Cheza -

For a moment, it seemed as if the sky had cleared. That the relentless snow ceased and gave way to the sun. Cheza looked up and watched. A puff of snow hit her in the face. Then another. She shrugged her shoulders and shook her face. Not a comfortable feeling in the slightest.

Seeing Cher would have been comfortable, were it not for the tenseness in the air.

If not for the fact that she was holding a gun in her hand. Staying back, at Cheza's side. Outside of Jaguara's reach, outside of her stabbing range. She held on tightly to her gun, serious expression trained in Jaguara. Seconds ago, Cheza and Cher had hugged, now the blonde-haired woman looked as if she was going to kill Jaguara.

"You have many allies, it seems, Flower Maiden. " Jaguara is the first to speak after the silence that has befallen them. She turns slightly. Her gaze sweeping over the man that Cher had been with before. Then in the other direction at another older man and Blue. Cheza fights the urge to hug her too. She takes a breath in relief. It seems that now, somehow, no one else has died.

Jaguara sighs and runs her hand through her hair. " Are these the beings which whom you wish for peace?" She smiles wildly at something, but Cheza must not understand the humor.

" You wish for peace for your friends, yes? A peace that doesn't call for violence?"

Cheza nods. " Yes, this one would like that very much. There must be a way to convince you that it is the best course of action for everyone. We should not simply let this world fall to ruin."

Jaguara scoffs. " You wish to save this world for others. Do you not care about yourself."

" If they cannot be happy, then no."

" So self-sacrificing." Jaguara licks her lips and leans forward. " I hate that. Your selflessness. The fact that you think you can convince me of anything. The fact that you think it matters if I'm convinced not. If you truly want to be sure of anything… then you should kill me."

Cheza reaches up, outward to grasp Jaguara's hands in her own. She thinks better of it and stops. She shakes her head.

" This one is sorry that you find the only way to solve your problems through violence. This one does not wish to harm you, or see harm done to anyone else. It may irritate you, someone who thinks of others first. However, those ones that are close to this one are what makes life worth living. If they were not at this one's side… it would be devastating."

Cheza touches her chest, closes her eyes and breaths. " If someone else feels that way. Sad or lonely because their loved ones were taken away due to an unnecessary war… That would break this one as well."

Jaguara mutters something. Cheza hears her say, "just like her," before biting her lip and nearly drawing blood. " What are you trying to achieve and why do you seem to think that I must be involved, save the fact that I was trying to kill all of you a while before?"

Cheza smiles at this. Jaguara nearly recoils. She settles on glowering instead and crosses her arms.

" Tell me, Flower Maiden."

A boy is running through the snow. He carries a bag over his side. Filled with parchment and glue. A few other boys and girls run through the snow like him, frantically passing out fliers and gluing them wherever they can.

A cold wind sweeps through the air, nearly tearing one of the fliers off of an alleyway wall. Papers fly all through Freeze City and are passed along to merchants and travelers who have once again been allowed into town.

Cheza waits in one of the abandoned train cars on the outskirts of town. The wolves are there, waiting. They hug and smile and cheer together. For a while, just the sounds of their laughter to be heard. For all of those who say that Cheza has a beautiful singing voice, she has never heard a better sound.

But it's Kiba's worried expression and words that snap them all back to reality.

" Is it true, that you're going back there to rule with… them?" His voice is low, muffled. Unlike him, as if he's trying to hide the feeling creeping in his voice.

Hurt, betrayal, disgust, horror nervousness. There are far too many emotions and Cheza worries that he might be feeling them all. She has five sets of worried eyes on her and she can only hope that she'll be able to soothe those worries.

She nods. " It will only be until everything is more stable. There have been so many deaths. So much change-" Cheza tries to keep the fear out of her voice.

" If we do not try to help the changes of the world… provide in a more positive direction, then the war may never truly end. The world may never know peace."

"This one cannot bear to see anyone hurt." Which is why they were hidden here,.so that no one could hurt them.

" It is… incredibly selfish of this one to ask this of all of you. But if you would please bare with all of this for a while longer?"

Kiba-

Everyone nods. Of course, they do. How or why would any of them find it in their hearts to disagree with Cheza.

Kiba can see Tsume bite back something. Probably about how he doesn't trust humans. Neither does Kiba.

But how would he possibly say no? Sunlight trickles through the window. Cheza's smile is brighter than any sun.

Kiba doesn't believe in any gods. He doesn't have any real reason to care about humans. There is no alternative.

" We can all deal with it. We're gone this far. We can just keep going."

There are more nods and words of approval from the pack.

Cheza smile, but she grips her skirt and starts to frown. " This one knew that is what you'd say."

She looks sad.

" Are you hurt?" he asks without thinking.

" N-no," she replies. " It is just that… the five of you are so eager to head towards a path that you do not care about."

Kiba knows he's supposed to say something to the contrary. The words get stuck in his throat.

It's Toboe who speaks first. " I don't hate humans."

" Me neither," Hige replies in. " Well um…" he smiles but it doesn't quite meet his eyes. "Most of them anyway."

Blue chimes in. " I was a human," in a less assured quiet voice she adds "...at some point… I think?"

Tsume grumbles. " That doesn't mean you care about them."

Rage flickers across his features briefly. He looks out the window, then at Kiba. Kiba can't help but think he's asking him what he thinks of this whole situation.

Kiba holds his tongue. He hates it. He hates Jagurara and the other nobles. All the horrible things they did to wolves. To Cheza. To each other really. If this world was going to end and the humans in it were going to die then that was their problem. Kiba couldn't bring himself to care.

If anything, he was angry that Cheza cared about them. She was kind to everyone. Always willing to forgive, holding her hand out in kindness. Traveling all by himself for a long while, it'd rarely occurred to Kiba that he wasn't like that.

Toboe stares at Tsume and Tsume stares back, grumbling a little under his breath.

" It's not a bad thing… if you want to care about people…. If you want to help them then that your business… No one should be able to take that away from you. " He sighs. " But at the end of the day, you have to think to yourself… 'is helping these people going to get me killed?" Will the second I turn around… they'll stab me in the back?"

Cheza frowns but she doesn't protest. Even she must see the danger in siding with Jaguara.

Blue nods. " She is dangerous… and unpredictable. It might not be wise to trust her."

They'd talked about Cheza's plan before. It had been in front of the humans from Tsume's old gang. Kiba was angry. It was like a fog almost. He hadn't been thinking clearly.

So his voice sounds strange to himself when he finally speaks. " We don't have to trust her. We don't have to stay near her forever and… if she does something to hurt any of us in any way… I'll kill her."

He stares at Cheza. She meets his eyes sadly and he feels a lump in his throat.

Cheza nods. " This one understands Kiba. Though it is by far the ideal situation." She clenches her fingers so tightly together that Kiba worries about her blood flow.

" It might not be something you can control," Tsume mutters. Out of everyone, he's seen how quickly and how badly a situation can turn out.

" You might not get the chance."

" We survived before acting the way that we do now. As long as I'm alive,.I won't let anything happen to any of you."

Kiba closes his eyes and stands. Maybe the fog had clouded his life for longer then he remembers.

" I used to only care about Cheza. The thought of her. How she made me feel, her presence. Not actually you, yourself."

He looks at her, her smile and her eyes twinkling in the dull sun. Her flowery fragrance in the air. A noise of confirmation comes out of her mouth, a small hum. It's still music to his ears.

" I've always wanted you Cheza. I wanted Paradise. I wanted to keep running and fighting for something that I barely understood why I was fighting."

All the wandering around, killing, barely living, half-starved, tired dehydrated days and nights. They hadn't mattered then and they don't now. Bloody thoughts play in the back of his mind and Kiba isn't sure if they're from some other time or now.

He takes another breath. He feels like he hasn't taken a breath since they'd first started talking.

" I care about all of you… Though I hadn't expected that actually would."

" Rude," Hige calls out in mock anger.

Toboe laughs. " I can… understand that."

" I hated you too," Tsume replies. He smiles and adds. " But you all grew on my like mold anyway."

" I spent a long time trying to kill you," Blue adds. " So I guess the line between love and hate is thin."

Cheza jolts. Color comes to her cheeks. " Love," she repeats. "This one is glad that we love each other."

Kiba nearly falls down. This overwhelming feeling. He's never experienced it before.

" We'll all protect each other then and we'll keep going forever like we always have together." And the words sound so foreign to himself.

Tsume groans. "There was a time when I would have heard this and hurled you all off a cliff."

Toboe laughs. " Well, I'm glad you don't feel that way anymore."

"Hmm," Tsume says, his face growing serious again.

Toboe's ears flatten. "Oh."

Tsume laughs. A low sound not heard that often. " I'm joking."

Toboe shoves him over playfully, giggling. " Don't tease me."

" You shouldn't be so gullible," Tsume replies, still laughing.

Kiba listens to the laughter in the room briefly. Surprisingly, he starts to laugh too. He doesn't feel the dread in his heart, choking him at the throat. Maybe that's because they've got 5o spend half a day not fighting or running away from someone. And if things go well, according to Cheza's plan, then he might not need to worry for a long while. If things don't go well then- they've certainly gone through worse and lived through it. His pack will be fine.

Eventually, it's Blue who speaks again, gazing out the window. " So what are we going to do?"

Kiba looks at Cheza and smiles. He's still not used to that. He looks at everyone else and nods. " We're going to see that everything goes when Cheza walks down her road to peace."

Cheza smiles and hops over to him, tackle hugging him. He's not used to this feeling either, but he loves it. The others join in too. Even though they'll all have to get up and leave eventually, there's a whole lot to be done after all.

Hello and thank you for reading my Wolf's Rain fanfiction!

Every chapter I tell myself I'm going to sit down and write a really long final chapter. That doesn

Thanks for reading! (: