AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the second fanfiction I've written. If you want to read the first one, check my profile. My first story was meant to be a jokey parody of the Ember Island Players, I'm trying something a tad more serious with this one. This is going to have multiple chapters, updates will come whenever I have the time. Leave a review and let me know what you think!

The cherry blossoms shed their petals decadently, carpeting the earth in a dainty pink hue. The evening sun cast an otherworldly orange glow upon the field from its perch in the cloudless blue sky. Flowers opened their vibrant petals to the world. A pair of white-feathered doves alighted upon a tree branch and warbled a sweet melody. Turtle ducks—a mother and her children—swam amongst the water lilies and lotuses within a pristine, glass-like pond. Cradled in a valley in the Kolau Mountain Range, this idyllic clearing held no strategic value to the Fire Nation and was thus one of the few places in the Earth Kingdom that was untouched by the war.

"Do we really have to run over all those flowers?" Ty Lee asked, gazing out the window of the tank-train.

"I told you Ty Lee, we can't afford to take any detours if we are to catch the Avatar. Remember, speed is imperative to our mission," Azula said. "Mai, continue our current route."

"Aye aye, captain Azula," Mai drawled. She put her hand on the stick shift and cranked it forward. The tank chugged along into the clearing. There was a momentary jolt as the tank's frontal plow snapped the trunk of a cherry blossom and ran it over. The engine created a black cloud that coated the doves in a layer of soot as they tried to fly away. Mai stared out of the front window of the cockpit. She gazed upon the defiling of this once paradisiacal place and yawned.

Mai stretched her neck and back, producing a satisfying crackling sound as the pain of hours of slouching left her body. She sighed. The stretch provided a temporary reprieve, but the pain would probably be back in around ten minutes.

"Mai, why aren't you shifting the gear up? We're on flat terrain, we don't need to stay on gear three. We can go faster if you shift it up to gear six," Azula remarked.

Mai pressed her lips together. "The terrain is still slightly uphill, Azula. If I shift the gear up then we won't have enough torque."

Azula exhaled in frustration. "That's ridiculous. The tank treads are more than enough to get us up the mountain. We don't need to go this slowly."

Mai turned around and glared at her. "Do you want us to fall off the mountain? Because that's what will happen if I shift up a gear."

"Fine," Azula said. She shrugged. "Whatever, have it your way. I'm just saying that you drive like a sloth. Can you at least increase the engine power?"

"Azula, I told you already, the engine is already at maximum output. Ugh, you know what?" Mai stood up and theatrically pointed her hand at the now vacant driver's seat. "I've been driving for ten hours now and I'm sick of it. If you hate my driving so much, why don't you drive?"

"It would be my pleasure," Azula retorted. She began to step towards the driver's seat when Ty Lee blocked her.

"No! Azula isn't driving!" Ty Lee protested. "Not after last time!"

"Why can't I drive? I'm a better driver than Mai is," Azula replied.

"Azula, you're talented in a lot of things. You're smart, pretty and a really good firebender, but it's okay to admit you're not good at everything. Everyone's bad at something, and for you, that something is driving," Ty Lee said. "I mean, remember when you got us stuck in the Hu-on Canal? It took us a whole day to dig the tank out."

"Hey, it's not my fault that the tank treads weren't able to drive on the riverbed."

"Why were you driving on a riverbed in the first place?!" Ty Lee yelled before regaining her composure. She brushed some hair out of her eyes and continued her rant. "And don't forget the time when you ran over a dragon-moose."

"Shut up Ty Lee. It's not my fault the dragon-moose didn't get out of the way, and I don't remember you being such a good driver either. You were the one who tipped the tank over trying to swerve around a fire ferret."

Ty Lee smiled innocently and shrugged. "It was a really cute fire ferret."

Mai rolled her eyes. She rhythmically tapped her fingers on the steel dashboard. "Ugh, if neither of you are going to drive, can you guys at least do something useful? Go feed the mongoose-lizards or something. Just get off my back."

"Alright, I'll feed the mongoose-lizards. Ty Lee, there are some provisions underneath my bed. Go cook up dinner," Azula said. She grabbed a bag of feed and walked out the back of the cockpit. After crossing through the sleeper car, she entered the mobile stable containing their mongoose-lizards. She reached into the bag and threw a handful of grain at Mai and Ty Lee's mongoose-lizards. They lapped the grain off of the floor and walked towards Azula for more. She pushed the two beasts away and walked over to the third. She looked back across her shoulder to make sure Ty Lee wasn't watching, then began to cuddle her mongoose-lizard.

"Aw, Mr. Snuffles, it's me, Azula," she said. Mr. Snuffles rolled over so that Azula could give him belly rubs. "You like the scritchies, don't you, my snuffly wuffly? Here, I know you're hungry." Azula dumped out a huge pile of grain in front of Mr. Snuffles, who began to eat. The other two mongoose-lizards wandered towards the pile.

"No! Only Mr. Snuffles gets to eat that!" Azula shouted. She whipped up a ball of blue fire to punctuate her point. The two mongoose-lizards cowered in the corner as Mr. Snuffles enjoyed his sumptuous meal.

"You named him 'Mr. Snuffles?' Aw, that's so adorable!"

Azula jumped and looked frantically behind her. Ty Lee stood in the doorway holding a plate of shumai that she had just prepared. She was giggling uncontrollably. "You saw nothing!" Azula shouted.

"I was standing here for five minutes, Azula." Ty Lee giggled some more. She walked towards her own mongoose-lizard, who began to whine. It looked up longingly at the dinner Ty Lee prepared. "Aw, Delia, you must be so hungry! Azula didn't feed you, did she?" she cooed.

Ty Lee turned towards Azula and scolded her playfully. "Azula! You can't just feed all of the food to your own mongoose-lizard. Ours need to eat too."

Ty Lee glanced at Mr. Snuffles, who was now sleeping off a food coma after devouring his pile of grain. The other two mongoose-lizards stared at his distended stomach jealously. "If you're going to be the one who feeds the mongoose-lizards, you need to feed all of them. Where's the food-bag?"

Azula handed her a burlap sack. Ty Lee held it. "Hold on…" she said, feeling the lightness of the bag. She looked inside. "Wait, you gave all of it to your mongoose-lizard?"

"Mr. Snuffles is the most deadly mongoose-lizard in the world. It's only fair he gets more food. Besides, I still fed the others," Azula remarked thoughtlessly.

Ty Lee frowned. She would have to try a different approach. "If you don't start feeding the other mongoose-lizards more grain, I'll tell Mai all about you and your little Snuffly Wuffly."

Azula tried to maintain a straight face but she couldn't hide the slight widening of her eyes. Blackmail, huh? Clever. Blackmail wasn't particularly new to Azula, yet being on the receiving end of it was a totally different experience. Other than throwing her out the back end of the caboose, there wasn't anything she could do to prevent Ty Lee from telling Mai all about her secret. Azula pressed her lips together. As much as she hated saying it, Ty Lee won.

"Okay, you got me. I'll feed the others more. But don't you dare tell Mai." Azula pointed a manicured finger at Ty Lee, then walked off to get another bag of feed. Strangely enough, Azula felt a sort of pride that Ty Lee was emulating her tactics, even if they were used against her. Well, it's good to learn from the best, isn't it? After reluctantly feeding the others, Azula put the bag back and sat down in the sleeping coach. She grabbed a napkin—her clothing was much too fine to get food stains on—and sat down at the dinner table. Although the military engineers had to build the tank-train in a matter of days, they still managed to make the living quarters for the girls as luxurious as possible. Three padded cots stuffed with turkey-duck feathers lied next to the port-side wall. To the right, there was a kitchenette and a dining table, again with three chairs. Ty Lee placed the platter of steaming-hot shumai on the table and both girls sat down.

"Ta-da! Boar-q-pine shumai! I mixed some diced papaya in there, tell me if you like it or not," Ty Lee said. Azula grabbed a napkin so as not to get any stains on the fine fabric of her clothing. Papaya? In shumai? Azula hesitantly grasped one of the doughy balls with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth.

"It—wow, it actually tastes somewhat decent," she admitted incredulously. Ty Lee beamed. This was perhaps the greatest compliment Azula had ever given her. Azula dropped her normally regal eating etiquette and stuffed a couple more into her mouth.

"Who knew papaya actually tasted good in shumai? I don't get why people hate it so much," Ty Lee said. The tank stopped, the inertial forces nearly pushing the shumai plate off of the table, and Mai walked in.

"Oh, no. Don't tell me you've both turned into papaya-in-shumai people," Mai said.

Azula shrugged. "What can I say? It tastes good."

Mai cringed. "I figured Ty Lee would like papaya in shumai, but Azula, you too? Anyway, the reason I came back here is because we really need to take shifts driving. It's impossible for me to be the only driver, one of you guys is gonna have to do it. I haven't eaten this whole day and my eyes are all blurry. As much as I loath having to put either of you in the driver's seat, one of you has to do it. I can't keep going on like this." She stood there for a second contemplating which of the two girls was less likely to wreck the tank. Finally, she settled on Ty Lee under the reasoning that Ty Lee had one less driving accident than Azula. It was amusing, she thought, how the Avatar found them such formidable enemies despite the fact that two of them managed to crash the tank a total of three times.

While Ty Lee sauntered over to the cockpit, Mai sat down with Azula and picked up a shumai. She reached into her sleeves and grabbed one of her knives to pluck out the pieces of papaya, leaving the chunks of fruit on her plate as she ate the remaining boar-q-pine filling.

"Wow, driving really makes you hungry, huh?" Azula said.

"No," Mai responded acerbically. "It's the not-eating-for-ten-hours-straight-because-I'm-the-only-one-who-can-competently-pilot-the-tank part that makes you hungry." She glared at Azula then sighed. "Well, I'm going to sleep." She tucked herself in her cot for a bit, then sat up again. "Actually, before I do, I need to go to the bathroom." Mai rubbed her forehead in annoyance. "Ugh, where's the bucket?"

Despite all of the amenities that the engineers had managed to build into the tank, they had made a glaring oversight—there was no built-in bathroom, only a bucket that had to be emptied outside after every use.

"The bucket's in the back," Azula said drearily. "Please remind me to banish the idiots who didn't build a proper bathroom into this thing."

Mai shuffled away. Azula pressed her lips together. We're Fire Nation royalty, not some water tribe savages, she thought with distaste. Those backwards fools never even thought to create functioning sewage systems despite having the power to bend any liquid in the world. We should be better than that.

It was true; for all of the grandeur of the northern water tribe, they still hadn't progressed past the point of using holes in the ground to relieve themselves. Perhaps we can introduce them to proper hygiene when we conquer them.

Mai returned, her face even more grim than usual. She laid down in her cot and swaddled herself with blankets. "Azula," she mumbled. "Can you please make sure Ty Lee doesn't crash again?"

"I still think I should be the one driving, but fine, I'll watch."

Mai sighed in resignation. "We're going to crash again, aren't we…" She rested her head on her pillow and nodded off. I swear, if the tank falls off a cliff while I'm sleeping…

After a couple hours of heavenly sleep, Mai woke up to grab some water. To her immense satisfaction, the tank was still right side up. Thank the spirits they haven't crashed us yet. She grabbed a canteen out of their shared provisions. Once she quenched her thirst, she laid back down, cautiously optimistic about the rest of the night.

In the cockpit, Ty Lee was humming a cheery rendition of the Fire Nation national anthem while drumming her fingers on the dashboard. She checked out the window to make sure they were still on the right path. Sure enough, she saw a small wad of white fur floating down.

"We're still going the right way?" Azula asked.

"Yeah, I just saw some fur straight ahead," Ty Lee said.

"Good. Unless they changed direction in midair, we're on the right course."

Ty Lee turned around. "Wait, but how do you know they didn't change direction?"

Azula chuckled. "They've been sleep deprived for the past couple days. I doubt they'd think of it. Besides, they aren't bright to begin with."

"I suppose you're right," Ty Lee said. She shifted up a gear to compensate for some hilly terrain then continued to hum. "Hey Azula," she said offhandedly. "After we capture the Avatar, can we adopt that big furry thing they fly around on?"

Azula looked at her quizzically. "Why would you want that six-legged beast in the first place? It just looks like a giant floating fuzz ball to me."

Ty Lee pouted. "Aw, but it's so cute and fluffy!"

Azula exhaled. The Fire Lord did order us to bring the Avatar and his companions to the Boiling Rock, but Ty Lee's doe eyes are very convincing. Finally, she relented.

"Fine, I'll ask my father for an exemption, see if you can keep that…whatever it is they ride on."

"Yay! Thank you Azula!" Ty Lee embraced Azula in her arms. "I knew you'd understand." Ty Lee clung to Azula for several seconds as the tank continued to chug forward.

"Uh, Ty Lee? I think you should go back to the driver's seat," Azula said.

"Oh, right. I probably should." Ty Lee giggled nervously and blushed. She sat back into the driver's seat and made a quick readjustment to the tank's trajectory. Once it was back on the right path, she leaned back and stretched her back until her head was facing behind her. She let her eyes roam the cockpit. She noticed Azula was standing right behind her, staring.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Ty Lee asked in confusion.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Azula said, slightly flustered. Shoot, she noticed.

Ty Lee shrugged. "I don't know, it just felt rather strange. That's all."

Azula panicked for a second but quickly came up with a suitable excuse. "Don't be silly, I was just looking around randomly, nothing more," she said. Okay, that seemed convincing enough. Azula let out a sigh of relief, then cursed herself for doing so. If she heard me sigh, she can deduce that I'm relieved about something. Then she could probably figure out the rest. Better create an excuse so she doesn't connect the dots. "By the way, I only sighed because I was tired, not for any other reason," Azula said in the most casual voice she could muster.

Ty Lee furrowed her brows. "I didn't hear you sigh or anything, but, uh, thanks for letting me know?" she said.

Good, Azula thought. She doesn't suspect anything now. She made sure to not let her gaze wonder away from the front window. No need to tempt fate further. Her eyes scanned the darkness. She couldn't see much, just some stout bushes and lanky trees silhouetted by the night sky. Then one of the trees started walking.

Azula reflexively settled into a firebending stance. Movement. Ty Lee noticed Azula tensing up.

"What do you see, Azula?"

"Ty Lee, someone's out there. Turn the lights on," Azula ordered. Ty Lee pulled a lever. In the front of the tank, two metal flaps opened to reveal a set of bright lanterns. Blinding light cut through the darkness. Azula and Ty Lee had to squint as their eyes adjusted. They could just make out the shapes of twelve men in green uniform before a boulder smashed through the windshield.