The wind rushed through the broken windshield, causing Mai's wavy hair to flutter uncontrollably. She felt a deep sense of relief finally being behind the steering wheel again–Azula isn't driving anymore! And good timing too—their detour around the Si Wong Desert took them through a dense forest of sturdy conifers. With all the trees around them, there would be no way either Azula or Ty Lee would be able to handle the terrain. Yes, the tank was sturdy, but Mai didn't feel like testing how many frontal collisions it could withstand before breaking. A large tree with pinecones hanging off its branches loomed up ahead. Mai swerved around it and continued driving. She saw another tree and swerved around that one too. Wow, not-crashing-into-trees. So difficult. Although the breeze was nice, replacing the windshield was still Mai's top priority. The moisture from the humid air rushing in clung to Mai's skin. Even at noon with the sun high up in the sky, it wasn't even particularly warm, but the awful clammy feeling from the air made it feel unbearable. It didn't help that mosquito-wasps kept flying in to slurp her blood.

"Are we there yet?" Ty Lee was bouncing around impatiently behind her.

"No," Mai said, her annoyance clear in her tone.

"Well, I'm bored!"

Oh, you have got to be kidding me.

"There's a Pai Sho set underneath Azula's bed. Go play with Azula." And please leave.

"But I don't know how to play Pai—"

"Azula will teach you. Now go away."

"Okay, fine." Ty Lee walked off. Thank the spirits, she's gone.

Mai wondered what secret project War Minister Qin was working on that could possibly help them take Ba Sing Se. The last time the Fire Nation attempted to take Ba Sing Se was the Six-Hundred Day siege, a campaign of attrition led by General Iroh that ultimately ended up a strategic failure. Mai didn't even remember how the Dragon of the West managed to breach the first wall. The most probable answer was continuous bombardment by trebuchet, though she did remember someone saying it was blown to bits by five hundred barrels of blasting jelly. Either way, the method used at the time wasn't particularly sophisticated. She hoped the War Minister had a card up his sleeve for this invasion, since otherwise she'd probably have to stick around for another years-long siege. It would be like Omashu, but worse. She doubted the army barracks would be nearly as comfortable as her father's residence in Omashu. Then again, they did have the tank to sleep in, but still, not an appetizing way to spend her life.

Mai heard the door to the sleeping coach open. She briefly turned around and saw an antsy Ty Lee standing in the doorway.

"Are we there yet?"

Mai's eyes narrowed threateningly. "I will stab you."

"Okay! Okay!" Ty Lee backed off. "Fine, no need to be so mean about it." She retreated to the sleeping coach, where Azula was in her cot reading that colossal book of hers.

"I'm bored."

Azula looked up from her book. What would Ty Lee be interested in… Oh, I know! "I brought along a spare copy of Tentoshīn's Codified Laws. It's in the place where I keep the grain for the mongoose-lizards, you'll know it when you see it. Personally, I'd recommend the section on child safety regulations. It's a small section, so you should be able to finish it in thirty minutes. It's really interesting, though."

"Right…" Ty Lee was bored, yes, but not bored enough to subject herself to a book thicker than the history textbooks at the Academy (and probably twice as boring). "I'll just go to sleep."

Azula frowned. "That's fine by me, but you really are missing out on some great reading material. Just saying."

"Yeah, well…I can read it later, I guess. Nappy time." Ty Lee collapsed into her cot and swaddled herself with blankets. Azula turned back to her book.

"The Domestic Industrial Protection Act (*abbrev. DIP), enacted during the twenty-third year of the reign of Firelord Sozin, was a tax levied on imports of metal and machinery in order to foster development of domestic industry in preparation for the One-Hundred Year War. It was an important precursor to…"

—

Mai parked the tank in a dusty clearing in the middle of the camp, shaking off her fatigue as she looked at the stars which now dotted the night sky. She walked into the sleeping coach and was pleasantly surprised to see both Ty Lee and Azula fast asleep in their cots, Ty Lee wrapped in innumerable layers of blankets and Azula with her book on her chest. Mai considered waking them up or perhaps lifting the book off of Azula, but ultimately decided against it.

Soldiers, some wearing their distinctive skull-like helmets and others wearing loose red garments and cloth hats that flared outwards like mushrooms—the official uniforms of officers in the Royal Engineering Corp—gave out orders and monitored the construction. The industrial sounds of steel production and the relentless hammering of the blacksmiths permeated the air as countless masked, shirtless peons shoveled coal into colossal furnaces that gave the night an eery glow. The fact that Azula and Ty Lee could sleep through this cacophony was astounding. Mai decided it would be best to leave them in their slumber lest she face the wrath of cranky Ty Lee and worse, cranky Azula. She passed by a laborer carrying a bucket of liquified metal to the main construction area, where molded struts and braces were hoisted up by crane and welded into place by firebenders. The whole area smelled of sweat and dust.

She could see that the object being constructed was cylindrical in shape and titanic in scale, though its purpose remained unclear. She could guess it was some kind of siege device, perhaps a large cannon or battering ram. War Minister Qin was a clever man, as evidenced by the complex mechanisms being constructed within the huge cylindric chassis. It was rather curious that the War Minister hadn't already come to greet Mai and the others; usually high officials would rush over immediately and prostrate themselves wherever the girls went. Mai never cared for this sort of oleaginous behavior, but she still wished to talk to the War Minister about the plan for the upcoming invasion. Being the head of the Engineering Corp, the man could be busy strategizing or sleeping in one of the tents on the outskirts of the encampment, but Mai doubted it. The fact was he simply had no reason to meet her. Without Azula in tow, she was just another peon in his eyes, no different than the laborers around her. Her father wasn't the Firelord, just the provincial governor of Omashu, a peasant compared to the Firelord's personal war minister. Two faced opportunist.

Still, she wanted to know what she was getting herself into and maybe find out what the giant device was before the invasion. It would also be nice to find out the plan of attack for herself so she wouldn't have to find out secondhand from Azula, who was known to turn her strategy briefings into (literally and figuratively) fiery pep talks. So where could the War Minister be? She asked a couple of random laborers, who either didn't hear her or had no idea themselves.

Mai spotted a masked soldier absentmindedly juggling a fireball. From a distance, he just looked like another foot soldier like any other, but when she got closer she could see he was wearing an officer's sash. Perhaps someone of a higher rank would know where the War Minister is. She walked up to him and asked, "Do you know where War Minister Qin is?"

Looking down at her through the eyes of his skeletal mask, the officer shrugged. "Probably over there somewhere." He pointed vaguely at a group of thirty-or-so large tents on the outskirts of the camp and went back to juggling his fireball.

"Thank you for your specificity," Mai said. She began walking off when she felt the soldier put his hand on her shoulder.

"Halt! I don't recognize you as authorized military personnel. State your name and rank, soldier. You must have authorization to be on the premises."

Mai glared at him. "My name is Mai. I'm here on orders of Princess Azula." She turned around to continue walking, only to feel the same grimy hand on her shoulder again.

The soldier growled. "I'm going to need a better explanation than that. Do you have any document to validate your claim?"

Mai pursed her lips. "No," she said. "But I do have the princess herself with me. She'd be more than happy to vouch for me." And she'd banish you to the colonies afterward. Or execute you. One of those.

The soldier yanked her arm. "Miss, I think we would have heard if Princess Azula were taking part in this operation. I'm going to have to take you into custody. Come with me."

Mai stared at him defiantly, refusing to move an inch. He sighed. "Okay, we're doing this the hard way." He moved to restrain her, but Mai's instincts kicked in and she reflexively pinned the man to the ground with a throwing knife. A crowd of guards and workers assembled around her and the pinned soldier. The soldier heaved, his eyes fluttering in shock as he regained his composure. He cried out, "Assassin!"

Hearing the call, a group of guardsmen arrived, three advancing towards Mai with halberds and the fourth charging up a fire punch. She swiftly dispatched with all four, pinning them all to a nearby tree. One more tried to bum rush her while using his broadswords to deflect her darts. When he closed in, Mai wrested away his sword and used the pommel to bash his nose in. More soldiers arrived on the scene, spears ready. Mai stared at all of them.

"Now, if you guys could stop attacking me for a second and listen, I'll prove I'm telling the truth," she said. The guards lowered their weapons but still looked warily upon the girl.

One of the other soldiers walked forward. "What do you mean 'telling the truth?' Who are you?"

Mai exhaled—finally, they weren't attacking her. "My name is Mai. I am the daughter of Ukano, governor of the city of New Ozai. I'm accompanying Princess Azula on the invasion of Ba Sing Se."

"Don't listen to her, she's an assassin!" the initial officer yelled. He was still pinned to the ground with a knife going through his sash. "She tried to sneak in and assassinate the War Minister. Don't just stand there, get her!"

The squad of soldiers hesitated, unsure of how to handle the situation. The squad leader, an old, bearded man holding a spear, stepped forward. Mai looked at him, hoping he had more sense than the soldiers she already had to subdue. Turns out, he did not.

"Alright, you heard the officer. Attack!" The squad advanced as three more knives slid out of Mai's right sleeve into her waiting hand. Of all the things she thought would happen today, getting attacked by her own soldiers was not one of them.

A younger soldier, scarcely older than Mai herself, ran towards the group and called out, "Stop!" The others turned to him. "The girl's story checks out," he said, breathing heavily.

"What? How?" the squad commander asked.

"Didn't you hear? Princess Azula arrived in a tank-train thirty minutes ago. She's sleeping right now, but I'm sure she was the one who gave the girl authorization to enter the base."

The commander gasped as the other soldiers' faces turned white. "Princess Azula?" Three soldiers made a run for the nearby forest, preferring to spend the rest of their lives as deserters rather than face the princess's wrath. The commander shook his fist in the air, screaming out the penalty for desertion (which was, of course, execution). Yet after thinking about the gruesome punishment Princess Azula would most likely inflict upon him, he himself ran for the trees, opting to desert with the others. Mai glanced at the remaining soldiers, who were trembling in fear.

"I'll be seeing the War Minister now."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: So I decided to write a Mai-focused chapter. Leave a comment and tell me what you think.