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---
Avatar - The Last Airbender: "Test"
Characters copyright Nickelodeon, Michael DiMartino, et al.
Story copyright Racewing.
Created: June 2007.
---


"Yes..." War Minister Qin happily hissed, as he watched through the
periscope. They were tearing through the forest with great efficiency, as
if the wall of trees and other assorted foliage were not even there.

Eventually, they'd made a nice pathway through said forest that would have
taken multiple machetes to cut through on foot.

To say that Qin was beside himself with pride was an understatement. He'd
overseen this project personally, with a small amount of help from the
Princess. Soon, very soon, it would be his project--and not those sidekick
failures that served as the Princess's current entourage--that would lead
them to victory. Science and reason triumphing over randomness and emotion.
There was a certain amount of poetic justice to be had in that.

Qin turned the periscope another way to survey the clearing that they were
currently in, and saw-

-wait a second.

What was Princess Azula doing sitting on the blasted thing? Did she not
have an ounce of common sense in her head? Just because she held power was
no reason for her to be reckless!

"Why is she..." he muttered, then ran to the communication pipe.

"This is an emergency!" he yelled into it. "Cut the Drill's engines! Turn
it off! And will the officer nearest to the bridge see me, immediately!"

-----

For the hapless Fire Nation commander who had been closest to the bridge,
this was all he needed. Sure, Qin, send him on retrieval so as to
remain blameless. Sure, it made sense if he looked at it from the War
Minister's point of view, but he still didn't have to like it.

If something untoward were to happen to a valued member of the royal
family, on his watch, he was sure that he would be shown the exact
inverse of mercy. He didn't need that. He had a wife and child back home,
and was very much in favor of coming back from this war alive to see them
again. Best to squash this so as to keep the chances of that happening
high.

Aha, there she was.

Princess Azula, for some reason, had been sitting atop the drill for some
time now, and everyone else was just now finding out. True, she was
supposed to be "overseeing" the machine's final field test, but this may
not quite have been what everyone had in mind.

He noticed that, oddly enough, Azula looked less threatening than she
usually did. Almost as if she were... happy? At peace? Those words and the
Princess never seemed to go together, and yet, for the moment...

"Princess?" he said as he approached her.

No response.

Without giving it a second thought, the commander placed a hand on Azula's
shoulder, intending to wake her from her trance, and warn her of the
dangers of her current activity.

Mistake.

The second his skin made contact with royal garb, the Princess's eyes shot
open, locking themselves directly onto his as the commander's wrist was
grabbed firmly.

He could feel said wrist heating up through his armor under Azula's grip.
He fought through the mild pain as Azula spoke.

"Commander?"

"Y-y-yes, Your Highness?"

"Why has the drill been deactivated?" asked Azula in a nonchalant voice.

The burning sensation in his wrist was gradually increasing, but still, the
commander stood his ground, eliciting a response as quickly as he could.

"The Drill is a work in progress, Your Highness. It's not safe for you to
be up he-"

A light sizzling sound could be heard, and when Azula let go of the
commander's hand, the part of his armor that had been held by Azula's hand
crumbled away, as it had been since turned to ash.

"I did not ask for you opinion, Commander," said Azula. "By turning off the
drill, and by coming here, you have interrupted my meditation."

Her voice grew stern and rigid, her tongue enunciating every hard syllable.

"It was going well. It was going better than I ever dreamed possible... and
you brought it to an end."

A hint of a grim expression crossed her face--which was easier said than
done considering the fluttering feelings that her body was still
experiencing from her activities of minutes ago--and fashioned a ball of
blue fire to float just above her other hand.

"Prepare for your life to meet the same fate."

The officer backed away, sank to both knees, and bowed profusely. "Your
Highness, please! Your humble servant begs you for the chance to redeem
himself!"

The flame in Azula's hand did not listen. It remained a menacing,
intimidating sight... but something in the Princess decided to take the
commander's words to heart.

The fire was extinguished after a few seconds of hesitation. Her wrathful
expression returned to neutral, as if she had a higher priority than making
an example of a lone soldier today.

"I will give you exactly one chance, Commander. Go. Tell Qin to restart
the Drill, and continue the tests, immediately. And... no matter what... to
leave me be."

"Y-yes, Princess," said the commander, before scrambling up and away from
the scene, back into the nice, warm, safe Drill interior.

-----

As the Drill, the Fire Nation's secret weapon which would surely result in
the conquering of Ba Sing Se, roared back to life, Azula sat in her
previous cross-legged position, closed her eyes--

--and involuntarily smiled as the machine's vibrations took their effect
once again.

Minutes later, when her eyes re-opened... her vision both was both hazy,
and clearer than it'd ever been.

So this was what Ty Lee had seen in this thing.

Clearly, the lengths to which Azula had gone to recruit her had not been in
vain.

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