Author's note: Hi, sorry, this is a very short entry for the Zervis week. I'm actually supposed to be studying, but after what happened in the manga I couldn't resist... Some parts come from my headcanons (feel free to ask/comment) and I kind of wished I had spent a little more time on this... I hope you'll like it anyway.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. Title and ending quote from the poem Francis Turner in the Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters.

WITH MY SOUL UPON MY LIPS

I'm sorry... This is not the way it was supposed to end... It's all my fault.

The gravestone was white, pristine, untouched. Normal, he supposed, considering it was new. He had never seen a gravestone, only the bodies that would fill them. He was responsible for this one too, one of the very few he regretted.

I shouldn't be asking for forgiveness, I don't deserve your forgiveness... I just... I warned you... You should have stayed away, my love.

His hand was trembling, hovering over the white stone as if he was afraid that it would scorch him if he touched it.

I had to… it was the only way. In the end I couldn't let you become like me.

A tear rolled down his face, then another one and then a thousand more, but no sound escaped his lips. He had screamed and cursed and tried to apologise a million times already, but it wouldn't change what he had done.

I had to do it… I had to kill you.

It was his fault to begin with. He had wanted her to join him, to become like him, to finally have someone by his side. Mavis was the one person who had ever shown him kindness after his curse, the one who had made him believe that maybe, maybe, he didn't have to be alone. She had let him believe that he could share his curse with someone… so that was what he did. The thought that she might curse herself by casting incomplete magic was what had prompted him to teach her in the first place. He'd give all the power in the world to make it so he never had. She could have been the ephemeral light in his darkness, but he had chosen to put that light out himself. Too late had he realised what the consequences of his actions would be, for both of them.

I'm sorry, my love.

His tears tasted like her lips had in the fleeting moment he had kissed her. He closed his eyes and let more tears run down his face to savour their taste.

Oh gods, what have I done…

He prayed no one else was on the island; he didn't have the strength to control his curse, to pretend he didn't care.

I never wanted this, never this…

He fell to his knees, his head in his hands and he might almost have looked like a penitent man.

I don't want your forgiveness, I warned you… I told you… I loved you… I wanted you by my side… I just wanted my brother back… I… I want this world to burn.

His tears tried on his face and he raised, eyes stone cold and empty. He closed off the sound of his soul screaming inside of him and with one last glance at the tomb he said:

"This will all be over soon. I'll see to it personally. Nothing will remain of this world. Nothing but total annihilation." With his heart and his mind hardened in his resolve he turned his back and left.

He never saw the ghost crying behind him.

[Kissing her with my soul upon my lips

It suddenly took flight.]