Ba Sing Se really was on the other side of the continent. While Suyin knew plenty about the geography of the Fire Nation - she could name each island off the coast of the mainland - the same didn't go for the rest of the world. The public schools rather focused on the geography and history and culture of their own nature - that is, they didn't exactly teach much about the Earth Kingdom, and it was only because Azula showed her their route on a map that Suyin had any idea where they were going.
She'd blushed in embarrassment that she didn't know these things. Evidently, the Royal Academy for Girls taught its students much more than the public school she'd gone to, for even Mai and Ty Lee knew far more about the Earth Kingdom than Suyin. Honestly, it made her feel inadequate, but the girls didn't sneer at her, and Azula even seemed to take some pleasure in explaining the plan to her. Suyin watched her in awe, soaking up her every word. She put it in simple terms, and even the militarily inexperienced Suyin understood what it was they were to do. In that moment, Azula well and truly looked like a leader, her bright eyes gleaming, gears almost visibly turning in her head.
Even with the tank train ploughing through the Earth Kingdom's mountainous terrain, it took a good two weeks to reach Ba Sing Se. They stopped, occasionally, in towns and sometimes even in villages to replenish their supplies, and to get a good night's sleep, for the tank train offered them less than ideal conditions in which they could rest. Though looking out for the Avatar was always on their horizons, they had yet to catch a glimpse of him since that incident with the fur trail, and so the mission was temporarily put on the back burner. If it worried Azula - she did not show it. She insisted, only, that they were to go to Ba Sing Se to provide aid to the oncoming invasion, and that the rest would all follow.
There was always a place for them to rest. Save for Ba Sing Se, the Earth Kingdom was almost entirely under Fire Nation control, and each colony welcomed the princess and her troops with varying degrees of grandeur. They stayed in the governor's homes - all of them were of Fire Nation descent, obviously, stationed out in the colonies - and were treated as, well, royalty. There was no gesture too great for the princess; it was an honour for a town as small as any of these to host the princess, even if only for a night. She was given the best rooms, and each evening their hosts cooked up a feast for her and her closest comrades - Suyin included.
At the start of their journey, Azula had sent a letter to Captain Ihn, still stationed in Haoshi with his ship, that they were on the move and heading towards Ba Sing Se, and that he must relocate with the rest of his men to a port town closer to the great city. It would, after all, take longer for a ship to reach that destination than the tank train, and clearly Azula had no plans to trudge back halfway across on the continent should she accomplish her mission here. It made sense, of course, but Suyin hadn't realised just how much the princess had to juggle in her mind. All this time, she was considering not only her immediate plan of action, but also the coming future, and the troops that were not with her at the moment.
The weeks passed by quickly and with relative ease, until finally, they arrived. Suyin was not prepared for the sight of the impenetrable city. Its enormous walls dwarfed the tank train and made Suyin feel like a moth-ant. It was a little funny, thinking back to it now, but it reminded her of how she felt when she first entered the palace, all those months ago, the great halls seemingly threatening to swallow her whole. She'd never before felt so tiny - but this, this was something else entirely. If she'd felt like an insect in the palace - here, she felt like a speck of dust.
Thanks to the princess' careful planning, they'd arrived perfectly on time, in sync with the planned invasion. If Suyin had thought the tank train was an impressive piece of machinery, it was nothing in comparison to the drill slowly approaching Ba Sing Se's outer walls. Smaller tanks flanked it on either side, but they looked, honestly, laughable in comparison to the enormous machinery. Well and truly, she felt like she was in a land of giants, and felt, somehow, as though someone might tread on her at any given moment, like an afterthought.
The sound was nearly deafening. The roar of the drill was louder than anything Suyin had heard before; louder, even, than the roar of the sea during a storm. One thing was certain: this was not, by any means, a surprise attack. There was no way the people inside the city didn't know about the war knocking on their doors. About the end to what idyllic life they've lived so far. Even from so far away, Suyin could see that the great wall was manned with earthbenders, likely anxiously awaiting the attack, waiting for the drill to come closer so that they could attempt to destroy it. But could a boulder even cause a dent in this awe-some machine? Could a hundred? A thousand? Was there anything that could stop it in its promise of oncoming slaughter?
Suyin remained in their tank train, parked a little off to the side, while Azula took Mai and Ty Lee to the frightful thing itself. War Minister Qin had welcomed them with pride in his voice, for he was the one who planned the invasion and oversaw it - hopefully to its success. Some of the soldiers stayed behind with Suyin, evidently unneeded for this first part of the invasion. Though this was a military siege, it clearly didn't require much man-power, at least not yet. Already, the plan was set in motion, and all that was left to do was drive the drill through the city's fortress. Once the wall was broken through, soldiers would infiltrate, and the rest? The rest would be easy. Or so Azula claimed. But Suyin couldn't imagine that the citizens of Ba Sing Se would simply give up and give in once the drill had come through the walls. It was their first line of defence, certainly, but they must have other ways to resist the invasion as well.
Surely a bloodbath would follow.
But there was nothing Suyin could do about it, and so she simply watched. Glued to the window, Suyin soaked in the dreadful sight and prayed that it would all be over quickly. She watched as boulder after boulder dropped on the tanks like a deadly avalanche. But if it slowed the drill at all, Suyin did not notice it. Earthbending soldiers on the ground prudently tried to stop it. Though they looked like little more than specks from this distance, Suyin saw that they started dropping, one by one, like flies. She pressed her face against the cool glass of the window. Was that Ty Lee? And Mai? She recognised them only by the colours of their clothes. With a racing heart, she watched as her friends took out dozens of enemy soldiers with ease. She strained her eyes to look for Azula, but the princess was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she was still inside the drill? But the fact that she was out of sight sent her heart racing, and she hoped, prayed, that she was all right. That her friends would be all right.
The men on the front lines did not last long. Mai and Ty Lee must have retreated back into the tank, else they were obscured, somewhere, by the clouds of dust sent up from the tanks and falling boulders alike. What passion the earthbenders presented at the start of the battle had clearly spluttered out. The boulders kept dropping, but it felt less like fervour and more like distress as the drill slowly stalked on, impervious to any attempts to slow it down, much less to stop it completely.
She noticed, for the first time, the raw desperation in their attacks. In the futile attempts to defend the Earth Kingdom's last stronghold from the onslaught of the Fire Nation's strength. The great metal phallus ploughed ahead with no regard for what earth stood in its way; it crushed it all equally beneath its terrible force.
It did not look like it would be much of a battle.
It looked more like a promise of slaughter.
Suyin felt her stomach churn. She barely understood what she was feeling. The Fire Nation colonies had been a beautiful sight; they'd been welcomed with open arms, and the influence of their great nation had clearly made a meaningful impact on all the poor, barbaric people living there. It had warmed Suyin's heart to see the foreigners dressed in Fire Nation garb. To know that they had built schools because of them.
Some colonies had been under Fire Nation control for so many decades that even the adults spoke their language fluently. The younger colonies would grow to resemble them too, in a few years, but for now the adults spoke a broken language and sometimes slipped into their mother tongue. The soldiers would help them grow out of it eventually - even if by force, for sometimes, that was the only way to encourage any sort of change.
But the children spoke the language with such beautiful prose that one could well mistake them for real Fire Nation children. They'd never even learned their parents' language. Their little eyes had lit up when they'd seen the princess, and she'd had a trail of little girls following her, admiring her with such awe that even Azula hadn't the heart to tell them off. They'd grow up into good, useful people, who could serve their great nation wholeheartedly. These colonies were proof that the Fire Nation was doing everyone a favour by spreading their culture to them. Their wealth. Their prosperity.
But now, looking upon the raw desperation in this ultimate fight, Suyin felt absolutely none of that warmth in her chest. Had all the colonies fought back with such desperation? Has there always been so much bloodshed? She always knew that they had to use a bit of force to colonise the Earth Kingdom, but she'd never imagined it to be like this. How terrified were the people inside Ba Sing Se? What did they know of the war knocking at their doorstep? Surely the little Earth Kingdom children behind those walls did not dream of meeting the Fire Nation princess. Surely they did not admire her strength and wit and determination, for it was what would bring an end to them all.
But there was no use mulling over it now. Even if Suyin felt pity for these people, there was absolutely nothing she could do. She couldn't stop a war. She didn't think anyone could, save for, perhaps, the Fire Lord. But colonising the last stronghold of the Earth Kingdom would end this war just as well - if not even quicker than retreating. So it would be so much easier if the Earth Kingdom nationals simply gave in. Then, at least, there would be no need for such force, and they could become a part of the Fire Nation without having to sacrifice any of their lives. She wished, desperately, that they would do that, for watching this battle made her sick to her stomach.
The cry of the drill changed as it made contact with the wall. The cracking sound of crumbling infrastructure drowned out the roar of the machine and blended into a cacophony of chaos. The boulder attacks rained down with more fervour than ever before, but the drill carried on, undisturbed entirely. Slurry spluttered out of the back of the drill as it made contact with the wall - but it didn't last long. Somehow, the liquid exhaust was forced back inside. It was only then that Suyin spotted two - no, three specks out there. Earthbenders? They were plugging up the pipeline with bending, and though Suyin felt guilt overwhelm her for even entertaining the notion - she was glad of it. She wanted Ba Sing Se to be part of the Fire Nation as much as everyone else, but not like this. Not taken with such force. Not leaving behind such destruction.
She watched with a pounding heart as the drill ploughed onwards, entirely untroubled by the earthbenders plugging up the pipeline. It was then that she noticed a burst of blue light atop the drill. Her heart nearly stopped. That could only be one person - but what was Azula doing on top of that great machine? It was still moving, and the men manning the wall were still sending boulder after boulder down below. It did little to stop the drill - but it could very well hurt the princess. No matter how quick she was, how nimble she was, a rocky avalanche on that scale couldn't be an easy attack to avoid. Another speck proved that she had come up here after an enemy, though Suyin couldn't see who they were from this distance. They seemed to be an earthbender - no, a waterbender?
An airbender.
The Avatar.
Bursts of blue flames lit up the clouds of dust surrounding them, but time after time, the Avatar avoided them. He was just as nimble as Azula - if not even more. Not knowing what exactly was happening sent Suyin into a flurry of worries, but no matter how much she wished she could do something - anything - she could only watch with her heart in her throat, all the way away in the safety of their tank train.
What pity she'd held for the citizens of Ba Sing Se had dissolved into absolutely nothing. She didn't care what happened to them any longer - she cared only for the safety of her friends. For Azula. And now, seeing her teetering on the top of that fearsome drill, fighting all alone even though the tanks were full of soldiers that should, by all means, be helping their princess, she only cared for her safety. The citizens of Ba Sing Se deserved whatever fate they had coming, for daring to hurt her princess.
She watched in terror as Azula avoided the boulders and the Avatar's attacks alike. Her heart beat her in ears and she cried out as she watched her slide off of the side of the drill - and out of Suyin's sight.
The Avatar flew into the air not unlike a cobra-hawk, and as he bore down he made a furious impact on the tank and it all but imploded with the force of his attack. Slurry burst out of the tank's every crevice, sending an explosion of that sickly mud up into the air, again and again and again. The roar of the machines powered down, and Suyin could only imagine what was happening in the engines to cause this great beast of a machine to falter. It did not move any further. It had pierced through the outer wall of Ba Sing Se, but with its engines powered down, there was no way for them to even retreat - no way to allow any soldiers to come in through the hole and infiltrate the impenetrable city.
Another failure.
Azula returned covered entirely in slurry goop, but otherwise mostly unharmed, much to Suyin's relief. She'd sustained a few bruises, surely, but nothing so terrible as what Suyin imagined might have happened to her after she'd lost sight of her. Mai and Ty Lee were fine too - though Mai was in significantly better condition than the other two girls. Evidently, she'd sat out the bulk of the fight and managed to avoid the onslaught of slurry - something for which Suyin was unspeakably grateful. One less person to clean.
The slurry was terrible. While it washed away easily enough from skin, it permeated the clothes with its awful, sticky filth. Suyin would try to scrub it away later, but in all honesty, she doubted that Azula and Ty Lee's clothes were salvageable at this point. She'd do her best, but honestly, it would be much easier to just throw them away.
Hair was another issue. The slurry clung to the girls' hair and, as it dried, hardened into clumps, which made it even more difficult to get out. Suyin spent a good hour washing Azula's hair after that, combing it over and over and over again in the water until it was finally clean and the clumps dissolved. Each time she thought she was finished, the clean water again turned cloudy as she combed more and more dirt from it. Ty Lee's hair took even longer. But Suyin was determined, and Azula was already in a bad mood after yet another defeat, and this, at least, was something with which Suyin could help her.
"What happened?" She tried to prod, as gently as she could manage.
Azula's foul mood was palpable, but Suyin absolutely had to know. She could assume, easily enough, that the invasion had not gone as well as they'd hoped, but the details were a mystery, and the mystery was eating at her. She'd only pieced together as much as she'd been able to see from afar.
She didn't blame the princess for being upset; another failure was surely difficult to digest. First Captain Ihn's slip up that had cost them Prince Zuko and General Iroh, then the failures to capture the Avatar at New Ozai and the chase after the bison's furry trail, now the failure to take Ba Sing Se…
Perhaps Azula simply had too much on her plate. She'd undertaken so many missions which even the most hardened war generals hadn't been able to complete, and all of her own choice. A part of Suyin wanted to suggest to her, as gently as possible, that maybe she ought to focus only on the mission she'd been assigned, on capturing her brother and uncle… But she knew that that sentiment would not be taken as a genuine worry for her mental state, but as an insult. And the last thing Suyin wanted to do was insult the princess and her capabilities. So she kept those thoughts to herself.
The girls recounted to her what had happened. The invasion had gone smoothly enough until the Avatar and his friends showed up. The earthbenders and soldiers had proved to be barely an issue, and the drill would have easily been able to pierce through the wall had they only been up against them. But the Avatar's involvement had ruined the plan entirely, and left them with even less than they began, for the military tanks had ended up destroyed beyond repair.
"At least we know the Avatar is in Ba Sing Se now." Ty Lee, ever the optimist, added. "You were right, Azula, they ended up here, anyway. And I bet Zuko's somewhere around, too."
"Mmm." The princess sighed. She didn't speak for a long moment. "But even so, knowing their location isn't much help if they're inside the city, and we're stuck outside of it. They won't remain cooped up in there forever, so I suppose we could wait them out… But what would be best would be to find another way inside."
"But how would we do that?"
"I don't know." Azula admitted. "But we'll think of something. Let's take a few days to scout the surrounding area. Perhaps we'll find an imperfection in the wall, through which we could either sneak, or force our way through. However many times it takes - I will hunt them down. I will not stop until I have achieved my goal."