Disclaimer: dido as part one.

A/N: The final part of this chapter might seem a bit odd, but that's the way it was suppose to be when I first came up with the story. If I'm really lucky I'll finish this story before August. Just one more chapter to go! Yay! I wonder how many more reviews I'll get… Also, I know that this certainly isn't the best writing ever, nor deeply interesting…but it was fun writing it, since the story's coming to a close soon. Then I can lay back and let it simmer. Yay! And, wow, Kiba's part sure got bigger than I had planned. Yay! (again) (I seem to be saying that alot)

gravity of truth (part 2)

"You would have thought we'd learned you can't make promises all based upon tomorrow

Happiness, security, are words we only borrowed…"

-This Isn't What We Meant (Savatage)

When they had returned there was a stranger standing there, in the strikingly white waiting room. There looked as if there had been others as well, from the indifferently abandoned purse that lay near Hige's foot, but they were nowhere now in sight.

The stranger stood near Hige, who was still slumped backwards as Emma had last seen him. At the memory, she clasped the bag of pretzels to her breasts, having been reminded by Tsume. She always wanted to be helpful, to soothe others' pain and discomfort and yet, she had to be reminded to do even the smallest deeds.

Well, it's not like any of us are acting particularly normal. The thought seemed sudden but it was true. Hige was merely sitting in a kind of gloom, she couldn't seem to control her feelings and Tsume was being so nice.

Hige's drooping form did not seem to notice them, as the two of them approached. Oddly, Tsume seemed to be holding back, as if he was reluctant.

Puzzled, she gave him a side glance, which he only partly ignored. Tapping Hige gingerly on the shoulder, she deposited the pretzel bag to his lap in answer, as his gray eyes looked up into hers with inquiry.

After a stunned moment, he gave her a brief grin, as if in a silent thank you, before turning his attention to opening the small bag.

Only then did Emma let her eyes fully take in the stranger, now standing across from her.

The stranger's eyes had followed her every movement, their turquoise depths speaking volumes that struck some primordial cord in her vaguely defined sense of self. There was an intensity in those eyes, a wild, needless attraction that made her shiver without thinking, yet had nothing to do with the attraction she was use to. It seemed to be saying, in some silent, unspoken, but loudly yelling way, "I am here! I am here." It was like the untainted call of a wild animal.

She had never been one to spend much time in the great outdoors, though she enjoyed nature; she just had never been the kind of girl who liked to rough it out in the wilderness. Perhaps it was inevitable, but under his gaze, she felt slightly ashamed of that fact. Surely, if he was there, this stranger, she wouldn't have any need to worry?

Startled by her thought, she shook her head as if to banish the feelings that were brewing inside her.

They were so similar to the ones she had felt before, merely hours before when she had seen that wolf. Only this time it seemed—it felt—so much more persistent, more like an unconscious beating, burning, birthing in her blood. Before she had a chance to speak, to say what was on her mind or what was in her heart, Tsume spoke instead.

"You're Kiba, aren't you? That wolf we saw."

A wolf? He certainly didn't look like one at all.

Tsume's words also brought Hige's attention back to them.

"En 'olf?" he asked, mouth filled with pieces of pretzels.

Emma repressed a smirk at the younger man's expression. Though she thought he didn't look quite as puzzled as she felt.

Batting at Tsume's arm, almost without thinking, she said, through a forced kind of cheery indifference, "He's not a wolf. He doesn't look like one."

"You're saying then, this is Kiba." Hige spoke at the same time she did.

Tsume gave the seated man a sideways look, before nodding slowly. "At least…it makes sense doesn't it?" His gold eyes slanted in some untold emotion, perhaps suspicion, as he peered across at this supposed wolf.

Shaking off what the silver-haired man was saying, Emma turned instead to Hige, who was also staring at the stranger-who-might-be-a-wolf though his expression seemed more wistful, as if something was happening that he wasn't sure of but that some deep part of him had expected someday. His expression made her uneasy. It was almost as if… Absently she rubbed her elbows, chilled despite her raincoat. It was so similar to how she almost felt…and yet nothing like what she felt…she was sure of it! Who was this stranger?

At the thought, she turned her eyes back to him, to find the stranger, this Kiba, still staring at her. She blinked back and then she remembered. Or she remembered the name. She didn't how she could have forgotten. There was more beneath it, things that were white and shining, singing voices, and a tall dark twisted shape.

Kiba. He was the wolf…the white wolf who was waiting for me…who was searching for…for me?

Puzzled and a bit self-consciously, she bit on her lower lip, but before she could venture out another question to find some kind of understanding in this strange little tableau of stretched feelings, the moment was interrupted.

"Excuse me"

It looked like a doctor, with his trademark white coat, followed by two others, who she took after a moment of staring to be Toboe and Blue's aunt and uncle.

The one's they were here visiting.

"There doesn't seem to have been any real danger, just some cuts and bruises." The doctor himself seemed puzzled. "It was an unusual case. Only the driver's side was attacked…by that animal."

Tsume had an odd smirk on his face, as he eyed Kiba. The other man seemed immune to the silver-haired man's strange mood, staring stoically ahead. Without meaning to, Emma found herself eyeing this alleged Kiba, some thread in her beckoning to fully remember, for whatever it was that wanted to be remember to fully awaken for her truly to see it. It was unsettling to say the least, not to mention vaguely irritating. Pouting, she realized after a moment, that she had missed part of what the doctor had said.

Doctors. She had never liked them. They had always seemed so distant, full of ill humor and bad news; no she had never much cared for them.

Hige nudged her side.

"He says he thinks we can go visit. Seems to be rather amazed that they're all right."

"Of course they are." Kiba must have heard them, saying with solid assurance. "Of course they are. I wasn't trying to hurt them."

Staring at him, Emma felt some untold feeling clutch around her heart. It was less wild than before, less demanding, and less persistent. It was merely like a call, a quiet little call that she couldn't deny anymore than she could breathe. And yet, more than that, it was a vibrantly sweet, earnest thing; that was all it was. It was simply a part of who she was.

Without realizing what she was doing, she smiled at this stranger, at this Kiba, the first pure smile she had had it seemed in a long time. In this brief moment her troubles didn't seem to bother her. That her writing was struggling, that her life path seemed to be lost, that there were changes in her life that were making the sense around her crack and break; none of it seemed to matter, or at least it didn't seem so bad. Life was about merely existing, and that was what he was. He was, this Kiba, he was existing, just like her, beating with the same rhythm as her. And it made her smile.

Kiba returned the gesture, and there was something sweet in it, so unrestricted, that it made her smile even more.

Realizing that the others had already begun walking down the hall the doctor had come from, she gave Kiba a small shrug, as if embarrassed and followed.

The turquoise-eyed man came in beside her, closer than she was generally comfortable with, but somehow with him she didn't seem to mind.

"I finally found you Cheza."

Despite all the stress and alarm of the last few hours, she found herself suddenly appeased, in some deep way Tsume had been unable to reach. She found herself smiling yet again. For the moment, whatever fears she had were silenced.

"Yes you did Kiba."

There was a light in his eyes that seemed so warm, brighter than she had seen them yet, as if he had finally come home, and it made her serenely happy to see it.

Blue looked quite annoyed about the whole thing.

She was talking animatedly to Hige, who was watching her in turn with an intense concentration in his eyes, as if he wanted to memorize everything she said. Watching them, it made him glad for everything he gone through to get here, to be with them all again. And yet…

Kiba glanced around him, the scent of the place stinging his nose. There was Cheza of course. She had seemed upset earlier but he could tell something had changed and he was glad of it. None of the others seemed quite aware of what was going on, except maybe Tsume. Even Cheza did not seem to really understand who he was. He almost thought Hige did, but he wasn't sure. And even Tsume seemed…a bit backwards than he should have been. It was puzzling.

To the others in the room, it looked as if his face was scrunched up in a serious, thoughtful expression. There were definitely things that needed to be said.

A woman he didn't recognize came up to him, her lighter blue eyes curious, but he could smell the caution on her skin.

"Who are you? Are you a friend?"

"I'm Kiba."

That obviously did not seem to be what she wanted to hear.

The woman watched him warily, about to open her mouth, but Cheza came to his rescue.

"Uh, he's a friend. He just got here tonight. He's um…a friend of mine. Yes." Her head nodded dynamically, as if to emphasis the point. The woman watched Cheza with torn feelings, then seemed to give in.

"All right, fine. Bert and I are going to the next room, where Michael and the twins are."

Kiba didn't quite understand what the woman was saying but he nodded politely anyway because he felt that was what she wanted. Cheza followed suit.

In moments, they had left, leaving the wolf feeling a bit freer than before.

The other occupant of the room, who he supposed was Toboe, was watching Kiba with interest in his hazel eyes.

"Who's that?"

"Huh? Oh that's Kiba." Hige said without a second thought, waving distantly behind him.

"Kiba?" Toboe gave Hige a weird look that went back to staring at him. "That's an odd name," he added, this time directing his words to Kiba.

The wolf stared back.

"I've been searching for all of you."

His words and the solemnness of his tone, made all eyes turn toward him. A blue pair of confused uncertainty. A set of gray eyes with bemused interest. Hazel eyes of thoughtful inspiration. A pair of golden eyes filled with ambiguous distrust. And of course, her eyes. They were watching him, somewhere between peaceful contentment and churning insecurity.

"I've been searching for you a long time."

Tsume was the first to break the silence.

"What hell does that mean?"

He found himself quietly amused, not so much by Tsume's hostility but by the nagging look Toboe gave him, as if silently telling the older man to be nicer.

Scratching his head, Hige turned his attention more immediately to the discussion, saying, "So what are you anyway? Kiba, right?" He looked thoughtful a moment. "Well, I already knew that…odd, isn't it?" The question seemed more directed at himself. Shaking himself, Hige continued. "Anyway, are you a wolf, or a human?"

Nodding slowly, Kiba answered quietly, "It's hard to explain. I'm not even sure I can explain it myself. I know I'm a wolf; I've always been one for as long as I can remember, but there are other ways…other ways of appearing." Even as he said it, he was bitten with a twinge of uncertainty. Surely this was what he had been running so hard to fine. Sometimes it all felt like a dream, some hazy memory in a rain-washed world, but these feelings, this rightness, this assurance despite everything, told him, in some deep part of himself, that he was right.

"I hadn't thought a wolf would do something like that," Hige murmured, "I thought they'd have too much, I don't know, pride or something."

Kiba bared his teeth in what appeared to them as a human grin.

"Pride doesn't count for much if you're dead."

The now human Hige watched him, with a slight smirk on his face which broke out into a wide smile.

"I like this fellow, whatever the heck he is!"

Something in those words seemed to break a tension that had gently begun to build unobtrusively in the air, leaving it clearer. Kiba found himself happy for the first time in what seemed a long time.

It had been two weeks after the accident, and Blue, Roger, the twins and Michael had returned to the farmhouse. A small celebration had occurred, rather against Susan's will, but he thought it had probably been for the best. None of them were the worse for the experience, accident or not, and that was something to be glad for. It had been quite a spectacle on Susan's behalf, trying her hardest to make the best of the situation. Of course, without a doubt there were many things to be grateful for. Blue, her brothers' and Roger's well-being the topmost. Though for the other reasons behind the accident somehow or other they had decided it would be best to stay. At least for awhile.

Bert himself was still not clear on what was really going on. He knew that the other three were friends, or something of that sort, of his nephew and niece but who that new fourth member was he didn't know. There was something undeniably…different about him. What did he say his name was? Kiba, was it? The name wasn't precisely familiar but it made his nose itch.

After the others had left, she was still sitting there. Susan had gone out earlier, probably expecting to find Emma out there with the rest of them, but the girl was still inside. There was an awkward tenseness in the air, at least at his end, as he tried rather unobtrusively to wash the dishes.

Out of the corner of his eye he watched the young girl, Emma. She was delicately built and usually sat, the few times he had seen her around the months before, with a meticulous posture. But right now that meticulous posture was horridly off and she slouched solemnly across the countertop at the round kitchen table.

Realizing that he was staring oddly he turned his eyes back to the soapy water before him.

The sink was a shiny metal, carefully cleaned topped to the brim with whiteness blue bubbles. From outside a trickle of light made them seem to glow with the iridescent shine of a rainbow. Through the watery whiteness and colors he could see his hands. They were ordinary hands, of course. He was no one special. Always trying his hardest, he took pleasure in the simple things of life. Working with his hands, such as he was doing now, or something like that. It was the little things that made life so full. And then naturally for him there was Susan.

Bert could hardly remember how it was they had ever met. A freak chance and then he had been unable to forget her. Following her, trying to win her for a second date took more persistence than even he had thought he had. But there had been a determination, a steadfast certainty that she was the one for him, and he'd go to any lengths to make her happy. Somehow, he had won her, an amazing event yet somehow so expectant. He never dwelled on such thoughts often, but recent had made him think a bit more about his life.

It had been a happy one, if difficult at times, but he wouldn't change it for anything. As long as he had Susan, everything would be all right.

He glanced up from the soapy water and his wayward inner thoughts, to find the girl Emma still sitting there. She seemed sadder than before. Normally considering the circumstances he could understand, but everything had turned out all right. Everyone was all right, if a little sore. No damage, except perhaps on financial money and a little behind in school but really there was nothing else to worry about. So why did she look so sad?

Before he had time to fathom what he was doing, he found his voice calling out, across the kitchen, "Why so down? Surely there's nothing to feel about. Everything's fine now."

Startled, Emma glanced at him, remaining silent.

Feeling as startled as her, Bert blinked, a bit self-consciously.

"It's just…you look so sad." He felt foolish saying it but it was true. She didn't look like the kind of girl who should be that distressed; it somehow felt wrong. "Why aren't you out with the others? Surely you'd rather be out with them then in here with…someone like me?" Some unspoken emotion hovered beneath his words, something he couldn't quite place. He gently shrugged in off, mentally dismissing it.

Emma gave me a slim half-smile from where she sat, one side of her mouth curving upward.

"You're not so bad to be around. But it's not you…and it's not them. Not exactly anyway. I'm not too sure myself…" She fell silent, biting her lip, eyes averted.

He waited patiently for her to continue. There was no reason for him to, but he wanted to help.

"It's just…I'm not sure of myself. Of who I am. Where I'm going. I have goals…I mean everyone does, but there's all these…new…feelings, things I can't explain and I just…I feel so confused." Giving him a weak, almost self-pitying grin, she continued on in a voice that seemed to say she was sorry for troubling him. "I don't know why I'm bothering you with this, or even what I mean I just…"

"You just don't know what do to, is that it?"

She stared at him, then slowly nodded, unsure.

Feeling put on, he murmured, turning his eyes back to the dishes in front of him. His hands were certainly going to get wrinkled after all this time. "It's just," he paused, looking for whatever words he wanted to say. "Everyone gets lost sometime. It's how you handle it that changes things. You just have to faith you can make it to the end of the road. You just have to believe you can."

The smile she gave now seemed bit more genuine.

"Is that what you always told yourself?"

"Something like it, though I never said it as such."

A short silence followed, filled with the sound of natural noises, the ticking of the clock, the hum of the already full dishwasher; comforting, normal sounds. The sound of a chair scraping the tiled floor brought his attention back.

"I'll think about it."

"I don't believe him."

Tsume's assertion was seconded by Kiba, who nodded in a solemn kind of approval. The youngest of the five of them, watched the two with disdain.

"You can't be serious," Toboe scolded. "He didn't mean it. It was accident."

From the barn's unused stalls, blue eyes watched the proceedings with a hesitant interest. Lying nearby was Hige, who seemed more interested in tormenting the small mouse that had come into the barn unaware and was even now being poked into a tight corner of stone by a long branch.

"And Hige leave that poor mouse alone!" Toboe demanded.

The gray-eyed boy scowled, but stopped his pursuit anyway.

Turning back to the serious faces around him, he stretched his shoulders, saying "Who really cares? I mean why should it matter if Raphael caused the accident or not? So it was his car, well, whoop-de-doo. Whatever. I don't think it makes any kind of difference."

Toboe visibly cringed at that very bad attempt, at least in his view, of any kind of defense. He didn't know why Tsume and Kiba seemed so determined to attack Emma's friend.

"It's more than that." Kiba's tone held a particular kind of calm, but there was an edge of panic to his voice as well. "I felt it. That…dark corruption. I could smell it. That's why I tried to stop it."

"Well, that didn't do much good, did it?" He knew he was a being a bit hard-tempered but he couldn't help it. The auburn haired boy couldn't understand why everyone seemed so intent on being mean.

Admittedly, the white wolf looked embarrassed about Toboe's outburst, scratching absently at his dark brown hair. "I know that, but I had to do something."

Feeling a bit bad about what he had said, Toboe added, "But you haven't explained why Raphael should be a threat? He's only Cheza's friend."

"I didn't like him the minute I saw him. There's something about him…" Tsume didn't let his sentence finish, but Kiba nodded as if he had.

"I've never met this 'Raphael' but there's something around him that smells…of something dangerous."

"How do you know it's him and not someone else? Someone else who may have used the car before he did?" The calm voice of reason, cut through the air. Blue was watching them all, her namesake eyes beneath folded brows.

"That's right." Nodding vigorously, Toboe pointed in his cousin's direction. "She's right you know."

Kiba looking swayed, but Tsume only scowled.

"Who else does he know, other than Emma?"

The silver-haired man's question was followed by silence. Unwittingly all eyes turned to Hige, watching them from the floor.

"What?"

"You're the only one who lived here long enough, idiot. What do you think?"

Grinning, Hige rose to a sitting position, facing Tsume.

"How the hell should I know? I've only just met the guy." As an afterthought he added, "I do think he has a brother. An older one. Cheza told me that."

Golden eyes looked skeptically at Hige, one eyebrow raised. "You're saying it's his brother?"

"Yes, but what is it?" Toboe hadn't mean to interrupt, but it was really gnawing at him. Both Tsume and Kiba seemed to feel there was some kind of threat, whether it was Raphael or not didn't seem to matter as much as there was something. Even Hige seemed to feel something. It was like being deaf and knowing there were sounds he was missing but not knowing what it was. It made him nervous. "You keep saying, the 'dangerous dark wrongness' but that doesn't mean anything to me. Nothing I really understand, anyway."

"Yes." Blue echoed her cousin's sentiment. "At least explain it."

"I can't." The way Kiba said it made it sound as if he wished he could but that this was something, somehow, he could not explain. "I'm not even sure, just that I knew I had to find her. There's something bad, something out there. We can't let him take it away, take away what we have."

"What are you talking about?" This came from Hige, who was staring at Kiba in confusion. "Do you mean our families are in danger from this bad stuff? Is that what you mean?"

Near the stalls, Blue's head jerked up at attention, more alert than she had been.

"I don't believe so." He sounded quite sure of himself, and after a moment gave a dim smile than seemed out of place on Kiba's face. "It's not about them. Just us."

"Then what is the dark stuff gonna take?" Hige asked.

"Paradise."

The word brought with it a tingle down his spine, a trickle of excitement that seemed born of wind and grass and wild flowers. Though the moment was spoiled by Tsume's loud bark of laughter.

"Yer kidding, right?" He watched Kiba as if he thought the wolf was trying to make a bad joke. "You can't be serious."

Kiba actually looked mildly hurt by the silver-haired man's words.

"Tsume…"

Whatever the wolf may have said was interrupted by a shrill shriek, just outside the barn. It sounded more startled then afraid, more put out then concerned.

Kiba gave a shout of, "Cheza!" before he dashed back out the door, faster than any of the others. Stunned, they followed him as fast as they could.

"Damn." Tsume swore, standing there a moment before following behind.

What met their eyes was perhaps the oddest thing Toboe had yet seen in his life. Emma, seeming unconscious, was being held tightly by the nape of her neck, dangling there loosely, only a few yards away as if she was a broken toy. It seemed a bizarre place to hold someone, Toboe couldn't help thinking. The man in question was dressed in black, his skin a dark shade as well, with eyes that seemed unfocused. He didn't seem to be aware that they were there; he merely continued muttering to himself in a strained whisper.

Listening as hard as he could, Toboe still couldn't hear anything the odd man was saying.

"That's it! That's it." Kiba growled, as if that outburst explained everything. None of the others were paying much attention to him. Blue looked alarmed, while Hige seemed confused, gray eyes darting back from where they had come and back again as if he couldn't quite get his mind around what was happening. Tsume merely looked pissed off. And Toboe mostly felt unsettled, as if some giant alarm was going off in his gut but one he couldn't quite understand.

Before anyone else could make a move, Kiba dove at the dark man, his illusion melting away in a moment. The stranger didn't seem to see the white wolf but held up his other arm, the free one and bashed it against Kiba's colliding form. The following sound thundered with a loud crack, knocking Kiba into the short grass.

Concerned, Toboe's eyes darted back toward the back door of the house, but neither his aunt nor uncle were in sight. That in itself, surprisingly, puzzled him more than anything that had happened. Another shout, this one from Blue, made him turn back in time to see the strange black man running off into the nearby woods, carrying Emma in his arms.

Kiba rose with a snarl, obviously intent on following.

"Easy." There was an edge to Hige's voice. "You can't go barreling all through town trying to find him."

"I can try."

"Yeah, but people'd only call the cops. I live here you might remember, so I've got an idea where he went."

"Who was that?" Toboe wasn't sure why he asked, but he felt he had to, to do something about the tenseness in the air.

"That was Raphael's brother I think." Giving a grim grin, Hige sighed. "Who knew? Blue was right."