Fragile Moon

Chapter 2: May the Spirits Be Free

Author: Welcome to the second chapter owo! Hope you all are enjoying this, I am x3

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Rise of the Guardians or Guardians of Childhood. The only thing I do own is this story and the Ocs that come with it.

Special Note: The place Death is introduced may perhaps be familiar to those who read this. I will say this right now that I do not mean to be offensive at all and that I do not wish to insult any of the victims or families of the victims. In fact I put it in as a remembrance of the event since its first year anniversary is coming up in a few months. May the souls that lost their lives rest in peace after such a horrific event.

The halls were very quiet except for the tapping of the Reaper's feet as Death and the Sandman went down the hallway. Sandy was naturally quiet since he did not like to disturb sleep and thus kept himself mute at all times. But even this silence was getting to him and made him slightly more uneasy than usual. Granted he knew Death would not hurt him, in fact it was the exact opposite. Even while acting cold, Death would help him out if they were ever in a fight; that much he knew hadn't changed.

But that was about all that remained familiar to him as the centuries passed. Of course even if Death did try to send word he wouldn't be the first to get wind of it; that was reserved for someone else. Not that it would ever happen, The Reaper had become just like Jack before he joined the Guardians; a lone wolf who liked to work by himself and would not want to join a group of people even if they begged him to. Just like how The Reaper was acting currently.

Sandy looked to the hooded figure, silent and very intent in finding the soul that was responsible for the whole killing in the first place. The walk was slow though that was to be expected when a person was about the height of a twelve or eleven year old child and, thus, walked slower.

Not wanting the silence to fill the air much longer Sandy tried to get Death's attention by doing some images of sand over his head. But since no attention or words were coming from Death's voice Sandy pouted slightly before getting in front and flashing images. One of which was a Fearling and a gate

"If you're asking if I knew about them before you all came to me I did. MiM wanted me to seal the gate and deal with the Fearlings inside but one escaped and I pursued. I was hoping he had enough faith in me that he wouldn't ask for you all to help." The Reaper said. Sandy shrugged and then went back next to Death as another silenced filled both of their ears. Eventually the Sandman made a few pictures of a Fearling and an orb "I have a vague idea where he is, I know he's around this school somewhere since this is where he died and killed so many. People who die suddenly or violently usually get stuck in the place they died."

Sandy blinked and then made a picture of someone talking with a volume up all the way and then pointing to himself. "You are the first and oldest of the Guardians, it would be rather rude not to answer your questions best to my ability" said the Reaper. That said then the Sandman showed pictures of the other Guardians around a small girl before she disintegrated and the figures looked sad. Though this did not change the lack of emotion in Death

"Be it that you miss her, she isn't coming back. She has succumbed to her fate even if no one else wanted it to be so..." The Reaper looked forward and turned a corner and, as it seemed, almost tripped on some of the debris of the school. Of course no sooner had this happened did both beings heard something being blasted at and the moaning that had been running through Death's head had intensified. "Dammit," was all that was said before the dark figured hurried to the source of the sounds, despite having a hard time trying not to trip, with Sandy close behind.

It wasn't long before they arrived and saw the other Guardians battling the aura of purple darkness that only had glowing eyes and moans coming from within. It was also noted that the more they chopped at the swirling corruption the louder the moans became. What a disapproving scene it was; how could the Guardians not recognize the screams? How could they not see they are hurting those who they were supposed to protect despite the fact they were not among the living anymore?

"Stop," Death ordered while smoke went under the figure and the Reaper soared towards the next ice wave. From the same grey smoke around the feet there emerged a long weapon with a curved blade, which was more widely known as a scythe. This weapon was used to stop the ice blast in its tracks as Death loomed over the Guardians. "Can you not see that you are hurting the children?" Death asked, as if suggesting that they were blind

"Children? There are children here?" Tooth asked, confused and looking around

"I don't see any children, just a monster you're protecting!" Jack accused, figuring that she was turning on them.

"Listen to their cries, their moans every time you cut and maim them, are you so blind?" Death asked, trying to get them to understand. "For every time you cut this monster, he uses a child's soul for protection, he's hurting them, making them suffer to keep his own cowardly soul from being cleansed, observe." after the small speech Death gripped the scythe in its hands and then jumped down towards the edges of the monster where the corruption was more fluid and moving. The scythe went towards the monster at an angle and managed to sever the corruption by bearing down at the thinnest point between the monster and the tendrils of corruption.

The tendril, now chopped off, was wriggling around like a fish that had just been fished out of water and constantly searching for its host. Then The Reaper pointed the scythe downwards and then, slowly, cut at the shadow and peeled it away. What was revealed under the corruption was a shadowy figure of a child, trembling in fear and whimpering

"Oh no..." was all Jack was able to say when he realized just what it was that they were doing "I-I didn't know..."

"Of course you didn't," Death said harshly "But no time to fix your mistakes, hit at where the attachments are weakest; I'll go for the main body" ordered the Grim Reaper. There wasn't much time to ask questions or say anything since Death was already on the way to slaughter... or at least purify the darkness before them. Because the other Guardians were busy with rescuing the dead children they had little time to observe how the Grim Reaper worked. Though maybe it was for the best, over the years who know just what types of execution have been performed and modified over the years. That and the smoke coming from beneath The Reaper's feet was obscuring their sight. Still it was good for them that the monster couldn't see them either.

Despite the countless times they had to cut at the monster the Guardians were finally able to rescue all the shadow children that had been used to protect the monster that was hurting them. They did not do much of anything though. They sobbed and trembled in fear for their lives, causing the Guardians to even wonder if they knew that they were dead or not.

"Poor little ankle biters..." Bunny said, feeling pity for them even if he probably couldn't imagine what they were feeling at that moment.

"At least they're safe now." Tooth said with a bit of relief with Sandy nodding with agreement

"But they have to go to the Spirit World right?" Jack asked. They all nodded, though North was the first one to speak

"Yes that is the case. But we must wait till Death is done with monster." he told them. The Guardians looked forward just in time to see the haze around them clear enough for them to spot Death on the shoulders of the monster. The corruption around it had been peeled away enough to gain access to the top of the bulk of purple that still needed to be peeled away to effectively get the center piece out of the thing. So it wasn't surprising to see Death put the scythe under it and then jump off the shoulders and letting the strength of the fall decapitate the monster and revealing the wavering purple darkness within it. Everything fell from it and Death stood behind the darkness with scythe in hand

"Time to atone for your sins," the Reaper told him while gripping the scythe tightly. The scythe was raised high but before it could strike the corrupted soul he swiped his hand at Death, who dodged but gave the soul the time to make a break for it. The Guardians tried to stop him but were almost blasted away by the power he was emitting "You cannot escape Death!" cried the Reaper who, while using the grey cloud, sped towards the specter that had vanished within the school's halls.

It was unfortunate that despite the chase soon he had disappeared and all that were left were shadows that he could be hiding in.

"Ha! We make him run for life!" North said proud that the monster felt so intimidated that he had to run off and think of a new strategy.

"No we just made let the mongrel get a good hidin' spot." Bunny told the Russian.

"He's going to turn the school against us soon," Death said, who was before them and looking around with the scythe out. Then said scythe got closer to its owners body as if ready to defend "He's coming." was about the only thing that could be said before a piercing scream went through the halls and glass that had been intact before were now bursting into hundreds of shards around them. It was rapidly coming towards them with glass getting faster and faster exploding into a million pieces as a wind of sound blew fiercely at them.

"Bloody hell." Bunny said as he put his paws on his ears to protect his hearing from getting totally annihilated. The rest of the Guardians also kept their hands on their ears since the sound was so high pitched.

"Could he BE any louder?!" Jack asked, sounding a bit aggravated

"It's just a distraction!" Death yelled despite being hunched down a little bit, seemingly affected by the sound must like everyone else. But unlike everyone Death had a scythe put in front so to defend from whenever the corruption decided to attack. Of course only putting the scythe in front could do so much and before Death could prepare to move the corrupted soul manifested itself to the side and came charging towards Death. It was unfortunate but the Reaper was unable to move fast enough to avoid it; thankfully allies weren't too far behind.

"Oh no you don't!" called a thick Australian accent before something went flying into the darkness; batting away the corrupted soul and protecting the Grim Reaper. Because of this the Reaper's head turned slightly towards the Easter Bunny though didn't utter anything before turning attention back to the soul that had been pushed back.

The black cloud formed again under Death's feet and then went after the soul with haste and before it could react, the scythe bore down on it and clutched the purple shadows around it. Then, without hesitance, Death started to peel of the shadows so to get to the core of the problem. This so happened to be the fact that the shadow form was purple and the eyes glowed yellow when they shouldn't glow at all.

"May purification begin." Death said softly, holding the scythe horizontally before twisting it that caused a clicking sound and a blade to appear at the other end. Then the Reaper revealed the weapon to be in two parts connected by a chain that was used to whirl one of the blades around. Then, suddenly, Death let go of the blade and it went around the corrupted soul and lifted it up at one end. This was repeated with the other blade, meaning that the soul was ready to be purified without much resistance. Even the strongest soul could not be unbound since the more you struggle and hit at the chain the stronger it became.

"He looks like he's in pain." Tooth said as she watched with everyone else

"Well he deserves it, after what he did to those children," Jack replied as he stared intensely at Death and the soul. "Hey, Death! Be sure to kill the bastard after you're done getting information from him!" the spirit cried, causing the Reaper before him to turn around and the dark blue cloak whirling slightly.

"He deserves no such thing;" was the response that was given "Just because he did those terrible things does not mean it is his fault or that he should be damned because of it."

"Are you kidding me?! He MURDERED those children! Only someone evil could have done that! He should be destroyed so to prevent even more murders on children." why was this so hard? Why was Death defending this monster? Why was he siding with evil?!

"He did it out of influence, not because of his own free will. No one is pure evil."

"Prove it then." Jack said with his arms crossed.

"...Foolish child." was all Death managed to say before putting a hand up and going towards the emblem on the cloak. It was simple, a silver crescent moon with a blue orb resting within though it was hard to see with such little lighting and the moon barely being out. But nonetheless Death grabbed the orb and took it from the emblem before turning around and talking in a language that wasn't of Earth origin. This was the trigger to cause the orb to glow blue and symbols going around it before they surround the now roaring corrupted soul. The blue orb soon followed and when it was at the chest that was when it shone its brightest, enveloping the soul entirely so that no darkness could be seen.

But that was as much of a show as anyone was going to get considering that when the light faded the corruption was gone and all that was left was the small form of a shadow child. Considering this meant that the soul was no long a threat the chains removed themselves and brought them back to their holder where it became a single one bladed scythe once again along with the orb going back to its resting place of its owner.

"It is complete, this child can do no harm anymore." said the Reaper as the scythe disintegrated into the grey cloud and Death was left with the shadow child.

"... Okay I'm confused, what the hell just happened?" Jack asked, not sure what was going on and why there was a shadow child in front of them.

"The corruption from the soul was removed... so now the soul is back to its purified state," Tooth told him. She could see confusion on his face and elaborated on what she meant "Each person, when they die, goes back to being in their most purified state of life. For humans, at least, this means that they form back into when they were children, when they were innocent and pure... ignorant of the world" Tooth explained. She looked to the shadow child who was shivering and, out of being frightened of the looming figure before him, ran towards the Guardians and went behind Tooth. He then began talking in a language

" m'I-I deracs..." he said with a whimper as he was shaking

"T'nod eb diarfa, I tsuj deen ruoy pleh." Death told him, slowing walking to the boy.

"On-n!" he screeched, trying to hide even further behind Tooth "On truh..."

"On truh... on truh lliw emoc ot uoy, I esimorp." with the last words the child came from behind Tooth slightly and finally began to talk with Death.

"If I wasn't confused before, hell I am now." Jack said as he and the Guardians kept back while the two talked.

"It is... hard to speak to those who are dead, and even harder to understand, but once you get the gist of it it's easy." North said to him. Jack had his doubts, but he didn't have much of an argument about it since he knew nothing of the language at all, so he kept his mouth shut about it till Death was done with the kid. "So, what news?" North asked when Death came back over to them

"The child remembers very little. "The child remembers very little. He just remembers that he stopped taking his meds and he suddenly got the urge to kill like in his video games" said the Reaper, only looking back at the child for a moment before back to them.

"What about that Fearlin'? Did he say anythin' about it?" Bunny asked

"He told me that he vaguely remembers a 'bad shadow' that would pop up every once in a while and would tell him to do stuff. I think that it may have influence him to stop taking his medicine and by that time he was easily influenced to do its bidding." a very grim speculation, but without any leads it was the only thing they could do.

"I guess back to the drawing board huh?" Jack asked with a sigh, hoping that they were going to be able to get this over with so he could cause more fun with Jamie and his friends.

"Patience is the best thing to do right now, no sense in rushing the inevitable," Death told him, causing them all to nod in agreement, even Jack though he did so reluctantly. "I will wait for another death to occur and hopefully that will be a lead"

"You? Did you forget about us? We're here to help you know." Tooth said, going to Death

"That is right, Manny wants us all to work together; so we do what Man in Moon says." North added. Death tried to argue back but Jack, who had had enough of this nonsense, opened his big mouth

"Hey we didn't CHOOSE to help you, we did this because the Moon told us so and whatever the Moon says goes. So if I was you, Mr. Death, I'd cut us some slack and let us help you out." he said with his arms crossed.

"... Mr. Death...?" was all that the Reaper was able to get out of that sentence, though Jack couldn't understand why.

"I call it how I see it okay? It's not like its any skin off my bones... no offense." he 'apologized'.

"..." one could only wonder how the hell Death was taking all this and why it had to deal with an immature seventeen year old who all he did was have fun all the time.

"You really know nothin' do you Frostbite?" Bunny asked

"What did I say? I was just stating the obvious!"

"Can't you see for yourself? Or did no one tell ya that-" Bunny was about to say but stopped as his ears went up. "Uh oh, we got company" he said as he turned his head towards the front of the school

"Put your hands up!" cried a voice as a flashlight went onto them. When the Guardians looked forward they saw the police with guns in the air and waving flashlights around them. "What are you doing here? You looking to steal off the dead?!" asked one of them

"H-How can they see us?!" Jack asked, taking his staff out and ready to aim

"They can't... well, all but one of us." Tooth said, looking to the Reaper

"... Oh great" Jack said, not believing that they could see Death that could make this situation even more difficult.

"Turn around where I can see you," the officer said and, as ordered, the Reaper slowly turned around, the dark blue cloak barely lifting up from the ground while the emblem in the chest shone brightly from the light. "Take off the hood and let us look at your face," was the next order, but Death did not say anything and, instead, had the cloud come beneath, lifting the Reaper into the air slightly. "H-Hey no tricks! Wait; STOP!" called the officer but before any more action could be taken Death had lifted in the air and then had the cloud zip off towards the back of the school. The Guardians could only watch as the police chased after, wondering how in the world it was going to end.

"One of the many curses of bein' Death... almost everyone can see ya." Bunny said as he looked almost like he pitied the Reaper.

"Even so, we should help, would be bad if the Grim Reaper were to get taken." North said, though before they could say anything else gun shots were heard. The quickest of the bunch, Bunny, heard this with his ears shot up before turning his head to the back of the school where he could hear all sorts of running and shouts that were backed up by gun fire.

"Sounds like trouble!" Jack said as he flew toward the sound with the rest following behind though Bunny was the one to get their first since he had an advantage with his speed. But what they found was little to nothing at all though it was something to worry about.

"Oh goodness..." Tooth said with a sad voice as she and the others looked upon the ground and saw puddles of blood head into the field of trees and the distant voices and lights from the cops searching for, unbeknownst to them, Death itself.

Author: Well I'm glad that I got another chapter up! I would have gotten it up earlier but my friend Zerowing21has been beta reading my chapters and so I thank him for that x3. Anyway I'm almost done with the third chapter so that SHOULD be coming up soon as well so look forward to that!