A/N: Today's installment will be a bit different from before, focusing on the perspective of our villains. The reason for this is because the events from our heroes perspective would waste a lot of time on things that wouldn't be much different from the canon episode. It just seemed appropriate to write a Villain Chapter here.
Chapter 19: The Drill
Hidden in the mountains northwest of Ba Sing Se, the Fire Nation worked on its most ambitious project since the original attack on the Air Nomads. Nestled in a valley between mountains was the construction of a massive drill, and all passages into the valley were heavily guarded by Fire Nation troops. For nearly three years the drill had been under construction, finally nearing completion after so much time and resources spent on the massive machine.
Only a few pieces of the drill's outer hull remained to be attached, all near the command tower at the rear of the drill. Interior components were being tested time and time again, any defective parts being replaced immediately. Over a thousand workers and engineers inside practiced their parts, many of them trained specifically to operate the controls and maintain the mechanisms. Everyone took pride in the part they had to play, proving that they wouldn't require a magical comet to win the war.
Inside the drill Princess Azula was given a complete tour. She didn't really care about how the drill functioned, just if it could do the job. Aside from a few inconsequential issues, the drill appeared to be in working order. At the end of the tour Azula used a mechanical lift to rise up the command tower, where she planned to watch the final pieces of the drill be attached. But when she reached the top and entered the command center she found someone already sitting in her chair.
"Brother? What are you doing here?" Azula asked.
Prince Zuko was reclining at an odd angle, eating an apple. "Isn't it obvious?" Zuko asked between bites. "Father wants both of us to take Ba Sing Se."
In the chair beside Zuko was Azula's old friend Mai. The two girls had lost touch after Mai's engagement to Zuko was made official, but Azula was glad to see her after so much time. Mai didn't appear to glad about seeing Azula, but that was completely normal for her. "Can we get on with this?" Mai asked.
Azula stepped over to one of the windows overlooking the entire drill. She could see the scaffolding on the steep mountains beside the drill, workers on it carefully lowering the last plates of metal to complete the drill's hull. "Yes, I believe we are ready," Azula said.
After giving the command to proceed to the drill's main operator, Azula took the empty seat next to Zuko. The drill took several minutes to warm up before it could start moving, and even then it was very slow to accelerate. For an hour Azula could have walked faster than the drill moved, and in that time she ordered the nearest operator to get her some lunch.
During the meal of turtle-duck salad Mai glanced out the front window. She could see that the drill had been built with the front towards the lowest point in the mountain chain, but the steep rocks were still high and in the way. "So are we just going to ram into those hills?" Mai asked.
"Of course," Azula said, finishing her meal. "We've got to test this machine."
As the drill approached the low mountains the massive bit at the front began to spin. When it hit the mountains the rocks began to grind away, and grooves in the bit carried the ground up rock toward the rear of the drill. Simple stone was no match for metal, and the low mountains gradually vanished in the path of the drill. The peaks of the low mountains rested on top of the drill for a while, but eventually crumbled without the foundations below.
Looking at the controls for the drill Azula noted that the machine hadn't even used half of its maximum drilling speed. The walls of Ba Sing Se would be harder to tunnel through than the natural mountain, but Azula was certain the drill could accomplish the task. Looking forward Azula saw the vast plains between the mountains and the walls. Normally the flat lands gave defenders all the advantages, but now it would only let them see their inevitable defeat coming.
Relaxing in his chair Zuko was just as bored at Mai. "So how was the hunt for the Avatar?" Zuko asked.
Azula glanced at her brother, knowing that he was baiting her. "A waste of my time," Azula answered. "Master of all elements or not, he's just one boy."
"A boy that wrecked Zhao's small fleet in one night," Zuko commented.
"That fool had it coming," Azula said, glad for an excuse to change the subject. "He had some delusional scheme to 'kill the moon' or some other nonsense."
"Yeah, father's glad that I led the navy against the Water Tribe instead of him," Zuko said. "One less stronghold for the Avatar to hide in."
"And yet the people in that tribe got away," Azula said, taking a bit of pleasure in pointing out her brother's failure.
"They were resourceful," Zuko said, remembering the unexpected earthbender he fought. "But without their ice fortress they aren't of any concern."
"I suppose not," Azula said. She looked out the front window, seeing Ba Sing Se's wall on the horizon. With how slow the drill was moving it would take at least a day or two to reach the wall.
With a yawn Mai stood up. "Come get me if there's something to do," Mai said. Just before she was about to leave she noticed a dust cloud appear out of nowhere in front of the drill. "Is that supposed to happen?" Mai asked, pointing towards the cloud.
"No," Azula said, standing up. "Someone's up to something."
"Good, I could use the exercise," Mai said.
Azula was almost at the lift leading out of the command center when she noticed Zuko still in his seat. "Aren't you coming?" Azula asked.
"In a bit," Zuko said. "Mai should be all the help you'll need."
Stepping into the lift Azula waited for Mai to enter before activating it. As the lift descended into the main body of the drill Azula wanted to use the time to catch up with Mai. "How are matters back in the homeland?" Azula asked.
"Dull, as usual," Mai answered. "Sure I had the family home all to myself after my parents left for Omashu, but that just made it more boring."
"How are they?" Azula asked. "I heard they had another kid, Thomas was it?"
"Tom Tom," Mai corrected. The lift reached the bottom and the door opened. Both girls started walking through the drill's main corridor, heading for one of the stairways in the middle. "Say, have you heard from Ty Lee?"
"As far as I know, she's still with that circus," Azula answered. "We really should get the old gang back together."
"Just like old times at the Academy," Mai said. She led Azula into one of the stairways that spanned the entire height of the drill, all the way down to the maintenance hatches on the bottom. On the way down both girls caught glimpses of workers focusing on their tasks on every floor. "Have you tried to find Ty Lee?"
Azula sighed and shook her head. "Every time I get around to looking the circus has already moved on."
"Last I heard it was near Omashu," Mai said.
Reaching the bottom floor Azula and Mai walked towards the front of the drill. They found one of the maintenance hatches wide open, practically begging for intruders. "Sloppy," Azula said when they found it. "Who was supposed to make sure these were closed?"
Mai shrugged. "Probably someone that believed no one would dare to be stupid enough to get underneath this thing."
A faint sound of hissing steam caught Azula's attention. She held a hand up to tell Mai to be silent, then quietly headed for the noise. Inside a room filled with pipes she found one with a valve broken off and leaking steam. Also in the room was an engineer, nearly covered in slowly melting ice. The engineer tried to speak, but the sound was muffled by his safety mask and the ice covering it.
Walking up to the engineer Azula grabbed the ice covering his mask and used firebending to melt it off. "Report," Azula ordered.
"A Water Tribe girl snuck up on me," the engineer reported. "She stole my schematics."
"Was anyone else with her?" Azula demanded, suspecting who she was.
"There was another girl in green, that's all I could see," the engineer answered.
Using a weak flare of fire Azula melted the rest of the ice on the engineer. "Get repair teams down here immediately" Azula ordered.
With a salute the engineer said "Understood," and ran off to obey the command.
Mai waited for the engineer to be gone before saying anything. "So who are our saboteurs?" Mai asked, figuring that Azula at least had an idea of who froze the engineer.
"Someone that shouldn't be here this soon," Azula answered. She suspected that the Avatar was inside the drill, but how he knew to be here so soon after their last encounter she didn't have a clue.
Moving quickly through the drill Azula and Mai searched for the intruders. Ordering the crew to be on high alert made the search easier, eliminating many of the places an intruder could hide. Before long it became clear that there wasn't any sabotage in the drill's interior, prompting Azula and Mai to check the outer shell. Using a passage on a middle floor, Azula and Mai entered the outer shell and found the trespassers.
Confirming Azula's suspicions was the Avatar, passing water back and forth with the Water Tribe girl to cut through one of the drill's support braces. With them were an Earth Kingdom boy and a Kyoshi Warrior standing guard. None of them saw Azula, being on a higher floor than them. Taking a moment to observe what her enemies were up to, Azula found that they were only a third of the way done with cutting through the support brace.
Idiots, taking the hardest possible way to disable the drill Azula thought. If it had been her plan she'd have gone straight for the main engine. With a hand signal Azula told Mai to strike first, her throwing knives being far quieter than firebending. Only a casual glance up from the Kyoshi Warrior gave away their position, just before Mai could throw her first knife.
"DUCK!" the warrior yelled. The warning was just enough time for Aang to get his head out of the path of Mai's knife, though it still nicked the top of his bald head.
Mai threw more knives while Azula started throwing blue fireblasts at the people below. Aang took flight on his glider, trying to draw attention away from his friends. Using firebending from her feet Azula launched herself after Aang, leaping from one horizontal brace to another while throwing blue fire at him. She didn't care about the others, inconsequential in comparison to the Avatar.
Near the rear of the drill Aang landed and ran into the interior. Azula entered the same passage and followed, taking shots at him whenever she could. However Aang was bending a gust of wind at his back, allowing him to run faster than Azula could. Despite the advantage of speed he had to knock out people in his way, leaving a trail of unconscious bodies for Azula to follow.
Following the trail Azula entered a corridor that spanned the entire length of the drill, from the lift to the control center all the way to the massive bit at the other end. She saw the Avatar running towards the rear, focusing only on evading pursuit. Aang was only a dozen yards away from the lift when the door opened, and Prince Zuko stepped out.
Seeing that his path was blocked Aang slid to a stop, and was about to run back the way he came but saw Azula in the way. The nearest side passage was beside Zuko, and the next was behind Azula. Trapped between the two royal siblings, Aang threw fireblasts at both of them. Far more experienced with firebending, Zuko and Azula easily diverted the flames harmlessly into the metal walls.
"So this is the Avatar?" Zuko questioned. "And he already knows firebending?"
"You what that means, brother," Azula said, deliberately letting the Avatar know just who he was dealing with.
Zuko held his arms in a familiar pose and winked to Azula. Aang didn't like the look of him, and turned towards Azula to face the threat he knew. He was about to try forcing his way past her when Azula started charging a bolt of lightning. Recognizing the danger Aang turned around, but found Zuko also charging a bolt of lightning.
"Not good not good," Aang muttered, realizing that he was completely screwed.
The prince and the princess fired lightning at the same time, directly at their foe in between. They knew that even if the Avatar avoided a direct hit the twin bolts would collide and scatter the energy into everything around the impact. The heat alone would cook him alive, assuming that the strike didn't turn him into ash.
Fear gripped Aang, overwhelming in the face of certain death. The ancient self-defense mechanism possessed by every Avatar activated, his eyes and tattoos glowing blue in the Avatar State. His consciousness was absorbed into the collective wisdom of the Avatars, possessing his body to preserve his life. A technique created by a Water Tribe Avatar three cycles back surfaced, taking over to save Avatar Aang.
Just before the twin bolts of lightning struck Avatar Aang held out both arms, letting each bolt hit one hand. The energy was channeled into his arms, making the blue glow in his tattoos turn white as his chi paths were supercharged. Both bolts of lightning met in his stomach, generating light that shone through his shirt. From there all of the lightning went down, splitting just above the hip and passing through his legs and feet into the metal floor.
Conducting through the metal, the lightning spread out in every direction. Dispersing with distance, only a small fraction of the energy made it to Zuko and Azula. It was enough to make their legs feel like rubber, and both had to grab onto a wall to hold themselves up. Once all the lightning was gone the glow from the Avatar State faded, leaving Aang exhausted but alive.
Immediately Aang hopped from one foot to the other. "Hot! Hot! Hot!" he shouted, finding his shoes burned through and standing barefoot on scorched metal. Once he found cooler metal to stand on he started blowing on the soles of his feet, trying to relive pain from burns. Then he noticed that he had an opportunity to escape, and half-glided through the corridor to keep pressure off his burned feet.
Neither royal sibling could pursue the Avatar, momentarily paralyzed by the shock in their legs. By the time they recovered Aang was gone. "Since when could the Avatar do that?" Zuko asked, starting to feel his legs again.
Azula stretched her legs, trying to get the full feeling back in them. "Uncle can do something similar," Azula said, remembering when Iroh redirected one of her weaker bolts of lightning. "But it was nowhere near that impressive."
Zuko took a few clumsy steps towards Azula, taking it slow to avoid tripping over his still numb feet. "Next time one of us will just have to shoot him in the back," Zuko said. "All the power in the world won't matter if he's taken by surprise."
"We have to find him again first," Azula said. Most of her legs felt normal again, and she took a few steps down the hall.
Suddenly the drill shook for a moment, and a second later they heard the sound of something exploding echoing through the drill. Immediately the drill began to slow, but the sheer mass and momentum kept the drill moving. An alarm sounded throughout the drill, warning the crew to seek shelter. Zuko and Azula started running towards the source of the alarm, urgency overwhelming their need to recover.
Through several hallways many of the crew were hauling injured people into side rooms, all getting out of the way as Zuko and Azula passed. Several pointed towards the source of the explosion, which began to infuriate Azula. They were heading for the main engine room, and when they arrived it had been completely evacuated.
Inside the air was filled with smoke and steam, making it difficult to see. Littering the floor were puddles of water and scattered coal, leftovers from the bending that wrecked the engines. Azula guessed that the earthbender among the Avatar's friends had overloaded the engines with coal, and the waterbender had suppressed the boiling water until the pressure made the entire thing explode. Twisted parts and scrap metal were all that remained of the engines, nearly unrecognizable.
After seeing the damage Azula immediately got out of the room, coughing from the smoke. Zuko took a look inside, but only remained for a few seconds before getting out of there. Among the crew outside the engine room was Mai, tying a bandage around an injured worker's arm. When Mai saw Azula she stood up and walked up to them.
"We lost," Mai said.
For a moment Azula wanted nothing else but to kill someone, but lacked a suitable target. Instead she turned to the nearest engineer. "How long will this take to repair?" she demanded.
"Two weeks minimum, if we had the parts, which we don't," the engineer answered. On a piece of parchment he scribbled a few calculations. "Four months, if nothing interrupts the manufacture of what we need."
Clenching her fists, smoke started to rise from between Azula's fingers. If the engineer's estimate was accurate the drill wouldn't be operational until after Sozin's Comet, and by then it wouldn't be needed. All the work put into the drill would be for nothing. "I don't care how much it costs or what you need to do, just get this drill repaired as quickly as possible," Azula ordered.
"Understood," the engineer said. He knew a few unethical ways to speed up the process, but believed that Azula wouldn't care.
Needing a place to vent frustration, Azula headed for the nearest exit from the drill. She left through one of the maintenance hatches, and once she was on the ground she walked out from underneath the drill. Once she was under the blue sky she heard a distant roar from above. Looking up Azula saw the Avatar's bison flying towards Ba Sing Se, and could imagine him and his friends laughing at her expense.
In the distance Azula saw the wall of Ba Sing Se on the horizon, seemingly mocking her. Soon the Avatar would be outside her reach behind the wall, protected until the day Sozin's Comet arrives. Waiting nearly three months for the comet's power was unacceptable, not when the Avatar could use that time to rally an army to his command. Azula knew she had to find a way inside Ba Sing Se, by any means necessary.
A/N: Now I know that canon says Iroh invented lightning redirection, but since he created it by mixing waterbending principals with firebending techniques it seems highly unlikely that no previous Avatars would have done the same thing.