yeah… I just want to see what you guys think of this. And this won't just be centered as just a Sokka capture fic. No, it's part of it but it is only going to take up Part 1 of the story. And I'm thinking of making it have about 4 to 5 parts in it. As for pairings I'm thinking MAYBE Tokka. I'll probably throw in some Kataang stuff… and yeah… As for Suki's death I don't know if she'll actually be dead yet. I'm not particularly fond of my scene with the rest of the gang but I just wanted to show that there will be parts centered around them in the story too. And yes I know it would probably be the opposite of a good idea to put a bird feather in an open wound, but come on! He's desperate… Anyway… looking forward to the reviews. K ba

P.A.N. Also if I so choose to make a story from this, it will be loosely related to this pilot. It will have some things related to this pilot but other things may not. And another thing is that the exsistence of the story relies heavily on the reviews it recieves. So if no one wants this to be made then no story. Same goes in the event this gets no reviews, no story. (Just in case no one figured this out from my little pilot definition thing.)