A forest fire started it all. I remembered as I ran through the woods, running as fast as my paws can take me. I heard the howls and cries in the air as I leaped over the trunks of nearby fallen trees. It was dark that night, very dark. I could barely see anything except the fire that surrounded where my pack was. The moon illuminated my path, always as if it was telling me to hurry. I shut my eyes and prayed that my family was okay.

I reached the area where my pack took refuge, and I saw a scene of massacre and carnage. I saw bodies of my pack members, scattered about with their throats torn out. Some pack members were still fighting, and it took a while for my eyes to register that they were fighting wolves. Wolves with the color of the moon, but they were not sent by the moon. Rather, they were sent by the devil himself. Eyes filled with rage and fur bristling, they attacked anyone in sight. Their muzzles drenched in blood, how could something so majestic be so vicious? White wolves were supposed to be calm and kind, we thought that since they had the color of the moon as their fur. I heard a cry coming from within the battle, and my heart skipped a beat.

Rain! I thought as I ran towards the cry. Please, please be okay.

I ran into two of the wolves, but that didn't stop me. With a ferocity I had not known before, I gripped their throats and sunk my fangs in. I felt their blood flowing into my mouth, but their blood tasted disgusting. Almost as if the blood was poisoned or something.

I reached my sister. She laid cowering behind my parents, who were fending off several of the attacker. She shut her eyes in fear, and she was whimpering. I saw my parents had several wounds over their bodies, and their thick grey coat were coated with blood.

"Dad! Mom!" I shouted, running over to assist them.

"No, Hail!" My dad yelled at me. "Take Rain and go! There's too many of them!"

I looked around, seeing the destruction before my eyes. There were so many wolves...surrounding their camp. More than he could count.

"I can't just leave you!" I shouted as I went over to them. My dad picked Rain up by the scruff and laid her next to me.

"I'll fight with you! Even if I die!" I screamed and shut my eyes. I felt my mother's warm tongue lick my cheeks and head.

"You're very brave, Hail. But who would protect Rain if you died?" she said warmly. She licked Rain's head as well, and Rain opened her eyes and nuzzled her cheeks with their mother's.

"Go now" she said to us. My father turned around and fixed me with an acknowledging stare.

"Survive, my children. Maybe there's a Paradise out there for you guys, but for us...Our Paradise is us dying knowing that you made it out alive" he said, his voice filled with pain from the wounds, and pain from inside knowing that he won't be there to make sure his children grow up healthy.

With tears flowing from my eyes, I grabbed Rain's scruff with all my might and sprinted down a nearby hill. I remembered her shouting and screaming and crying, and I remembered the howls of my parents and my pack. Then, at last, all was silent.

My mother once told me that if one follows in the shadow of the wolf, they'll find Paradise. If one follows in the light of the wolf, they'll unlock Paradise.

We hid in a nearby ditch, until I was sure the wolves had gone away. Then I threw my head back and howled. I howled until my throat was harsh and I could no longer speak. The tears kept flowing down my eyes and dripping onto the ground. Rain howled with me. It was a Requiem for our lost pack members, my family and our past lives. It was then I decided to protect the last remaining member of my pack. My only sibling and my twin; Rain.

"Hail?" Rain said as they pushed opened the door of the shelter they were hiding in. "What's wrong?"

Hail shook his head. "Nothing, just thinking of Paradise and what it's like."

"I believe it's something beautiful" Rain said, her tail up in a hopeful manner. Her eyes were filled with excitement.

"Yeah... I hope so."

Shiroi...

Shiroi... wake up.

Cheza?

Shiroi...find this one.

Where are you?

In this city...hurry.

Wait...Cheza!

Something is going to happen...

Shiroi's eyes opened, and he groaned. He had an excruciating headache, and his body felt like it was hit by a truck. He couldn't move any of his limbs, and the bullets that were shot at him were still in him. Around his neck was a heavy chain, several inches long attached to a steel bolt on the floor. Not that whoever did this to him needed to do that, he couldn't move anyways. He tried mending his wounds, but he didn't have enough energy. He tried remembering what happened, and the only thing he remembered was Toboe's face, then pain in his side. There was a girl beside Toboe, he remembered that before his vision blurred and he fell into darkness. He noticed he was in a room somewhere, or a basement. The cold floor confirmed this. His vision was still blurry from the attack, and his hind leg was twisted as a result of the bullet shot. He strained his ears to listen for anything.

"He knew my name..." a voice said faintly. Shiroi guessed it was Toboe's voice.

"Do you know him?" another voice asked, a female.

"No, he's one of Jaguara's dogs though" Toboe replied.

Jaguara's dogs? I don't have anything to do with her!

"He's a white wolf. Don't you remember what they did to us?"

Then silence.

The door was kicked opened as Toboe and the girl, Lyra, walked in. The sudden change in brightness caused Shiroi to squint, not like he could see anything anyways. His head was still throbbing from where the taser made contact with his head. Toboe padded next to Shiroi and fixed him with a cold stare, Lyra had a gun in her hands probably threatening him to try something and see the consequence of it.

"Who are you?" Toboe hissed at Shiroi. Shiroi cringed at the harshness in Toboe's voice, it was a complete contrast to the Toboe he used to know. "How do you know my name?"

"Toboe" Shiroi whispered weakly. "It's me...Hikaru."

"I don't know anyone by that name. Next question, why are you siding with the nobles?" Toboe asked bluntly.

"I'm...not" Shiroi coughed feebly. He suddenly felt his chain around his neck being yanked up, and he was forced to raise his head to face Toboe in the eye. He gasped for air as the chain was suffocating him.

"Don't bullshit me" Toboe snarled at him. "Your kind killed my family in cold blood. In cold blood" he repeated those words.

"Not...Lying..." Shiroi managed to wheeze out. He stared at Toboe with his crystalline eyes, hoping to bring some of his memories back up, but he couldn't. He felt the chain around his neck relax, and he fell to the ground gasping for breath.

"Okay, I'm going to be lenient here. What is Jaguara offering you to kill your own kind?"

"I'm... not...with...Jaguara" Shiroi voice's cracked as he said the words. Toboe leaned in and snarled in Shiroi's face.

"He's not answering my questions" Toboe said as he turned to Lyra. "The townspeople are probably looking for him, and when they do find him, they'll mutilate him. Even if he is a disgusting wolf that works under the nobles, I think he deserves better than that."

He took one look back at Shiroi, then turned to Lyra. "Shoot him, Lyra."

Shiroi's gaze landed on Lyra as he heard the words. Does Toboe really want me dead that much?

But Lyra stood frozen in her place. "S-shoot him? Toboe, you know I never fired a gun before!"

Toboe looked at her in the eye. "Remember what his kind did to our family Lyra! Remember how they tore your parents' throats out!"

Lyra gasped and held the quivering gun. "T-Toboe...I think he's telling the truth."

"No!" Toboe shouted. "White wolves are an omen of death and disaster! Shoot him now!"

"I-I can't!" she stammered as she dropped the gun and fell to her knees. For some reason, she couldn't shoot the very thing that killed her family.

"Fine, if you won't do it. I'll do it" Toboe hissed as he walked over to Shiroi. He bared his fangs and gripped Shiroi's throat with them. Shiroi gasped as he felt the pressure around his neck tighten and tighten. Toboe was actually trying to kill him.

Am...I going to die...without meeting...my...brother...again?

Dark spots began appearing before his eyes, his body began trembling.

The door to the basement was knocked aside and Toboe loosened his grip on Shiroi's throat. Another wolf, jet black fur with tints of white markings the edges of his ears,tail and paws stood in the doorway.

"I thought I smelled other wolves in the city, and I was right when I smelled blood" he said, surveying the cold basement. His blue eyes landed on Shiroi's body, with bullet marks and wounds all over his white coat.

"What the hell is going on here?" he shouted.

"None of your business" snarled Toboe. "Now get out before I rip your throat apart too."

Aatu's eyes suddenly filled with anger as he glimpsed the chain around Shiroi's neck. "Trying to gang up on a defenseless wolf with a human, is that how it is?" he asked, eying Lyra who was crying on the floor.

"Defenseless?" he snorted. "You don't even know what his kind has done."

"His kind? All I see here is a wounded wolf who's half dead?" snarled Aatu. "If there's one thing that pisses me off, it's animals like you taking advantage of the weak"

Toboe's lips curled up in a snarl and his ears flattened against his skull. "Taking advantage of the weak? You don't even understand our pain" he screamed as he leaped at Aatu. Aatu leaped at Toboe as well, with fangs and claws flashing, wolf blood was spilled on the ground.

Kurai stopped abruptly with Rain and Hail trailing behind him. He felt something in the air...No, in his heart.

Shiroi? he thought.

Deep inside the lab in Freeze City, the eyes of the Flower Maiden began to open.

"We have a response from Cheza" a young female with blonde hair, blue eyes, wearing a lab coat and glasses said to her colleagues.

Shiroi wanted to get up, and end this pointless fighting before someone go hurt, or even worst, killed. He tried getting to his feet, but his lack of strength and the chain around his neck prevented him from doing so. He opened his mouth and tried to tell them to stop, but all that came out was a hoarse whisper.

Toboe managed to pin Aatu down, though Aatu got a few bites and scratches off. The red wolf was surprised at how a wolf around his age was able to put up such a ferocious fighting spirit. Aatu didn't stop while he was pinned down onto the floor. Snarling and snapping, he threw his head around, trying to get a bite at Toboe. Growling, Toboe dug his claws into Aatu's shoulder and Aatu let out a screech of agony. Suddenly, they heard the sound of a pistol being cocked.

Two humans were standing at the entrance of the basement. One was red haired, and the other was black haired. Both had brown eyes, one of them wore glasses. The one with the glasses stepped forward with his pistol aimed at Toboe."

"Now, you have two seconds to get the fuck-" he emphasized the word fuck with a grit of his teeth. "Off him."

Toboe snarled at the two figures, before a bullet drilled a hole right next to his leg. He reluctantly stepped off Aatu, as Aatu rolled to his feet. He walked to where the two figures with his head low.

"I had him, Joey." he said, growling a bit.

"Oh yeah, you definitely had him" Fogul responded sarcastically.

"What the hell is going on here?" Joey asked.

"This wolf here, I don't know what his problem is. He was trying to kill that other wolf for no reason. Even if he had a response, it's a stupid one."

"What wolf?" Joey asked, his gaze looking around.

"That one over there" Aatu said, motioning with his ears to where Shiroi laid. The two brothers followed his gaze, and when they saw the wolf lying on the ground, Joey literally aimed his pistol at it.

"Fucking kill it, Joey" Fogul shouted at his brother.

"Wait, what? What are you guys doing?" Aatu asked as he looked at them. He saw Joey approaching Shiroi slowly, gun raised and sweat forming on his brows.

"Joey, what the hell?" he moved forward and blocked Joey's path.

"Out of the way, Aatu" came the command.

"Why? He didn't do anything to you!" Aatu shouted.

"Did you know? Wolves with white fur killed our family. That wolf over there took part of in our family's murder" Fogul shouted loudly. Toboe's ears twitched as he heard this. Perhaps these people weren't so different after all.

Joey pushed Aatu out of the way with his legs, and made his way to Shiroi, holding the gun in his hand. He was quivering, though. Sweat ran across his palms, and he took heavy breaths as he remembered how their family were killed that night. He approached Shiroi, aiming the gun at his head. He looked down and saw the crumpled form of an adversary which he sought after all his life.

"This isn't fair" Aatu shouted at both of them.

"Hell no, it's not fair. How they had hundred of their kind come after us, but only two of us going after them. At least we found an easy one to put down" Fogul replied without emotion.

"How do you know he was part of it? He's defenseless and look at his wounds!" He ran in front of Joey, in front of the gun. "You're killing someone who potentially didn't do anything in the first place!"

"No, white wolves are not to be trusted. They shouldn't be alive in the first place. Look at all the misfortune they've brought, Aatu. Look!"

Aatu refused to budge from his spot. "Wolves killed your family" he said sympathetically. "I'm a wolf, does that mean you'll kill me too later on?"

Fogul and Joey looked at each other. "Aatu, we would never...-"

"But you're killing this wolf here, who has done nothing to you" he sighed deeply. "You guys were the one who taught me that the strong should help the weak. If you do this, then I don't know what to think anymore. Everything you've told me would be a lie."

Joey looked at Aatu for a bit, and Fogul punched the walls of the basement with his knuckles. The impact was so great that there was a dent in the walls, and his knuckles began bleeding. Joey put his gun away, looked away and sighed.

Suddenly, Lyra who was still on the ground spoke up. Her voice trembled.

"Blue...eyes..." she whispered.

Everyone turned to look at her, including Toboe. "What do you mean, Lyra?" Toboe asked.

"The wolf...had blue eyes..."

Joey,Fogul and Lyra all knew that Jaguara's wolves had eyes filled with blood lust. They were red with rage, unable to see any reason. As if on cue, Shiroi began opening his eyes slowly, staring at them. Joey and Fogul looked into Shiroi's eyes and found kindness and warmth in them, rather than the fear they've experienced when fleeing from the other wolves. Lyra silently took off the chain around Shiroi's neck.

"So he's not part of Jaguara's wolves?" Toboe asked, staggering a bit, noticing he almost killed an innocent wolf in cold blood. He walked over to where Shiroi laid and began licking his wounds. When Shiroi raised his head warily to look at him, Toboe looked him in the eye.

"Sorry..." he whispered quietly. Aatu,Fogul and Joey walked towards them, settling beside Shiroi.

"What's your name?" Joey asked Lyra.

"Lyra..." she whispered, looking away and blushing a bit.

"A cute girl shouldn't cry" Fogul said, wiping a tear off her face. She blushed even more.

Shiroi looked at Aatu gratefully. "Thank you," he whispered.

Aatu gave a wolfish grin. "My name is Aatu, what's yours?"

"Shiroi"

"So, what is this with Jaguara and your kind?" asked Joey.

Shiroi fixed Joey with a confused gaze. "I'm not sure..."

"You're the only white wolf we've met so far who isn't part of Jaguara's wolves" Fogul added in.

"I don't remember...I've been asleep...for a long time" Shiroi responded. He attempted to rise, standing on trembling legs. It was only then did he notice it was nighttime, and the moon's light reflected through the rooftop window, revealing his markings to everyone. He took one step before threatening to collapse back then.

"You need to rest" Toboe said, padding next to Shiroi and supporting him with his shoulder.

"I need to find...my brother" Shiroi said.

"Brother?" echoed Joey and Fogul.

"Why? What are you going to do after you find him?" asked Aatu curiously.

Shiroi stopped in his tracks. Although he felt weak and sapped of energy, he could still do one thing. He threw his head back and howled. His eyes flashed for a bit and so did his markings. The wounds on Toboe and Aatu started mending themselves back together, and they felt warmth all around. Some of Shiroi's wounds also healed, but he still staggered.

"Woah, what the...?" Aatu started. He looked at Shiroi in puzzlement. "Just what are you, exactly?"

Shiroi ignored his question. "There's something...blocking me" he said. "Siphoning my energy..."

"It's the moonstones" Joey replied. "They've set up reactors in the city which emit a sort of barrier to deflect the moon's rays. They're trying to weed out the wolves."

"I need to find my brother..." Shiroi said as he stumbled out of he basement.

"You're half dead" Fogul said as they followed him out.

" I need to find him...to find Cheza... to find Paradise"

The word Paradise stopped Toboe cold in his tracks. "Paradise...?" he whispered. "Cheza...?" There was something there that he couldn't remember.

"Paradise, huh?" Aatu said. "My instincts were always telling me to find such a place..." He took a deep breath. "I'll help you find your brother."

Joey and Fogul looked at him, then they said "Us too."

"Really?" Aatu turned around to face them. "Why?"

Fogul chuckled. "You meat brain, we're a family. We have to stick together."

Aatu tackled them playfully. "Yeah, we're a family."

"I'll come with you too" Toboe said. "I think that if I follow you, I'll be able to remember something..."

Toboe felt a tug on his fur. He turned around to see Lyra facing them.

"Uhm...I would like to come too. I don't have any other places to go..."

Shiroi faced them. "It's going to be a tough journey..."

"I was getting sick of this town anyways" Joey chimed in.

Shiroi huffed and flicked his ears towards the giant castle in the middle of the city. "We have to find Cheza first, the Flower Maiden. She's up there."

With that, he started off towards the castle. Although, Shiroi didn't know how long he could sustain this. Him being out of energy and each step was clearly a heavy toll on his body. The wounds he had before were still visible on his body, although Toboe got the bullets out, he didn't know how long his ragged body could go on for.

A/N: Sorry if I focused too much on Shiroi in the first few chapters. I promise I'll start focusing on Kurai's point of view later on.