It's over much too soon for Raava's taste.

She would have preferred the little bastard to suffer a bit (make that a lot) more before he died, but the first blade of air she sends at him is enough to bisect him directly through the waist. He hadn't even had enough time to dodge.

The wrath of all four elements under the control of an enraged spirit is more than enough to wipe out half of the armies on both sides, and send the rest of them packing faster than she thought possible.

She might've continued the onslaught – might have completely decimated the entire landscape, let alone the armies of man – if the body she inhabited hadn't decided to make it's injuries known.

She – they – shriek in agony, the fury that had propelled her into the wind abruptly vanishing as terrible lances of fire seem to sink into their lower abdomen.

They drop rapidly, but she still has enough sense to at least slow their descent with the wind she had conjured up. They still hit the ground, though far more gently than they would have if she'd blacked out, but the impact is still enough to wrench another cry from their throat.

She's gasping, forcing his lungs to keep working, even as she feels it to be a losing battle – even if their ribs weren't half-missing, most of their digestive system is little more than slush at the moment, only kept in place by the skin surrounding it.

Somehow, the pain manages to bring him around, his body shaking with spasms as it resists going in to shock.

He groans, trying to lever himself up off of his stomach to take pressure off the badly damaged area. He manages to get to his knees, but the torment of moving that much is too much; he falls back, collapsing and sliding down on one of the gigantic earth disks that had been flying around earlier.

Blood trails sluggishly from his mouth, and he grits his teeth, eyesight already dark around the edges.

Raava shifts within him lethargically. She's never felt this much pain in her life; not even her diminishing strength from Vaatu's attacks had been this bad.

"I'm sorry, Raava," he manages to rasp, gaining her attention. His eyes trail listlessly across the battlefield, littered with corpses and arrows, fire and giant rock disks. His eyes closed briefly in pain. "I failed to bring peace. Even with Vaatu locked away, darkness still surrounds humanity."

His eyes trail upward to the stars obscured by smoke. "There wasn't enough time," he sighed, exhausted.

With a terrible jolt, she realizes what this is; it's not an apology. It's a good-bye.

Her mind immediately wails against the very idea, but there's nothing she can do; the pain is fading, going numb as his body shuts down slowly.

She wants to cry; to scream; to destroy that bastard a thousand times over because this isn't fair, this shouldn't be happening, what can she do-?!

The answer comes to her when his soul flickers – it's barely clinging to life as it is – and she can feel her own essence fading with it too.

It was so simple; so obvious. She should have seen this years ago.

"Don't worry," she says, somehow sounding much calmer and far more encouraging than she felt, "We will be together for all of your lifetimes. And we will never give up."

Because humans didn't last forever. Spirits did. They had merged together, bonded forever.

Their souls were literally one.

And the only way she intended to continue this fight was together.

With him. No matter how many lifetimes it took.

~FIN~