They were only a few more towns away from the train depot. All they had was a little further to go and they still had some money to boot. When they came across a decent sized town, they knew they had to spend some time there.

"We should split up," Mako said, "they're looking for four people, if we go in pairs, it'll be less suspicious."

"I choose Mako!" Wu jumped up and grabbed him.

The girls stared at the two of them. Mako let go of him and said, "Stop that, you're making this weird."

Korra said calmly, "I'll go with Kuvira."

Kuvira smiled and said, "As for cover stories-"

"Enough with that already!" Mako said, "If anyone asks, we're just some friends backpacking through the earth kingdom. Nothing crazy. We're not monks, we're not circus people, just regular ordinary backpackers. That's it."

Kuvira turned to Korra and said, "We'll be sisters."

"Really?" Korra asked, knowing Kuvira wanted to keep that a secret.

Wu said, "No one would believe you two are related."

"That's their problem," Kuvira said, "we'll meet back on this peak in three hours, enough time to stop and enjoy the town. If the other group isn't back then we'll search for them in the town. Don't be late."


As they split up, Kuvira whispered to Korra, "I've been here before."

"Yeah," she said, "what did you do here? Were you the good Kuvira at that point or the power hungry one?"

"The good one," she said quickly, then paused, "mostly. The mayor was annoying to deal with but other than that this place wasn't so bad."

Korra snarked, "Why? What happened?"

Kuvira replied, "Once I started telling him what needed to be done around here in order to rebuild his town, he said I was prettier when I kept my mouth shut." Korra's face went red with anger just from hearing that sentence. "So, I tore the whole city hall apart. It wasn't the most mature move, but he took me seriously after that."

"What?!"

"Shush," Kuvira whispered, "someone might recognize me even in this fox mask."

They entered the town peacefully enough, but Kuvira had a point. They saw the missing posters of their four faces on different buildings and posted areas. Their names, their profiles, everything quite accurate to how they looked in real life. Even Mako being the least famous among them had an accurate enough description and look that if someone tried hard enough, they might be able to tell it's him under the fake scars.

Kuvira on the other hand remembered this town. How there wasn't much left of it by the time her train came through. How much help they needed, and after she showed the mayor a display of her power, he finally agreed to have help. Baatar designed the town square and a playground for children in the middle of it. She watched a bunch of them, between the ages of 4-6 or so, run around.

Kuvira poked at Korra. "They're playing an old earth kingdom game! Look. The children who can earthbend make cracks in the earth you have to avoid while the non-benders make lines with sticks. Come on."

"What do you mean come on?" Korra whispered, "They're children!"

Kuvira stopped in front of a small group of over half a dozen children. Some of them turned and saw their fake burn scars. "What happened to your faces?" a little boy asked.

Korra lied, "A fire baton twirling accident." Kuvira pointed to her scarred neck. "And she lost her voice."

"Want to play with us?" a little girl asked.

"We're non-benders," Korra said quickly, knowing if either one of them used any sort of earthbending it might look to suspicious to the adults around them.

"Here," a little boy said, handing them sticks.

The object of the game was to make lines in the ground either with sticks or earthbending. If you stepped on a line or a crack, you were out and hit the ground, tripping others and getting them out too until there was only one person left.

Korra and Kuvira joined their little game. It didn't take long for both of them to get taken out. Kuvira landed on her back on the ground, careful to make sure her fox mask stayed on her face. It didn't help. The little girl next to her leaned in close. The face of recognition came over her. Kuvira put her finger to her lips.

"Auntie Kuvira?" the little girl asked, crawling on her chest. She gasped quietly. "It is you!"

"Shh," she said, hoping the other little kids didn't notice.

Instead, the little girl copied her. "Shh." Then stood up and announced to the rest of the group, "I miss Auntie Kuvira."

Korra sat up, panicked, "Why?"

"She helped us a lot," a little boy said, walking up to her, "my family got food from her, and then she helped us plant our garden after meanies ruined it."

A different little girl said, "Yeah. My grandma says we should have more people like her, and not care about the avatar. For my bedtime stories, she says when she was little like me, she thought the avatar the gone forever."

Korra's face twisted at that while another little girl chimed in, "But all grandmas are always old."

Before the conversation could continue, one mom called for a couple of the children to go with her. The others scattered as well, going after their own parents.

As Kuvira got back to her feet and dusted herself off, she noticed a part of the park that wasn't there before. She nudged at Korra and pointed to it.

An iron statue of Kuvira herself stood about 15 feet tall at the end of the park. They went to examine it together. She donned her uniform, a half genuine smile with a stern look on her face. On one shoulder she carried a crate of supplies, and in her other hand by her side was a sack of rice. In a circle around her feet were tracks and a mini train, the perfect resemblance of The Iron Maiden.

Korra read the plaque on the platform out loud. "Here stands Madam Kuvira, also known as The Iron Maiden. She and her crew helped the town of Leilu. We the people are forever grateful for her services, kindness, and help stopping the bandits who plagued this town. We name this new public space 'Kuvira's Square' in her honor. Thank you, Empress Kuvira." Korra looked up and around at the thriving space, greenery, places for children to place, benches, shops, restaurants, walkways, it had it all. "Wow," she said, "they named this whole section of town after you."

"That's so thoughtful of them," she whispered, hoping passersby wouldn't notice, "I never imagined anyone would do something like this for me."

"Yeah," Korra replied sadly, "me too."

As they walked away and left the town limits, away from anyone in earshot and back to the top of the hill, Kuvira took off her mask and asked, "What's the matter?"

She hesitated, "I know you once told me you never wanted me to get jealous of you, but I'm sorry, I can't help it."

Kuvira balked, "How can you be jealous of me? I'm about to be imprisoned for the rest of my life."

"Exactly," Korra explained, "you've literally murdered people in cold blood but so many people still love you, and trust you, and believe you're their rightful leader. I'm the avatar and people despise me no matter what I say or do."

Kuvira explained, "Those people down there don't love me because I was born special. They love me because I helped them specifically." She frowned. "I wasn't born into a loving family, kept in a safe compound, and told my whole life I was destined for greatness. The same bending abilities everyone worshiped you for I was condemned for and then eventually thrown away. I've been attempting to help people my whole life so no one else would ever feel the way I have, alone and desperate." She paused. "Why do you help people?"

Korra froze. She had never stopped to consider why she was doing all of this. "Because I'm the avatar and helping people is what I'm supposed to do," she answered. Kuvira's expression didn't change. She added, "Well for all of your good intentions you claim to have, you sure made a huge mess out of things."

"You weren't there," she said, "you didn't see the things I saw, Korra. At least I did something. You did nothing."

Korra grimaced at that and said weakly, "Hey, it wasn't my choice to do nothing."

"Was it really?" Kuvira asked. There wasn't time to argue. By then, Mako and Wu came up the hillside and it was time to move on.


In the next town, they played a similar strategy. But after seeing no missing posters of them on the walls of the buildings, they decided to group back together., thinking it was too risky for them to keep separating because they could lose each other.

"I'm getting something to eat," Wu said, walking up to a stand with everyone behind him.

The man behind the counter stood up and revealed he had no hands. His arms ended at the wrists. Korra couldn't help but stifle a gasp. Kuvira's eyes widened behind her fox mask as she recognized those injuries. She slowly turned away from him, careful to try and not make it so obvious.

Wu asked anxiously, "Were you born like that?"

"No," he answered coldly, showing them his wrists better, "this was the doing of that evil tyrant, The Iron Maiden."

Korra turned to Kuvira to see her back now facing them. Korra grabbed her by her braid and pulled her back. Kuvira stifled a gripe in pain as she held her scalp.

"Sorry about my sister," Korra said, "she's suffered a brain injury. It makes her act rude sometimes. Ignore her." Kuvira kept her back toward him.

He looked them over and explained, "There were nine of us in the group in total. When Kuvira found us messing around, she used her metalbending and forced our wrists to the train tracks. She left us to die when the next train came through. When it did, I was only one who got to a medic in time. None of the others made it. If I ever see that evil woman ever again, I'm giving her more than a piece of my mind!"

"That's horrible," Mako said.

"I'm so sorry," Korra said, "you shouldn't have gone through that."

The man looked Kuvira over carefully. She turned away from him some more, but she knew. He was putting it together. They had to get out of there.

"It's you!" the man shouted, pointing at her. "You're her! Kuvira!" He leapt over the counter.

"Wait!" Korra shouted.

A crowd had already formed around them. Kuvira ran but was quickly blocked by more people. If only she could use earthbending and get them out of the way, but that would ensure her cover was blown. There was still a chance it wasn't. The man blew fire out of his mouth. She covered her body as best as she could as the heat hit her. He kicked up more fire with his feet before pushing her into the ground hard.

"No!" Wu shouted, "Don't hurt her! She's been burned before! Stop!" He grabbed the man by his shoulders and tried to pull him off of her.

The man tore the mask off her face and pushed her neck into the ground. She couldn't breathe! She squeezed her eyes shut.

In the crowd, Korra wanted to earth or airbend him off of her, but that would blow her cover. Mako pulled her back and shook his head.

"Get off of her!" Wu demanded, finally prying him away.

"You're not her," he said, horrified as he sat up on his own, "I'm sorry, I thought you were The Iron Maiden, but the real Kuvira would never show fear."

Voices in the crowd rang out.

"She does look like Kuvira."

"I thought it was her too."

"What happened to her face?"

"Her mask! He broke it."

Wu helped Kuvira to her feet. She hid her face in her hands, hoping no one would see through her fake scars. Wu attempted to put her mask back on, but it was no use, the eyes were cracked, a large piece missing over her right cheek, and the string broken. Korra and Mako walked behind them as the crowd cleared for them to leave.

"Wait," a young man said, running at them, "young lady, I have a fox mask just like that one. Here. It's yours now." She took the mask and quickly put it over her face.

"Thank you," Wu replied.

After they left the town and reached the forest, far from view of the village and most definitely out of earshot. Kuvira said took the mask back off and said, "Thank you, Wu, for stopping his firebending."

"I know when Mako attacked you I froze up and didn't do anything, but this time I wanted to make a difference," he said, "but you're the one who did a good job acting scared."

"I wasn't acting," she said hastily, "if I could have used earthbending to launch him across the planet I would have, but I knew it would blow our covers. I was powerless and terrified I was going to get burned again." She touched her right side.

Mako asked, "Kuvira, how could you tie him to the tracks and leave him to die?"

"You cut off that man's hands!" Korra said in horror.

Kuvira said, "What he said was hardly the truth. Do you really want to know what happened, because it's far more gruesome than what he described."

"There's no way I'm ever going to believe he didn't deserve his hands and to watch his friends die," Mako said.

She motioned for them all to sit in a circle as she told the story.


Kuvira remembered it well. The Iron Maiden engine was stopped, and just finishing up getting an over-all when Baatar walked up to her with a scroll in hand. "This letter just came in on a messenger hawk," he said, giving it to her.

She couldn't believe what it said.

"We're leaving," Kuvira said hastily, "everyone on board!" She shouted at people standing around, including Bolin and Miski. "Now!"

Bolin asked, "What's going on?"

"An entire village is about to die if we don't leave this instant!" she shouted loud enough for everyone to hear. They knew she meant business and booked it onto the train.

As she boarded, the engineer said, "Madam Kuvira, the engine isn't ready."

"We need to get to the village of Xui-Lah as soon as possible," she said, "bandits are about to blow up a dam and drown everyone if we don't get there by tomorrow at high noon."

The engineer said, "It takes two days to get there from here."

"Charge full steam ahead," she commanded, "if anything breaks, we'll fix it later."

Baatar asked, "Kuvira, what if they're bluffing and we ruined our engine for nothing?"

"We can't risk all those lives on a what if," she answered, "they want 10,000 gold pieces in exchange for the mayor's life, but by the time I get there, money will be meaningless to them."

The engineer said, "It'll take all night, but we might get there in time. I'll start the engine."

The Iron Maiden chugged forward, first slowly. As more fire and coal was added, it moved faster, and faster. More coal. More heat. The boiler turned red. The engine roared, a huge fire burned bright out of the top. The train shook violently on the tracks, going faster than it ever had before. Everyone struggled to keep things in place as they rocked to the floor.

Minutes turned into hours. The anxiety grew. What if they didn't make it in time? The engineer came running to Kuvira. "We have to slow down, there's a sharp turn ahead."

"We can't afford to," she insisted, "keep our speed."

"We'll go off the rails!"

"I'll make sure we don't," she said, moving ahead and seeing the left dead man's curve ahead. "Everyone, hold on!"

The front of the train struggled to make the turn; the rest of the cars slowly lifted the right side. People, papers, ink, desks, everything flew around as the people on board held on for dear life. Kuvira held the metal together with her sheer force of will and forced the cars back onto the track, rocking the entire train so hard everything that wasn't bolted down shook loose around her.

As the tracks straightened out, the train chugged ahead. They sped past towns and cities, roared through peaceful valleys, and shook violently through tunnels in the mountains, all to make sure they made it to the small town in time.

When bandits had rocks on the tracks? Kuvira used earthbending to move them and lock the bandits in place for when they came back through. When there were children on the tracks, Miski worked quickly to use waterbending to safely wash them away. The engine burned through the night, glowing bright red. By the time they made it to the edge of the region, it was ready to explode.

BOOM!

It ripped open and exploded itself right out of the train. "We lost the engine!" the engineer exclaimed, "We're never going to make it!"

"Jae," Kuvira commanded, "use your fire power to keep us rolling! We'll make it!"

They curved around the bend. It was only seconds away from noon and they were losing momentum fast, even while moving downhill. They were going to make it. As soon as they reached the dam, they saw the bandits on the other side. The mayor tied to a tree with ropes far behind them.

"You're too late!" the leader shouted.

"No!" Kuvira shouted in desperation just as he lit the fuse with firebending.

BOOM!

The explosion flew pieces of the dam in every direction, shaking the entire platform the rails stood on.

Kuvira and Bolin created massive walls of earth to try and stop the water. They were quickly broken down. Miski did all the waterbending she could to lift the water away from the ground and into the air, but it just kept coming. She tried turning it into ice, but it was no use. With it being the middle of a day during a new moon cycle, her bending was much weaker than normal. Jae, the only firebender on board, desperately used fire blasts to try and evaporate it before it could reach the town.

It didn't work. Millions of gallons of water flooded into the valley. They heard the desperate screams of the victims as they drowned. The water turned mud brown as it crushed houses and businesses left and right.

"Search for survivors!" Kuvira ordered over the chaos as she ran off the train into waist deep water.

All the earth and water bending in the world couldn't save the already drowned victims. Miski made an ice wall and carefully held it together as best as she could. Meanwhile, most of the crew, including Bolin, couldn't stomach the sights and smells.

"Kuvira," Baatar said, his voice breaking as he took her hand, "it looks like there are no survivors."

Her legs went out from under her, she kneeled into the mud as her heart broke. Then, they heard it, a baby crying. She leapt for her feet, Baatar on her heels as they both ran for the baby. A wooden shelf had fallen and was now floating in some mud, inside, a baby girl around a year old, was cradled inside. Kuvira quickly scooped her up. The baby screamed louder, as if she was torturing her. Kuvira recoiled.

"Here," Baatar said eagerly, "let me." He took her from her arms, and she instantly quieted down.

She asked, "What are you doing differently?"

"Babies sense fear and anxiety," he answered.

The only survivor, a baby girl. The crew of the Iron Maiden marched themselves up the hills and back to the dam where the bandits were still waiting. By the time Kuvira got to them, there was no mercy. No chance at being her in her army or reforming themselves. They were dead to her. The mayor was beside himself in grief of his village, his only relief being his youngest daughter survived.

To top it all off, the train was stalled with no engine at the bottom of the valley. With the closest town being uphill nearly 6 miles away, everyone had to get out and use earth and metalbending to push. All non-benders and Miski used ropes and helped pull the front. It took hours, but they eventually made it to the nearest town and got a brand-new engine.


Kuvira finished her story, and finally looked up at everyone else, "I buried all four hundred eighty-seven people who used to live in that village."

"That's one of the most horrifying things I think I've ever heard," Korra said, struggling to look her in the eye.

Wu confessed, "I had no idea things were that bad while I was safe and living it up." He hung his head.

Korra gently put her hand on her shoulder and said, "Kuvira, that must have been horrible to experience, but leaving those bandits to die was still the wrong thing to do. We have a justice system for a reason."

"Easy for you to say," she replied hastily, "you didn't have to dig graves for all four hundred eighty-seven departed souls. You didn't have to watch a man crumble as he realized his wife and three other children drowned. You didn't witness an entire town get wiped off the map in real time."

"It must have been heartbreaking," Korra said sincerely, "I'm sorry it happened, I'm sorry you were there to witness it firsthand, and I'm sorry you had to bury all those innocent people. You probably blame yourself. Still, I'm here telling you that you could have given them mercy."

Kuvira scoffed, "Mercy?! For those murderers?"

"Yes-"

"That's still too easy for you say. You weren't there. You didn't have to make that choice."

"I have made that choice," Korra said, grabbing her shoulders and forcing her to face her, "with you! I gave you mercy, Kuvira! Remember?"

Kuvira's face fell, it wasn't true. No. She wasn't the same as those bandits. She never took a town hostage and demanded absurd amounts of money, only to murder them when demands weren't met. She said quietly, "But I've never blown up a dam and drown hundreds of people."

"But you did harvest a spirit vine," Korra said, "and you did turn it into a weapon to take over Republic City. You then used it to blow up a dozen airships without a second thought on the hundreds of lives walking around inside." She finally let go of her shoulders.

Kuvira struggled to come up with a rebuttal. There had to be something to argue. Nothing came. The realization assaulted her. There was a reason Su and so many others wanted to stop her, wanted her dead. She killed innocent people and maimed those who weren't. She could have jailed or fined the bandits based on their crimes. She had done so much wrong, and it was too late. She bit her lip to stop it from quivering. Her eyes burned.

Korra brought her in for a hug. "It's okay," she whispered.

"Is it?" Kuvira asked, now crying, "Because I can never go back and undo what I did to that man." She pulled away from Korra and wiped her eyes. "I can't undo what I did to the people in those airships. I can't undo anything! I can't even apologize for what I did because after everything I've done no one believes anything I say!" She took a deep breath. "Not that an apology would matter now, after it's been all said and done."

Wu said, "You're helping us now, Kuvira, and that matters."

"He's right," Mako said, "the things you did are way more complicated than just good or bad. To that man you're an evil tyrant who disabled him for life and murdered his friends, but to the entire town we were in before you're their hero because you saved their entire village."

Korra said, "Kuvira you were right earlier when you said I wasn't there. Maybe I should have been. Maybe I could have stopped you from harvesting that spirit vine."

"Don't blame yourself," Kuvira insisted, "Baatar tried to stop me too. I didn't even listen to my own fiancé, why would I listen to my sister?"

"Sister?" Mako asked.

"You're sisters for real?" Wu asked.

Korra nodded and explained, "My parents legally adopted Kuvira a couple of years ago now." She paused. "But I thought you didn't want anyone to know."

"I didn't," she said, "but they haven't abandoned me yet, despite everything I've done. I think I'll give them a real chance to be my parents, and have a family for real." She smiled at her.