Full Moon
Three nights the moon is full, three nights in all. And even as Team Seven reached the heart of Sun-eater’s lair, they were too late. The moon had risen, and Sun-eater was too powerful to kill before his ritual finished. Now was the time for miracles – or for Team Seven's desperate tactics.
Fight him! Cried Earth. Fight him, delay him, give me time!
Sun and Moon didn't pause to ask why, only leaped into battle with perfect trust. And Earth who was Nara reached for the night which was the earth's shadow, her shadow, and drew it up with all her might, and threw it over the moon in eclipse. All night she held it, all night she became one with the darkness that lies between the stars, all night she fought to maintain her purpose and preserve her identity, and all night her Sun and Moon protected her from the enraged Sun-eater, until, at last, the sun rose, and Sun-eater fled into the earth itself, where Earth was too exhausted to follow.
That day the three collapsed and rested, too tired to move, or to protect themselves, and only sheltering Lightning to shield them. But three nights the moon is full, three nights in all. And Earth was too tired to replicate her feat. And so Sun smiled, and said, tonight you must protect me. Tonight, I will stop the moon.
That night, as the sun moved to set, Sun rose, and all night long he shone with all his might, eclipsing the moon, so that the moon never reigned in the sky all alone. And all night Earth and Moon fought Sun-eater, all alone, protecting Sun as he stood undefended in the sky. And then the sun rose, and the Sun set, and again, the Sun-eater escaped, as they stood, too tired to give him chase.
The three collapsed again, in their Sensei's protection, and slept the day away. And as night fell, Moon said to his team, two nights you have given me, now the third is mine. And this night, when the sun set, nothing obstructed the moon, and Sun-eater shouted in triumph, that his enemies had tired, and his victory was nigh.
But the Sun-eater waned, but for stolen Sun in his belly, and deceiving Earth in his heart. And Moon who was the true Moon, in the prime of his youth, waxing higher and higher, burning with the Will of Fire: that Moon, oh that Moon reached out, and the moon, torn between two Moons, chose the truer, the brighter, the better; and Sun-eater, on the verge of victory, saw everything he had wasted his life on, torn from his grasp and given to his usurper, saw his life made into nothingness, into failure, into waste.
He roared in rage, Sun-eater, and crashed everything he was into his enemies. And Team Seven, exhausted, was helpless against his rage. But Lightning was their sensei, Lightning who had guarded them while they rested, and had their backs while they fought. It is a sensei's duty to allow their students to extend themselves until they can't, and then, to protect them in their vulnerability. Lightning was their sensei, and he took his duty seriously. As Sun-eater raged, Lightning drew lightning into the ever-cutting blade, and he stabbed him thrice: once in his stomach, to free his eaten Sun, once in his heart, to separate his melded Earth, and once in his eyes, to cut off his Moonlit gaze. And so died the Sun-eater, traitor and betrayed.