The moment the blue flames spark around her hands Zuko practically vanishes from his spot in the hallway. Almost a full second later the blue flames careen into the wall before dissipating off into the air quickly followed by Azula who chases after him. "Good, this will keep her away from the others, all I have to do now is find Aang's staff and my swords then just stall her." He monologues before jumping onto the side of a pipe then reaching up and grabbing another pipe and swinging himself around the corner. Beneath him several more fireballs slam into the surrounding metalwork. As he bolts around the corner he almost runs face first into a guard patrol who are almost as shocked to see him as he is to see them. However he doesn't give them the opportunity to try to attack as he twirls an air scooter into existence and jumps onto it before riding it around the guards and down the hallway. As Azula rounds the corner, Zuko hops off the air scooter then launches the ball backwards slamming into firebenders he just evaded. Nearly a dozen men are launched every which way from the attack, one of which almost crashes into Azula as she gives chase. The princess drops into a vertical split and bends her upper body as flat as possible to avoid getting crashed into by the soldiers her brother just sent flying.

"If I was Azula, where would I keep any trophies..." He wonders, sprinting down the corridor towards the elevators to the bridge. "She'd keep them in her quarters. Probably in the helm of this thing." he monologues, seeing the closed doors to the elevator. Smirking to himself, Zuko blasts the pipe beside him with fire instantly causing it to burst. As he runs past the water he pulls a great deal of it towards him, in the process he also uses the water to freeze a wall in the corridor to stall Azula for a moment.

Zuko surrounds himself in the rushing water, covering his arms all the way to his shoulders using a technique that Katara had taught him. Using one of the tendrils, Zuko repeatedly slashes it against the roof in front of the elevator, cutting through the steel with each pass. Behind him, Azula's blue flames easily melt through the icy wall that he had created before being splashed by the rushing water. The water pressure from the broken pipe actually forces her backwards preventing her from getting through the hole she made long enough for Zuko to pierce through the metal shell of the drill and pry an opening wide enough for him to squeeze through. Getting outside, Zuko freezes the ends of the tendrils over his arms before launching it upwards onto the supports of the drill's helm. The ice spike on the end catches in between a few of the beams allowing him to pull himself up ascending almost thirty feet in mere seconds. The helm of the drill is over twenty stories above the main body of the drill but he manages to scale the support structure with ease.

Inside the helm of the drill, War Minister Ching is frantically shouting orders for the engineers to get the machine operational again. "Sir! The first three engines have been completely destroyed. The third one has suffered the most damage, it's been completely melted through!" One of the engineers responds through the intercom. "Send reinforcements to the rear engine, we're under atta- gahh..." The voice of one of the guards in the rear of the drill asks frantically before Ching hears the man get stabbed on the other end of the line. "How could this day possibly get any worse?!" the war minister declares, though his rhetorical question is answered by a series of knocks on the side window. Dong dong da-dong dong, dong dong. The hair on the back of his neck stands up when he hears the tapping on the window. Slowly he turns his head to look and a look of terror washes over his face as Zuko takes a second to wave to him before blasting through the glass with his firebending.

Zuko lunges into the room, drilling War minister Ching in the chest with his legs launching the man over. He quickly dodges a fireball sent from one of the pilots before airbending the man flat against the ceiling. He dodges a swipe from a dagger before striking the other pilot in the throat then planting a side kick into the man's stomach. Using the water. He sprays the two remaining pilots with it before freezing them to the control consoles. He quickly scans the room looking for any other doorways before spotting Aang's staff and his swords being displayed above the throne that Azula sat on. He sprints over to the throne and grabs the staff and his swords before hearing the doors to the elevator open. For a split second, both siblings lock eyes with each other and freeze in place waiting for the other to make the first move. That lull in the battle lasts for a single moment before Zuko sprints towards the hole in the window. Azula instantly blasts a torrent of flames towards him but he jerks his hand to the side and splits her attack down the center, bending it away from him as he gets to the window.

Turning to face Azula, he stands on the window sill before grinning and raising a hand to his forehead. With two fingers extended he gives her a mocking salute before leaning backwards and falling out of the window. As he falls over the edge, Azula sprints towards the broken window to see him fall and as she gets to the edge she sees the orange fan wings of the glider staff extend and he begins flying down towards the body of the drill. Scowling in anger, Azula jumps up onto the edge of the window before taking a deep breath. She extends two fingers outwards and rotates her right arm in a small circle around her elbow before extending the rotation through her arm. The motion causes lightning to begin crackling from her fingers as she directs her right arm upwards then repeats the motion with her left generating more electricity. She brings her fingers together before pointing towards Zuko and firing the bolt of lightning.

Zuko hears the generation of lightning the moment she begins the technique prompting him to increase the speed of his flight to try to gain distance on her. He turns his head to look up at the blue arcs of electricity crackling around the helm before a bright flash of light signals the bolt of lightning being fired towards him. With a split second to react, he jerks the glider to the side causing the lightning bolt to burn straight through the right wing and strike the front of the drill exploding on contact with the steel. The hole burned through the glider staff begins rapidly burning away as the silk fan wing causes Zuko to plummet towards the ground. "Aang's going to kill me." Zuko says to himself as the wing fully burns away causing him to go into freefall. However, gravity has nothing over airbenders and especially the avatar. As the steel body of the drill gets closer and closer, he closes the staff before sheathing it behind his swords and extending his hands.

As the ground gets closer and closer, Zuko waits until the right time to stop his fall and with a few dozen feet to spare he makes his move. Rapidly pulling his arms inwards towards his body, he spins like a cork screw bending the air around him to surround his body. Azula watches as he spins a tornado around himself, using it to stop his descent and land on the body of the drill. "You're gonna have to take the long way down, Azula." He says aloud looking up at Azula waiting for her to make her next move, however he isn't expecting for her to jump. "What the fuck..." Zuko questions watching as she falls towards the ground. Every moment she spends in freefall feels like an eternity, and despite being enemies Zuko's anxiety begins building and building as he watches her fall. With the ground getting closer and closer he suddenly hears his own voice shout from his subconscious, "Save her you idiot."

He feels his body jerk forwards moving on its own to save her, but second he moves she begins firebending. Azula kicks her legs outwards and throws punches with both hands simultaneously blasting flames from her palms and feet. The fire output slows her fall enough to allow her to land and then roll over her shoulder to decelerate. As she recovers from the roll, she lands on her feet before lunging upwards and blasting flames towards Zuko. His expression hardens seeing her attack coming straight for him. She's always been the better firebender, always been perfect but not anymore. The blue flames come careening towards him, and Azula half expects him to just dodge the attacks. That isn't what he does, instead Zuko lifts his arms into a fighting stance before extending his right arm outwards and positions his hand almost as if he was going to waterbend. Azula arches an eyebrow seeing this strange technique but she only ponders it for a moment as she continues to attack. The flames she's launched towards him are pulled in by the movements of his arm then orbit his body as he spins about the balls of his feet. The blue flames circle his body and are directed back at Azula with a punch on his follow through.

Azula's continued attack leaves her open to the redirected flames with little time to react. Her eyes widen realizing what Zuko had done and with milliseconds before being burned she drops to her knees and lays back flat against the steel in order to avoid her own flames. The redirected fireball gets so close to her that the bangs on the left side of her face catch fire. The burning of her hair fuels her anger as she retaliates. Thrusting her legs towards Zuko she blasts flames from her feet as she kicks out then upwards creating a wall of flames. She slams her legs on the steel hull of the drill, launching the wall of flames forwards as she rolls over her back to get to her feet. As the wall nears him, Zuko claps his hands together and points his fingers forwards allowing the flames to touch his hands. As the heat licks his skin, he thrusts his arms outwards away from each other splitting the wall of fire in half as it dissipates into orange fire then into smoke that lifts away.

On the wall.

"Are you seeing this?" General Sung asks as he looks through a spyglass. "It looks like there's two firebenders fighting on the drill." He says prompting Iroh to swipe the spyglass before raising it up to his eye.

Iroh quickly scopes in on the battle taking place below, watching as Zuko counters Azula's firebending with his own. "Zuko is battling probably one of the greatest firebenders of his generation. She's as powerful as the firelord himself." Iroh says as he pulls the spyglass away from his eye. "We need to give Zuko the best chance possible to defeat her. Have your men launch the rocks at the drill. He needs bendables." Iroh orders as Sung snatches the spyglass back from him before looking at the fight again.

"It also looks like the drill's been disabled." Sung says, before speaking to his men. "Direct your fire towards the drill." he orders, the steam escaping between the armored plates and any open seam of the drill wafts into the air. Behind him, the two dozen earthbenders form up into two teams of six, pulling two of the boulders towards them as they form up. The three forward most men in the groups slam their arms and elbows hard on the top of the wall causing the boulder to jump upwards before the three in the back throw a strike forwards and propel the massive stone hundreds of feet into the air sending it careening towards the drill.

"It seems that my nephew and his friends have taken down that metal monstrosity." Iroh says in a bit of a cockshire tone, Sung however scoffs at being proven wrong. He doesn't bother to acknowledge the smug grin on Iroh's face.

"Perhaps you were, General Iroh. Let's just hope that the avatar can defeat whoever it is he's fighting." Sung responds as he puts away the spyglass.

"He's dueling his sister. Princess Azula." Iroh responds, causing the general to turn to face him. "She was groomed from birth to be a living weapon. A few months after she was born, the fire sages arrived at the palace and spoke with Firelord Ozai. They stated that the next avatar was a member of the royal family however they did not receive the vision that reveals the identity of the new avatar. Since Azula was a newborn at the time, Ozai had assumed that she was the new avatar and began training her as such."

"Then the avatar certainly has his work cut out for him." General Sung replies, taking a deep breath and exhaling as the anxiety of the incoming invasion is lessened now that the drill has been taken down.

On The Drill.

The movement in the air draws Azula's attention upwards causing her eyes to widen as she sees what's heading straight for them. Zuko on the other hand doesn't turn around however he feels the disturbance in the air pressure around him. Thrusting his hand upwards, he smashes the incoming boulder into thousands of pebbles before pulling his arms inwards towards his body. The action covers him in the stones creating a suit of stone armor that easily blocks the flames launched by Azula. "Look at you! Flaunting around my power, my birthright! I should've been the avatar! Not you!" Azula screams, her anger causing the air around her to ignite as flames waft off her body and lick the open air. "How is it you were born lucky?! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE LUCKY TO EVEN BE BORN!!!" Her voice cracks from the volume of her shouting but Zuko furrows his eyebrows and tense his muscles.

"You think I asked for any of this?! Can you possibly imagine what it's like having everyone and everything you know and love wanting to kill you because you were born?! Given the chance, I'd hand over the powers of the Avatar without a second thought." Zuko declares as he blitzes forwards, striking Azula in the stomach with a hard punch before thrusting his hand forwards and shooting stones and rocks off his armor into her chest plate sending her skidding backwards against the steel.

"Don't you fucking lie to me Zuko! Mother always favored you because she knew it from the start! She hated me from the moment I was born, you talk about being hated by the firenation. BUT YOU'LL NEVER KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE HATED BY YOUR OWN MOTHER!!!" Azula exclaims, as tears begin leaking down her cheeks.

"She never hated you." Zuko says, but she doesn't react to his words. "She hated what Ozai was doing to you. She hated that he was burning away any form of empathy you had, she hated that he groomed you into a living weapon. She hated seeing him in you because it's Ozai that is the monster. Not you." He can't tell if she's listening anymore, she just stands there a few paces away from him with her head tilted down and her eyes shadowed by her hair. "The night she left, she told me to protect you, she told me that she loved us more than we can ever know. I know she spoke to you that night, I watched her go into your room before she vanished." Azula remains silent for a moment, tears streaming down her cheeks and for that same moment, Zuko contemplates embracing her. Every instinct he has as her older brother is telling him to comfort her but she begins laughing at his response.

"You're ridiculous... and a terrible liar." She says, her inane laughter crescendoing to a mad cackle. "You expect me to believe any of that shit!? That you were supposed to protect me?! That mother loved me?!" Her voice rings with disbelief and disgust at what he had said. She takes in a deep breath as she regains her composure. Her eyes narrow into a sharp angry expression that paints itself on her face. "Die."

Zuko's eyes widen in fear as she swipes her hand upwards and lightning crackles into existence around her hand. He watches as she continues through the circular motion and more lightning begins crackling around her body. He drops his control over the rocks covering his body then shifts his body. He slides his left foot back and tilts them slightly to the side as he raises his hands and breathes in deeply. He watches, mentally calculating the perfect moment to intercept her attack, Azula pulls her arms inwards and touches the tips of her fingers together before leaning forwards and directing her right hand towards Zuko. The lightning bolt spans the distance between them almost instantly, Azula smirks as she sees the bolt strike him. However her smile fades away immediately. Zuko slides back against the force of the lightning bolt, the energy coursing through his hand, up through his arm and shoulder into his body. He directs the energy down through his stomach before shifting his weight forwards, stepping towards Azula with his left leg preparing to redirect the lighting right towards her.

When he sees the look of abject terror on her face, he hesitates. She's making the same horrified expression that Zhao had made before his death. Seeing this, Zuko makes a split second decision and changes targets. Glancing upwards he sees the command tower of the drill looming over them and he shoves his left hand upwards aiming for the helm. The blue bolt of lightning launches from his hand and strikes the bridge through the front window causing a massive explosion ripping apart the bridge of the drill. Azula had turned to watch the lightning bolt strike the bridge giving Zuko the perfect opening to attack. He lunges forwards, bending air around himself he thrusts his hands outwards as he makes contact with her stomach. She had barely begun moving her head back towards him when she felt him strike her breastplate. The hurricane force winds send her careening off the side of the drill as she lands flat on her back and falls unconscious. Zuko breathes out a sigh of relief now that the battle has ended, he turns to face the top of the wall before raising a hand and giving the men on the wall a thumbs up as Momo flies over and lands on his shoulder.