The next few days, Atlas and Hermione focused on the different types of bending. As they didn’t know where they would be reincarnated or what type of bending they would get, it was important to have strategies for every case.
They both ingrained each movement and training method for every type of bending into their memories, and Atlas even taught Hermione the trick to preserve memories with occlumency.
Hermione reacted a little shyly but was touched that Atlas had preserved so many memories about their time together but as they didn’t have a pensive nor the ability to extract memories at the moment they couldn’t revisit these moments together.
After ingraining the practical parts into their minds, they discussed the applications of each element and thought of ways to use their knowledge of magic and science to come up with different uses that weren’t even mentioned in the series but should theoretically work.
Hermione for example thought that metalbending could theoretically be used for another type of bloodbending as Iron was used to carry oxygen in the blood while Atlas thought that it should be possible to use waterbending to instantly kill someone by freezing the water their body.
Firebending proved to be an enigma to both of them, as they didn’t understand how someone could use firebending to control electricity. At least not the way bending made it possible. They also didn’t understand how exactly they created fire with bending, as the other bending arts only used what was already there. They speculated that maybe it was more of a type of energy bending than real firebending, but in this case, the firebenders would be idiots who only used a fraction of their power.
It was a frustrating process, as the plans they could make heavily depended on what each bending was really capable of. So after a few poor attempts to parallelly plan what to do if a bending was capable of certain things or not, they decided it was wiser to only use what was shown in the series and adapt the plan or plans after checking the feasibility of a few things after entering the world.
The next big hurdle they needed to overcome was that, with different appearances, voices, and maybe even slightly changed personalities, it was difficult to find each other in a world with millions of people.
So regardless of their starting point, they decided that it was necessary to include ways to become famous in a unique way so that the other person could contact them, if possible.
In the case of becoming a water or earth bender, it was quite easy, as inventing blood bending or metal bending ahead of time would surely make them famous. That was if the hero didn’t beat them to it. But in this case, it might even be worth it, as they would instantly know the identity of the hero.
Fire bending didn’t offer these opportunities, so they needed to find a different way. But these ways heavily depended on their social status. It was easy to make news on a global scale if one was born as the brother or sister of Zuko and Azula, but it was a lot more difficult to do it if they were orphans, which led them to the next problem. They needed to consider their social status in their plans.
In general, most plans followed the route of growing as strong as possible in the shortest amount of time while looking out for an equally talented or even more talented person in their nation. If they had a method to become famous, they would do it as soon as possible; otherwise, they would meet up on the South Pole and free the avatar ahead of time. In the hope that the hero doesn’t do it. If he does, they would try to become part of team avatar and try to backstab him at an opportune moment. If that was for some reason not possible, they would try to team up with Zuko and General Iroh when they get banished or wait at the earth-bender-fighting arena if they were part of the earth kingdom.
The whole planning reminded Atlas of Lily. He had spent hours with her, planning out ways to optimize their characters for the VR games they liked. It also made it painfully obvious that his memories of her were growing fuzzy. He contemplated archiving his memories of her with occlumency despite acknowledging that there had only been a couple of circumstances. He also loved Hermione more than he had ever loved Lily, but the time with her was still something that had formed him more than anyone else. Maybe only his second father, Edward Graf, had as much influence on him as her. So these memories were still precious to him.
“Are you listening, Atlas?” asked Hermione, pulling him back to the present.
“Sorry, I was in thoughts. Can you repeat what you just said?”
“I was just saying that, with the exception of the lion turtle that taught Aang energy bending, we don’t even know where to look and that betting on them won’t do us any good. Do you want to take a break?”
“Yes, I mean no; we can continue. I was just reminded of the past. It’s nothing important. So lion turtles are out. Airbending or recruiting airbenders is also out unless the mission takes a hundred years. So that leaves Chi blocking as the most reliable way to surprise and overwhelm the hero. But Ty Lee is the only one who uses the method during that time, so unless we get close to her or find out where she learned it, we won’t be able to learn it. And if the hero has an ability unrelated to bending, its usefulness would also be limited. Damned, it is so frustrating not knowing where we will even start. Your world was much simpler in that regard. A single school and everyone could learn every type of magic.”
“It’s okay if you want a break, Atlas. We have already considered almost every opportunity to accelerate our growth, and a few hours off will not change anything. I, for my part, definitely need a break.”
Atlas internally thanked Hermione. He knew that Hermione could probably spend another month dwelling on those plans if she wanted to. Her talent for organizing knowledge was certainly blossoming in this task. The question was more if they were really able to execute the plans they had as easily as they had planned them. Atlas was sure that making a failsafe plan after failsafe plan was Hermione’s way of battling the pressure of their task.
“I will tell you, but only if you give me a kiss and promise to not get angry.”
He could see her frown. He knew that asking someone not to get angry was a way to rile someone up even before saying something, but it also wasn’t like Hermione didn’t know about Lily.
Hermione gave him a short kiss, that signaled him, that she at least would try to be reasonable.
“I thought about Lily. About the times we played those stupid VR games, and how she would berate me for hours if my character build wasn’t 100 percent optimized. And in this situation, our whole planning feels oddly similar to that time. And yet, when I try to remember her, I realize that the only reason I can even remember her face is that Ethan’s memory potion made me remember everything I ever experienced. I feel guilty for forgetting her so easily beforehand. And then I felt guilty because I thought that I shouldn’t even think about her at all because I love you. And yet, I contemplate saving the memories before I forget her again. I don’t know if it’s because the realization that I lost my family twice now is causing me to remember her, remember Mom and Dad, and even the guys I played with, but I feel like I would lose part of my humanity if I gave up the memories so easily.”
Hermione didn’t say anything at first. Instead, she hugged him, and while her nose was an inch away from his, her eyes were so fixed on his that he felt like she couldn’t be any closer.
“As much as I dislike the idea of you saving memories with another girl, I think you should do it, Atlas. They are part of you and will always be. The same way, my parents will always be part of me. I could never be angry at you for remembering someone precious to you. And you should never be afraid of telling me about them. I won’t always like what you tell me; I might even get jealous, but I will never blame you for having these memories, and you should never hesitate to tell me about them if you want to share something about them. On the contrary, I would love to hear more about your old life. You know, since knowing you had a whole other life, I felt like there will always be things about you I won’t understand, and I think if you tell me more about it, it will help me bridge that gap.”
Hermione's understanding somehow intensified his guilt. He had expected to be the one providing emotional support, not the other way around. Due to the perceived mental age gap, which might diminish in one or two lifetimes, or perhaps hardly existed judging by Hermione's behavior, he had assumed he needed to be the pillar of strength in their relationship until then and aimed to mention his first life as little as possible out of fear that it would put a distance between them. However, he had overlooked her feelings on the matter. It felt as though he had wronged her once again, even though she consistently offered support, even when it was uncomfortable for her.
He tried to convey these feelings with a passionate kiss before he began to tell her about his first life in detail. This time with much more clarity as the memories couldn’t be more complete than now. After hours of talking Hermione had a sudden idea.
"Could you recreate the robots from your past world? Even in Korra’s time, they had robots similar to the ones you described. Or what about the cloning technique from your world? Imagine if we could clone Aang. We could have our own air bender army without relying on the harmonic convergence. Do you think you could build a spirit energy cannon or a similar weapon from your old world? Even if the Hero was more durable than the avatar, I'm sure he wouldn’t survive it unscathed."
“Well, I could perhaps build the robots, but I never invested much time in weapons beyond some absolute basics. My focus was on tools that help in reproduction and farming. I mean, I could probably figure those things out with enough time, but electricity works slightly differently in the Avatar world than in my home world, and we had nothing that even resembled spirits. And even assuming I could build one, we would probably need to plunder a whole nation to build the machine. I mean, if one of us became a metal bender, it would make it a lot easier, but even then, we would need a lot of time and effort. But we could definitely consider it. But I can only know how feasible it is when I do a few tests after entering the world. But maybe a gun would be enough to kill the hero, but those already exist in the avatar universe, even though I'm sure i could improve them. I mean, despite his magic power, I think Ethan would have died if shot by a proper gun. It was really a bother that Hogwarts limited most muggle products.”
“So we need to revise our plans and include those weapons as well as make making money a higher priority.”
“Sounds about right. It will also make it easier to let you find me. I mean, the inventor of combat robots would surely be able to become famous.”
With these new ideas, they began to dive fully back into their planning, not realizing how much time had passed.
“Good, I see you are working hard.” Echoed Adams' voice through the open space, and the moment they looked up, he stood right next to them.
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Hermione and Atlas just stared at him. His reappearance meant that a week had passed, which also meant they only had one more week till they needed to enter the new world.
“So, tell me how you plan to tackle this universe.” said Adam, and sat down next to them.
Hermione and Atlas quickly introduced their different approaches. At least the ones with the highest likelihood of working. They had invested the most effort into planning for the case that they didn’t have any social status, as this plan could also work if they had any. Maybe the plans would work even better then, even though there might be even better and more optimized plans depending on the possibilities they had.
Adam listened for a few hours, nodding or asking questions in between, but didn’t comment any further until they were about to tell him about the fourth case, where both of them were high ranking people in the Water Tribe and the hero was part of the Fire Nation.
“Okay, I get most of it. While you would probably leverage your influence more you will probably not change anything too drastic. I must admit, I’m glad that you managed to think about the path of using your previous knowledge to your advantage like that, but you seemed to have neglected a few things in your planning. For example, you seemed to have completely neglected the spiritual aspect of the world. Despite the fact that you ruled out waiting for the harmonic conversion to free Vatuu, or using the spirit world to quick travel between the north and south pole, you didn’t mention it even once. If, for example, you realize that the hero is a powerful waterbender, you should kill the moonspirits to take his bending away. You could also try to cause the spirits to go berserk, like Unalaq did. Then you didn’t even consider that your little tree form could help you with bending or connecting to the spirits. Then you seem to underestimate the complexity and usefulness of politics. I know that in the series, the firelord and Azula seemed to have absolute control, but the political struggle below that is not to be underestimated, and if you master the art of manipulation, you could manipulate a nation to do your bidding. Using politics to block the hero from getting any opportunities to grow is also an option. That brings me to the next point. If the hero is fighting for the fire nation, you should try to use the white lotus, even if that means the fire nation needs to brutally conquer a few more cities to motivate them. You also didn’t consider taming a pet. I mean, a dog surely isn’t that useful, but a dragon and a sky bison would make an awesome tool for transportation, even if they are not really that helpful in combat. At least not helpful enough when fighting against master benders or the hero.”
Atlas and Hermione were a little embarrassed at getting the weaknesses of their plans pointed out so easily. It just made it clear that they just didn’t have any experience planning anything on that scale.
“With that said, I guess you have enough time to rethink your plans. But remember, no plan will survive contact with the enemy. The hero could change everything in an instant, and your whole plan would crumble. So stay flexible as well.”
With that said, Adam was about to turn around again, but before he could disappear again, Atlas yelled at him.
“Wait!”
Adam turned back to them, a little confused.
“What? Do you need any more advice? Then don’t forget to learn a few things that you can use in other universes. Swordsmanship could be useful. Or do you want me to tell you a way to securely make the hero the avatar? Then I must disappoint you, as there is no safe or controllable way. At least not without the support of one of the great spirits, and I seriously doubt they would help you in that regard.”
“No, I mean, yes, we will think about it, but we have other questions, and you do owe us a few answers.”
Atlas and Hermione had talked about those things beforehand. Hermione’s perspective had been a bit of an eye-opener, and considering what Adam had done to his mind, he definitely thought that getting a few answers to understand their situation better was necessary.
“When I returned here, you mentioned two people like me. You said that one died. But what about the other one, and were you really unable to save the first one?”
“Well, yes, there was a guy after you, but he died in the world, and I wasn’t willing to risk getting hurt by a universe for someone so useless. The other one is still in his first world. It’s a world similar to yours. At least considering that this world will die within two years. Otherwise, it's completely different. By your standards, his civilization could be considered ancient. I will probably send him into the next world that pops up.”
Atlas was shocked by the casualness of how Adam treated people who were similar to him. From what Adam had said to him, he had assumed he was somewhat important to him. An important tool, but important nonetheless.
It was Hermione who continued the questioning, as she seemed to have a sudden idea. “Why not send him to our world too? It would increase our chances, and he would probably learn a lot with less risk.”
“I could do that, but I guess it depends on what new hero universes get created until then. If it’s an easy one like yours, where I have an exceeding amount of information that can be used to beat a hero quite "easily,” I will probably send him there. It's more efficient, and it would make him more independent than if he worked with you. But even I can’t look into the future.”
“Will you manipulate his mind like mine?” asked Atlas, feeling sympathetic towards his potential new comrade.
“Probably. I mean, it worked fine with you, didn’t it?”
“Asshole. Do you think that the goal of saving the multiverse is of so little importance that you can’t even trust someone to do what needs to be done? Aren’t you just unable to convince someone normally?”
“Hahaha, it's really a sore topic for you, isn’t it? But I guess in an advanced world like yours, the illusion of “free will” was hailed as the most important thing. You probably even think that living without it would not be worth living, but let me tell you something. People can find happiness in not being responsible for their actions. People can be carefree if they don’t have to worry about the future, as someone else will do the thinking for them. A society where no one has free will could be a society with true peace, where no one suffers because of the malicious thoughts of others. The only reason most universes grant free will to their inhabitants is that souls grow faster if people suffer and are challenged, and the results are also more diverse. But for the masses, it can’t really be considered a good thing.”
Adam’s sudden mockery about one of his core values set both him and Hermione aback. They didn’t even consider that someone could think like that. And to their shock, they didn’t really have a strong argument against this. At least not instantly. “B-But what about the individuality of the people? Isn’t that what makes us human? What would be the difference between us and a machine if you took our free will away?” said Hermione, not sure if individuality was really worth the suffering of millions of people.
“The difference is that you have a soul. But enough about useless philosophy. I admit that free will is a useful tool if creativity is needed, and defeating a hero certainly needs creativity. I will think about your suggestion in due time. Is there something else, or do you want to question my morals any further?”
Atlas and Hermione felt mocked by the casualness Adam categorized free will as barely a useful tool, but they had to agree that the discussion would lead nowhere.
“What about the other immortals? Are they born immortal? Do you have your own world where immortals live, or how can one imagine it?” asked Atlas, remembering that it was on the list of questions they wanted to ask Adam.
“Each immortal is different. Some are born this way, some are mortals chosen by the multiverse, and some are mortals that outgrew the bindings of their universe. There are more ways to reach immortality than we have time to discuss. That is everything you need to know for now. Don’t think too much about it; you have a mission to fulfill, if I remember correctly.”
Before Hermione or Atlas could ask more, Adam vanished.
“Well, that explains nothing. I mean, he is hiding something from us.” said Hermione, gnashing her teeth.
Atlas thought otherwise. Adam was playing with them. And what he said was just a tease.
“Hermione, I think you are too focused on uncovering what his plan is that you overheard what he wanted to really tell us. He basically told us that there are ways for us to reach immortality. I don’t know if he answered the question to keep us motivated or how difficult it really will be, but I think he just said that we will find out more when we reach his requirements, whatever they might be. Or maybe I’m completely wrong and he is just a big asshole.”
One week later, Hermione and Atlas were lying on the floor, talking about what they hoped for in the Avatar universe, and they promised to do their best to find each other as fast as possible. Hermione, who had displayed more and more confidence as their preparations advanced, turned into a quivering mess when she realized that they only had a few hours remaining. It was even worse than her nervousness in front of exams, even though they were as prepared as they could be.
Atlas tried to calm her down a little. He was worried that Hermione would really turn into a robot like human she feared she could become, but this reaction made him realize that it was really unlikely. He had told her a few times that it was inevitable for her to connect to the people of the world and that she would never need to blame herself for it, but that didn’t hinder her from making plans that didn’t take her personal feelings into account. It didn’t help that Adam had tried to push them to manipulate anyone who was remotely useful, but Atlas knew that the moment one felt the genuine love of their new parents, it was only a matter of time before that conviction would crumble. He had experienced it in his second life, and he was sure that Hermione would too.
“Mione, can you promise me one thing?”
Hermione lay with her head on his chest. He hadn’t stopped her, despite the pain this caused. With all the hugs in the past week, he was more or less used to the pain by now, even though it was still quite uncomfortable. He just hoped the pain would disappear as soon as he got a real body. “Mmh, what is it?”
“Don’t forget what a wonderful person you are. Don’t sacrifice who you are just for some "efficiency." We will find a way without you becoming monsters. And unless you have the perfect opportunity, let me kill the hero.”
Hermione sat up and stared at him judgingly.
“How often do I have to tell you that I’m not a little flower you need to protect? I told you that if you can do what is necessary, I can do it as well.”
“You are not my little flower. Flowers regrow every year, but you don’t. So I will protect you. If you want to or not.”
Hermione began to pout at him.
“And why am I not allowed to do the same for you?”
“Because I love you too much.”
“Are you saying I don’t love you?”
“No, I’m just saying that if you love me, you won’t let me become guilty of forcing you to do something like that.”
Atlas could see in her face that she tried to retort to him and spin his words in a way that would let her win the argument, but just when she opened her mouth to say something, her face took on the look of resignment, and Atlas was sure that it wasn’t because she didn’t find a way to twist his words.
“Just don’t forget that I will be there for you if you need me.”
“I know Mione.”
“As much as I would love to give you two lovebirds more time, we shouldn’t delay any longer.” said Adam, who once again made a sudden appearance.
With a wave of Adams' hand, the even more mutilated half of Atlas' soul appeared.
“Oh my god, is he even alive? Can’t we do something?”
“Well, I prevented him from collapsing and dissipating. But no, he has to slowly heal on his own. I mean, not really on his own, as you will play a key part in his recovery as you will share a body with him. What you experience, he will experience too. But as he lacks any FREE WILL in this case and is more of a passenger, the recovery will take a lot of time. Anyway, when I open the portal, he will need to hug you. Make yourself as small as possible, and let him cover you as much as possible before jumping into the portal. Ideally, this will cover your core and the imprint from your original universe so that the Avatar universe doesn’t smite you into nothingness. I mean, to be 100 percent sure, we would need to rib his body open and put you inside him, but I guess the risk of the soul crumbling down due to that is as large as the chance of you getting discovered by the universe with this method.”
“Do you mean she could die just by reincarnating? That wasn’t what we agreed upon. I disagree with either method. Send me down alone, or just with my other part.”
“Calm down. The probability of that happening is like 5%. And even if the universe detects her, I could potentially pull her back before she dies. I guess the chance for that is around fifty-fifty. Overall, she has a 2.5% chance of dying. I would say the chances of her dying inside the universe are much higher. I mean, if you learned how to control the shape of your soul in the past week, we can naturally reduce the probability of anything happening to zero, but looking at the state you are in, I doubt it.”
“Atlas, it's fine. We knew from the beginning that it wasn’t risk-free. What is a bit more risk?”
“Mione, I…”
“I want to do it, Atlas. I promised you I would be there when you needed me, so don’t stop me from doing it.”
Atlas could see Hermione’s determined face, which was betrayed by her trembling hands, but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to convince her, so he nodded slowly. He would probably blame himself for eternity if anything happened to her because he was too cowardly and selfish to stop her.
“Good, then I guess it’s time to get ready.” Said Adam and opened a manhole sized portal on the ground before pointing at Atlas signaling him to jump in.
But instead of doing that he gave Hermione one last kiss. He could feel her returning the kiss just ass passionately and her still trembling hand combed through his hair.
As soon as they separated, he jumped into the portal without looking back, as he feared he would be unable to do it if he waited any longer.