Azula woke up to a tremendous weight on her chest. Groggily rubbing her eyes, she noticed that she was lying down in her cot, her book on top of her. She shoved the book off of her, letting it slam to the ground. She winced upon hearing the sound of ripping paper—the pages probably ripped under the weight of the book when it fell on the ground. Not that it mattered much, she did have a spare copy after all. The tank was dark. Granted, that was expected considering that she had closed the window shades before going to sleep. She figured she would just open the shades to get some natural light streaming into the room. But when she opened the shades, she noticed that the sky was entirely black, and she realized that she had overslept. She had no idea what time it was, though if she had to guess she'd say it was about three in the morning. Outside the window was a large dirt clearing and a giant metal construct being worked on by countless engineers. Azula pointed her index finger at a candle affixed to the ceiling and shot a thin blue flame to light it. She looked around. Ty Lee was still asleep in the opposite cot, presumably ignorant of their current location. Mai wasn't in the cockpit. It appeared that while they were both sleeping, Mai had reached the Fire Nation outpost near Ba Sing Se. Why she wasn't in the tank was beyond her, but she was still surprised she overslept that much.

The noise of the construction was deafening, with the clattering of metal being hoisted upwards mixing with the sounds of grunting men welding together the vast machine. Azula was amazed she managed to sleep through all of this noise. Having slept through dinner, she had a sudden urge to eat. Checking the pantry, all she was able to find were the remnants of the roast turtle-duck Ty Lee had cooked up the day before. She grabbed some chop sticks and scooped some onto a plate, sitting down at the dining table to eat. There unfortunately didn't seem to be any pork buns or other breakfast pastries available. She knew Mai had them stashed somewhere hidden, presumably to keep them safe from Ty Lee's sweet tooth.

Unfortunately, with Mai absent Azula had no idea where this stash was. She took a bite of the turtle-duck. It had a rubbery texture and was covered with coagulated oil, and it was room temperature. Well, nothing that a little fire can't fix. Azula torched her entire plate. Afterwards, she admired her handiwork: five charred pieces of meat, each as black as a lump of coal. She popped two of them into her mouth, the charred remains disintegrating into fine powder that was easily swallowed. It wasn't the best tasting meal, but Azula was proud of it nonetheless. She didn't understand why Mai and Ty Lee insisted on spending so long cooking up meals when Azula could just use firebending to instantly cook a piece of meat. Her method was so much more efficient—no waiting for a pot of water to slowly boil, no need to cut up vegetables. Just put it all on a plate and set it on fire.

"Hey, Ty Lee!" Azula called out. Ty Lee shifted in her cot.

"Yeah…?" Ty Lee responded.

Azula smiled, an idea coming to her. She had saved three pieces of meat, might as well give them to Ty Lee. She was sure Ty Lee would appreciate the gesture. "Hey, I know you're probably hungry, so I made you breakfast in bed," Azula said. She handed the plate over.

Ty Lee looked at it for a second. "I'm not eating that."

"What, why?" Azula asked, genuinely shocked that Ty Lee didn't like her cooking. "I cooked it just for you. I completely sterilized the meat so it won't have tapeworms."

Ty Lee sighed. "And this is why we don't let you cook. I'll make breakfast." Ty Lee got up and grabbed some flour. "Hey, Azula?"

Azula perked up. "Yeah?"

"Would you mind boiling this water for me?"

"Sure." Azula shot a single bolt of lightning at the pot filled with water, releasing a huge plume of steam that filled the entire cabin. Ty Lee yelped as some of the burning steam hit her face. She scooped out some of the hot water and mixed it with the flour, creating a large piece of dough that she could knead into dumpling wrappers. She ladled some red bean paste from one of the jars they brought along and put a small portion within each of the doughy wrappers.

Hey, Azula thought. Didn't Mai hide all of the red bean filling?

As if reading her mind, Ty Lee explained, "Mai hides all the sweet stuff at the bottom of the dresser. Don't tell her though, I'm not supposed to know!"

"I'm not supposed to know what?" Mai was in the doorway. Her robes were dirty and dark circles surrounded her eyes. She looked at the jar in Ty Lee's hand and sighed. "You found it. Well then."

"Oh, hi Mai. Where were you?" Azula asked.

Mai shook some dirt off of her sleeves. "Speaking to War Minister Qin about the upcoming invasion."

"Okay," Azula said. "But why are you covered in dirt?"

Mai stared her straight in the eyes and said, "A bunch of dim wit soldiers thought I was a spy and attacked me. They're gone now, don't worry."

Azula chuckled at her friend's misfortune. "So, you know the plan, huh? Do tell."

Mai sat down and plopped one of Ty Lee's red bean buns into her mouth. "Okay, so you see that giant metal tube out there?" Mai pointed out the window at the construction site. "That's a drill. It's basically finished, the War Minister is just adding some finishing touches before the invasion. The plan is pretty simple: we're going to drill through the wall."

"Okay. Simple enough," Azula said. "So how do we figure into all of this?"

Mai shrugged. "Hopefully, we don't. The drill is supposedly impermeable to any Earthbending attack thrown at it. I guess we just stay in the bridge and watch. Boring, I know. The invasion is tomorrow, by the way."

Azula stroked her chin. Assuming the drill was as powerful as the War Minister claimed, the plan should be foolproof. That was a big assumption, though, and considering how the whole plan depended on the strength of the drill, it would be a good idea to inspect it herself. After telling Mai and Ty Lee her intentions, Azula walked off towards the drill.

—

Azula walked down the cold metal halls of the drill led by War Minister Qin and flanked by two armored guards.

"As you can see," the War Minister said while gesturing to a voice pipe affixed to the wall. "We have a two way intercom system set up all along the drill for communication, with terminals set up in key locations as well as in the bridge. If something happens, you'll know it."

"I see," Azula said. "But it seems impossible for sound to make it all the way from the bridge to every section of the drill. How do you handle that?"

The War Minister grinned, clearly proud of his organizational prowess. "We have relay stations set up every five hundred paces that receive and transmit messages to the farther regions of the drill. Don't worry, every little detail has been thought through."

"That's good to hear," Azula said. Let's move onto the bridge, shall we?"

The War Minister nodded. They traversed the long corridors of the drill, their footsteps reverberating through the metal halls, finally reaching a wooden box hitched to four ropes—a primitive lift going up to the command center. Azula and the War Minister stepped inside, the War Minister nodding to one of the lift operators to begin raising the lift.

While the lift was slowly cranked upwards, Azula asked War Minister Qin where he got the idea for the drill. He thought of that pathetic old mechanist at the temple who had handed the schematics to him months ago in exchange for the temple's safety. It was so easy to force that frail old man to design the whole thing…

The War Minister smiled. "The drill was my idea from the start. At first, I thought a machine of this scale was impossible, heh. You don't know how many sleepless nights I spent perfecting it…but of course, as hard as it may be, it is my duty to use my considerable talents to bring us to victory." He bowed his head, an attempt to show humility that Azula saw straight through. She wasn't one for sycophancy so she kept her mouth shut and waited for the lift to reach its destination.

Once it was at the top, she and the War Minister walked into the bridge, which was brightened by the panoramic windows wrapped around the walls. Various sorts of machinery were built into terminals on the outskirts of the bridge and on the raised platform in the back there was a single palatial throne against the wall. Azula sat down—the chair was obviously hers—feeling the luxurious cushioning built into it. It was too airy to be filled with cotton, it must have been filled with pheasant-squirrel feathers likely imported from the colonies.

"Is the bridge to your satisfaction?" asked War Minister Qin.

"Very nice, very nice," Azula said. "But I see one issue."

The War Minister gulped. "And what would that be?"

"There aren't three chairs."

"Don't worry, we can accommodate your wishes. We'll have two more installed by the end of the day."

"Good."

They left the bridge and walked towards the drill's exit. After leaving, Azula walked away from the War Minister and back to the tank-train.

"How is it?" Mai asked.

Azula shrugged. "It's good enough, I suppose."

"Alright," Mai said. "Seems there's nothing more to do but wait for the invasion to begin tomorrow. I'm going to go to sleep."

"Fine by me."

Azula and Mai nestled themselves into their respective cots and slept. Tomorrow would be a busy day.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Due to outside obligations I might not be able to finish this fan fiction completely. Since I don't want to just leave it abandoned, I was wondering if someone would be willing to take over for me. I can provide a rough sketch of the future plot and give each chapter a once over before publishing but I won't really have time to do the heavy lifting. I know this is a lot to ask but I really hope that this fan fiction will finish eventually, even if I myself can't be the one to do it. If you are interested just send a DM my way. Thank you.