Later the same day, back on guard duty, Kuvira watched as Korra, Mako, and Bolin made a B-line across the gardens straight for Aiwei's house. She put it together quickly they were going after him. She didn't think twice about it and carried on with her job.

The next morning, before starting her chores for the day, Kuvira spent her time relaxing in the garden just in time for Lin to spot her. She noticed her bending over and appearing to be running her fingers through blades of grass but wasn't close enough to get a good look.

"Kuvira," Lin asked, "what are you doing?"

Kuvira bolted upright, facing away from her, she spun around awkwardly. "Oh," she said, "I was...just...petting grass." She looked down, and then back up at Lin, "What are you still doing here?"

"We're leaving in half an hour," she answered, "have you seen Korra, Mako, and Bolin? They're not in their rooms. I can't find them anywhere." She surveyed the grounds, hoping to spot at least one of them.

"Korra and her friends left last night," Kuvira said slowly, "I figured you knew. They went to Aiwei's house, probably to track him down." She glanced at the east mountains where she had been told the tunnel lead.

Lin shouted, "They what?!"

Su came out of her mansion gracefully and asked, "Do I hear yelling? What's going on?"

Lin demanded, "Why did you let Korra leave and track Aiwei? Don't you realize how dangerous these criminals are?"

"Wait," Kuvira said, "Su, you didn't tell her?"

"I was about to tell her now, actually," Su defended, "I knew it would make you mad, Lin, but Korra is the avatar and I want Aiwei brought to justice for what he did to us." She gestured to Kuvira and herself. "And my son, Huan, your nephew and flesh and blood. Don't you want him to be found?"

Lin huffed and walked away, "I'm going after Korra."

"I'll go with you," Kuvira said, trotting after her.

"Kuvira?" Su said, perplexed, "Where do you think you're going?"

"I'll be back once we find Korra," she answered.

Su said, "I don't think so. Your place is here, in Zaofu." She pointed to the ground. "Why do you want to go after Korra?"

Kuvira stopped, turned around, and said, "She betrayed Lin."

Su called after her, but Kuvira kept going with Lin toward the entrance of the tunnel. Lin said, "You don't have to come with me. I can track Korra myself."

"I don't think you need my help," Kuvira said, "but it's been a long time since I've been outside of the city and I want to see what it's like out there again. Besides, I think what Korra did was wrong."


As they walked through the tunnel together, Kuvira said, "I know I mentioned this before, but I still can't believe I had no idea Su has a sister."

"As you can see we've had our differences over the years," Lin replied, "she reached out to me back when she was putting this place together. She wanted me to join her and live out here in the middle of nowhere. When I said I wasn't interested, she stopped trying. Even now, after I finally aired out my grievances she still wants me to live with her."

Kuvira asked sarcastically, "You mean you don't want wake up every day and hear about how great she is, how amazing her family is, and how she built the entire city out of nothing with Baatar Senior's help?" She paused. "Believe me, I understand."

"That's one of the reasons why I live in Republic City," she said, "but if you don't like living in Zaofu, why don't you move someplace else? There are plenty of other towns out there that are a lot less insufferable than this."

She avoided her gaze and answered, "I can't abandon Su, not after everything she's done for me. Besides, I don't have anywhere else to go."

Lin said, "Moving out isn't abandoning anyone when you're a single adult with no children. What kind of things has Su done for you to make you feel like you have to stay here?"

Kuvira glanced at her, wondering just how much of her personal life and past she should reveal. Up ahead the sunlight was streaming in. The opening of the tunnel was fast approaching. She knew they would have to divert their attentions back to finding Korra once they were out of the dark. She said quickly, "It would feel like I was abandoning her after she saved my life."

"Saved your life?"

Kuvira nodded. "I'll spare you the details, but when I first moved to Zaofu I was on the brink of death. She nursed me back to health and took me under her wing. She helped me learn the proper techniques of earth and metalbending."

She replied, "As nice as that sounds you should know that you shouldn't feel like you owe anyone anything." As they walked to the end of the tunnel, they came across a path, leading left and right. "If I were Korra going after a fugitive, which way would I go?" Lin asked herself.

Kuvira stomped the ground and made a tall stone platform and looked over the slope and the trees directly in front of them. She shielded her eyes for a better look. "There's a town over there," she said, pointing, "Aiwei was in a panic, there's no way he could properly plan out his next move. That's as far as he would go." She stomped the ground and returned back to Lin's side.

"Well now," Lin said, "that's resourceful. Once we get down there, we'll have to find either one of them."

"That won't be hard," Kuvira replied, "she's the avatar and Aiwei stands out. Someone had to have seen one if not both of them. Hold on to something."

With earth bending, Kuvira made a square patch of dirt under their feet and moved it quickly down the hill all the way to the entrance of the town. Lin nearly fell off but planted her feet into the ground so she wouldn't. When they stopped, she nearly fell straight onto her face.

"That's one way to move fast," Lin said. She approached an old woman standing outside of a shop and asked, "Did the avatar walk through here?"

"I saw a muscular water tribe woman and two strapping young men walk that way," she answered, point down the street, "I think it was the avatar."

As they walked, they continued to ask more people, only to get less and less help the further they went into the town. Eventually no one around saw anyone they were describing.

Lin said, "Maybe we need to double back and turn down one of these streets." She glanced back at Kuvira who suddenly stood at attention away from her. She nodded her head. Lin opened her mouth to ask her a question.

Kuvira pointed ahead and said, "Lin, let's search down here first." She jogged ahead.

"I'm right behind you," Lin said, running after her. They turned around another corner and entered the center space of a hotel's garden. Lin asked, "Where are we going? Are they in one of these rooms?"

Kuvira walked to one on the left and said, "Uh, let's just try all of the windows." She opened the first one and Mako jumped up and gave her a fire blast directly to the right side of her face. She screamed and used her metal wires to shove him against the far wall of the room.

"I'm sorry!" Mako shouted, "I didn't know it was you!"

"What's going on?!" Bolin jumped up and shouted, then saw her. "Kuvira?" Lin poked her head through the window, "Lin? How did you guys find us?"

"You're traveling with the avatar," Lin answered hastily, "anyone can find her. That's why she needs protecting when four of the world's most dangerous criminals are hunting her down! What were you thinking? You didn't even bother trying to cover your tracks or make disguises."

Bolin said, "See! I knew we should have made disguises!"

Kuvira let Mako go and tenderly touched her face. Her cheek up to her eye burned. Inside the hotel room, the Mako, Bolin, Korra, and Aiwei were all accounted for. Aiwei and Korra both sat in the lotus position across from each other on the bed.

Kuvira asked, "What are you guys doing anyway?"

"We managed to track Aiwei down to this hotel," Mako said, "and when he wasn't coming out to meet Zaheer, Korra busted in and we learned he's in the spirit world. She's been meditating ever since. Sorry about your face."

Korra suddenly jolted and gasped as she snapped out of it. She struggled to catch her breath. "We need to get to the earth queen!" She turned and saw Lin and Kuvira staring at her. "What!? How did you two get here?"

"We followed your trail," Lin said, "you weren't exactly stealthy on the way over here."

"Kuvira," Mako repeated anxiously, "I am sorry."

"That doesn't fix my face," Kuvira said hastily, not wanting to take her hand off of it.

He asked, "Korra can you help her?"

Using water from the pool, Korra healed Kuvira's burn with ease. Kuvira said, "Thanks, but why did you betray Lin?"

"Betray her?" Korra asked, "What are you talking about? We needed to hunt down Aiwei and get to Zaheer and figure out his group's plans. We didn't betray anyone."

Kuvira said, "You left her behind."

Lin asked, "Did you at least get the information you came all the way out here for or was all of this a complete waste of time?"

"I met up with Zaheer," she answered, "He told me who he is and everything about his little group."

Lin crossed her arms and said, "Probably all lies."

"I don't know," Korra said, "he seemed genuine. He explained that he's part of a group called the red lotus, that was a split from the white lotus originally. But enough about that, we don't have time to sit around here. They're headed to Ba Sing Se as we speak. We have to get there before he does!"

Bolin asked, "What? Why?"

"The red lotus believes no one should have power over others," she explained as quickly as she could, "he's going to go after all of the world leaders, and he told me the earth queen is first on his list. We have to hurry!"

Lin asked, "Where is he now?"

"I don't know!" she said, "he could there right now!"

Kuvira said, "Su has airships. Maybe there's still time to intercept him through the air."