One of the Fearlings bit Jack, and he yelped, trying to get it off him, gripping his staff tightly. "Wind!" He frantically called. "Help!"

The Wind seemed reluctant at first, but blew away all the shadows except the one that was clinging to Jack. Its poison seemed to slowly seep into his veins, and he winced at the pain, waving his arm to get it off, and finally touching it with his staff, freezing it. He grabbed the frozen Fearling and broke it off, throwing it to the ground, where it shattered.

"Are you alright, Jack?" Katherine flew over on Kailash, looking him over. Jack nodded, despite the pain travelling up his arm. He looked to the sky, where Sandy and Pitch were fighting, along with MiM currently fighting off North and Bunny, all as fast as lightning, while Tooth and the Guardians' assistants (except for Kailash) took on Pitch's minions.

"Where's the Kishin?" Jack asked, holding up his staff, looking around. Mother Goose took up her dagger as well, and then caught the sound of something firing, and both she and Jack managed to dodge the red beam in the nick of time.

They both looked in that direction, where the Kishin had shot them.

"That's where he is," Mother Goose said with a cold unforgiving tone.

With anger, Jack and Katherine flew up to Asura. He saw them coming and created a barrier, stopping the interfering ice bolts. The winter spirit grunted, and then his blue eyes widened as Vajra popped out of its meister's mouth, ready to fire another blow.

They narrowly dodged the red shooting at them, and emerged from the smoke ready to face him – but the Kishin was gone. "Where'd he go this time?" Jack asked himself, and then felt something wrap around his ankle. He barely had time to react before he was tossed around like a rag doll, and then lowered to the Kishin's face, his pale skin battered and bruised.

"Your soul…" Asura said as he examined Jack, "…is very powerful…" He lifted a hand to grab Jack, and Jack struggled against the scarves holding him in place, trying to break free, to do something—

An explosion of blue and ice sparked out from the winter spirit while he screamed, and then he shot it at Asura, not noticing that black became part of the explosion. It hit its mark dead-on, the impact throwing Asura to the ground.

Soon enough, Jack was hurtling towards the earth, tired from the blow, the pain coming back up from his arm, and his mouth hung wide open in pain.

"JACK!" he heard a female voice yell – Tooth or Katherine? – and then someone caught him with strong yet soft arms, covered in downy feathers – most definitely Tooth. The Tooth Fairy then proceeded to gently lower him to the ground.

"Are you alright?" she asked, and then Jack winced. Dear Moon, that hurt. He gasped, unable to move.

Meanwhile, the Kishin's laugh resounded throughout the forest while he pushed himself back up with the widest grin on his face. "It will take much more than that to stop me, foolish Guardians!"

Pitch momentarily looked down at the black ice from the explosion that had fallen near his feet. He had seen that same kind of ice before, that day in Antartica—

"What goes together better than cold and dark?"

He smirked.

Hail was beginning to fall on the forest, hitting everything and everyone without mercy. The hailstones grew larger and larger and ripped branches off of trees. The Guardians looked down at Jack, who was writhing on the ground, his eyes now wide open and his hands were jittering. His staff clattered to the ground, losing its bright blue glow.

"Jack!" North yelled. "What is happening?"

"Frost, snap out of it!" Bunny shook him, but the winter spirit could not answer, for his vocal cords were frozen. Something was reacting inside of him, and he was trying to fight it, but it was strong and persistent and did not subside.

Pitch, having already knocked the distracted Sandman to the ground, and then raised his hand. Without warning, the pain in Jack's arm seared all the way to his neck and breastbone, and he whimpered, unable to scream.

Sanderson watched his friend suffer, and then he pushed himself off the ground, forcing himself to get on his feet. He had to stop Pitch and save Jack!

"Pitch," the dreamweaver glowered in his thoughts, "you will fucking* pay!"

He looked to his left, and saw Nightlight's fallen staff, with the moonbeam alerting him to attack. Sandy nodded, and picked up the spear before breaking the string that attached the dagger to the former tree branch, taking the diamond dagger and flying up to the Nightmare King.

(* - Had to cuss. Sandy's just so mad right now.)