From Mortal To Divinity

The next morning, Aang's group is introduced to his new firebending master at breakfast. They had seen him around before, by Zuko's side when he used to hunt the group to capture Aang. They had also seen him try to defend the moon spirits from Zhao, but have never truly had a conversation with him. Now that they have a chance to speak to him, they can't help but think of him as a wise, quirky old man.

After breakfast, they gathered their supplies and promptly left for the city of Gaolin, where, according to Kagutsuchi, is a city filled with earthbenders. It will be another three months before they regroup in Ba Sing Se.

After watching the sky bison fly away, the members of Azula's group turn to face her as Zuko asks the question on everybody's mind "Ok. Now what?"

"I received a letter from father this morning." replies Azula

Zuko frowns and asks "How does he know where we are? Also, are you sure that he won't find out about what happened here?"

In response to Zuko's question, Kagutsuchi scoffs before deciding to answer "Your father isn't as cunning as he likes to make people believe. The majority of his spy network, if you can even call them that, is situated at home to keep him informed on the nobility's schemes. As far as he's concerned, the generals are absolutely loyal to him, therefore the soldiers are absolutely loyal to him, with General Iroh and me being the only potential threat to that loyalty."

"Kagutsuchi is right. As for how he knew to send the letter to Omashu… well I told him I'd be here. I still need to keep up the facade of a perfectly loyal little princess after all" spitefully replies Azula.

Slightly shaking her head, Azula empties it of the thought of all the painful ways she can kill her father before speaking "According to the letter, War Minister Qin has come up with a way to take Ba Sing Se."

Her mention of War Minister Qin is met with sounds of distaste from Zuko, Mai, and Kagutsuchi. Azula isn't surprised by Zuko's and Kagutsuchi's hate for the minister, they've both spoken to him and after each conversation they've cultivated a certain distaste for the man. For Zuko it's because of his complete disregard of Fire Nation soldier lives, he was the man who came up with the plan that Zuko protested so much on, resulting in the Agni Kai that led to his banishment. As for Kagutsuchi, the man is a complete self righteous idiot who wouldn't know a good military plan if it was shoved down his throat. However, Azula never knew that Mai had heard of the name, let alone know the minister.

Turning to face Mai, Azula can't help but ask "Although I've never met the minister, I know why those two hate the buffoon, why do you hate him?"

Mai rolls her eyes before sneaking a glance at Zuko who's now paying close what is being said. Seeing as she won't be able to divert their attention to something else, she sighs and with a voice of pure loathing that the others didn't know she was capable of, she answers "He kept leering at me during those banquets that we used to have to attend. He even tried to arrange a marriage between me and his grandson. While I don't have proof, I'm sure that he's the cause of my father being appointed governor of Omashu."

By the end of her explanation Zuko looks murderous and Azula simply adopts her usual sadistic smile while her eyes glint dangerously.

"Interesting" says Azula

Ty Lee, who has grown to become wary of Azula whenever she makes that expression, simply steps back and whispers to Mai "Um, are we going to tell her that she's making her super scary face?"

Mai turns to face Ty Lee with a raised eyebrow and asks "Do you volunteer?"

Ty Lee hurriedly shakes her head no and closes her mouth.

Kagutsuchi, who had been quiet up until now, chuckles and whispers to the two of them "Poor minister Qin. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes in the foreseeable future."

Mai and Ty Lee, who have grown used to Azula's sadistic side can only nod their heads in agreement while contemplating what horrible fate Azula has in store for the idiot.

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It takes us about a month of nonstop travel to arrive at the outer wall of Ba Sing Se. Like in the show, the minister's method of breaching the wall is by using a giant drill. By the time we reach our destination, the drill is only a few miles away from colliding with the wall.

"Wow" whispers Ty Lee, as she looks up at the giant drill, her eyes wide open in wonder.

"Yea, wow." replies Zuko.

"Interesting. I wonder if this was built in a separate location and driven here?" asks Azula.

"It would be the most logical way to accomplish this. I don't think that there's a single earthbending technique to deal with this monstrosity. At least not ones that wouldn't involve bending metal, and I haven't met an earthbender who can do that yet." I reply.

From my right I can hear Mai sigh as she spurs her mongoose lizard forward while saying "Let's get this over with. I don't want to be near that disgusting old man longer than I have to."

Without a word we follow her to the entrance of the machine, where War Minister Qin stands waiting.

"Princess Azula, it is a pleasure to meet you" says the man with a bow.

"Indeed, the pleasure is all yours minister. Unfortunately for you, I don't have time for pleasantries, so why don't you take us inside so we can get this over with." replies Azula in her most condescending tone yet.

Taken aback by her response, the minister takes a few seconds to realize that he'd been given an order, seconds that are going to cost him. With an irritated scowl Azula taps the man on the chest with her forefingers. While the tap itself is harmless, the small bolts of lightning sparking off of her fingers certainly aren't. With an agonizing scream, the man is sent to his knees in a fit of spasm.

"When I give an order minister, I expect it to be carried out immediately." says Azula.

"My apologies princess." stammers out the minister.

After taking a second to regain control of his body, he hurriedly walks inside while beckoning us to follow.

Once inside I turn to a soldier and command "Take me to the engine room."

Qin, who was facing forward, turns to me and makes to speak, only to immediately shut up when he notices the look Azula sends toward him. Not even bothering to look at his suffering superior officer, the soldier walks into a corridor with me following behind him.

As we make our way through the corridor I notice the soldier discreetly glancing at my face, specifically at my scar.

"If you have a question, just ask" I tell him.

"Sorry sir. It's just that we've heard stories about you. I never thought that I'd have the honor to actually meet you. My cousin is part of the 51st brigade, you saved his life."

"His name wouldn't happen to be Shin?" I ask

"You know him?" came the soldier's excited reply.

"I know him. He's probably the most creative soldier I've ever met. He created a fire wall based on the earthbending technique." I reply

"Yea, he's definitely something else" he answers as he opens a door at the end of the corridor that reads "Engine Room" and walks in.

The room itself is big, with valves and pipes everywhere. Looking around, I immediately realize that I have no idea how to sabotage this without killing everyone inside.

Turning to the soldier I look him in the eyes through the lens of his mask and say "Listen and listen well. You're going to sabotage this machine to make it implode in the most destructive way possible.. You can make it look like it just malfunctioned or just decided to blow up for whatever reason. I don't care how, as long as it becomes completely unsalvageable. Understand?"

"What?! Why?!" he asks.

"Don't ask questions that you don't want the answer to. Just do it. Don't worry about getting in trouble, the princess ordered this. Understand?" I ask/

He nods and quickly sets about turning levers.

Looking around the room I quickly spot the sound system that will let me talk to all personnel in the machine.

Making my way to it, I activate it and yell through the speaker "This is Captain Kagutsuchi speaking. All personnel are to evacuate the drill, the machine has overheated and will be imploding soon. This is not a training exercise! I repeat this is not a training exercise!"

I spend the next few minutes yelling through the speaker until the engineer returns and says "Finished. The machine will implode in ten minutes. We should evacuate with the others."

I nod and follow him as we run to the exit.

Once outside, it doesn't take long for me to find the commanding officer of this brigade and order him to take his men and retreat to the nearest camp.

Five minutes later Azula and the rest exit the machine, with a certain war minister noticeably missing. Azula herself is sporting her usual sadistic smile, while Zuko looks entertained, and Mai is sporting a very rare smirk on her face. Ty Lee on the other hand looks a little unsettled.

Approaching the group I can't help but raise an eyebrow and comment "I didn't know that you had a sadistic side Mai."

She simply shrugs and puts her hands in her sleeves.

Azula looks at me and says "Good job. Now, father has one less supporter on his side, and we can move on to Ba Sing Se and see what's so special about it. Maybe I'll even conquer it while we're there."