The solid hard ground cut into Kuvira's left side. Her limps tied up behind her back, this time in regular ropes rather than solid metal. Someone behind her groaned in pain. Kuvira opened her eyes and saw they were in a small fabric tent. "Sarita?"
"Kuvira?" she asked.
"Yes," she said, "how long have you been awake?"
"Long enough to know we're tied together," she explained, "that big guy in town roped us up and stuck us in this tent."
Kuvira asked, "Can we at least sit up?" She forced her torso upwards and dragged Sarita into a sitting position, now back to back. "Why do I feel so light?" She looked down and saw her original hip length hair, so long she could almost sit on it, was gone. She gasped, "My hair!" Now, the ends stopped just passed her shoulders.
"Yours is gone too?" Sarita asked, "They chopped mine off almost to my neck."
"Why!?" Kuvira asked, "I'm so tired of this." She looked up at the tent's structure as she asked herself how she could have allowed this to happen for the second time in three days. She demanded through the tent. "I want to speak to whoever's in charge!"
Sarita asked, "You think they can hear us?"
"Simmer down little ladies," the big man said as he stepped inside the opening of the tent, "quiet. We'll get your ransom money soon enough and then you'll be free to go."
Kuvira asked, "You really think I'll let you walk away when I'm free? You have another thing coming for you! Just you wait! What did you do to our hair?!"
"Relax," he said, pulling up a chair and sitting in the tent beside them, "we just cut it to show that Beifong boy we mean business. We know he's loaded with money, all the Beifongs are. I'm sure he'll pay to get you two back alive and well so just sit tight until then."
Sarita asked, "We're just a way for you to get money?"
"Why are you doing this?" Kuvira asked, "I'm not talking about the kidnapping for a ransom. Why did you turn into a bandit?"
He looked her over, incredulous. "Like you care."
She insisted, "I do care. I stepped into power to help my nation, and you're a part of it too! Why did you turn to violence? What happened to you when the earth queen died?"
"In my town," he explained coldly, "the local government turned out to be embezzling every bit of our tax money to have their own personal parties. When we sent a message to the queen, she didn't care. A couple of us overthrew them, but others decided to abandon the town and leave us with nothing. Without any money flowing in there wasn't much we could do. Here we are, 5 years later, making sure we survive."
Sarita asked, "5 years?"
The temperature rose dramatically from under them. The tent rippled in the heat and quickly caught on fire. Lava appeared on all sides.
"Bolin!" Kuvira shouted, "Bolin, we're in here!"
The large man jumped to his feet and shouted incoherently. The lava cooled; the remainder of the tent flamed up into the sky and vanished. Kuvira looked up at the blue cloudless sky as Bolin and the other members of the security team moved in.
"It's over," Baatar said, stepping up from behind Bolin, "you're not getting any money."
The man saw his buddies running up a hill in the distance to get away. He quickly followed them and left Kuvira and Sarita to Bolin and Baatar. As Baatar untied them, Bolin said, "It's a good thing I stayed on the train an extra minute to tie my shoes. They covered the whole thing in a huge dirt cocoon and all the other earthbenders were gone."
"Where's everyone else?" Kuvira asked.
"We rescued them all already," Baatar answered, "After we got out of that dirt, the bandits gave us your hair in envelopes and demanded 1,000 gold pieces from me."
Sarita cried, "My hair!" She pulled at her freshly cut ends just ending below her chin.
At least it was over, that's what Kuvira told herself as they walked back to the train. The town was ransacked. People stood around in horror at the sight of their once peaceful village. For Kuvira, doubts were creeping in. Clearly, she couldn't simply ride the train, arrive to a town, and hope for the best to happen. Twice now she was taken, knocked out, and tied up so easily. It was almost embarrassing. She hoped Raiko wasn't secretly spying on her to see how she was doing.
The people of the town didn't think so. "All hail The Iron Maiden!" a lady shouted as the crew walked by.
"What?" Kuvira whispered as the town joined her.
"All hail The Iron Maiden!"
Bolin asked, "The train? Or do they think that's your nickname again?"
Kuvira turned to face the crowds. "You can call me that if you want!" she explained, "But why are you hailing me? I didn't do anything."
A man said, "You and your crew scared the bandits away with that lavabending! They've been causing us trouble for weeks! Way before the queen died. Thank you so much, Iron Maiden!" He walked up to her and gave her an earth kingdom bow.
These people couldn't be serious. They came out in droves and bowed to her as she walked by. She couldn't face them, not after what had just happened. Instead she continued walking to the train and had her crew follow her.
Sarita said, "That was worse than Omashu. At least when I woke up there the queen told me everything was fake, but we still had to pretend to be scared and locked up in cages."
"I don't know," Kuvira said, "I'd rather not think about what just happened." She tried to hide her blushing.
"Can you fix the bottom of my foot?" Sarita asked, bringing her prosthetic up for her to see, face to foot, "I think it's bent. I'm not walking on it right."
"In my bedroom," she said, "I need to relax for a minute first."
Sarita entered the room first, Kuvira right behind her. They both stopped and stared at the strange apparatus in the middle of the room. There wasn't even time to gasp before the heat hit them. Kuvira used metalbending to tear the sides of the train toward it, forcing it around the bomb as it exploded. BOOM! Shards of metal flew in everything direction! The impact shook the entire train.
Screaming. Ears ringing. Glass shattered. They hit the walls of the train headfirst as the entire car shook.
"Kuvira! Sarita!"
Kuvira struggled to open her eyes as Sarita's screams pierced her ears. Her vision faded as Baatar came into view. His voice echoed in her head, but she couldn't make up what he was saying. Stay? Hold on? Hold onto what? Him? He was holding onto her.
For the second time that day, everything faded to black.
When Kuvira opened her eyes again, this time she was laying on a soft bed. A sheet was covering her legs as someone was carefully waterbending her injuries. She opened her eyes, seeing she was half-dressed, and a strange woman sat beside her. A small wooden room surrounded her, with a glass window showing outside, still cloudless.
"You're okay," the woman said calmly, "but be careful. I haven't gotten all of the shrapnel out yet."
Kuvira said, "Get this metal out of me."
"It'll take time-"
With metalbending, Kuvira ripped all of the shards of metal out of her skin and tacked them on the opposite wall. The pain of the sudden movements took her breath away as she attempted to scream.
The healer said, "Let me stop the bleeding." Cool water slowly soothed Kuvira's injuries.
"Thank you," she whispered, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude."
"You're probably in a quite a bit of pain," the healer replied, "and you're in a foreign environment. I don't exactly know what happened to you, young lady, but it seems like you're a pretty big deal. Everyone wants to know how you're doing."
KNOCK. KNOCK. "Is Kuvira okay?" Baatar's voice rang through the door.
"Come in!" Kuvira said.
He quickly burst through the door and had to stop himself from staring at her in her underwear. He turned away, attempting to hide his flushed face. He shut the door and asked, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she answered, "what about Sarita? Is she okay?"
"She's shaken up pretty bad," Baatar answered, finally turning back to face her, "she won't talk to anyone but you."
The healer helped Kuvira's facial cuts, and when she was done, she stood up and said, "All finished. Your clothes are in that wardrobe." She gestured to the wooden wardrobe in the corner and made her way out of the room.
"Thank you," Baatar said as she left.
Kuvira sat up, throwing the sheets and blanket off to the side, not caring what he saw. "Baatar, we have a huge problem."
"I can see that," he said as he sat in the same chair the healer was a moment ago, "we're too vulnerable like this. We need better checks, better security, and a better way to identify threats. Otherwise, we're sitting turtle ducks everywhere we go."
She explained, "Those bandits were ordinary people at one time. That man, the one who tied us up, he said his town had some serious corruption and when they appealed to the queen she didn't care. No one did. He was left with nothing and had to steal in order to get by. This didn't start when she died, it started a long time ago."
He said, "That doesn't excuse his actions. He knocked you out, tied you up, cut off your hair, and then left a bomb next to your bed! You could have died!"
She shook her head, "I'm not excusing him. These bandits need help, and they've needed help for years. What if we rehabilitated them into our security force? Taught them discipline, gave them a good enough salary, and helped them learn how to provide for others instead of stealing."
Surprised by her suddenly attitude change, he asked, "How are we supposed to do all of that?"
"My original village was next to a military training base," she said, getting up and walking to the wardrobe, "I watched how new recruits would come in from all over the nation and learn how to march, follow orders, pay attention to detail, all of that."
"I didn't know that," he said as he watched her dress herself quickly.
Only half paying attention, Kuvira explained, "We need to change everything. Better security, and better uniforms too. I need better armor, something people can't take away me so easily." She turned to him.
"You want a new uniform?" he asked, "You think your clothes were the reason you got abducted so easily twice now?"
She continued, "Both Queen Gerel and that bandit took my metal away from me. I had almost nothing but earth to defend myself. I want something built directly into my clothes itself. Think you can engineer something together for me?"
He hesitated, "I'm not a fashion designer, Kuvira."
She carefully took his arm and said, "I think you can do it. We also need to add another car to the train."
"What do you have in mind?"
"A work-out space for the entire crew," she answered, "we need to whip everyone into shape. Even you." She grabbed at his thin arms.
"You want to add a gym to The Iron Maiden?" he asked, half wondering if she was serious but knowing she was. She nodded and stepped out of the room.
When Kuvira entered Sarita's healing room, now being in a better mood, she hoped Sarita would be slightly happier as well. Instead, she walked into her sitting on the bed, completely beside herself in tears.
Kuvira sat beside her and asked, "What's the matter? The healers told me you're okay."
Sarita leaned into a hug and cried, "That was terrifying! We almost blew up! I thought we were going to die!"
"I'm sorry," Kuvira said, "If I had faster reflexes, we wouldn't have gotten hurt. I could have saved us both, but I didn't! Instead, we were both got knocked down and out but we're both okay now. We got to healers in time." She rubbed her back as Sarita held onto her.
Sarita struggled to catch her breath. "I don't think I can do this, Kuvira."
"What?"
"I'm not tough like you," she sobbed, "I can't carry on no matter the pain or the misery or whatever you do to keep yourself going. I can't do it! I don't want to die! I don't want to put myself in such danger! I miss my home! I miss how safe Zaofu is! I miss my old bed and the orphanage and Su and everyone else we left behind!"
Kuvira asked, "Do you want to go home?"
"YES!" she shouted, "I want to home!"
Kuvira hugged her tight and said, "Okay, I won't force you to stay. I wouldn't do that to you or anyone else. And I'm sure if you talk to Su and explain everything, she'll let you return."
Sarita leaned back and wiped her tears. "What are you talking about?" she asked, sniffling, "Of course she'll let me return, Zaofu is my home. Why wouldn't she let me back in?"
Pain washed over Kuvira. All Su's talk about if she left, she wouldn't be welcomed back, all of that was only for Kuvira herself? She didn't say it to her son, she didn't say it to Sarita, a fellow orphan. She didn't say it to anyone else. Kuvira couldn't believe it. She forced herself to keep the pain off her face. "I meant your old apartment," she said, "in the transitional housing unit for orphans. I'm sure she'll let you move back in there if that's what you want."
"Yeah," she replied, nodding, "I'm hoping no one else has moved in yet." She struggled to smile. "I'm sorry, Kuvira, I wish I was strong like you..."
"It's okay," Kuvira hugged her again, "this isn't for everyone. It was scary, almost being blown up on of our own train."
The bandits never intended to let Kuvira and the rest of her crew walk away alive. They planted the bomb themselves, that way she wouldn't be able to identify them for their crimes later. Instead of focusing on that, she set out to do what she had told Baatar. Together they created a new car on the train. Pull up bars, space for push-ups, lifting weights, she was going to make sure everyone on board could defend themselves, bender or not.
It was also time for a while new wardrobe change. Instead of the Zaofu city guard outfit, she ditched the obvious metal and went for a sleeker look. Long sleeve green high low dresses, metal belts, and metal at the shoulders to denote rank. On Kuvira's back and around her arms, she had metal strips to use in combat situations. She also made it so she could sharpen them on command, that way she could easily cut and ropes she might end up in again someday.
She continued to tie her hair in a braid, this time it only ended at her shoulders instead of all the way down her back. By then Kuvira knew helping the earth kingdom was going to take much longer than she expected. Who knew how long it was going to take? Despite her struggles, she wasn't about to give up.
