#can i write an entire fic about tech without once mentioning his name? also perchance

[margindoodles2407]

Terminal Velocity (Tumblr Version)

There was a chance we'd make it through this; It's safe to say now that we've missed it And I will never lose hope, and I haven't lost hope-- I'm just realistic I will go down punching, but I will go down, and my cornerman won't bring me back around Bleed out-- I'm gonna bleed out -The Mountain Goats, "Bleed Out"

The plan was formulated only for emergencies. This, he knew, counted as one.

He was, he reflected, not afraid to die.

Death was… an inevitability. It came for every living being: the sentient, the animal, the plant; he supposed even droids could die, in a sense. It could be postponed, it could be delayed, but no matter how hard anyone fought, every escape, every narrow dodge of a bullet, every illness beaten back-- it was only borrowed time. Death could never truly be prevented.

So why should he be afraid of it?

And, after all, there were worse ways to lose one's life, he reasoned. (The war had taught him at least that much.) The view was even pleasant, in its own strange way, and the wind that whistled through his ears was a sweeter sound than the shriek of blasterfire. It was almost musical enough to drown out the scream that still rang in his mind.

(Oh, poor Wrecker. He was just finally getting over his fear of heights. How much progress would this little stunt cost his brother?)

But- still- he was not afraid to die. Even though the tram was so far up, now. He hoped his siblings would be safe. That they'd make it out unharmed. That they'd live to fight another day.

That… that, someday, they could possibly find it in themselves to forgive him.

The glass of his goggles was suddenly cloudy. He couldn't tell if it was the quickly gathering fog around him, or if instead it had something to do with the strange, unexpected warmth pricking at his eyes.

He was not afraid to die. Even if the trees were getting closer.

He was not afraid to die. But he wondered, less detatchedly than he would have liked, if death would… if it would hurt.

He was not afraid to die.

He just… regretted. That he'd never had the chance to properly say goodbye to-- to Crosshair.

But he was not afraid to die.

He was not afraid to die.

He was NOT afraid to die.

He was not afraid to die.

He was not afraid to--