The world around them was silent as the Guardians processed what had just happened. More blood poured out of the Moon's smiling mouth, a smile that clearly reflected the one of its inhabitant.

Asura pulled his hand out of Nightlight with a sickening crunch, and that was when Katherine screamed.

The spectral boy plummeted to the earth, his light flickering, his green eyes wide with fear – but it was not fear of death; it was the fear of failure, and his great desire to live could not overcome it.

Pitch laughed as well, but Asura did not, and that made it all the more unnerving to Nightlight's dying sense of hearing. The Kishin simply flicked his hand back, Nightlight's blood spattering mostly on the ground, yet one drop of red dripped on Katherine's cheek. It rolled down her face like a tear and fell onto her chest.

"Bozhe moy…" North muttered, staring at Nightlight's unmoving body.

Mother Goose ran over to the spectral boy and bent down, holding his hand, screaming his name, but he would not respond. The Guardians were watching this scene silently before the storyteller finally quieted down, closed his eyelids and took away his green eyes for the last time, and shed the final tear.

Kailash moved closer to its friend, sensing her sadness. Mother Goose put a hand on its neck before mounting the Snow Goose, and they took off like a rocket towards Tsar Lunar.

"COME ON AND FACE ME, YOU COWARD!" she yelled.

Hearing her pained scream, he jumped out of the way, but Kailash turned around, and Katherine leapt out, catching MiM's throat and falling – but then Kailash caught them. Without warning, Katherine grabbed his collar and then proceeded to make him her personal punching bag, fury etched on her face and in her very grey eyes.

But was it something more than rage…?

"This is bad," Tooth said as she sliced some Nightmares. "Katherine has become so overwhelmed with her grief that she's open to the madness!"

"It is very obvious, Tooth; you do not need to point it out!" North retorted, fending off the Fearlings with his scimitars. He looked around at their assistants. Yes, they were doing a fine job, but the shadows just kept coming – there was no end to their multiplying. There was something else driving them, not just Pitch's strength.

A red beam shot through the air. It was headed for Sandy, who had his back turned; but Jack was faster, and shoved Sandy out of the way in a matter of miliseconds. The blow to his feet had not been mortally injuring, but it was enough to bring Jack to the ground.

The winter spirit groaned. Everything hurt, especially his legs.

An exclamation point formed over Sandy's head, and then he rushed over to Jack, helping him up. Jack saw the exclamation point turn into a question mark, and then nodded. "Yeah, I'm alright," he said despite the pain.

MiM kicked Katherine in the stomach, releasing her grip on him, and then swung his staff so that he knocked the storyteller overboard. He jumped off Kailash as it took a steep dive to rescue its friend, while he landed in a tree.

Once again, Kailash had caught Katherine with its beak, and then put her on its back. Its passenger stared angrily at the little man standing in the branches of a tree. She hated that smiling face; oh, how she would love to stain it with red, to kill—

Her grey eyes widened as she caught herself. What was she thinking? She wouldn't kill anyone, much less the Man in the Moon, even if he was insane. He was still their leader, he was the one they came for, he was the one whom Nightlight died for. And most of all, he was not the one who killed Nightlight.

He still had a chance.

"Tsar Lunar!" she called. "Please listen to me! What you're doing is wrong. Stop it and come back to your senses! We can still fix this."

What Mother Goose had not seen, though, was the little creature that had mysteriously appeared on MiM's shoulder, whispering into his ear,

"Don't listen to her."

"They're only here to kill you."

"Not one of them trusts you."

"They only want to get rid of you."

'Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!" MiM screamed, jumping towards Katherine and swinging his staff at her, the hit sending her to the ground, where he landed on his feet. "I don't want to hear your lies, or the truth, I don't want to hear your laughter or your tears, and most of all—" here he pointed his staff at Jack, "I'm tired of hearing what you say and not be able to do anything! I don't want to make you feel like I'm being apathetic anymore! I don't want to watch you walk away without hearing what I have to say! I don't want to know that I can't hear you, all the way on the Moon!" *

He sunk to the ground, blue eyes wide, holding his head in his hands. The other Guardians watched him, Jack most of all. They had no idea how much the MiM was jaded, not even the tiniest notion of it – but then again, which of the people of the Earth would know about what the Man in the Moon really felt?

MiM sniffled, and then his lips were set into a thin line.

"That's why I have to kill you all."

He took up his staff, stood up, and looked to the sky.

And then he laughed.

Suddenly, the moon-staff hooked itself around Jack's waist, and he was flung across the lair, into a wall. The impact had been so massive that a crater had formed where Jack had hit the concrete, and he gasped in pain, falling over.

"Jack!" Tooth yelled, and tried to fly over, but then Nightmares attacked her, and she was unable to get to him.

Jack Frost winced as he tried to get up, but then a Fearling popped up in front of him, and snapped its jaws at him. He grunted and shot ice bolts at it, but then he learned that he was surrounded by Fearlings, and that his body was still injured.

"Crap," he cursed as he backed up against the wall, trying to keep them away with his frost, only to have more approach. His blue eyes scanned around him, and all he could see were them, trying to devour him. Wanting his soul.

Jack kept them away as best as he could, but he knew he was trapped.

^ - "My God" in Russian, according to Google Translate. Yes, I'm useless.

* - Sound can't reach the Moon from the Earth. It only stops at the Earth's atmosphere – that is, if you don't have a fancy device to talk to MiM with or something. Doesn't explain how Sandy was able to talk to MiM in his picture book, though. Maybe it's because of the moonbeams relaying messages to and for Manny in the most synchronized way possible. He takes a lot of time with his responses, apparently. And also because the Moon was much closer to Earth by that time. However, the Moon moves further away from the Earth by 4 cm every year, so it must be harder and harder to communicate with Earth, even with the moonbeam system. It probably caused the lack of communication with Jack; and as much as I love Jack and would like to defend him in every way possible if Manny really was just ignoring him, let's all remember that Jack is not very patient when it comes to the Moon answering him, even for 300 years. How long did he stay on Jamie's roof when he was talking to MiM in the movie before flying off? Ten, fifteen seconds after each question?

Enough with the science explanation. (And don't even get me started on WiS; we only have so much time for rants.)