Note: The first four chapters have just been edited, there isn't any new content in them. Personally, I think the changes make it much better, but again, I'm always welcome to criticism. I did change Treasure Planet to the Spirit World, but that's it. Any chapters afterwards are new.

On a peaceful night, the airship carrying the wealthy of Ba Sing Se floated aimlessly above the countryside, its passengers filling the air with the musical clinking of wine glasses occasionally accompanied with a giggle over the latest gossip. Most of the talk was pointless drivel, but here and there flitted more important whispers. Talks of the pirate attacks, both in the sky and on the sea, that were plaguing the western coast of the Earth Kingdom. They were lucky, the muttered amongst themselves, they were too far inland to fall victim to such attacks... And besides, they'd reassure themselves, their precious police ferociously patrolled the boarders of the kingdom. Nothing could touch them, not here.

But in the middle of their reassurances and their laughter, a blinding green flash burst in the cloudless sky. Where nothing had been before, there was the feared airship, The Equalist, with the dreaded Blood Captain Amon steering the helm. Women fainted and men shivered where they stood. The ship neared and the terrified citizens gave a collective screech of fear as they saw the crew in their eerie attire. Glowing green goggles leered out towards them, electrocuting sticks and gloves waved menacingly in the air. The crew aimed heavy metal chains tipped with grappling hooks towards the frightened passengers and...

Asami let out a tiny shriek as her door flung open. She didn't even have the time to throw the scroll off the bed and dive under her covers to pretend to be asleep before her adopted mother barged into her room with a stern frown on her face. Her ominous silhouette made Asami shrink into her pillow.

"You, Little Missy, were supposed to be asleep hours ago," Pema said.

Asami gave a sheepish grin and pulled the scroll close to her chest. "But, Mama Pema," she whined, "I was almost to the best part." It was Asami's favorite story, pirates and mystery and treasure and all sorts of exciting things lay before her, waiting for her eager eyes to find them again and again. She laid the scroll down in front of her, the paintings so skillfully created that they seemingly danced off the page in front of the little girl.

Pema sighed. "You've read it at least eighty times, it can wait until morning."

"It can not!" She lifted the scroll above her head to show her mother the swirling pictures, hoping that if she just would look at it, then she would understand why she had to finish it now. Pema paid her no attention as she strolled over to her bedside to blow out the candle.

"No!" Asami shrieked. She rolled over to stop her mother's breath, but in her attempt, became tangled in the bed sheets, the scroll crinkling beneath her. She managed to pop her head out just as Pema had leaned down put out the light. Her black hair trickled beneath her as she struggled to free herself. "Mama Pema, please can I-can I-can I just read to the very end of it?" Pema cocked an eyebrow and shook her head. Asami widened her eyes as wide as they could possibly go and made her bottom lip quiver ever so slightly.

A smile stole across Pema's face. "Oh, that's not fair," she said, rolling her eyes. Asami waited and bit her lip, terrified that she would maybe have to waiting until morning to see if the pirates were going to plunder and murder as they always did. Pema gently pulled her out from under the covers and picked up the scroll. She stared at it for a moment before deciding. "Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt if we got to the very end." Asami's eyes brightened as Pema lowered them down to the bed and smoothed the scroll.

Pema cleared her throat and read.

The crew aimed heavy metal chains tipped with grappling hooks towards the frightened passengers and threw them through the window. Shattered glass flew towards the pampered people who were running nowhere in terror. The crew slithered across the chains and into the panicked masses. Wealthy patrons were filled with electricity as passing pirates stole everything they had off of their writing bodies. The interior of the ship was lit up with violent blue electricity when Amon appeared within their midst. With one flick of his palm the few survivors of the first attack grew stiff as their limbs were bent against their will.

Asami gasped like she always did when the fearsome Captain Amon began to Bloodbend. Pema grinned and continued.

Then, when all of the wealth had been stripped and the last man had been electrocuted, Captain Amon and his crew ran over the heavy chains that tethered the ships together and landed gracefully on the bow. The lines were cut, the passenger ship plummeted to the earth, and a blinding green light flashed gain. The air was still once more, without an Equalist in sight.

No one knows where Amon stashed the loot he had plundered over the years. Some say he spent it, others say he lost it, but there are some that say that he hid it in a secret place, a place of ghosts and demons.

"The Spirit World," Asami finished in an awed whisper. Pema gave her a small kiss on the cheek and slid out from behind her with the scroll in hand. After she had wound the scroll up and placed in on Asami's nightstand, she gently lifted Asami off her bed while she untangled her sheets. Asami offered no resistance as she stared off into space, hands propping up her head as fantasies of bloodthirsty pirates and gruesome deaths filled her head. Pema gently laid her down under her covers and smoothed them out. Asami's eyes grew heavier and heavier and her last few words before she drifted off to sleep were slightly slurred.

"Mama Pema?"

"Yes, love?" Pema spoke quietly, trying to lull the girl quickly to sleep.

"Does the Spirit World really exist?"

Pema bit her lip. She had been raised to believe in the Spirit World, though it had been a long time since she had given it any credence really. But Asami didn't need to know that. "Maybe it does, Love. Maybe it does." Asami's reply was a quiet little snore. Pema leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. Asami was smiling, her mind filled with flying ships and pirates and, above all, the Spirit World.