Chapter 1: Possibilities

"Kanna, you have to wake up its your turn to patrol the ship."

Kanna opened her eyes wearily and shut them immediately once the sensation of exhaustion greeted her. The person who spoke to her waited patiently a few minutes as a silent gesture of empathy.

Kanna never understood why she had to patrol the ship at night, it wasn't as if anyone could easy attempt to overtake it anyway. It was filled with dozens of adept water, earth, and fire benders.

Unlike yourself.

At the moment Kanna thought this she heard the creak of the door to her families room open. Another person entered. Kanna always hesitated to call where she and her family lived a room, some might consider it more of a closet.

The person who entered proceeded to whisper to the other.

"Is she sick?"

"No, just tired, Corville had her take the last two night and day shifts."

Kanna didn't want her brothers to think she was worse off then she really was. There was no use making them worry. With a big yawn, and stretch of her arms, Kanna opened her eyes to the worry already being reflected in her twin brothers, Karok and Nakoda's, eyes.

Considering the fact that both her brothers were identical twins, Kanna felt like she was being mentally slapped twice by staring at their like expressions.

Nice work Kanna, now you have them both upset.

Kanna rubbed her hands over her face, trying to scrub the exhaustion away, and twisted her torso to face her brothers. "Guys there is nothing to worry about, I'm just a bit more tired than usual." Kanna then gave the most shining smile she could muster and watched, pleased, as her brother's worry washed away from their adolescent faces.

Swinging her sore legs to the side of her mattress, Kanna eyed the small clock that lay on the floor in the far right corner of her room. She had only gotten two hours of sleep it seemed.

Accepting her fate that night, Kanna turned her attention to her brothers, assessing their damage from this past day of work on the ship. She quickly noticed Karok was cradling one hand in the other. "Karok what happened to your hand?" At the mention of his hand Karok immediately swung it behind him and mumbled something about a rope burn tying something up on the deck.

With this response Kanna lounged forward from her bed and grabbed her little brother's hand. Karok tried to pull away, but Kanna held her grip like iron, staring at her brothers obviously burned palm.

Without looking up from Karok's palm Kanna whispered in an expectant tone, "Nakoda?"

Nakoda, who had retreated to the corner of Kanna's room, came forward reluctantly. "Kanna, it isn't a big deal. I'll take Karok to the healer in the south rooms first thing tomorrow."

"So it was another firebender. Kartok tell me who it was." Kanna felt her heart beat faster and her nerve rush back to her after the haze of sleep. The moon was full tonight, she could handle one firebender.

"No, no, no Kanna," Nakoda said as he pulled his shoulders back. "Kartok and I don't need to see you in the brig again after last time. I told you I would handle this. Kartok will be fine, but you need to start your shift or there will be more to worry about."

At this Kanna soften a little bit. Nakoda always surprised her by how level headed he acted. He was only thirteen years old, but sometimes acted wiser then Kanna herself did, at almost twenty years of age. She knew staring at the stern gaze her brother held, one that she often used herself, he would handle the situation.

Kanna huffed loudly and gently let go of her brother's hand. "Fine, but I want him healed before I get back from my shift, okay?"

"Alright," Nakoda replied.

"Well I better head off or Corville will have my head." Kanna rose from the crouching position she had entered into while reaching for Kartok's hand. "You guys better remember to lock up and make the bed when morning comes alright?"

Kanna strode in four swift strides to the metal door that led to the hallway outside. With a heavy push she pried the rusted metal door open and took a step out. The clacking noise of her heel hitting the metal lined hallway reverberated back and forth. With one final worried gaze back at her only family in the world, Kanna turned and began walking to the end of the hallway to the gate.

The walk down the hallway was always one filled with introspection for Kanna. All along the walls Kanna saw metal doors that led to rooms like the one she shared with her brothers. Each night she would walk by and hear bits and pieces of muffled conversations. Tonight was no different.

"I heard the Avatar lost…"

"Republic City… Amon… over…"

At the mention of the Avatar Kanna snorted. She never understood why people believed that one individual could take care of the world. Kanna took it upon herself to care for her own brothers and her own self. The Avatar was nowhere to be seen when her brother got attacked or when they got captured.

The end of the long metal hallway of the ship led to a thick metal gate. As Kanna reached it, she placed her hands on the vertical bars and peaked her head out.

"Hello? Is anyone there? I need to get out to start patrolling."

Kanna jumped as she noticed a black shadow start to shuffle on the left side of the gate. The person lifted himself up and began digging around for the pair of keys.

"Good afternoon Ettorre, getting intoxicated again?" Kanna said with a tinge of venom.

The man named Ettorre sneered at Kanna and turned the key to open the gate.

Ettorre was one of Corville's right hand men, his first mate. He stood at around six feet tall and had a broad muscular figure. Even in his current disheveled appearance, he still held the façade of a ruthless nature. Kanna always figured it was because the guy had arching eyebrows that always indicated a feeling of superiority.

Either way, Kanna might talk haughty to Ettorre, but she would never dream of taking him on in a fight. He was an extremely powerful metal bender with a short temper.

With a thrust of his arms, the metal gate slammed open. Kanna sauntered in trepidation through the gate. She had heard stories of Ettorre slamming people dead with the gate before. She always chalked it up to gossip, but she could never tell in the lighting of the ship if the gate held rust or if it was really dried blood.

Making her way through she jumped as Ettorre slammed the gate shut with a bang behind her.

She felt the blood rush to her cheeks when she heard Ettorre chuckle at her jumpiness. Getting ahold of her wits, Kanna continued her trek up the ships steps to the deck, not looking back.

Of the entire shifts Kanna was forced to take, this was her favorite. Besides the fact that she got absolutely no sleep, this was one of the few times were Kanna could stare out into the beautiful ocean and forget.

Forget her position, her responsibilities, and even her dreams.

Kanna walked over and rested her arms on the metal railing of the ship. They felt cool to the touch. A refreshing sea breeze blew on her face, making her side ponytail fall into her eyes.

The sun was about midway to touching the horizon line. The cloudy skies created a mesmerizing array of oranges and pinks and blues. It reminded Kanna of a painting she had once seen in what felt like a dream.

The ship was going at a leisurely pace. Kanna had overheard that the delivery that was to be made was not due for a week or so.

Far out in the ocean Kanna sensed something speeding through the water. When she turned her head in the direction of the sensation she saw an extremely small black speck. Squinting her eyes, it appeared to be a small boat. Nothing of consequence she figured.

After a few more moments, Kanna turned and began walking around the ship. The name of the ship was the Beothuk, and Kanna detested the name. It spoke of isolation and a distinctive lack of freedom. This ship was her home and her cell.

A couple of minutes passed as she surveyed the dark and esoteric ocean all around her. The tiny speck looked as if it was getting closer. Kanna, while rubbing her eyes with the palms of her hands, dismissed this thought since the sun was setting and her eyes were adjusting. The sound of a sudden splash brought her out of her musings.

"Just what do you think your doing here Kanna? I'm trying to clean this stupid deck and your getting your dirty Northern feet all over my work."

Kanna rolled her eyes at the sound of the whining of Arika, one of her least favorite people.

Sensing a moment to embarrass the cocky brunette, Kanna retorted, "What'd you do now to piss Corville off Arika?".

"Whatever I did is none of your business Kanna, its not like you're worth explaining to anyway." When Arika said this Kanna thought she saw a glimmer of a familiar emotion cross the girl's deep brown eyes. Whatever it was that she saw caused Kanna to avert her gaze.

Both women were silent for a time; all that could be heard were the gentle waves crashing upon the ships sides. Kanna never understood Arika, and the feeling seemed to be mutual. Kanna once heard that Arika had had a brother once, but he disappeared during the Third Entrapment. When she heard this she believed that she and the brunette could perhaps empathize in a similar loss of kin. Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as she hoped, and the skilled bender appeared to have developed a vendetta a mile wide.

"You know you'll never be free."

Kanna stared at Arika in shock at her unabashed statement. If one thing she knew about living on this ship, discussing the living conditions was not something one did easily on the main deck. Especially with ears trained to detect a mutiny at every corner.

Besides, it was well known irritation to the ships main tenants that Kanna was going to free her brothers and herself. Or at least that was the plan that she shouted in anger five years prior when she and her brothers were taken.

She sort of wished she hadn't been so rash back then since it led to her element of surprise to be extraordinarily diminished. She was a fiery fourteen-year-old waterbender from the Northern watertribe. She thought she was invincible. Unfortunately it took her five years on the Beothuk to realize that one couldn't always get their way through fighting. Especially when one could fight as poorly as she could. Though old habits were hard to kick for someone as stubborn as Kanna.

Deciding to not respond to Arika's troubling statement, Kanna proceeded to ask, "Say Arika I know that your all about the ship gossip, did you happen to hear which firebender attacked Karok?"

Arika, who had proceeded to move back and forth in a foreign waterbending stance to finish cleaning the deck floor, stopped and laughed at Kanna. "Sorry that information isn't in my interest to expel."

Kanna felt herself tense up in irritation.

Calm down Kanna, use your words.

Resisting the urge to strangle the tall brunette, Kanna sighed and adjusted her grey workers top. "What do you want for the information Arika?"

Arika smiled in deep satisfaction and Kanna shivered involuntarily.

"Oh I'll let you know when the time suits me. Do we have a deal?"

Despite feeling like she was signing her soul to an evil spirit, Kanna felt she had no other choice. There was no way Karok or Nakoda would ever tell her, and she didn't know who else to ask for the information.

"Deal."

"Names Shinzue, his shift is in the morning at the boiler room to fuel the engine. Have fun."

At that Arika shifted all of the excess water from the deck floor into her bucket. She picked it up and walked up the stairs to the observation level of the ship, zeal in each of her steps.

Feeling a new burden over her shoulders Kanna recorded and placed the name of her brother's attacker into the back of her mind. She would be paying this firebender a visit sooner or later.

After a little while Kanna was back into her own pensive state, walking around the ship. She couldn't wait till the sunset, when the sky and the ocean seemed to melt into each other. It always created this sensation of weightlessness in Kanna. Like she couldn't be able to differentiate between what was above and what was below herself. She used to hate that feeling, but after a while it became one of the good and few things she experienced on the ship.

Kanna couldn't see the black dot anymore in the horizon.

"My dear I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with that girl a little while ago."

Kanna turned and smiled. She was greeted by an even larger wrinkly smile.

Kanna raised her arms in mock defense, "Well there's not much of a choice, Kartok went and got himself burned now I've got to clean up the mess."

"I think all you will do is fan the flames girl."

The man who stood before Kanna was named Kanza. He was somewhat of a sage around the ship. He was well into his seventies but had a hidden strength like a soft wind that promised a great storm. No one knew if he could bend or not. Speculation was that he was an earth bender, but no one could confirm or disprove that theory. Kanna herself didn't really care. Kanza was as wise as they got, and since Kanna and her brothers lacked any strong parental caretaking, they received it from Kanza in small amounts.

Kanna shrugged, "Perhaps."

"You should also remind that girl to watch her tongue, speaking of freedom and capture is not wise. Fire's isn't the only thing around here to burn us anymore"

Kanna heard the chastising in Kanza's voice and began to fidget while saying, "I know I was shocked myself. I mean after what happened to Doc…" At the mention of the young earthbender Kanna's voice trailed off.

Kanza sighed, and reached over to swipe the dust off of Kanna's work shirt. "How are your brothers? Kartok's hand isn't terribly injured I take it?"

"They're pretty much the same as always, Nakoda promised to take Kartok to the healer before my shift is over."

Seeming satisfied with this response, Kanza stared out into the ocean and his eyes glazed overslightly. He spoke in a dark whisper, "I sense a tide is rising Kanna, one that holds many possibilities."

"Possibilities?" Kanna replied in confusion at the sudden change in the conversation.

"Yes, possibilities. Good" Suddenly Kanza's stoic face brightened up, "Goodnight my dear girl!"

Kanza suddenly turned and began leaving; Kanna shouted at his back, "Wait, no stay Kanza! What do you mean by possibilities?"

"I must go, my shift is over. You will understand soon, I promise," was his response.

It was finally here, the sunset. Kanna stared out into the sea in anticipation. Thoughts of bloody gates, subtle threats, and unknown possibilities left her mind. She smiled to herself as she reviewed the sky. The color myriad she had noticed before was reaching its peak. All of the colors were merging and brightening as if they were giving their last cosmic performance of the day. Kanna began to count the seconds till the sun hit the horizon line

Three, two…

Kanna let out an involuntary yelp as another color joined her sunsets palette. It was a mushroom shaped cloud that disappeared after a tremendous thunder.

Catching her breathe from the initial shock, Kanna refocused on the scene far off. All she could see was smoldering embers. All she could feel from the ocean was its shudder and recoil.

That, and what felt like a slowly beating human heart.