"I swear Teo, if this is your dad's doing, I'm going to visit just to kick his butt," Amaya sighed as she watched the thing move.
It was almost like a caterpillar, extending all its sections before pulling them together, then extending again. As she watched, a long arm extended high into the air, a hut on top where presumably the person in charge was sitting and watching as the drill grew perilously closer.
Amaya was torn. Appa or Ba Sing Se? It was bigger choice than one might expect, a choice between her heart and her duty. Where she a more feminine girl, or were she a romantic, she might have said her duty was to her heart. But she was the Avatar. She didn't have that choice. Her duty came first, her heart second.
"Appa, hold on buddy," Amaya begged as she flew off the wall, back towards her friends. She was surprised to see them drawing close to the base and swooped over to them immediately.
"Amaya?" Katara blinked, looking up at her in surprise. "I thought you were looking for Appa?"
"I was," Amaya said, lowering her eyes guiltily. "But something stopped me. Something important."
"What could be bigger than Appa?" Sokka asked.
Amaya just shook her head, gesturing for them to follow her. They walked the last stretch to the outer wall.
"Toph?" Amaya asked.
"Gotcha," Toph nodded. She and Amaya worked together, ripping a chunk of earth out of the ground and dragging it up the top of the wall.
"Big enough for you?" Amaya asked when they rose high enough to see the gigantic drill.
"What is that?" Katara breathed, staring at the contraption with awe and fear.
"Depending on how it goes? The fall of Ba Sing Se or a gigantic waste of money for the Fire Nation," Amaya said grimly. "Let's hope it's the last one."
They stepped off onto the wall, Ying's family clutching each other close.
"We made it to Ba Sing Se and we're still not safe," Ying said, clutching her baby close protectively. "Nowhere is safe from the Fire Nation."
"This place will be," Amaya swore. "I promise you Ying, and I promise you Hope."
"Hey, what are you doing? Civilians aren't allowed up here!"
Amaya turned to see a pair of frazzled and annoyed Earth Kingdom soldier looking at them angrily. She faced them fully and said, "I'm not a civilian. My name is Amaya, and I'm the Avatar. Take me to whoever's in charge here."
The soldiers were most accommodating after that, tripping over themselves as they escorted them to a watch tower, sending another pair to assist Ying and her family into the city.
"It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the outer wall, quite an honor, yes," the General said. "However, young Avatar, your help is not needed."
Amaya blinked. "Not needed?"
"Not needed," he nodded firmly. "I have everything well in hand here. The great outer wall is impenetrable. Many have tried to get inside, but none have succeeded."
"You know, it's funny," Amaya said softly. "That's what they said about the Air Temples, that no one could get in. And you'll notice how that ended up."
"What about the Dragon of the West?" Toph added. "He got in!"
"I missed something," Amaya frowned, whispering to Katara. "Fill me in?"
"Fire Nation tried to get in Ba Sing Se, some big general made it inside, that was it though," Sokka explained.
"Ah."
"Well, technically he made it in," the general allowed. "But that was all! He was quickly expelled. That's why the city is called Ba Sing Se, because of the impenetrable wall. They don't call it Na Sing Se," he laughed. When he was the only one that got it, he clarified, "That means penetrable wall."
"Thanks for the tour," Toph said. "But we've still got that drill problem."
"Not for long," the general said, moving to the edge of the wall and staring out. "Watch closely. I've sent an elite group of Earthbenders out to tackle this problem. The Terror Team!"
"Nice group name," Sokka observed. "It's very catchy."
They did as instructed and watched closely. They saw the Terror Team have their rear ends handed to them on a silver platter.
It started with an attack from a troop rushing forwards on a mound of earth. They took out one of the tanks, throwing it back, before moving to the edge of the drill. At an order from the leader, columns of rock shot out of the ground, pressing the side of the drill and presumably keeping it in place. The tactic failed dismally, the rock crumbling as the section extended.
Two figures slid down the side of the drill and the Earthbenders had to erect a wall in front of themselves to block the knives that streamed from the sleeves of one of them. The other was a bright pink blot against the dreary landscape, sending one Earthbender flopping to the ground in a matter of two strikes. She flipped over an attack of rocks and landed in the middle of the troop, taking all of them down in seconds.
"Look who it is, pinky and the Emotionless One," Amaya grumbled. "So that means Azula's there too, I'd bet."
"We're doomed!" the General wailed. Sokka slapped him across the face.
"Get a hold of yourself man!" Sokka roared.
"You're right," the General agreed, rubbing his cheek. "I'm sorry."
"Maybe you'd like the Avatar's help now?" Toph suggested.
The General shuffled over to Amaya, slumped over with his head hanging. "Yes please," he whimpered.
"So the question is," Amaya said, staring out over the plain. She placed a hand on the edge of the wall and tapped her finger rhythmically. "How do we stop it?"
She turned to look at Sokka, along with Katara.
"Why are you all looking at me?" he demanded defensively.
"Well, you're the one that always manages to come up with wild and crazy plans that somehow manage to save us all by the skin of our teeth," Amaya reason.
"So I'm the only one that can ever come up with ideas? That's a lot of pressure!"
"And also the complaining guy," Katara deadpanned.
"Well that part I don't mind so much."
"For now, would you mind helping with the injured men out there?" the General asked weakly.
"Katara, let's go," Amaya said. "Take us to the infirmary."
It wasn't long before the soldiers were brought in, unable to move and groaning weakly on cots. Theirs shirts were quickly removed and healers converged on them, but Amaya waved them away.
"What's wrong with them?" the General asked worriedly. "I don't see a single mark!"
"Their chi is blocked," Amaya said grimly as she and Katara picked soldiers and knelt by them, pulling water from nearby buckets and using it to heal them.
"What happened?" Katara asked gently.
"These two girls came out of nowhere," the soldier said weakly. "There was one dressed in pink. She hit me with a few quick jabs and suddenly I couldn't Earthbend. I could barely move."
"Ty Lee," Amaya said grimly. "She looks innocent, but really she may be the more dangerous of the two. What she does is take the weak points of the body and exploit them, blocking chi and deadening limbs. The effects wear off after a while, but for that fine you're completely defenseless."
"It's like she takes you down from the inside out," Katara said softly, shuddering as she remembered her own encounter with the girl.
"Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!" Sokka yelled suddenly, waving his hands around as an idea struck him.
"What? What? What? What?" Amaya demanded.
"What you just said!" Sokka said, pointing to Katara excitedly. "That's how we take out the drill, the same way Ty Lee took down those big Earthbenders!"
"We hit its pressure points!" Toph said excitedly.
Amaya moved to the window, staring down at the drill. "We take it down from the inside out."
"What do you mean?" the General asked.
"I mean, we go out there, get inside, kick butt, and take names," Amaya said. "You stay here and set up a line of defense just in case this goes pear-shaped."
The General nodded. Amaya and Toph got them down the side of the wall the same way they'd gone up.
"I'm going to whip up some cover," Toph said. "Once I get this dust cloud up, you won't be able to see well, so stay close to me."
"Link hands," Amaya suggested, grabbing Katara's hand, who in turned linked up with Sokka.
Toph stood out in the open while the other three took cover in one of the defensive ditches. Toph extended her hands, raising them slowly and grunting as she stomped hard. A line of dust extended out from her, running along the left side of the drill.
"Go!" Toph shouted. Amaya snagged her hand and followed the young girls hands as they ran, blinking as dust collected and dried out her eyes, catching in her throat and making her cough. It was a wild, desperately, though not blind sprint as they reached the drill. Toph let go of Amaya and held out her hands. In front of her, the dir spiraled. She punched and it pushed inward, forming a hole.
"Everybody in!" Toph ordered. They followed her lead and jumped in, Toph yanking the dirt back in place over top of them so smoothly you'd have no idea that there had just been a hole.
"It's so dark, I can't see a thing!" Sokka protested. Amaya felt around and then slapped him. "Ow!"
"Oh no, what a nightmare!" Toph said with mock fear.
"Sorry," Sokka apologized sheepishly. Amaya laughed softly.
Toph created a tunnel in front of them as they ran, closing it up behind them when they passed. They emerged underneath the machine. The air was thick with the smell of engines and exhaust, the noise nearly deafening.
"There!" Sokka shouted, pointing to an open hatch in front of them, highlighted by a bright red bulb. It was presumably for an emergency escape, but in this case it provided an emergency entrance. Amaya ran forwards, jumping and flipping, looping her legs around an exposed pipe tightly and dangling. She stretched out her hand, Katara catching them and Amaya flipping her up inside. She did the same for Sokka and reached out for Toph.
"Toph, come on!" Sokka called.
"No way!" Toph snorted. "I can't see inside that metal monster, and I can't bend either! I'm going to stay out here and try to slow it down!"
"Okay!" Sokka nodded, withdrawing.
"Can't be harder than an angry knowledge spirit, can it?" Amaya said with a grin before flipping up into the inner workings of the machine herself. She, Sokka, and Katara edged into the next room. It was run through with a maze of pipes, interspersed with nozzles and dials, spitting out reading that Amaya couldn't for the life of her understand.
"I need a plan of this place, so we can find its weak points," Sokka said.
"Where would we find that though?" Katara asked. "I doubt they'd just leave that lying around."
Sokka pulled out his machete and swung it hard, sheering a valve off of a nearby pipe, sending it flying dangerously fast. Steam poured from the pipe, choking the air and making it horribly humid.
"What are you doing, someone will hear us!" Amaya shouted.
"That's what I'm counting on," Sokka soothed. "I figure something as big and intricate as this has to have a lot of engineers, and when something breaks-"
"They come to fix it!" Katara said, eyes widening in realization.
No sooner had she said that then a hulking shape appeared in the steam, only the outline visible through the fog.
"Hi!" Katara greeted cheerfully, taking the steam and circling the man in it, turning it to ice and effectively cut off all his movement.
"Nothing personal," Amaya apologized as Sokka ran forwards. He snatched the slightly frosted plans from the man's hand and shouted, "This is what we need!"
They ran off up a set of stairs to an upper level and Sokka spread the plans out over a flat section of metal. The diagram was fairly basic, presumably more for navigation purposes than anything else.
"Okay," Sokka said, pointing to a large shaded section in the middle of the plans. "It looks like this is the inner mechanism, where we are now. I think it's one of two main structures. From what I can tell, the outer shell is connected by these braces. It we take them out, the shell will collapse under its own weight."
"So, to the braces," Amaya said. "Where are they?"
Sokka held up the plans, navigating through the endless rooms of pipes and dials that looked exactly the same to Amaya. She wondered vaguely how he could tell the difference as they went from room to room. Maybe it was something all men were born with, the ability to navigate. She shook her head, recalling road trips with the monks. No, definitely not.
"Whoa," Sokka said as they passed through the last door. "Uh, these are much thicker in person than they are on the plans."
Amaya stared around. It felt vaguely like being in some sort of large arena. The place was completely open, run through with thick I-beams that supported the weight of the outer shell. And Sokka wasn't kidding when he said they were thick. One was probably almost as thick as Amaya was tall.
"We'll have to work fast to get through these," Sokka said.
"What's this 'we?'" Katara demanded. "Amaya and I are going to be the ones doing all this."
"I'm the plan guy," Sokka explained. "You two are the cut stuff up with water guys. Together, we're Team Avatar!"
"Girls," Amaya corrected. "Come on Katara, we can argue with him later. Let's go."
Amaya edged around the first brace and called, "Ready!" Katara unstoppered her pouch, bending out the water from inside and sending it flying across the edge of the beam to Amaya, who caught it and sent it back. It became a sort of game of catch. It was hard, hot, and tiring work, and the two girls were exhausted before they were even halfway done with the first beam.
"Come on team, don't quit now!" Sokka cheered. "We're..."
It was the 'we're' that send Katara spinning on her brother, water ready to attack and growling.
"I mean, you're almost there," Sokka corrected hastily, holding up his hands defensively. Katara sighed and sent the water back at Amaya. It took a few more passes, but they managed to get through the first strut. It groaned, and with a great screeching of metal slipped. It caught halfway down the bottom, and held.
"It's no use!" Katara said in frustration. "We can't do any damage before this reaches the wall!"
"I don't know how many more of those I have left in me anyway," Amaya sighed, slumping to the floor.
Suddenly, more screeching sounded through the outer shell, like metal grinding on metal.
"We did it, we took it down!" Sokka yelled. "Let's go!"
They made for the same door they had come in through, but they paused as an official-sounding voice echoed over the speakers.
"Congratulatons troops, we've just made contact with the outer shell of Ba Sing Se's wall. Begin the countdown to victory!"
"Come on!" Amaya shouted. Sokka ran at the brace and began shoving. It did no good, his feet unable to find traction on the smooth metal. They slipped wildly as he grunted.
"This is bad," Katara said nervously. "This is really bad."
"I don't get it!" Sokka said. "We put everything into this brace!"
Amaya's eyes widened. Everything… Maybe that was the problem!
"Take a fighting stance!" Amaya barked.
"Amaya?" Katara questioned.
"I've got a point, "she said. Sokka shrugged and assumed a stance, Amaya taking her place across from him. "Toph's been teaching me you shouldn't put a hundred percent into any one move," she said, slipping her leg around Sokka's and yanking it out. "You hit your opponent with a series of blows designed to throw them off balance and break their stance." She made a few precise strikes to Sokka's chest and shoulders. "Then, when they real back, you give the final blow!" She punched Sokka's forehead gently and he hit the ground. "Their own weight becomes their downfall, literally!"
"So maybe we don't need to cut all the way through the struts!" Katara understood. "Maybe we just need to weaken them!"
Amaya nodded. "Exactly. And we'd better to it fast! Then I go up to the top and deliver the final blow!"
"Then… Boom! It all comes crashing down!" Sokka grinned.
"Everyone in Ba Sing Se… the whole world… They're counting on us," Amaya said.
Her vision blurred suddenly and resolved into Zuko sitting beside his uncle, who was making a face as a cup of tepid tea.
Amaya swayed as she came back to herself. What was with these dreams? They weren't dreams anymore; they came in the daytime too now. They were shorter, but just as vivid.
"Amaya?" Katara asked worriedly. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Amaya nodded. "Don't worry about me. Let's just hurry!"
She and Katara went from brace to brace, slashing it halfway, sometimes a bit more, through, until it was sufficiently weakened.
"Come on, that's enough!" Amaya called. "We need to get to the next one!"
They were on the next to last brace when blue fire suddenly streamed over Sokka's head. Amaya turned with wide eyes to look and found another blast headed straight for her. She leaned back instinctively, one leg extending fully to retain her balance. She righted herself and looked to see Azula and her friends standing on a support strut above them.
"You were right Azula!" Ty Lee said cheerfully. "It is the Avatar. And friends, "she added, narrowing her eyes flirtatiously at Sokka, who grinned weakly and wiggled his fingers.
"Hi," he said sheepishly. Katara grabbed his sleeve and yanked him away.
"Quit flirting with pinky!" Amaya snapped, peeved as she ran after them. Ty Lee lunged for her, flying across the open space between walkways, but Amaya slashed her arm in a wide circle, shoving the girl back.
They came to a T in the path and Amaya ordered, "You guys get out, I know what I have to do."
They all started off, but Katara suddenly called, "Wait Amaya!"
Amaya turned curiously, eyebrows raised. Katara yanked off her water skein. "You need this water more than I do!" She threw it to Amaya who caught it, yanking it over her head and nodding sharply in thanks before they all took off again, sprinting through the drill.
Amaya had abandoned all sense of secrecy. Her goal now was to get out, plain and simple. She ran fearlessly through room filled with engineer, blasting them back into control panels if they made a move to grab her. Her eyes lit on a long ladder leading up from the control room floor to the outside. She pushed off the ground, landing on the ladder halfway up and scampering out onto the roof.
She took long hops to make her way across the top, speed of the essence right now. She paused right in front of where the drill was buried in the wall. Might as well attack a spot already under stress, that should make it easier.
She jumped to the side, eyes wide, as a rock connected with the spot she had just been standing. She pressed a hand to her chest, panting as her heart raced. She was almost squashed.
Looking up angrily, Amaya's eyes landed on the General. "General Sung!" she roared. "Could you stop throwing rocks down here please?"
She could vaguely hear him over the sound of the drill and the clattering of boulders. "Men, whatever you do, do not stop throwing rocks down there!"
"Oh joy," Amaya grumbled, but quickly got to work. She drew the water from the pouch and began slinging it at the metal between her feet, carving an X into it while frequently having to dodge rocks. She looked up as a slurry of water and dirt began pouring from the drill in front of her. Water and dirt… She grinned, mentally thanking Katara and Toph. Even more stress for the machine!
"Momo, if you could somehow magically make me a Metalbender, that would be awesome," she sighed, pausing for a moment to take a breather.
Momo's chattering was the only warning she had. Amaya barely managed to turn before Azula's blue fire connected, just time enough to create a wave of air to disperse it.
"Momo, go!" she shouted. The lemur obediently hopped off her shoulder and jumped into the air, taking off towards the wall. Amaya was left alone to face down Azula, the prodigy child of the Fire Lord.
Azula attacked first, which Amaya had expected. The girl was impatient, if nothing else. Amaya slid under the fire, sweeping her leg around and counterattacking with a swipe of air meant to catch Azula in the ankles. She dodged, of course, and landed securely on top of the drill. Amaya pulled the water from the pouch, flicking it like a whip and snapping it at Azula's hands and feet, cutting her attacks off before they even got a chance to properly start, something that obviously annoyed the royal.
Azula jumped, kicking out, before turning and kicking again. Amaya raised the water to block, but the attack was too strong. She was blasted backwards, spinning like a top before she connected with the top of the drill, elbow cracking against metal painfully. She saw Azula come forwards for another blow, but suddenly a wave of rocks poured down, cutting her off. Amaya cast a glance up at General Sung.
Huh. He just saved her life.
Reminding herself to thank him later, she jumped to her feet, dodging the last few rocks. She caught one on a cushion of air, spinning it around and turning it towards Azula. The girl dropped into a split, the rock sailing over her head, and attacked as she rose. Amaya gathered the shattered remains of the rocks around her into a wall in front of her, deflecting the attack. She punched rocks out towards Azula, who dodged or redirected all of them. Amaya poked her head over the top of the wall, having to hastily retreat of risk having a scar to match Zuko's.
She punched another rock out, but that was all she managed before a wave of blue fire, more intense and powerful than anything she had felt before, blasted into her protective barrier. Amaya went flying, slamming back against the famous wall. She was peppered with rocks before gravity and exhaustion took over. Her vision flickered and she fell to the ground limply.
When Amaya came too, she was pressed up against the wall by Azula, one hand holding her in place while another held a ball of fire no doubt meant for her. Amaya's eyes widened and she pressed her hand into the wall, covering it with rock before raising it. She felt the rocks around her arm heat uncomfortably as flames licked around them, but she pushed through and shoved Azula as hard as she could, sending her skidding back across the top of the drill.
Amaya took a stance, staring the girl down. Azula charged and Amaya prepared for the attack. It never reached her though, because at the moment the pressure of the slurry proved too much for the drill. It shot out of the gap between the drill and the wall as a powerful jet. Amaya slipped and so did Azula, the two of them floundering and sliding down opposite sides of the drill. Amaya yelled as she fell, but suddenly there was a tug at her cape and then she was upright again. Amaya ran as only an Airbender could, scrambling back up the side of the drill. She couldn't see Azula, which she took as a good thing, although that meant she had no idea where the next attack would come from.
"Alright, now all I need is a-"
Fwoop.
A rock landed next to her on top of the drill. Amaya blinked, and then her face broke out into a wide grin.
"Yeah for coincidence!" she cheered, before sheering away bits of the rock until it was pointed. She guided it over the X she had carved in the metal, wedging the tip into the crack before taking a few steps back.
She broke into a sprint, heading straight for the wall, forming an air scooter as she ran and hopping on. She sailed up the side of the wall until she was about halfway up. Amaya let the air scooter fade, stretching her legs until they ached in a last few steps up the wall. She rotated, swinging around before sprinting back down the wall, gathering momentum the whole way. Her field of vision narrowed to the top of that wedge, and she aimed for it with everything in her. As she jumped for it, blue fire sailed harmlessly over her head, but Amaya connected regardless. She landed with her knees bending to absorb the impact, a rush of air that had built up around her suddenly releasing and blasting Azula back with a scream.
The result? Catastrophic system failure. The slurry exploded from between the links of the drill, the obvious weak points, shooting into the air with the first release of pressure before slacking off, spilling all over. The links themselves sagged, great gushes of steam coming from seemingly everywhere as pressure escaped in any way it could and braces buckled, slipping free.
Amaya spat out slurry, gagging and retching as she doubled over, coughing the thick paste up. She wiped it away from her eyes.
"Well that sucked," she sighed.