As The Iron Maiden barreled on, the crew had a whole new routine. In the new gym car, there were contests to see who could do the most pull-ups, push-ups, and other exercises in their downtime. Baatar's first time on the pull up bar, he could barely bend his elbows.
"Breathe," Kuvira said, "Take a breath. Inhale! Baatar!"
His eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he fell to the ground, face bright red while the rest of his head turned blue and pale. "Is he okay?" Jae asked.
"He only fainted," she replied.
Baatar opened his eyes after a moment and asked, "What happened?"
She answered, "You forgot to breathe."
For Bolin's turn, he made it to over 100 before burning out and not being able to go any further. With Kuvira's turn on the pull-up bar, she pushed herself to get over 40.
"Go for 41!" Bolin cheered.
The entire train screeched to a stop, throwing everyone forward and straight into the ground, including Kuvira. "Why did we stop?" she asked, helping Baatar back to his feet.
The train engineer ran into the car and exclaimed, absolutely horrified, "There's a young woman tied to the tracks! I hope I stopped in time! I tried to stop in time!" He held his head, his eyes wide in horror.
Bolin got up and hugged him. Kuvira said, "I'll check under the train."
"I'm going with you," Baatar said, standing in front of her, "you shouldn't have to do this alone." Outside of the train, together the two of them made their way around to the very front. "Do you really think he stopped in time?" Baatar asked, horrified at the implications.
"We can't tell from here," Kuvira said, taking his hands, "no matter what we see, Baatar, remember, death is a part of life."
"I'll try to keep that in mind," he said anxiously as they kept moving.
They examined where the wheels met of the tracks closely. Feet, attached to legs, attached to a fully intact body, tied to the tracks just under the front of the train before the wheels. "She's alive!" Kuvira exclaimed.
"I'll tell the engineer!" Baatar said, running back to the door.
Kuvira ran around to the very front and looked for a head to talk to. She asked, "Are you okay?"
"No," the young woman cried.
"Stay still," Kuvira said, "I'll move the train back." In her horse stance, Kuvira unhooked the front of the train from the track with metalbending, and pushed it back several feet, uncovering the young woman slowly and revealing her to the sunlight.
She was a skinny, her entire body so caked in dirt and filth it wasn't immediately apparent what color her clothes were supposed to be nor what her natural skin tone was. She had long dirty black hair. Her shoulders and ankles were tied down to the tracks, hands behind her back.
Meanwhile, Baatar burst through the doors of the train and shouted to everyone on board, "She's alive! She's in one piece! She's okay!" Bolin and the engineer ran around to the front, along with other curious people.
Kuvira asked, "Who did this to you?"
"No one," she answered, turning away from her. Kuvira leaned over and cut the ropes with her metal uniform pieces.
Bolin asked, "What do you mean? How could no one do this to you?"
She sat up, now untied, and said, "I did this to myself."
Kuvira helped her to her feet. The top of her head reached Kuvira's shoulders. The engineer ran up and hugged her. "Young lady," he exclaimed, "I'm so happy you're still with us and in one piece! You scared me!"
She collapsed in his arms, in tears.
They brought her back onto the train and gave her a place to sit and collect herself. "I don't understand," Bolin said, "why would someone tie themselves to railroad tracks?"
"She was trying to end her own life, Bolin," Kuvira answered. He gasped and covered his mouth.
"No one has ever told me they were glad I'm still alive," she said, drying her own tears, "I figured my own life was so worthless, so meaningless in the grand scheme of everything, I forgot my own death would cause other people pain. I'm sorry."
The engineer said, "I'm sorry you've been through so much you think your own life is pointless."
"Can we know your name?" Kuvira asked.
"Miski," she said, "I come from the town over those hills behind us."
Bolin said, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude and insensitive, but when was the last time you bathed?" He stepped back and held his nose.
"It's been over three weeks for sure," she answered, "probably over four by now."
Baatar said, "Your hair is so matted, I think it's been longer than that." The length of her hair was nearly down to her knees, she could sit on it, but mid-back down it was extremely matted and covered in filth.
"We have showers on board," Kuvira said.
"I hate showering," Miski said, "it's not that I don't like being clean. It's more that I hate looking at my ugly body."
Bolin said, "But you look great, minus the filth you're covered in right now. Maybe I can help with that." With earthbending, he got rid of the layers of dirt off of her skin, clothes, and hair. She was paler than expected, and her clothes were revealed to be green.
"My body is ugly," Miski said, "her body looks good." She gestured to Kuvira.
"It took a long time for me to look this way," Kuvira said, "if you hate looking at yourself, shower without using the lights."
Bolin asked, "You're saying she should shower in the dark?"
"Why not?" she asked.
Baatar said, "That's not a bad idea."
"I like it," Miski said, standing up, "I could just waterbend all of the water around me as I stand in the dark."
Bolin asked, "You're a waterbender? How did someone from the water tribe end up all the way out here in the middle of the earth kingdom?"
She replied, "Oh, I'm not water tribe, I'm actually fire nation. Common mistake."
He froze. "Now I'm even more confused."
"Well, a long time ago I had a great-great grandma..." she paused, "Or maybe it was a great-great-great grandma, I don't know how far back, but she was from the southern water tribe and when the fire nation attacked. Instead of using her waterbending to fight with the rest of her tribe, she ran away to the fire nation in order to get them back for destroying her home. There she fell in love with a regular non-bender guy and together they had a son. He joined the navy, and then moved over here to the earth kingdom and colonized it. Now, a few generations of non-benders down the line, I came out." She gestured to herself and added sadly. "I'm the only waterbender in my whole town-maybe even in the whole earth kingdom. Do you know how isolating that is, being the only one?"
Kuvira's heart broke. She knew exactly what it was like to be the only one. She stepped forward and said, "You can join us if you want to and you can go ahead and clean yourself up."
Miski asked, "You guys wouldn't happen to have any clothes I could borrow, would you? This stuff I'm wearing now is a little tattered." She showed them the holes.
Kuvira said, "We only have uniforms on board, but you can have one of mine. Before you shower, let's cut off some of that hair of yours." She used metalbending to bring scissors into her hands.
Miski sat still as Kuvira took the scissors and cut her hair to be a few inches passed her shoulders. After her shower, she stepped out wearing one of Kuvira's uniform dresses and matching pants. It swallowed her, the sleeves too long, the shoulders too big, the body too wide.
"We can tailor it for you," Kuvira said.
"Are you kidding?" Miski asked, "I love it how it is right now! This way no one can tell how scrawny I am." She wiggled the sleeves that fell over her hands.
Kuvira said, "We have a schedule to keep, but you're welcome to come with us for now. Later we can take you back to your original village."
"Okay," she said, "I've never been on a train before, or really ever seen one in person. This is pretty neat."
Bolin said, "Welcome aboard The Iron Maiden." He gestured around the cabin.
"The Iron Maiden?" Miski said, then gasped, "That means you're Kuvira! You're the one who helped Ba Sing Se!" She gasped. "Wow! I wish I was as important and amazing and spectacular as you!"
"Oh," Kuvira said awkwardly, unsure of how to take that, "...thank you."
In the next city over, The Iron Maiden came to a stop. When they arrived, the air was extremely dry. The dirt was dust. The people were all thin and everything felt as though it was on the verge of collapse.
When they left the train, people flocked towards it. "Do you have any water?"
"Any water at all?"
"Do you have water to spare?"
Kuvira asked, "What's going on here?"
"We've been in a drought for weeks," someone said, "our food is beginning to dry up and our children are faring worse and worse every day."
"Where is the governor?" Kuvira asked, "I'd like to have a conversation with her."
Inside the humble governor's home, a middle-aged woman stood before them and said, "We're on the brink of dying of thirst. We're about to leave everything behind and move to some other town."
"Over 10,000 people live here," Kuvira said, "no place can take that many refugees overnight. I'm imploring you to stay here and have your region rejoin the earth kingdom."
"I'll only rejoin if you can bring back the rain," she said, "fill our reservoir and our wells, water our crops, and then I'll sign this region over to the earth kingdom. Until then, we're on the verge of leaving anyway. You can have the leftover dust."
Outside, she regrouped with the rest of the crew from The Iron Maiden. Miski asked, "What did she say?"
"If we can make it rain, she'll sign on," she answered sadly, "apparently I'm supposed to be able to control the weather now too."
Bolin said optimistically, "Maybe that's not as crazy as it sounds. Since you can see and hear the spirits, even when they're invisible, maybe you could ask a water spirit to make it ran."
Baatar turned to her and asked, "You can talk to spirits?"
She nodded and said, "But I have the impression that isn't going to do anything for these people."
"Why didn't I know that?" Baatar asked.
"I never told anyone," she answered, "Su's sister, Lin, she figured it out when we were looking for Korra after she went to track down Aiwei. But forget all that, we still need to help this town, somehow." She looked up at the sky, watching it's white puffy clouds fill the sky. No rain in sight.
Miski looked up too asked, "The sky?"
"Hey," Bolin said, "that's it! Miski, you can waterbend, right?"
"Yeah."
"Can you make it rain?" he asked.
"That's not a bad idea," Kuvira said.
Miski asked, "You want me to waterbend the clouds and bring rain? I'd have to be up in the sky in order to do that. Is there an airship somewhere around here?" She looked around.
A boy no older than 9 or 10 stepped forward and said, "I don't have an airship, but are you looking for an airbender?" He gave her a suspicious look.
"Maybe," Miski said, getting closer to his level, "Why? Are you an airbender?"
"Who's asking," he demanded, "because the last time some outsider came around here looking for an airbender, it was the avatar, and she tried to kidnap me!" He shifted her eyes carefully around them.
Bolin held his chin and said awkwardly, "Oh I thought this place looked familiar."
Kuvira assured him, "We're not in the business of kidnapping."
Miski explained, "If you can fly, we could go up to the clouds together and use water and airbending to bring in the rain your whole town needs. Do you think can do that with me?" She smiled at him.
He gasped in delight, "Okay! Let me get the glider my dad made for me! I'll be right back!"
With the boy airbending them with his glider, and Miski riding on top of the glider, they went up to the clouds together. With great forces of wind and water, together, they forced the clouds rain over the town. The wells filled with water, the land became saturated, and soon the reservoir filled up too. The plants perked up. Everyone ran outside happily with buckets and cups and anything else to fill with water.
"Look at that," Baatar said, "it's raining."
"Time for a contract to be signed," Kuvira said, walking back to the governor.
"I don't believe it!" the governor said, looking up at the sky and touching the water with her own two hands, "You actually made it rain!"
Kuvira pulled out the contract and said, "A deal is a deal."
She stopped and looked at the papers in her hand. "Of course," she said, "I'll sign that for you." She ripped it from her fingers, tearing a massive papercut across Kuvira's palm. She recoiled in pain. The governor didn't notice as she stamped it for her approval.
Back at the train, Miski ran up to her and said, "That was amazing! I know exactly what I'm supposed to do now! Your train stopped for me for a reason. It's my destiny to help you restore the earth kingdom."
"Welcome aboard," Kuvira said, giving her a smile.
Miski hesitated, "But I'm not sure what my role is going to be though."
"What do you like doing?"
She froze. "I...I don't remember..." she confessed, then thought for a moment to herself, "before I felt this emotionless pit of dispair all the time, I liked writing stuff down. But how would that help you?"
Kuvira said, "That's perfect. I was just thinking we need a scribe."
"A scribe?" Bolin asked, "What's that?"
Baatar explained, "Someone who records things by writing them down. It's not a bad idea. If anyone tries to come back at us and say we didn't help them and we have it recorded they we did, it'll be harder for them to take us to court. Also, we should be tracking how many resources we keep giving to different regions."
"I can record things!" Miski exclaimed, "When I was little, I'd take ink and put it on paper without a brush. Watch!" She took the ink out of the inkwell with her waterbending and put it on the paper in perfect Chinese calligraphy style.
"Oo," Bolin said, "that's nice."
"Look at that," Kuvira said, "you're a perfect addition to the team."
