Title: A Collar of Pearls. Part 1, Chapter 7.
Author: roses_are_a_weed
Disclaimer: Avatar does not belong to me, I'm not pretending it does, and anyway I have no intention of making money from it.
Rating: Mature.
Warnings for this part: Crossdressing. Swearing – a whole fuckton of swearing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.
Warnings for whole story: Crossdressing. References to rape, murder, war crimes, and general unpleasantness.
Pairing(s): Zuko/Sokka.
Proper Summary: During 'The Serpent's Pass' Sokka jumped in the water to save Toph from drowning before Suki could act and from then on everything changes, beginning with them being separated from the group. Heading to Ba Sing Se in the hope of meeting their companions again Toph and especially Sokka find themselves on a strange and uncomfortable journey that leads them somewhere they least expected.
Author's Notes: For those of you who are waiting for Zuko to show up, it's going to be a while. They have to reach Ba Sing Se first and then a couple of other things are going to happen, but he will show up then. Sorry. Also –worry not, Xia and co. aren't about to become major characters.
Furthermore: Thanks for reading and/or reviewing.

---

They were about eight hours from Full Moon Bay when Xia stopped their procession. "We'll split up here I think," the old woman said, frowning in the direction of the city "I'm already nearer to that accursed city than I want to be."

He was tired, sore, dirty, exhausted and had spent virtually every moment since they'd broken camp the day before being bossed around by Xia. She'd declared her intention to have him walking and talking like a girl before they reached Full Moon Bay, so for the better part of a whole day he'd had her poking at him, correcting the way he walked and making him recite various bits and pieces softly, quietly, until she was content with how he sounded. It hadn't been fun. Toph at least should have found it amusing, but she'd been so caught up with Yu that it was almost like she'd forgotten him.

"Here," the old woman said and handed him a small, fat coin purse that jangled when it bounced against his palm.

He peered inside it to find an array of gold, silver and bronze before secreting it in the hidden pocket in the front of his dress, the one he'd only discovered earlier that day, and gave the woman a strained smile "Thanks, for all you've done for us." To us.

She nodded to them both "I hope to see you again someday" and turned to lead her companions away from them. Hua and Yu and the children followed after her, the young woman waving to them as they went, Yu ignoring him as the man had done since he'd first been dressed this way but nodding his acknowledgment to Toph.

Chen just shook his head and turned to go, before suddenly turning back around and grabbing his shoulder. "You be careful," the old man said, his gaze burning through him "The world is a dangerous place for a girl." He didn't know how to respond to that, but before he could Chen and the wagon were already moving, soon leaving him alone with Toph.

"Well-" his companion sighed "That was strange."

"I'll say," he replied, staring down at his fake breasts before throwing his head back so he could stare up at the sky. "So why did Yu keep ignoring me?"

He saw her shrug out of the corner of his eye "I think he was surprised when he saw you. I heard Hua say it was because you reminded him of his sister."

"Oh-" he muttered, not sure how to feel about that. After a brief awkward silence he spoke up "Well, should we go?"

"Yeah," she replied, already walking off. He followed her, plodding along with his heavy pack and bedroll on his back; Xia had really packed them too many clothes. The silence that had overtaken them didn't seem keen to abate; he didn't know what to say to her, she didn't seem to know what to say to him- He hated this. He felt so awkward. Everything felt so awkward.

They plodded along in silence for what felt like a small eternity getting ever closer to their destination. The forest began to thin and eventually disappeared altogether as the terrain got rockier; eventually they were walking down a narrow winding path between large stone outcrops, fighting their way through patches of thick, brambly scrub that littered the place.

Suddenly Toph grabbed his arm, whispering "Soldiers. Just around the next bend."

He froze, his every sense on alert. After a moment he realised he could hear a voice, faint from where he was standing, creeping closer he determined that it was a man. A drunk man from the slight slur. "-he's abusing his fucking power. He's not the first soldier to take a hit to the balls from some shit who didn't want to be captured and it's hardly fucking likely that he'll be the last. You'd think his artistic talent lay in his shrivelled sack from the way he's been acting. Just because his fuck of a father is War Minister-"

A second, male and equally drunk voice interrupted the first "Fuck off. He doesn't have balls big enough to fit his artistic talent; it'd be like trying to stuff a fucking Elephant Koi into a thimble. He may be able to draw but he's a fucking useless soldier, a fucking dickless man. The shit he'd have us do because he can't do his own fucking dirty work."

"That's the fucking thing! That's what I fucking mean!" the first voice shouted "Iroh would have gutted his soldiers for acting like this.

"Iroh, Iroh, you act like he fucking walked on water," the second voice scoffed "He gave up at Ba Sing Se; he had the city in the palm of his hands but turned yellow-bellied at the last minute. Fucking pathetic."

"His fucking son had just fucking died!" the first voice roared.

He crept closer, peering around the rock in front of them to get a look at the men speaking. They were sitting in a clearing near a small fire with a pot of something cooking away on it. They were both scruffy, unwashed, scarred; their armour laying discarded at the edge of the clearing. A jug containing some kind of alcohol sat abandoned in the dirt between them.

"What the fuck does that matter," the soldier to the right (whose face was a mess of scars and was missing most of his nose) spat, snatching up the jug and taking a deep drink "His duty should have fucking come first, that way we wouldn't be out here with fuckstick Qin ordering us about like he was the fucking Fire Lord."

The soldier to the left, the older one with the truly prodigious beard, snatched the jug back and took his own drink "I fucking served with Lu Ten you know. He was a fucking good soldier. Good man too. He'd have none of this fucking child rape shit. Fuck!" he passed the jug back and spat into the fire "Some of the other grunts we served with were fucking shitholes though, nasty fucks." He stared up into the sky, blankly "One day they grabbed this Earth Kingdom girl -she was maybe fourteen, at the most- and dragged her off behind the latrine. I don't need to fucking tell you what they were doing to the poor kid-" he grabbed the jug off the other man and took a gulp "fourteen, fuck, my eldest daughter's fourteen this year-" noseless snatched the jug back "When Lu Ten caught them. I think we all thought he was going to fucking kill them there and then, but somehow he fucking stopped himself, dragged them in front of his father instead. Iroh executed them. Gathered everyone and cut their fucking throats himself, where we could all see it. So, I'm telling you, Iroh would have none of this shit."

"Well Iroh's not here," noseless declared, taking one more drink before handing the jug back over "He's fucking banished or whateverthefuck, so we're all stuck with shitsmears like Qin."

"Don't I fucking know it," beardy sighed "I'm sick of this. So fucking sick of this. I've been a soldier since I was sixteen. I've done my fucking duty." He lifted the jug to his lips but didn't seem to get anything out of it, he dropped his arm back to his side before flinging the jug as hard as he could against the rocky outcrop opposite them snarling "Ozai's fucking nuts, Azula's fucking nuts too from what I hear, Zuko's been banished for fuck knows what reason, Iroh's fucked off with him- what's the fucking point anymore. It's all very well and fucking good if we conquer the whole fucking world, but our ruling family is totally fucked. Fucked."

Noseless stared at him "What the fuck are you saying?"

Beardy dragged another jug out of his pack and pulled the cork out with his teeth before replying "I'm thinking about retiring. Going home. Actually seeing my daughters before they all grow up and I come home to find them married off to some fucking honourless fucksticks that beat the shit out of them and rape their children."

Noseless stared at the other man before snatching the new jug and taking a good few swallows "- shit. You're right. You're fucking right. It's been years since I last saw my kids, and I can barely remember what it's even like to have someone other than myself even pulling on my dick."

"Shit. Seriously?" Beardy scoffed, snatching the jug "Not even a whore? Not all of them turn away Fire Nation, and some of them won't even try to kill you after."

Noseless shook his head "Fuck no. My family follows the old ways. I'm not sure if it'd be the sword I gave her when we started courting or the knife I gave her on our wedding day, but either way my wife would fucking gut me if she found out I'd so much as looked at someone else."

"Fuck-" Beardy forced the jug into Noseless' hands and lurched to his feet, staggering towards where he was hiding "Hey! Who the fuck is out there?!"

He flung himself backwards, back towards Toph, who he tried to pull behind himself. He wasn't sure why he did that; he was unarmed, she was a bender- of the two of them he was probably the most defenceless. "Can you bend?" he whispered to her. She nodded, already preparing herself.

Beardy finally managed to stumble around to where they were, taking one look at them and exclaimed "Aw shit!"

He flinched, couldn't quite help himself. He hated the way he felt right then, so completely and totally helpless.

The man winced at his flinch "I mean. Sorry. Sorry Miss." the soldier raised his hands to show he was unarmed and started to back away from them "We're not going to do anything to you, I promise. I promise. We're not like that fu-" Beardy choked back what he was about to say "Sorry Miss, sorry about the language, but I promise that we're not going to do anything to you."

Noseless took this awkward silence as an opportunity to shout "Hey! Long! What the fuck's happening?!"

Beardy- Long whirled around and shouted back "Shut it! There's a girl back here!"

"You're fucking kidding me!" Noseless exclaimed, making the sort of racket that probably meant he'd be showing up soon. Sure enough the other soldier was lurching around the bend to stop and stare at them. "Well fuck!"

The two men frowned at each other before Beardy addressed him and Toph again "Sorry about his language Miss. We'll just go back to our things, mind our own business, you two can just walk on by us and I promise, promise, we won't do a thing to you." The two soldiers turned back the way they'd come and staggered back to their campsite.

After a long, pained silence Toph spoke up, her voice sounding strained, small "Should we trust them?"

"I don't know," he replied, his voice hoarse "I don't know, but the quickest way to get where we're going is past them. Be ready to earthbend if they look like they're going to attack."

She nodded and followed behind him as he crept round the bend. The soldiers watched them with surprisingly sober eyes as they walked slowly, wearily past, darting into the next turn of the path as soon as they could. Once there they wordlessly reach for each other's hands holding on tight as they fled from the scene, from the soldiers, that girl and her brother smeared across the inside of his eyelids every time he blinked. They were lucky, so lucky that those soldiers were tired of the fight, honourable enough not to make them into sport, that their disguises had worked.

So very lucky that their disguises had worked. That Xia had been right.

They ran the rest of the way to Full Moon Bay, only slowing down for the impassive guards to earthbend the entrance open. Once inside he looked around briefly, wondering if Suki had returned to the place and if he'd see her -for some reason he didn't really want to. Didn't want to see her, didn't want her to see him. Not like this.

They made their way to the line in front of the bureaucrat, preparing their passports in advance. When it was their turn in line they just slapped the things down in front of her, not bothering to speak. It would be obvious why they were there. Strangely enough this seemed to please her as she smiled at them while stamping their tickets, handing them back with a "Have a pleasant trip to Ba Sing Se."

---