The mountains were barren and blue and dark

The mountains were barren and blue and dark. They reminded Jonathan of a horror film he'd watched once, about a ski lodge. He held a chain made of nice new steel. It glittered blue in the moonlight. Dess had some nice stuff.

Everyone else was also equipped with steel. Weapons, shields, helmets. They looked like Roman gladiators.

"Where do we go?" Aris asked.

"I was hoping it would come to us," Rex said quietly. "You know how darklings are."

"Evil…Scary…Cunning?" Jonathan interjected.

"Shush," Dess said. "I think I hear something."

"It'd be useful to have Deron with us," Aris said coldly. "We could use his talent."

"Yeah…" Jonathan dryly. Aris was like Melissa, just three times as bad.

BOOM!

Jonathan whipped his chain through the air, and all the others took defensive stances, waving their weapons like out-of-movie ninjas. Rex squinted into the mountains, trying to see the source of the noise. The group could still hear the reverberations in the air, and the rumbling in the ground.

"Come on," whispered Rex, loudly. He rushed forward, with Dess and Aris following in his wake. Jonathan didn't move, however. He could hear a faint whistling on the wind, and cocked his head to try and hear better.

He could almost believe he was hearing words…

"AHHHH!" Aris screamed from the direction she had run in. Sparks arched through the sky.

Jonathan raced off toward his friends, eager to come to the rescue.

Deron tripped over a rock, and landed flat on his face. He couldn't gather the courage to turn around and face his doom. He closed his eyes and clenched his hands.

"Argh!" Melissa swung around from the side and tossed a handful of silvery powder into the scorpion's eyes.

It screamed, and sparks flew from its face. It was disintegrating from the outside in.

"Wow. That's potent stuff." Melissa reached down to help Deron up. "Dude. You're alive. Get up."

"Oh." He stood shakily, and brushed off his shirt. "Thanks."

"Now let's go help the others. They don't have a chance without us."

Jonathan jumped into the air, screaming out a war cry. He brought down his chain on the King's head. It wasn't an exceptionally large panther, but a very smart one. This was the only shot Jonathan had had in the five minutes they'd already been fighting.

The others were busy with the thousands of darkling bugs that surrounded and protected the king. They were small and easy to kill, but the shear numbers would be enough to down a hundred midnighters.

"AH!" Jonathan doubled up, having been hit in the ribs by the King. The jaguar advanced on the boy, claws out.

"Leave off, monster!" Melissa used the rest of her steel powder blinding the king, and getting Jonathan out of the way.

"You might want to leave this for us, Flyboy," Melissa said, looking over Jonathan. He had a large scratch all the way from his right shoulder to his tailbone.

He fainted.

"Alright then, I think it's up to you and me, Deron." Melissa tapped her steel rod in her palm, and circled the panther. Deron shivered and pulled out his thumbtack gun Dess had given him.

It was like a staple gun, except it fired steel tacks.

Deron circled with Melissa, and finally worked up the nerve to fire.

STFOo!

"RAWR!" it growled, slashing at Deron.

"AHH!!" he screamed, shooting manically at its face, not really paying attention to where he was aiming.

"Have you noticed something weird?" Melissa shouted, whacking the king with assorted steel weapons.

"What?!" Deron screamed, trying to retreat, but only succeeding in falling to the ground.

"THE STEEL ISN'T HURTING IT!"

Deron yelled, rolling away as the jaguar pounced at the place he'd just occupied.

Rex's eyes were beads of black determination. "We can't let it beat us. Never. Use your skills, Midnighters!"

Does that sound lame to anyone else?

That thought flashed through Deron's head for about 2 nanoseconds. He was too busy using his brain's energy for extra speed to think. All his senses, not just his hearing, seemed heightened.

Adrenaline.

Stepping into the shadows, Deron allowed himself a moment to breathe. The King seemed to turn to go attack Melissa.

This was the king. It was supposed to be smart…Why wouldn't it seize the chance to kill Deron?

Of course, the prey in question wasn't complaining.

The King growled. Melissa had her eyes closed. Was she…Talking to it? Or, a better question: What was she saying?

The jaguar suddenly sprang backwards, towards Deron. It hissed as it's claws swung down from above.

"Agh!" Deron fell to the ground, the king's claws deep in his chest. Breathing was…hard. Blood pumped, spilling blue all over the sand.

Everything was shaking. Slow. Sounds…were fading.

Aris was yelling, lashing out at the bug guardians. She screamed terribly, one last time, and then ran, her feet kicking up gray sand as she booked it out of the cave.

Deron's eyes were closing. But he saw Rex, standing there, laughing.

Laughing.

Melissa shrieked, running at her former friend with a steel spear. Tears were running down her face, mingling with the midnight 'snow'.

Rex turned, surprised.

But Melissa passed him. Racing toward the King.

Whose jaws hovered over Deron.

Whose eyes glowed evilly.

Melissa jumped onto the jaguar, shoving the spear into its back with all the power of a falling skyscraper.

The beast screamed. White light built up around the wound, exploding into Melissa's face. She flew backwards into Rex.

The jaguar turned, the spear sticking horribly out of it's back. It's tail flicked once, and a low, low growl rumbled through its throat. Deron's hand fell limply to his side, where he summoned up the will to pull a disk out of his pocket. It wasn't steel, but it was imprinted with many, many 13s.

Deron stood shakily, and cocked back his hand to throw. The King settled back, ready to pounce Deron's only friend he had left.

The disk spun out of Deron's hand, glowing with harsh white light as it gained speed. The King glanced backward, a grim smile on its face. It crashed into the King, shattering the monster into a thousand dark pieces.

The boy fell weakly to the ground.

Deron's eyes shut.

Melissa sniffed, wiping her nose with a black tissue. Dess put an arm around her.

Jonathan's lips were drawn into a frown. His black suit flapped in the wind. The mechanical spine that saved his life glowed eerily. The trio was somber as they stood over Deron's grave.

Dawn had broken as Melissa staggered out of that cave, almost a week earlier. Rex and Aris were both gone, and she was left by herself, the broken bodies of her friends all around her. She called 911, then collapsed.

The next week had been blurry. Jonathan was in the hospital, on the verge of death. Dess had been released after a day or two. But Deron…

"What do we say?" Melissa asked, her voice choked with tears. "He died so I could live."

"He was a good Midnighter," Dess said slowly. "We didn't know him too well, but he put an end to midnight forever."

Jonathan looked up into the sky. "I hate to break it to you guys, but midnight's not over. It never will be." His usual happy demeanor was taken over by a haunted, sunken version of himself.

Dess got a quizzical look on her face. "What are you talking about?"

Melissa looked up.

Blue snowflakes were falling slowly toward the ground.