It was finally happening. The Worlds were ending. She could feel it in her soul. Everything felt like it was crumbling, disappearing. The vibrant colors that the Spirit World had always been known for were slowly fading away. The Spirits were all fighting each other. The humans were fighting each other as well. Her soul was the battleground for the end of the World, and there was only a little left of her. Not that it mattered. She was tired and angry and upset. It was time, and for some reason, a small part of her heart was glad for it.
Yet she also wasn't glad for the Worlds to die away, taking the Spirits and humans with it. She still wanted to survive and witness love and light and peace again. But she knew that would never happen, not again. Surprisingly, she was fine with that. As long as she could feel love while she was dissolving, she would be fine with it.
Now that the Worlds were actively ending, she knew what she had to do. She was running as fast as she could through the Spirit World to find him. Wherever he was, she was going to find him sooner or later. It had to be soon, though, because she could feel her soul and the Worlds crumbling around her. It was only a matter of time before everything dissolved around her. She could feel the time counting down in her soul.
"Agni!" she called out. "Agni, where are you?"
Her voice echoed around her. She had no idea where the rest of the Spirits were, but she knew that they believed in the end of the World now. If they didn't, they were blind to the truth. She knew this truth was going to come to fruition, but she didn't expect it to be now. She wanted more time to watch the humans below her and to experience overwhelming love like she did when both Worlds were full of peace.
It hadn't been peaceful at all leading up to the end of the World. The humans and Spirits alike had finally let go of love and lived their lives full of hate. With that, there had been a little peace for a few years that had come upon the humans. This peace lasted for a little while, but then things came back worse than ever. She hid away on the Moon and watched as her people and her Spirits clashed. There wasn't any help that could be done to them. She wasn't able to calm anyone down, let alone her own heart and soul. She wasn't able to do anything at all.
That was the thing that destroyed her soul the most, not being able to help anyone now that hate-filled their hearts. If she had been able to help them, maybe the end of the World wouldn't have been happening. And if the Worlds weren't dying, she wouldn't be dissolving right now. But this was what was supposed to happen. The Worlds were supposed to end, and everyone -- both the Spirits and humans -- would dissolve into nothingness. Maybe they would reappear in another lifetime. Maybe they were meant to die forever. She wasn't sure. The only thing she knew was that the World was going to end and she needed to find Agni before that happened. If she didn't, she would die alone and depressed.
Her feet suddenly fell out from underneath her, and she crashed hard against the ground. That shouldn't have hurt her, but it did. Her shoulder began throbbing as she rolled onto it. Since she was a Spirit, she shouldn't have gotten physically hurt, but now that the Worlds were ending, her abilities were disappearing. She hadn't expected that to happen to her, but it was.
"Tui?"
She jumped up from the ground, ignoring the pain in her shoulder. Behind her stood Agni. He was there, a few feet away from her. His eyes looked normal, not full of fire. He didn't look angry or upset or sad. He looked relieved to see her. She was relieved, too. She didn't think she could find him in time, but she did.
"I'm so glad that I found you!" she cried, throwing her arms around his neck. His arms wrapped around her body tightly. "I've been looking everywhere for you!"
"I am here now," he whispered to her. Her whole body was burning because of his touch, but she didn't care anymore. The Worlds were ending. What good would it do to ignore her feelings for him any longer? "I'm here."
"The Worlds -- they're dying," she said softly. He pulled away from their embrace but still kept his hands around her. "Why is this happening?"
"Raava was tired of the humans ruining everything we have done for them," he explained softly. "She said it was time for us to start anew."
"So, we're not going to dissolve?"
"We are going to dissolve." Agni nodded, his dark hair falling into his face. She slowly brushed it out of his eyes. Her hand remained buried in his hair as she gazed into his beautiful orange eyes. "But, we will all reform when the new World is created, and we will start over with new humans. This time around, we will make sure that hate is not present anymore."
"What if I loved the humans in this World? What if I don't like them in the New World?"
"I don't know what to tell you." He rested his forehead against hers, letting out a breath. "But what I can tell you is that we won't remember each other in that new World."
It felt like her heart had dropped out of her chest and onto the ground in front of her. Someone was stepping on her heart, making it shudder and writhe in pain. They wouldn't know each other in that new World? What good would that do for them? If none of the Spirits knew each other and who each other was, then they would not be able to govern a new World easily. Since they wouldn't know each other, they wouldn't know what buttons not to press or what not to say to each other. Unless they were different people when they reformed. If that were the case, then they would be going into it blind again.
Agni also looked devastated that they would not know each other. She felt the same devastation crash into her, running rampant through her veins. This was the last time they would know who each other was, and it was the end of the World as they knew it. This was the only chance they got? Just one little dance, one that they hadn't been able to complete. It wasn't fair; they should have had all the time in the world to fall in love and have each other. She was angry with the Fates that they didn't allow her to have Agni's love until the very end. What good would it do to be in love when they wouldn't remember each other in the New World?
"It'll be alright," Agni said softly. He didn't sound like he believed what he was saying, though. His voice sounded so very hollow, just like the feeling in her chest. "We'll be alright. We'll find each other again and fall back in love."
"How do you know that?"
"I don't. But I do know that we will do anything to get each other back."
She sighed and pulled away from him. When his hands left her body, she immediately went cold. A shiver traveled down her spine as she glanced around. The area around them had lost all color by now, and it was slowly dissolving into nothingness. Soon, it would be them. She didn't want that to happen yet. Not until she told him how she felt. As soon as she opened her mouth, she suddenly felt nervous about telling him how she felt.
"You don't have to worry about telling me," Agni whispered, taking her hands in his. He softly rubbed circles across the tops of her hands with his thumbs, spreading warmth through her body. His orange eyes were lit up with pure love and happiness, and he said, "I know exactly how you feel. We're in the same boat, remember?"
"Right." She took a deep breath, giving him a radiant smile. For once in the past few years, she was happy. "But I still want to tell you." She squeezed his hands. As she started speaking, the weight on her shoulders slowly lifted up and up, leaving her feeling at peace. "When I became a Spirit again, I subjected myself to the Moon. That was the only place that felt right to me. I didn't want to be around the other Spirits because they didn't understand me. And that's when I saw you."
"Were you dazzled by my beauty?"
She knew he was joking, but she had to tell the truth to him. "Yes, I was dazzled by your beauty. I was entranced by how handsome you are but then intrigued by your mysteriousness. You were a mystery to me, and I wanted to figure you out."
"Have you figured me out?"
"How could I?" she asked. She shrugged, lifting both of their arms up and down together. "We have never actually been together this long before. I couldn't figure you out because we couldn't speak together." She stared into his eyes and forced herself to remember what they looked like. She forced herself to memorize every detail about his face so she could remember what he looked like in the New World. "You're still a mystery to me. I don't even know if you've always been a Spirit or if you have decided to live as a human as I did."
"I was a human," he said quickly. "I was a regular human who had regular dreams. And then one day, a Spirit approached me, asking me to give my life for the Sun Spirit."
"Why?"
"The Sun Spirit was ancient, and he needed help to survive. Don't ask me why, I didn't think Spirits could die out before the end of the Worlds, either." He fell silent. His demeanor had changed now. He looked sad when he was talking about becoming a Spirit. She understood exactly what he was feeling. She wanted to live out her life as a human, too. "I agreed because I felt like I didn't have any other choice. When I gave my life, I came here in the Spirit World right before you came back."
"That's why I didn't recognize you when I came back."
"Exactly." Agni nodded. "Most of the Spirits hated me from the start. They didn't give me a chance to prove myself as the new Sun Spirit. What they didn't know was that I have the old Spirit in me. I just have a new body and more memories than I did before."
"That's what happened to me, too," she said to him. She pictured her time as a human fondly. It was one of the best memories of her long, long life. "I have all my memories from before, but I also have her memories. It helped me see the humans in a better life."
"But the other Spirits didn't understand that," he continued. She nodded, agreeing with him. "They didn't want to understand it. They would rather stay in their little world, watching over the annoying humans. They didn't want to become something that they despised."
"How could they hate the humans? They are the light of the Worlds -- at least my world."
"Eh, I can't say the same." Agni chuckled softly. She joined in with his laughter. "I had a bad experience as a human, so I didn't see them as you did."
"I didn't have a great experience as a human, either." She shook her head. "But, I knew that love was the right way to live, and I didn't let the hate that had filled so many people affect me. I knew I was going to change the World -- whether it be as a human or as a Spirit."
"That's why you're so much better than I ever was," he said softly. She tightened her grip on his hands and pulled him closer to her. The heat from his body wafted over, and she couldn't help but smile at him. "What?" he asked after noticing her smiling at him.
"I wasn't that good of a Spirit," she said with a small laugh. "I was just trying my best because I loved them dearly. Even I couldn't be perfect."
"Well, you're perfect for me, and that's all that matters now, isn't it?"
Her smile widened. He matched hers with his wide grin. "Exactly."
The two of them began their final dance together. While she was in his arms, she felt safe, even as the World around them was crumbling away. Right now, she didn't have to think about what was going to happen to them. Instead, she focused on what was going on right now. And right now, they were dancing together.
"Do you ever wonder what it would have been like if we met as humans?" she whispered to him.
"Yes, I have wondered that before." He spun her around and around. With each spin, the area around them fell away until it was just the two of them. "I've pictured so many possibilities of us meeting throughout the centuries of us never being together."
"I haven't." She let out a soft laugh, and he smiled at her. "I'll do that now."
She began to tell their story from the beginning. It was a long one where they would live happily ever after. Every few minutes, he would chime in, adding some sort of detail to their story that he thought would work. Their story went a little something like this:
She would have been born to the Northern Water Tribe, like before. She wouldn't be Yue, though; she would be a new human, with a new life ahead of her. With a new future ahead of her. As she grew up, she had a feeling that she had a life that she left behind, one that was great and long. She had snippets of memories from that life before, but she couldn't be sure if they were real. They usually came to her in dreams, showing her far-off places that she had never, ever been to before.
She would travel the world once she was old enough, though. Those dreams spurred her to get a better picture of the world she felt like she once knew. She wanted to figure out the world for herself, not knowing what it was like from the books she read. That was the only way to get out of the boring memories from the Northern Water Tribe. Sure, her life had been good, but she didn't thrive there in the Northern Water Tribe. Things were still sexist, so she wanted to go somewhere where she could be herself. Maybe she would fall in love, too.
Ever since she was a little girl, she would always read the stories of love. She had been an avid reader for as long as she could remember. It helped her get out of her head for the time being. It helped her figure out who she was and who she had been before. She knew that, somehow, she had been someone very important in a past life, but she also knew that she hadn't been as happy as she could have been in that past life. The books she read helped show her what she had missed out on in love.
As she traveled the world, she realized that the Northern Water Tribe was just a small piece of what this life had to offer. If she had stayed at the Northern Water Tribe, she would have been so unhappy in an arranged marriage with a boy who would have treated her terribly. If she had stayed, she wouldn't have found what she had been looking for in both of her lifetimes.
Now that she was traveling alone, she met so many amazing people. They showed her their cultures and their ceremonies without any hesitation. She would join in every celebration because it was enriching to spend so much time with people who loved the world and the people in it. That made her so excited to see what was next for her life, and what she didn't know was that she had stumbled upon it at one of the ceremonies.
During this certain ceremony, each of the single women danced in the center of a large group. Since she was a single woman, she joined them in the center and began dancing as they told her. The thing they didn't tell her was that single men would slowly join them, and they would choose who they wanted to dance with. If they danced with the love of their life, they would be blessed by the Spirits. If they didn't, they would be condemned to a life full of tragedy and heartbreak.
On that certain night, she danced with the love of her life. She didn't know it at first, but as they began talking while they were dancing, she knew there was something special about him. His orange eyes held so much love and light that she wanted to stare into them for eternity. He made her laugh more than anyone else ever had.
After the ceremony was over, they still didn't want to leave each other's company, so they proceeded to sit by the water underneath a full moon and talk about everything under the sun. The boy seemed to be so knowledgeable about the world around them and the Spirits that helped them with their daily lives. He also wanted to travel the world like she had been doing.
That night, they decided to travel together. No matter what, they would take care of each other everywhere they went. The two of them fell madly in love with each other, just like the ceremony said they would. And they would spend the rest of their long lives together with their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Their story gave her hope that they would find each other again. Based on what they came up with, she knew that, no matter what, they would find each other in this new World. They had to because they loved each other. And because they loved each other, they would fight until they found each other again, she just knew it.
"I'll see you in the next life . . ." She trailed off with a frown on her face. She knew his Spirit name, but she didn't know what his human name was. She needed to know what his human name was. If she did, then somehow she could try to remember that in the New World and search for the boy named whatever his name was.
"My human name is Azar."
"I'll see you in the next life, Azar," she said softly. Her body was slowly disappearing, and so was his. She desperately wanted to cling to him, to never let go of him again, but she knew they would see each other again.
"And I will see you in the next life, Yue."
His voice echoed around her as they slowly dissolved away. She had no idea what was going to happen when she woke up next, but she was hopeful for whatever was going to happen. As long as she could see him, she would be fine. Yes, they would have to do their dance all over again for another lifetime, but maybe in that new World, they could be together without it ruining the balance of the Worlds. A smile appeared on her face just as her vision went dark.
Everything was over now, but it would start up again soon enough. Life would be different. However, life would also be the same. Their dance -- the Heavenly Pursuit -- would begin again. And in that new lifetime, the humans would revere the dance just like they did in this last World. It would teach them what true love was about -- that, no matter how much Fate seemed to push them away, they would fight for each other over and over again. They would continue to choose each other over anyone else. That's what you had to do when you love someone, keep choosing them every single day, every single minute, every single second. That's what love was about, and the new humans would learn that from watching the two of them together. It would be called the Heavenly Pursuit.
Yue and Azar's story wasn't over yet. No, it was just beginning.
THE END? NOT SO MUCH