"That son of a-" Sokka hits the wall of their home turned prison in frustration. "What're we supposed to do now?"
"You can't keep us in here forever!" Aang shouts at the door.
"If we can't even help the people in the Lower Ring, how are we supposed to help anyone else?" Katara spits.
Sokka rounds on her. "Yeah speaking of, when were you going to share that with us?"
Katara rolls her eyes, "Well it doesn't matter anymore anyway, so what do you care?"
"I'm your big brother, I care!"
"Fine, it won't happen again."
"Obviously it won't!" Sokka groans, "We still need to figure out what to do."
"Well, at least we're alive. My father likes to make people disappear so, at least there's that." Zuko shrugs.
"Oh thank you so much Princey," Sokka scoffs, "At least we're not dead. That's great. You really know what to say." Zuko rolls his eyes. The Water Tribe man turns to Toph, "You got anything, any insider knowledge?"
She doesn't respond, just continues to pick at her toes.
"Toph?"
"What?"
"What do you mean, what? I was talking to you?"
"How was I supposed to know that, huh, you say my name?"
"No, but I-" he stops. Toph waves her hand in front of her eyes before rolling them. Sokka looks sheepishly down, "My bad. So, Toph, do you have any ideas?"
"Nah, I doubt we'll get close to the Earth King again."
"Wait, Aang, you said we got a bunch of dinner invitations right?" Katara muses. "What if we schmooze with them? Maybe it's not the Earth King but someone may be close enough to him for what we say to reach him."
"That's a good idea, Katara!"
"Yeah, let's look at the court and figure out who's invited us to dinner!"
Zuko and Toph both groan. "Ugh, you have no idea how much I hate these things."
"Dresses," Toph chimes in.
"Long, boring toasts," Zuko adds. "The best part of living away from the palace was not having to deal with that stuff."
"Well do you two have any better ideas?"
"Literally anything other than that!"
. . .
Toph refuses to wear a dress. "They're lucky to have us come at all, I'm going to dress how I want!" She states emphatically.
"Come on, you could have at least put on a little makeup or something," Katara prods.
"Nope! Not happening!"
"Both of you!" Sokka scowls.
"What, I'm just saying."
Zuko pinches the bridge of his nose. "We're dining with someone on the Council of Five, literally one of the most important people in the entireEarth Kingdom, can you both please stop." He'd tried to get out of even coming, to no avail.
The door in front of them opens, revealing a stoic entryway. "The General is delighted to have you Avatar Aang and company. Please, do come in," The maid bows, ushering them inside. The same stoic and sparse décor that initially greeted them continues throughout the house. Their footsteps echo on the marble, only occasionally broken up by rugs. It's the house of a general, and every room remind them of that. The maid leads them into the dining room, It's a little warmer, a plush rug sprawls across the floor. General How stands from his place at the head of the table.
"Avatar Aang," The general bows to each of them, greeting everyone by name, including Lee. "This is my wife, Shuquing and our two kids Miousi and Mushi." He gestures to the beautiful woman sitting down and the twin toddlers.
"It's a pleasure to meet all of you." Shuquing smiles, her eyes lighting up the room. "Please, take a seat."
"Your house is lovely, thank you for inviting us," Katara beams.
"Of course, it's out pleasure."
"So, how long have you been in Ba Sing Se, or have you two lived here your whole life?"
Shuquing laughs and puts her hand affectionately on How's arm as he opens his mouth. "I was born in the city. My lovely Shuquing here though is from YuDin near Lake Laogai, about an hour outside of the city. I was passing through for some army training and saw the most exquisite creature I've ever laid eyes on taking a stroll around the lake. It took a solid month of convincing her parents to let her even talk to me. A week later she came back to the city with me and it's been bliss ever since."
"Oh that's so romantic!"
"Yes," Shuquing replies, "I'm just happy I was invited out to Lake Laogai, or else I may have never met you."
How smiles at her before a previously unnoticed server steps into view, setting down steaming dishes. Lobster-fish filets, cucumelon salads, and large sizzling rolls quickly get divvied out and everyone begins to chow down. The twins are silent, the lady of the house easily feeding them.
"So, Avatar, tell us about your adventures," How requests. "What have you seen?"
"Well," Zuko and Toph had both warned him not to say too much at first, not to give too much away. "We've been all over, we saw the Northern Water Tribe-"
"That must have been quite a site to see, I've heard of it's splendor! Masters Sokka and Katara, I'm sure you enjoyed visiting your sister tribe. How was it?"
"Oh, you know," Sokka shrugs, "It was nice. A lot of ice and fish. Same old, same old."
"Oh Sokka," Katara rolls her eyes, "It was amazing. We learned so much not only about their tribe but Aang even mastered water bending there!"
"Was there," the general coughs, "any foreign activity there?"
The room shifts, an awkward pause that Katara hesitantly breaks, "There was some."
"Anything interesting?"
"Depends on what you'd call interesting."
How pauses for a moment. "I heard that someone from the Fire Nation joined the Avatar up in the North Pole." He locks eyes with the scarred man at the end of the table. "Of course that wouldn't be true would it?"
Zuko swallows. "Of course not."
One of the twins starts crying. "Oh hush! Hush sweet baby!" The mother intones before motioning a maid over and all four of them quickly exit the room. It's just the gang and General How, now. No maids, no servants.
"Avatar Aang, we must speak quickly. There's something, a machine of some sort, coming towards the city walls. It will be here before tomorrow afternoon and it's Fire Nation. We may need your help."
"What is it? What's coming?"
"We're not sure, but we only saw it this morning. It came through the desert, it's relentless."
Zuko hisses, "Azula. I'd bet anything it's her."
"Why can't the army stop it? You have enough men." Toph points out. "Get all the guards, have them crush it into smithereens."
"No," How shakes his head, "We can't alert the city. It would cause a panic. We'll try in the morning. Come to the outer wall and see. We-" his wife walks in.
"Sorry about that, the children get fussy sometimes." She casts a glance around the room, "I hope I wasn't interrupting anything."
"No, of course not, my flower. Of course not!" The Fire Nation isn't mentioned again. After all, there is no war in Ba Sing Se.
. . .
Morning dawns bright, the sun reflecting off of puddles from rain last night and shining through a window, illuminating two benders snuggled up against each other. Zuko's awake, studying Katara. He shouldn't have come last night, but the thought of Azula being nearby, of Azula getting to them, it's too much. He had to make sure she's safe. Katara yawns into his shirt, blinking slowly.
"You're awake."
"I'm not surprised you are," She laughs sleepily, "You know, your hair is getting longer." She runs her fingers through it, sweeping it out of his eyes. Zuko just frowns. "You're worried?"
"Aren't you?"
A pit forms in her belly. She whispers, "Yes."
The arm that she'd been sleeping on pulls her close. For a brief moment his face presses against her hair. "If anything happens to you," he trails off. "If my sister gets in, take Aang and run."
"I'm not leaving you."
"Please Katara, you're too important."
The pit in her stomach only grows.
The rest of the morning is silent. Sokka cracks a few half hearted jokes but is met with little reaction. Everyone's heart is racing. In the Northern Water Tribe they'd had the whole tribe behind them, they'd had warriors by their side. Here, who knows what kind of backup they'll get and the memory of Azula finding them in camp is still a little too fresh.
They have limited armor. Katara has two water skins. Aang has spent the morning checking his staff, Sokka his boomerang. Zuko sharpened his swords, but he doubts he'll use them today. Toph cracks her knuckles, they're ready to go.
A knock interrupts the tense silence. "Who would that be?"
"Maybe someone to take us to the wall?"
Zuko opens the door, the others looking over his shoulder. "Joo Dee?"
"Ah, Master Lee." She spots Aang. "Avatar Aang, you're the one I'm here to see. I'm afraid there was an altercation involving General How late last night."
"What! What happened, is he okay?"
"I'm afraid he's been injured, though I'm sure he will be fine. Avatar, we ask that you and your companions stay in the Upper Ring today as we may need to ask you some questions since you were with him yesterday."
"No," Aang shakes his head, "We can't do that. We, we already have other plans."
"And what, may I ask, are those other plans? You can have anything you want here in the Upper Ring."
"Just visiting some people."
"With your weapons? I assure you there's nothing you would need a sword for in Ba Sing Se Master Lee, or a boomerang Master Sokka. We are perfectly safe within these walls."
"Perfectly safe!" Sokka snorts. "There's something Fire Nation coming towards the walls and you want to say we're perfectly safe! No, we're going to go help."
Joo Dee interrupts, "Please-"
"We said no," Zuko slams the door in her face.
"I wonder what happened to him," Aang bites his lip. "I wonder if he's okay."
"He's probably fine," Sokka replies, gritting his teeth.
"At least he's ali-" Zuko freezes at a look from Katara. He clears his throat. "I'm sure he's fine."
"Do you think it had anything to do with him telling us about the drill?"
Toph grimaces. "Yeah, yeah probably. Are we gonna let that stop us though, huh?"
Aang looks up. "No, I guess not."
"Good. Now let's get going!"
. . .
They can see forever atop the wall. A river flows near the city. Mountains are off on the horizon. Rolling green pastures are dotted with wooly pigs, but it's the desert that grabs their attention, the forsaken expanse of dust and sand and lifelessness. A dust cloud races towards them, metal glinting in the middle of it.
"Avatar Aang, I didn't get the chance to introduce myself the other evening," A hunched older man with armor that looks more than a bit ceremonial greets them. "I'm General Sung, what, pray tell, are you doing here?"
"We heard about the machine and came to help."
"Oh no," the general laughs. "I assure you, Ba Sing Se is perfectly safe! Many have tried to break through the walls but none have succeeded!"
Zuko scoffs, "What about the Dragon of the West? He got in."
General Sung sniffs, "Well, yes, but he was quickly expunged! Nevertheless, the city is called Ba Sing Se, the Impenetrable City! It's not called Na Sing Se," he laughs, then looks at their confused faces. "That would mean penetrable city."
"Yeah, thanks for the lesson dude," Toph yawns. "But if some, from what I've heard grandpa can get in then Princess Crazy can too."
"Princess Crazy?"
"Yeah, Azula, Princess of the Fire Nation. Ready to kill anybody-"
"Fire bending prodigy," Zuko cuts in. "She's been trained since childhood so be a military mastermind, next in line to the Fire Nation throne. Any of this ringing any bells?" he growls.
"Oh, uh. Well, she's a princess, she can't be that big of a threat."
"Do you see that massive machine over there? Chances are she's the one commanding it, are you going to call that not that big of a threat?" Zuko waves his hand emphatically towards the metal monstrosity that's now uncomfortably close.
"We'll take that into consideration. You're all worried for nothing though, we already have people on the ground. It's a group of elite soldiers called the Terra Team. Take a look." General Sung hands Zuko a spyglass. He holds it up to his eye, looking towards the machine, and winces.
"What, what is it?" Sokka grabs the spyglass and grimaces. "Yeah, you might want to reconsider the whole 'Azula isn't a threat' idea."
"Why, what happened!"
"Her friends just took all of your soldiers out. All of them."
"What! Let me see that!" The general snatches the glass back then gasps at the sight. "We're doomed! How did they go down so quickly, those were our best men!"
"At least they're not dead," Zuko mutters, Katara shoots him a look so sharp it could, in fact, kill.
Aang looks out at the machine. "Why can't we just get under it? Can't we just earth bend and open the ground underneath it, even just half of it?"
"Nah," Toph replies. "I can feel it from here, it's way too big!"
"Yes, she's right," The general butts in, "We can't even get close enough to do that, much less get the man power out there to begin with."
"So what do we do?"
"Sokka, weren't you looking at some of the machines at the Northern Air Temple?" Katara prompts. "Anything there that can help?"
"What? Those were completely different! This, what is it, a drill? It's completely different from anything at the Northern Air Temple! First of all," Sokka begins to pace, "it's massive, it's bigger than anything the mechanic there made. Secondly, we don't know what powers it. We don't know what it's insides look like! We don't know anything about it." He pauses, then looks at the team. "But you know who would?"
"Before you say it, I've never seen anything like that," Zuko growls.
"I wasn't talking about you. Engineers! For a machine that size there's got to be engineers! And I'm betting they have a schematic of the whole thing!"
"Eh," Toph shrugs, covering up the fear in her chest. "Sounds like a good plan. Let's get going." She bends a platform out of part of the wall, which they all hesitantly step onto.
"No, wait children! It's too dangerous for you to-" General Sung gets cut off by the team simply disappearing out of sight, down the wall.
An earth bent dust cloud covers them until they reach the drill and the team splits up. Toph stays on the ground to slow the metal monstrosity while the rest of the group finds a hole to slip into, climbing into the belly of the beast.
"So, first thing, let's find an engine room and mess it up, someone's sure to come running!" Sokka picks a direction and starts walking.
"Or we can just do this." Katara focuses on one of the many pipes crisscrossing the nearby wall. The water running through it pauses, then strains against the pipe before bursting out.
"Oh," Sokka looks at his feet, "Yeah, that could work too." She and Aang do it to a few more pipes before they can hear footsteps in the distance.
"Quick, hide!"
A large, burly man appears through the mist. Katara's heart stops. Not here, not now she mutters to herself, this isn't the same place, it's not the same man. The Fire Nation prince catches her eye and rubs his should ever so slightly against her. She flashes him a quick, grateful smile.
"Now!"
Katara and Aang burst forward, Aang a little quicker than Katara, freezing the man where he stands.
"Okay," Zuko gets out of his crouch and begins to tie up the engineer. "We need to put him somewhere that no one will find him for awhile."
"We could just dump him out the hole we can in," Sokka suggests.
"Yeah," Aang agrees, "That should work."
Zuko winces, if everything goes according to plan all of these people, these soldiers will be prisoners in the hands of the Earth Kingdom. He hadn't thought about that. Is he really prepared to let his countrymen fall into the hands of people like the Dai Lee and if he drops this man out of the drill, the engineer will wake up alone, defenseless, in the middle of the Earth Kingdom? "No, we can't do that. We need to find somewhere inside to put him."
"Why? What does it matter?"
"It just does," Zuko growls.
"Fine," Sokka rolls his eyes, "We'll look for somewhere to stash him." They find and drag the unconscious man into a tool closet, propping him against an assortment of wrenches. "Are you happy now?"
"Sokka, leave him alone. We're all a little stressed," Katara snaps. "You got what you needed?"
"Yes!" The Water Tribe man pulls out a scroll and begins to unroll it on the floor – they haven't heard any footsteps except the now unconscious engineer's. "Look at this, the drill is divided into two separate parts. There's the inner core and the outer layer. The two structures are connected by these beams. If we cut through those, we should be able to take it down."
"They look massive though."
"It'll be fine. I'm sure they're not that big."
The beams are, in fact, that big.
Katara takes one look at them before rounding on Sokka. "There's no way we're cutting these before the drill reaches the wall. Hell, we may not even be able to cut one before the drill reaches the wall!"
"No, this is the best way. We slice through one of these and we'll be in the clear."
"Fine," Katara grumbles.
Aang looks at the beam – easily eight feet wide and just as thick – and slumps. "If you say so."
Zuko keeps lookout while the water benders throw liquid back and forth, slowly cutting into the beam. Sokka tries to cheer them on only to be met with icy glares. Time passes slowly, with no indicator in sight, it could have been minutes or hours before the sweating pair finally manage the last pass, cleanly shearing the beam in two.
"We did it!"
"Good job guys, now we just have to wait for the drill to move some more and it'll collapse," Sokka grins.
The group begins to walk away, suddenly stopped by a loud grinding. "Hey, it's happening!"
An staticky voice echoes into the outer shell. "Congratulations crew, we are proud to announce we've made contact with the wall of Ba Sing Se." The beam remains unmoved. All eyes turn to Sokka.
"Hey, I didn't hear any of you coming up with any better plans," he defends.
"That's because you're supposed to be the idea guy," Katara retorts.
"Yeah, well," Sokka trails off. "Let's look at the schematics again, see if there's something else we can try."
"We've got to hurry. We don't know how fast this drill is or how quickly it can breach the wall." Zuko states matter of factly.
"You're not helping." Sokka unrolls his scroll and again begins to pour over it. After a few minutes he looks up. "Katara?"
"Yeah?"
"You know how you burst the pipes when we first got on here, how big of a scale do you think you can do that on?"
Katara sighs, "Cutting the beam was exhausting, but if we need to. I'm sure Aang and I can handle whatever it is, right Aang?"
Aang nods, "Yeah. We have to."
"Good, now there's several large pipes running through the outer section. The largest is labelled coolant liquid and the second largest is slurry. If we can burst both of those and flood the outer compartment, we should be able to slow them down long enough for the Earth Kingdom to get in here and deal with everyone."
"Okay, but this one had better work."
They find the pipes easily. After all, they had almost been beside them earlier. Katara and Aang take up positions near the two pipes, each one wider than either bender is tall. Again Zuko stands lookout while Sokka decides to keep his mouth shut this time.
"Still slumming it with the Water Bender, Zuzu? How typical." Azula's voice rings out cold and clear through the machine, bouncing off of the many beams.
"Azula," Zuko growls. "Where are you?" Fire erupts from his hands as he looks around. Sokka's boomerang is out, and the two water benders strain to rip open the pipes quicker.
"Oh Zuzu, always so lost. Can't even find your little sister. How sad. Maybe I should help!" Lightning shoots in front of the Fire Nation prince. Zuko returns the blast, aiming far beneath them.
"Really, you should know by now that you're not going to beat Azula." Ty Lee drops down in front of them. "She's been beating you since you were kids." Zuko throws fire at her as Sokka darts away from a sudden hail of shurikens.
"Guys, can you bend a little faster!"
"We're going as fast we-" lightning lights up the cavern again, Azula's getting closer. Ty Lee lunges for Zuko but he flips her off the beam. She lands deftly on another. Mai throws her knives at Sokka and the two other benders. Aang has to stop just to fend them off, using his staff to try and knock the woman off her perch several beams away.
Katara looks around frantically, the next shot of lightning comes perilously close to her and yes! Azula's in view. One final tug and the steaming water explodes outward! Katara directs it as much as she can towards the princess. The steam clouds everything making it almost impossible to see in the mist. Aang grabs her hand. "Run!"
"No, not yet. We need to open up the slurry pipe too." They start bending again, stopping up the liquid though it's harder, the water isn't as pure.
A monotone voice speaks up, "Is Azula even down there now?"
"Mai!" The edge in Ty Lee's voice a sharp contrast from her usual bubbly tone.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." It's easy to hear her knife missing any kind of target.
Zuko's fire sparks up again.
Sokka shouts. "Zuko, stop! You'll only make it easier to –"
There's a dull thud and Zuko's fire goes out.
"Sorry about that, Zuko." Ty Lee genuinely does sound apologetic but she adds, "You know how it is."
A groan comes from his direction. Katara's heart jumps into her throat and fear rises like bile. The air freezes and the master water bender pushes it aside, giving her a clear view of Ty Lee, in her typical pink, standing out Zuko who's slumped, not moving on the ground. The sound that rips it's way out of Katara's throat is unlike any she's made before, a banshee out for blood. All she sees is pink. The water behind her answers her call, the vengeful wave of her arms is the last little bit needed, the slurry pipe breaks and shoots directly at the acrobat, too quick to dodge.
"Zuko!" Katara's beside him in an instant. He can't move much more than twitching but still at her touch. "Sokka, help me carry him. We need to get him out of here!"
"Aang," Sokka shouts. "Are we good over there? Is it something they can easily fix?"
Aang looks at the two pipes with massive, gaping holes in each. "I think we're good. Let's get out of here!"
Sokka helps hoist Zuko up and he and Katara begin to carry him. A knife glances off the metal right in front of Katara's foot. She looks sharply to the right, calling water to her again.
Mai just scoffs. "This isn't over yet. He'll come back to the Fire Nation eventually. It's his home, he belongs with us, with his people, and you're stupid to think otherwise." They lock eyes for a moment but neither moves to attack. Sokka drags Katara on.
"Come on, let's go!"
. . .
The whole gang stands atop the wall. Toph had spent a good ten minutes berating them for how long it took them to break the drill before finally calming down and affectionately punching each of them – except Zuko – in the shoulder. It had taken Zuko awhile to start moving again, but with Katara's help he wasn't too stiff. He still leans against her, his arm touching hers. Down below the drill is cracked open, the flooded water spilling out into the surrounding desert. The Earth Kingdom soldiers are making quick work of the people who weren't able to retreat fast enough, rounding them up and subduing the ones who want to fight.