The procession making its way through the forests of the northwestern Earth Kingdom was a strange one. It was rare enough to see a pair of waterbenders in this part of the world, especially lone teenagers, but these ones were accompanied by a young monk. One with arrow tattoos running across his body. Should a wanderer happen to have spied them, it wouldn't be the Water Tribe kids they noticed first, nor would it have been the monk. It would be the massive, six-legged bison that followed them into the clearing where two roads met.

"This should give us a good idea what's around here," Katara said as she walked up to a bulletin board in the middle of the crossroads.

Sokka inverted the last of his food pouches over his mouth, but received only a few disappointing crumbs for his efforts. "See if you can find a menu. I'm starving!" He wiped the remaining crumbs from his face, tossing the empty pouch aside.

Jogging up next to Katara, Aang pointed to the largest poster on the news stand. "I bet we could find something to eat here. The Fire Days Festival. Fire Nation cultural exhibits, jugglers, benders, magicians." He read off the attractions then turned to Katara excitedly, "This would be a great place for me to study some real firebenders!"

Sokka called out from the other side of the bulletin board. "You might want to rethink that. Look at this."

Aang rounded the board to come face to face with… himself. "Hey, a poster of me!"

"A wanted poster," Sokka clarified, "This is bad."

Katara followed her friends to see Aang's poster, but was distracted by a more recent notice on the board. "Hey Sokka, look. A waterbender!" Katara pulled the poster of the Water Tribe woman down from the board, reading the bounty info before handing it to her brother. "Do you think this is who we saw in the canoe?"

Sokka examined the poster. "Could be, but it's a bit of a long shot." He looked over the writing at the bottom of the poster, reading it aloud. "Wanted, unidentified Water Tribe woman, believed to be in late teens or early twenties. Highly skilled fighter and powerful waterbender. Five hundred gold each for her and her accomplice, or two hundred gold for information leading to their arrest." Sokka scanned the board, nodding to a poster of a woman with black hair and green eyes. "Must mean her." He resumed reading. "Notify Colonel Shinu at Pohuai Stronghold if sighted, do not engage alone."

He balled up the poster, tossing it to the roadside in a tiny act of defiance. "If that's who we saw, they're probably in prison already. That area was swarming with troops looking for us, no way they got through without being spotted."

"If they didn't make it through why would there still be a poster?" Katara returned, instinctively countering her cynical brother.

Sokka shrugged. "They probably forgot to take it down."

"Whatever." Katara crossed her arms, finished with trying to break her brother's pessimism. She turned back to Aang. "I don't think going to this festival is a good idea. I think we better keep moving."

"I have to learn firebending at some point," Aang pointed out, "and this could be my only chance to meet a master up close."

Katara considered what he was saying. It would definitely be hard to find another master, but it would be hard for the same reason it was risky to venture into a Fire Nation town in broad daylight. Still, they wouldn't defeat the Fire Lord without taking a few risks, so it was worth a shot. "I guess we could go check it out."

Her brother didn't agree. "What? You want to walk into a Fire Nation town when they're all fired up with all their… you know, fire?"

Katara dismissed his concerns. "We'll wear disguises. And if it looks like trouble, we'll leave." She walked back down the road towards Appa as Aang launched high into the air and landed on the sky-bison's back.

"Yeah," Sokka grumbled, "because we always leave before we get into trouble."

Korra woke early on the day the scout ship was due. She wasn't sure exactly how early, the basement they had been staying in lacked windows, but she knew for sure that it was too early. Not that she wasn't anxious to get up and leave; quite the contrary, she was itching to get back out into the fresh the Fire Nation after their heads, she and Asami had hardly left their underground safe-house, and only Asami, who blended in better with the townsfolk, had left the tavern. Their little room was well stocked and unexpectedly comfortable, but it was still confining, especially with her glider staff sitting in the corner, practically begging her to take it for a ride.

As she pulled her sleeveless blue shirt over her head, footsteps echoed down the stairs that led to the main floor of the tavern.

"Everything's all set," Asami said as she ducked into the dimly lit room. "The ship pulled into port fifteen minutes ago. They should be taking on supplies in a couple hours, then leaving around noon." She tossed an empty pouch into her pack. "I gave the rest of our money to Yat-Sen, I hope that's alright. He's really sticking his neck out for us, and paying off the vegetable merchant wasn't cheap. I didn't feel right not leaving him anything in return."

"Yeah, that's fine," Korra replied as her head poked through the neck of her shirt. "We can just trade for the stuff we take from the ship once we get to the tribe, and we probably won't be staying for too long."

While Korra knelt on the ground, struggling to get her arms through the sleeve-holes of her tight shirt, Asami leaned down and placed a quick kiss on her forehead. "Good morning."

The Avatar smiled sleepily back up at her. "Morning."

Her shirt finally in place, Korra floated back up to her feet on a little vortex of air and stretched, her fingertips brushing the low dirt ceiling. She cast another longing glance at her glider. It would be so easy; all she had to do was grab it, dash outside, and take to the air. And then get blown out of the sky by firebenders of course, but it would almost be worth it to experience the total freedom of flight after spending the last several weeks earthbound.

Asami didn't fail to notice the look. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Korra assured her. "Just feeling a bit claustrophobic."

There wasn't much preparation for them to do, so by the time Yat-Sen emerged from the hidden stairwell both girls were anxious to get underway.

"Morning ladies," he greeted with a cheerful smile. It was an amusing sight, seeing a man who looked like he could out-wrestle a platypus bear ducking through a doorway that was barely more than five feet high. Even once he was clear of the door, he occasionally had to lean down to avoid hitting his head on the uneven ceiling. "Are you all set?"

Korra glanced at their gear, which waited next to the mattress that Yat-Sen had brought into the White Lotus meeting room for Korra and Asami to sleep on. "Yeah, all set."

"Excellent!" Yat- Sen clapped his hands together then turned around to call up the stairs, "They're ready Bao, bring the bags!"

"Bags?" Korra asked a bit nervously. She didn't remember bags being part of the plan.

"Bags," Yat-Sen confirmed. "You two caused a bit of a stir when you bested Shinu's archers, and security at the docks has been pretty heavy. Just hiding in the vegetable crates won't be enough, so we're going to be extra thorough." As he finshed, Bao, Yat-Sen's teenage son, arrived in the room carrying three large potato sacks.

"You want us to hide in potato sacks?" Asami asked incredulously, apparently looking forward to the idea of spending the next five hours crammed inside a burlap sack about as much as Korra was. "How do you expect us to get out?"

"Ah, right. Almost forgot." Yat-Sen patted down his coat, reaching inside to produce a pair of straight bladed steel daggers, the fair-sized blades looking like small kitchen knives in his enormous hand. He handed them to Korra and Asami. "You'll need these."

"Other than the bags, the plan hasn't changed," Bao said as he stuffed Korra and Asami's bags into one of the three potato sacks. "Once you're out at sea, wait half an hour or so, then cut your way out. You should be able to bust out of the crate fairly easily after that."

Yat-Sen nodded in agreement then turned back to Korra and Asami. "A few of the soldiers stopped by the tavern earlier, looking to buy some ale. We offered them some 'free samples,' mixed with a few local herbs. They should be out until this evening, and the Fire Navy isn't going to wait around for stragglers. Should make your lives a bit easier when you take the ship." He placed his hands on his hips, still smiling.

Bao picked up the sack containing the girls' gear under one arm, carrying Korra's staff in the other hand. "I'll go put your stuff in the crate. I'm pretty good at moving around unseen, so I'll put this," he held out Korra's staff, "in the ship's armory. They shouldn't notice it there."

As Bao left, Yat-Sen turned once more to the girls. "I guess it's time to get underway." He put his fist against his palm and gave a small bow. "Yasuko, Izumi, it's been a pleasure to have you as my guests. I wish you all the best on your journey northward, and I hope we meet again."

"So do we," Asami said as she and Korra returned the bow. "And thank you again for everything you've done for us."

Korra stepped into her sack, pulling the rough cloth over her head for Yat-Sen to fasten. He hoisted the Avatar into the air, carrying her over his shoulder, and headed up the stairs.

"Ow!" Korra flinched as her head knocked into what she could only assume was the low doorframe of the hidden meeting room.

"Sorry."

Korra rapidly decided that being hauled around like a sack of potatoes was just about her least favorite way to travel. Fortunately the journey to the docks was short, and it wasn't long before she was resting against the wooden wall of a supply crate. She was joined shortly after by several genuine sacks of potatoes, just for effect.

The crate was closed up and began to move, but not for long, as it was set down again shortly after, raised voices coming from outside.

"Hold it!" One of the Fire Nation guards at the docks shouted at the two workers carrying Korra's crate. He gestured at the crate with his sword. "Spot check, you know the drill."

The workers, who were in Yat-Sen's employ, traded nervous glances, but kept their cool. This wasn't the first crate that had been searched today, and so long as their 'cargo' stayed quiet, there wouldn't be a problem.

As they lowered the crate to the ground, the first worker spoke up, addressing the guard calmly. "Of course, sir." He stepped aside, allowing the guard to wedge his sword under the crate's lid and pry it open.

Prodding and shifting a few of the sacks with the tip of his sword, the soldier went about his less-than-thorough search. Just as he was about to lower the lid, he changed his mind. There were fugitives on the loose after all, so it wouldn't hurt to double check.

He moved as if to return his sword to its scabbard, then suddenly turned about, thrusting the weapon into a random sack of potatoes. The blade bit into something soft but firm, like flesh, and the soldier gave a satisfied grin. He was definitely getting a promotion today. Pulling the sword through the fabric he split the bag along its length to reveal… nothing but potatoes.

With a disappointed sigh the guardsman withdrew his sword from the crate, removing the potato he had impaled and tossing it back into the crate. "Alright, move along," he grumbled, waving the dock workers away before walking over to inspect the next crate. Maybe this one would prove more interesting.

As Yat-Sen's men sealed her crate again, Korra silently released the breath she had been holding. She was near the bottom of the pile, but loose potatoes offered little resistance against a steel blade, and the soldier wouldn't have had to cut too deep to draw a noticeable amount of blood. Thankfully, he hadn't even made it through the first layer.

She felt everything around her tilt as they made it onto the gangplank, then tilt again as they descended into the ship's hold. After a few more minutes, the crate was placed on the metal floor.

"They'll be casting off in two hours or so," one of Yat-Sen's men whispered through a gap between the boards. "Give it at least half an hour after that before you break out. Good luck!"

Those next two hours seemed to drag on forever. There were only so many shapes one could bend a dagger blade into before that lost its appeal, and with no one but the potatoes for company, Korra had nothing to do but wait anxiously and try not to let the confinement get to her.

By the time the ship set sail Korra was about ready to burst.

Of course, their departure offered no reprieve, and, if anything, added to the tension as crewmen hustled through the corridors, going about their various tasks as they got underway. As the ship rolled across the choppy northern waters Korra gave silent thanks to the spirits that she wasn't one to get sea sick, or this already uncomfortable position would have gotten much worse very quickly.

After waiting what she hoped was a long enough stretch of time, she returned the dagger to its original shape (or as best she could approximate in the darkness) and cut herself free of the burlap. Pulling her legs in to her chest, she kicked outward with all her strength, slamming her feet against the wooden wall of her crate to tear it free of its fastenings. The panel exploded across the room, joined immediately after by the Avatar and a small avalanche of root vegetables.

Korra took a moment to enjoy several lungfuls of new air. Under any other circumstances she would have found the metallic air in the bowels of a Fire Nation warship stale and suffocating, but given where she had spent the last few hours it was a glorious change for the better.

With a quick glance around the room, Korra's relief gave way to nervousness as she noticed a very important person was missing.

"Asami?"

Met with only the distant growl of the engines, Korra's unease began to grow into panic. Korra had made it through the searches alright, but what if Asami had been caught by the Fire Nation? She could be chained up in a dungeon right now, while Korra was miles away on a ship full of firebenders and unable to aid her.

"Asami?" She asked the supply room again, more urgently. "Are you here?"

No reply was forthcoming, and Korra silently cursed herself for her carelessness. She should have knocked, or should have tried to say something, anything to make sure that Asami had gotten past the guards. If something had happened to her, Korra would never forgive herself.

Korra called into the storeroom again, and the knot in her chest loosened as she was able to discern a muffled thumping from somewhere in the room. There may have also been words, but they were too distant and muted to make out.

"Where are you? There's a lot of boxes in here." The banging resumed, and Korra held up a ball of flame for light, scanning over the stacks of crates and trying to locate the source of the sound. It seemed to be coming from a stack of crates in the corner of the hold.

Korra gripped one of the wooden boxes and heaved it aside, knocking on the side of the crate at the bottom of the stack. "Asami? You in here?"

"Yeah Korra, it's me," came the muffled reply. "Could you get me out? I'm not in a good position."

"You got it." Korra stood, glanced quickly at the door to make sure the coast was clear, then pulled out her dagger and jammed it into the top of the crate, sticking it into the seam between two panels. She gave the blade a twist to pry open a gap, but the boards remained stubbornly in place. Withdrawing her weapon, Korra shifted tactics and took a wide stance, arms extended. The crates were held together with heavy nails, so if she could just find them maybe she could… there they were. Reaching out with her metalbending, she pulled her arms back to rip the iron spikes straight out of the wood, allowing the crate's wall to fall free.

Asami slid out of the crate head first, her face bright red.

She rolled over to push herself from the deck, kneeling for a moment to let the blood rush from her head. "When we get out of here," she grumbled, rubbing her temple, "I am going to find the sailor that stacked those crates and we are going to have a lengthy discussion about spatial orientation."

Korra held out a hand to help Asami to her feet, earning an appreciative smile. Despite their situation that smile was enough to give Korra pause, so when Asami stretched and flipped her hair, which was somehow still perfect, the Avatar went more than a little weak at the knees. The next thing she knew she was wrapping her arms around Asami's waist and pulling her in for a tender kiss.

Asami was a bit surprised by the sudden outburst of affection, but she certainly wasn't going to complain. She wrapped her arms around Korra's shoulders, thumbs making little circles across the southerner's back. As Korra rested her chin on Asami's shoulder, she shook softly, almost like she was laughing. Asami listened. She was. She was trying to hide it, but Korra was laughing.

Asami leaned back and narrowed her eyes at the amused Avatar. "What's so funny?"

"I'm sorry," Korra chuckled, keeping her voice low. They were stowaways, after all. "Were you upside-down the whole time?" Asami nodded, pursing her lips. "Wow. And I thought I had it bad."

"Yeah, well I actually–" Whatever Asami was about to say next was interrupted by the stiff creak of the door to the hold being unlatched.

In an instant the two girls vanished from sight, ducking down behind the crates before the door could swing open. Korra peered around her box towards the door. There was only one soldier, and he hadn't spotted the broken crates yet. But if he continued the way he was going, it wouldn't be long until he did.

She cast a glance at Asami, who jerked her head towards a barrel by the door, silently mouthing the word "water." With a quick nod of recognition, Korra rolled out from behind the crate and the barrel exploded, the water arcing around Korra then rushing straight for the unwitting crewman. She curved it upwards as it connected to knock him off balance, then looped it back around to send it crashing into his chest, freezing him to the wall.

Leaving the soldier to his icy prison, Korra poked her head out the door, checking to ensure no one had heard the brief but noisy altercation. The sound of tearing fabric came from the storeroom and a moment later Asami emerged, electrified gauntlet at the ready.

Several decks above, the captain of the Fire Navy destroyer, a stern man by the name of Daichi, paced the bridge with an irritable scowl plastered firmly across his face. Not an hour before they had left port, he had received a messenger hawk bearing new orders from the recently promoted Admiral Zhao. The Admiral was ordering all ships near the northern Earth Kingdom colonies to join some new fleet he was amassing, no doubt to make yet another attempt at capturing the Avatar.

Zhao's fascination with spirits, including the Avatar, and ancient lore was well known among the ranking Navy officers, and it was tolerated as an eccentricity. Lately though, that fascination had grown into fanatical obsession, and Daichi wanted no part of it.

Unfortunately the Fire Lord took anything concerning the Avatar very seriously, and Zhao had shot up through the ranks, rising from commander to admiral in less than three years. That meant that Daichi was now under his command.

The captain was drawn suddenly from his thoughts as the door to the bridge swung open and Lieutenant Sora, his second in command, burst through.

"Sir! Intruders have taken the hold and the fourth deck!"

Daichi's scowl deepened. He turned to the lieutenant, noting a small bruise next to her eye. Not many people could get the drop on Sora. "How many?" he asked flatly, not allowing any of his mounting frustration to spill through into his voice.

The lieutenant caught her breath and stood to attention. "At least two, sir; one waterbender and one non-bender."

Daichi's eyebrow twitched with rage. He was about to whirl on the on the lieutenant and demand to know how two stowaways, one of whom wasn't even a bender, could have possibly taken control of a fourth of his ship before anyone noticed, but his attention was drawn instead to a sudden flurry of motion outside.

A woman in blue sprang out onto the deck and was immediately set upon by the three firebenders on duty. They attacked with all the ferocity that their captain demanded of his crew, but to no avail. The Water Tribe woman moved just like her element, spinning gracefully around the first blast of fire sent her way before leaping clear over the second. She turned in the air, using the rotation to pull a wave of water up over the edge of the ship and onto the deck. The water gathered in front of her where she twisted into a spire and froze it, lifting Daichi's men high off the deck and holding them securely in place.

The captain turned to his second. "Take a couple of men, get down to the engine room. You know what to do." Sora hesitated for a moment, only furthering her captain's anger. "Don't question my orders. Move!" The intruders may defeat the crew, but Daichi wasn't going to let them have his ship.

The lieutenant stiffened at the scolding and gave a sharp nod. "You two, with me," she barked at the two other crewmen on the deck, who followed her from the bridge and towards the engine room.

As the sounds of battle drew closer to the bridge, Daichi cracked his neck, embracing his anger and letting the power it brought him burn through his veins. He was a firebender, and his rage was his strength. The Water Tribe had picked a bad day to try and take his ship.

He paused in confusion for a moment, though, when the young waterbender from outside stepped onto the bridge. And she was young, Daichi noted with some surprise. After the display he had witnessed outside, the Fire Nation captain had expected to face an experienced master, but the girl standing in front of him couldn't be much more than twenty years old.

Daichi did observe, however, that despite her youth, the girl was clearly a powerful bender. It was written in her relaxed but expert stance, and on her face, which showed no hint of fear or injury. A ship crewed by twenty of the Fire Nation's finest, and she didn't have a scratch.

"Stand down," The girl said confidently. "I don't want to hurt you or your crew, but I need your ship."

"Never," Daichi snarled in reply, punctuating his denial with a burst of fire aimed for the young woman's face. The waterbender easily stepped out of the attack's path and gave a sigh of what sounded like exasperation.

Creating two dagger-like jets of flame beneath his fists, Daichi dove in to fight in close quarters hoping to prevent her from accessing the large water skin slung across her back. He pressed forward with an aggressive swing at her face, followed by a quick swipe across her torso, but neither attack landed. Instead, she leaned out of the first strike's reach, then spun to the side to step clear of the second, emptying her water skin as she turned.

Daichi followed her as she moved, intending to catch her as she came out of her spin. But before he could hurl a blow, the water from her pouch wrapped firmly around his ankle, pulling his leg out from underneath him and hurling him onto the steel floor.

With an angry grunt the proud firebender leapt to his feet, delivering a two fisted punch to vaporize his elusive opponent, but she was already in motion. When the flames dispersed, the waterbender was nowhere in view, but the sudden blast of frigid water to his back told Daichi exactly where she was. He whirled on her, stepping back to hurl a blast of fire, but she sprang away again, jumping into the air and kicking off the wall to avoid the attack and ready her counter, a heavy punch that sent her watery weapon crashing straight into the captain's face.

Daichi saw red. He launched into a blistering flurry of attacks, the air shimmering from the heat, but none of his blows hit home. The waterbender kept in constant motion, weaving between his flames, her deceptively fast spins and leaps always taking her out of harm's way. This only fueled the captain's rage, and he rushed in again, only to have that same infuriating mass of water knock him to the ground once more.

"I know your game, savage," Daichi growled as he staggered to his feet. The tiniest hint of a smirk played at the corner of the waterbender's mouth. The captain could feel a weary ache begin to creep into his muscles, and knew he wouldn't be able to keep up the fight against his much younger opponent for much longer. "You think you can wear me down, but you only waste your own time." He gave a groan as he stood upright and the girl's smile vanished, replaced by a look of what almost appeared to be sympathy.

"You can still surrender. I'm not trying to attack you, I just want to get home." Her tone was genuinely warm and open, but the enraged captain heard only condescension. With a renewed anger, Daichi threw another blast of flame, and this one made contact, giving Daichi the moment he needed to struggle to the console and shout into the speaker.

"Do it!"

Asami planted her gloved hand into the engineer's back and he dropped to the floor. She glanced around the engine room. Its engineers and two guards lay unconscious on the floor, fallen prey to her deadly skills and ever-so-useful glove. Their armor usually offered them sturdy protection, but it had rater worked against them when confronted with an electrical weapon.

The engines themselves roared away happily, designed to practically run themselves. Asami could have probably spent all day admiring their ingenuity, but there were bound to be more firebenders about, so she didn't have time to kill. Sure enough, an unfamiliar woman's voice came from behind her.

"So that's how you did it." Asami turned on the balls of her feet to see a Fire Nation woman in full officer's armor and helmet standing in the doorway, flanked by two lower ranking crewmen. The firebender continued, eyeing Asami's glove. "The rumors said you used some kind of spirit magic to knock people out with a touch."

"But you didn't believe them?" Asami countered, trying to keep the woman talking. She wanted a moment to study her opponent, learn a bit about the firebenders from their stance and gait, and possibly their personality. Most notably, the soldier's eyes kept darting towards a specific section of pipes and valves. Whatever she had come down here for, it wasn't to capture Asami.

The firebender shook her head. "I'm not especially superstitious. I figured you had some trick, and it seems I was right." She nodded to Asami's glove.

"Seems so," Asami responded absently. She had seen what she needed to, and knew there was no point in trying to argue, so she readied her weapon, bringing her hands up in front of her chest in a ready stance.

The Fire Navy officer nodded to her underlings, who immediately set upon Asami, while the officer herself darted for the machinery. Asami moved to intercept her, but was cut off by a line of flames from the other two soldiers.

Asami turned about, stepping around the first man's blast of flames to place her palm on his chest, shocking him to the ground. The second firebender was quicker, and was able to evade Asami's attack, returning with a low counter, but Asami moved even lower, ducking under the flames to grab him around the ankle. Her glove did the rest.

An angry voice shouted from a tube overhead, "Do it!"

Across the room, the officer hastily turned a valve. Asami couldn't tell what she was up to without a bit more study, but it stood to reason that it was something bad. She dashed towards the other woman, but her feet clanged loudly across the steel deck plates. The officer turned at the sound and swung her arms across her chest to send a rippling curtain of fire towards Asami, forcing the young engineer to dive for cover.

That gave the officer the time she needed, and she threw a final lever before coming about to face Asami. Asami was ready for a firebending attack, but instead the officer hunkered down and charged, slamming her armored shoulder into Asami's gut. The two toppled to the ground, and in the confusion, Asami felt her glove pulled from her hand.

She rolled away from the firebender and sprang to her feet; she was quite capable of fighting without her glove. Easily avoiding the bender's blast, Asami launched into a complex fighting maneuver, using her wrists to parry several punches from the firebender and send the fire they produced harmlessly aside, then countering with a low sweep to throw her laden rival to the ground.

Using the moment's reprieve to better arm herself for fighting an armored target, Asami picked a wrench up from the ship's unconscious engineer. She feinted high and the firebender brought her arms up to defend her head. Shifting the strike lower, Asami slammed the wrench into the right shoulder of the armor, which dented under the blow. The well-crafted plates were designed to slide neatly over each other, so their sudden reshaping caused them to lock up, rendering the arm immobile.

This left a massive opening on what Asami had observed was the bender's strong side, and she took advantage. The helmet rang dully as the wrench struck it and the Fire Navy officer dropped almost comically to the ground.

Already wielding the appropriate tool for the job, Asami turned back to the engines, surveying the damage.

Back on the bridge, Korra's plan was working. She felt a little bad for the ship's captain; after Amon, Zaheer, and Kuvira, she knew how frustrating it could be to fight an opponent that relied on dodging and countering. At the same time, she found his fighting style a touch unnerving. She knew that firebending during the Hundred Year War was driven by anger, but seeing it first hand, witnessing the pure fury in the captain's eyes, she was very glad she had never been taught to firebend this way.

It was working to her advantage, though. Relying on waterbending, she was turning his own strength against him, and in his frustrated rage he was wearing himself out. She hadn't escaped entirely unscathed; there were a couple burns to her shoulder and arms that would need tending to later, but the firebender was looking much worse. His neat beard was disheveled, he had several bruises and scuffs from his numerous falls, and he was soaking wet. The Avatar could have killed him on at least two occasions during their fight, but that wasn't why she was here.

Seeing him stumble as he came out of his latest attack, Korra decided it was time to end the fight. Korra dropped her water at his feet and the firebender, too preoccupied with his offense to notice the obvious ploy, struck out with a burst of fire aimed straight between her eyes. Rather than jumping back Korra dropped to the ground, coming under the ferocious attack, and spun around behind the firebender to drive her heel into the back of his exposed knee.

Korra came around him again as her opponent dropped, twisting as she stood to pull the water on the ground up into the captain's chest. The water carried him with it as it rose, slamming him into the ceiling before letting him drop back to the ground. His retaliation was cut short as he was flung through the air again, forced up against a wall and suddenly surrounded by ice, rather than water.

Taking a moment to catch her breath, Korra glanced around the bridge. Asami had said that these old ships had a type of communications system, and it didn't take her long to find it. After a minute of fumbling around she managed activate it, though she had no idea how it operated without electricity.

"Hello? Is this thing working?" She spoke into an opening that looked a little bit like a phone receiver, and her voice reverberated through the entire ship of unconscious firebenders.

A reply came from a small opening at the corner of the control console. "Yeah, Korra, it's on. Try switching it to talk directly to engineering. There may still be firebenders around."

Korra glanced at the console, which was covered in vaguely labeled dials and switches. "And how do I do that?" She had enough trouble with Satomobiles, but these were entirely unfamiliar to her.

"There should be a switch that says engineering."

And so there was. Feeling a little dumb, Korra flipped the switch upwards and a series of ratcheting sounds emanated from the speaking tube as the clockwork system rearranged itself. "There we go. Can you still hear me?"

"Yeah, I can still hear you."

"Is something wrong down there? A lot of the dials here are pointing to the red," Korra said into the tube, keeping a wary eye on the vessel's semi-conscious commander.

"Yeah, one of the soldiers did something to the engines, I'm trying to fig– Hold on." The next thing Korra heard was the sound of a sword being drawn and footsteps across the metal plates. Korra waited patiently, glancing outside to check the position of the sun. It was low in the sky, but they were so far north that all she could tell was that it was daytime. There were a series of soft impacts followed by the crackling of electricity and one final thud as something heavy dropped to the floor. Asami's voice came once again from the speaker. "Right, anyway, like I was saying, they did something to the engines that shut them down.

"Can you fix them?" Korra asked, already knowing the answer.

"I'm insulted," Asami replied. "But I could do with your bending. Some of the components are broken."

Korra nodded. "Got it. I'll be right down."

She turned from the console and was about to leave the bridge when the sound of cracking ice drew her attention. Free of his confinement, the captain dropped to the ground, taking a breath to prepare one last attack.

The captain was fast, rising to his feet in a heartbeat, but Korra was faster and the firebender looked up just in time to see a hide boot connect with his face, then crumpled to the ground.

"Sorry 'bout that," Korra apologized, grunting as she lifted the heavily armored captain over her shoulders. "But you didn't give me much of a choice." She hauled the unconscious firebender from the bridge and headed down towards the lifeboats.

By the time Korra had loaded the unconscious crew onto the lifeboats, sent them on their way, and made it back to the engine room, Asami was already hard at work on the engines. The Avatar was no engineer, but she knew enough to know that the torn metal and burst pipes didn't bode well.

"What happened?" she asked Asami, though the answer seemed pretty obvious.

The engineer looked up from the pipes she was unfastening. "There may have been… an explosion," she said flatly. Korra detected just a hint of embarrassment in her tone.

"What?" Korra looked quickly around for some water in case Asami was injured. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Asami grunted as she strained with a particularly tight bolt holding a busted pipe in place. "The engine, not so much. Hold this."

A piece of piping was placed in Korra's arms. "Can you fi – I mean, can it be fixed?"

"Nope. Completely totaled," Asami said as she handed Korra another piece of twisted steel. "But if we're clever, we may be able to fake it. I should be able to work around the broken system and get the engines turning, but we won't be going very quickly."

"I don't get it," Korra said over the growing pile of metal in her arms. "Why would they do this to their own ship?"

Asami sheepishly scratched the back of her head with her wrench. "It might be a little my fault. I was trying to figure out what they did, so I diverted the steam through an emergency release to get a safe look. The release was blocked, and it blew before I could stop it."

Korra knew she shouldn't tease, but her big mouth got the better of her. "Wow. Who would have thought the genius of Asami Sato would be defeated by an antique steam engine." She hung her head in dramatic sadness. "It is a tragic day indeed."

"Shut up." Yup. She was definitely going to pay for that later. "Not my fault some engineer was too dumb to properly maintain a safety release."

Asami leaned back to look across the engine. "You know, we're actually pretty lucky. Most of these ships were decommissioned and dismantled after the war to fund the reparations. I've never gotten to see one intact before." She glanced at the damaged section of engine in front of her. "Well, mostly intact."

What followed came as an excited stream of detailed description and technical jargon, mixed with a bit of a history lesson. Parts of it Korra actually understood, the general idea behind a steam engine wasn't too complicated, but most of the finer details went over her head.

"…but people just called him the Mechanist. The man was an absolute genius; he practically invented the modern age…"

Korra smiled distractedly at Asami as the engineer continued her animated description. She wasn't bored, in fact she was genuinely interested. Some of Asami's passion for these sorts of things had rubbed off on the Avatar. For the most part it just made her happy to see Asami getting so excited about the things she was passionate about. As Asami looked expectantly at her, Korra realized she had been caught staring.

"What is it?" Asami asked.

Korra's smile widened. "Nothing. Keep going."

Asami brushed a wayward strand of hair from her face and returned to her animated explanation. "Oh, right. Well, the Mechanist didn't technically build the first airship, but it was based on one of his smaller prototypes…"

As Asami predicted, much of the damage to the engines had been irreparable, even with Korra's metalbending. Her ad hoc workaround had gotten them moving, but the once swift scout ship now puttered along at barely half speed. Fortunately the currents had worked in their favor, and by the fifth night of their voyage icebergs had begun to dot the horizon. By the next morning, they had reached the mainland, though the tribe itself was nowhere to be seen.

Asami stretched as she stepped out onto the deck, then quickly shrank back down at the cold. She had set a course that ran parallel to the coastline and a bitter wind spilled over the high cliffs and out across the water.

With a quick scan of the deck, Asami spotted Korra leaning against the railing at the side of the boat. She was wearing her fur-lined parka, though that alone didn't look like it ought to be enough to protect against the frigid temperatures. She also didn't seem to have heard Asami emerge from the ship's interior, so the engineer crept quietly up behind her, slipping her arms around Korra's waist and resting her chin on her shoulder.

"Hey beautiful," Asami mumbled from her perch on the Avatar's shoulder.

Two (implausibly warm) hands curled around Asami's. "Hey yourself." Asami could feel the smile in Korra's voice and reveled in the warm fog that filled her chest at the sound.

Asami disentangled herself from her girlfriend and stepped to the side, coming to lean against the railing next to her. "You're up early. Feeling restless?" Korra had not enjoyed the cramped quarters on the ship, and spent a great deal of time patrolling the skies on her glider, but once they had entered waters patrolled by the Water Tribe, they had agreed it was best that Korra not be spotted airbending.

"A little," Korra hummed. "We should be arriving soon, but you were sleeping, so I didn't want to wake you."

Asami stared out across the water, taking in the stark, crystalline beauty of the North Pole. The mainland itself was just coming into view, and the icy crags glimmered in the sunlight, presenting a frozen spectacle that was at once threatening and stunning. It was a welcome sight after six days of almost nothing but ocean.

At her left, another beautiful view stared back at her, a dopey smile plastered across her face.

Asami gave a little smirk, cocking an eyebrow. "What?"

"Just thinking about how lucky I am."

Asami replied with a kiss to the waterbender's forehead. "Must have done something good in a past life."

Korra grinned. "Guess I must have." A dark-skinned hand found its way back onto Asami's, fingers wrapping around the back of her palm. They were about to lean in for another kiss when the deck, no, the whole ship, lurched upwards. Jagged talons of ice rose up past the edged of the deck, lifting the vessel out of the water at an odd angle that sent both girls stumbling.

"I think we're here," Korra smirked, glancing at the flat boats lined with men in blue that had appeared from behind the icebergs.

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, this chapter took a while to get right. It's also my first attempt at writing a fluff scene, so let me know how that turned out. Don't forget to give feedback, I love hearing what you guys think!