I don't own Wolf's Rain or any of its characters. I am not making any money by writing this. Any resemblance of this fanfic to any other fanfiction is purely coincidence.

Chapter 1

Reunion

"I've always said that the best wolf habitat resides in the human heart. You have to leave a little space for them to live."
Ed Bangs

Kobe Fahn walked quietly down the dreary sidewalk, ignoring the busy city around him. This morning, he'd been too preoccupied to concentrate on anything. Something inside him was stirring, making him restless and longing for…something. He couldn't quite place his finger on it.

Suddenly, a scent caught his nose. It tickled and refused to fade away. His heart began to race unsteadily as something wild and forgotten bubbled up inside of him and he broke into a blind run. Faster, faster! Something inside of him howled. The street around him blurred and all sounds were drowned out by a triumphant scream inside of him. He ducked into a dark alley and saw…

It was beautiful and shone amongst the filth and trash like a gem. Its petals were moon-white and it gave off a strangely familiar scent, even overpowering the garbage and urine around it. His hand trembled as he crouched before it and softly touched one of the delicate petals.

He was on all fours and he was running. The cool air around him was filled with sounds and smells virtually invisible to humans. He felt his pack behind him and felt his heart full to burst as he followed…followed…

Beautiful red eyes that gazed at him so sorrowfully. A heart-piercing song that made him howl inside with grief. Cheza,

"This one…will find you, again."

"Paradise? You believe in that old folktale?" Skeptical, hardened gold-green eyes. Grey fur and a strange scar across the chest. Tsume. His Beta. Dead in a pool of his own blood.

"Sounds like fun." Humorous amber eyes. Thick and shaggy, good-natured hungry Hige. Hige the traitor who followed him to the end. Dead protecting what mattered most to him.

"I dreamed about Paradise." Guileless and innocent gold eyes. Small and slight Toboe, their youngest. Their Omega who grew the most. Dead protecting his beloved humans.

Darcia…wolf's eye. Pain, anger, grief, despair. Jagara and her false Paradise. The humans…Hubb and Cher. Quent, the hunter. Blue, the half-wolf woken by Cheza. Dead, all dead. Dead and gone. Everything gone…

----

Tom Clahr jerked on his motorcycle and twisted to a halt. Ignoring the indignant shouts behind him, he leapt off of his beloved Harley and began sprinting out of the street and shoving people out of his way. He tore off his helmet and sent it carelessly to the side as he raced blindly to where the fury inside was howling to go.

Hugh Barbe froze in mid-chew, twisting his head to the left where something inside was clawing at him to run. Not wasting a second, he swallowed hastily and, keeping a firm grip on his lunch bag, began running.

Toby Howl numbly let the cute kitten he'd been admiring fall back into the wet cardboard box. He slowly turned to face the busy street while his heart pounded like never before. He climbed to his feet and began sprinting while he dodged pedestrians and vehicles alike as the rain dashed in his face.

Miles away…another stiffened. Mismatched eyes narrowed as the tall, pale businessman paused in the middle of his sentence.

"Interesting." CEO Darcy murmured, as a small, cold smile spread across his face.

----

Kiba, still kneeling stunned in the dark alley, could only concentrate on his own breathing. Everything was slamming into him, and his mind felt torn in two as the memories, both sets of memories, clamored to be recognized. He was no longer a human, but he wasn't the wolf that he'd been either. Who…what was he?

Footsteps, familiar footsteps. A leather-clad figure burst into the alley, looking around wildly for whatever had been calling him. Their eyes met. Tsume froze. For a while, neither of them spoke.

"See you kept your taste in clothes," Kiba finally commented.

Tsume looked startled, as though hearing him after all this time finally broke the spell over him, and then laughed in relief. Kiba climbed painfully to his feet and was captured by Tsume's tight hug.

"You sonofagun," Tsume whispered harshly, "You goddamned sonofagun!"

Kiba just smelled Tsume's familiar/new scent of sweat, leather, and steel and greeted his old friend with a squeeze of his own.

"Y'know, I always wondered about you two." A familiar voice appeared at the front of the alley.

They hastily broke apart and faced the grinning Hige, lunch bag still clutched in one arm. Tsume growled playfully and jumped as though to snap at Hige, as he once would have done as a wolf. Hige just dodged him and cheerfully caught Kiba around the shoulder with his free arm.

"Yo!" He said cheerfully, although his eyes held a pleading demand. Please accept me, even after what I did. Kiba smiled warmly and clasped his arm in forgiveness. Hige's eyes melted in relief and gave him a watery grin as Tsume affectionately punched his shoulder. Hige shoved back at Tsume and let go of Kiba to lean casually against the dark brick wall.

"You seen Toboe?" Tsume asked, now serious.

Kiba's eyes darkened and the grin faded from Hige's round face. Hige sorrowfully shook his head as Kiba just looked down. Tsume glared and faced the Kiba grimly.

"We're all here," Hige mumbled uncertainly, "The runt's gotta be here, too. Right?"

Lighter footsteps. Toboe gasped as he stumbled into the alley, nearly tripping over the boxes piled up at the entrance. He stared at them all with wide eyes as a broad, shy grin spread over his young face.

"Guys!" he called happily as he raced to them, "You're all here!"

Tsume was the first to reach him. He caught the boy in a rough hug as Hige ruffled the auburn hair affectionately. Kiba just stared as Toboe playfully broke from the embrace and protested Hige's rough treatment, all the while grinning like a maniac. Kiba quietly touched the boy's shoulder and whispered,

"Welcome back, Toboe."

----

"So it was this that triggered everything?" Tsume asked, eyeing the flower thoughtfully.

Kiba nodded. He sat cross-legged on the dumpster, his heart lighter and freer than it had ever been now that he was back among his pack, his family.

"You think it might be Cheza?" Toboe asked eagerly, bouncing on his heels as he crouched comfortably in front of the dumpster. "What happened to Cheza and everyone else by the way? I don't remember much after…"

Silence fell over the group. They all remembered the numb grief they'd felt after Toboe's death, then the silent oblivion of their own deaths. None of them, save for Kiba, had seen what had happened to Cheza or Darcia.

"Cheza is gone." Kiba whispered, his eyes fixed on the pale Luna Flower as everyone turned to him, "Her seeds became the Luna Flowers of Paradise, but she herself is gone. She told me that I would find her, after the world was reborn."

"Well, the world's reborn." Hige commented, giving the alley around them a reflective look, "Can't say it's a Paradise, though."

"M-maybe something went wrong." Toboe said, looking troubled, "What happened with Darcia? Who killed him?"

Everyone stared at Kiba, who glared in return.

"Darcia destroyed himself trying to get to Paradise through Cheza's blood. He's gone; I'm sure of it."

Toboe shivered at his tone and looked down. Tsume just scowled.

"Yeah? It just doesn't make any sense. If we made it to Paradise, why aren't we wolves anymore? What happened, Kiba?"

Kiba just turned away and once more studied the blooming Luna Flower. Tsume always seemed to know which pressing questions to bring up that always resembled the same doubts and fears that pressed on Kiba's heart.

"I don't know." Kiba admitted quietly, "I just don't know."

Hige coughed uncomfortably and straightened.

"Well, I kind of need to get back to my job, so…"

"Wait, you work?" Tsume grinned.

"Hey, some of us have bills to pay, girls to take out, stuff to get! We can't all cruise around looking cool on a Harley, y'know!"

"How'd you know I had a-" Suddenly, panic spread across Tsume's chiseled face and he sprinted out of the alley, "Shit, my Harley!"

Hige just chuckled as he waved a casual goodbye to Kiba.

"Wait," Kiba pulled out a worn office pen and a scrap of an old receipt, "Give me your phone and email so we can keep in touch."

"Eh, good idea."

"Me, too!" Toboe insisted, "And I think I know how to find Tsume, so you don't need to chase after him!"

Kiba smiled bleakly as they scribbled numbers and random grouped letters onto the worn, thin paper. Barely a few minutes of being reunited and already they were falling apart again! He shook himself out of those dark thoughts and concentrated instead on figuring out how and why they were here, in this wild, turbulent world that so obviously not the promised Paradise.

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