Hubb Lebowski, detective of Freeze City, lie broken on the frigid ice. He said he'd help get the wolves to Paradise, and they would've probably been there by now if Hubb hadn't slipped off the mountain and plummeted down.
"What can we do?" Blue wondered. She didn't want to see anymore death; Paradise wasn't supposed to be marred by such deaths. First Cher, then Quent and Toboe, and now this. Hubb appeared to be alive. He was breathing and his eyes were open, although they didn't appear to be registering.
Cheza tugged at Kiba's sleeve.
"I can help." She said. Kiba nodded, and moved Cheza while Tsume carefully moved Hubb away from the jagged sides of the ice so Cheza could start with Hubb's head. The Flower Maiden rested her hands on the back of his head, and her hands starting glowing.
"Hmmm..." Blue bit her lip. Hubb and Quent appeared to be close, and she wanted to keep him alive, for Quent's sake if nothing else. Besides, she felt so sorry for him. When Quent had died, she was so unbelievably upset and depressed. And Hubb felt the same way. His wife died in his arms.
It was actually Blue who insisted that they go back for him once he slipped, although any praise really went to Hige. Kiba at first ignored her, and Tsume said they didn't have any time. Hige, though, started down the treacherous mountainside, and nearly slipped as well. He would've died if Tsume hadn't grabbed him.
"Fine, we'll go, but we can't delay. If he's too wounded to move or dead, we leave him." Kiba capitulated, and started down, carefully moving so as not to jar Cheza.
Cheza had finished healing Hubb's head, and he looked remarkably better. Kiba moved Cheza's hands under Hubb's shirt to stop the bleeding on his chest.
"Uhhh...what?" He looked like he had finally regained most of his senses. His eyes darted around, and he gasped, in fright or shock it was not clear.
"Are you alright?" Tsume asked.
"What are you doing?" Hubb responded.
"We're going to have to move quickly if we're going to reach Paradise." Kiba snorted. "You better not do something like this again." Blue would've slapped him if he wasn't holding Cheza. How could he say something so cruel? Sure, Paradise needed to be reached, but if it had been Kiba who slipped, would he have wanted to be left behind.
"This wasn't necessary." Hubb responded. "I would've been fine."
"With those injuries here, I strongly doubt it." Tsume responded. "You would've died of blood loss if some animal wasn't attracted by the smell of your blood and come to eat you beforehand."
"I know." Hubb responded. "It would've been okay. I...saw Cher."
"You were hallucinating." Kiba responded. "You know full well where she is."
"She's...in Paradise. She's waiting for me. She said she'd take care of Toboe until we got there." Tsume seemed to pale when he said that. Blue knew that Tsume and Toboe were a lot like brothers. Hearing that must've put him in shock.
"I...don't know what Paradise is. But if Toboe is there, then we're going to have to move it double-time." Tsume responded. Cheza withdrew her hands from Hubb's chest. With great disorientation, he managed to stand up.
"You're not going to make it that far on your legs right now." Kiba said. "We'll go ahead, you follow when you can."
"Kiba!" Blue shouted. "We can't just leave a human here."
"Climb on my back, Hubb." Tsume bent down, and Hubb piled on top of him, wrapping his arms around Tsume's chest.
"We take turns holding Cheza, we can take turns carrying Hubb. He might even be well enough to move on his own before we reach Paradise." Tsume responded. "Hold on tight." He told Hubb.
"I won't let go." He responded. Tsume, agile as anything, was able to climb up, despite Hubb on his back, to the top of the mountainside, before anyone else.
Once at the top, Blue volunteered to take Hubb next since Hige still was founded from fighting Jagara.
"You didn't have to do this you know. You could've just let me die, I'm slowing you down." Hubb said.
"Do you want to reach Paradise?" Blue returned.
"Well...yeah...but"
"Then shut up so we can reach it." Blue responded. They moved in silence for a minute. Then Hubb said "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"Quent. He must've meant a lot to you."
"Well, he asked me to kill my own brethren." Blue tried to play it off. She didn't want Hubb's pity. "I should be the one apologizing. I should've been able to get Cher out of there."
"Cher...Blue, there was nothing you could've done." Hubb responded. "She was in the car."
"I could've gone out and reached her as she fell. You were holding Cheza, you couldn't have." Blue responded, gritting her teeth against a cold wind that started to blow.
"Don't blame yourself, Blue. It wasn't your fault, it was mine. Tell me, what was Quent like when you were with him."
Blue paused. "He liked to hunt wolves." She said. "He hunted them ever since that one incident." Blue recounted Quent's history, and found herself nearly crying. Immediately, she stiffened. She didn't want to cry at this time. Blue hated crying.
"What about Cher?" Blue said, trying to keep up with the faster moving Kiba and Tsume. Hige was in the rear, since Blue would not be able to look behind her and see if they were being followed with Hubb on her back.
"Cher was a beautiful woman, and very intelligent. But she worked so much that I never saw her. One day, she asked me to go water her plants while she was away, and as it turned out, she left me a copy of the Book of the Moon. She was doing work on Cheza, and Paradise. I think she left that book for me because it wasn't safe with her."
"Well, it's because of her that Cheza is still alive. We're all thankful to both of you, even if Kiba doesn't admit it."
"What jumped up his..." Hubb started.
"Don't say that. He's just lived hard, that's all." They walked in silence again until they reached the top. Finally, at the lip of the plateau, Blue put Hubb down while Cheza and Kiba moved to the center.
Kiba put Cheza down, while everyone else crowded around them.
"Thank you, Kiba." Cheza said. "Thank you, all of you." She started, but a rude gunshot broke the silence.
"Darcia!" Hige shouted.
"Paradise is mine!" He shouted, shooting twice. The first one missed, but the second one nailed Blue in the leg. She had transformed into a wolf to move quicker, but Darcia had anticipated this.
"Blue!" Hige shouted. Hubb grabbed him by the neck.
"Dashing ahead will only get you both killed. She's alive, but unless we think this through, we're not going to save her. Here's what you do..." Hubb whispered the plan, and Hige nodded with understanding.
Hige dashed to the right, grabbing Darcia's attention. But Hige darted and changed direction quickly.
"Damn you!" Darcia couldn't get a clear shot, and he wouldn't get the chance. Hige's movements distracted Darcia long enough for Hubb to wrench Darcia's arm in an armlock, removing the gun from the picture. Tsume needed no further provocation, and, after transforming into a wolf, lunged and Darcia, clamping his jaws around Darcia's neck.
Darcia screamed; Blue, now attended to by Hige, smiled. But her smile changed to horror as she saw Darcia's other hand move, and a glint of metal. A knife, Tsume was stabbed.
Blue and Hige moved as quickly as they could, but with the bullet in Blue and Hige still having that stab wound, they weren't fast enough. Darcia turned his attention towards Hubb, and slipped the blood-covered knife into his stomach. Hubb had a look of surprise on his face as his armlock weakened and he collapsed to the ground. Quickly, Darcia turned to Blue and Hige. In a flash, he shot the gun and threw his knife simultaneously. The knife caught Blue in the face, while the gunshot nearly obliterated Hige's throat.
"You and me, Kiba!" Darcia turned his attention to Kiba. As the white wolf, he growled.
"Paradise will be mine!" Darcia shouted. But there was a flash of light. From Cheza, who was busy opening Paradise.
Through hazy eyes, Blue watched. The light didn't come from Cheza, just where Cheza was. It came from Paradise. And in a quick, yet violent flash, there was nothing left of Darcia but a bloodstain and his eye.
"I suppose...Paradise didn't want you." Kiba had taken a gunshot wound in that battle, his hand unable to stop the blood. He moved to Cheza, then collapsed on the ground.
"Everyone...we've failed...I'm sorry." Blue thought in a daze to herself before her eyes shut, and she couldn't think anymore.
What felt like eternities later, Blue opened her eyes. She was in a field overlooking a cliff.
"This is odd; there is grass here, green grass. But we're too high for anything to grow." She thought. She was also in her human form. Smoothing out her coat, she looked around. Kiba and Tsume were sleeping nearby.
In a panic, Blue touched her face. Nothing, no wounds, just normal face.
"That doesn't make sense. I was stabbed. Where's everyone else?" She said out loud. As if to answer her question, she saw Hige coming over to her.
"Blue!" He shouted, causing Kiba and Tsume to wake up.
"Hige?" She asked. "Where are we?"
"It's not obvious?" Came another voice from behind Hige. A face started to come up from behind a hill. Two faces. Now three. Hubb was the first person she recognized, and the speaker who asked her if it was obvious. The second was a blonde woman with her arms wrapped around Hubb like a snake. The third was an old gent with a smile on his face, although it didn't look like he smiled often. Cher Degre and Quent Yaiden.
Blue was overjoyed, and ran as fast as she could to Quent, who bent down and let her pounce all over him. She saw that Toboe, too, was here. He had slipped past her vision and was now with Tsume.
"Oh, are you alright, Blue?" Quent asked.
"I'm fine, pops, you should worry more about yourself then me." Blue said happily. She knew where she was, and it didn't matter how she got here.
They had finally made it. Paradise was theirs.