A/N: I'm sorry this is late guys! It's been a busy week. I've had to switch classes and catch up on all the new work so I didn't have much free time to work on this chapter, but here it is! It may be a little rough since I've only done a couple read-throughs, but I hope it's not too bad. Thank you! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters or the inspired story.


"Would you stop fiddling with that thing? Sit up straight. And keep your chin up, you're a Duchess remember." Mako had been a never-ending handbook of "Princess Tips" since the first step out of the palace and Korra was growing tired of it already. If one more command came out of his mouth, she promised to wring his neck.

Instead of following his orders, Korra stayed slouched against the hard cushion. She was transfixed by the way the snow and trees blurred together as the train sped along through the Earth Kingdom.

"Korra, I'm just trying to-"

"Mako," she spoke with a soft tone that neither he nor Bolin had ever heard come out of her before. Mako was so distracted by his instinct to melt with her voice he barely heard her next sentence. "Do you really think I'm royalty?"

Mako followed her example and carried the same low tone. "Well, yes, Korra, you know I do."

When she whipped her head around to look at him, though, her hard, ruthless glare in no way matched the voice he heard. "Then stop bossing me around!" Korra hissed. She immediately grabbed her things and left the compartment. Naga clumsily followed, hitting Mako in the face with her tail and nearly breaking a few toes on the way.

Bolin chuckled at Mako's look of disbelief. "She certainly has a mind of her own," he said as he returned back to writing their "travel papers".

"Yeah, I hate that in a woman."

About ten minutes later, Korra heard her compartment's door open. She chose not to look at the figure that stepped around the polar bear-dog to sit across from her; she knew who it was.

"Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot," Mako started.

"I think we did too," Korra clipped. "But I appreciate your apology."

"Apology? Who said anything about an apology?" Korra felt an unwelcomed feud begin to brew.

"Okay, okay, just- Don't talk. It's just going to piss me off."

"Fine then. I'll be quiet if you will."

"Fine, I'll be quiet."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine." Mako narrowed his eyes as he tried to get the last word in.

"Fine." Korra established that she wouldn't let that happen.

Not four beats went by before she began again. "Do you think you'll miss it?"

"What, you're talking?" Mako shot back with no attempt to hide his annoyance.

"No. The Northern Tribe."

"Ha, no way."

"But it was your home."

"No, it was a home."

Korra could see him growing uncomfortable. "So you wouldn't miss your family?"

"Bolin is my only family."

"What about your parents?" The question escaped her mouth before she could even grasp it.

Mako stared hard at the ground for a few moments. "They were killed." Korra bit her lip, immediately regretting her quick mouth. "During the Siege of the Palace. There were riots after the spirits attacked and I watched them cut my parents down."

"Mako, I'm so sorry. I didn't-"

"I don't need pity," he cut in. "My brother and I have survived and that's all that matters."

She let the silence fill the compartment for a moment. "So will you make Republic City your home?"

"What is it with you and homes?" He wasn't annoyed anymore; he was angry.

The air suddenly felt tense and she grew angry as well. "For one thing, it's something every normal person wants! And second, it's-" Something I've never had. The words stopped abruptly at the edge of her lips. She grew frustrated and wanted to smack his acerbic expression right off his face. "Oh, just forget it!"

The compartment door opened again to reveal Bolin. "I heard yelling. Mako, what did you do?"

"Me? Are you kidding? She started it!" He swung his pointer finger in Korra's direction like a juvenile.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

Bolin pulled Mako aside and whispered quickly. "We have a problem with the papers."

"What problem?"

"Everything's in green." He demonstrated how he had already printed three sets of travel papers in black ink.

"What, the Earth Queen just felt like changing everything in the last three years?"

"Apparently so, now I suggest we got out of here before the guards come."

The two collected their belongings while dragging along a confused Korra and even more troubled Naga. The easy part was finding the space to hide for the time being: the baggage car. The much more difficult part was trying to coerce the polar bear-dog into the cramped space. Finally, after much convincing from her master and even more pushing from the two brothers, the beast made her way into the car.

"Why the hell did we bring the dog anyway?" Mako complained under his breath.

"Naga comes with me whether we are doing illegal things or not." Korra raised a brow at he and Bolin. "You think I can't tell what you two have been doing?"

Before either could retort, the train car took a huge jolt forward, knocking all three onto the floor. Korra looked back to find the south side's door completely blown off, the remaining cars of the train slowing down behind them. "Was this your idea of escaping the guards, Cool Guy?"

Mako shuffled to the north side of the car. He looked out the small window to see the engine of the train produce a thin gas rather than the coal emissions it should have been producing. "Something's wrong with the engine, I'm going to check it out."

He jumped across, climbed up the leading car, and ran across the burning coal. Once he reached the conductor's quarters, he grabbed the side window and swung through, knocking his body against the opposite wall. He didn't find anyone in the quarters but he did find all of the systems completely frozen over. That explained the gas. With the burning coals reacting against the ice, the engine had a possibility of imploding at any minute. By the placement of the spindle on the pressure gauge, Mako estimated it would actually be any second.

He immediately began defrosting the engine by fire bending at the tips of his fingers, slowly and carefully. Mako warily watched the pressure gauge release as he kept the same intensity of heat.

The gauge released down by two whole numbers and he relaxed a little, just slightly increasing the amount of heat. After a minute, Mako looked back to the gauge; the spindle was rising again at an instantaneous speed. He felt the pressure grow and stopped bending, jumping back to escape the car. He grabbed the edge of the side window and began pulling his body out. Mako felt the explosion before he heard it as the flames licked up his legs. With adrenaline pumping, he managed to wriggle out and plant two feet on the fragile ceiling before he could be seriously burned.

"Are you okay?" Bolin yelled once Mako had climbed off the opposite car.

"I'm fine, but no one's driving this train and the engine just combusted. We're going to have un-cable the car and coast to a stop. Look for a wrench or axe or something." He began fire bending at the thick steel attempting to melt the element. The train's speed was picking up and the chilling wind painfully stung his face. "Bolin, this would be a really great time for you to be able to metal bend," Mako yelled.

"Sorry, I'm not that talented, bro!" Both he and Korra were fishing through every box and bag possible for something helpful but of course there was nothing but clothing. All the tools must have been in the conductor's quarters. Korra came across what seemed to be a circus or street performer's luggage containing many intricate costumes and complicated technology. She pushed the bags aside to see a wooden box with the word "EXPLOSIVES" stamped across the side.

Mako had barely made a dent in the bonds. "Dammit, is there seriously nothing in there?" As if on cue, Korra handed him a small stick of dynamite. 'That'll work." He lit the wick, stuck it in between the cables, and hopped into the car.

Bolin held Naga against one wall of the car and curled his body into a ball. Mako followed suit, pulling Korra tight into his arms against the other wall and tucking both their heads. She tried to ignore the feeling of his breath against her neck and the warmth that churned in her stomach.

The car shook violently as the dynamite combusted. They all brought their heads up to see that the cars had separated. Korra looked at the track ahead of them; she saw around a couple bends of the mountain there would be a large bridge. She wasn't sure if it was a dark spirit or a very large ghost, but Korra caught a glimpse of something mysteriously out of place. Seconds later, the bridge of track collapsed, pieces falling into the large canyon. "Plan B, Team Captain?" She said as she gave a snarky expression to Mako and hitched a thumb at the disaster.

He took inventory of the car and located a large set of chains. "Bolin, try to pull what's left of the breaks. Korra, help me out with this." They pushed the chains to where the south door was supposed to be. He climbed out and underneath the car. Mako struggled to breathe against the gravity and speed of the car. "Hand me the end." She fished the heavy hook down and he wrapped it around one of the steel bearings of the train.

He heard metal debris begin to come lose and saw sparks as a bar fell from the front of the car and came straight for his body. The bar just scraped his arm but it was enough to knock him off balance and lose his grip of the car. Before he had fully closed his eyes for the anticipated blow of the tracks against his body, Mako felt a hand grasp his and pull him up. He opened his eyes and found his face was less than four inches from Korra's; her glassy, cerulean eyes were wide with fear.

She pulled his body the rest of the way into the car. "If we live through this, remind me to thank you," he told her.

She gave a small laugh. "You got it." Together, they pushed to the rest of the heavy chains onto the tracks. The other end hooked onto a plank for a small moment before ripping up the rest of the track with it. "Plan C?"

"We jump."

The three gathered their bags and jumped with the polar bear-dog into the harsh snow. After recovering, they watched both cars fly off the bridge into the chasm. A moment later, flames and smoke engulfed the air of the canyon in response to the crash.

"I hate trains," Mako stated.


A/N: Keep this chapter fresh in your mind because I may be adding a little treat for you guys at the very end of the story!