'One of you will take the Curse of Contradictions.'

Zeref, Lucy, and Natsu were shouting, but it was all meaningless noise to Aki. She shrank back into a corner of her cell as Mard Geer turned to smile at her.

'So, which one is it?'

She nodded.

"You'll curse me," she breathed again, unable to draw in enough air to speak any louder. Her teeth chattered painfully as he stepped up to her cell, and she knew that, whatever he tried, Zeref couldn't save her this time. She had made Mard Geer, and, if she willed it, he would obey her before anyone else.

Zeref didn't know this; she hadn't known, either. She had written Mard Geer's book, yes, but that had been before Mavis had separated Them. Neither had suspected that who's hands had created the Books would effect more than the ability to destroy them.

No, it was only when Mard Geer had appeared those few minutes ago – those few, enviable minutes – leering at her through cold iron bars, that the concrete, unquestionable fact that this Etherious was hers first – that he answered to her – had thrummed through her magic-barren core, vibrating certainly within her.

"Of course, Aki-sama."

Those three simple words nearly broke her resolution, the confirmation that she would be-

She whimpered slightly, unable to help herself, pressing herself against the wall behind her.

"Please don't use your magic, or I'll kill these," he said, waving his arm in an arc.

She didn't follow the gesture, instead staring up into his eyes – black eyes that hid the light of a demon just beneath its hardened surface – cruel eyes that had been given life by her own blood-stained hands – dull eyes that she had crafted, trying without success to write them like Zeref's, paradoxically bright and dull, hoping that the last thing she might see would be something of her family.

Her family.

That's why she had to do this – why she would do it, no matter what.

Noise buzzed pointlessly through the back of her mind, shouts and wails that didn't matter from people that mattered more than anything. From her brothers – no, not just brothers, her guildmates, her friends – friends! Friends of her! Friends from a family that had welcomed her, scars and sins and all – an adoptive family that had accepted her into their warm, warm care.

Against all the possibilities she had conceived of over four centuries of morbid immortality, despite the idea having been so ludicrous, then, that it had never even passed through her demented mind, they cared for her.

They cared for her.

Shadows crept into the corners of her vision, eating away the peripherals, obscuring all but her monstrous creation from view, blinding her from any loved, loving face that might give her pause.

And she nodded.

How she yearned she could make it a mindless goal. As he unlocked the cell, the door screeching open against solid stone, she longed to find some goal, any goal, to make, to throw herself thoughtlessly into, something to forget the now. But, as she recoiled from his touch, flinching away from the inevitable, she couldn't stop thinking.

Of course, it had always been that way with the curse, hadn't it?

She jerked as he grabbed her left bicep roughly, lifting her easily and dragging her out, throwing her to the floor in front of the other cells.

She didn't get up.

She couldn't.

"I am glad to fulfill your wish, Aki-sama."

She heard him through the smog that had filled her head, through the ringing in her ears, through the painful, writhing certainty in her gut that she wanted to get away – that she needed to stay.

Mard Geer, bloody vines trailing from his hands, stepped in front of her vision, leaning against the wall and watching her, no doubt preparing whatever unholy ritual he had found to-

She coughed as her stomach twisted anxiously, struggling to breathe, struggling to not use her magic. She saw the vines writhing in front of her brothers' and Lucy's cells, reminding her why she wasn't fighting, why she was letting her creation-

She heaved, the knot in her stomach getting tighter and tighter. When she coughed again, blood splattered the ground, joining a puddle near her stomach…

Oh.

As soon as she became aware of it, she felt it in full force. The hole in her abdomen finally letting her know through excruciating pain that something was wrong. She convulsed at the agony of it, washing the stone with blood.

She knew she was going to miss this pain.

She forced an eye open, searching blearily for her brothers: Natsu was screaming, banging his head against unyielding iron bars; Zeref's eyes were wide, lost, watching in horror from where he seemed to have collapsed. As he met her gaze, as he saw the look in her eyes, he began yelling, too, scrambling to his feet and pulling on the bars, pushing on them with his legs, lifting himself from the ground.

God, she loved them. She loved them all.

She wished she could apologize to them both. Wished she wasn't about to wound them. Wished that they might find happiness, anyhow – if any place could heal them, it was Fairy Tail. Unable to stay with them herself, she would entrust her brothers to the guild, to her guildmates, to Mavis, and to Lucy.

She shifted her gaze to the celestial mage: She was clutching the iron bars imprisoning her, face wet with tears as she wailed. This made Aki smile, weakly, tremulously, in honest joy. Lucy really did care for her – not that she had doubted it. She knew how kindhearted the celestial spirit mage was, how open and welcoming she was, truly the embodiment of her guild.

Well, it seemed like there were many embodiments of the guild within it.

Seeing it, however, was nice somehow. Seeing Lucy crying for her – her – wellbeing, for her safety, it hit different, and made the cold, cold hole in her stomach warm slightly.

She really had been friends with Lucy. No, not just friends…

…family…

She needed to say it, to say goodbye and thank you and I love you to her; she had to; she wished she could. She met the celestial mage's eyes, and she thought understanding flashed through them.

Aki then wondered what Gray thought of her. Did he still hate her – righteously – over Deliora? Had he forgiven her a little over the last couple months? Had he moved on enough to gain some closure? Would her going away give him that closure? She hoped so.

But, whatever it was, she wasn't going to see it. She wasn't even going to see him now, as he was behind her, and her limbs felt like – well, they didn't feel.

So her gaze returned to her brothers, to the last thing she would see while still human, the last thing she wanted to see before she was, again, a monster.

Her shallow breathing hitched, eyes widening minusculey. She had to warn them, to tell them to get away, that she wouldn't be safe – wouldn't be sane. Zeref should know, but what if something happened? She had to tell them, but she couldn't-

Blood gurgled from her mouth, trailing down her wet cheek to the scarlet-stained floor as she tried to say something – anything. She had to tell them, but-

The already fuzzy world was growing hazier, her brothers' anguished faces blurring into skin-colored circles. She had to tell them-

Her body jerked feebly, reflexively, as the time it would end loomed nearer. She had to-

She twitched.

There was a way to say something to them, to deliver a message both to her blood and adoptive family.

Even as she strained to think, to follow the thread of thought as her brain shut down, her heart fluttered. Her adoptive family. Her adoptive home, Fairy Tail. The home she shared with her blood brothers and guildmates. She had a family again.

And she was about to leave it.

She flexed her magic slightly, imperceptibly, hoping against all hope that Gray was where she thought he was.

It left her body from her back, seeping into her thin top, turning a faint white, if she was managing it right. She willed it to form words, and, despite her moribund consciousness, it seemed to sense the strength of her will – her longing to deliver one last message to her family before she was forced to betray it. Responding in force, it formed letters more clearly than she had ever managed even as the last scraps of her brother's faces faded.

Dont come near me, Ill be dangerous when Im

She couldn't. She couldn't form those words – she couldn't. So she didn't, instead letting the letters dissolve into her next message.

Tell Fairy Tail I love them so much, all of them

Her hearing was gone now, the ocean having filled her ears, sweeping through her canals.

Tell Lucy and Mira and Bicky and, and all of them

The world was dim, so, so dim, and oh so cold.

Tell Natsu and Zeref Im sorry

She knew she was about to pass out, knew it with the certainty that came from a childhood – from a lifetime of weakness.

Tell them I love th

She fought to stay conscious; she needed to say it.

love them and

What was she trying to say?

and want

Hadn't it been important?

want

Her Wish…

be happy