Korra breathed deep, her long hair threaded through her fingers as she rested her sweaty forehead in her palms. She looked up when the door to the captain's cabin, a forced offer upon her by the airships captain, squeaked open. Asami offered her own forced offer of a smile after closing the metal rectangle behind her.

"You're still not convinced, are you?" the Avatar asked.

A lie came naturally to her lover's lips. Lies were a useful tool in her profession, and Asami was most certainly a capable liar. She swallowed the words heavily. There were no lies between the two of them. "No."

Korra stood, her body impossibly sore, like after a particularly grueling sparring session. "I don't blame you. And I'm not going to try and force you. It's not like I'm the best at reading people. Maybe I'm being a total bonehead and not seeing what everyone else sees. What did you think?"

Asami bowed her head. "I thought you weren't good at reading people? How do you know I went to see her?"

"I know how to read you," Korra said, blushing absurdly. Spirit's sake, they'd been together for five years, best friends for years longer, and Asami still made her heat up like a schoolgirl.

"I think she means well…right now." Asami frowned. Korra hated it, the way those frowns tensed her face, curving hard lines in the flawless skin. "But what happens when she's out in the world again? What happens when she has freedom? What if Suyin decides five years wasn't enough?"

Like you, Korra didn't say. There was no need. Was five years enough to forgive the woman who killed your father? Korra remembered her own father flung from a cliff. She'd forgiven Zaheer for many things, but never for that. And her father still lived.

"Ugh, enough of this, we'll find out soon enough," Korra said, sprawling back across the neatly made blanket covering their bunk. She felt Asami's glare accompany the wrinkle of the fabric and smiled. "Severity sucks. Let's forget about it until this things hits solid ground again."

"You better hope it never hits solid ground," Asami said, grinning. "They're not supposed to."

"Shut up, you know what I meant. The last thing in the world I want to think about right now is how stupid I might be for trusting Kuvira." She supposed not thinking was stupid as well, but what was done was done. Why fret over it? If Kuvira betrayed her, this time Korra would stick her in a nice, quiet prison cell somewhere deep in the snow and let the idiot freeze the rest of her life away.

The bunk creaked when Asami sat next to her. Light glinted off the etched metal around her neck. Korra smiled inanely, as always. What else would she do? Just the thought made her giddy. She reached for her own necklace, tracing the fabric tight around her neck, still unbelieving.

"You're so different," Asami said.

"In a good way, I hope." Korra curled a lip nervously.

"Of course. Used to be you'd be down in that hallway outside that room, pacing back and forth waiting for a fight."

Korra grinned. She was always grinning. "I am a fully realized Avatar now. Master of the Elements, spiritual guru, calm, intelligent, symbol for all the world. And humble, I can't forget to mention how humble I am."

Asami laughed, and Korra again realized how vital the sound was to her being. "Of course, dear, you're a regular stone wall of never-changing emotion."

The day passed quickly, the two women spending most of it making their rounds of the airship; Asami would spend her time inspecting vital systems with the engineers and rechecking the flight path with the pilots, Korra knew. The Avatar had no such important responsibilities or knowledge of the technology keeping them afloat. She did what her fiancé had correctly predicted she would do; she paced the hallways. She moved from guard post to guard post speaking with the Earth Kingdom soldiers aboard the ship. Whether she meant to scrutinize their every word or not, she wasn't sure. None of them had served under Kuvira but Korra still found herself wondering about them. Fully realized Avatar or not, she still wasn't very good at reading anyone besides Asami.

Sunrise painted the sky a vivid clash of lavender and crimson when they arrived. Two Earth Kingdom platoons had set up a makeshift camp of rock tents sprawling across the steadily climbing slope beyond the airship's ramp. Standards hung limp in the still air, each bearing the jade coin emblem of their nation. Two metalbenders, the lieutenants in command of the platoons, waited at the bottom of the ramp, each attended by four soldiers.

Korra again marched beside Kuvira, this time down the ramp to the waiting Earth Kingdom camp. No word had been spoken to Kuvira of their destination or her role once they arrived, and her confusion was evident in her narrowed eyes. She quickly fell into a familiar rhythm, one she'd lived for three years straight. Her head was held high as she passed each bent tent. Despite her cuffed hands, each stride of her long legs held an earned authority.

The largest tent of all was three large triangles of rock, same as the others, and it was here the metalbenders led Kuvira. A map of the region was sprawled across a stone table inside. The platoons' position was marked on it, along with what Korra assumed was the presumed location of the insurgents hiding nearby. Kuvira answered their questions quickly and concisely. She pointed out ideal scouting and ambush points. By the time she finished, Korra was feeling pretty darn good about herself.

Alarmed shouts swelled through the camp like a wave moments before the tent walls collapsed around them. Korra just managed to catch the broken pieces before they could bury her and the others within. Glimmers of light flashed by, some ricocheting off the rock before embedding in the dirt. Metal strips.

The metalbending lieutenants began tossing the still pieces of rock under Korra's control at unseen foes. "Unshackle me!" Kuvira shouted. She narrowed her eyes angrily when met with hesitation. "You're going to have to trust me eventually, Avatar. What good am I bound and helpless?"

Korra screamed and threw the remainder of the rock towards a mass of metalbenders storming between the trees. She had hoped for more time before this happened. A battle or two watched atop a ridge, Kuvira at her side. A village or two made amends with. She had not planned on throwing the woman into battle so soon.

Reluctantly, she retrieved the key from her pocket and unlocked Kuvira's cuffs. She snatched the worn collar of Kuvira's shirt. "I'll be right behind you."

The metalbenders had descended upon the camp in force, a barrage of boulders blasting apart the Earth Kingdom tents. Strips of metal bound wrists and ankles. Kuvira deflected a pair aimed at her neck but was thrown off balance when three more bound both ankles and her waist. Korra quickly tore the metal away.

"Thanks," Kuvira said. "I'm a little out of practice."

"Better pick it up." Korra was only half-joking.

The battle passed as a hail of stones and a steady, whipping wind of steel. Kuvira danced through it at Korra's side. She remembered watching the metalbender flow through those same motions in Zaofu eight years earlier, and remembered the way her grace and agility translated into her fighting. Where Korra was a bull, charging through hostile benders with power and aggression, Kuvira was the wind. In many ways she was more an air bender than the stubborn, unmovable earth of her kind. She flowed around attacks, turning the metalbenders attacks against them. She repelled some of the metal strips with flicks of the wrist. Others she caught and sent back. The earth beneath the attackers' feet twisted with every graceful sweep of a foot.

Hesitation halted the insurgents' attacks as they realized who was fighting beside Korra. A few called out to Kuvira. Some assumed her on their side, not realizing their mistake until it was too late. They were forced back into the trees, surely and steadily. Those bound and left behind stared confusedly as Kuvira passed. The smarter among them, those who realized what was happening, spat at her feet.

Korra worked with the recovering Earth Kingdom soldiers to raise a wave of clay-colored dirt and send it crashing over the heads of the insurgents. When the dust cleared, the fight was over. They'd taken fifteen captives. Perhaps forty had attacked. It felt like so many more.

Asami found Korra later as she tended to the wounded, ally and enemy both. "Where's Kuvira?" she asked.

"With the lieutenants, revising the plan." Korra took a deep breath, concentrating on the injured insurgent before her still bound by metal strips. "She did good, Sami."

Asami nodded. "I saw. Are you okay?"

"Of course." Korra leapt to her feet and flexed, but could not hide a grimace. "Well, maybe a little beat up."

"Can't be that bad if you're actually up and moving," Asami teased. "Suck it up, Avatar."

Korra snorted, bouncing on her toes as if she actually needed to prove something. "Well, want to go see how our friend is doing?"

Asami nodded, gripping the betrothal necklace tight around her throat as she always did in the aftermath of a battle. She hurried to the retreating Korra's side and clasped her hand.


Any and all comments are very welcome, any glaring mistakes in lore or grammar especially. Please don't hesitate if I got some really wrong. This will continue to alternate between Kuvira and Korra, and any ideas of places/people you really want to see are welcome. I'll find some way to work them in. At the moment I'm most certainly planning on including the rest of Team Avatar, the Beifongs and Zaofu, the Airbenders, and the Fire Nation at some point down the line. Anything else you want to see? Let me know!