Greetings All! Here I am with another chapter XD

I hope you guys are enjoying it so far.

A giant thank you so everyone who has reviewed, seriously, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much. They give me the drive I need to keep writing.

Also thank you to anyone who is reading this story, I hope not to disapoint.

Cookies and hugs to my amazing beta Marie Allen for speed reading this chapter for me, you are sooo wonderful!

And now, please enjoy!

Chapter 4

Gajeel stared at the engraved lintel of the mausoleum, taking a swig of the whiskey as it burned its way down his throat.

TITUS SITA

DIS MANIBUS HIC SITUS EST*

He read the words over and over again wondering what the script beneath the name actually meant, all the while knowing that Levy would know.

This thought alone caused him to bring the mouth of the bottle back up to his lips and down nearly half the contents in one gulp.

Sitting upon a tombstone that faced the small rectangular building, he was gathering up the courage he needed to face the woman whose mere presence in his life had so unexpectedly changed his own for the better and hers for the worse.

Inwardly chastising himself, he knew that Levy would never think of it this way. He could even imagine that if he was responsible for her death, if an enemy had enacted revenge upon him by killing her, that she wouldn't blame him.

Even if he had held her in his arms as she lay dying, she would no doubt assure him that it wasn't his fault, or tell him something like, 'I'm glad I got to know you,' as she gave him that sunshine smile; the one he knew was only for him.

Biting back a sob, he clenched his teeth together.

Only, when Levy had lain on the floor dying, he hadn't been with her. Instead, he had been thousands of miles away, catching a thief of all things. She had died all alone, and he found that even if she would have been able to forgive him, if she had, in her final moments, thought of him or forgave him for not being there, he could never forgive himself.

Where Levy was concerned, no matter how much forgiveness she gave, he could never accept any of it.

And now, here he sat, like a coward, unable to face his tiny Bookworm, even though she could not reproach him or absolve him of his sins.

Finishing off the bottle of whiskey, he noticed that the sun was just setting in the sky, painting the heavens with brilliant shades of orange, gold, and blue and he cursed whoever was in charge of the damn color-scheme, because it felt as if someone was taunting him.

Staring back at the words engraved upon the stone over the entrance of the mausoleum he growled under his breath, "Go away," not even turning to acknowledge the Exceed who stood behind him.

Frowning to himself, he wondered how drunk he was that he hadn't heard Lily in his battle form until just a moment ago.

The Exceed remained silent, walking over to lean against an adjacent tombstone, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked over at the crypt for a moment before his furious gaze swung back to Gajeel.

"So this is it then?" Lily questioned. "You're just going to give up and find someplace to curl up and die?"

"Fuck off!" Gajeel barked as he reached down and picked up the second bottle of whiskey from the ground, completely ignoring the presence of the Exceed and hoping that Lily would just give up and leave him the hell alone.

"And what do you think Levy would say to you if she saw you like this?" Lily wondered, his voice harsh, but measured even as it quavered with a hint of sorrow.

Giving a snarl, he gripped the bottle of whisky tightly in his hand before throwing it as hard as he could as he rounded on his partner, the sound of glass shattering upon stone as he bit out through bared teeth, "Don't you dare throw Levy's name around-"

"Why not?!" Lily interrupted, standing at his full height as he glared down at him. "She was my friend too! I lost her too!" he refuted, clenching his teeth together with anger laced sorrow.

A moment of silence hung in the air between them before Lily's shoulders slumped and he closed his eyes. "You aren't a dragon, Gajeel. You don't have to-"

"She was my MATE!" Gajeel bellowed, his voice cracking with despair.

"No she wasn't!" Lily argued back. "You never even told her how you felt about her!" Lily accused his voice as sharp as the finest blade.

Gajeel flinched, the Exceed's words acting upon him like a physical blow. His inner dragon curled in on itself in as if it could somehow block out Lily's truthful words.

Gritting his teeth and baring his fangs the Iron Dragon Slayer roared, "Because I couldn't!"

"Why not?!" Lily asked angrily. "If Levy was so important to you, why did you not act? Would you have been content with letting her move on, finding someone else and leaving your side?"

"She deserved better than me!" Gajeel shot back, ignoring the sudden jealousy that reared up within him at the thought of Levy with someone else, his inner dragon unfurling itself and hissing in anger at the thought of someone else having what was his.

"Whoever you were in the past, it doesn't matter. The man I know now is a good man," Lily offered his voice gentling.

"I was a selfish bastard who only looked out for number one," he refuted. "I would attack my own guild mates if they got in the way, pissed me off, or just looked at me funny. I didn't give two-shits about anyone in my guild because they were just a means to an end. I followed Jose's orders to go to war on Fairy Tail because I wanted to watch the Fairies and their weak pitiful guild fall. I wanted to hear them scream and beg for mercy and I made them scream. That's the kind of guy I was."

"Was," Lily enunciated, clearly not impressed with his list of past sins.

"Doesn't matter," he said dismissively. "I did things I can't take back. I was called Black Steel Gajeel for a reason. I was brutal, vindictive, and without mercy. I had a heart as black as pitch and as impenetrable as iron. People were terrified of me and I liked it that way. I was a sadistic son-of-a-bitch who got his kicks outta beatin' down anyone weaker 'n me. I kicked the crap outta Bunny-girl just because I was bored."

"You changed and you became one of the fiercest fighters for this guild," Lily shot back.

Gajeel narrowed his eyes angrily. It didn't matter how much good he did to make up for his cruel past actions, there was one sin he was so ashamed of that he had been unable to reveal it to his best friend and partner, but one which he finally felt he was able to recite because without hearing the evidence with his own ears, Lily would never understand. "I destroyed the Fairy Tail Guild just to get a reaction out of the Fairies, and when that didn't work, I was pissed off, but Jose gave me another chance to really stick it to them," Gajeel began, his voice bitter and filled with self-loathing. "I decided to find Fairy Tail's weakest team and destroy them and when I was done, make a public spectacle of the entire thing."

Lily's eyes widened in understanding. "Shadow Gear," he whispered in horror.

"And if you think I went easy on 'em, you're wrong. I beat the shit out of Levy and made Jet and Droy watch. I taunted them with each blow I landed on her tiny body, and proved to them how pathetic they were. And then when I was all done, I picked up Levy's battered and broken body and pinned her and her team mates to a fucking tree, right in the middle of the square and painted Phantom's symbol onto her belly with her own blood. And if all of that wasn't sick and twisted enough, I enjoyed every fucking moment of it!" he confessed in regretful abhorrence to the creature he had been.

Lily remained in shocked silence as he apparently attempted to digest Gajeel's words.

Feeling the fight and anger drain from him, only loathing remaining, he sat back down on the tombstone he had been using earlier as a perch to study the decrepit mausoleum in front of him.

Staring down at his hands, which were sitting in his lap, he was unable to look Lily in the eyes, unwilling to see the hatred and disgust he knew would be there.

"I was such an arrogant ass." Gajeel laughed bitterly. "Walkin' into Fairy Tail, I was just gonna use it to get work. That's it. I didn't want to make friends. I didn't plan to give two shits about anyone; if they all hated me, all the better for me. But then I saw Levy and what I did to her, and I felt… ashamed. I had broken the tiny Fairy girl. I was like a kid that had pulled the wings off a dragonfly just to see what would happen. I never had to face anyone who I hurt after. They were just collateral damage. A toy to play with and break before a new one came along. But she was different. I had to face her and I felt sick looking at her as she trembled at the sight of me." He shook his head. "I decided then that I had to fix her, build her up, do somethin' to make her not scared shitless of me. That's all I wanted. I wasn't lookin' for anything else, not even to be forgiven. I wasn't makin' amends to anyone else; just her. I still didn't want any friends and that guild sure as hell wasn't gonna be my family."

He dragged his hand through his spiky hair. "But for some reason, even knowing the monster I was, after everything I had done to her friends, her guild, everyone she loved," he spoke softy, his words a faint whisper almost indiscernible from the light wind that ruffled his hair and brushed against his flesh, "she forgave me." Swallowing roughly, he said with exasperation, "She not only forgave me, she defended me; to her team, to all of Fairy Tail, and I think that's the moment when she stole the cold, black lump of Iron that tried to pass as my heart and filled the damn thing with bright light and happiness and hope, and I…I couldn't even tell her how I… I never even said I was sorry!" he ground out in anguish as fresh tears tumbled down his cheeks.

Finally, he allowed himself to meet the Exceed's gaze and found no hatred or judgment in his ochre eyes, only pained sorrow, and understanding; and this nearly broke him.

"I may not be a dragon, Lil," he explained miserably, "but I'm a Slayer, and we ain't completely human. And Levy… I may not have claimed her, but I chose her and…" his voice hitched as grief stole the breath from his lungs, his heart contracting with agony within his chest. "Levy was my heart. Without her, I can't…" his words trailed off desolately as he tried to make his friend understand that there was no going back for him; not now.

He couldn't be saved and he couldn't move on. His heart was gone, entombed a few yards away within a casket; lying cold and forever still.

Lily seemed momentarily bereft of speech, as if he finally understood, or at least had a small inkling of what Gajeel was trying to get across.

Closing his eyes, Gajeel took a deep breath, his nostrils filling with the scent of dirt, grass and stone.

"I won't leave you," Lily affirmed, his words causing the Iron Dragon Slayer to open his eyes and look over at his cat, who crossed his arms over his chest in stubborn determination.

"You can't go where I'm goin' Lil, I don't want you to," he imparted grimly his expression turning serious. Standing, he walked over to the Exceed. Holding out his hand, he said, "You've the best friend…probably almost the only friend I've ever had besides that crazy water-woman, and the best cat a Slayer could ask for."

Lily looked at his hand as if it was a viper and Gajeel let out a snort, letting his hand drop. "Look after the guild for me, okay?"

"Look after the guild yourself," Lily growled.

Gajeel studied his partner for a moment. "You know why I've been staring at that damn mouldering ruin for so damn long?" he asked bitterly, soft sorrow filling his words.

He didn't think Lily would answer his question, but was surprised when the Exceed said, "Because knowing you, you feel guilty," he ground out with bared teeth, the fur around his neck and shoulders standing on end. "You've probably already blamed her death on either you not being here, or on someone from your past."

Giving Lily a bleak look, he replied, "That ain't the reason, but you're right about me blamin' myself for her death."

Mouth opening to refute his statement, the Iron Dragon Slayer snarled, "Don't."

Lily's mouth slammed shut.

"Doesn't matter if it is or isn't," Gajeel said with a shake of his head. Looking back over to the small stone structure, he told the Exceed the truth. "I've been gathering up enough courage to get my ass through that door, cause I don't…I don't want to accept her lying in there. And I'm scared that if I go in there, I ain't walkin' out again. I'll just curl up right there and die, her tomb becomin' mine. And it's so fucking tempting." He clenched his fists together, trying to pull the remnants of his anger around him like a cloak so that he would be able to fight back the soul crushing misery that was assailing him and only partially succeeded. "But since I don't have a chance in hell of findin' someone the entire Fairy Tail Guild couldn't, I wanna make sure her death mean something. Before I die, I wanna do some good, and I can't do that if I'm dead."

The fur around Lily's shoulders flattened and he relaxed at the Dragon Slayer's words as if believing that his words meant that the Exceed was going to have time to convince him that he could survive Levy's death.

"Go home, Lil," he said picking his bag up from the ground. "This is something I gotta do alone," he told his partner gruffly, knowing that this was goodbye. If he managed to make it out of the mausoleum, the darkness was going to claim him either way.

Hefting his bag onto his shoulder, he didn't look over at Lily to see if he was going to listen to him and instead walked resolutely towards the rusted steel entrance in front of him.

Stopping before the double doors, he clutched the strap of his bag tightly, the thick cloth digging into his hand as he reached out and grabbed the wrought iron handle and pulled the door open.

The door was heavy and did not move easily, the hinges having been wrenched open recently, but still not moving with ease. Finally pulling the reluctant door open, he looked into the dark interior.

Bracing himself, he took a step over the threshold, his footstep echoing hauntingly upon hard stone.

Forcing himself to step the rest of the way inside, he pulled the door shut after himself, bathing him in complete darkness.

The smell of dust, dirt, stone, steel, iron, desiccated flesh, mouldering clothing and exposed bones assaulted his sensitive nose.

Blocking the disturbing scents from his mind, his eyes adjusted as he scanned what he could make out of the small space. Putting his bag on the floor, he pulled out a hunk of flint. Reaching over, he pulled a torch from the wall, lighting it easily.

Placing the torch back in its holder, the flickering flame casted a faint orange glow upon the room, deepening the shadows and giving the space a macabre feel.

Forcing himself to look upon the dais in the center of the room, he saw a wooden coffin resting upon the raised stone platform.

Heart seizing in his chest at the sight before him, he took a step backwards. His back pressed up against the steel door behind him as the air was brutally squeezed from his lungs.

A lump formed in his throat, tears filling his eyes as he confronted the absolute proof of Levy's death.

Not that he hadn't already accepted that she had been killed nearly a month ago and put to rest by their guild, but seeing the tiny, dark wooden coffin laid out before him, the stems and petals of flowers long since dead and scattered upon the ground, offered a tangible, visceral reality to what felt like a horrible nightmare.

He had missed her death, her funeral and the only reason he was staring at her casket interred within this crumbling crypt right now was because Salamander had made sure he hadn't come back to nothing but a headstone.

I probably didn't make much much sense, but talking to the coffin was better than talking to a hunk of stone.

Swallowing down the lump in his throat, he dashed away the tears he felt trembling on his lashes. Levy deserved a hell of a lot better than the fucking spinelessness he was displaying right now.

Gritting his teeth, he strode forward, determined to face her one last time and tell her everything he should have told her but hadn't because he had been too much of a coward to accept what she had been willing to offer.

The original stone sarcophagus had been pushed off the dais to make room for Levy's wooden one, and Gajeel availed himself of the seat.

Perching himself upon the stone, he gave the lid a pat and gave thanks to the man who had long since been forgotten.

Staring back at Levy's casket, he could only marvel at how small it seemed, almost as if it had been created for a child. But Levy was no child. She was a woman that was full of so much warm, bright happiness, and joy, that it felt as if the very sun itself had been extinguished.

Eyes flicking around the room, he wished that he hadn't thrown away the second bottle of whiskey, because he felt as if he wasn't drunk enough for this conversation and he needed another drink.

Though he supposed it was better this way. He didn't think Levy would appreciate him getting shit-faced as he blubbered all over her corpse, slurring drunkenly all of the words he had ever wanted to say to her.

Dragging his hands down his face, he took a deep, steadying breath and admitted to himself that he couldn't fucking do this!

It was… No apology would make up for ANYTHING. There were no words he could express, no comfort he could give to the woman he loved and had lost, but damn it, he had to try.

"I…I never told you how sorry I was for what I did to you," he began, his words feeling like razors upon his tongue. "You never asked for an apology, but you damn well should have," he snarled. "Don't know if I woulda given you one, but at least it wouldn't have felt like we just swept all the shit I did to you under a rug, ignoring the hell outta it and wishing it had never happened. But it did, and I shoulda fuckin' manned up and said I was sorry," he bit out angrily. "Because now-" He bit off the rest of his words, staring furiously at her coffin, the faint echo of his voice sounding around him before only silence filled the room.

Standing, he shouted, "Now I can't ever apologize because you-" he choked on his words. "Because you… Why'd you… Why the fuck did you have to go and DIE on me!" he bellowed furiously. "You…you… If anyone deserved to be killed, it was me. The shit I pulled, all the bad I've done. No amount of saving the world and the guild will make up for the lives I destroyed or the people I hurt. So it should have fuckin' been ME! It should be me in that box, not YOU! And you…" he gritted his teeth together as his words caught in his throat and he clenched his fists together, the feel of the flower from Levy's headband being crushed into his palm causing tears to roll unheeded down his cold cheeks and onto the top of the coffin, where they trembled for a moment before rolling off the curved surface.

"You were too good for me, Shrimp," he breathed out as he slumped back down on the cold, hard stone surface of the sarcophagus. "A monster like me shouldn't 've even deserved to be close to you, let alone become friends with ya. And no matter how many times I tried to keep my distance while helpin' ya, I couldn't. You shoulda chosen one of your lapdogs, they're good men, and they worshipped you. So why the HELL did you decide you wanted me?" he asked her softly. "Just 'cause I saved you from Laxus? That didn't even make up for what I did to you. Even saving you from that Grimoire Heart bastard Yomazu, that still didn't even my debt with you.

"The old man may have given me membership in Fairy Tail, but it was you who saved me. You gave me something to fight for, showed me that Fairy Tail could be my family, so why did you havta… I didn't deserve your heart. I shoulda told you that me and you were never gonna happen and to take your light and love and give it to someone else. But I…I was too weak and selfish. I knew I couldn't have you, but I wanted you anyway. I didn't let you go, keeping you close, giving you hope that maybe I felt the same way you did, and I… Fuck it!" he snarled angrily as he leapt up from the sarcophagus. Staring down at Levy's casket, his eyes narrowed in fury.

"I shoulda just told you how I felt, claimed you as my mate like I wanted to and then I could've protected you because I would have been beside you and you wouldn't…you wouldn't be lying in this fuckin' tomb!" he roared as he resisted the urge to start destroying everything. "And I wouldn't be standing here acting like you can hear me, when I know you can't because you-" He let out a bellow of rage, the building around him shaking as his power thrashed around him.

Finally willing himself to calm down, he continued to scowl down at the wooden coffin. Letting out a huff of breath, he reached out and brushed off the remains of the dried flowers that had been lovingly deposited upon the surface by members of their guild.

"I'm so sorry," he offered wretchedly, "for everything." Closing his eyes, he dropped his head in shame as more tears flowed down his cheeks. "I'm sorry for not bein' there to protect you. I'm sorry that you had to die all alone." His heart twisted brutally in his chest at these words, the image of his Bookworm thrashing madly upon the floor as the deadly poison took its toll upon her tiny frame before her body went heart-wrenchingly still, the wild terror falling from her face as the life drained completely from her beautiful hazel eyes.

"I don't know who did this to you, Shrimp," he growled miserably. "I tried, so did the rest of the guild. I wanted to be able to promise you that I was gonna find whoever did this to you and put them in the ground, but I can't. Best I'm gonna be able to do is maybe make the guild a little safer by taking out Raven Tail. You probably wouldn't want me too. Hell, you probably wouldn't want me getting revenge on whoever did this to you, but I ain't you. And since I never really respected your wishes before, I ain't gonna start now, 'cause if you didn't notice, I'm kinda an ass. But you already knew that." He gave a smirk as he brushed more of the petals from the lid before the grin dropped from his face and he became deadly serious. "I hope to see you soon, Bookworm. So you damn well better be waitin' for me," he said, his voice quavering with emotion.

Watching the dried, dark-red petals crumble under his fingers, he murmured, "I brought you something; couldn't stand to think of you without a book. No one probably thought to bring you one. Flowers were nice and all, but… I shoulda asked you what your favourite book was. Hell, shoulda asked you a lot of things, but I didn't," he said regretfully, his voice hitching in grief as he tried to keep his tone light.

"I grabbed you the one you were reading-" his words caught in his throat. He had taken the book she had been reading before someone had murdered her.

Bracing himself as another wave of bitter, angry sorrow broke over him, he found the strength to walk to his bag, open it, and pull out the book.

Striding back to the dais, he sat back down on the stone sarcophagus. His fingers brushed over the worn leather cover, tracing the runes of a language he did not even recognize.

Trying to figure out what kind of book it was, he studied the picture, a woman nestled within the confines of…a glass case? He frowned as he looked at the unfamiliar clothing and the man standing beside the sleeping woman. The scenario looked familiar, but he couldn't quite seem to place it.

Flipping randomly past a few pages, he confirmed what he had already suspected. Whatever his Bookworm had been reading, he couldn't read it, but he had no doubt that she could. She was the smartest, strongest, most beautiful person he had ever known, and the world was poorer for her life having been so cruelly extinguished.

Closing the book with a snap, he clutched it in his hands for a moment before carefully placing it atop the casket.

Standing, he walked away, not having anything left to say, and needing to escape the oppressive confines of the space before he wasn't able to leave.

Reaching out, he pushed the steel door open, just a bit, closing his eyes as he steadied himself, gathering up his courage to say goodbye one final time.

The wind battered the door against his hand, the torch flickering as he heard the distinctive sound of pages fluttering before the hard thump of the book hitting the floor caused his eyes to snap open and look over his shoulder at the book lying on the ground.

Shutting the door against the wind, he turned around and strode back to the dais. Snatching the book up from the floor, he clutched it tightly in his hand.

Closing his eyes he realized that the book wouldn't her any good lying upon the casket. He had brought her the book to keep with her in death, but if the damn thing wasn't going to be laid to rest with her, then what was the point?

Opening his eyes, he stared at the coffin. He knew he didn't want to open it and see her in there. The thought alone was too painful for his already torn and shattered heart to bear.

He wanted to remember her as she had been, alive and vivacious with a bright, warm, sunshine smile upon her face, not cold and still, her body rotting away within the confines of the wooden casket.

It had been a month. A fucking month since she had been laid to rest within the walls of the borrowed mausoleum and he…

But what better punishment for his abandonment of her that have to look at her corpse? Talking to the casket had been heart-wrenching, but he hadn't had to bear witness to her internment, and he should have.

Placing his hand upon the lid of the coffin, he took a steadying breath and opened it, stumbling back in shock as he lifted the lid; tripping over the sarcophagus and falling to the floor, the book flying from his hand to land unheeded upon the ground.

Heart beating a thousand miles a minute, he sat there stunned, but only for a moment. Scrambling to his feet, he was convinced that his mind was playing tricks on him, but he needed to make sure that it wasn't.

Blood thundering through his ears, he peered down into the white satin-lined casket and confirmed that what he had seen was indeed true.

Levy lay within her coffin wearing her favourite yellow dress with the large white bow and straps, her arms encased in the white detached sleeves. Her hair was loose, not pulled back by a headband, her face serene and unmarred, as if in sleep.

After a month, Gajeel knew that she should not look as if death had not touched her. Her skin was still porcelain fine, cheeks touched with a bloom of colour, her hair vivaciously blue, cascading around her face in soft waves and her scent of ink, leather and parchment was strong and untainted by decay.

Breath catching in his throat, his heart pounded fiercely in his chest as a wave of icy panic crawled across his skin.

He remembered Salamander had said that Bunny-Girl's heart was so slow and faint that it was hard to hear, and Gajeel wondered in sickening terror, if Levy's heart had been the same, and in Natsu's panicked state, had missed the Bookworm's tiny heartbeat.

Horror slid through him at the thought of Levy having been entombed alive. Reaching into her casket, he dragged her body up.

In the back of his mind he knew that even if Levy had been alive when she had been placed in the coffin, after a month within its confines with little to no air, food, water or care, that she would not have remained alive for long, but this rational conclusion did not stop his heart from leaping in his chest, and a flare of hope to burst through him.

Pulling her up so that he could rest his ear against her chest, he inwardly berated his own frantically beating heart and tried to drown out the sound of the blood rushing through his ears.

Holding his breath he concentrated, willing his ears to pick up the tiniest, faintest sound from Levy's body, but after a few minutes of hoping and praying, he had no choice but to accept that her heart remained heartbreakingly still and silent within her chest.

He didn't know why Levy's body hadn't begun to decompose -why it seemed as if she was only sleeping. He could detect no magic, no spell that was either preserving her corpse or keeping her in a state of suspended animation, but he knew that the reason she appeared this way didn't matter.

She was dead.

Lifting his head from her tiny frame, he felt the thin, fragile thread of sanity that he had been clinging to snap and he broke.

Holding her limp body to his chest, his legs gave way beneath him. Tumbling from the dais, he hit the floor hard, his backwards motion halted when his back slammed up against the cold stone of the sarcophagus.

Throat completely closed off, he was unable to release a roar of grief, only able to whimper in wretched agony as he dragged her close to his heart, knowing that he wasn't leaving the tomb.

The grand plans he had for going out in a blaze of destructive glory and helping their guild died a swift death as he was utterly and completely consumed by his loss.

Tears streaming down his cheeks, he buried his face in her hair and sobbed brokenly. He couldn't take the pain anymore.

It had been horrible, talking to the casket, seeing the small wooden box that held her remains lying within the crypt, but to physically see her lifeless body with his own eyes, it was too much.

His only comfort was that her tomb would become his, and their bodies would be forever entwined in death, inseparable, unlike in life.

"I'm sorry," he whispered again, his apology to her while she was hidden within her coffin, suddenly not enough to express his heartfelt remorse for everything.

Closing his eyes, he wrapped himself around his lost love's body.

Now that he had decided to curl up and die, much as he had believed Salamander would do, he could actually feel his heart beginning to slow and each breath he took become shallower and shallower.

His strength was rapidly leaving him and his mind felt fuzzy. Opening his eyes, he could see the flickering orange light of the torch still illuminating the chamber in soft ochre hues.

Limbs growing heavy, he realized that before death took him, he had something very important to say, and he wished for the last image he saw to be of her.

Gathering his remaining strength, he shifted so that he could look down at the woman in his arms. "I love you, Levy," he whispered, his last breaths ruffling her hair slightly as he kissed her gently on the forehead, his eyes slipping shut against his will as the last vestiges of his strength left him and he felt so very light, darkness surrounding him in its cold embrace.

* DIS MANIBUS HIC SITUS EST is Latin for: To the Underworld Gods here he lies (This script was almost always found upon Roman tombstones)

Eeep! Gajeel! Levy! Ahhhh!

So my Beta pointed out that this last scene was very Romeo and Juliette, which I totally didn't think of when I wrote But I agree it is.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I know evil cliffhanger...again! But that's kinda how I roll. Anyway, we aren't done yet, so just hang in there for a few chapters more.

Also I apologize to FairyQueen99 for crushing your soul and knowing that this chapter probably just crushed it more... :( *offers up a kleenex*