The next morning, Rocky had gotten up fairly early, and Zuma joined him. They were trying to plan the song. Zuma was jumping around, so motivated after the concert. They went to bed at 1, and it was currently 6. Zuma got too eager and jumped on all the pups to wake them up. He jumped on Chase first.
"Get up! Get up pups! Time to pwactice!"
"Uhh… what time is it?" Chase asked.
"It's 6:10! We're 10 minutes late!"
He jumped on Rubble and Marshall.
"Get up pups! We have a lot of pwacticing to do!"
"Zuma, let us sleep!" Rubble snapped.
"It's too early!" Marshall said.
"Wocky told me I can wake you all up!"
"No, I said let them sleep longer," Rocky objected.
"You weaw supposed to help me Wocky!"
"I'm just saying, it's early."
Chase got up, Marshall stayed awake, but Rubble fell right back asleep. Zuma woke up Everest, Skye, and Tracker, having little luck. The pups were really impressed though. He went from the least motivated to the most motivated overnight! All it took was that one concert! While Zuma waited for everyone to get up, he used his motivation to his advantage to write a new song.
He went up the elevator and sat in the observatory alone to write this song. He looked at the TV and control panels that Ryder had used to brief the pups whenever missions would come up. That brought the pain back. Not only did he think about how much he and the pups had mourned and missed Ryder, but also how the citizens of Adventure Bay had been without the Paw Patrol.
Everyone had needed the Paw Patrol's help. The pups helped people in town with all sorts of problems. Now, everyone had to struggle with the problems they had. They had to call others for help and go through hell just to do what the Paw Patrol could in minutes. The thought of everything caused Zuma to break down.
"Why did this happen!? What did we do!? What did Wyder do!?"
Zuma dropped down and looked up towards God.
"Why did you take him!? Of anyone!? There's killaws all oveaw the woawrld! And you took him!? He loved us! He saved us! I thought we weaw good pups!"
He was crying harder than he did at Ryder's funeral. At Ryder's funeral, he was still in shock. Here, all the shock had been let out, and it was nothing but sorrow in his heart. He could not control his emotions. He had absolutely lost it.
"I… need watewr!"
He grabbed a glass and filled it with water from the dispenser. He tried to drink it, but he lost it and just threw it on his face. He always loved the feeling of having water splash on him, but it was miserable. He fell to the floor, completely breaking down, screaming in his cries. He squeezed the glass hard enough to where it broke in his paws. Broken bits went into his paws, causing him to bleed, but all he could feel was the internal pain. That was until he felt something swipe through his fur. He looked back.
"WYDER!"
Zuma went to jump into Ryder's arms, but he fell onto his tailbone. Suddenly, with Ryder being there, all his internal pain went away, and he started whimpering from the pain of falling on his tailbone and the broken glass in his paws.
"Hi Zuma! I know you need me now more than ever," Ryder said softly as he went to comfort Zuma.
Zuma realized what was really going on and broke down again. He realized why he didn't land in Ryder's arms.
"You… you're here… visiting me… as a… as a spirit!"
"Just know I'll always be here for you, and all the other pups. Nothing bad is going to happen to you on my watch! I proud of all eight of you! You found something to move on with. It pained me to watch you all suffer the way you did."
Zuma wanted so bad to just cry into Ryder's chest, while in his arms, but… he can't.
"I love you Wyder!"
"I love you too Zuma! Don't forget it! Don't forget me either!"
"Never! Never!"
"Oh also, there's someone else here too."
There was a figure standing behind Ryder. Although he never found out what he looked like, he knew exactly who it was.
"Paul Gway!"
"How's it going, Zuma?"
"That's weally you!?"
"Well, I could just be some random guy, and you just assumed."
Zuma knew Paul was joking.
"I would hug you… but…"
"It's alright, I don't want puppy germs."
"He's always like this, he's so funny!" Ryder said.
"Just know, I'm here for you and the rest of your friends, just like Ryder is. Although, Slipknot and the guys I loved come first, but I'll be here. And coincidentally, we're both bassists, so it kinda works out."
"Thank you… so much!"
"No problem, pup! I gotta get going. I always got stuff I gotta tend to."
Paul disappeared, off to either watch over Slipknot, or to return back to heaven.
"And remember Zuma, if you ever feel like I'm here, I am. If you ever feel like I'm in your heart, I'm probably hugging you. Same goes for all the pups."
"Thanks Wyder!"
"I'm going to leave you to write your song. Always remember that I'm with you!"
"I will Wyder! Thanks!"
Ryder disappeared, and Zuma felt like he had unprecidented mental strength. He started writing. And writing. He broke down again as he wrote the song, but he wrote it. Blood and tears going into this song. Downstairs, the rest of the pups were all up.
"Where'd Zuma go?" Rubble asked.
"To the observatory to write a song," Rocky answered.
"How long as he been up there?"
"Quite a while actually."
"Is he ok?" Marshall asked.
"We should check on him," Skye offered.
"Yeah, I did here a few thuds, but I think…"
As they were debating on checking on Zuma, he came down. His eyes were blooshot red, he looked miserable.
"Zuma!" "What happened!?" "Are you ok!?" "Have you been crying!?"
"I have it. I wote it. It's about Wyder!"
Zuma set it down for all the pups to read. Each pup broke down. Zuma went deep, he put detail in the memories. It was strong, it showed their remorse!
"I think we should work on this one."
All the pups agreed. They grabbed their instrments, and worked on the emtional, slow-tempo song.
