Birth Of Peace

Summary: Chaos brings Order, Creation is the mirror of Destruction, Life concludes in Death, Light requires Darkness, War ends in Peace. And vice versa and vice versa, so goes the cycle. It is Balance. And in a world where gods are VERY REAL, Balance is everything.

Or: A god & goddesses AU no one asked for, with lots of drama, misunderstandings and made up mythological bullshit I hope no one finds offensive in some way or form. Enjoy!

A/N: This first chapter is mostly world-building, but it is NECESSARY for the rest of the story to make sense. In advance, I warn you that a lot more world-building will occur throughout the incoming chapters intertwined with the story itself, explaining certain aspects of this AU as the story goes, so if that's not your thing, you probably shouldn't read this, as it may bore you. I will not be taking comments such as 'this is boring' or 'why write an essay instead of a story'. You have been warned.

Other than that, I hope you enjoy the story!

It all started, as most things do, in the beginning.

Or the end of the beginning, one should say, for the beginning was a long, long process. (And stopped only when no more extraordinary things were created.)

Now, over the centuries, humans have amassed a truly astounding number of creation myths and legends, all very diversitile, as humans and human culture always were, are and will be, but one thing is always clear, always the same.

It is that, before the world was created, there wasn't nothing, as some philosophers and even scientists will occasionally claim.

No, before creation, there was Chaos. Matter existed but in such a state that nothing else but it in its purest essence could exist, because it was all in disorder, it was Chaos, pure and simple. Not even light existed back then!

And that was, to Chaos, very, very boring.

So Chaos started by giving itself form. A body. It was nothing more than an experiment. To see if it could do it, if something could be created out of the not-nothing all around it that made up its true essence. It could. Having a body was a fun learning experience, but even that grew boring in the not-nothingness where not even time existed yet, just an ongoing eternity and infinity. In this not-place before creation, something had been, in the end, created and that gave Chaos another idea.

Chaos did not know its meaning back then, because the concept did not readily exist yet, but Chaos had been lonely, and so it decided to see if it could create more somethings out of the not-nothing. And not just a body like its new vessel, because that would be an empty shell, but rather something or someone just like it, that could keep it company and talk to it, interest it, intrigue it. So it set to work, it allowed its imagination to stretch and its power to reach out into the not-energies that flowed through not-nothingness and it worked and worked and worked. It did not know for how long, because time was not yet a concept or even an idea.

It did not matter.

As it worked, it learned and by the time Chaos was done, it had learned all there was to learn about how to use the powers at its disposal and had all the knowledge the not-nothingness contained, which was not, as one might think, nothing. The world before the world had held all the potential of what the world could, perhaps one day, be, and it had all been in Chaos' reach. And it is with this knowledge that Chaos became more than Chaos when Order opened its new eyes and took in the not-nothingness around them. And yes, they were now a them, as in plural. Chaos was no longer alone because Order was there, too.

Only the birth of Order brought about more than one change in Chaos. Chaos, who had just become Creation as well, was instantly killed by Order's presence in what had once been exclusively Chaos' domain. Order, young and newly born, panicked at this and tried to share its power - newly gained by Chaos' destruction - with Chaos, which brought Chaos back to life. By keeping a hold of each other, equally close and equally far from each other, Chaos - now also Creation and Death - and Order - Destruction and Life - created Balance together.

And that moment, when they met eyes for the first time and realized no one else like them would ever exist, was the foundation of our world.

Humans, of course, never learned the true story of how their world came into existence and that was because Chaos and Order did not want it. For humans to learn about the delicate Balance they maintained simply by being close or far enough in perfectly equal measures could lead to more trouble than humans were worth. There have always been humans who tried to bring about the apocalypse and, really, Order was far too fond of the little fleeting beings for Chaos to just destroy them all each and every time they might do something stupid.

Or worse yet, if the gods that came into being long after the world was created, found out just how vulnerable the Balances make each other and how truly unstable existence was because there were two where there had once been only one.

That's why they created The Secret Keeper. He was the first creature to exist outside of the Balances and he came into being as humanity was given life. His one job was to keep the Balances secrets. Not just the Secret, but all of their secrets. Later on, when other gods came into being, The Secret Keeper kept their secrets, too, though almost none of them were even aware of it. Ultimately, though, The Secret Keeper served no one but Chaos and Order, Creation and Destruction, Death and Life, Light and Darkness.

Really, though, the reason Chaos really created The Rule about no one knowing how the world came into being was because it did not want people finding out why it had created it and why it couldn't just destroy it, even though it is well within its power.

It did not, after all, want anyone else to know how important and dear Order was to it.

Order loved exploring the not-nothingness and getting to know Chaos. They were both curious about each other and how they affected each other. They were Balance, this they learned in those first instances they had coexisted. They both made each other weaker and stronger, endangered each other and saved each other. They gave each other meaning.

Back then, it was just them and the not-nothingness and Chaos could have, honestly, been content with that. Chaos was old. ancient beyond any measure of time or imagination. Order was all the newness it needed.

Order, though, was young and grew curious. It did not exist for eons unimaginable with nothing but itself, like Chaos had. Order came into being in a world where something already existed, so it was curious if other things existed too. And when it learned that they didn't, it wanted to know why. It did not settle for Chaos' answers and started trying to make things on its own. Order might Order, but it was also Destruction. Back then, it was too young to know how to manipulate its base powers to create anything.

Seeing it crestfallen each and every time it failed, Chaos caved to its sorrow and decided to make something to take its mind off of its failures.

So Chaos created light.

Order was, of course, fascinated and thanked Chaos for what will one day be eons. Of course, Destruction's power was always present just like Order's, if dormant since there had never been anything to destroy besides Chaos, so when light was created, Destruction destroyed it, creating yet another new aspect to the two Balances. Chaos was now Light as well while Order had become Darkness.

With these two new aspects entering existence, the inevitability of more things being created was imminent.

Because Order may be young and inexperienced - at least when compared to Chaos - but Order was just as clever as Chaos. Order learned very early on that it could get Chaos to do anything if given enough not-time. And Chaos never even really tried to resist.

Before Order could blink, Chaos had helped it and together they managed to create stars and black holes. Creating stars led to creating planets and asteroids, gases and comets, galaxies and the empty spaces where no star will ever shine. All of it was made on the whims of Order and Chaos' inability to refuse its counterpart anything.

But, really, stars and planets were, technically, living things. They were things to begin with, as Chaos and Order no longer resided in not-nothing. They resided in something the humans will name a universe. With living and non-living things and things that could die.

Chaos and Order, Creation and Destruction, Light and Dark, Life and Death. Balance.

The stars gave Order - or rather, Life - inspiration. It picked a random planet and told Chaos its plan. It needed Chaos' help, or rather, it needed Creation. So Life and Creation worked together and made that random planet livable. Things that humans will later name water, lava, air, sky, earth and so on were placed on the planet, giving Life the conditions it needed to create, well, life. The scientists aren't far off when they say bacteria existed before everything else, but neither are wrong the religious folk who said the gods created plants and animals and, eventually, humans. The Balances simply did it by experimentation and curiosity, not a thoroughly thought out Plan with a capital P.

Really, Chaos gets such a bad rep among humans when it was the one who was most responsible for their existence at all. Sure, Order - or rather Life - was the one who had requested help from its elder Balance in order to create living things, but it was still Chaos that did three fifths of the work.

Of course, once life was created, the Balances realized it was much harder keeping living things, well, living. Plants, animals, humans and everything in between were just so ... fragile that, half the time, neither of the two knew what to do with them. Stagnant air turned out to be bad for them so Order started moving it around in an organized, controlled manner. It helped keep temperatures in check, preventing it from being either too high or too low. There were a few mishaps on the way as the younger Balance learned, but eventually, it got it right and air flowed through the world in a safe, life-beneficial manner. That is how Order also became the primordial storm, or simply Wind with the capital W. Chaos was later attributed to the Sun, the star that warmed the planet people will later call the Earth. Neither Balance knew why Chaos was Sun, but the star was under its control, so they guessed it was logical enough.

With the movement of air - or rather, with wind - other things started moving, creating whole new happenstances and the Balances could only sit back and observe.

It actually makes sense that so many things in nature are both in perfect order and completely random. Everything was created by the Balances, both chaotic and perfectly orderly. Chaos may be the Creator of the world, but it was still Chaos first and foremost. And while Life might be the one that had brought about the initial existence of all species - with Creation's help, of course - neither Balance had ever planned on all those species propagating. Chaos hadn't cared either way. It had done it all to please Order, not because it felt the need to fill up the initial not-nothingness after it had Order to keep it company. But because Life couldn't create, just give the energy that is life, Chaos' involvement was inevitable and the core of its power was woven through every act of creation simply because it was Chaos first.

Chaos was not necessarily a dangerous thing. Chaos was also randomness, spontaneity, change, differences, things out of the norm.

Neither Order nor Chaos had thought of their little experiments needing to populate more. But the energies of their powers ran through them and nature took its course, with all of that instinct that had led Chaos to creating Order and the energy that was life-giving that existed within Order's powers.

The creatures they'd created learned to mate, copulate and create their own progeny and the Balances could only watch on in curiosity because, to them, it was a completely new and inexplicable concept. They were eternal - or eternal as they can be, all things considered; Chaos was definitely never going to disappear completely, as it was the Beginning and the End, the oldest and the last ... if it ever allows Order to disappear, that is. Chaos is super possessive - so continuing on their 'race' made no sense to them. It was something only mortal, temporary things did to keep their race going ... Well, until Order, the young, naive Balance that it was, got curious.

"You want us to do what?" Chaos asked incredulously, not sure if it had heard its counterpart right. Except of course it had. There was nothing and no one that could disturb their communication. They were so far removed from the things they'd built that it was literally impossible. Not even the recently created Secret Keeper was on their level. Chaos wanted no one else to stand side by side with it besides Order. The Secret Keeper was an underling and not even eternal. He - created by human definitions of gender, while the Balances still kept to being genderless ... for now - was only meant to exist for as long as the Balances' secrets did, or the need to keep them. For now, his primary duty was to keep the humans from finding out about the powers that made them. Humanity was still way too young and way too underdeveloped to truly understand. If they were to encounter now what they will later call 'religion', it might just break their fragile minds, for all any of the three immortal beings knew.

Compared to them - yes, even The Secret Keeper - they were so fragile. Chaos often wondered what made Order love the life it had created so much. Death takes them all in the blink of an eye, at least when in comparison to them. Life still seemed to mourn each and every one of them. Chaos - or rather Death, in this case - often wondered how Life didn't hate it for being the one to take its creations. Back then, they didn't even have an afterlife, just a casement in existence. Truly, how Life did not hate Death was a mystery Chaos never bothered to solve. As long as it kept Order by its side, it didn't care.

"I want to try it," Order repeats its earlier statement, all naive curiosity for all that it was a power unlike any humanity will ever truly understand, second only to its older counterpart. "It seems fun and neither of us has ever tried it before."

"Because we don't need to," countered the elder of the two.

Thankfully, they were alone, The Secret Keeper down on the life-giving planet watching over the ever curious humanity and preventing them from finding out about his masters before they were ready.

"We don't need to hold bodies, either, and yet both of us do," Order pointed out and Chaos couldn't exactly refute that logic. "Besides, what's even the point of having bodies if we don't use them? I mean, we don't eat or drink or breathe. We don't use our limbs to move. We just float around. If we're going to visit down there anytime soon-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Chaos intercepted. "One problem at a time, please. No one ever said anything about going down there! Why would we?"

"Aren't you curious to see them up close? I am."

"You certainly never expressed that interest before!"

"I did! I told The Secret Keeper."

"... Who is apparently way too good at his job," Chaos grumbled, rubbing at its forehead, a gesture it would never admit it had picked up from their pet project called humanity. "Okay, we can try the intercourse thing first, but," it cut in before Order could cheer, also a gesture they had picked up from humanity. "Visiting the humans will happen at a later date."

"So you are as curious about them as I am!" Declared Order, to which Chaos did not bother to respond. It wasn't. Really, it really wasn't. Humanity was something it had indulged Order in because it liked how, despite it being the literal, corporal epitome of Darkness, Order always lit up when any of the beings it gave life seemed to thrive. Life made Life happy. And as long as Order was happy, it will never feel it should leave Chaos in order to find that happiness.

"But first, if we're going to indulge in intercourse, we need to settle our genders." At Order's confused expression, the older one explained. "Humans primarily copulate for reproduction purposes, but they seem to find the act pleasurable. Except not all couples who indulge in intercourse are of different genders. You've seen females and males, mostly, but we've both caught a female and female and a male and male couple going at it, too. We have been genderless since we began. Humans are not genderless. Intercourse seems to require a gender."

"Oh," Order breathed, finally understanding. "Well, I guess we both look male." Which was true enough. Chaos had settled on a random appearance and never bothered to change it and when it had created Order, it had made Order look like its twin because it had literally known nothing else. As time - now a real concept for a long while already - passed and they learned more, about each other and themselves, and created the world around them to their ever growing preferences, Order had decided to change its appearance.

When Chaos became light, Chaos' 'skin' turned a bit darker. That was practically the only change.

When Order had become Life, its 'hair' had grown and it tended to braid it like humans do. When it had become Destruction, long before that, its eyes had settled on a fiery red that had cooled down to the color of earth, while Chaos' remained as black as the nothingness it used to once inhabit alone. When Order had become Darkness, its skin had paled in the lack of light. Order had also shrunk a bit with the first few failed attempts at keeping its living beings alive while Chaos had grown a bit taller.

Humans had been created with the intent of them being more intelligent and complex than the beings the Balances had made before, therefore, symbolically, Creation had made them resemble it and its partner.

But neither of them had known anything about gender, as they themselves have always been genderless. That was all natural order and chaos overlapping from within their powers' doing.

"Do you mind being considered a male?" Order asked, a bit worried, and Chaos couldn't help but scuff fondly.

"I guess we'll have to get used to referring to ourselves and each other as he, then."

Order relaxed and beamed at the answer.

So Chaos and Order indulged in intercourse, which had some rather unexpected effects. A lot of things down on Earth changed, but the biggest change was reported by The Secret Keeper once the Balances decided they have had enough of carnal pleasure - for now - and made themselves approachable again, no longer hidden from their servant.

"Your energies, of all your powers, seem to have intertwined and created an empty vortex, ready to be filled with power," The Secret Keeper had reported. "Unfortunately, the humans have borne witness to this. They have started speaking of beings they call gods and goddesses. They give them various attributes and characteristics and some even speak of giving them names. There is no stopping them. I have failed and I ask for your forgiveness."

Neither - nominated 'god' - cared nor were the Balances angry. They had been expecting something like this to happen and humanity wasn't exactly in its infancy anymore. Perhaps it had happened a bit earlier than they may have thought to be the safest, but it was no skin off their backs, so they let it be.

They never realized the craze the concept of religion may cause. Each tribe, each culture soon had a religion of their own, soon forming entire pantheons of gods and goddesses that simply did not exist. Chaos and Order were bemused and amused by this. Some of the stories they told were hilarious, others rather horrifying. Some were closer to the truth than humans will ever realize.

In the end, it is humans who, unwittingly, finally gave names to those who created them.

"The cultures in the Nile Valley say the sun is reborn each day at sunrise," Order began a conversation one time, completely out of the blue.

Chaos immediately glared at his counterpart. "They also say the supposed sun god is a man with the head of a chicken."

"A hawk, my dear Chaos, a hawk," corrected Life with great amusement. He had taken it upon himself to learn all of the living beings' names, in every human language that exists, and he takes great pleasure in correcting and educating his partner whenever Death doesn't bother to use any of the correct names for any creature, from the smallest of bugs to the largest of mammals. "Or it can be a dung beetle." He laughed at Light's disgusted face. "But, seriously, they're not all that wrong. You did die and come back to life when you created me and their sun god is also a creator. Seems like they got you pretty well. They even got the part where you created wind and air! You did create me."

"So, what's your point here? Why exactly bring up human myths?" The older of the two asked.

"I was thinking about how everything and everyone has names but us. Even The Secret Keeper has a name of his own by now, even if we don't usually use it."

"So you're going to start calling me after that bird-headed god?" Asked Chaos, very much annoyed now.

"No, Ra does not suit you," the younger Balance immediately refuted. "I was thinking more along the lines of ... Reborn. I kind of like that word. It would suit you, because no matter how many times I accidentally destroy you, you will always come back to life, with or without my help."

"Reborn, huh? You know what? I think I like it," decided Chaos, now named Reborn, after a human word for a concept that has been a part of both him and Order since he first created his partner. "As for you ... Hm. Those people further east respect storm and water deities more than sun ones, like they do in the west. Since I am named after a word from the west, it only makes sense you should bear an eastern word as a name." Reborn thought for a moment before a grin stretched over his handsome features. "Fon. Yes, that suits you, I think."

Order took only a moment to test out the name before declaring he liked it.

And just like how humanity's need to name everything brought about the Balances' names, so did their need for explaining everything through mythology and religion eventually bring about the creation of all the other gods, goddesses, godlings, demi-gods and everything in between.

That, and their proficiency to get in trouble, which was starting to create a lot more work for the Balances than they liked.

Really, they had started having skirmishes over resources, territory, riches, small offenses, power, religion. It had started to be too much. Reborn had been ready to wipe the slate clean and would have, had Fon not interfered and suggested a different solution.

"If the humans want to have gods so much, why don't we make them some? Just enough so we can finally have some peace and quiet. Like ... Like an earth god, someone they can complain to about their crops! Or a rain god, whom they can bother for more rain! Or someone to move the rivers and seas so neither of us has to bother with it!"

"Is this truly a smart idea?" The Secret Keeper had asked. "Humans are one thing; they will die before they can find out any of your secrets or possible ways to work around you. Gods, on the other hand, would be like me, but if you bind them to yourselves like you did me, you'd have even more work on your hands as you'd have to supervise and direct all of their work and duties."

"We just need them to believe we are their equals," argued Fon, sounding determined. "That way, they will never really look into our affairs as much as they would if they knew it was us who created them."

"And you could say it is a secret how things were created and they wouldn't be able to argue it as you are The Secret Keeper," Reborn mused, already considering the idea and how they might be able to make it into reality. "Honestly, this might just work."

"Oh, and we need someone to ferry the dead to something after death instead of just letting their souls disappear forever." When the other two immortals looked at him, Fon frowned at them. "What? I don't like my souls being destroyed just because they no longer have a place in the realm of the living!"

So they created the first real gods. Gods that humans could understand, if in small increments.

And those first gods were later grouped and called the primordial gods.

The Arcobaleno.

There were supposed to be seven of them, including Reborn and Fon, all of them possessing some ability connected to the heavens.

But the Sky goddess herself split into three sisters and the Rain was brought into existence as two lovers. So there were not seven, instead there were ten. The Sky goddesses Luce, Aria and Uni, the Cloud god Skull, the Rain goddess Lal Mirch and god Colonello, the Lightning god Verde, the Mist god of undetermined gender Viper and, of course, Reborn as the Sun god and Fon as the god of Wind - or Storms, as he will later be more popularly known.

Then the earth god Cozzato and the Guardian of the Dead Bermuda and his servants known as the Vindice were created and the Balances stopped, for now, to make sure everything was, well, in balance.

It soon became obvious that keeping a secret like this was not the smartest idea. The gods started fighting among themselves and some even attacked The Secret Keeper - Kawahira, as he chose to go by - in an attempt to either figure it out or assert their dominance. Reborn had to step in and introduced himself as Chaos and asserted his dominance over the younglings. He explained a lot of the history of creation while keeping a few things secret still.

With a set hierarchy, things went a lot more smoothly.

Eventually, the new gods started gaining their own secondary abilities and characteristics. Like how Reborn was Chaos first and foremost and Fon was order, but they were still Creation/Death/Light and Destruction/Life/Darkness, the gods were like that, too. Verde was the god of knowledge, learning, invention, calculation - after Reborn taught him a thing he called mathematics, which he himself had invented and gifted to the humans. Viper was god of riches, information, connections. Skull was god of joy, play, exploration. Lal Mirch and Colonello were gods of weapons, combat, fighting techniques - taught and invented by Fon himself. The Sky goddesses gained the ability of foresight, telepathy and empathy, all in varying degrees of power.

Bermuda became known as the Reaper of Souls and the ferryman of the dead.

Cozzato, though, managed to split his power into several pieces, creating godlings to help manage his powers better in different regions with different climates and vegetation.

Reborn and Fon let them do as they please, because they all took their jobs very seriously and liked the living beings relatively well, all things considered. The humans definitely liked having most of their problems fixed after prayers and religion became such a wide-spread thing that both Balances and their Secret Keeper were not at all surprised when the other gods found a need for godlings of their own and other servants. Some rather interesting gods were created the longer humans regaled religion and the more gods they made up in their own heads that created more tasks for the existing gods.

It would have all been fine, really, as even Reborn and Fon shared aspects of their power to other gods and godlings, so they could continue having time to each other and to themselves.

But, as Chaos was at the very heart of Creation, things were bound to go sideways.

And when it's the Balances that are involved ...

It was a new world order.

For gods and humans.