erica. phoenix16: Sorry that you didn't care for how I handled it. Hopefully you'll enjoy the rest of the story more.
Sakura02: I'm so excited that they're doing the comic version of them going to find Zuko's mom!

Thanks: ilovezim123, Lady Ishtar12123, ZabuzasGirl, Masked Bard of Chaos, AvatarCat12, Phoenix, MS-16 Z Jager,nekuranekomegami, Guest, and dream lighting for your reviews!

Lan dragged her feet along the dry ground. She walked slowly beside Aang, keeping her head down to avoid the bright sun hurting her eyes. She was completely exhausted and wanted nothing more than to curl up and go to sleep. "Are we there yet?" Lan asked Aang.

Aang gave Lan an apologetic smile. "Sorry. We'd get there sooner, but Appa gets tired carrying so many people. Are you doing okay? Have you spoken to Ri anymore?"

"I'm fine." Lan assured. "I talked to Ri last night. She's still planning to take me back, but she wants to see how the rest of this war plays out. She'll take me back after that. I haven't been able to convince her otherwise."

Aang took Lan's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "We'll think of something. You're not going anywhere, I promise."

Lan gave Aang a small smile. "Thanks, Aang."

"We're here!" Toph shouted excitedly. "This place is amazing!"

Lan rushed forward excitedly to stand beside Toph. She frowned and looked out over the open chasm. She tugged onto Toph's arm and tried to look down to the bottom of the chasm. "Are you sure, Toph? I don't see anything."

Aang grinned and let out a whoop of joy. "No, she's right. We're here!"

It took the group a few minutes to get down to the Western Air Temple. Lan looked around in complete awe at all the gorgeous air temple structures. She had never seen such a beautiful and peaceful looking place before. Lan immediately ran over to a fountain and splashed her face with the cool water. She looked up when she heard Katara calling her name. She ran over to where Katara, Toph, Aang, and Sokka were already sitting. "Yes?"

"We're coming up with a new plan to defeat the Fire Lord." Aang said grouchily. He'd clearly much rather be off playing with Teo, Haru, and The Duke than discussing plans.

"I think we should stick with our old plan." Sokka piped up. "Aang needs to master all four elements and then fight the Fire Lord before the comet strikes."

Aang snarled. "Oh, sure, that sounds perfect."

"No one said it was going to be easy, Aang." Katara said, trying to console the clearly upset boy.

Aang continued on his tirade. "Where am I going to find a firebending teacher? Lan can't teach me! She's still a novice herself!"

Lan sat quietly beside Sokka while the rest of the group mulled over who they could possibly get to be Aang's firebending teacher. She knew that if her grandfather was with them, he'd be able to teach Aang. He was the best firebender that Lan knew. She watched Aang abruptly stand up and fly away on his glider. "Aang's really upset…"

"He'll be okay." Sokka assured her. "We'll figure something out."

"I'm sorry I can't be any help." Lan said, deflating. "If I was older, I bet I could train Aang. I can do firebending, but I don't know how to explain how I do it."

"Don't worry about it, Lan." Sokka assured. He held his hand out to her to help her up onto Appa's saddle. "Come on. Let's go get Aang and talk."

The rest of the group climbed into the saddle while Sokka steered Appa after Aang. Katara cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted over the wind. "Aang, we need to talk!"

"What?" Aang shouted back, pretending as though he couldn't hear her.

"We need to figure out what to do, Aang!" Lan shouted as loud as she possibly could, causing Toph to cover her ears in alarm. "Please stop flying around and talk to us."

Aang finally landed, followed closely by Appa and the others. "Fine. First, I want to show you guys the giant Pai Sho table!"

Toph's face suddenly hardened. She glared over her shoulder. "That's going to have to wait, Aang. We've got company."

Lan turned around to see who it was, but Katara was suddenly standing protectively in front of her. She tried to look around the waterbender, but now the others were blocking her line of sight as well. She tugged impatiently on Katara's sleeve. "Who is it? What's going on?" Even though the rest of the group wouldn't let her see who it was, she knew as soon as the person spoke.

"Hi…Zuko here." Zuko said, an awkward smile on his face as the rest of the group glared hostilely at him. "I heard you guys flying around, so I thought I'd just wait for you here."

"Zuko!" Lan shoved past Katara. She would've run straight to Zuko, but Katara kept a firm grip on her shoulder. Tears were already pouring down her cheeks, her hands reaching out to him. "Zuko…"

"Don't forget what he did to you, Lan." Katara snapped. "He betrayed you. He left you to join with Azula."

Zuko lowered his arms that had been prepared to embrace Lan. He gave the little girl a nervous smile. He never really knew what to do when Lan cried like that. Her little face was so red and she was crying so much that he couldn't tell if she was trying to talk anymore. "Hey…Lan…I, um…I wanted to tell all of you that I've changed. I'm a good guy now. I think I should join your group. I can, you know…teach the Avatar how to firebend." Zuko finished lamely, clearly uncomfortable.

"You can't honestly think any of us would trust you." Katara snapped out. "You've done nothing but hunt us down and try to capture Aang!"

Lan twisted her hands nervously as Zuko and the rest of the group continued to argue. She wanted nothing more than to run over to Zuko and hug him. She'd wanted to see him for so long. Katara's grip on her remained firm, though. Lan was angry with Zuko. She was angry at him for betraying her and Iroh. She was angry at him for choosing to side with Azula and his father. Still, she wanted nothing more than to have her family back.

"There's no way we can trust you after everything you've done." Aang finally said. "You need to leave now."

"Zuko!" Lan managed to pull away from Katara's grasp. She got about halfway to Zuko when Katara's voice made her freeze.

"Lan, you go with him, and you can never come back with us." Katara said coldly. "Can't you see he's just trying to trick us?"

Zuko gave Lan a small smile when he saw the distressed look on her face. "It's okay, Lan. You stay here with them, okay?" He rushed off out of sight before Lan could say anything.

Lan spent the rest of the day moping around. No matter how much Aang and Sokka tried to cheer her up, she refused to speak to any of them. She was sitting there silently, listening to the others speak poorly about Zuko when she'd finally had enough. She glared angrily over at Katara. "Shut up, Katara! You don't know anything about Zuko! He has done bad things and made mistakes, but he's a good person! You have no idea what he's gone through!" Lan stormed off before anyone could say anything to her.

Lan didn't speak to anyone for the rest of the day. She refused to eat, and moved her pallet as far away from the group as she could. When she woke up the next morning, she found Sokka sitting next to her. She glared at him and turned away. "Go away. I'm going to go find Zuko."

"Come on, Lan." Sokka said, trying to placate the little girl. "Let's just think things through." He held his hand out to Lan. "Come eat, and we can talk about things."

Lan glared angrily up at Sokka. She shoved his hand away, but went to go sit where the others were eating. She sat as far away from Katara as she possibly could. She looked curiously around. "Where's Toph?"

"She stormed off last night after she got mad that we wouldn't consider Zuko for Aang's teacher." Sokka explained.

"At least someone here is smart." Lan grumbled, glaring over at Katara. They all looked over at the sound of rocks rolling around. Lan's eyes widened when she saw who it was that crawled out of the hole. "Toph!" She ran over and helped the girl to her feet. "What happened?"

"My feet got burned!" Toph howled.

"How?" Katara asked, coming over and bending some water onto Toph's feet. She concentrated on healing the burns.

Toph shifted nervously. "I sort of…kind of…went and saw Zuko last night."

"Zuko did this to you?" Lan asked in alarm. She'd never thought her cousin would do something so horrible and cruel. "Why would he attack you like that?"

Toph gave a nervous smile. "Well…he did attack me, but he didn't. I sort of snuck up on him and I think I startled him. I don't think he really meant to hurt me."

"But, he did firebend at you." Aang clarified. "Lan, you can't argue with the fact that he did hurt Toph."

Lan bit her lip and shifted nervously. "Yeah, but…she said it was an accident. If you guys would just talk to him…"

"No." Katara said firmly. She motioned for Sokka and Aang to help Toph over to the fountain to continue cooling off her feet. "He's too dangerous. We need to take care of him now."

Lan was going to continue arguing, but a loud explosion from above them. She crouched down and felt Sokka wrapping arms protectively around her. "What was that? Is it the Fire Nation?"

Sokka looked up and squinted against the bright light, pulling Toph out of the fountain with Aang's help. "No. It's Combustion Man! He's back to finish what he started!"

"Stop!" Zuko shouted furiously, standing a few feet away from Combustion Man. "I'm calling off the hit! I'll pay you double to stop chasing them!"

"Zuko!" Lan cried out in alarm, watching helplessly as Zuko began fighting with assassin. She screamed when Zuko went over the edge of the ledge he'd been fighting on. "Zuko!"

"Lan, get over here!" Katara scooped Lan up and ran over behind a pillar where the others were. They'd barely taken cover when Combustion Man began firing at them. "I can't go out in the open to waterbend, and he's not at an angle where I can reach him from here."

"I know how to get an angle on him." Sokka said, pulling out his boomerang.

Aang knelt down in front of Lan and tried to calm down the sobbing little girl. "Hey, Lan, it's going to be okay. You've got to stop crying right now. We need to deal with this guy."

Lan choked back a sob, and nodded her head. She peered around the pillar in time to see Sokka's boomerang hit Combustion Man right in his forehead. "You did it, Sokka!"

Sokka beamed proudly. He caught his boomerang as soon as it came back around. "All right, boomerang!" They're brief celebration was cut short as Combustion Man stood up and took a deep breath, ready to attack them once again. "Aw, boomerang!"

Lan grabbed Sokka's hand and the group ran back behind the pillar. The group barely managed to get behind the safety of the pillar before the loud sound of explosions reverberated around the entire Western Air Temple. Lan held on tightly to Sokka until the noise finally died down. Cautiously, they all peered around the pillar in time to see Combustion Man falling into the deep chasm. Lan looked up where Combustion Man had been standing, and let out a cry of joy. "Zuko!"

Zuko managed to pull himself up on the vine he'd been clinging to and onto the ledge. He waved hesitantly down at the group before slowly making his way down to them. As soon as he was on the ground with them, he was knocked down by Lan. He smiled and hugged his little cousin tightly. "I'm so sorry, Lan. I shouldn't have ever abandoned you like that." He looked nervously over at the rest of the group.

Aang hesitantly took a step forward. "I can't believe I'm saying this…thank you, Zuko."

"Listen," Zuko stood up, keeping Lan at his side. "I know I didn't explain myself very well yesterday. I've been through a lot these past few years, and it's been hard. I thought I had lost my honor, and that my father could return it to me. I know now that no one can give you your honor. All I want now is to play my part in ending this war, and help you restore balance to this world." He bowed to Toph. "I'm sorry for what I did to you. It was an accident. Fire is wild and dangerous. As a firebender, I need to be more careful and control my bending so I don't hurt others unintentionally."

Aang was silent for a moment. "I think you are supposed to be my firebending teacher. When I first tried to firebend, I burned Katara. I never wanted to firebend after that. Now I know that you understand how easy it is to hurt the ones you love." Aang bowed to Zuko. "I'd like for you to teach me."

Lan's eyes lit up. She hugged Zuko and jumped up and down. "Zuko, we get to be together again!"

"Not so fast, Lan." Aang said. "I know what your vote is, but I want the whole group to be okay with this. Toph, what do you think?"

Toph thought for a minute before grinning wickedly. "Let him join. It'll give me plenty of time to pummel him."

"All I want to do is defeat the Fire Lord." Sokka answered when Aang looked at him. "If you think this is the right way, then it's fine by me."

Katara's frown deepened. She glared suspiciously over at Zuko. "I'll do whatever you think is right, Aang."

Lan squealed and squeezed Zuko tighter. She began sniffling and sobbing all over again. "Zuko!"

Zuko rolled his eyes and picked Lan up. "Seriously?" He wiped Lan's tears away with his sleeve. "You're too old to be crying like this."

"So…um…I guess we can show you to your room now." Sokka said, picking up Toph. He led the way towards the living quarters with Zuko following behind him, still carrying Lan. Katara and Aang brought up the rear.

Aang couldn't help grinning at the happy look on Lan's face as she hugged her cousin and rested her head on his shoulder. He hadn't seen Lan look that happy in a long time. "I'm glad Lan's really smiling again."

Katara let out a small grunt as her answer. She didn't like the whole situation one bit. As soon as Sokka had shown Zuko to his room, Katara stepped in. She gave Lan a bright smile. "Lan, I'd like to talk to Zuko privately for a moment."

Zuko gave Lan a reassuring smile. He put her down on the ground and kissed her forehead. "Go on. I'll come find you in a little bit."

Lan looked at him with wide eyes. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed both his cheeks. "You promise? You're not going to leave me again? You're not going to pretend to be dead or anything?"

"I promise." Zuko said, giving Lan a smile. "I'm not leaving you again, Lan."

Reluctantly, Lan let go of Zuko and ran out of the room. She didn't go very far. She stood behind one of the pillars and listened to Katara threaten Zuko. Lan clenched her fist angrily at her side. As soon as Katara stepped outside, Lan stepped into her line of view. "Don't you dare hurt Zuko, Katara. If you hurt my cousin, I will never forgive you." Lan ran around Katara and straight back into Zuko's room.

"Lan!" Zuko yelped out when he was tackled to the ground. "Hey, what's wrong?" He sighed when he saw the upset look on Lan's face. "You heard? Hey, don't worry about it. They have every right to be distrusting of me. I've hurt them a lot in the past. Everything is going to be okay now, though. Don't get upset."

Lan sniffled and buried her face in Zuko's shirt. "Zuko, I need to tell you something." She quickly told him about the Sun Spirit and everything that had happened.

Zuko was quiet until she finished. He hugged her tightly. "I'm sorry you've had to deal with all this alone, Lan. I promise, I won't leave you alone ever again."