When the prisoners were finally released they were all escorted back to their homes. All except for Mole who wasn't welcome anywhere near Gaoling. They all believed the Warden's lie just as much as she now did. Those she had killed were people whose families had prayed every single day for their safe return but now they would only be holding memorials and it was all her fault.

.Her wounds had been healed by a Waterbender girl and she vaguely remembered a dark-haired girl with pale skin feeding her. Even though they had treated her kindly, Mole wasn't allowed to leave whatever building they held her in. It had been a few days since she had become lucid again and during that time she was always watched by Earth Kingdom soldiers. Were they getting ready to send her to a real prison?

During one evening Mole was lying on her back while Katara ran water over her burns. They had been trying to heal the scars but it had proven fruitless. Mole had been quiet the entire time Katara was working on her save for the occasional hiss of pain as Katara worked on her more recent wounds.

"So, you're a noble huh?" Katara smiled sweetly as she spoke, now trying to make conversation, "I bet that must be nice, having people take care of you?" Mole shook her head before looking away glumly. "Okay, can you tell me your name?" The prisoners had all called the girl Mole but Katara refused to do it.

"I told you, it's Mole," the girl said simply. Katara felt her heart drop at that. This poor child was so broken, so damaged, she didn't even consider herself fully human anymore.

"Well I'm Katara." she said back, trying to sound chipper, "Nice to meet you Lady Beifong."

"Not a Beifong, just Mole," the girl said quietly this time. They both fell silent as Katara continued to heal what she could but eventually she had to come to terms with the idea that the worst scars, and the horrific brand marks, were likely permanent. Katara sighed sadly and lowered Mole's shirt gently, trying not to irritate the burns and cuts.

"Sorry," she said with an apologetic look, "I don't think I can do anything more." Looking at the marks and brands over her body still turned her stomach. There was some justice in the fact that the guards who had tortured and abused her and the many other men, women and children here would spend the rest of their miserable lives in the Boiling Rock. She had wanted to kill them all herself, perhaps she still did.

Before being sent away the Warden had told them about how the mine collapsed and that Mole was the culprit. Katara and Azula met with the Captain of the Earth Kingdom soldiers who had accompanied them to the Iron Pit.

"Do you think she did it on purpose?" Katara had asked. She was sat beside Mole who was still too weak to move.

"I'd believe these Ashmakers about as far as I can throw them," the Captain said to her. Azula glared at him from the Warden's desk which she had claimed as her own, "Apologies Princess Azula," he said a bow, "Old habits die hard." Azula simply waved a hand at him, encouraging him to keep going. "Well, anyway, maybe she did cause the mine to collapse but look at her, kids twisted every which way over it. I've seen cold-blooded killers and she isn't one."

"But even the prisoners think she did it?" Katara mused, "They won't even let her go home."

"These people have spent months in this pit being treated like animals," she was reminded, "They were fed a pack of lies and were too scared of their captors to think otherwise." He shook his head with a grim look. "I've seen it before in men and women who came back from places like this, some even befriended their captors if you can believe it."

"So what do we do with her?" Katara asked, looking at Azula who was always the one who made the big decisions. Azula took a moment to consider her options. Like before she was conflicted. The girl was clearly a powerful bender but also incredibly dangerous. She may not have killed these people on purpose but the fact that it could have been an accident scared her even more. They were preparing to go back to Omashu where the girl could recover in peace but there was the risk of her causing damage to the city. They'd need an Earthbender equally as powerful to help control her.

That was when she remembered Omashu housed the most powerful Earthbender alive. Azula stood up and seemed to have made her decision. "We take her to King Bumi!"

Everyone was kind to Mole on the journey north to Omashu even though she wasn't exactly good travel company. She was still too weak to do much of anything so she simply allowed herself to fade in and out of consciousness on the ride north. Katara had been all too happy to keep Mole close and the little girl felt at ease when she was with her. This would have been relaxing except that every time she fell asleep all she would see was the people she had killed.

Whether they were from the Fire Nation or the Earth Kingdom, it didn't matter, she had killed them. She had widowed wives and orphaned children. She had destroyed families.

Murderer

"Shut up." Mole said and shuddered awake as her thoughts turned against her again but she was snapped back to reality when the Komodo Rhino stopped. Katara hadn't noticed her sudden outburst so Mole reckoned she hadn't said it in the first place, just in her dream.

"It'll be dark soon so we're setting up camp," Katara told her as she dismounted. She then picked Mole up and placed her on the ground. She took a few wobbly steps before needing Katara to help her walk. She remembered hating it when people tried to take care of her but now she didn't think she could do anything for herself. She felt like she was barely capable of making her own decisions.

Once they got some fires going the mood around camp lifted considerably. The soldiers, men and women both, joked and laughed with one another around their respective fires, basking in the warmth. Mole accepted some dried meat and hardtack which were rations prepared in a way to stay edible over long periods. They weren't incredibly tasty but they beat starving. Mole ate it slowly, savouring what little flavour her food offered.

Azula was watching her intently. Though Mole hadn't said a word to her yet, the way she looked and acted spoke volumes to her. She got up and moved beside Mole. All of a sudden she turned away from Azula, shielding her food from her.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to take your food Little Mole," she said softly, "You've been through something horrible, I can tell that much."

"I'm a killer," Mole said quietly as she hugged her knees to her chest, "I deserve worse. I'm a monster."

"Don't say that!" Azula snapped, causing Mole to recoil back a little. The word had triggered her a little. In her youth, her own family had considered her a monster because of her horrible attitude and behaviour as a child. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Mole quickly went back to eating silently so Azula kept on speaking. "I've killed someone you know" she admitted, "He was a tyrant, a cruel and terrible man, but I loved him so much that I still cried when he forced me to take his life." Azula sighed heavily. "I killed my father on purpose and I'll carry that guilt for the rest of my life."

"I felt like I had done something horrible for weeks afterwards but then my Uncle said something to me that helped me deal with the guilt."

Mole looked at Azula, the strip of meat dangling from her mouth. "What did he say?"

"Only someone who is truly evil kills without feeling," she told Mole, "The fact that I still feel horrible to this day also serves as a reminder that I'm not a horrible person."

"I killed my dad too," Mole said, almost mumbling, "And my mom." Azula gave her a pitied look. "And all those people in the mine. They've all died because of me." Mole felt tears stinging in her eyes as she remembered her loving mother and father. "I don't get it, why are you being so nice to me?" Mole broke down in tears. Katara and the soldiers who sat with them shifted uncomfortably, all forgetting the food in their hands as the normally stoic and cold Azula tried to comfort the poor girl.

"I don't deserve your pity or your kindness," she said through heavy sobs, "I'm just a rodent who didn't appreciate what she had!" Mole choked on her words before managing to speak again. "Why are you all being so nice to me?"

Azula put her arm around Mole, squeezing her tightly as she cried. "You deserve all the kindness in the world, Little Mole, even if you think you don't." Azula challenged back, "What happened, happened, but I promise you'll find a way to live with this," Mole was assured, "Someday..."

Mole couldn't sleep. She hadn't properly slept since the collapse. Every time she did all she saw was the faces of everyone she had killed. Rocks would crash around her and suddenly the ceiling would fall, covering her in darkness.

Mole sat up with a scream. She breathed heavily, her face and body were drenched in sweat and she was shivering. Katara was asleep beside her, her arm cradling Mole, but her embrace brought little comfort to her troubled mind. Mole carefully slipped out of Katara's arm then got up and slowly walked around the camp, thankful that she at least had the strength to stand again. She wandered in random directions, going nowhere in particular as she just didn't want to lie down in case she fell back to sleep.

The night air was bitingly cold and her sweat-soaked clothes didn't help. Soon she was shivering as she walked so she moved towards the embers of a fire and reached out for the warmth. It wasn't enough so she grabbed a stick and poked at the dying fire, hoping to bring it back to life just a little.

Suddenly the fire crackled and an ember shot up into the air. It landed on her wrist and Mole freaked out, screaming as the slight burning pain brought back every horrible memory of the Iron Pit. With a gasp of pain, she clutched her chest where Tau's had burned his handprint over it. It felt like it did when it had happened. She could hear him and his cronies laughing all over again.

The stick in her other hand now caught fire and the sudden burst of flame pulled her from her thoughts. Mole screamed in fear as the fire began to quickly climb the dry tinder. She dropped it and fell to the ground, scampering away from the burning wood with a look of such fear you'd have thought a wild Shirshu was charging her.

She held her head in her hands. Shivering and whimpering. The burns over her body were as painful as when she had received them. Her throat was starting to hurt, was she still screaming? All she could hear was the blood rushing by her ears. Everything around her was fuzzy and she couldn't see. She couldn't see. Why? Why couldn't she see?

Darkness engulfed her senses, denying her sight. She was alone in the blackness, a tiny figure huddled to the floor as a million voices shouted at her in unison.

Murderer

Defiled

Branded

Rodent

Unworthy

Freak

Undeserving

"SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!"

The ground began to shake and soon the entire camp was awake. "Lady Beifong?" came a voice from somewhere, "Lady Beifong can you hear me?"

"She won't stop screaming," came another voice, it sounded like Katara, "We need to calm her down."

Next came Azula's voice, unwavering and cool amid the chaos. "If we don't stop her she'll bring the whole canyon down on us." Mole knew she was losing control but she couldn't stop the shaking. It was a horrible feeling. Suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her shoulders and down her arms. They went limp and Mole fell to the ground, unable to move. The shaking stopped.

"What did you do?" Katara seemed to be panicking as she rushed to Mole's side. Mole just stared into the distance, unseeing and mumbling incoherently.

I chi-blocked her, Lady Katara," it was the Captain of the soldiers, "Since I'm a non-bender I learned it to fight Firebenders. She'll be able to move soon but she won't be bending for a good while."

After that incident Mole slept soundly...

The rest of the journey to Omashu went without incident. Mole was incapacitated for a while after being chi-blocked but Katara surmised that it was probably a symptom of her weak condition. Even when she could move again she couldn't feel the earth around her. For many Earthbenders the disconnection from their element would have been painful, horrifying, but for Mole it was peaceful. She felt safe.

"You seem relaxed?" Katara had asked Mole who sat in front of her as they rode.

Mole smiled. "I'm just enjoying the quiet," she said back, it was like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Katara didn't understand what she had meant, the contingent they travelled with was anything but quiet as they marched and were often fooling around when their commanding officers weren't looking.

It didn't matter if Katara didn't understand, all that did matter was how relaxed she was now. Sadly this couldn't last and eventually, the spirits deigned to return her curse. By noon the unease had returned and the struggle to keep her bending under control was back on.

"Make my bending go away again," she had pleaded to the Captain when they stopped to eat, "Please, I don't want it!"

"I can't do that, Lady Beifong." he told her honestly, "Chi-blocking you was dangerous enough as it is but I can't do it again so soon, I could do some serious damage to you, you could even die."

"Then I die, I deserve worse!" she yelled at him, "Please!"

All of a sudden she was turned around quickly. Azula had grabbed Mole and turned her around, her Amber eyes meeting Mole's unseeing grey. "Don't you even think of forcing him to do it!" she said angrily, "Do you honestly want to die so badly?"

Mole was fighting back tears now. "I just don't wanna be scared any more."

"Mole you're an Earthbender and nothing will ever change that," Azula reminded her, "Whatever is happening to you must be fixable which is why we're going to see if King Bumi can help, he's a very powerful Earthbender you see."

"I know who he is," Mole said with a nod, "Do you think he can fix me?"

"That depends Little Mole," Azula said with a shrug, "Do you want to be fixed?" Mole looked unsure. Azula simply offered a kind smile.

"I've never been scared of my Firebending, people called me a prodigy growing up," she ignited a blue flame in her palm. Her eyes were tinted blue along with their natural amber as she looked at it. "When I was an infant I got my bending fairly soon after I was born, I set fire to the curtains in the nursery," Azula chuckled as she stared whimsically at the fire now as if the tale was a cherished memory. "The first thing we all learn as benders is how to control our bending, yes?" Mole nodded yes. "Then if you learned it once, you can learn it again."

Azula closed her fist to extinguish the fire then put her still warm hand on Mole's shoulder. "The things I've heard you can do are incredible but if you don't want to Earthbend then that's your choice and I promise you now that we won't abandon you because of it," Azula stared intently at Mole even if she couldn't see it. "You're stuck with us, just promise me you'll give King Bumi all the time he needs to help you find balance and regain that control?" Mole smiled at Azula now, the previously fought back tears now rising to the surface. Azula pulled Mole into a tight hug, rubbing her back to soothe the emotional youth.

"Good girl," she said softly, smiling contently as she held her.