Within the next week, Su and Atlas were visited a few times by Huu and Thi. Atlas had to admit that Huu was a less sophisticated version of General Iroh, his favorite character from the series. He seemed to immensely care for Su and, to an extent, for him. And while his mother seemed a bit unstable whenever Atlas’ father was mentioned, Huu always seemed to find the right words to calm her down. He also seemed to have a weakness for Tee. The only thing missing was that he never asked to play pai-sho.

Thi, on the other hand, was a vivid and talkative person. She seemed to be the apprentice of the only other healer in the tribe and was tasked with taking care of Su, but Atlas wasn’t sure if she really came over to take care of his mother or to talk about the newest gossip in the village.

What Atlas learned from these talks was that apparently the tribe had something akin to a village elder. He was unable to figure out what his exact role was, but he seemed to be responsible for teaching the young about the tribe's customs while giving other people advice as well. The other thing he learned was that the tribe had a fairly large number of hunter squads. At least 12, as Thi told about how the squad leader named Nimb from squad 12 needed to get his ear fixed as he tried to catch a screetching Dodo. He also learned from Thi that Huu was trying to form a rescue or avenger squad to punish the fire nation for attacking them.

Atlas thought it was strange that Huu hadn’t mentioned something like that to his mother, because he knew that his mother would definitely be happy to hear that.

After two weeks of being confined to the shack he and his mother lived in, his mother decided that it was time to make herself useful again, so she built a baby carrier out of vines and carefully strapped Atlas to her chest.

Atlas thought it was a bit uncomfortable but was still glad that he was able to leave the house.

The village wasn't as hazy as he remembered it from his first day. A few fires were lit, and groups of people were talking and laughing there. He could even hear a few people singing and playing drum-like instruments. He could see a few kids running around playing catch. He also noticed a young girl pulling a catgator's whiskers.

His mother carried him to a fire near one of the many rivers that ran through the village, not far from their home. There were a few women, some as young as his mother and some as old enough to be his mother's grandmother, chatting while making vine ropes.

Atlas was fascinated by how they did it. They used water bending on the wet vines to interweave them before wringing them out by hand. Any droplets that left the vines were immediately removed via water bending, leaving only a dry and sturdy vine.

To Atlas' surprise, his mother also started to help them. At first, she pulled out some vines from the river with water bending, almost hitting Atlas in the process as she flayed her arms around to wild.

“Su, be careful. You have a baby in your arms.” said one of the oldest women with a tone that made it quite obvious that she was used to reprimanding Su.

“I know, I know. I will be careful.” Said his mother like a child who was told not to climb a tree before she whispered into Atlas ears that she would never do anything that would harm him.

While Atlas wasn’t sure if his mother wouldn’t kill him by accident, he could feel that she meant what she said.

As Su sat down with her fresh vines and began to work, the women began to chatter again.

“Like I mentioned, if I were younger, I'd go after the Fire Nation outpost with Huu. We gotta show them we'll defend our turf. Otherwise, they might come back, and who knows how many of us they'll take out next time.”

“But Nhu, have you seen their iron skiffs and the big fire they shoot? What if they come straight to our village?” asked one of the younger women.

During the conversation, Atlas could feel his mother stiffening. From what he had seen in the past two weeks, he was surprised she didn’t start to cry. He pitied her. Just remembering how he felt when he thought Hermione had died was enough for him to feel empathy for her.

"Psh, those folks won't even make it deep into the swamp. The swamp's always had our backs, Mai. If they try to roll in here, the swamp will handle them," scoffed the old woman called Nhu.

As their talk developed into bickering about how powerful the fire nation was and how the swamp could help in attacking the outpost, Atlas noticed his mother’s condition worsening.

She had even stopped to water bend the vines. After watching it for a minute, Atlas thought that even if he wouldn’t accept Su as his mother, that didn’t mean he wanted to see her suffer like that. So after considering about what he could do to help, he did the only thing that came to mind. He cried as if there was no tomorrow.

His mother immediately snapped out of her trance and tried to figure out what was wrong with him. Even the other women became quiet and expressed their concern. But when he refused to eat and didn't have anything in his leaf diaper, Su became so concerned that she excused herself from these women, who were suggesting a hundred different things that could be wrong with him, and worriedly searched for Thi.

The moment they were around the corner, Atlas stopped to cry. He didn’t want his mother to trade one worry for another, but it seemed he was already too late, and they still visited Thi.

Atlas recognized the shak his mother knocked on as the one he was born in.

“Thi, Thi please, are you there? Something is wrong with little Ati.”

At times, his mother referred to him as "Little Ati." He had no idea what Adam had done to ensure that he was always reborn with his original name, but it was possible that his method was limited to his birth name and not his pet name. He didn’t particularly like being called like that, but it wasn’t like he could protest against it.

The door opened immediately, and Thi stood in the entrance.

“What happened? Did you let him fall down? I warned you to be careful!” said Thi, concerned.

“Never; I always took good care of him. I feed him three times a day; he sleeps well, and I cradle him a lot. And he never fell down. But he never cries, and today, he started to cry when I was making some ropes.” Said Su in a voice that made him question if what he had done was really the best idea. He realized he had underestimated how concerned mothers could be and that his stunt might have done more harm than good.

“But he is not crying right now. He isn’t in pain, then. I will look after him in a minute. I was about to reattach Kah’s toe. He slipped with his knife, hacking some firewood.” Said Thi a lot calmer after hearing that nothing had happened.

To Atlas' surprise, Thi used fluid and gentle movements to guide some water from a tub towards Kah, gradually reattaching and healing his toe. Not even a scar was left behind. The surprising thing was that those movements reminded Atlas more of the Northern Water tribe’s bending arts than the rigid and straight movements the swamp members usually used.

After about ten minutes, Kah happily left with his toe where it should be and a warning from Thi to be more careful.

“So, little Ati, why were you crying when nothing happened?” asked Thi, not expecting an answer as she placed him on a table next to a tub of water.

Atlas was curious what Thi was going to do to find out what was “wrong” with him, as he wasn’t sure if the healing arts in the avatar world also worked as a tool for diagnostics.

He was a little shocked at how cold the water was when it first touched him, as it was far colder than the room or even the river would have been.

To his surprise, like the healing arts from the northern water tribe, Thi guided the water chi along the chi paths around the body, searching for a wounded area. But as Atlas had only pretended, he was sure that she wouldn’t find anything. But the sensation was still incredibly valuable to him, as the cold of the water allowed him to feel his chi paths.

Theoretically, he knew where his chi paths were as he had intensively studied the puppet that was shown during Katara’s healing lessons during the show, but knowing and feeling were two different things.

After a while of letting the water flow over him, he noticed that it wasn't just water; it seemed to trigger something inside him. It was subtle, usually too faint to catch, but the cold water made it noticeable. He could sense a warm, lively energy spreading through his body. It had a slight tingling sensation, akin to when your arm falls asleep and the blood starts flowing back. But this feeling wasn't confined to his arm, and it wasn't as intense or uncomfortable. In fact, it was more like a revitalizing, energizing experience.

While Atlas was trying to memorize the feeling of his chi, Thi was fully focused on guiding the water through him. Atlas felt a little sorry as her frowning got more and more intense as she continued to cycle the water around his body for a fourth time.

After half an hour and cycling the water for five full cycles, she stopped.

Su, who had been waiting worriedly on the side, not daring to make a sound out of fear she would interrupt Thi, grabbed the healer's hand as soon as the water returned to the tub.

“Is my little Ati okay?

The worry in her voice made Atlas flinch a little. He would never again pretend to be hurt in front of his mother. She was far too concerned about him. Compared to his previous mother, she was also far more emotional about it, while his previous mother thought that illness and getting hurt were, to a limited degree, part of growing up.

“I’m sorry, Su. I checked his body and chi paths five times to confirm it, but it seems like...” she stopped her explanation, trying to find the appropriate words. “Just to make sure, Atlas didn’t have any kind of trauma, right?”

Atlas got a little annoyed at that. Why was Thi not just saying that he had faked it? Did she really think it was necessary to let Su worry for much longer?

“No, Thi. I never let him out of my eyes. And even when I slept, I woke up once every hour to see if he was fine. Please tell me what is wrong with my baby.”

“I’m sorry, Su. But from the looks of it his chi paths are severely underdeveloped, and it looks like he has problems harmonizing his chi. The reasons for that could normally be quite numerous, but considering his age, I only know of one reason. You have to know Chi is dependent on the body as the container that determines the amount of chi one can hold, the spirit that determines how fast chi gets produced, and the emotional balance that determines how fast chi flows through the body. And while looking at his chi pathways, I noticed that they were thin and obstructed. Knowing that his body is in perfect health and that it is impossible for him to have any emotional trauma, the conclusion I have is that the cause of the problems lies in his spirit. The spirit is lacking severely behind his body, which means that Atlas is most likely… He won’t be smart, Su. He will heavily depend on you and the tribe for his whole life.” explained Su with a downcast voice.

Atlas was shocked that there really was something wrong with him, and that Thi had diagnosed him with being mentally challenged. While he was sure that the problem was because he had a split soul and not because he was dumb, he was still worried about the effects the underdeveloped energy paths would have on him. He knew that while it wasn’t necessary to be able to sense chi to use bending, chi was still what made bending possible. The blockages, which are the results of emotional trauma, could theoretically be cleared by unlocking his chakras with Guru Pathik method, but Adam had warned them that access to cosmic energies that were unlocked by opening all chakras might cause the universe to smite them. The only other method that was mentioned in the series that might help alleviate the problem was drinking onion-banana juice, even though its effect would surely be quite lacking compared to unlocking the chakras the normal way.

He was ripped out of his thoughts as his mother hugged him, holding him tight to her body.

“So he is healthy? Nothing is wrong with him?”

“Su, it won’t be easy. You will need to explain the simplest things to him ten times or twenty times. Some things he will never get, no matter how often you explain it to him.”

“I don’t care! As long as he is healthy, I will take care of him.”

“Su, if that is really what you want to do, I will help you. While I’m not sure if it will really affect his mind and make him smarter, I will help him clear his chi paths in the hope that if the chi has a better flow, it will somehow help his development, even if just a little.”

"Thanks, Thi, thank you so much!” said Su, and Atlas was sandwiched between Thi’s and Su’s hug.

“Su, we are of one tribe, and the tribe takes care of all its members. So don’t worry and go home to rest a little. I’m sure you need the break. I will prepare a few things for Atlas and bring them over tomorrow. I’m tired, too. The procedure took more energy than I expected.”

Atlas was surprised by his mother’s resolution and unconditional love. Raising a child was already a great challenge, even in a modern world, but raising a retarded child in a world in a swamp like this would be a gargantuan task many would step away from. He knew from the history of two different worlds that it wasn’t uncommon to kill a retarded child, so he couldn’t help but be thankful to this nineteen-year-old girl, who was ready to sacrifice her whole future just to take care of him. It moved him on a level he hadn’t thought he could be moved anymore. It moved him on a level he didn’t want to be moved anymore. It would make him hesitate to do what he needs to do, and even if he did, the pain of loss would haunt him forever.

Especially if the only way he thought he might be able to take another person with him was even more unlikely to work than killing the hero after making him the avatar. And that was not even considering the impact it could have if it really worked.

The way Hermione and he came up with would require him to make the person he wanted to save the avatar before killing the person and becoming the avatar himself. But if that worked, he wouldn’t only bring the person he wanted but also the hundreds or thousands of avatars too. And just remembering how he felt holding onto one person, he knew that if he tried to stop so many souls from getting sucked into the universe when it died, he wouldn’t even be able to put up a fight. The next problem would be that he wouldn’t have another horcrux soul that would enable the person he wanted to take with them into another universe.

He naturally knew that it was possible to cut off Raava, the spirit that made the Avatar the Avatar, from the previous incarnations, but then he would still need to bring Raava and the person he wanted to save while only having half a soul to hold them.

In the end, the most reasonable choice would be to try to kill the hero after making him the Avatar, but Adam correctly described this thinking as a trap that would lead to a failure of the mission.

With these depressing thoughts in his mind, he decided that he could at least try to make Su’s life a bit easier and happier, even if it couldn’t free him of the guilt of eventually killing her together with the universe.