Chapter 1: The Storm

Hey guys! I just wanted to warn you real quick that since this is a pirate story, the characters are going to be talking like pirates. It should be interesting to see how I do with this because I've never done it before, but hopefully it's not too horrible. Anyway, thank you guys so much for reading adn I hope you all have a great day!

Quick responses to reviews:

AnonymousKataang: Well, first off I want to say I'm glad that you liked it and it's nice to hear from you again. Secondly, I hadn't thought of making it a series, but it would be interesting to see where it goes from there. How about this; Once I've gotten through this story, I'll continue A Twist of Fate. Deal?

Sparkysparkybo0mman: Your review wasn't sloppy! It's perfectly fine. Anyway, I wasn't planning on making it into a full-length story, but honestly since you guys seem to want it continued and I personally like the idea now because of you and AnonymousKataang, I probably will. Thanks for helping me see the potential in it.

Raccoon: Yeah, I know what you mean. I can't consider it canon either if it contradicts the show. Not to mention that some things in it just don't seem to be something that Katara would actually think. And yeah, it was inspired by a story like it, I just forgot that it was done by LES. Makes sense though, he had a lot of good ideas that I read before.

CrueFan21: Thanks! And I agree, I've always liked these "what if" stories, too. It's interesting to see how different things can play out.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.


Aang took in a deep breath of the fresh sea air, smiling as he enjoyed the weather around him. It was a perfect day to go out for an adventure. The sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the winds were just itching to send him on his way. It would be a good day for what he had in mind, it seemed.

He had always loved being at sea, but he supposed that likely was because he had practically grown up sailing it. His parents had once resided in the Air Nomad Temples, but when they met and fell in love instantly, they had decided that they would run away together.

Knowing that their principles wouldn't allow them to be together, the two lovers instead decided that they would become something new: Pirates. They both had a love of the sea, and they both had the capabilities to keep a ship going on their own. Besides, they no longer had to listen to the rules of the Air Nomads, and this would truly be a thrilling adventure.

And so the two former Air Nomads turned to a life of piracy, but they couldn't deny that they were still Air Nomads at heart. Due to this, they kept some of their former principles, including the non-violence principle of their former home, and became the first non-lethal pirates in the world.

Then, how did anyone ever take them seriously, one might ask? Well, it was really quite simple, actually. Just because they had sworn themselves to not killing anyone didn't mean that they wouldn't hurt them. They respected the teachings of their former home, but they wanted to be Pirates as well, and they wouldn't allow their old life to compromise them in their new one.

As the two air benders quickly made their legend known throughout the world, what the rest of the world didn't know was that the two former Nomads had decided to have a child of their own, and had named him Aang. From birth, he had been raised to do as they did. They spent many months making him into the perfect sailor. He knew every nook and cranny of the ship, he knew everything there was to know about piloting a ship, and he knew how to be a Captain.

Despite his parents' rather rough choice of what they wanted to do with their life, they were still excellent parents to him, and had raised him with all the love and affection that he wouldn't have gotten had he been born among the Air Nomads. And thus he had learned what family was, and hoped that one day he would have one of his own. If he lived long enough to have one, that is.

When he had reached the age of eighteen, his parents had been killed in a battle with their fellow pirates, making Aang quite sad for some time. But though he had wanted to get revenge against the pirates who had killed them, he knew that wasn't what his parents would have wanted. Instead, he had taken all of his enemy's plunder and had left them adrift in the sea. He had felt bad about this, but he still wasn't very happy that they had killed his parents. Besides, he had given them more of a chance of surviving than if he had chosen to just end them there, so he supposed he had done all that he could for them.

But after some time, he managed to pull himself together and continued their legacy, plundering many more ships over the next few years and earning a reputation for himself as the world's most dangerous, non-killing pirate the world had ever seen.

Only one pirate had made themselves known to the world as well as he had, but he had never met this infamous pirate who had made quite a name for themself. He knew nothing of his competitor other than that they went by the name 'The Tide'. No other information could ever be found out about this mysterious captain who appeared to be quite the pirate themself, if their rather infamous status indicated anything.

He himself had his own infamous nickname, but this one had been one that he had earned. Due to his years of experience in piracy, he had mastered it so well that he could board a ship and have it cleared in minutes, earning him the title 'The Ghost' as he appeared out of nowhere and was gone just as quickly as he had arrived. Titles didn't really mean anything to him normally, but not only did it serve to put fear in the hearts of his enemies, it also made him hope that the name would have made his parents proud.

Despite his infamous tactics, he had noticed that the ones he chose to raid were usually more willing to surrender to him since they knew he wouldn't kill them, making it far easier for him to take what was his and move on with his day.

At any rate, he was well-experienced in what he did, and had earned himself a fearful reputation that helped him become one of the best pirates in the world. His crew respected him greatly, but they also knew that just because he didn't kill didn't mean that he wouldn't hurt them if he needed to, and after seeing what he had ordered them to do to some of their former prey, they knew that he truly meant business.

The young air bender didn't enjoy watching people suffer, but as a pirate, he knew there was no other way. Since he wouldn't kill, that meant that he would have to make up for the lack of fear with something that would replace it, but in a way that didn't force him to take innocent lives. Besides, he made sure that the people had the means to take care of themselves before he would go looking for his next prize, and held a mostly guilt-free conscience because of this.

It also helped that he didn't raid innocent merchant ships, even if they were often full of cargo that would earn him a fortune. No, instead he only raided the other three Nations' navy ships. The Earth Kingdom ships were the most common he found around here, though he supposed that that likely was due to the fact that he was in Earth Kingdom waters. The Fire Navy had a fair amount of ships that were laden with treasures for him to take, and he rarely saw a Water Tribe ship. He didn't care what Nation the ships came from; all he cared about was that he continued living the life he loved.

"Sir!" A familiar voice snapped him out of his thoughts as he turned to see his helmsman looking at him.

"What is it?" he finally responded with a raised brow, wondering why his helmsman looked a little nervous.

"A storm is coming. A bad one," the helmsman told him with a cautious look on his face as he looked at the horizon, hearing the sound of someone scoffing as footsteps could be heard going up the stairs to the top deck.

"A storm?" the man shook his head and rolled his eyes as he came walking up to the two. "Please. It's perfect outside. There's not even a cloud in the sky! What makes you think there'll be a storm?"

The helmsman looked down, still not looking sure himself, but he had been travelling on the sea for years, and really felt like there was something that they should be prepared for. "I know it sounds crazy, but I know that a storm's coming."

The new man just scoffed again, clearly not believing him. Before this could go any further, however, Aang finally decided to step in. "Okay, that's enough, you two!" he put a hand in the air to silence them before turning to look at his helmsman. "You really think that there will be a storm?"

"Yes, sir," the helmsman nodded, making Aang frown in thought as he weighed his options. As much as he knew the safety of his crew was more important than gathering more riches, he still couldn't help but be itching to find some prey to pursue.

"I was hoping to at least get some action today," Aang began thoughtfully as he put his fingers on his chin in thought. "Do you have any idea how long it'll be before it comes?"

"If it comes," the other man rudely interjected, making Aang give him a look that immediately made him stop. With this taken care of, Aang turned back to his helmsman and waited for him to say what he was thinking, watching him look between the perfectly clear sky and the water around them before he simply shrugged.

"It's hard to tell, sir," he admitted with a frown. "But we probably have enough time to do a little hunting before it finds us."

Aang grinned and clapped his helmsman on the back. "That's what I like to hear." Turning to the man who was still standing there, he resumed his usual Captain stature and started barking off orders. "It's time to cast off. All hands aft, lads! It's time to find us some more treasure!"

The crew cheered at this, making him grin as he looked at them and felt happy that he had gotten such a good crew. It hadn't been easy to find a crew that was okay with not killing, but his parents had somehow managed it, and he had managed it as well. Now was the time for them to have some fun.


A few hours later, Aang felt rather content with himself as he watched his crew load the rest of their prize into the storage hold. He and his crew had plundered a few ships, which all had some of the best cargo he had seen on any ships before, making him a happy man. The only problem with this, however, was that his helmsman had been right: There was a storm coming.

The sky, being completely clear only hours ago, was now completely covered with dark clouds and he could feel the winds picking up, meaning that this would indeed be a bad one. They had made it out of worse things, however, and he felt confident that they could make it out of this one.

And so the ship of quite happy pirates found themselves headed back toward the main land, hoping to find somewhere to dock where they could stay until the storm finished. There was a problem, however, as Aang could tell that this was no normal storm. Something was stirring up this storm more than normal, and he could tell that if they didn't find land soon, they would be in big trouble.

"Captain!" one of the men came running up to him with a fearful look on his face. "They've spotted water spouts from the crow's nest in front of us!"

This was not good. There was only one way to get to land from where they were at the moment, and the way to the land had water spouts guarding it. "Well, I guess we'll have to go around them, then," Aang finally spoke as he thought it over before turning to the helmsman. "Take us around the water spouts. We need to get this ship to safety as soon as possible."

"Aye Aye, Captain!" the helmsman nodded as he started steering the ship away from the water spouts. Although Aang would like to believe that the water spouts would be the biggest problem they would have to face, he couldn't help but feel like something was about to go terribly wrong.

But, as his helmsman started bringing them around the water spouts and got them closer to land, he started feeling hopeful that they would actually make it when he saw it. A giant, ten foot wave that was coming towards them at an almost unnaturally fast speed.

"Wave!" he shouted to his crew as they all looked to see what was coming towards them, being both amazed and incredibly fearful as they saw that it was about to crash down on them. Aang himself clung onto the ship's railing, doing his best to hold on with the strong winds and the wave making the ship go up, but he eventually couldn't hold onto it anymore as the wave crashed down and felt himself fly off the ship, everything turning dark as his ship sank beneath the waves.


There was nothing but darkness around him as he felt himself starting to wake up, groaning a little as he coughed and tried desperately to wake up so he could figure out what was going on. He felt rather wet and appeared to be holding onto something solid. What this was, he had no clue, but he had every intention of finding out.

Finally managing to force himself awake, his eyes slowly fluttered open and took in his surroundings, finding that he was adrift in the middle of the sea. Looking down, he found that most of his body was sprawled out over a piece of driftwood, and considering what he had remembered happened before everything had gone dark, he could only assume that it was a piece of what had once been his ship.

Had he not been so tired and parched from the blazing hot sun's rays coming down on him, he would have been more upset, but he was in too weak of a state to think about what he had lost. Though he supposed that he should feel lucky, as he had somehow survived the giant wave that had likely taken out all of his crew.

Taking a look around him, he saw nothing but endless water around him, making him wonder how he would make his way to shore. Sure, he could always airbend and use the wood he was hanging onto as a sort of raft, but he couldn't see land in any direction, and didn't even know which direction to go. If he went the wrong way, he could end up being even worse off than he was now. So what was he supposed to do?

Although he very much felt like taking a nap, he knew that it would do him no good to allow himself to fall back asleep now. If he fell asleep, it could very well mean his end if he wasn't careful. Forcing himself to haul his legs out of the water, he decided that it was time for him to take action rather than just sitting around all day. He would die regardless if he didn't do anything, so what did he have to lose?

Looking around once again with a clearer head, he put a hand over his eyes to block out the bright light of the sun coming down on him and took a deep breath, using everything in him to try to find anything that might hint toward land. But, as he searched around the area, he couldn't find anything. It was like someone had dropped him in the middle of nowhere.

Seeing that he wasn't going to be able to figure out where land was from his position, he decided to take his chances and faced East, hoping that he would at least come across an island where he could find some food and shelter.

Putting his arms behind him, he summoned a strong burst of wind and made sure that his knees were bent to prevent him from getting blown off and immediately zoomed across the water. Had he not been so tired and worried, he would have enjoyed this, but the circumstances he was in proved to make it not as enjoyable as it normally would be.

He couldn't deny that the cool breeze blowing on his face felt rather good, especially with the heat of the sun coming down on him in waves. He had known that it could get warm during this time of year, but being this close to the water seemed to be making it worse for some reason.

It certainly didn't hurt that the cool breeze appeared to be waking up his senses, too. He already felt more alert than he previously had been, and with every minute that passed, he felt more and more confident that he would figure out a way to survive. There was still the rational part of him that was wary, as even after travelling like this for some time, he still couldn't see any hints of land. But, being ever the optimistic person as his parents had raised him to be, he wouldn't allow himself to doubt whether he would survive or not. He would make it, and he would figure out a way to get back where he started.

Though as he thought about this, a question was raised in his mind. How was he going to get another ship? Not to mention a whole crew who would actually listen to him about his whole 'no killing' policy. The only reason why his crew had agreed to it was because they too had run away from the Air Temples in the pursuit of a more adventurous life. Despite his fierce reputation, he didn't think that there would be many other pirates in the world who would agree to not kill; something that he made mandatory when he was the captain of his ship.

Shaking his head at himself for thinking too far ahead, he decided to save these thoughts for later. Right now, he needed to concentrate on finding someplace that had food, water, and shelter until he could figure out what to do next.

Forcing himself to focus, he cleared his mind of these thoughts and continued onward, hoping that he would find something, anything that would help him survive the night.


After what felt like a long time of travelling across the waters, the young airbender's already tired body started feeling even weaker, having spent most of its energy trying to get him to land. Despite his youth, he didn't have endless energy, and found that this was all the more true as he felt himself start to grow tired. This didn't make him very happy, however, as he had yet to find anything that looked even remotely like land.

Finally feeling the last of his energy escape him, he finally couldn't take it anymore and felt himself collapse, using what little airbending he could do to slow himself down, ensuring that he wouldn't be flung off of his makeshift raft.

Once the raft had finally stopped, his arms drooped back to his sides, feeling completely numb as he laid back against the wood, his legs and arms going into the water. As he looked up into the sky, seeing nothing but endless blue and feeling the scorching heat of the sun above him, he realized that he very likely wasn't going to make it out of this alive. He had little to no energy left, no food or fresh water to build his strength up, and no way to know where or if there was any land around him. For once in his life, he felt utterly and completely helpless.

Despite the fact that he would normally not give up like this, he could tell that trying anymore would be futile. There was no one around to help him, no one that could give him a hand. Not that they likely would, anyway. He was wanted around the world, and he doubted that anyone would help him even if there were ships nearby.

Feeling utterly defeated, he decided to just accept his fate and looked up into the sun, feeling the warm rays of the sun begin to lull him to sleep. If he was going to die, he figured that it might as well be in his sleep. Taking a last deep breath of the sea air around him, he closed his eyes and relaxed his body completely into the water, allowing his worries to wash away with the gentle tide as he fell asleep.


A strange sound woke up the air bender several hours later, making him gasp as he shot up and took a look around, feeling surprisingly more energized than he had been before. In fact, he felt quite strong. But why did he feel strong? All he had done was sleep, and there was no way that he could have gotten better from just that.

Before he could attempt to figure out what exactly had happened, he became surprised as he heard a familiar sound: That of a crew cheering. Looking in the direction the noise was coming from, he became surprised as he found a large vessel coming towards him, making him wonder if he should try to flee or ask for their help. If they were pirates, they would either ask him to join their crew or try to kill him. He did have a rather large bounty on his head, after all. The ship appeared to be of Earth Kingdom origin, so it was completely possible that it could be pirates. Or, on the other hand, it could just be some merchants who noticed him out there on his own and wanted to help. And of course there was always the possibility that it was a Earth Kingdom Navy ship that would arrest him on sight. And considering that he had never killed anyone who he had attacked in the past, they likely had a good idea of what he looked like.

Weighing his options, he knew that if he tried to run away from the ship, he would likely ruin his only chance of survival. Besides, if it was an Earth Kingdom Navy ship, he could easily take it over if need be. Being trained as an Air Nomad who rarely got in fights with others, the other benders of the world rarely knew how to fight against them, and thus were usually quite easily taken down. If they were Earth Kingdom Navy, he could take them down and take the ship for himself. He would of course make sure not to kill them, despite the fact that it would probably be easier than having to deal with them the entire way back to land.

Seeing that this would be his best option, he stood up from his raft and allowed the ship to pull in closer, watching for any sign that would help him determine who he would be dealing with. Though as he looked up at the ship, he noticed that there weren't any Earth Kingdom flags flying, and felt a bit relieved as he knew he wouldn't have to worry about dealing with the Navy. This also was a bit of a problem, however, as it meant that they weren't innocent merchants, either. That left only one option left.

"Pirates," he muttered to himself as he looked up further and finally noticed the familiar pattern of a skull and crossbones. If only this was his crew. He knew that he would be safe then, but he was sure that his crew was likely deep beneath the sea.

Knowing that there was nothing to do but wait, he watched as the ship finally reached him and turned on its side, revealing a line of people dressed up just as he imagined they would. Pirates didn't have a dress code, per se, but they all generally wore the same type of outfit. Though he noticed that they weren't all the same colors. Their clothing appeared to represent each of the nations, blue being the most popular, green being the second most popular, red being the third most popular, and yellow being the least of them. In fact, from what he could see, there only appeared to be about two or three people adorned in yellow like he had on.

Though he felt a bit hopeful as he looked up at the pirates who had all gathered around to see him. If there were few airbenders on the ship, maybe they would listen to him and take him back to land. He had no clue who the captain was, or if the captain was even there at the moment, but he was determined to use whatever he could get to get him back to shore.

After a few moments of the pirates chatting amongst themselves while he waited to see what would happen, a girl clad in mostly green and white clothes with a pair of black pants came walking up to the edge of the ship, putting her knee on it as she looked down at him. She had raven black hair that was pulled into a ponytail and a devilish smirk on her face.

"Ahoy there!" she called out to him as she put an arm on her elevated knee. "We noticed that you're in a tough spot. How did you end up adrift in the sea?"

Although he was a bit reluctant to tell them anything, he knew that he wasn't exactly in a position to be playing games and decided to be honest. "My mates and I were sailing when we got caught in a bad storm. We almost made it to land, but a big wave destroyed my ship and sank my crew."

"You had a crew, eh?" the raven haired girl grinned. "Well, I'm sure that you can tell what kind of people we are, so I hope you don't mind me asking what kind of crew you had."

"We were pirates, same as you!" Aang called back to her as his driftwood got closer to the ship, almost being within range for him to be able to jump up to the deck.

"Were?" the girl asked with a raised brow.

At this, Aang actually laughed, though he didn't know quite why. Maybe all that had happened was making him delirious. "Oh, don't worry, mate. I'm still a pirate. It's my crew that isn't." She gave him another raised brow and he shrugged simply. "It's hard for a crew to be pirates when they no longer breathe."

A wolfish grin spread on the girl's face as she heard this, making Aang wonder if she was going to be serious trouble. "Very true. Aye, I believe you. So, what does a shaggy-haired beast like you call yourself?" she called down to him as he drifted even closer.

Seeing that he was close enough to the ship, he crouched down and gathered some air beneath his feet, letting it swirl around him for a few moments before he sprung from the wood and let the air carry him up to the ship, taking everyone by surprise as he did so and making the girl back up as he landed where she had previously been. Though he really didn't understand why, as it should have been obvious what Nation he came from.

Though, looking down at his clothes and seeing that it was mostly torn, he supposed that it was damaged enough for them to not see the full color of what it used to be, meaning that that was likely why they had been surprised by his airbending.

"The name's Aang," he grinned with a silly half-bow, feeling a bit weird as everyone kept gawking at him. They must have really been surprised to find that he was an airbender. Though he supposed that it was fair, as he had hair and didn't have airbending tattoos as most airbending pirates he had seen had.

"Huh. Another pirate airbender," the raven-haired girl said in amusement as she tapped on her finger. "Captain knows we could use more of you. But where's your fancy tattoos that your people get?"

"I never got them," Aang answered her honestly, not wanting to get on the wrong foot with them if he could help it. "I wasn't raised at the Air Temples. My parents left the Air Temples before I was born and didn't want me to have them for some reason."

"Probably because it'd make you easier to find," the girl mused as she rubbed her chin in thought. "Well, it doesn't matter. Either way, you're definitely an airbender. So, you looking to join a new crew?"

Knowing that he would have to be careful with how he worded this, he put on an apologetic smile and shrugged. "Actually, if your captain doesn't mind, I'd just like to go to the nearest port. I need to get a new ship so I can get sailing again."

To his annoyance, the girl simply tutted and waved a finger at him. "Oh, I don't know about that, 'Aang'," she began with a fake sigh. "You see, as a fellow pirate, you should know that it's either join the crew or we send you right back into that water. Unless you have some gold to pay us to take you back to the mainland?" she arched a brow at him.

He sighed and looked down at his feet. "'Fraid not. All my gold sank with my ship." He then looked up to her as an idea came to mind. "What's stopping me from taking this ship for myself?"

The girl snorted, a clearly amused look on her face as she did so. "What, you think you can take on all of us? We're the best pirate crew in the whole world. You ain't going to take us all down. Besides, you airbenders are usually wimps, anyhow."

"Oh, I'm not your average airbender, mate," he chuckled as he grabbed onto the hilt of his sword, noticing that the others appeared to be doing the same in case a fight broke out. "I'm-"

"Oh, I know who you are," another voice interrupted him, making his eyes raise in surprise as he heard the voice come from his right. Turning his head, he couldn't help but gasp as he looked to see a young girl come walking down the stairs of the upper deck. From what he could see of her this far, he could tell immediately that she was the captain of the ship. She walked with the utmost confidence and authority that no crew member would dare do lest their captain punish them for it. Taking a long look at her, he noticed that she appeared to be wearing a blue corset dress that went down to her knees and a pair of leather boots. Atop her head sat the traditional pirate captain's hat with a skull and crossbones on it, but she appeared to have made it her own and had engraved the symbol of the Water Tribes on it as well. Tucked into the hat were long strands of straight, chocolate locks coming down her shoulders. Though every other part of her was effortlessly stunning, the best part about her was her sapphire eyes, shining so brightly as if the spirits had fashioned her eyes out of the very crystals that he had occasionally found on his hunts. He normally wasn't one to be completely entranced by a girl, but watching as she slowly walked up to him, he found that he couldn't take his eyes off of her.

After watching her finally reach his position, she stopped in front of him and smirked, a dangerously playful look in her eyes. "You're the Ghost of the South." The crew around them gasped, looking at him in awe, but he could only continue staring at her. He had never seen such a beautiful girl before, but seeing that it wasn't doing him any good to stay like this, he forced himself to snap out of it and shake his head.

"Well, since you seem to know me already, maybe you wouldn't mind introducing yourself to me?" he asked, although he was disgruntled to find that his voice was a bit hoarse as he spoke.

The young woman smiled, her eyes never leaving his as she tipped her hat to him. "My crew knows me by a different name, but you might know me as 'The Tide'..."