(I decided to re-upload this chapter after taking out a ton of unnecessary author's notes and after making a few minor edits to help improve the story slightly.)

Keep close track of whether the characters are in their wolf or human forms. Often there's no segue between the two what-so-ever, and often it's the speech being in italics or in quotations that is all that tells you the difference.

Chapter 1: City of Teeth

Clouds covered the sky in an oppressing blanket, shedding their snow upon the desolate earth below them.

A wolf lay sprawled on its side, slowly being covered by the descending snow, its tracks already barely distinguishable from the rest of the ground. His pale gold eyes were barely open and slowly drifting shut.

I don't believe in Paradise; I never have, not even for a second. Why would such a place exist for my kind, for me...?

The wolf's lips curled back to emit a brief, self-mocking huff of air that fogged in front of him and wafted, rising up into the night before dispersing completely.

And, yet, here I am, stranded and practically dead because I've been looking for a place I know isn't real…

The cloud cover momentarily broke apart, allowing the sliver of moon that was all there was in the night sky to shed enough light on the wolf for it to notice. It gathered its energy and lifted its head to look up to the bright shard of moon left hanging in the sky.

Don't give up, Seto. Find Paradise, find me, a voice whispered in the wolf's ear, straying through the air to him from the moon just as the snowflakes did from the clouds. Find me, Seto. And, with the words, came the scent of lunar flowers.

Joey sniffed the air, an inane, carefree smile on his face.

"Hey, hey you!" A figure shouted at him from behind. "I'm detective Tristan Taylor. I need you to move away from the edge and come over here with me… That means now!"

Joey rolled his eyes underneath his lids and was tempted to give the guy the bird. He was enjoying himself basking in what little sunlight was let through the dome. Lying on his back, arms behind his head, and legs dangling over a fifteen hundred foot drop, Joey was completely content to stay there all day. He sighed. The fact that he was in a restricted area was probably more the problem than the fact that he could pull the whole 'end-my-life' routine with a bounce of his hips. Would Lord Pegasus really mind that Joey was using his upper city as a tanning bed? Joey didn't think so.

And, he knew that the police wouldn't dare to come out and grab him. The overhanging platform he was on was riddled with holes large enough to claim a car, and some could even send a tank plummeting through them. They didn't know if it was stable. Joey did, but he had certain advantages the human cops didn't, so he could be pretty sure that, as long as they didn't bring out the ammo, he'd be able to stay there as long as he pleased.

"Sir, for your own safety, I need you to move away from the edge and off the platform and for you to come with me," the detective tried coaxing. "We'll get you to someone whom you can talk about things with, and—hey!" This time Joey hadn't refrained from flipping the cop off.

As Detective Taylor began to squawk, threatening to get reinforcements up here and hauling Joey's ass off to jail, Joey let a more rascally grin steal over his features, causing him to bare his teeth. He went back to sniffing for a breeze that didn't exist within the dome.

"Smells like…" Joey frowned and opened his honey eyes. Sitting up and pushing the detective's shouts even further towards the back of his mind, Joey took deep drags of air into his longs through his nose, identifying every scent that passed on the way by. "Huh…"

Joey stood up and began slowly walking back to the chain link fence with barbed wire curlicuing across the top that was supposed to cut off the ledge from access. The detective was waiting on the other side of it, already fiddling with the keys to the gate.

"That's right, keep coming, keep coming," Detective Taylor encouraged, pleased that his orders were finally being followed. "Very nice, very— hey! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Look out for the hole in front of you, buddy!" One of those tank-sized holes was right in the path of the approaching trespasser. Joey kept on coming. "Sir? Sir? You need to come around…! Damn it, around!"

Joey paused just a step in front of the opening in the platform, a chinking sound Tristan had barely noticed before stopping with him. The detective sighed in relief. Raising half-open eyes that had been previously focused on the platform ahead of his feet, Joey looked Tristan straight in the eye.

"I'll make ya a deal, detective. If ya can tell me what it smells like, I'll pass 'round this hole and come over nice and quiet. If ya can't, I guess you'll just have ta fill out a bunch of paperwork on why ya short one perp. Whaddaya say?" he proposed, raising his arms in query. "Seems pretty fair ta me afta ya interrupted my tan-time."

"What? Uh… it smells like…" Joey was surprised the detective was actually playing along with his game. "… smog. This dome smells like smog," the detective stated surely. "Now, if you would please just come around—"

"Nope. I'm sorry, but dat was not da answer we was looking for today. Oh, well. Have fun wit dat paperwork." And, with that, he stepped into the empty space and went plummeting down to the city below.

Tristan just stared in shock for a moment. "Goddamn!" he shouted, viciously tearing his hat off his head and throwing it to the ground. Why was he always sent on the jumper cases? He was breathing harshly. Thoughts of going down to try and find the body one hundred and fifty stories below him were passing through his mind before he realized that the man wouldn't even have hit the ground yet. He waited for a few minutes, collecting himself, before trying to get his mind in order.

He's gone by now. Tristan picked up his hat again, a sooty smear on it from being on the ground. "Just great," he muttered, putting it back on anyway. He turned and walked back to his unmarked patrol car, making up his mind to head down and do a quick look-about for any obvious corpses. The thing was, after a fall from so high up it would just be easier to wait around for a call from a distressed citizen or the gathering of crows to signal where whatever was left of the body was.

The detective had a feeling as he backed out from where he'd parked the car that this was going to be a long, hard day.

Several dozen feet below him, Joey crouched in the remains of an old sewer tunnel jutting far out into the abyss below the platform and the particular hole Joey had "fallen" through. He listened and waited, almost feeling bad for the guy's reaction. But, hey, that was a human for you: always getting worked up over things they couldn't change, not that Joey could blame them for it. But, even if the cop had answered the question right, there was no way Joey was leaving with him.

"The answer was 'change', cop," he said in low tones. "It smells like change… of course, right now it just smells like shit," he muttered as he began working his way up the tunnel, into the bowels of the city.

The few people out in the streets of the particularly seedy part of town Yami was walking through stopped and stared at the stranger with the gorgeous yellow dog at his side.

"He must have stolen it," Yami heard one person mutter to another.

"Yeah, definitely. There's no way someone that dirty would be able to afford a pooch that pretty… I wonder how much it's worth?" Yami smirked at the greed evident in the people's voices. They could try, but they'd be in for a surprise should they try and take Mai from him. Having had her with him for so long, sometimes Yami forgot what a beautiful dog she was until they came in contact with other people. Her buttery colored fur was the perfect backdrop for her rosy nose and lilac eyes.

"Ah, finally," he said, seeing the sign for a tavern hanging above a door at the end of an alleyway. "I could use a drink by now." An old, rust-covered bicycle stand was set up by the entrance, and Yami tied Mai's leash to it as she sat primly beside him, as if she knew she was made for better things than this filthy back alleyway. Yami heard shuffling behind him and Mai let out a low warning growl: the two punks who Yami had overheard admiring the dog most particularly were slowly sidling up to the two.

"If you want her," Yami called, shocking the two with his direct address, "go ahead and try to convince her to go along with you. I should warn you, though, she's pretty high maintenance." To Mai he whispered, "Give 'em hell, Mai-girl." She gave a rumbling growl in response. "Good dog." He rubbed her between the ears and stood up.

"Have fun," he called to the two hooligans hovering just a ways away before heading into the bar. The guys looked at each other as the door closed behind the stranger. They tore their eyes from each other when they heard a sinister snarling sound from the beautiful dog tied up beside the door. Hesitantly, one of the guys took a step towards Mai. The snarling grew louder, lavender eyes flashing, and Mai lunged.

Had Mai been able to laugh as the two punks ran terrified down the alley, she would have. As it was, she pulled her lips from her teeth in a sharp-toothed grin and lay down with a somewhat disgusted look on her face on the dirty street to wait for Yami.

Yami himself was getting his hip flask refilled and treating himself to a glass of undiluted arak, no ice.

"Hey, what's that sound?" the bartender asked, hearing Mai outside.

"Ah, just some hoodlums trying to steal my dog," Yami answered. "Don't worry about it. Mai can take care of herself."

"Huh, well it's your dog," the man dismissed with a shrug.

Not actually, Yami thought with a grimace. Downing the rest of the glass, he made it clear he wanted another. The man handed over the next glass.

"Not many people come in here looking for arak. I was beginning to think it was a bad investment."

"It's pretty common where I'm from," Yami shared.

The bartender waited for him to elaborate, but was forced to ask when he didn't, "Where would that be?"

"Egypt." He finished his drink again, tapping it against the table, waiting for another.

"Whoa. You've come a far way. It's a shame what happened to that place," the bartender commented, taking the glass and replacing it with a new one filled to the brim.

"Oh, really?" Yami questioned in a sinister manner, eyes in shadow.

"Yeah, what with all the shit that happened to the place. The Nile drying up, the disease and starvation, all that bloodshed… If their royal family hadn't had it so bad themselves, I'd blame them," he continued, oblivious to the stiffening of his client.

"It was all the wolves' fault," Yami rumbled darkly into his glass.

"What?" the man asked laughingly.

"Don't laugh!" The man quickly shut up and stepped back at the almost insane gleam in his customer's eyes. "They still exist, and wherever they go, from the Shadows they bring their curse." The man stared, open-mouthed, at the supreme certainty and utter madness of the statement.

"You can't really mean that," the bartender scoffed. "Wolves have been extinct for years, and how could they have brought about the destruction of an entire country?"

"They did it! The wolves—!"

Yami was interrupted by true snarls and barks of fury and warning coming from Mai outside. As he grabbed his rifle from beneath his beat-up, undyed leather trench coat and rushed to discover whatever had set Mai off, the bartender, realizing the sort of dangerous man Yami was, was glad he didn't know the guy had a gun when he'd failed to agree with him.

Mai had been lying curled up by the bike rack, annoyed for the delay but willing to let Yami take his time before they had to move on again, passing her time by licking clean her elegant, almost-white paws. She hadn't been wrong: the scent-trail of the wolf they'd been following had led them straight into the city, and it had been easy to follow since, somewhere along the way, the wolf they'd been following had stupidly injured himself and was leaving a trace aroma of blood wherever he went. In Mai's mind, it was merely a matter of Yami pulling away from the bar and pulling the trigger to bringing this wolf down, simple as that.

She was a bit jittery, but it was more from the fact that she'd been jazzed up for the chase for so long than that she was nervous about the final confrontation. That wolf was as good as dead from a combination of her tracking, Yami's aim, and its own injury.

Then, she'd caught the scent. She'd been following it for so long that it almost slipped her grasp. But, the wolf she'd been tracking was extremely close. She'd stood up and begun growling and bristling as she'd waited for it to come into view, but when it had, she'd stopped everything and had not been able to believe her eyes. It was not the gray wolf that she'd seen, but a tall, thin human, with brown hair, dressed in blue jeans and a black turtleneck.

It… it can't be him. He's a human.

Mai had stood still, jaw agape, unable to do anything in her shock. The wolf… the human had walked with a limp on its left side, moving slowly with its hands in its pockets. Seeming to sense the lavender eyes isolated on him, or perhaps smelling her, the man had stopped and directed his gaze to Mai. The eyes may now be blue, but Mai had recognized the stark, coldly intelligent, yet ardent look in them. They were eyes that hungered for more than food and were same as that of the gray wolf's.

Snapping back to herself, Mai had thrown herself against her leash, almost causing it to sever and putting the old bike rack to the test, and barked and snarled as loud as she could to alert Yami. The wolves would pay for what they had done to Yami and their family.

The wolf-who-was-human stayed for a moment more, conflicted, before fleeing as quickly as it could on its bad leg, boots pounding in an uneven rhythm on the pavement. Again, the few people left on the street looked at the dog, both in fear and awe at the force the lovely dog was expressing. Yami burst out from the dingy bar, rifle ready to shoot, only to see nothing that even remotely resembled a wolf other than Mai. But, that didn't mean it wasn't there.

Mai-girl is never wrong about these things, he thought to himself as he ran to the alley's end. Again, as he looked around, there was no trace of a wolf, until he looked down. In the sludge that had made its way onto the pavement from the clogged sewers, were the footprints of a wolf.

Seto lay resting beneath the roots of a generous tree in the middle of a trashy concrete jungle. It had been close when the dog that had been trailing him recognized him, even with his disguise, but it wasn't something he couldn't handle. Seto could handle anything.

Damn straight, he thought to himself, breathing harshly as consciousness returned to his body. The wound on his thigh had been troublesome for a while now, but after the exercise he put it through getting away from the yellow dog, it had gone from merely irritating and cumbersome back to painful. Horrid bitch.

Then, Seto heard what had woken him from his already tense respite.

"Whoa, this thing looks pretty beat. I'm not even sure it's alive," a foolhardy voice said behind him, proving its idiocy by reaching out and actually grabbing and tugging at Seto just around the tibia of his injured leg. Seto growled low in his chest, barely a mild grumble escaping, not loud enough for the human to take notice and take heed to back off.

"What should we do with it, Duke?" the voice asked like it didn't have a clue.

"Pull it out so we can see what we're dealing with." This voice was arrogant. Seto scowled. He didn't like arrogance in anyone but himself. He didn't like anyone but himself.

"But, uh…" the guy protested.

Don't you dare touch me again, don't you dare… It became a mantra that repeated in Seto's head as he exposed his teeth and geared himself up to make his escape while, in the background, the noise of the man actually trying to make an argument as to why he shouldn't touch the "dog" played out.

The man lost.

He touched Seto.

Even with his wounded leg, Seto was quick, and before the sucker knew what was happening, Seto had whirled around… and torn out his throat.

Through the spurting of blood and the gasps and screams around him, Seto assessed the situation: approximately a dozen humans, all male, were loosely clustered around the tree that had sheltered him. All but one had expressions of terror and surprise on their faces, and all but one were dressed in layers of clothing chosen to keep them warm and help them blend into the background.

The one who stood out held the stature and air of a leader, so Seto knew this was Duke. His expression was that of slight astonishment and a fair amount of smug wonder. He wore nothing for cover but a sleeveless red jacket over a black tank top and pants. His accessories of red bandana, cross pendant, and dice earring were designed to show he was special and "above" the rest of his fellows.

They were all just humans to Seto. And, each and every one of them should fear him. Which, they did. With his face twisted in anger, fangs bloodied and still buried in the neck of their comrade, Seto was a fiend that would feature in their nightmares as long as they lived.

Holding the dark emerald eyes of the leader of this band of humans, he purposely bit down hard on the neck of the one ordered to "pull him out". Duke's eyes widened, as if he realized he was getting some sort of signal from the creature. When Seto let the corpse drop, tearing his teeth from its flesh, he made sure to hold the eyes of the leader for a moment more before making his bid for freedom.

Seto knew his conveyance of threat had paid off when he heard clicking sounds and then the voice of Duke saying, "No, let it go. Chauncy was a burden to us anyway."

The gang watched as the gray beast sped away with an odd, unnatural sway to its gait.

"What do we do with Chauncy's body, Duke?" one of his men asked.

"Just throw it over the edge," he answered, indifferent. As far as he was concerned, Chauncy had stopped being Duke's problem once his breath had left his body. And, throwing him over the edge of the platform that they were standing on would cement that fact for everyone. The whole city was made of elevated landings, and it wasn't uncommon for people to just be randomly found dead at the bottom of them.

"Come on, guys," he said once Chauncy's body had gone over the edge.

"Where we goin', boss?"

"We're going for a raid, gentlemen."

"But, I thought the next one wasn't planned for until later tonight," one of his men griped.

Duke turned around and stared at the dissenting man. He waited until the man became nice and uncomfortable before saying, "It's not. I just thought we'd have a bit of fun until then." He ended with a vicious smile springing to his face. "Let's get a move on, unless, of course, you want to go join Chauncy."

His men scrambled into position rather hastily after that.

Seto calmed himself enough to recreate the illusion of being a human. Limping his way down a fairly packed street with vendors on both sides, he tried to decide what to do next.

Find me, Seto. He shook his head to rid it of the voice.

"Look, mommy," a high-pitched child said. "A doggy!" Seto looked to the side to see a little girl bundled in a pink parka pointing at him.

"Sweetheart! Don't be so impolite! I'm sorry, sir, she didn't mean to be rude." It took quite a while for Seto to notice that the child's mother was speaking to him.

"It's… it's fine," he muttered before walking away quickly from the child that saw too much. He wished he hadn't let himself become so off-guard when he went around a random corner without thinking and, waiting at the other end of the deserted street, was that wretched yellow dog and her human.

Mai broke free of Yami's grip on her leash and went charging down the street toward the man/wolf.

"Mai!" Yami didn't understand what had gotten into her, but he raised his rifle just in case, to put her down if that's what it came to. The goal was to protect humans, not harm them. But, when he brought the scope up to his eye, through it he saw not a man, but the gray wolf with a terrible contorted expression on its face.

Yami gasped. So, that's how they've been evading us for so long. He pulled his eye away to check that he wasn't making a horrible mistake and saw the man again, but when he put his eye back to the scope, it was the wolf, the same look and scar on both their faces. A fifty percent chance of this being a wolf was enough for Yami, and he pulled the trigger just before Mai reached the man.

The man fell back into the busy street, but, as people turned to the sound of a gunshot, they saw a gray dog falling to the pavement rather than a human.

Before blacking out Seto heard the little girl in the pink parka screaming, "Doggy!"

In a lab, within the confines of Lord Pegasus's keep, suspended by arms chained above her head in a dully glowing blue fluid, a flower was beginning to awaken.

Oh, Seto. You're here, but why do you have to be hurt for me to know that?

Lifting her head, unable to see through the liquid submerging her, Kisara didn't even try to see anything outside of herself, instead searching inside for the pain signaling Seto had been wronged in some way. Unable to get anything concrete now that Seto was unconscious, Kisara gave up her efforts.

Wrapping her slim hands around the silver chain she dangled from, Kisara pulled, reaching with her toes downward at the same time to extend her body that had been dormant for so long that it felt odd to finally be present in it again.

Outside her bubble of indigo, men and women in lab coats were scuttling and calling for one of the chief scientists to come and observe the sudden activity from the long latent Femme Luna, Kisara.

"Dr. Gardner!" one of the team exclaimed in relief, thanking the powers-that-be that one of the senior personnel had shown up.

"What's happening down here?" Tea asked, never having seen such activity in the Blue Room since her first days when the Femme Luna had just been relocated and renovations had still been in the works.

"Tea, the Femme Luna's been moving, stretching, in fact, as if she's just woken up," another assistant spoke up excitedly.

"When did this start?" Tea asked in an awed voice as she walked up to the monitoring station in front of the cylindrical tank holding Kisara.

"At exactly sixteen hundred hours, ma'am," a technician answered her. "So, about ten minutes ago. It started with her fluttering her eyelids and frowning slightly like she was in physical discomfort."

"Has anything been changed, her chain, the solution, anything that would cause her pain?" Tea asked urgently. It wasn't merely professionalism that made her ask. This creature had become Tea's life. Everything the Femme Luna did directly affected her, and Tea had grown to care for the girl. If someone had hurt the subject of her studies through simple carelessness or on purpose, Tea would make them pay for harming her Kisara.

"No, ma'am. Nothing's been altered in any significant way or that hasn't been specifically ordered by yourself."

"What's her latest activity been?" Tea stepped around the station and walked up to the tank.

"The latest thing she's been doing is wriggling her toes, Dr. Gardner." Many of the surrounding staff laughed lightly, more from a sense of wonder than that they found it comical.

Tea watched for a moment among a few of the other technicians who'd been sent to visually observe the Femme Luna as Kisara curled and uncurled her toes in a fanning motion once… and then twice.

"Amazing," Tea whispered. Looking up, Tea saw Kisara's eyes for the first time. Even through the blue-tinted solution, Tea would swear that her eyes were a darker version of the liquid's color. They were only barely open and they weren't at all focused. The solution was a trap of sorts; due to the electromagnetic radiation the solution put out, light became twisted, and people outside the tank could see in, but nothing inside could see out.

"What do we do, Dr. Gardner?" someone asked quietly behind her, as if she were aware of the moment she was intruding on.

"We…" Tea cleared her throat. "All we can do now is watch her. Tomorrow we'll do some tests to see if she's responding to anything. For the moment, let's just enjoy this." Not one of the staff members had ever seen Kisara do more than "breathe" in her aquatic environment, and with their lives dedicated to their work with the Femme Luna, Tea's need to just watch and take in the moment was understandable to each and every one of them.

Four hours later:

"Tristan, what do you need me for?" Tea asked, exasperated. Dealing with her ex was an annoyance that she would rather not have to deal with. She had a headache from staring so long into that blue glow already, anyway.

"Just come with me. I think you might find this interesting," Tristan answered. At least, I hope you will. "I interviewed a man today, a guy from Egypt. He shot a dog in the middle of a fairly occupied area, and when we questioned him about it, he swore that the thing was a wolf."

"A wolf? Those have been extinct for centuries." Tea noticed Tristan's smile as he detected the note of curiosity in her voice. She frowned and flipped her hair haughtily out of her face. "I still don't know why you called me."

"Just give this thing a chance, Tea." He held a side door along the corridor they'd been walking through open for her.

In a cage set up in the middle of the room, a gray dog lay. A few dribbles of blood made a path to the cage door, and smears of blood showed where the dog had been pushed to the center of his confinement.

"Why do you keep it if it's dead?" Tea asked, walking up to it, hands braced on her hips.

"Evidence," he answered. "We're letting the guy go, though. He didn't actual harm anyone, and no one else had been in that alley. There was a woman, however, and her daughter that swore a man had just gone down that way. The little girl actual tried to make me believe the man had been the dog. Or, is it 'the wolf'?" Tristan joked.

"I can't really say. And, all the books that might have helped me identify it have been forbidden… Not that it matters. This isn't my line of work anyway," she dismissed, backing away from the cage with the dead canine inside.

"Hn. So, I heard you and the rest of the lab have made some real progress with the Femme Luna," Tristan mentioned begrudgingly. He hated that flower/girl.

"Yes," Tea said, brightening. "At four o'clock today we started getting the first ever recorded movement from her. It's as if we've been watching her sleep this whole time, or like we've been waiting for our friend to come out and play with us after days without seeing them."

I'd describe her as "giddy" right now, Tristan thought. When they were married, he remembered her getting excited over things like "Kisara's heart skipped a beat today" and "someone said they thought they saw her pinkie twitch on her right hand early this afternoon." How Tea's job of watching a girl float about in a tank got in the way of their marriage made no sense to him.

"Four o'clock, huh? That's about the time this guy was shot," he mentioned, gesturing with a hand to the dog.

"Yeah? Poor thing. Someone's probably looking for him," Tea put in. Even if it was a little beat-up looking, it was still a stunning dog with its dark fur, with more frosted patches on its face and undersides.

"Well, they'll be searching a long time. We've been ordered to incinerate the carcass."

"So, why haven't you?" They turned to the door and began to leave.

"I'd like to think being a detective means I can unload the menial stuff onto some of the lower-ranked kids. Anyway, I had some guy jump on me today from the upper city for no good reason and need to fill out the paperwork on that. Ugh, trying to explain how he got up there in the first place is going to be the biggest problem."

"Why do you always get the jumpers?" Tea asked, also remembering a time when they were married and would have the few dinners they got to have together interrupted by a call about someone on top of one ledge or building or another.

"That's exactly what I thought," Tristan said, chuckling. He caught Tea's eye. "Hey, Tea…"

"No, Tristan. I jumped with you before; I didn't like the way down," she said somewhat harshly as she picked up his train of thought.

"Yeah, the landing was a nightmare, too," he muttered, flicking off the lights and closing the door behind them.

A figure detached itself from the shadows in the room with a clinking just as Seto began taking deep gulps of air in after breathing shallowly for so long.

"Nice job playin' dead," the figure commented, not unkindly.

You know you smell like shit? Seto mentioned, unkindly.

"Bein' in a sewer will do dat ta ya," the figure answered through clenched teeth. Suddenly, it was a deep tan wolf with gold and copper tints to its fur standing before the cage, twisting itself around to sniff at its side. I guess it is pretty bad.

He turned back to the gray wolf. Seto was lifting himself to his feet. His back leg was rather unsteady still, much of the healing having been diverted from it to the bullet wound which was mostly closed now.

The gold/copper/tan wolf suddenly disappeared into the darkness again.

"So, how ya plannin' on gettin' out?" The voice was far away, near the door that had just been closed. There was a click, and the lights went on. They revealed the figure as being a fairly tall, fairly lean boy with scruffy straw-blonde hair and honey eyes. He was wearing olive and tan combat boots, an army-green jacket over a black T-shirt, and dark khaki cargo pants. A pair of army-issued dog tags was hung around his neck.

Seto looked around his enclosure. Why would you put a dead animal in a cage? If Seto weren't a wolf, he wouldn't have been going anywhere. He limped over and sniffed at the door and lock. The only person to so far have touched the lock had been the man with the woman in here just minutes ago. Which didn't help him out a damn bit.

The other wolf came over and began sniffing at the lock as well. I could go after dat guy and get da key from him, he offered. He did the wolf approximation of an evil chortle. He'll think he's seen a ghost.

I don't need the help, was the terse reply as Seto hobbled away from the door, turning his back to the tan wolf.

Uh, yeah, ya do. Hey! Would ya look at me when I'm talkin' ta ya! Joey hurried around to the other side of the cage and planted himself in front of the gray wolf, tags swinging and chiming. Seto paid no attention. He was looking at the actual bars of the cage.

Maybe I should just leave ya here to become a science experiment, that'll teach— Yah!

Joey yipped and leaped back, cowering, as Seto thrust his head though the bars, almost smashing Joey in the nose with his own muzzle. Joey growled anxiously. What're ya doin'? he asked as Seto tried to force a leg and shoulder through. Ya aren't gonna fit.

Not as a wolf, Seto snarled to himself, backing out of the small space between the bars. Calming down, Seto took on his human form. "Mn," he groaned, stretching his tall frame as much as he could in the miniature enclosure.

Tight fit? the tan wolf snarked.

Ignoring him, Seto ran a hand through his coffee-brown hair before returning his attention to the bars. At this point, he needed to decide which, if it came down to it, would be easier to deal with: the cut on his left thigh, or the just barely closed bullet hole Yami had created through his right shoulder and pleural cavity.

Thank the powers-that-be that jack-off missed a lung, Seto allowed himself to think, getting a sense of how close he'd really been to ending up as nothing more than a stiff destined for the incinerator. Transforming back into a wolf for a moment to shake himself thoroughly of the thought, he changed back and put his right arm out through the bars. He winced as his weight settled on his bad shoulder, but he needed to keep it off his leg for as long as possible. If there was a need to run, his hind legs would be more instrumental than his fore in giving him the power and speed to get away.

He put his head through and reached his left arm up to grab the upper rim of the cage. Struggling a little to squeeze them through, Seto got his shoulders to pass through the bars. He heaved and pulled the rest of his torso through the bars, but his right hand slipped and his shoulder crashed against the floor. He hissed but refrained from phasing back to a wolf at the pain. He wouldn't be able to stop his instincts from taking over and scaring the shit out of himself being trapped halfway between freedom and imprisonment. He'd never be able to go back to human form and he'd be caught again, his hips too wide as a wolf to pass through the bars.

Breathing calmly, Seto let the pain pass before he wriggled his lower half free of the cage, taking care for the gash. He ended up lying on his back for a momentary rest with his feet still resting in the cage.

"Damn. I was sure ya wasn't gonna be able ta make it through, but there ya go," the annoying blonde said, crouching over the brunette.

"Get out of my face," Seto told him, sitting up. Joey moved a little ways away, but basically stayed near his new "friend".

"So, now what do we do?" Joey asked, scratching his chin and smiling languidly.

Seto sat up. "You go your way, and I go mine." He stood and tested his leg. It wasn't as bad as he thought, but it was still a good idea to not slide out of the cage on his left side and tempt reopening the wound. Content with his state of health, he started walking to the door.

"Hey!" the blonde squawked, scrabbling to get off the floor and following Seto. "Do ya even know the way out?"

"No." He kept walking. "I'll figure it out."

"Yeah, but I do know the way, and I can get ya outta of here, easy," Joey offered.

A gray wolf turned around, ears forward, eyes wide, but teeth not yet bared.

Joey, tail lowered with a curl at the end and ears switching between upright and pinned back, not certain whether he was the submissive one here or not, or if he was actually being threatened. He wasn't used to being a part of a hierarchy: it was difficult interpreting the body language, and he'd been looking out for himself for so long anyways that he wasn't sure if he wanted someone else to be in charge of him. In fact, he was pretty sure he didn't, but…

I do not need you or whatever help you are trying to offer, Seto finally said, growling lowly.

Joey stared at him for a moment, ears finally settling back, tail wrapping around his leg in deference, and head lowering along with his eyes. I smelled ya comin', he admitted, feeling completely exposed for what he was about to say. And, I've been hearin' a whisperin' in my head between two people. They haven't been talkin' to me, but I still feel what they've been talkin' about involves me in some way. And, there's always one word, the only word I'm able ta actually recognize, and dat's 'Paradise'.

Paradise is a myth, Seto responded quickly, not wanting to believe what the wolf before him was saying. It sounded suspiciously like the conversations Seto had in his own mind with some distant voice.

It does seem impossible, the tan wolf concurred. But, so's my bein' able ta smell my way here, even through da stink in da sewer tunnel, and from all da way across da city. So's my hearin' voices in my head tellin' me not a word except dat of 'Paradise'… Seto looked away, and Joey moved a few steps forward. Maybe ya don't need my help, but I think I need yours. Joey moved right in front of Seto and began licking the grey wolf under his chin.

Enough, Seto said, and he backed away. "… Get us out of here."

"Right." A relieved grin worked its way to Joey's face. They made their way out the door along the halls, encountering no humans.

"My name's Joey by da way," he mentioned to the man limping along beside him.

"I know."

"What?" Joey's head twisted to look at him with widened, almost scared eyes.

"Your tags," Seto said with lightly disguised scorn in his voice.

"S'just my name on them. Not like any humans claimin' me," Joey defended. When the other man didn't give any sign of believing him, Joey said with more conviction, "I'm no one's pet."

"Good," Seto stated firmly and severely, leaving no doubt what he thought of such creatures.

"And, who're ya?" Joey questioned.

"Seto."

There was a deafening boom! and alarms began sounding. With flashing red lights taking the place of the overhead fluorescents, the shadows of Seto and Joey, still having the shape of wolves, made it seem like a whole pack was in the passage.

"What da hell was dat?" Joey shouted.

"Just keep moving!" Seto commanded, taking the lead though he didn't know the exact way. Humans were at the end of the hall, all heading in the same direction at a quick pace.

"We're headin' da same way they are," Joey said, catching sight of the people.

"Then, hurry up," Seto snapped.

"Ya don't have ta bully me!" They caught up with the humans and joined in.

"Not another raid!" Tristan said exasperated. He, Tea, and other people staffing the building watched the fires blooming several blocks away, at the far end of the same building. It was the loading docks being targeted tonight. And, seeing as a shipment of food meant for the upper city and Lord Pegasus had arrived earlier that day, it was no problem figuring out why the looters were there.

"Are you glad you get the jumpers and the dogs then, rather than the raiders?" Tea asked acerbically. Another group of evacuees came out the door they were standing beside.

Tristan sighed. "Yeah, I guess. Though, it would be a change of pace." Tea just stuck her nose in the air and made a miffed hmph sound.

Then, something caught Tristan's eye in the people coming out of the building. Actually, it was first a jingling sound that got his attention, one that he'd heard earlier that day. I sounded like the necklace the jumper had been wearing. And, then, the jumper came into view.

A tall brunette in a black sweater and blue jeans was between Tristan and the jumper, but Tristan swore he recognized the man with blonde hair, army jacket, and dog tags beside him.

But, it can't be. He JUMPED! Tristan couldn't believe his eyes. He wouldn't; he'd be insane if he did. But, the resemblance was so close. He couldn't stop himself.

"Excuse me, sir!" were the exact words that Tristan was going to say to the passing by jumper-clone as he took a step forward, but he instead found those words being said to himself. He turned and looked at a security guard from the building who'd called for his attention.

"What is it?" Tristan asked, keeping his eyes on the back of the blonde walking away from him.

"When I was going past that room with the dog body in it, I saw it wasn't there. The dog's gone, sir!"

"What?" Tristan yelled, running back into the building. Tea followed, her mouth open in an "o" of shock at the news.

It's gone? she thought. But, what if it did have something to do with Kisara? Tea had been turning the thought of the events being connected after Tristan had mentioned the two occurring so close together in time. It might just be coincidence, but what if it wasn't?

"So, ya don't believe in Paradise?" Joey asked. They were at the same place Tristan had caught Joey earlier that day, both of them lying with their legs dangling and arms stretched above their heads.

"No," Seto answered, staring at the moon blurred by the dome.

"And, dat's where we're goin'?" Joey queried again.

"…Yeah, that's where we're going."

A breeze that shouldn't be real inside the dome came up and wafted over them the smell of lunar flowers.

Thanks for reading! I hope I didn't entirely butcher both, or either, series by putting them together. I just noticed one day that there weren't any crossovers between these two anime, and I wanted to see what I could do with one.