Chapter 2: The Fight
Quick responses to reviews:
Guest: I don't want to give anything away, but keep an eye out for certain details.
Raccoon: Yeah, sorry I didn't do as well with the description as I would have liked. There weren't enough letters allowed for me to do the one that I wanted to do.
Theastthebeast: That's what I was hoping for. Hope I can live up to your expectations and make this a good story for you guys.
AnonymousKATAANG: Okay, sounds like a deal then.
Benoc2004: Wow. Glad to hear you like it so far. Hope I can keep the excitement up for you.
TV06: Oh yeah, I forgot about that game. You're right though, it does remind me of that. Glad to hear you like the story so far.
The Weaver of Stories: Yeah, I know what you mean. As of right now, most of my pirate talk is coming from what I remember of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, but I'll try to add some more pirate lingo in there. I'm also not going to make it too much like pirates in our world, because as we can see in "The Waterbending Scroll" they weren't a hundred percent like the pirates we have in our world. Glad that you liked it, though.
Chocolateicedtea: Well, thanks. I'm glad to hear that you like it so much. I know, there aren't a lot of Kataang pirate stories on this site, which is one of the reasons I decided to write this. Don't worry, I'm going to see this story through if I can help it.
Bingbong17: Thanks! Glad to know that I did well with it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Aang could only stand there, blinking rapidly in surprise as he took in this new piece of information. Sure, he had figured that he would eventually run into the other most infamous pirate in the world, but he hadn't expected them to be so… gorgeous.
In fact, he hadn't expected the captain to be a girl at all. Not that he was a sexist or anything, as his mother and his father had co-captained their ship together, but for some reason he had always imagined his competitor as an older, far less attractive man. But now he could see that that was the furthest thing from the truth. She was young and absolutely stunning, making him wonder if she used her beauty to her advantage during her raids.
Though he also couldn't help but wonder how she knew who he was. They had never met before, he knew, as he would certainly have remembered coming across a creature as beautiful as her. And though he found that he could continue staring at her all day, he decided to finally voice his thoughts. "How do you know who I am?" he asked with a raised brow, his hand never leaving the hilt of his sword in case someone started a fight with him.
He watched as the young woman grinned, reaching into the pocket on the side of her corset dress and produced a scroll which she pulled out for him to see, taking him by surprise as she rolled it open to reveal a picture of him with his title in big letters at the top of the scroll.
"Oh, I'm well acquainted with your wanted posters," she said simply with that same dangerously playful look in her eyes.
"Now, why do you have that?" Aang couldn't help but wonder, but a smirk crossed onto his face as an idea came to mind as to why she would keep it with her. "You liked what you saw, huh?"
To his surprise, her caramel colored cheeks actually became stained with a rosy red as her eyes widened, but she simply crossed her arms over her chest and looked away, though he could see that her cheeks were still burning.
The crew around her could only watch in surprise as they looked between the two legendary captains to see what would happen, though the raven-haired girl couldn't hold back a smug smirk as she saw her captain do this. She was always in need of more teasing material, and captain or not, her friend was definitely about to get teased for this.
After the young woman took a few settling breaths and forced the blush off her cheeks, she looked back to the young airbender with an unamused look on her face. "The reason I have your poster is purely professional," she attempted to put on a convincing tone, but he could hear a trace of the embarrassment that had lit her face up like a fire on a dark night in her voice. She then resumed her confident stature and smirked back at him. "Besides, I wasn't the one gawking like a lily-liver."
Although he felt a blush creeping up on his cheeks from being so obviously caught, he knew that she was in the same boat he was. But, knowing that it wouldn't do him any good to anger her further, he decided to play his odds and be honest with her. "Well, I'll admit, you had me surprised, mate," he chuckled as he took his hand off his sword, watching as the crew around him did the same. "I never expected 'The Tide' to be so… young. Or pretty," he added, almost as an afterthought.
Another blush stained the young captain's face, but after she used all of her willpower to force it away, she resumed her usual smirk. "An honest pirate? Your kind is rare these days," she began as she walked around him, making him stand perfectly still as she did so, though he wasn't sure why. "You're definitely in great shape for a pirate captain who probably didn't do much fighting himself."
"I did more than you'd think, mate," he decided to oblige. "The best captains don't just send their crew into danger without facing the dangers themselves."
"Aye," she nodded as she finally made her way back to his front and stopped, tapping her foot on the ground as she appeared to be studying him very closely, making him blush a little. "On that we can agree. So, your ship sank?" He nodded. "And if I remember correctly, you were contemplating whether you could take this ship for yourself," she noted, making him smile sheepishly as he rubbed his neck.
"Well, that was before I met a beauty like you, mate," he found himself saying, making himself wonder why he appeared to be subconsciously flirting with her. Sure, he had always imagined settling down eventually if the life of a pirate didn't end him too early, but he hadn't really expected to settle down with a fellow pirate. Regardless of what he was doing, he still needed to stay on her good side. If she was really 'The Tide', he wouldn't have much of a chance against her and her crew. Maybe if they dueled, but he didn't think that she would do that, anyhow.
"In truth, like I told this girl here," he gestured to the raven-haired girl who was snickering at her friend who was doing her best not to keep blushing at his barrage of honest compliments. "I'd prefer it if you could just drop me off at the nearest port. I'm sure as a fellow captain you can respect that I'd like to get another ship so I can get back to it."
The girl simply smirked as she crossed her arms over her chest. "What, you want to leave little ol' me?" she batted her eyes at him, but this time he didn't show any sign of blushing, making her puzzled. Most of the time, she could get men to do whatever she wanted with that, but he didn't appear phased. Though she wasn't necessarily happy that he wasn't falling for it as other men had, she had to admit that she was impressed at his resolve. He wasn't some weak-minded pirate who would do whatever a pretty lady told him to do. He actually had thoughts of his own, and wasn't going to be swayed by looks.
"No disrespect, mate," he began as politely as possible, knowing that saying the wrong thing would get him in trouble. " But I'd be better off getting myself a new ship than join another one."
"What. You don't like working with people?" the raven-haired girl snickered.
"No, I do," he began carefully, knowing that saying the wrong thing could get him in deep trouble. "It's a tad personal, but I have my own reasons for not wanting to join a crew."
The young captain frowned as she heard this, understanding full well about having personal reasons, and for a moment was seriously considering taking him back to the nearest port. However, she knew what a boon it would be to have the other best pirate in the world on her crew, and decided against it.
"While I do appreciate your honesty," she smirked with a bit of sarcasm in her voice, making the crew snicker around them. "I could definitely use a man like you." Being silent for a moment, she decided to make a compromise, surprising herself as she knew that a compromise was seen as a sign of weakness, but went through with it anyway.
"How about this?" she began as she dropped her confident act and got real with him, making him surprised as he saw the real person underneath the confident tyro captain guise looking back at him. "If you stay with my crew for some time and you still want to go get your own ship, then I'll let you do that. Deal?"
Although he was still a bit hesitant, as he wanted to get his own ship now, he also knew he wasn't exactly in a position to be arguing and, seeing this as the best compromise he was going to get, decided to give in. "Aye, I'll try it out. I can't promise that I'm going to like it, though. But," he added, taking her by surprise, not expecting him to try to add anything to their deal. "To keep my Captain skills sharp, I can't just be a normal crew member. And frankly, it would be a waste of my skills as a leader to just be a part of the crew. I need to be put in charge of something."
Being visibly stunned at this, it took the young woman a few moments to respond, but when she finally did, she realized that he was right and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Aye, I suppose that'd be true. You would be more useful as my second." She turned to her side and looked to a man who Aang noticed looked quite like her. Was it possible for 'The Tide' to have a sibling? "Sokka, 'The Ghost' here will be taking your place as quartermaster until further notice."
The young man scoffed, his eyes wide in disbelief. "Really, Katara? You're just going to make this guy a quartermaster minutes after we met him?" he asked angrily with a hint of disbelief, his teeth clenched and his eyes narrowed.
"Captain's orders, Sokka," she smiled somewhat apologetically, making him roll his eyes and cross his arms over his chest as a pout found its way onto his face.
Deciding to ignore his pouting, she then turned back to the airbender. "Well, now you're the quartermaster. Toph here," she gestured to the raven-haired girl who simply nodded to him. "Is in charge of training the crew and making sure that they're ready for battle. She'll be under your command, but I should warn you, she's not one to take orders very well," she added with a smirk.
"I believe it," Aang laughed, making her unconsciously smile at his laugh, but she forced it off her face and watched as he turned to the crew. "I know you all don't know me very well, but I'll tell you a little about myself. I've been a pirate since the day I was born, I'm the only non-killing pirate in the world, and I'm pretty easy to get along with. Well, maybe except for mister pouty over here," he chuckled as he pointed to a pouting Sokka with his thumb, making the rest of the crew laugh.
"But, as for how I run my ship," he began carefully, not wanting to seem like he was trying to assume all control. "Know that I do not take kindly to laziness or traitors. Keep your swords sharpened, your eyes peeled, and the ship scrubbed and we'll get along just fine. Since I am no longer captain, I cannot enforce the non-killing rule on you lot, but I will not be killing anyone. Any questions?" They all shook their heads. "Great! Now," he turned to his captain. "What's next, Captain?"
To his surprise, she actually smiled. A genuine, warm smile that utterly confused him, but he decided to ignore his confusion and listened to her as she spoke. "Now that everything's been settled and we've gotten enough plunder for the day, I want you to get a good layout of the ship. The more you know about it, the better off we'll be."
"Aye, that's what I was thinking," he nodded in agreement. "Then, lead the way." Katara led the way over to the hatch that went down below the ship's deck, making sure that he was with her as she walked down and the two soon were out of sight.
"Well, that was interesting," Toph grinned as she saw the quite disgruntled look on Sokka's face, clearly still not very happy about being removed from his position by this newcomer. "You look a bit sour there, Snoozles."
"Why does this new guy get to be quartermaster?" he growled as he clenched his fists. "We're the ones who saved his arse, and yet Katara's acting like he's been here the whole time."
Toph snorted and smirked as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You really don't get it, Snoozles?" she couldn't help but ask.
"Get what?" he arched a brow in suspicion.
"Never you mind," she snickered again and blew the bangs out of her eyes. "If you haven't figured it out yet, you likely won't ever." She then turned back to the crew. "Alright, everybody! While the Captain and the Quartermaster are busy, we're going to do our chores!" The crew simultaneously groaned at this. "Aw, quit your bellyaching and get to work!"
Feeling even more annoyed than before, Sokka grumbled and walked to get started on his chores, but a devious smile came onto his face as he thought of something. "I'll show Katara who really deserves to be Quartermaster," he thought aloud with a confident smirk as he thought about how to put his plan into action.
Aang couldn't help but think about all that had happened in the last day. If someone had told him yesterday that his ship and crew would be lost beneath the waves and that he would end up joining another crew, he would have laughed in their faces, yet here he was. Not that this was such a terrible situation to be in, but he had had his heart set on finding a ship and crew so he could get back to doing what he loved.
Sure, he supposed that he would still be a pirate while he was on this ship, but it just wouldn't be the same as being the captain of his own ship.
Before he could muse on this further, the captain apparently known as 'Katara' had led him down to the deck and was showing him around, stopping at an area with tables and plenty of bottles of alcohol. Though he noticed that they weren't of sake, which he had seen in many of the other three Nation's Navies. They appeared to be beer, if the smell of heavy yeast in the room indicated anything.
"This here is the Crew Mess," she gestured to the room which currently had no one in it since they were all above deck doing their chores. "Fortunately, as people of fortune, we don't have to ration ourselves and have plenty of food, so help yourself to whatever catches your eye."
Aang eyed everything that was laid before him, and after a few moments of deciding, walked over to a barrel full of moon peaches and grabbed one, taking a bite out of it and enjoying the sweetness on his tongue.
"An airbender through and through, aye?" Katara chuckled as Aang smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "I don't care what you eat," she assured him. "The less meat you eat means more meat for my meat-obsessed brother."
"Well, we shouldn't have any problem, then," Aang chuckled as well as he took another few quick bites, finishing the peach off in the blink of an eye as Katara stared at him in surprise.
"Wow!" she couldn't help but blink several times in disbelief. "You must have been hungry."
The young man nodded and let out a satisfied sigh. "Aye, I haven't eaten anything since before my ship went under."
There was silence for a few moments, neither really knowing what to say when Katara decided to speak up. "I'm sorry about your ship and your crew. I know I wouldn't be very happy if I lost mine," she told him with genuine pity, once again taking him by surprise.
"Okay, not to sound disrespectful or anything," he began with a raised brow. "But you're one of the strangest pirate captains I've ever met. No pirate captain I've ever come across has ever been even a little nice, let alone… kind."
Katara smiled a little at this, but cleared her throat and shrugged. "Well, I'm not your average captain," she reasoned as she looked out the nearby window at the sea.
"Aye, I can see that," Aang chuckled and moved over to a nearby table, pulling one of the chairs out for her and standing there. When Katara didn't move for several moments, blinking in confusion as to what he was doing, he raised another brow at her. "What, you've never had someone do this for you before?"
She shook her head, her bewilderment clear on her face as she looked at him. "No. What are you doing?" she asked with a tilted head, her look of bewilderment turning to curiosity as she did so.
"Wow, and here I thought that pirates at least knew about chivalry," he chuckled sarcastically before deciding to just explain. "Most pirates probably don't know this because they weren't raised like I was, but I was raised to be a gentleman."
"You're a gentleman pirate?" the young captain asked with a raised brow, to which he nodded. "Pirates aren't gentlemen. We plunder and take what is ours. What good does being a gentleman pirate do you?"
"It's not about what good it does me, it's about what good it does for women," he explained, making her look at him in even more confusion. "I would say I'm surprised that you don't know about chivalry, but considering the company you keep, I'm not that surprised."
"Fair enough," she laughed and sat down in the chair he was still holding onto, her heart beating quicker as she felt one of his fingers scrape against the bare skin of her shoulder as he pushed in her chair and moved to the other side to sit down himself. "So…" she began as she tried to shake off the feeling of electricity sizzling in her body from his touch. "What exactly is a gentleman?"
Aang smiled, happy to teach someone else about what he took great pride in. "A gentleman is a man of honor. Not only does he treat women with respect, he is kind to all around him and, even if he might be a pirate," he added with a wiggle of his brows that made her laugh. "He makes sure that those he has hurt have the means to take care of themselves. A gentleman pirate does not attack innocent merchants, but instead goes after the Navy ships."
"Hmmm," Katara hummed thoughtfully as she took this in. "Sounds kind of like what I do. We only attack the Navy ships, too. Well, with one exception."
"And what is that?" Aang asked with a raised brow.
"I'll tell you later," she promised as she leaned forward in the chair, her arms resting on the table between them as she looked at him curiously. "So, you said that you were raised to be a gentleman?" He nodded. "Not many pirates are raised to be a gentleman. What makes you different?"
"All due respect, mate, why do you want to know?" he questioned back as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't see any reason that you could benefit from knowing my past."
The young captain shrugged simply, a sheepish smile on her face. "Mostly curiosity, but we also should learn more about each other. If you're going to be my Quartermaster, I need to know what kind of person you are so I know how to work with you."
"Aye, I guess that's fair," he agreed with a nod as he thought about it. "Well, there's not much to tell. My parents used to be Air Nomads at the Air Temples, but they ran away so they could be together." Katara, despite her pirate attitude, couldn't help but think about how romantic that was, despite knowing that she could never voice this thought aloud. "They decided to be pirates and they had me. Since the first day I could walk, they taught me how to pilot a ship and how to fight. My parents were killed when I was eighteen, and from that point on until yesterday, I captained the ship myself. I've been a pirate my whole life, and I can't imagine anything different." The two were silent for a few moments as they pondered over this, but it was Aang's turn to ask her a question. "Okay, now that I've told you my story, what's yours?"
"There's not that much to tell, either," she shrugged as she thought back to how this had all begun, a sad look overtaking her face as she did so. "I was born and raised in the Southern Water Tribe, but when I was eighteen, my parents went on a diplomatic mission to the Earth Kingdom. On the way there, they were boarded by pirates and weren't shown any mercy." She took a deep breath, forcing herself to keep her composure as she did so, not noticing as Aang looked at her with concern in his eyes. "When my brother and I found out what had happened, we couldn't take it and ran away from home."
Being silent for a few moments, she wondered how much she should tell him and, looking up into his eyes for a few moments, she decided that she could trust him. "When we finally made it to the Earth Kingdom, I wasn't planning on doing anything other than trying to forget about my parents, but then I heard something." She paused as an angry look came across her beautiful features. "I heard whispers of a pirate named Yon Rha who was known as the pirate who haunted the region that my parents had been killed in. When I found out that I could avenge my parents' deaths, I convinced my brother to take a ship and gather a crew. Once we had that, we set off and started getting our pirating skills sharp so we could be ready for when we found him." She took another deep breath and looked down at her hands. "But I didn't just promise to hunt down my parents' killer. I swore to myself that I would do something that would make sure no one ever had to suffer like my brother and I did ever again."
Watching as she didn't say anything for a few moments, Aang was about to ask her what she had vowed to do when she finally looked back up to him. "That exception I told you about earlier? It's that we hunt pirates, too…"
"Stupid sister, stupid 'Ghost', stupid Toph," Sokka grumbled as he kept scrubbing the deck with nothing but an old rag that Toph had given him. Normally, he wouldn't really have minded being replaced as the Quartermaster, but he had always had a fondness of bossing people around. Not only that, but being Quartermaster meant that he didn't have to do chores, but now that he wasn't Quartermaster, he would have to do everything that the rest of the crew did. And he did not like this. At all.
Looking over to see that a good sized group of people had gathered around the main mast, he smirked as his plan came to mind and decided to put it into action.
Casting his rag aside, he walked straight up to them and decided to get right to business. "Alright, is anyone else here a bit annoyed that 'The Ghost' just waltzed right in and now he's the Quartermaster?" he asked with annoyance clear in his voice.
Toph, who had been in the middle of this group, just snorted and smirked at the clearly unhappy man. "Oh, would you quit your griping, Snoozles? 'The Ghost' has a point you know."
"What point?" Sokka asked incredulously. "That he just comes in and takes my job without needing to convince her to?"
"You still don't get it, do you?" Toph couldn't help but ask in amusement, making Sokka look over at her with a frown as she did so.
"What do you mean?" he asked suspiciously, but he became disgruntled as she shook her head.
"Like I told you earlier, Snoozles," she grinned with a raised brow. "If you can't figure it out now, you probably never will. Now, get back to your chores. That deck hasn't been cleaned properly yet."
At this, Sokka wrung his hands and snarled a little. "No! I demand a fight with 'The Ghost'. Whoever wins gets to be Quartermaster."
"Sorry to disappoint you, Snoozles, but it doesn't work like that," Toph tutted him as she punched him in the shoulder, making him yelp and wince as he rubbed it gingerly. "Besides, even if it did work like that, Katara would have your hide for trying to disobey her orders."
"Oh please," he scoffed, clearly not scared for a second. "Katara might be a good pirate, but she's still my sister. I know she wouldn't do anything too bad." Deciding that Toph wasn't going to be of any help to him, he then turned to the rest of the crew that had watched the whole conversation with interest. "What do you guys think? You wanna see a fight, right?"
A cheer of approval came from the crew, making him smile as he saw that this just might work. "Fight! Fight! Fight!" he started chanting, watching as the people around him except for Toph picked up this chant and made it louder, making Sokka smile as he saw that his plan was finally getting somewhere."
Aang could only sit still in shock for a few moments. He couldn't quite believe his ears. A pirate who hunted other pirates? Sure, pirates got into fights with each other all of the time, but this was deliberately planning on ending the majority of pirates in the world.
"Now, not to sound disrespectful, but are you mad?!" Aang couldn't help but choke out. "Do you know how many pirates there are in the world?"
"Aye, I know," Katara shrugged simply as she looked down at the table between them. "But think about it, 'Aang'. How many people have suffered because of pirates who didn't care for anyone but themselves and killed loved ones, robbed people of their fortunes, and destroyed families?"
He too looked down at the table between them, his eyes focusing on his fingers that were nervously dancing on it. "I get what you're saying, mate, but how do you plan on taking out all the pirates in the world? Besides, we're pirates, too. Are you going to kill all of us when we're done with your mission?" he asked with a raised brow.
"No, of course not!" she assured him. "We're different kinds of pirates. We don't attack the innocent and we give a good amount of our fortune to those who need it. I'm talking about the other pirates. The ones like the man who killed my parents. The world would be better off without them."
"Aye, that may be true," Aang reluctantly agreed. "But still, how are you even going to find them all? There's a reason that the Earth Kingdom Navy hasn't arrested them by now. They're nearly impossible to find."
Opening her mouth to speak, she stopped as the sounds of the chant coming from above deck made their way down through the roof, making her sigh as she knew she would have to go see what was going on. "We'll have to talk about this later. Let's go see what's going on." Aang nodded in agreement and followed her back up the stairs, wondering what exactly was going on.
When the two finally reached the outside, they looked around to find that a large amount of the crew had gathered and were chanting "Fight!" over and over again, making Aang wonder who was in a fight now. Sharing a look with his new captain, they nodded to each other and quickly made their way over there. They had both been prepared to step in and break up a fight, but instead all they found was Sokka standing in the middle of the group with his sword drawn.
"Ah, it seems that the mighty 'Ghost' finally decided to come," Sokka grinned at his fellow crewmates as he walked around the circle.
"Sokka," Katara began in a dangerous warning tone. "What are you doing?"
"I'm taking back my rightful job as Quartermaster," he told her with a roll of his eyes before facing Aang and pointing his sword at him. "I challenge you to a duel. Winner gets to be the Quartermaster."
Feeling quite angry that her brother was being so childish over this, she was about to yell at him for disobeying her orders when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning her head to the right, she noticed that Aang had walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder, an easy smile on his face that made her heart skip a beat.
"Don't worry. He's right, he should at least have the chance to prove himself," he whispered to her. "I did kind of just walk in here and take his job." She could only remain silent as she watched him walk the rest of the way to the small circle and stopped within five feet of Sokka, giving him a grin as he nodded to him. "Aye, a duel it is then. I'm warning you, though. Just because I come from a people of pacifists doesn't mean I am one."
Sokka just blew him off and rolled his eyes. "Please, I've been the Quartermaster for three years. I think I can handle you."
Aang grinned, the same dangerously playful look in his eyes that Katara had had when he had first seen her as he found himself looking forward to this match. "We'll see, 'Sokka'." Turning around to him, he made sure that there was a fair amount of distance between them and pulled out his sword, brandishing it for a few moments before he finally allowed it to rest at his side, ready for what he hoped to be a good fight.
Though the two were completely ready for a fight, it was Katara who was quite reluctant to let this happen. Of course she knew that she could stop this, but she knew her crew would enjoy watching a fight and it would help her to see how well Aang's mastery of the sword was. But still, despite having just met him, she couldn't help but feel a bit worried for him. Not that her brother was the most skilled swordsman ever, but he did pretty well when they had found someone to teach them to use one.
And so, it was with a rapidly beating heart and a slightly worried look on her face as she watched the two ready themselves for a fight that she waited to see what would happen, hoping that neither of them would get seriously hurt.
