(This chapter is set somewhere before the last two ones, but I felt this needed to be added after those, because this would explain how the Woman in the Sun learned about MiM's condition.

I don't own anything except for WiS.)

Lady Solar, the Woman in the Sun, was the one who had first noticed that the Moon's light was beginning to dim. It had been quiet at first, but it was soon becoming obvious as the Moon's shape was beginning to change as well.

So she flew over as fast as she could three times.

The first time, MiM was calm enough to have her, talk with her, and yet was hiding something beneath his smile; that she knew from the way the other Moon creatures and Moonbots were acting around him.

The second time, he appeared a bit more haggard, moon dust – or was that nightmare sand? – lining his once pristine white coat. His hair had grown longer than the last time, and she noticed he had bags under his eyes, and he seemed to be paranoid. Or was that just her?

He never seemed to lose the sparkle in his blue eyes, though. That was still with him from day one, since the first time they met.

This time was her third. She was worried about what he might look like now, his condition seeming to worsen.

Was the Man in the Moon going insane…?

No, she shook her head. No, that couldn't be it.

Could it?

She landed gently on the surface of the Moon, carefully trying not to burn the surface too much. One time she had visited and scorch marks had lined the wrecked Moon Clipper. Oh, well, at least the humans had been entertained with the images on the white orb in the sky. The most notable pictures they had seen, she heard, was a giant crab, a rabbit, and a face – that she could see too. It had always been there.

A Moonbot passing by saw her, and walked over with stiff movements, more stiff than usual – was it nervous about something? She ignored that feeling of anxiety again. Probably needed more oil in its joints.

"Lady Solar," it immediately recognized her, bowing a bit low. "Tsar Lunar does not wish to see you this day."

WiS tilted her head. "Why? What's wrong?"

"He has not told you, in order to stop you from worrying," it seemed to apologize, "but he has been having nightmares. There is no consoling him, aside from listening to the wishes of the children. Their young voices seem to bring him comfort."

She looked around. The whole atmosphere seemed tense. One of the Lunar Moths, usually fearless creatures, actually cowered from her. Her hands gripped her staff tightly. "If he's having nightmares, then I intend to see him, no matter what he says." She moved past the Moonbot, despite its monotone calls for her to stop; no other thing on the Moon stood in her way, though, afraid of her burning fire.

She walked to MiM's bedroom, not even pausing to take a breath, and knocked on the door. "Tsar?" she asked. "Are you in there?"

No response.

She pushed the door open, surprised to see it open, and saw at once what was wrong.

He was tossing and turning in his sleep, groaning and whimpering. His thin eyebrows were creased, and his lips were in a frown. Beads of sweat lined his forehead as he curled in on himself. She watched with shock, moving towards him quickly and yet not fast enough. She grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

"Tsar! Wake up! It's just a bad dream; wake up!"

MiM's teeth clenched at the burning sensation, and his eyes welled up with tears before opening them, and he was relieved yet shocked to see her.

"…Lady? What are you doing here?"

She let go of him. "Why didn't you tell me you were having nightmares? I could have helped you, had you only told me. We need to talk about this, now."

"You'll do the harming for us."

"It's none of your business, Lady."

"What do you mean it's none of my business? Just because I would worry about you? I'm worrying even more, now that you don't want me to worry! What exactly do you want?"

"For you to stop worrying; I'm fine!"

"No, you're not! You never had a bad dream before, and the issue is making you different from how you were! You're not handling things properly!" She grabbed him and shook him again. "What's wrong with you? Don't you want to fix this whole mess and start over?"

"Yes, sir," a Lunar Mouse interjected, "you still have a bit of dreamsand left—"

"Stay out of this!" He yelled, and WiS let go of him, looking down at MiM.

There was a long silence, long enough for MiM to look around and examine the damage he had done. His blue eyes saw the scared Lunar Moths, the tense Moonbots, and the anxious Lunar Mice. But what was hardest to ignore were the golden eyes drilling into his eyes, Lady Solar's face turning into one of disappointment.

It reminded him of the face Pitch had shown him that night.

"What have you done, Man in the Moon?" the Nightmare King asked in his nightmare. "Because of you, all that you have worked for will be lost. Your Guardians will die. And what of you? You will be your own downfall."

"No," he muttered, shaking his head. looking for a place to hide from their stares, directed at their leader who had failed them. "No, no, no!"

He held his head and rushed out, past all of the Moon creatures and Moonbots, into the dark side of the Moon.

"Wait!" WiS called after him. "Tsar Lunar, wait!"

"Stop it, stop it!" He shouted, still holding his head, trying to get the darkness out of it, flinging his staff at nothing. "Stop it!" He bounded around craters, jumped over mountains, and placed a hand on a dreamsand machine that he didn't remember was there before, trying to calm his mind and catch his breath.

To his horror, though, all of the dreamsand inside the machine turned black the moment he touched it.

He gasped and took many steps back, looking around – looking for what? A threat? A friendly face? He didn't know.

He hit something, and then realized seconds later that it was a someone. MiM immediately froze when scarves wrapped around his hands and feet, and he struggled against them.

"What have you done, indeed, little man?" Demon God Asura whispered into his ear. MiM frowned at him out of the corner of his eye, and his hands clenched into fists, teeth gritting, arms trying to pull away.

"What did you do to me?" Tsar Lunar asked; panting after he realized that fighting his bonds was futile. "What did you make me into?"

"Why, I didn't do anything; you did that all on your own." The Kishin's mouth contorted into a grin, one that was unusually toothy and narrow as MiM's eyes widened. A tear fell, but because of the low gravity, it floated up into space, taking the sparkle in MiM's eye with it.

"Don't look so frightened, little man," Asura said, having another scarf cover MiM's mouth, turning his silence into muffled shouts for help.

"We're only here to help you."

WiS watched as MiM stood alone, yelling at nothing and no one. He looked afraid, angered, and sad. She took a few steps back, and without further hesitation flew back to her Sun.

He's going mad.

She had to relay this message to his Guardians, who had just seen the signal of the aurora borealis and were gathering now.

She flew as fast as her fire could carry her.

(It seems that something is stirring in the shadows! What are Pitch and Asura planning to do with MiM?)