Title: Ba Sing Se
Author: Ultra-Geek
Rating: T
Summery: 'There is no war. You are safe inside the wall.' Sokka gets into trouble in the big city. CoWaS spoilers
Disclaimer: Yeah…I don't own anything.
Spoilers: Definitely spoilers for City of Walls and Secrets.
AN: Mwahaha. I got this idea and decided to get it out before someone else does! Probably just a lowly one-shot with the potential for more.

Dungeons' of Ba Sing Se

Toph lay on the floor, only half sleeping. She could have had the luxury of the softest mattresses in Ba Sing Se, but then she couldn't keep 'watch'. From this position, she was aware of every foot-fall, every piece of furniture, and every speck of dust that touched the ground. She knew that there were guards and 'attendants' watching every possible entry point to the house. She also knew that Katara was practicing her waterbending, Aang was tossing and turning on his bed, attempting to sleep, and that Sokka was tirelessly pacing as he had been for the last three hours.

There was something wrong with the city. How could the 'Political Advisor', who, apparently, was in charge of warfare, not be interested in demolishing the Fire Nation? How could a city as large as Ba Sing Se live in denial that a one hundred year war was happening on their doorstep?

Toph listened as Aang got out of bed and joined Katara. The two talked just quietly enough so that Toph's sensitive ears couldn't pick up the words. Good. If Toph couldn't hear them, then neither could the guards. Sokka stopped pacing for a second, then resumed. He seemed to be contemplating something.

He stopped again, grabbed his boomerang, and slinging it over his shoulder, walked to the door. Toph drifted off just then, and didn't hear him walk out the door and into the city of secrets.

Walking out into the night air, Sokka was greeted instantly by the woman he had come to refer to as Judee #2. "Hello, Sokka." She said in her irritatingly pleasant voice. "What is it I can do for you?"

"I'm going for a walk." He mumbled. In his head, he said what Judee responded with as she said it.

"I would be most honored to accompany you."

"No, that's not going to happen. I've been walking for about fifteen years now, and I don't need someone to come with me," Sokka took a few steps to the right, then a few steps to the left to demonstrate. "See? I don't need any 'accompaniment'."

"Oh, but that would make me a horrible hostess." Judee replied.

"Look, Judee, was it? I don't really care if you're a good hostess or not. I just want to take a walk, see the sights, all that stuff. So, if you don't mind…?"

"Yes, I do mind." She said firmly. "You may not care, but I do."

"Fine. Whatever. Let's just go."

Walking had always relaxed Sokka. Especially at night. It was the only time that he could unwind, maybe talk to Yue for a minute or so. But this, this was anything but relaxing. The woman following him kept babbling about the best sights to see during the night, and how bright the stars were, and she just went on and on and on. He was going to burst at any moment. Finally, he just turned on Judee and snapped, "Look, do you no anywhere where I can just get a decent cup of tea or something!"

"There is a place in the lower rim." She replied promptly. "They say it is the best tea in the Earth Kingdom."

"Great, let's just go there."

Zuko was wiping off a table when the small bell hooked above the door rang. He looked up, and nearly had a heart-attack when the Water Peasant who traveled with the Avatar walked through the door. He quickly dived behind the counter and into a door where Iroh was busy making tea.

"Uncle, I need to speak with you."

"Go ahead, just wait one second." Iroh lit a fire under the pot. "Now, what is it that has you so riled up?"

"One of the Avatar's companions just walked in. The water tribe boy."

"Well," Iroh said rubbing his chin. "That could be a problem."

"What do we do? He'll recognize us for sure!"

"We do our best and try not to draw attention to ourselves. Now go take his order."

Zuko nodded. He walked out again to stand behind the counter. He looked over to where the boy was sitting. He had his head buried in his arms while a woman next to him babbled nonsense. He looked up, and Zuko quickly turned away. This was going to be a long night.

"Ah!" He heard to woman say. "You there, behind the counter."

Zuko pretended not to hear her. The Water Tribe boy groaned and put his head down again. Finally, the woman got up and tapped Zuko on the shoulder. Right as she placed the order, the small bell over the door rang. They both looked. The woman's face instantly paled, and Zuko breathed a small sigh of relief.

The boy was gone.

Sokka ran down an alley and up another. He saw a man sitting on a corner wearing a dark cloak. Pulling a couple bronze pieces from his pocket he offered it to the man in exchange for his cloak. Nodding, the man pulled it off and handed it to Sokka, who in turn handed him the money. The man walked off, and judging by the smell of the piece of fabric that Sokka was holding, went into the nearest liquor shop.

Pulling the cloak on and making sure that the hood completely covered his face, Sokka walked down the street. Several soldiers rushed by, and he felt an odd sort of rush from the fact that they were probably looking for him.

He pulled the hood a little closer to his face. He was starting to wonder why he did this. Where was the point? Yes, now he wasn't being followed by Judee, and sure, now he could roam the lower level, but where did that get him? Aang, Katara, and Toph would all be questioned; there was no way that the Ba Sing Se soldiers would believe that they didn't know where he was. Sokka needed time to get his head straight. He also needed to find somewhere that they would never think to look for him. So he did the most obvious thing in the world.

He turned around, and went back to the tea shop.

Taking a seat, he propped his feet up on the chair across from him. A few seconds later, the last voice he expected to hear asked in a monotone voice, "Can I get you anything?"

Sokka looked up at the Prince Zuko, who was currently wearing an apron and looking quite put-off at the prospect of asking a whiskey-smelling person for their order. "Uh…I'll just have a cup of…uh, jasmine tea." He said, saying the first thing that he saw on the list of teas. Not to mention it was also the cheapest.

"All right." Zuko said walking away. Sokka sighed in relief. He hadn't recognized him. Now he had to get down to business. He needed to wake the city up. But he was only one man. No, who was he kidding? He was a scrawny teen with a boomerang who, at the moment, was repulsed by his own smell. But he had to do something. Sokka reviewed his choices.

Choice one was that he started ranting like a madman and hope that people would listen. Memorable? Yeah. Proficiency? Somewhere around dressing Momo up like a ghost and throwing him at the guards. Suicidal? Probably. So, choice one was out.

His second choice was that he get out of the city as fast as possible. If he was only interested in self-preservation, this would be his route. But he couldn't leave Aang, Toph, and Katara here. They'd probably never get out alive. This wasn't really an option, more of a fleeting idea quickly dismissed.

His final and most complex choice was choice number three. Sokka could reveal who he was to Zuko, blackmail him into helping, and maybe do something then. Maybe. That wouldn't work either, he realized. If the prince of the Fire Nation was working at a tea shop then they probably didn't know who he was. Meaning Zuko could turn him in.

It appeared that Sokka was out of choices. Just then, an old man who Sokka recognized as the Dragon of the West brought him his tea. "You look troubled for someone so young." He said.

"I have a lot to deal with right now." Sokka responded. Was that the understatement of the century…

"You sound familiar. Have we met before?"

"No, I don't think so." Sokka said. The Dragon, Iroh, sighed. What Sokka didn't know was that Zuko had in fact recognized his voice and had immediately warned his uncle.

"I'm sorry, you remind me of someone who I ran into up at the North Pole," Iroh said. Sokka didn't respond, but that was all he needed to know that he had been found out. "But forgive an old man's mistake. Here is your tea. On the house."

"Thank you." Sokka said quietly. Iroh walked away. He remembered the boy's broken face when the spirit-girl vanished. He deserved a free cup of tea, even if it meant that much less food for himself tonight.

Sokka took a sip of the tea. He had to admit, it was good. But he needed an idea. It was only a matter of time before someone found him. He found that his thoughts had drifted to the idea that since he'd given the slip to Judee number two, if a number three was on her way.

As he thought about it, he realized that he'd probably go to jail no matter what. They'd been given strict orders to not go anywhere in the city without an escort. He'd deliberately disobeyed that. And from the looks of how people just sort of vanished in the city, he wondered if he was next. He couldn't think of anymore ideas.

Just then, the door opened and in walked a few soldiers. They walked up to where Zuko was cleaning the bar with a rag. They set a piece of paper down in front of him. Sokka couldn't make out what the soldiers said, but he heard Zuko say, "Yes, I saw him. I think that he went east."

The soldiers nodded and walked out, all heading east. Sokka watched as Zuko took the paper into the backroom. A few minutes later, Iroh walked out holding it, an expression of utter seriousness across his features. He set the paper in front of Sokka. On it was a picture of him, complete with boomerang. "My nephew sent them east. I suggest that you go west." Sokka nodded and walked out. He didn't think about why one of his enemies would help him out, there was to much else on his mind.

So much that he didn't expect the earthbenders to jump out and immediately handcuff him. He was thrown into a cart. Streaming through the bared windows was the moonlight. He looked up, and wished that he was up there with her, or anywhere other than here.

When they unloaded Sokka from the cart, he was in front of the palace. They pulled him in and brought him down to the dungeons. Strapping him into a chair, a short man stood in an iron ring in front of him. Slowly, a lantern began to rotate around the ring. As hard as Sokka tried, he couldn't tear his eyes away from the light.

"You will go no where without an escort. There is no war. You are safe inside the wall." The short man said.

"What are you talking about?" Sokka demanded, pulling his eyes off the lantern and looking at the man. "Of course there's a war! People I know have died in it!"

"You will go no where without an escort…"

"Like hell I will!"

"There is no war…"

"You're crazy! This whole city is insane!"

"You are safe inside the wall."

"This is the least safe place I've ever been! And I've been to a lot of places so you can take your wall and shove it up your…" Sokka was cut off by some rock being bended over his mouth.

"You will go no where without an escort. There is no war. You are safe inside the wall." Sokka found himself watching the lantern go around the ring.

Again

And Again

And Again…

Toph woke up to find sunlight streaming through the window. She heard Katara knocking on her door. "Toph? Are you in there?"

She opened the door to 'see' Aang and Katara standing there. "You haven't seen Sokka, have you?" Aang asked in a worried tone. "He's not in his room, and his boomerang is gone."

"He left to go somewhere late last night." She said.

The two other benders exchanged worried expressions. Their conversation was interrupted by a woman with her light brown hair in bun. "What do you wish to see today?" She asked.

"Uh…who are you?" Toph asked. Somehow, they all knew the answer.

"I am Judee."

"Right," Aang said. "We'd like to just walk around a little, see if we can find our friend."

"All right," Judee #3 said. "Shall we?"

When they got back from their fruitless search, Toph felt Sokka changing in his room. "Guys," she said, bee-lining towards his room. "Sokka's back."

"Where is he?" Katara asked happily, relieved her brother was ok.

"In his room, changing."

A few seconds later Sokka walked out. "Where were you?" Katara asked. Sokka shrugged.

"Walking,"

"Well," Toph said. "Now that you're back, we can start on our battle plan for ditching the entourage and getting back to the war."

Sokka laughed slightly and shook his head.

"What's so funny?" Aang asked.

"Seriously, there's nothing to laugh about." Katara said.

"What's funny is that you want to go into the city without an escort. And that you think that there's actually a war." Sokka shook his head again. "Don't you guys know that we're safe inside the wall?"