Very much based on A Thousand Times by vievere. Thank you to all the readers. :)
...
Raava existed.
She knew not whence she came from and knew not the passage of time. She was Eternal; a state neither purveyed with consciousness, nor deprived of it.
Vaatu existed.
Brutally she became conscious of another being, a malicious force so opposed to her own it attacked her core with its mere presence. They were ineluctably drawn to each other and locked into a vicious battle where every touch burned, every beat of their hearts corrupted the other's very essence.
The land existed.
Raava became conscious of it as she noticed the damage of their clash, the broken valleys, the bloodied mountains. She ached for the land.
And so the Spirits came forth to heal it.
But Vaatu tainted them with darkness just as she would shed them precious light. Everywhere they rolled, the Spirits would wither and blacken. And grow evil.
And so the Humans came forth to heal them.
So different were they from Spiritual nature, that they could neither be influenced by Raava nor Vaatu. Light and dark, hate and virtue, could only come from their neutral cores. Humans were gifted with Free Will.
It was their Free Will that brought Raava's downfall.
A Human chose to break their bloodied cycle. And Vaatu was gone.
She turned on the mortal so full of Wrath she could very well have been corrupted, but she did not remark it, she did not realize, so consumed by fear and furor was she. Raava had been too long in Vaatu's presence.
The Human's words did not appease her. She set off. But Vaatu grew their paths crossed again, again, and she could not refrain from aiding him… It was in her core. Soon they were allies.
They faced Vaatu at the next Harmonic Convergence. And they fought.
It was not quite enough.
So they merged like he had asked, like she had refused, so full of fear. They fought and the Human was weakened, burned, poisoned by Vaatu's malevolence. Her core shivered inside the Human's limbs.
Then –
They are one –
Their consciousness merge –
A shock so powerful and absolute that for an instant she is totally Human, her core dissipated. And she is no longer Eternal.
But they defeat Vaatu.
And they defeat others. They fight for so long, and shed light, and for a crucial instant, they are happy.
When he dies, Raava feels a shock so powerful and absolute that for an instant she is totally gone. Blood pulses from a rip in his abdomen. She is torn from his body. But their essences remain merged.
Wan!
"Don't worry. We will be together for all of your lifetimes, and we will never give up!"
No matter how many bodies she lives through, she will never forget the hoarseness of his last breath.
…
She slowly curls her toes, breathless, staring over the edge of the cliff. Wind whistles through her lashes and dances with her balance.
…
Raava watches her talk and walk and die.
…
Oma and Shu live and love through his silent gaze. He feels Earthbending rock society to its shaking roots.
…
She brings the flame to the dragon with a fierce sense of pride. The little savage blaze almost rips through her fingers but she controls it and the great beast doesn't blink his golden eye. He leans. She tightens her lips.
Behind her, the ready bodies of the Sun Warriors.
…
Freedom is so total it consumes her entire being. She dies as Wind.
…
They laugh
…
She refuses to leave her hometown and locks away all her bending. Raava withers.
…
She dances with the Sun Warriors and liberates her Sun Sisters and they fight and fight and bend!
…
He errs, singing love, sowing peace.
...
The fury grows and roars and burns her way through the ice as she screams and screams
and screams
Raava tears a pulsing tunnel through her unconscious as the soldiers leave and soon she bends their veins out of their mouthes.
…
The era is forcefully peaceful and he is ferocious with every dissident. His past legacies whisper at him as ponds glower and raindrops screech.
…
He loves an incredible man with all his might and he feels like this is the most beautiful thing he will achieve.
…
Raava breaks her silence and rips him away from his daughter.
…
Raava talks and she talks and they whisper and shout. Then weakness strikes her and the illness takes her voice.
But their thoughts still echo.
…
A terrible war scars the land and the flesh. The tiles are swept with blood. The children are consumed.
…
One day as she stands on the beach a ship arrives. Strangely colored people march like ants on the rock. The Warriors squint suspiciously.
…
She thinks of freedom as the paroxysm of selfishness. So she locks herself up in desolation and stone, theorizes abnegation.
…
They never speak.
…
The jasmine wreathes a heady scent around their many pots of clay. His sister amuses herself with paint and his father smiles at their golden fields.
…
Nothing.
…
She is furious, the little Avatar in the Temple that is carved of air.
She is furious, the little Avatar in the Temple that is carved so narrow.
…
He doesn't know why the ices melt or freeze; he doesn't know why the dawn rises pink. What is beyond the sea and salt? Where do the women go past the end of the road?
…
She pushes the stone-filled cart up the hill. Her friend is lying in the hay with a lazy grin. Once she has pushed the wagon to the top, she settles down and fiddles with their dresses. Dawn washes their cheeks and eyes gold...
…
The dragons scream fire and gather in a murderous horde and they KILL
and the Sun Warriors KILL
But the Others bring weapons and Lizard Beasts. Soon they take all the plains.
...
She laughs and dances and wonders why she feels her core is made of light.
…
Uneventful.
…
She breaks a crooked grin that scarcely conceals her cruelty. One day her son is poisoned... a complex brew... and Raava curls up so deep that her consciousness ceases.
…
He stands on the dying embers of his civilization.
Dying embers as wet as charred lungs.
...
Raava slowly unfurls and as he grows, no savage rictus rips his face. Kindness is in sweet words and soft caresses. He strokes the slightest breeze with awe.
…
He connects to his past lives and
it hurts so much
…
The Avatar State rips through his body as he assassinates his wife!
…
He oversees the rigorous application of religion and spares no mercy on the savages. Their eyes and customs are only a proof of their barbaric nature.
Soon a council is born.
He is a Sage.
…
His wonderful lips curl back on straight white teeth
They laugh
…
Her father softly cradles her as her mother draws. She breathes in deeply the crook of his neck. He smells of pepper.
…
He studies his old body in the mirror. His skin sags. The muscles are hidden. And the hair everywhere is in tatters. White and leather. Steamy folds of laughter.
From the other room, curses and triumph erupt. His son fucking calls him for the next card game, please!
…
So many dragons are destroyed that the remainder hides in distant peaks and clouds of smoke. The Others hate the Sun Warriors, detest the skin, abhor the eyes.
The Tribes wither and choke on their desolate hills.
And the lush fields fill with Others' rice.
…
She theorizes a new political system and brings together thousands without a leader. Elected councils and commissions and assemblies campaign and fight. Women vote. Children leave the fields and learn to write.
The monarchy awaits her old age to strike and annihilate the miracle.
…
He dismembers them, obliterates them. And with contempt and precious laughter he deems them barbarians; vindictively wipes the Water Tribes' History of their mere presence.
To the dying days of Time they will skulk as savages.
To the dying days of Time they will hide.
...
Small shards of ice in the steam of summer. Shivers as light glances of fresh paint. The simmering sea crashes to the sand, the sparkling sea smiles at her though she is of Earth! And she does not know why it feels so familiar.
…
A fire is kindled in a hearth; a heart is kindled in the palm of his hand. He bends to her face and they kiss as the flames –
laugh
…
She prays very hard. Others feel disconnected.
…
He does not know who these barbarians are, and why they attack his Tribe every winter!
…
I don't want to DIE
…
She is a soldier on the front-lines. She sleeps on rocks and dirt. She does not shower. She is harassed by her peers and superiors. And she is terrified.
But she murders Warriors without question because she is an animal of fear and hate and necessity. Why do they feel so familiar?
Raava whispers but she does not hear. Oh, when she Airbends she might understand.
They are I.
…
Air whistles through the empty halls of the Temple. He cries.
…
She discovers the Southern Ice and fears she should not have.
...
Their farm grows beautiful and they adopt many children, raised between woods and laughter, loved through fields and smiles. They breathe their last in each others arms, skin so soft, without a care in the world.
…
This one looks so much like Wan that Raava almost awakes.
Almost.
...
She refuses to go the Temple and screams and clings to her brother. Air whistles through the empty halls. She cries.
Lost in an ancient haze, the cries of a boy echo her own.
…
One day she is fishing and sifting the cold currents with her family and as they start a fire, she breathes flames.
The spark darkens the hollows of their faces and alights their shaken eyes.
…
She is born of sands and cleverly veils her face. Dirty clothes and sweaty skin. But she is cunning and she is shrewd. Soon she hacks her way through all her rivals and she becomes of the richest of this land of dust and crimes.
She slyly hides her jewels and gold in a legendary cavern sealed with spirit magic, savage charms, deathly hallows. When she dies, her daughter becomes a pirate.
But even she will never find the Avatar's Cave.
…
He helps his little brother into the world and his mother smiles and his father sighs and –
he cries
…
He remembers that one day she slowly curled her toes, breathless, staring over the edge of the cliff. Wind whistled through her lashes and danced with her balance.
But she is I.
…
In a swamp he is born and in a swamp he grows and laughs. As he matures he begins to realize: the trees murmur to him and he is of their kind.
…
Uneventful.
…
Uneventful.
…
He runs away from the Temple and hides so long he forgets bending. Raava has stayed silent for so long she has forgotten how so speak.
…
She loves and loves and loves and smiles and laughs
When she laughs, she can almost hear an echo in her bones
…
The people of the Earth are persistant and diverse. Like ancient oaks they stand; shoulder toil and soil. No respite for the weary.
Their family are their roots and strengh; community prevails over the individual.
I am a woman of the One People and I stand strong.
…
The Avatar coughs.
…
Who are you?
I feel you in my bones.
But Raava has forgotten how to speak.
…
For a second she wonders where Raava is.
Then the hands tighten around her throat. Precious oxygen turns rancid in her lungs.
And all is dark.
…
He reaches out to his mother with a sloppy grin as the younger child looks on, round eyes, curiosity. They laugh when she burps loudly.
…
This time the Avatar is born a Sage. And with so much power he becomes Fire Lord.
…
She contemplates the empty hollow left by the Runaway Avatar. No statue for him. On either side of her, stone-faced Avatars sternly glower.
Stone-faced statues.
Ha.
Ha.
(And Airbender humor is born)
…
Dark. Warmth. Liquid. Soft. Love. Dark. Love.
The mother slides over the ice and a smile blossoms upon her face, flowering upon her red cheeks, her shining eyes. Her husband, her lover, he awaits her in their new house! Raava screams in the womb and she screams but the mother doesn't hear -
The ice cracks and she falls to her death.
…
He has absolutely no interest whatsoever in being the Avatar. He even studies the arts and crafts of cauldrons! The children love his tricks and blue potions, the poofs, the spoofs, the loofs and even the toofs!
The first Empire is constituted in the meantime and destroys his life in a ravaging sweep.
…
She oversees the construction of the Imperial City and races with her own imperial little thoughts. Dark laughs.
Someone laces her tea with death.
…
His teacher is wonderful and secretly allows him to visit his mother. He like many has been found too late... The distance with his kin is ripping him apart.
His teacher is wonderful and she laughs. What do you think of the statues? Are they stone-faced?!
…
This one is whimsical and loves to play tricks. Her tribe lost in the snow does not like people with breasts and vaginas.
…
She submits. There is no Avatar in this era and the Empire crumbles to ash. Rubble cuts through the scabs of her lips.
…
"Sisters and Brothers, we… we must h-hide."
Eight years old whisper whisper.
Don't die.
…
He is too stricken for jokes.
…
"Ey, you wanna go over the edge of the ridge?"
And the eyes they twinkle merrily, the grin is mysterious and mischievous. His breath hitches, he follows the flash of white teeth and flush of cheek into the snow. Her raven hair gleams silver.
…
She closes her eyes and feels the dark nuts of rock beneath the Earth, feels them hum in response, feels them connected to every nerve and feels her power! She rips them out of the soil, muscles bulging, sweating, harsh breath hitching!
…
What am I?
(Me, I'm me, but I'm fragmented, I'm everywhere, and)
Am I them?
(the others, should they have priority because they were there before me? Are their desires more valid?)
Am I... I?
(He feels nothing in his bones …)
…
His entire philosophy is wreathed with jokes and he breezes (ha, ha, Airbender) through classes! The masters predict chaos and war and famine and bubonic plague!
He invents the banjo.
…
They race in the snow
They laugh!
…
He waters the redbell in a timid tip and wonders what it is like to step outside. His breaths mists against the glass.
…
Who was before me?
…
The women smile at him and blush coyly, taking in his shining skin and tattoos.
…
The Avatar is repulsed by the barbaric Southern Ices. It has consequences.
…
So many Tribes scattered throughout the Land now destroyed, now absorbed! And one day it is their turn, it is their turn. They watch those men all dressed the same flood the valley throughout the ridge. They cry with dread. And they know it is over.
…
She drowns at the age of three because the sea calls to her. The mother is a little noble and dumbly returns to her husband.
…
She is never discovered.
…
She Firebends to impress him and
he smiles
…
A great rebellion sweeps the land with rage and chaos. The men and women grow organised and charge Ba Sing Se with vengeance, masses upon masses of oppressed peasants with pitchforks and rudimental bending. They flood the horizon in a tide of red, and she watches them with contempt and her eyes grew bloody.
As they approach she screams
and screams
and screams
And grasps masses upon masses of Earth and Rock in her fingers, pulling her arms up as if ripping her entire being out of the soil - The pain the TORTURE -
Invaders pureed.
And that Earth and Rock become the great walls of Ba Sing Se.
…
She plunges her eyes into the mirror and glimpses a spectre crawling in her throat, coiled around her ribs, and she screeches -
But the light is already gone.
Almost.
…
Nothing.
…
He renovates the entire capital and sculpts his society of ice and severity. Women are denied a warrior status.
…
He contemplates the great walls of Ba Sing Se blankly, his minuscule plot of land swathed in their shadow.
…
He laughs
…
She remembers that long ago, she theorized abnegation. No jokes are a match for her morals.
Peace is enforced and duty is honored.
…
He surfs and laughs. Fish is plenty, life is easy. And she's so beautiful, and she loves him, and he's never had to want for anything.
A grotesque monster dances into their life and steals her face.
…
She is of the only Tribe yet unconquered. This will remain so forever as long as she masters every element, as long as she is there to guarantee it.
And he refuses to bow to her power, the puny man, he cannot see the world past his own self.
As far as she is concerned, he has chosen to die the moment he resists.
…
He is born on the same day as his best-friend and grows up feeling blessed.
Blessing becomes poison.
…
He endures so many trials and brings freedom with a heart so pure...
…
RAAVA DON'T NO DON'T
TAKE RAAVA
.
Raava exists.
A shock so powerful and absolute that for an instant she is gone, wiped totally clean, barely conscious of her own being.
Vaatu exists.
His malicious core reaches out to hers with its vicious tentacles and she feels ineluctably drawn and squirms in fear –
The warm envelope around her essence exists.
Or she begins to remark it.
Or it was never there. She does not know.
She floats in the air but her entire self is connected to the energy-turned Human, the Spirit screaming before her. Protecting her.
And Vaatu is destroyed.
"Harmonic convergence is almost over. We must return to the Spirit Portal so we can fuse, once again."
They dance in the air toward the absolute energy of the Convergence, they dance in the air, the woman perched on her spectral tail. And as they fuse in a shock so powerful and absolute they cease to live, Raava wonders:
Why does this feel so familiar?
.
…
A cycle begins anew.
On and on...