"Raava..."

"Hmm?"

"You and Vaatu... How did actually start?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Avatar Wan ran into you guys fighting for the last 10,000 years right? And he helped Vaatu escape. So... Before that, how did you and Vaatu came to be?"

"Curious of our history now?"

"Well, kind of. After what's happened in the past few years, I can't help but wonder where it all began."

"It's a long story, but one I will be willing to tell..."

"Raava!"

I turned around, my long, silky white hair swaying ever so gently with the gentle breeze as I turned my bright blue eyes towards the direction of the familiar voice. And there he was- tall, built, handsome. His smiling face never seems to fail to brighten up that which surrounded him. Tan skin, long, ebony black hair, and dark brown eyes, Vaatu was unlike everyone else - he's special, as the elders used to tell them as children. Our eyes met and his smile got wider, if it was even possible, and he made his way to me, placing down a warm hand on my head as he got close, a habit he never seemed to outgrow since we were kids, every since he's grown taller than myself.

"How did the meeting with the spiritual guru go?"

"It was alright. They told me the same thing as always - you know, the typical, "Chosen One" stuff. Fighting for the balance of the universe kind of talk."

"Does it ever get old?"

"It does, sometimes."

"Well, it's all over now at least. You should be able to relax the rest of the day."

"I kinda still have to meet the elders for the training session today."

"Why not just skip?"

"Should I?"

"Couldn't see why not. A day of rest couldn't hurt."

He smiled at me, that mischievous smile the city fell in love with. And at the time, I suppose I did too.

"I suppose it wouldn't. Shall we go exploring then?"

He offered his hand for me to take. And of course, I took it. A date with a deity wasn't something I'd turn down, especially if it was with one I was deeply in love with. We spent the rest of that afternoon doing silly, child-like things - pranking each other, rolling down a hill of flowers, telling jokes and bragging about mundane accomplishments, and admiring the perfect world we lived in. It was a perfect day - harmonious and peaceful.

You see, Vaatu and I had a long history together, going back thousands and thousands of years before we were spirits. We used to not be. We were amongst the first inhabitants, when the world was first born. When the spirits first roamed and the first people came to be. When life was first created and the world was fresh. Back then, the world was balanced and in peace. But as the population of the world grew, the balance seemed to tip. Humans learned emotions we didn't have before - they learned ambition, envy, and greed, and the spirits became territorial and distrusting. The old gods from which the world was born from tried to fix the problem, but the gift of free will, alas, was something they couldn't take back and so chaos began to set in. Violence broke, and the god of light made a pact with the god of the night to each choose a soul in which part of them will reside for all of eternity in order to maintain the balance. Unlike Vaatu and I, the original deities were peaceful, as they had come to accept that they needed each other to exist - there is no light without darkness, no darkness without light. A compromise was made and the promise of balance was spread far and wide. Two humans would be chosen, who in turn will become spirits when the time is right. One of light and one of darkness, born to live as humans and to spend the rest of eternity as spirits. With that promise, the old gods left and never again communed with our world, leaving the fate of its existence to their 'children'. Everyone eagerly awaited the birth of these promised messiahs, and alas, Vaatu was born.

At first, the people didn't know what to look for. How were they to know which child is the chosen one?

They studied and studied and studied. The world became observant of every child born after the covenant of the old gods, and after years and years of waiting, they found what they were looking for.

It was as obvious to anyone that Vaatu was one of the two messiahs. He had an aura - an energy about him that's different from the rest. He could calm people down, rile people up at will. He could make people feel a certain way just talking to them, but I suppose the biggest tell of all was his unique ability to use certain, deemed-magical and god-like abilities reserved only for the highest ranking spirits. He could read the cosmos and the stars without anyone ever having taught him, the darkest and most powerful spirits feared and revered him, he could take one's life as easy as waving a hand - he was a genius, well-versed in everything. He was like a mortalized god, even when we all knew he was immortal, chosen to roam the world for as long as the world stays alive. Our village - our city - cherished Vaatu like a gem. They taught him, trained him, embraced him as a god and treated him as such. The spirits loved him all the more, and he was the first to ever be one with the world of spirits, outside the comforts and safety of our human refuge, long before the first lion turtles were even born. For the longest time, the whole world was convinced he was the child of light, and he believed so himself. He protected the people and the spirits equally, despite his subtle favoritism towards the spirits. We all just assumed the other messiah would be from a different village - none expected both children of the gods will be born on the same day, let alone the same village, but thinking about it now, it made sense that it did. Vaatu was born only hours before I was, and I suppose his birth overshadowed my own, or else the village would have known the two of us were born together only blocks away from one another. It was said that midday turned into midnight when his first cries filled the mortal air and that was the moment they knew he was the one, only for the darkened skies to turn back to light when I was born, but the people didn't notice. Everyone's eyes were on Vaatu from that moment on, and I can't exactly blame them - so was mine, after all.

Everything that Vaatu exceeded at, I failed. We were complete opposites and so were our talents. But to Vaatu, well, he didn't seem to care the least. Being the same age, Vaatu and I were childhood friends - we were best friends, even. And I suppose at some point in time, we were even lovers. We were opposites, but our differences bound us together more than it separated us, and I was like Vaatu's personal adviser. He came to me for decisions he wasn't sure would be a good idea to make. I was his conscience and the only one who realized Vaatu's internal struggles. He had issues none but myself knew off, until it was too late. But being in love with him, I ignored the darkest parts of him and looked away, admiring only the kind of person I wished he was.

The older he got, the more the darker side to him appeared but he didn't sought help. He only confided to me, and I advised him against decisions that would have darkened his soul. He became jealous, possessive, hot-headed, envious, competitive, ambitious, and vengeful. He held grudges over the most mundane of things, and it was hard for him to forgive. But he was a good actor - he could act like a saint with no sin in front of a roaring audience, and sure enough, that was exactly what he did. He basked in the attention and the praise he got from the people, and he didn't want to lose their support and love if he were ever to speak about the darkness that slowly overcame him. At this point, we both knew he wasn't the child of the light - and Vaatu feared that his followers would leave if they realized that truth. He was envious and jealous of whoever was the real child of light, thinking he deserved top have been chosen by light instead, convinced that by killing the other messiah, he would acquire his power and become the very god of balance. I was his only salvation - the one thing keeping his demons at bay, and I suppose that's one reason why he attached himself to me - why he fell in love with me. He sought peace in my arms, calmness in my voice, and warmth in my embrace. Over time, he had began to calm his darkness down, letting go of all the dark energy that consumed him until...

"RAAVA! RAAVA!"

I scrambled awake. It was barely dawn, and the sun was barely even up. Small rays of orange peeked against the corner of the sky, but even the sunlight didn't seem ready to get up quite yet. But Vaatu's urgency reeked across the halls of my small hut, and I knew it was time to wake. Rushing towards the door, my white, bed clothes dangling awkwardly against my pale, white skin - hair all messed up and tangled from, I gripped the knob half-heartedly, pulling the door wide open.

"Wha... It's early. What's going on?"

He shoved himself into my cottage, pacing back and forth, sweat and dirt covering his leather-rimmed shirt.

"They found him. They found out. They found him... THEY FOUND HIM!"

He stopped abruptly, punching the stone wall in anger, shattering the diving wall between my quarters and the living space. I stiffened in momentary fear and shock, but he didn't seem to care. He was in rage.

"Wait... Found who? Found what?"

Finally, he turned around to face me eye-to-eye for the first time since he barged into my home and I stood there, stunned. His eyes that were once beautiful, dark brown eyes that reminded me of cocoa is now deep, dark red. You can feel the dark presence surrounding him, so much you can almost see the black emitting from his very soul. In all the years I've known Vaatu, that was the one time I was terrified of him.

"They know... The elders know I'm not the light-bringer now. They know. And they say they found the real child of light."

I didn't know what to say. Or perhaps, I was just scared to speak. the way he looks at me almost felt like I was being choked by whatever darkness was overcoming him. But alas, I set my immense fears aside in an effort to try and calm him down, to get him to talk his anger out like we used to do.

"How did they find out?"

"I'm not sure. Something about the old gods showing them in a dream, I DON'T KNOW."

"Well, did they say anything to you?"

"They apologized for misinforming me and that they're sure I'm the child of darkness, not light and that they'll confront the child of light in the morning."

"Did they tell you who he was?"

"No... They would't tell me..."

"So... What are you going to do?"

There was silence. It almost felt too long, but then, he finally spoke back up again.

"I don't know who it is for certain, but I have a pretty good idea who it is... And I'm going to kill him."

"Vaatu, no. I can't let you do that! You can't give in to the darkness... You can't. It's not who you are, you're everyone's hero!"

"Just because the people believe it doesn't mean it's true. I think you and I both know what kind of person I really am."

And with that, he just left. He walked out just as abruptly as he came in and I just stood there, frozen in place as the roosters in the nearby farm crowed to signal the start of a new day. I couldn't stop him. And looking back now, I should have stopped him from leaving, but I didn't. I was scared and unsure and I feared the truth about Vaatu was too just too dark for me to fix. I couldn't save him... But I knew the least I could do is try. If I couldn't save him, i could at least save the man he's going to kill.

I eased up from the tense position I froze into since he left. Without much further ado, I picked myself up and rushed out the now-banged up door. I knew if I hurried, I could still catch up to him and stop him from committing this heinous crime. Or so I thought. The sound of people running and screaming drew my attention and made it blatantly clear that I was too late. As I neared, I could see them all - people running for their lives, their fear-stricken eyes says it all. The elders weren't far up ahead, frozen in place as they watched Vaatu grotesquely tear the already-dead man slumped on the dirt road, unrecognizable. From where I stopped dead on my tracks, I could remember vividly as his skin turned black, tentacles spewing from his spine acting like additional arms. It was a bloody sight to see - skin and limbs being torn piece by piece. Chunks of shredded flesh and blood tainted that part of the village blood red. And his eyes... Vaatu's eyes were blank. White. And he was smiling, as if thoroughly enjoying the obscenity of his hellish actions.

One of the elders seemed to have broke free from the grasp of immense terror as he turned his head towards me, his eyes wide with fear and pleading.

"Save us... Raava..."

Save us? What could I do? I was weak. Even in mundane tasks and chores, Vaatu excelled. What did they expect me to do? We were lovers, yes. We were. The Vaatu I loved, that monster had long consumed him. That Vaatu I grew up with no longer existed and it couldn't have been more apparent. I had lost him, and I had been losing him long before but I was too much of a coward to even acknowledge it until he was completely gone. If they expected me to talk him back to his senses, if the believed the power of our love would overcome this pure darkness, then they were seriously mistaken. I was standing frozen, dumbfounded, just like the rest of everyone else, watching the horror that unfolded in our village. Vaatu's anger and envy had consumed him. He was human no longer.

As this went on, the spirits that Vaatu loved so much began to transform. From small, sweet creatures that co-existed with our village, they turned monstrous, shrouded in the same dark energy that surrounded Vaatu. They began attacking other people, clawing at men and women and snatching children into the air. A transformed spirit flew over as I stared up, just in time to watch a child be dropped from hundreds of feet from the air. When the child lands, he'd surely die - and so out of impulse, I ran to help him. Thinking back, I wasn't exactly sure what I planned to do - it wasn't like I could catch him, unharmed, in mid-air, but I ran anyways.

And then it happened.

I can't tell you exactly how it did, because I just don't remember... Or perhaps, I just didn't understand and still don't. After all, I'm not really an all-knowing being. I'm just very, very old and immortal, and I have kept every knowledge and information I had picked up from then till now. Back on that first days, I had no knowledge, and nothing to work with but mere instincts and my morals. And it was all I needed.

I blinked. And as I opened my eyes, the child is safely in my arms looking up at me with wondrous eyes. The arms - my arms - that held him weren't arms but tentacles, similar to Vaatu's but in pure white, glowing with energy similar yet opposite to Vaatu's. My skin turned white - pure white. I was floating on air, descending lower to the ground slowly, as if floating like a kite across the light-streaked morning sky. As my feet touched the ground, I put the child down and she swiftly ran off, back to her parents, who stared at me in wonder, hope in their eyes. The elders bowed and they bowed low at my feet, and it was apparent at that very moment why they were asking my help.

I was the one. I was the child of light.

Vaatu seemed to have snapped out of his momentary rage, turning from his massacred prey towards me - eyes wide with a mix of both surprise and aghast.

"It... It was you. It was you all along."

I didn't know what to say or how to even respond. What can I say? I stood there, watching him with sad eyes, and he went on - his initial reactions beginning to fade into a melting pot of rage and jealousy and envy that burned deep and bright inside of him.

"You... YOU BETRAYED ME! YOU KNEW ALL ALONG! YOU WE'RE STRINGING ME ALL ALONG! Watching me scramble in terror knowing I was the child of darkness, waiting anxiously to be replaced... And you... You just watched and let this happen and you didn't even have the heart to tell me the truth! I TRUSTED YOU WITH EVERYTHING, RAAVA! I LOVED YOU! AND YOU BETRAYED ME!"

"Vaatu, I didn't know! I didn't know anything! I-"

But alas, it was all too late. Vaatu's voice grew deep and his words turned into a horrendous howl as he transformed right before our very eyes into a dark, dark spirit - bigger than any spirit I've ever seen. He was enormous, the very embodiment of darkness and chaos.

And then he lunged at me - an attack meant to kill. Light surged from deep inside of me and the next thing I know, we stood across from each other as two spirits. That was it, I realized. Having have been with Vaatu for so long, I knew so much - too much - about the fate of the chosen souls and I would be bound to wander this world, fighting with Vaatu for the rest of eternity over the fate of the world every 10,000 years, as what the gods had long decided.

And so fought. For the first time in all the times I've known him, it was the first time we've ever fought, and we were even. Vaatu realized it quick. He regained his cool, that narcissistic, overconfident personality that was my Vaatu's was back, and he became calculating and strategic in only a matter of minutes since his outbreak. We both knew we couldn't beat each other on a fair fight - we were meant to be equals, to forever be on equal footing to each other, but of course, the new god of chaos wouldn't have that. He turned around and attacked the village from under my feet, knowing fully well that I will come to defend them - our family - and that would be the distraction he needs to strike me down. So I did what I can with the choices I had - I bound him to me.

There weren't very many survivors at the end of that ordeal. A handful of humans remained standing after the spirits corrupted by Vaatu killed so many and destoryed so many villages. Humans became endangered, at the very brink of extinction and so they hid, and the old gods seemed to have heard their prayers because a few thousand years later, lion turtles were born and whatever was left of humanity began to flock and seek refuge on their backs, protected by their abilities to control the elements.

As for Vaatu and I... Well, we stayed locked together for hundreds of thousands of years before the first avatar, Wan, came along and separated Vaatu from me. Perhaps it was envy, or maybe it was that he genuinely believed I betrayed him - but either way, Vaatu hated me since that day he found out I was the child of light and harmony. His sole goal and the very motive to existence became destroying me, while I wanted nothing more than just to save him and restore peace and balance to the world that learned chaos in his wake.

There were rare times, once every few decades where for a split second, Vaatu would stop fighting and act like he had no clue what was happening. I always believed the old Vaatu - the human Vaatu, the Vaatu that i loved - was still inside, somewhere, drowning in the overwhelming negative emotions that devoured his soul and his humanity. Perhaps its true, or maybe I'm just delusional. After all, even after all that had happened, at the end, I still love Vaatu and I perhaps, always will, until the world crumbles into nothing and we both turn back to ash where we belong. My only wish is when that time comes, I'll get to see the smile of the man I love one last time.

The rest his history.

Korra opened her eyes, looking up at the Tree of Time in which she sat, meditating inside Vaatu's old prison. She could see it clearly, Raava's old memories, the same way she saw avatar Wan's during the saga of her uncle's ambition to become the dark avatar.

Raava was beautiful, back she was human. And so was Vaatu. They looked happy to be together, and they would have probably been a perfect, normal, happy family had they not been forced into the path to godhood. Deep inside, the dark-skinned female avatar began to wonder why fate is cruel, condemning two lovers in a fate so dark.

A sigh of disdain escaped her lips as she stood up and walked back towards the spirit portal, a heavy feeling on her heart. Somehow, Korra felt a slight pang of regret having asked about Raava's past, for now she can't unsee the vision of Vaatu - the human Vaatu - curled up in a ball of despair, waiting a million years for Raava - for her - to come and save him. Somehow, she was no longer sure how to feel about his defeat. And what about Raava? How does Raava really feel about destroying Vaatu like that?

"I guess the elders are right... Some questions are better left unanswered", she thought to herself as she walked out of the spirit world, back into the human world where Naga was waiting patiently for her.