M: Well, here's the next chapter. Wait, why am I telling you this? You know this is the next chapter, else you wouldn't be reading this.

Anyway, I'd like to thank SilverWolf for his continuous support throughout the making of this story, and for his special contribution to this chapter.

And now, officially, here's Chapter 6. Enjoy!

Chapter 6: One death's aftermath, is another death altogether

As Marshall looked sown upon Rubble's dead body, he couldn't help but feel sad. Rubble might have been a jerk and a criminal, but he was part of the team. He was part of their family. First, they lost Ryder, and now they lost Rubble too. Who was next? Would it be Rocky, or Zuma? Or maybe Sky, Everest or Tracker? Or maybe even his Chase, Marshall wouldn't know how he could survive that. Chase meant everything to him. Without the shepherd, Marshall would be lost. All these thoughts were making Marshall go down in a downward spiral, which would lead from bad to worse. But then he felt a muzzle, which came with a smell he'd recognise from anywhere. As the dalmatian looked up, he saw his mate with a certain look in his eyes. This look reflected all the feelings Marshall was having: on one hand, it was to kill or be killed, but on the other, they just watched as someone they trusted was shot through the head. Twice.

Now, Chase had barely managed to save Marshall from plummeting into a depression, but, ever curious as the dally was, he wanted to see what exactly happened. He got his answer when he looked up at Silvex and saw the husky put away his secondary sidearm, the one he kept hidden.

"So… You two are boyfriends?" Silvex awkwardly said as he broke the silence.

"Yes" Chase responded just as awkwardly. Both parties stood there and looked at each other, until finally, Marshall broke the silence.

"Well, I'm starving. How about we get some breakfast?" the dally said

Captain Xavier, or rather Bloodrazor, was walking down the pier. Right now, he wasn't off on police business. He was off on his duties as criminal mastermind. The mess Stillburg had left him still needed to be cleaned up, and that task fell on him. Even back in his days as an honest detective, Xavier never liked loose ends. And now, he knew those loose ends could jeopardise everything he had build. Right now, he was dealing with a dead police officer, and a missing female pup. Silvex was coming after the girl, and eventually, he would find them. Both of them.

'That might be something I could exploit…' Bloodrazor thought as he reached the end of the pier, where he was meeting an… associate. "So you're him, I expected you to be bigger"

"Oi, mate. I am what I am, ya have a problem with that, shame on ya" the pup said with an Australian accent.

"No, no problems here. But I wonder, can I rely on you?" Bloodrazor asked

"Sure, mate. For the right payment that is" the Australian pup said

"Then you're hired. 50k now, 100k after, how does that sound?" Bloodrazor asked

"Well, mate, I'm in. But what exactly is this job?" the pup asked

"It's a rather long story, but it involves you impersonating an already dead police officer" Bloodrazor answered.

As Zuma walked back to his car, he still couldn't believe how real his… vision felt. I was like Rocky was actually there. Of course, Zuma knew he wasn't, but still. Zuma got back into his car, and he drove back up the road. There was only a small distance between him and Coastal City, and he wanted to be in the city before noon.

Zuma had been alone ever since he left the NCIS headquarters, with some interaction with the local police departments. But he didn't have a partner. If he would have had one, maybe he wouldn't have gotten so obsessed with this killer. He knew the case file by heart, and often summarised it in his head. Basically, the PtP killer had killed eight victims so far, never leaving any traceable evidence. A profiler Zuma knew assessed that the PtP killer would stop only if stopped. Or if he died himself. How he chose his victims, Zuma didn't know. His victims had been young, old, black, white, etc. Of the eight victims, three were wearing a firefighter's uniform, and they had been on duty. Two of the victims were Marines, and they were killed in hand-to-hand combat, so the PtP killer had to be an excellent fighter himself, especially if he managed to avoid leaving any trace. The remaining three had been private contractors that had recently returned from a highly classified operation in Afghanistan, so there was absolutely nothing Zuma could learn about their past.

"Welcome to Coastal City" the sign read as he drove into the city. As Zuma looked around, his first impression was that the city was a complete mess. There were prostitutes in every street, drug dealers on every corner. This was a city ruled by corruption and greed.

Zuma noticed that he was starving, and now that he thought about it, he couldn't remember the last time he ate. As he drove down the street, he noticed a 24/7 diner, with a small parking lot. As he listened to his rumbling stomach, the decision was easily made. He parked on the lot, and walked in.

The dally's proposal to go get breakfast had been a great one, but it became more like lunch than like breakfast. You see, a warden isn't exactly happy when you kill a prisoner in his care, and Chase's accusations of corruption didn't make it much better. Altogether, they were in that prison for eight long hours, and by the time they were finally free to go, it was past noon. The prison was on an island about six miles off the coast, and was only reachable over a steel bridge that could be retracted. It wasn't a maximum security facility for nothing. Chase and Marshall were both driving their vehicles, while Silvex rode with Chase. This gave the detectives the perfect opportunity to talk about the case. But, if you just found out your partner was gay, and had a boyfriend, would you talk about some case instead of their love life?

"So, this Marshall, do you like him?" Silvex asked his first question.

"Like him? I freaking love him!" Chase nearly shouted.

"Wow, calm down, partner, I'm sitting right next to you" Silvex replied

"Sorry Silvex, but I just saw an old-" Chase started. 'What the hell do I call him? He was no friend, more like an enemy, but I did trust him with my life once. Should I call him a brother? No, we didn't exactly have brotherly feelings' Chase thought "Team member die right in front of me" Chase finished his sentence. He then noticed a 24/7 diner on their right, and it looked like a nice place to get their lunch. Chase pulled over, and a little further, so did Marshall. The diner had a small parking lot, but there was only one other car. So both pups parked their cars, on opposite ends of the parking lot. When they got out, all three walked to the door. Silvex and Chase were the first to arrive, but Marshall was only a few seconds later. Together, they walked through the door and walked up to the counter. They all ordered the standard lunch menu, which was made up of a soda and some sandwiches. While the attendant was preparing their food, Chase looked at the other people in the diner. There were two human cyclists, a mother and her infant son, and a labrador that was studying an official-looking file.

"Hey Silvex" Chase whispered to his partner, but Silvex was already looking at the lab.

"Wow, he's a federal agent" Silvex confirmed Chase's suspicions. "But what agency I don't know"

At that point, the attendant returned with their food. They thanked him and paid, to then eat in complete silence.

It was a quiet afternoon in the southern district. There was not much going on. These were the hours that the street life was asleep, which accounted for most of the neighbourhood. In fact, the only souls to be found were inside the 24/7 diner. There were also three humans standing around the corner, impatiently waiting until they could finally make their move.

"Dave, can we please just rob that diner and be done with it?" one of them asked Dave, who was clearly the leader of the group.

"And leave it full of witnesses?" Dave, who was the biggest of the three, replied.

"We'll be wearing ski masks, who would recognise us?" the other said

"Fine, we'll move now" Dave said as he put on his mask. The others did the same, and all three got their guns from their bags. The three walked straight to the diner's entrance, and stormed in without any hesitation.

Zuma was just sitting there, at the table in the back. He was looking through the missing persons from the region, to see if there was anyone who could potentially match the PtP killer's victims. It was a long shot, but on an empty stomach, it was all he could think of.

He heard the door open, but he had no idea nor interest in who was entering. Not until the biggest of the three spoke.

"Hands in the air, NOW!" he yelled as he fired his weapon into the ceiling. Everyone went down to the ground, everyone but a German shepherd and a husky sitting at the counter. And himself, of course.

"Stop, I'm a detective with the CCPD, and I need you to drop your weapons!" the husky yelled as both he and the shepherd took out their guns.

As Zuma looked at the shepherd, he sensed there was something familiar about him. 'Could it be… No, it can't be…' Zuma thought.

Now Zuma wasn't stupid, he didn't pull his gun in a busy diner when he's outnumbered three-to-one. But now that there were two cops there as well, he decided to lend a paw. He got out his gun too, and slowly crawled towards the husky. But before he was halfway, all hell broke loose. First, the biggest of the thugs opened fire at the husky, and due to the force of the bullets, the detective accidentally pulled his trigger as well. He was hit in the shoulder, but he hit the thug right in the forehead. The other thugs opened fire as well, but they aimed at the shepherd. Said shepherd quickly jumped to the husky and dragged him behind the counter. And only after his partner was saved, he started to return fire. Zuma got up, and ran straight for the place where the shepherd was hiding. Said shepherd was surprised to see the lab, and even more surprised when he saw the lab was holding a gun. But the biggest surprise came when they saw each other up-close.

"CHASE?!" Zuma yelled in total surprise.

"ZUMA?!" Chase yelled as he recognised the lab.

"Ugh, can you please shoot those bastards and save the reunions for later?" Silvex groaned.

"Oh yeah, of course. Chase, you get the guy on the left, I'll get the guy on the right. Wait until one of them is out of ammo" Zuma said.

Chase wanted to respond, but he didn't get the chance to. Not even a second later, both the thugs' guns made that familiar sound. Both Chase and Zuma came up from their hiding spot. It was like a well-oiled Swiss watch. In one clean move, they fired two bullets. Both bullets hit their mark perfectly, and both thugs fell down, bleeding from their chests.

As Chase sighted, he turned around, only to gasp. He ran straight over to Silvex, who was lying in an increasingly expanding puddle of blood.

"Dispatch, this is Detective Chase Trigger, we have an officer down, need immediate assistance" Chase spoke into the dispatch app on his phone.

It had been a stressful ride to the hospital, with Silvex constantly on the brink of death. Chase rode with his partner in the ambulance while Marshall and Zuma drove their separate vehicles. When they finally reached the hospital, first thing was to remove the bullet. That was the easy part. The bullet wasn't lodged anywhere, but it didn't have enough power behind it to blow through Silvex, so it was just sitting there in a piece of soft tissue. The doctors removed it with ease, but then came the harder part: extreme loss of blood. They managed to patch the wounds, but there seemed to be a blood clot somewhere. As they tried to remove it, Silvex suddenly went into cardiac arrest.

The room where the surgery was being performed had an observation room next door, where Chase, Marshall and Zuma were watching every horrific second. They watched as the heart monitor connected to Silvex flatlined. They watched as the doctors tried to resuscitate him for a good five minutes, but without yielding any result. When they stopped, the doctor looked up at the clock

"Time of death, 1:37 pm"

Everything became a blur to Chase. His paws started to tremble, and then he collapsed.

When Silvex opened his eyes, he didn't know where he was. He looked around, but nothing was recognisable. Everything was covered in a thick, black fog. He saw some structures, but as he walked up to them, they were nothing more than piles of rubble that once formed a building. He started to walk around, to explore this strange world. He didn't know how long he was walking, it could be mere minutes, but it could also be entire lifetimes. He just didn't know.

As Silvex sat down, it was like he sensed a presence of extreme power around him. The second he felt it, he jumped up. As he looked around, he still saw nothing but the black fog. As sat down again, he was still quite tense. But then, he suddenly noticed someone, or something standing in front of him. It had a shape like a pup, with a reddish-purple cloak with a hood over him.

"Who the hell are you?" Silvex asked the hooded figure.

"If I told you, your grip on this reality would be forever lost"

"I don't care! Unveil yourself Or I WILL be forced to do so myself! I am a detective of the CCPD, and I have the authority to arrest you!" Silvex barked, pulling his gun out and aiming it at the hooded figure. 'Am I seriously getting in a fourth shooting within 24 hours?!'

The stranger laughs. "Like a gun could ever hurt me. Much worse has scarred this face. Much worse has broken this heart. Much worse... has shattered my soul"

"What are you rambling about...?" Silvex asked.

"Fine. I will show you." The stranger said.

He turns around, and drops the hood and cloak...

Silvex drops his gun in shock.

"No... y-you can't be...!"

"Oh, But I am" Silvex said back.

"You're ME!" Silvex spluttered out.

"But so much more than whatever you are," The other Silvex said, spreading out his wings.

"Wh-wh-wh-WHO ARE YOU?!"

"You are fragment 36. Whilst I am the CORE fragment." Winged Silvex said. Detective Silvex falls to the ground as the angel like copy of him stands over him.

"One day. You and your 498 other brethren will reunite with me. And we will rock the Multi-verse to the very core. We will take what is ours. For now though, just keep chasing tails. It suits you well..." Winged Silvex said, igniting a blue flame in his hand and pushing it into Detective Silvex's face, and-

Silvex awoke with a jolt, covering his face. After a few deep breaths, he calmed down. It was only then that he noticed he was lying underneath a bed sheet. As pulled the sheet off him, he saw that he was covered in blood, as was the table he was lying on. He then heard a gasp behind him, and as he turned his head, he saw a man in a doctor's coat standing in the door opening. His face had completely paled of shock, and fear.

"Are you alright?" Silvex asked the doctor "You look like you've seen a ghost"

M: XD Sorry, couldn't resist that last sentence. Anyway, the mysterious Australian pup's identity will soon be revealed, but here's a hint: it's someone's OC. (I have permission, of course) Be on the lookout for the next chapter! Marty, signing off.