Chapter II: Do you believe in paradise?

"Anything on her vitals?"

"Spectral radiation unchanged"

"Any response to the test?"

"None just as we suspected"

Cher sighed staring up at the angelic figure floating calmly in the tank of green water in front of them. A calm silence enveloped all working quietly in the room. Mahina too stared up at this mystical being who looked so oblivious to the world around but gave off an aura of being so very aware.

"So she's been awake this whole time" Cher concluded, Mahina nodded slowly though she wouldn't exactly say she was awake. Her eyes remained half opened, unblinking and unfocused. The she-wolf took a few steps closer to the tank allowing the angel within to embrace her with her emotions, she could not see or smell, she could not speak but she knew. Cheza knew of the white wolf's presence in the city and she Mahina was here as well. Like mentioned before, she was aware but that was all.

"She appears to be rather calm now" Mahina replied to Cher closing her eyes not bothering to look at the data, she didn't need data when Cheza so readily let her emotions dance through Mahina's every senses "She's still in fairly an excited state" she said feeling it deep in her heart, the excitement boiling inside Cheza. It was starting to get so strong in her too, Mahina felt, if she didn't compose herself, like she'd start running around with glee. She had found what she came looking for now it was just a matter of how she could get herself and Cheza out of the city without causing uproar before getting a safe distance away.

This building was so tightly locked. Even the staff couldn't get to certain parts of the building if they didn't have the right certification. How could she hope to get Cheza out and not be noticed? It was quite the dilemma and trying to figure it out was beginning to make Mahina's head hurt. She needed to clear her thoughts with a good walk. "Cher" she said calmly making Cher look away from the sample she was studying and look at her.

"yes Mahi?" she asked, the lab assistant approached Cher setting the clipboard in her hands down on the desk before her.

"Do you mind if I take a break and have walk around the city?" Mahina asked there was a silence in the room for a few minutes before Cher nodded smiling.

"Sure Mahi, you have been working all night after all. Besides I'm sure you'd want to get familiar with the city you just moved to. If you find that dog make sure to contact us alright?" she said Mahina nodded stripping off her lab coat and hanging it up.

"Yes Ma'am" she said pulling her hair out of the hair clip that held it up and out of the. Under her lab coat was a black spaghetti strap blouse that held perfectly to her slim form and black jeans with a pair of worn looking shoes. Mahina replaced her lab coat with a grey hoodie lazily pulling it over her shoulders. There wasn't going to be an if she found the 'dog', when Mahina found his distinct scent she would seek him out. It was what Cheza wanted and maybe Mahina would find a way to get the flower maiden out of this forsaken city. "I will be back soon" she said bowing and then walked out of the door.

As soon as she left Cher didn't return to her work like most would expect her to. There was something bothering the woman, it was that dog. Even though there had been just one dog there were bits of fur around the cage that belonged to two other canines. No one had seen these mystery dogs at all but they had been there. Then there was something else...Mahina. She acted so strangely the minute she entered the room and when the dog got away she didn't look surprise... In fact she looked relived. She was a strange girl and as a result Cher did not go right back to work when she left instead the others in the room watched her as she walked over to Mahina's lab coat and looked at it to see fur inside the coat.

"Hmm..." Cher stared curiously.

"The Nobles are at it again it's seems like now a days they take one idiot after another"

"Where do they take them?"

"Probably the same place they took you"

Snow and fresh pine, Mahina inhaled through her nose softly; disgusting human food...they were close. Mahina folded her arms behind her back and she calmly rounded a corner her ears picking up their voices after a long walk of tracking their scents.

A tiny yelp jumped from her side stopping Mahina in her tracks. Slowly she looked to the side at a little pug, man these dogs were tiny! She could eat him for lunch! Like any other dog this one coward at Mahina's presence, its human owner was busy gossiping with another about the wolf or 'dog' that had been caught the day before. She stared at the shaking dog with a blank expression but then quickly bared her sharp teeth in a dangerous grin and snarled at the pathetic little runt. It whimpered and hid behind its owner's legs and Mahina, amused, proceeded on down the alleyway she had turned to.

"That's perfect"

"Huh?"

"I'll blend in and sneak inside"

"What? But we had to fool them just to get out of there! That hotdog fried your brain"

"I'm going back in".

Mahina stopped half way down the alley and quietly leaned her shoulder against the wall. Her eyes found their target and stared at the brunette boy before her with slightly wideness. The boy who was with him sat on some steps nearby and sighed leaning his head back. Neither had seemed to notice Mahina there.

"Wait a minute, what about Paradise!" he yelled, what did he just say? Paradise? Mahina tipped her head ever so slightly when she heard this.

"Look," the brunette spoke "the scent is all over this city but it's mainly located somewhere inside that building and the only way we can get in is to get captured" his company didn't seem to agree, frankly he didn't seem at all interested but Mahina was. This wolf was looking for paradise which meant he was here for Cheza...did Cheza know? Was that why she grew so excited? The brunette stared at his companion hard "you know what's there don't you, what they're hiding behind those walls" he went on and his friend stared at him and then sighed again.

"The beacon that will lead us to Paradise" Mahina finally voiced making the boy sitting down jump and the other turn and look at her.

"You" he said as she walked up to them.

"There's no way you'll get close to Cheza" she informed him leaning her back against the wall when she got close enough to them they both stared at her but Mahina was focused on the brown haired boy before her. His blue eyes were intense to look at.

"Cheza" the brown hair boy repeated Mahina nodded.

"The flower maiden created from lunar flowers" she said

"Listen, it's useless they have that place locked down. Even I could only get as far as the lab" the boy sitting down voiced

"So then why did you try to sneak in there?" Mahina asked, if she recalled right she saw him before her conversation with the white wolf standing before her. The male shrugged his shoulders, his leather dog collar bouncing as he did.

"For a little excitement I guess" the boy replied

"If you really wanted to reach Cheza you would have been smarter than say you were on the cleaning crew" Mahina pointed out watching the rather chubby boy out of the corner of her eye as he watched her from where he sat. Again he shrugged so Mahina lost interest in him, instead she looked to the male standing "I've seen her" she told him before she could stop herself "she's there" his blue eyes reflected his determination at Mahina, that was all he needed to know. The chubby boy grunted mumbling to himself. The two others looked his way.

"Hige don't you believe in Paradise too?" the white wolf asked but stubborn Hige would not budge.

"I'm not going, no way" he said leaving his friend alone in his mission to get back in the building. The white wolf stared at him for moment before turning away from both Hige and Mahina unfazed by Hige's rejection.

"Alright well seeya" he said walking away

"Wait Kiba!" Hige said but Kiba of course didn't stop, he just kept walking away in the direction of the building in the center of the city. Mahina stared after him, so the great white wolf's name...was Kiba, lovely. When Kiba did not stop or address either of the wolves he was leaving behind Hige sighed "give a guy advice and what does it do you, oh well see if I care" he said and then looked back at Mahina "are you here for the Flower Maiden too?" he asked her. Tearing her eyes away from Kiba to Hige the girl stared neutrally at the male.

"...yes...and no..." she said softly looking back in the direction Kiba went.

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Hige asked bewilderedly.

"...well" Mahina tugged her hood over her head and tucked her hands into her pockets "I came here for the Flower maiden... but I found something else" judging by the look on his face he didn't understand but that was okay because Mahina didn't want him to.

"Um...alright..." he said "what's your name anyway?" the female pushed off the wall and walking forward towards the building. She'd had enough of walking and as fate would have it she may have just found a way to get into the building. Perhaps Kiba could help her.

"Mahina" she replied to Hige and took off in a sprint in an effort to catch up to Kiba.

"Hey wait!" Hige called making her stop on one foot spinning on it to face Hige.

"I'm sure we will meet again" she said calmly before turning to face where she was going again and was off. Hige stood up and stared after her as she sprinted away. Man was she pretty, he hadn't seen a female like her in a while... his nose suddenly twitched and he sniffed the air.

"...she smells like Lunar flowers..." he mumbled to himself.

The faded soles of her shoes were soundless against the concrete, if this were a regular human she could have easily snuck up on them, even if were a regular wolf she could have kept herself so quiet that by the time they notice her it would be too late but this wasn't a regular wolf by any standards. Mahina stopped abruptly in her steps when Kiba suddenly stopped walking and turned looking back at her.

"You're following me" he stated but Mahina was too focused on the fact that he noticed her following him so quickly.

"How did you..."

"Your scent is very distinct" Kiba informed her calmly "hasn't anyone ever told you that?" Mahina blinked and quickly shook her head at his question, her scent was distinct? Did he say that in a sense that she, being a female, had a certain scent? She raised her arm to her nose to smell, she couldn't smell anything.

"I don't see enough of our kind to have someone tell me that" she replied with a shrug taking calm strides until she stood besides the white wolf that towered over her slightly. Kiba's eyes never left her as she drew near.

"Why are you following me?" he asked directly to the point.

"Your wounds" Mahina answered softly, rather than look into to blue eyes, that held even more intensity than her own, the she-wolf let her red orbs scan his body. He had been badly injured when she saw him last "I wanted to look at them, make sure you were okay"

"They healed" Kiba replied "it was a full moon last night after all" he had a point so Mahina made no protest. Before she knew it the two of them were walking casually together in the direction of the building. For the most part the walk was quiet, they kept to back alleys instead of the open street with all the humans, Kiba had warned against it saying there was a man with a gun a black dog running around the main streets and it had been this man that cause Kiba to be captured in the first place. When the tall building began casting a shadow over the two a conversation began to form. "You said you saw Cheza" Kiba's voice attracted crimson eyes he kept looking straight ahead as he walked "was finding her what you came here to do?" he was a sharp one Mahina would give him that. With a soft smile she looked ahead as well and nodded.

"I've been looking for Cheza for as long as I can remember" she said recalling the years of constant searching "It's almost like I have to find her. She calls to me, I can feel her emotions like they're my own and I can sense when she is near" crimson met azure as female and male stared at one another and for that still moment a certain understand formed between them though words had been spoken and still wordless they gaze up at the towering building.

"I do believe in paradise?" the question came so suddenly to the calm silence Mahina almost thought that she had asked the question in her head but it was Kiba who had spoken. Without a second thought the she-wolf nodded.

"With all my heart and soul" she replied, whether or not Kiba was satisfied with this answer Mahina did not know but after a long pause she decided it was time to return to Cheza, but first... "You need to get into the building right?"

"Oh there you are Miss Cher..." Mahina started to say as she stepped into the lab but went silent when she saw the woman was on the phone. Silently she slipped her lap coat on and pulled her hair back up like it had been before. She sat down at the desk beside Cher listening to the conversation from her end.

"We analyzed the dog hairs in the cage and they don't match the ones on the body but there are also two more sets of hair unidentified...as far as we can tell there were three types of hairs around the cage... You okay? You're not acting like yourself. No offense, but I thought you didn't like dogs and to be honest your starting to sound a little bit obsessed..." moments later veins appeared atop Cher's temple as her temper peeked and she hung up the phone.

She had kept herself from telling Hubb that she had found dog hair in Mahina's lab coat and that they matched one of the two unknown sets of hair around the cage. It was strange, the hairs were definitely canine and when you added that to the manner in which the bars of the cage had been bent it was obvious to tell that the dog had friends and they probably helped him escape, but no one had seen three dogs escape the building no one even knew how they got in. Cher certainly hadn't seen them and yet Mahina, who had been with Cher the whole time, had a good amount of fur from one of them all over the inside of her lab coat. Taking this to Hubb would have been the smart thing to do but Cher wanted to figure out why this was how it was on her own.

"You found another dog?" Cher jumped when she heard the voice of the girl she was so deep in thought about. How long had she been there? She turned around in her chair.

"Oh Mahina, it's you" she said calming down Mahina smiled from where she sat next to Cher. She had Cheza's data on her lap and hair was pinned up, she looked as though she never left or had been sitting there a while but Cher had just looked this way a moment ago and she wasn't there... "Did you enjoy your walk?" the woman asked making the strange assistant nod.

"Oh yes very much the fresh air was a pleasant one" Mahina said "this city is very big though, I would have been back sooner but it was easy to become lost and hard to find my way again" Cher chuckled at this nodding her head.

"You just moved here" she said "give it some time and you'll know your way around" but Mahina had stopped listening, her nose twitched ever so slightly and she turned her attention to what Cher was working on. It held the scent of Kiba, Hige, herself and another wolf.

"What are you working on?" she asked tilting her head at Cher

"Hubb showed me a body found from last night's raid, it was a child that fell from the roof trying to escape. We found a large bite wound and dog hair on it"

"Do you think it might have been the dog?" Mahina questioned, she honestly wouldn't put it past that white wolf to attack someone despite his calm disposition. Cher shook her head.

"When I picked up hair from the cage and tested them they didn't match" She answered looking at her test and then at Mahina from the corner of her eye. The girl hummed in response say something about that meaning there was another dog running loose but Cher could only guess that's what she said, her head was turned away from Cher making her words distant and hard to hear, she was looking at Cheza like she often did. "But" Cher spoke up again "I also found two other sets of hair around the cage that also didn't match and when you left I found that one of those sets matched dog hair I found in your lab coat Mahi"

Hair in her coat? Mahina jumped in her seat spinning back around to look at the woman. Damn, she forgot the fact that she did leave hair behind anything that wasn't apart of her human appearance. Still it matter not, it was easy enough to explain away.

"You must have gotten the hair from my dog" she said quickly, Cher looked at her turning her body fully toward her.

"You have a dog?" she asked Mahina nodded.

"Yes, a tiny little thing, she ran off the day I got here I had to find her and carry her home before I came here. Her fur must have come off my cloths on the inside of the lab coat and on the cage when I was examining that white dog" Mahina explained coolly and with a false smile on her face. The two women locked eyes for a long time both trying to find the others deep secrets just by staring. Did Cher suspect Mahina, probably but she would find no further grounds to her suspicions and she wouldn't see Mahina for much longer.

Just wait...

"Maybe you can find something if you look into the data I found from these hairs" Cher finally spoke breaking the silence with a sigh and submitting from their staring battle. Mahina nodded and like usual the two were off to work.

Hour went by and neither woman spoke, just kept working. With the now late hours progressing the lab slowly emptied of its workers one by one until it was just the two of them. Mahina could feel that Cher wasn't going to be able to keep awake much longer which was good, when Cher fell asleep nothing stood in the way of Cheza. She could get the maiden out of here tonight, get her into a lab coat, slip her out of the building and eventually the city and be on her way. Mahina glanced up at the ceiling sitting back in her chair for a moment just spinning in it slowly. All this testing, it was meaningless when you had a higher sense of smell. She knew what three of the four hairs belonged to, that was Kiba, Hige and herself but the last one... The she-wolf slowly turned her eyes to the tray that held this fourth hair; it reeked of smoke and ash, of cargo boxes and gun powder but most of all it reeked of human. Still it was indeed that of another wolf, she still gathered that much from among the numerous other scents, but of course Mahina had little to no interest in the unknown wolf unless he or she had something to do with why she was here but she doubted that. Besides it smelled like they were some sort of pet, they were pretty damn involved with some human group and the she-wolf had no interest in housed trained dogs, they hardly proved useful outside the safety of their homes.

Mahina's eyes shifted from the hair towards Cher slumped over in her seat with her head tucked into her arms deep asleep in her chair. "...she's asleep" Mahina mumbled softly a cunning grin coming to her lips.

"Doctor...Doctor" Cher groaned finding herself being woken up just a short while after she thought she fell asleep but when she looked at her watch.

"Is it that late already?" she mumbled and to the person who woke her. She expected to see Mahina but was taken aback when she met eyes with a lab worker instead, the man who shook her nodded "has there been any changes?" she asked the man of course shook his head.

"there hasn't been any changed for a while now so I thought maybe you should call it a night" he replied Cher sighed and glanced beside her guessing since she handy woken Cher up she'd either see Mahina still hard at work or sleeping as well but gasped as she saw nothing but an empty chair and the girls lap coat on it. "...Where's Mahina?" she said softly.

"You can get me into the building?"

Mahina strolled calmly down a hall, her shoes touched soundlessly on the floor as she walked.

"Last night a group of raiders hit the building; it seems they've been causing a lot of trouble. They're looking for anyone that might be a part of that gang."

No one bother Mahina or stopped her as she kept walking. Even though she'd only been here a day her eyes had easily verified her 'employment' in the building, most everyone seem to know she worked for Cher. Most of them actually greeted her as she wandered the halls giving charming smiles in return.

"So I just have to act like I'm part of that gang, it should be easy enough"

"I'm here to ask one of your prisoners about the large dog that disappeared yesterday" Mahina addressed the guard blankly "Miss Cher hopes to get as much information as she can so she can continue her work"

"Of course, go right in" the armed man stepped aside allowing the she-wolf to access the door.

"Thank you" she smiled charmingly at him.

"I've already secured a place in the lab and I have easy access to Cheza. It'll be a little work but I can get you out of where ever you'll be held"

"How will you find me? That place is very big"

"...your scent is very distinct, hasn't anyone ever told you that?"

"By the way" Mahina stopped just as the door opened "On my way down I saw a couple of suspiciously looking guys walking about by the elevator. I thought I might inform you" the man became alert at this news; he thanked her and hurried off to the elevators. She could once again hear Kiba and Hige talking about getting out of their prison the minute she stepped in and closed the door behind her.

"So then what happens then? What's your great plan?"

"What are you just standing there for Kiba?" Hige's voice questioned quietly "use your awesome teeth and bend these bad boys so we can get out of here" but Kiba was silent in response. She could see him in a cell packed with sleeping humans and he was looking her way ignoring Hige's complaining obviously more aware of her presence than the chubby wolf with him. "Kiba-" Hige faltered, his nose twitched and after sniffing the air he looked in the same direction as Kiba.

"...Well..."

From her pocket Mahina pulled a key out and held up for the males to see with a smile on her face.

"I come get you, we get Cheza and we get out of this trashy dump"

"Mahina" Hige openly showed his gratitude when he saw her approach the cell.

"Everyone has left the lab" Mahina remarked as she unlocked the cell and let the two out "The only one remaining is asleep, if we hurry we can get Cheza out before anyone can notice" she closed the cell behind them and locked it back up tucking the key back in her pocket just in case. Kiba gave her a brief nod as the three made their way towards the door that's when the lights suddenly went out. "Crap" Mahina mumbled under her breath, was this another raid?...no...no this was different she could hear a faint ringing echoing through the building. A noble was here. "We have to hurry" Hige took off out of the room and down the hall sped down the hall in a full run.

"This way!" he called to them, Kiba looked to Mahina for confirmation and when the she-wolf nodded he took off following Hige with Mahina close behind.

They hurried out of the cell area and down the long, dimly lit halls until suddenly Hige skidded to a stop and then Kiba stopped. Mahina didn't notice this for she had been busy looking behind them to make sure they weren't being followed and so ran into Kiba who stumbled forward a little. The she-wolf clung to his jacket when he did to keep from falling over and looked up at him with heated scarlet cheeks as he stared back at her startled.

"s-sorry" she voice but Hige shushed her, someone was coming down the hall. Mahina inched past the males and glanced down the hall to see it was a lap worker who, to the females luck, had just looked up and spotted her. That was the man that had given her the tour!

"Oh, Miss Mahi! There you are" he said and Mahina jumped shooting her head back quick. She pressed her back against the wall hoping that he just thought he was seeing things but when she heard footsteps she knew he was coming.

"Dammit" she grumbled realizing she had just gotten them all caught but as soon as she said that she felt someone tug at her arm. Mahina turned her head to be staring into the azure eyes of Kiba. Behind him Hige was pulling a cover off a vent just his reach. He climbed in and Kiba soon followed and with a little help the slim, much shorter female was hoisted in with them.

Within minutes she was following Kiba and Hige through what felt like miles of ventilation. Dust tickled her nose, cobwebs tangled in her hair and cloths as they Turned corners over and over again almost endlessly until Hige had found a way out they appeared to be outside the building now.

"This way" he called once the last of them, Mahina, landed gracefully on the ground. Hige ran in a direction Kiba followed and since he looked to be going the right way so did Mahina.

She would have followed them back into the building but when they suddenly reached a fork in their path Mahina stopped. A deep throb thundered from inside her and through her body. Something wasn't right at all, her vision blurred before her until all she saw was a hazy vision of upside down halls, strong hands carried her even though she was standing, she could feel fear, and confusion all at the same time and that was when the She-wolf realized it: Someone was taking Cheza and they were close to the person. The vision faded and the world came swirling back it a dizzying spiral until Mahina saw Hige turn down one of the paths and Kiba followed as they passed soldiers out cold on the ground.

"No you're going the wrong way!" she yelled making them both stop and look back at her. Her hair was prickling across her skin now as a sense of panic over came the slender wolf's being.

"What are you talking about" Hige yelled back but Mahina shook her head.

"There's no time! Someone's taken her! It's this way I can feel it!" she called and took off down the opposite way instead of through the path Hige had gone through. 'Cheza!' her mind yelled out hoping, praying that the maiden could sense her as well as the she could sense the maiden 'Cheza I'm coming!'

"What the..." Hige mumbled staring at the space the female once stood and so did Kiba before he took off after her "hey! Kiba wait up!" Hige yelled running after him.

Mahina was far ahead of both of them by this time, She didn't know what was driving her down this way when Hige was going in the direction Chez was being kept but something was tell her to go this way and whatever that feeling was it was right. Mahina skidded to a stop as she looked above to see a man, a human, a noble carrying Cheza. Kiba and Hige stopped behind her and stared as well.