UPDATE 02/03/2019: A cover image has been recently added to this fic, made as a gift by Zojak. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to make this for me. It means more than you might think that you took the time to make something for me like this. Anyway: on with the show.

It was a new day in Adventure Bay. A little cloudy, but the sun otherwise shone brightly and the wind blew gently. In Marshall's estimation, it was hard to wish for better weather as his alarm rang to wake him up.

"Wait… alarm?" Marshall thought as his capacity to think returned.

Considering that Chase would usually wake them up before their alarms went off, Marshall couldn't help but find this odd. Chase was always the early bird, but this time he was nowhere to be found as Marshall lay there slowly waking himself up.

"Did he forget? That's not like him..." Marshall thought. "Ah, well, he'll probably be in the Lookout."

Marshall decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, and after a few minutes, stretched and walked to the Lookout. As he arrived, Skye, Rubble, Rocky and Zuma were all busying themselves with their food, but Marshall couldn't help but notice something odd. No Chase.

"Morning, pups!" Marshall said, prompting Skye and Rocky to look up from their meals.

"Oh, morning, Marshall! How'd you sleep?" Skye asked with a smile and some crumbs around her mouth.

"Pretty good." Marshall replied. "Hey, Skye. Have you seen Chase today?"

"Actually, I was gonna ask you that." Skye replied. I haven't seen him all day. My alarm got me up for the first time in who-knows-how-long, but Chase usually beats it."

"MY alarm got ME up for the first time in who-knows-how-long." Rocky added. "I thought Chase just overslept for once."

Marshall grew more and more worried. "Really? It's not like him to oversleep..."

"Maybe he's sick?" Zuma piped up, having stopped eating for a while.

"Could be." Rubble added. "Like when Marshall and Skye got sick, they could barely move."

Marshall and Skye shuddered. That was one of the last things they needed reminding of.

"...I'm gonna go look for him." Marshall decided, turning towards the Lookout's door.

"Come right back if something's wrong, OK?" Rocky called after him.

"Oh, I will." Marshall replied as he walked out the door, praying at the back of his mind that he wouldn't have to.

Marshall's first thought was to check Chase's house. Maybe that held some clues as to his disappearance? What Marshall found when he arrived, however, wasn't a clue, but Chase himself, turned away from Marshall and facing the back of his house in complete silence.

"I guess he really DID oversleep! First time for everything..." Marshall thought.

"Oh, there you are, Chase! Are you OK? You're missing brea-"

Marshall immediately froze up at what he heard next. He could swear that he was just hearing things, but it sounded like Chase just emitted a sound that no-one would ever associate with him. A strangled sob.

"...Ch-chase?" Marshall asked in quiet confusion, wondering if he was hearing things. What greeted him next was a long, barely-suppressed whimper.

"Chase, wh-what's wrong?" Marshall asked, the alarm in his voice rising more and more. Chase only replied with sniffling and further sobs.

"Chase, hold on, I'll be right back!" Marshall yelled in a couple of seconds, turning around and blazing a trail back to the Lookout.

Was he dreaming? If he was, then he didn't have time to stop and find out. It was just too out there to be real. Chase in tears? The mere thought alone was unfathomable. Chase was the unshakable second-in-command of the Paw Patrol, who almost never failed to keep a professional attitude. And now he was unable to even look at one of his closest friends for crying. This was wrong. All wrong. He had to get Ryder.

"Hey, did you hear that?" Rocky asked, having been alerted to the yelling.

"Was that Marshall?" Skye added with concern.

"What's going on?" added a confused Rubble.

The pups all started to suspect something wrong when they heard Marshall yelling from outside, and the point was driven home when they saw a black and white blur come tearing around the corner with pure fear on his face, completely ignoring their frantic yells until his legs got tangled up in a play rope and he came rolling to a halt.

"Argh… c'mon, I don't have… gah!" Marshall angrily muttered as he thrashed around in a bid to free himself.

This would usually be the point where Marshall would either be dazed or crack a stupid joke. When he did neither as he tried to wriggle out of the rope that was ensnaring him, the other pups grew more worried still.

"Marshall, slow down!" Skye yelled. "What's wrong?"

Skye pinned Marshall in place with her paws while Rocky and Zuma helped untangle him.

"Ch-chase is… Chase… Chase… is… i-is… Chase is..." Marshall spluttered. No matter how he tried to string the words together in his head, they just didn't sound right.

"Chase is what?! C'mon, dude! Say it!" Zuma finally interjected.

"...Chase… is… Chase is crying…" Marshall finally completed his sentence.

It sounded just as bizarre to him as it likely did to everyone else, who stared blankly at him for a number of seconds. Nobody seemed sure what to make of what Marshall just said.

"...ha. Ha ha ha ha… You… you're a funny pup, Marshall… Always ready with a joke..." Rubble weakly piped up with uncertain laughter, before Marshall gave him a more intense glare than anything the pups had ever seen from him. Rubble balked. Marshall didn't exactly say that he wasn't joking, but with the look he was giving Rubble, Marshall didn't need to.

"...you're serious?" Skye whispered.

"Dead." Marshall replied.

"Th-that can't be. Marshall, you realise what you're saying, right?" Rocky asked.

"I know full well what I'm saying, Rocky. Tell me you don't think I'm lying." Marshall replied with annoyance, directing his glare at Rocky.

"B-but that can't be wight! It's Chase! He never cwies!" Zuma shouted, unable to comprehend what he was being told.

"Look, go see for yourselves if you don't believe me!" Marshall shot back, visibly frustrated. "I need to talk to Ryder!"

Marshall practically trampled the other pups as he made a beeline for the elevator. The other pups decided to follow his advice. If Marshall was this shaken and frustrated, whatever he saw can't have been anything good. On one hand, it seemed too silly to be true. But on the other, Marshall and Chase were practically siblings, and Marshall wasn't exactly known for being a liar. If anything could distress him like that, it'd have to do with Chase.

Ryder was startled by the sudden crash into his door. He was quite happily finishing getting dressed and making his bed until the loud bang filled his room and shook his door. Something told Ryder that the noise wasn't exactly a mail call.

"Hello?! Who's there?!" Ryder yelled. "If that was a joke, it wasn't funny!"

"Ryder! Please! You gotta come see this!" the frantic voice came from the other side.

Ryder could tell that the voice belonged to Marshall, but what had him in such a panic? He moved to the door with a sense of urgency, opening it.

"Marshall? What's up? Where's the fire?" Ryder asked concernedly. The look on Marshall's face indicated that whatever he was going to say, Ryder wasn't going to like it.

"Chase, what happened?"

"What's wrong, Chase?"

"Are you OK?"

"Are you hurt?"

A chorus of worried yells filled the air. The Paw Patrol had never seen their leader figure like this before. There was nothing off about seeing Chase sad, but not only was he totally unresponsive, he was downright crying. Whatever set him off had to be bad. The worried yells and strangled crying continued until Ryder and Marshall came running around the corner.

"See, Ryder? Look!" Marshall yelled in a panic.

Ryder stared in disbelief. He initially assumed that Marshall was trying to prank him, but he was forced to disregard that theory when Marshall got unusually defensive. He cursed himself for not realising it sooner. The two loved each other like brothers. How could Marshall be playing pranks about something like this?

"Marshall… I'm sorry I doubted you..." Ryder whispered with a bug-eyed expression.

Marshall didn't reply. He had something far bigger on his mind, and that something was lying right in front of him.

"Chase…? Are you OK? What's wrong?" Ryder asked sympathetically.

Suddenly, Chase reacted by slowly turning around and looking right at Ryder. The look he was giving Ryder felt like an arrow through the heart. Chase had a look of total disbelief. Of fear. Of sadness. His eyes glistened with tears. After a pause of a few seconds, Chase bolted forward and leapt straight at Ryder, screaming tearfully into his owner's chest.

Everybody stared on in complete bafflement. The morning had gotten more and more frightening as time went by, and now it seemed that things had reached a head. They weren't used to seeing their leader in tears, and they were even less used to seeing their leader hysterically bawling like a frightened puppy. The period of bafflement lasted for a little less time for Ryder, who kneeled for a while with the same expression as everyone else, before realising what was going on: Whatever happened, Chase needed him. Now more than ever. Without another thought, Ryder wrapped his arms around Chase, hugging him as tightly as he could as the shepherd continued to wail and cry.

The feeling among the remaining pups was total anxiety. They knew that this was a sight that'd be burned into their minds for some time to come, and one that would very likely give them nightmares of their own.

I'm back. As you can see, I decided on the Primary Fears prequel first from my list of ideas. You may have noticed that this wasn't as detailed in terms of wording as Primary Fears. I wasn't kidding when I said "truncated", after all. I'll be saving my focus for the next fic I write (which will be the one concerning a short-term amnesiac Rubble). The focus will be as such: Three chapters for Chase, three for Rocky. Simple. The uploads will be one a day, as per usual. Apologies if this isn't up to the standard of Primary Fears, but I hope you stick by this all the same. Thanks for listening. Goodnight.