Chapter 13: Truth and Hope

9:33am - 7 Days after Crash

Chase had struggled to get any rest that night. Part of him envied Ryder, who, thanks to his sickness, wasn't short on sleep. Of course, that wasn't a good thing, for either of them. Ryder was becoming increasingly ill, a red rash was spreading from his chest slowly, creeping its way up his neck. Chase did his best to keep his fever down, but he knew there wasn't much either of them could do stuck on an island with no supplies at all. Chase, on the other hand, had more pressing issues. His lack of sleep was causing him to do or think certain things he would never otherwise ever consider. One morning, Chase woke to find Ryder's nose bleeding. Ripping a part of his shirt off, Chase tried his best to stop the flow. Terrified, he just sat watching the blood drip down onto the sweat saturated shirt. Staring into the distance, Chase's powerful sense of smell couldn't help but pick up the smell of Ryder's blood before him. Usually, the smell and sight of blood repulsed him, and was actually one of his biggest fears, but.. something was different that day. This blood smelt.. savoury, almost appetising. Chase hit his head against the wall, knocking the thought from his mind as quickly as possible. He limped out of the cave as quickly as possible, leaving Ryder alone, unconscious and bleeding.

A whole week on the island had began to push Chase's otherwise domestic and lawful mind to think of things that made him physically sick. Instead of dwelling on the ideas, Chase burnt the rag as soon as he could and waited for Ryder to wake up. He had some questions for him. In the meantime, he continued to stare at his old tag, sat in the corner, blinking.

23:54 - 6 Days after Crash

Ever since his breakthrough, Rocky had been working even harder on this project. Of course, now it was possible, Marshall had told the others what he was working on. They all reacted as you'd expect; various joyful howls filled the air around the ship. At this point, any good news regarding Chase or Ryder was enough to send any of the pups into a joyfilled frenzy. Zuma, although happy and impressed by his mate's ingenuity and impressive talent, was concerned about the wellbeing of Rocky. He had been up with very little sleep or rest at all for almost 72 hours. He had often tried inviting him to bed, or to go get some food, but now Rocky was closer than ever, there was no way he was going to stop now.

"We can't just let him keep going without any sleep!" Zuma whispered to Marshall, both stood outside the green and white door to his room.
"He won't listen to us Zuma,"
"Owder him to sleep"
"I can't do that, it'd be abusing my power", Marshall said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"How? How would that be abusing your power? It isn't healthy for him to be up this long with no sleep, so would it not be for the wellbeing of a team member?" Zuma argued, still whispering. About to argue back, Marshall opened his mouth, only for a brown paw to land on it,
"no, you set him off on this pwoject, so it's your fauwlt he's up this long. You have to tell him to take a break. It's not good for him". Marshall just pushed Zuma's paw from his mouth,
"one, I hope you washed that lately, and two, I was going to agree", Marshall said, pushing Zuma aside and opening the door.

"Hey Rocky", Marshall said, walking into the room, only to be quickly grabbed and dragged in. "Woah Rocky, what the heck?" Marshall said, rolling his head a bit, loosing his neck after the sudden whiplash.
"Wocky? What're yo- woah" Zuma too was pulled in.
"Just the two I needed to see!" Rocky stood in front of his desk. Next to it were several dog bowls piled high, some still with traces of food left in them. Rocky's fur was messy, messier than usual. Tufts stuck up across various parts. His three bangs on his forehead were spread and flattened against his head. "Uh, wow. Dude.. I know youwe not one for baths.. but geez dude". Zuma said, wafting his paw in front of his face.
"I need these!" Rocky said, lunging forward and grabbing Zuma and Marshall's collars, quickly yanking them off their necks, both parties responding with a quick "OW" as the collar clip pulled small amounts of fur with them. Zuma stood rubbing around his neck. It felt weird to not be wearing anything at all, despite.. y'know, not wearing anything at all all the time, but their collars were more or less the only thing they never went without. Without them, both Zuma and Marshall felt.. naked.
"Rocky.. what're you doing?" Marshall said, seeing him place his tag into a slot on his desk.
"I need to remove your collars from your old collar, so it only has Chase's tag ID", he said pressing a button, causing a series of mechanical noises and beeps to come from Marshall's old tag. 'PAW PATROL MEMBER ID 03 - DATA CLEARED'. Rocky took Marshall's tag out of the holder on the desk and replaced it with Zumas, tossing Marshall's collar back to him who quickly put it back on. 'PAW PATROL MEMBER ID 07 - DATA CLEARED'. Marshall's old tag stopped glowing, now it was not receiving signals from nearby collars.

"Y'know, I've often wondered why I'm 'Member 07', even though I've been here longer than Wubble. Why is he ranked higher than me?" Zuma said, putting his collar back on, looking at Marshall who just shrugged.
"I already took the other's collars earlier, they can come get them whenever they want", Rocky said, gesturing at a pile of three collars at the other end of his desk.
"Rocky! You can't just take our tags, what if I had to call any of you, or-"
"Relax fireboy", Rocky said, surprising Marshall with a sense of sass that was very out of character for the normally collected dog, "we're on a boat, you need to call people, you just yell". Marshall was getting a bit angry now.
"Look, Rocky. We all appreciate what you've created, and now you've removed all of our ID's from my old tag, maybe it's time for some rest?" Marshall said, staying calm.
"Mawshalls wight dude. C'mon, we'll sleep in my woom, yours is a bit.. fwagwant to say the least", Zuma said.
"Guys, don't you understand, this tag can lead us straight to Chase now! And you guys want to sleep?"
"Rocky, it doesn't matter, according to Robodog, we're still miles away from the Island. It's not gonna find Chase or Ryder yet. You need to sleep".
"Guys, please. Someone has to be up to keep an eye on it. What if we sail right pas-"
"Rocky, I'm ordering you, you need rest. As the pup in command, and also your doctor, you need sleep". Marshall said, "you've been up for almost three days solid Rocky. If we find Ryder and Chase, what use will you be if you can't even stay awake?" Marshall asked, letting his voice settle back to its normal gentle tone.
"Zuma, back me up here!" Rocky said, looking to his mate for support.
"It was my idea for him to owder you. Wocky, I'm worried about you. I know you blame yourself, but like Mawshall said, you can't help if you can't stand up". Rocky's face turned back to the tag on his desk.
"I.. ok", Rocky said, sounding defeated. He grabbed the rest of the pup's collars from his desk in his teeth and tossed them at Marshall. "Be sure everyone gets these back. Hopefully I fixed Skye's",
"Huh?" Marshall asked before having three collars thrown over his snout. "Yeah sure Rocky. Go get some sleep ok?" Rocky walked out of his room, walking straight across the hall into Zuma's, laying out on the bed.
"I feel, kinda bad", Marshall said. "I hate this. I don't enjoy being in control",
"being a good leader doesn't always mean everyone walks away happy Mawshall", Zuma said, picking Rubble's black collar up from the floor and placing it on Marshall's head. "Thank's for the help dude", Zuma said, turning around and walking into his own room, closing the door behind him. Marshall turned his head back to Rocky's desk, looking at his old tag before walking out of the room, closing the door and turning the light off on his way out, not noticing the faint red blinking from the corner of the room.

4:30am - 7 Days after Crash

Something wasn't right. Marshall got up and looked around his room, sensing something was off. He sniffed the air, everything smelled normal. He looked out of his door, up and down the corridor outside. It was very quiet. Sensing movement, the lights above him lit up, blinding him for a moment as they washed the corridor with a intensely bright light. He stood still in the centre of the corridor, inspecting every detail. Finally, it hit him. He lifted his ear, a sound that he and the rest of the pups had just got used to over the week of sailing, a sound that they couldn't notice until it was gone, but was always so obvious. The engines had stopped.

Marshall ran to the bridge to find Robodog still sat in place, attempting various control combinations to reboot the ship. Looking at the screens, Marshall saw that the ship had been off for at least four hours, along with something else. Quickly, Marshall called the rest of the pups. "Paw Patrol, to the bridge. Quickly, don't bother with uniforms, just get here soon please". Without the sound of the engines, Marshall could hear various grumbles and yawns coming from downstairs following the signature beep after he turned off his collar.

Slowly, each of the pups stood up, leaving their quarters, still half asleep. Rubble walked out and instantly bumped into Everest, who just lazily slid his mask off of his face. "Thanks *yawn* Everest", Rubble said, walking towards the stairs. Skye left her room, looking at Everest.
"What's going on? Have we found the island?" Skye asked, Everest just shrugged.
"Dunno, I've been awake as long as you have. But Marshall made it sound serious, so we should hustle", the husky replied, shaking her fur back to its normal, fluffy self.
"Any of you guys seen Wocky?" A door opened behind the two female members, revealing a groggy looking Zuma. "He got in my bed last night, but he isn't hewe now". Everest tried to hold back a joke whilst Skye just shrugged. The three of them walked towards the stairs and headed up to the bridge.

"Morning guys", Marshall said. "You noticed anything when you got up?" He asked; the pups looked at each other, not understanding the question.
"Notice anything, how?" Rubble asked, the other pups agreeing. Marshall pointed out the window of the bridge.
"We stopped moving, around two this morning according to Robodog's sensors". The pups gasped,
"did we reach the island?" Skye asked,
"no, not yet",
"so why did we stop?" Everest asked,
"that's why I asked you all up here this early. I wanted to be absolutely sure before I said something stupid", Marshall explained, justifying his early wake up call. The rest of the team looked as equally confused as the others. "I'm not the only one who noticed something when I woke up this morning, am I?" Marshall said, turning to face Zuma.
"Me? What did I do?"
"Where's Rocky?" Marshall asked, sounding a little intimidating. Zuma had never noticed before, but Marshall did actually seem intimidating sometimes, he was tall, much stronger than Zuma was, easily towering over the the lab.
"Dude, I don't know, why are you asking me? Just call him", Zuma said, backing up a little.
"Did he get up at any point during the night?" Marshall asked, following his steps towards him as Zuma tried to walk away.
"I don't know dude, I don't keep tabs on when he goes to pee. I felt him move around quite a bit at one point, but I was half asleep. Why does it matter?" Zuma asked, backed against a wall.
"Marshall, chill", Everest said, pulling him back. Marshall realised as he was walking backwards that Zuma had been pushed more or less up against a wall and had a worried look in his eyes.
"Sorry, Zuma... I.. *sigh*. I tried calling him, but his tag is offline, see", Marshall said, pointing at the screen showing the active tags nearby. All of the pup's tags were lit, except for Chase's, Tracker's and now.. Rocky's.
"So.. where is he?" Zuma asked, becoming increasingly worried, as did the other pups.
"No one else on this ship, as far as I know, is capable of turning it off unless they had this tag", Marshall said, gesturing to his own tag around his neck. "Rocky was the only one who Ryder taught how to repair the Sea Patroller's engines. Unless some of you guys decided to read up on nautical engineering, Rocky had to be the one to turn off the ship when the rest of us were asleep". All of the team gasped, even Robodog seemed shocked to an extent.
"But.. wouldn't Robodog have done something? Alerted you or anything at all?" Everest asked, looking at Marshall.
"Do you remember when we boarded the ship, when Zuma had stolen it with Skye and Rubble?", the aforementioned three shifted about uncomfortably on their paws, "Rocky did something inside the ship, in the Sub Patroller bay. I have no idea what it was, it was his plan, but according to Ryder, there are various control panels and circuits around the ship, other than the main control in here". The rest of the pups couldn't help but admire Marshall for a second, it was so out of character for him to be this deductive and sensible, it almost didn't feel like Marshall at all, that was until he tripped on his own front paw trying to walk towards the helm, earning a well needed laugh from the five of them.

Marshall stood up, shaking his fur back into place. "Anyways, I don't know why, but the only conclusion I can come to, is that Rocky stopped the ship". The rest of the pups looked very anxious. Why would Rocky do that when they were so close to finding Chase and Ryder. Zuma ran out of the room quickly, heading back downstairs. Marshall dashed off after him, followed by the rest of the team. Running down the stairs, Marshall tried his best not to trip on his paws, keeping Zuma in sight. Quickly, with a hiss, Rocky's bedroom door opened. Zuma stepped in, followed by Marshall. The rest of the pups sat outside.
"Wocky? You in here?" Zuma asked, really hoping he was hiding somewhere in his room, maybe working on the project some more.
"Look, my old tag's still here, he didn't take it", Marshall said, pointing at the red and yellow tag still in the same place it was left the previous night.
"So what's he up to?" Zuma asked. Marshall just shrugged. "C'mon, we should go check the Sub Patroller bay, maybe we can start the ship". Zuma said walking out of the room, the rest of the team tailing him.

The rest of the group tailed Zuma, Marshall following behind as they headed further down into the ship, the stairwell opening out into a large area. To the right were Zuma, Rubble and Skye's rigs, parked and cleaned, thanks to Rubble's boredom. None of the pups knew where to start. There were at least 30 panels around the exterior of the room, and each of them housed various systems and junk. "Everyone just start looking. According to Ryder, the ship is electric, so we're looking for some kind of big switch or missing wire"
"Hey Marshall, I think I found that switch you were after!" Rubble yelled across the room. Suddenly, the room got a lot brighter. "Nope, wrong switch, should I leave it on or.. or.. oh". Rubble noticed what everyone was staring at. He was a bit shocked none of them noticed before. "Uh, guys, where'd the sub patroller go?"

3:11am - 7 Days after Crash

Rocky looked over his shoulder, seeing Zuma's eyes shut completely, hearing light snores coming from his mate. Carefully, he lifted Zuma's leg from around his body and shuffled out of the bed. Zuma gently stirred, noticing the absence of the other pup in the bed. Rocky pushed a cushion back into where he was, and slowly walked backwards, opening the door manually to prevent the hiss waking anyone up.

'I can't just stop now, not when we're so close', Rocky thought to himself, walking up to the Bridge. 'I just need one last thing'. Rocky approached Robodog, stopping just behind him and bringing out his claw arm. Quickly, he pressed Robodog's puptag, shutting him off. "Sorry Robodog, you'll come back on in an hour or so". Rocky looked at the map on the screens. "We're right over it", he said. He walked over to the controls, jumping up in front of Robodog and attempted to slow the ship. Pressing as hard as he could, the wheel wouldn't budge. "It's locked..", Rocky said, regretting turning Robodog off now. "Fine, plan B".

Slowly, Rocky crept back downstairs, heading through the cabin corridor, walking past all of his snoring friends, all of which were completely unaware of what was happening. 'If I move quickly, they won't even notice me missing'. Finally making it past the final room, Rocky walked faster down the next set of stairs and headed downwards.

"Heh, Rubble did a good job", Rocky said, looking at his own reflection in Rubble's Rig, then looked over at Zuma's, seeing pawprints and smudges across the chassis. "Well.. at least he tried", Rocky said, giggling to himself as he headed over towards the same panel he used when he first boarded the ship. "Ok, find the box, get back up to the ship before anyone wakes up. Simple!" Rocky said, grabbing a part from the panel with his arm. "Hopefully without this fuse, they won't sail off and leave me behind", Rocky said, pulling it out, feeling the whole ship fall silent. Carefully, he climbed into the back of the Sub Patroller. "Ok, so... how the heck do I launch it?" Rocky asked himself, placing the fuse down in a container at the side of the cabin. He jumped up onto the seat at the front, looking at the various controls. He noticed an icon that looked like the outline of their puptags. Closing his eyes, he pressed it inwards. The whole submarine shook, causing him to open his eyes. He looked out of the window, seeing the launch bay open beneath him. "Well.. that was easy?" Rocky said, before the entire sub was dropped into the water beneath, sinking quickly. Rocky sat up, shaking his head from the impact. Looking out in front of him, he saw a series of hoops unfold from the base of the ship. Slowly, Rocky pressed the wheel forward, causing the whole vessel to lurch through the loops at a high speed, knocking him off his seat. "Ugh, curse Ryder for his flashy exits", Rocky said, adjusting his hat back in place before slowing the sub down entirely, and began to dive downwards.

4:23am - 7 Days after Crash

Rocky had been heading around underwater for an hour now. "Come on! The map said it was 430 meters down", Rocky said, looking up at the display in front of him that read 400 meters. He hated being around water, and being under this much of it was bothering him, and he slowly began to get frustrated at the lack of findings before him. "Lights, I need lights", Rocky told himself, scrambling across the dashboard until he found the button that represented lights in his truck. "At least it's consistent", Rocky said, shrugging and hitting the button. "Woah. There it is!" Rocky said. In front of him, outside the sub, the bright searchlights lit up a wreck of metal, coloured similarly to the Sea and Sub Patroller. The glass at the front missing entirely, crushed by the pressure of the water constantly holding the wreck down on the bottom of the sea. "The Air Patroller", Rocky said, sighing. "Jeez, I spent ages buffing that thing". Looking through the windows, Rocky could see a copy of Robodog, completely ruined by the water, covered in algae. He knew robodog was fine, but part of him still felt somewhat mournful seeing him like that. Looking further back, Rocky saw what everyone had hoped. The flight gear rack had been split open by one of the broken wings, but inside, Rocky could see all of their gear, all except Chase's.

Placing the sub into autopilot, Rocky headed to the rear of the vehicle, stepping into the airlock and quickly dressing into his scuba gear. "This is not gonna be fun", he said, shivering as his helmet encased his head. Reaching up with his right paw, he pressed the open button, causing part of the floor to open up. Rocky breathed deeply, calming himself, and then jumped forwards. Down here, the temperature of the water was freezing. Rocky felt it instantly creep through the wetsuit he wore and shivered at the feeling. "Let's get this done and over with", he told himself, swimming towards the wreck before him. Once away from the sub patroller, his pack automatically extended a flashlight illuminating the water in front of him.

Carefully, he swam through one of the windows. He looked around, taking in the environment before him. It was chilling to say the least. What was usually the team's mobile command centre was now just a room full of algae and grime. He swam towards the back of the ship, confirming the absence of Chase's flight gear. Smiling at the little comfort that provided him, he swam back into the control area towards the console. Carefully, he set himself down on the floor, letting his suit balance out the pressure and allow him to walk slowly. Carefully, he removed his collar and placed it in a slot to the left of the yoke. He stood, holding his breath in anticipation. Nothing happened. "C'mon! Work!" Rocky said, pulling his tag out and slotting it back in numerous times. Nothing happened. "It even trashed the subsystems", Rocky said, sighing. He reached his paw out again to pull the tag out, but just before he did, a green light flashed from his tag. Watching carefully, he saw the light trace through the console, turning it entirely green. "YES!" Rocky said, pulling his tag out and placing it back around his neck. Through a cracked, dim, algae covered screen, Rocky saw the words 'Paw Patrol Member 05 - Rocky. Accepted". Rocky stood back as the desk turned off completely. Looking up, he knew what came next. The ceiling opened, and slowly, a silver and black unit dropped to the floor. Rocky smiled. "Perfect". Using his claw, he reached down and picked it up, strapping it to his back. Slowly, his suit released pressure, allowing him to float back upwards towards the windows. Turning around, he took one last look at the interior of the air patroller. Just as he was about to swim backwards, something rolled slowly out from under a seat. Rocky squinted, and then smiled realising what it was. Quickly, he grabbed the item and swam back to the Sub Patroller, setting the two captured items in a container alongside the missing fuse. He rapidly stripped the soaked wetsuit from his drenched fur, sticking his tongue out in disgust before taking his seat again at the helm and headed back towards the Sea Patroller. Fortunately, knowing where it was and where he was, it didn't take anywhere near as long for him to return, with the hull of the Sea Patroller coming into view within 40 minutes of travel.

Rocky went to press the button to open the launch bay doors, but held his paw back, noticing how they opened on their own. "Shoot.. they noticed me missing, of course they did", Rocky said, rolling his eyes and sighing before heading upwards, allowing the mechanical arm to reach down and grab the sub, lifting it and Rocky up into the hull of the large boat. As he came up and out of the water, he was met with various looks from all of the team, a mixture of worry, anger, frustration and just general curiosity. Suddenly, he lurched forwards as the mechanical lift stopped, jolting the sub patroller. He adjusted his hat back onto his damp head and looked back out the window, he smiled and waved nonchalantly, earning only one wave back from Rubble, (who Everest gently tapped on the back of the head and soon stopped waving). Rocky sighed and grabbed the container to his right and headed out, preparing himself for the inevitable.

5:03am - 7 Days after Crash

Marshall watched the screen, seeing the Sub Patroller return. He was somewhat angry with the mixed breed, but more curious. He clearly didn't just abandon them, otherwise he would have left the engines running or returned, but at the same time, he halted their progress to saving Ryder and Chase, and judging by the message they were given, time was not on their side. He pushed the button on the console, opening the bay doors revealing a pool of deep, dark water in the centre of the room. The rest of the pups shot up, most of whom were napping after being woken up so early, woken by the sound of hydraulic doors moving. Zuma walked over to Marshall, swiftly followed by Skye. Rubble and Everest stood back, looking at each other with slight concern.

The pups watched as the mechanical arm dropped into the water, securely grabbing the sub patroller and it's inhabitants and dragging them up to be met with various glares of worry and anger. Through the window, all the pups saw Rocky sat on Ryder's seat, grinning, even waving. Rubble waved back, happy to see his friend. Everest tapped him on the head. "What?" Rubble asked, looking up at the older pup.
"We don't know what he's up to yet, don't give in",
"Everest, it's Rocky. He will have his reasons", Rubble said, shrugging and turning back to the sight before him, seeing Rocky jump down from the back of the sub.

"So.. uhhh... I didn't wake you guys did I?" Rocky asked, his head slightly lowered. Marshall opened his mouth to speak, only for a brown blur to move past him and slap Rocky right across his muzzle, stunning all the pups in the room.
"What the HELL ARE YOU DOING?" The usual calm voice of Zuma was not present in the room now, only what seemed to be nothing but rage.
"Zuma, wait. Let hi-" Zuma turned around and glared at Marshall, who just gulped and moved backwards.
"Shut it hoseboy". Zuma said, almost sounding like hissing. No one was expecting this, especially Rocky who just looked at Zuma, almost in tears. "Well? Any pawticular weason you decided it was best to go for a midnight submawine wide?" Zuma asked, his steeled gaze not faltering for a second. Rocky simply nodded, keeping his head low. Carefully, he pushed out a silver and black cube, engraved with the Paw Patrol insignia on it. Zuma just looked at Marshall who just shrugged.
"Is that.. the black box from the Air Patroller?" Skye made her voice heard, joining the conversation, butting in front of Zuma who growled lowly, "oh go and suck some seaweed or something", Skye said before inspecting the box. "You went to get the black box? Why didn't you just tell anyone. It's beneficial to our mission, I seriously doubt we'd have problems stopping for it", Skye said, putting her paw on the mark on Rocky's muzzle, rubbing it slightly.
"It was my responsibility. My fault they crashed in the first place, so I had to be the one to get this back", Rocky said, sniffing slightly, before turning around and picking up another item, tossing it in front of the pups. "This too", he said, gesturing to the worn out looking stuffed toy before him.
"Officer bear? So you dived down to the bottom of the ocean to get Chase's bear and a metal shoebox?" Zuma asked, "why?" Rocky opened his mouth to answer, but Skye answered for him.

"I would have thought you'd know what one of these is, Zuma", Skye said, pointing at the box on the floor. "This box contains all of the flight data ever made by the Air Patroller and anyone who used the flight gear", she explained, "in other words, all of the camera footage of the crash, where they crashed, and also where their flight gear last sent a GPS location from". Marshall stepped forwards.
"This box has more information on where Chase and Ryder are?" Skye nodded, "Rocky, why didn't you just let us go get it together? Remember what happened last time I let someone dive on their own?" He asked, pointing at Zuma. "If you got hurt that far down, none of us would have known and you would have died". Rocky looked up, seeing the concern in all of his team member's eyes, but none more concerned than Zuma, who stood with tears on his face.
"I.. I wasn't thinking straight. I thought that whilst you guys slept, I could do more work. We're so close to finding them, I don't want to sleep knowing I could be working on their location. I am the only one on the team smart enough to decipher this box, no offence of course", none of the pups were really that offended, they all knew Rocky was by far the smartest out of all of them, "so it became my responsibility to retrieve it. I had been monitoring our proximity to the wreck for a few days. I was going to tell you guys, honest, but everyone was asleep".
"What about my responsibility Rocky?" Marshall asked, "I have to keep you guys safe and do what's best for the team. I have to do what's best for every pup around me. And because of that, I'm sorry Rocky",
"for what?" Rocky asked.
"Rocky, for the next 12 hours, you are confined to Zuma's bedroom. You need to sleep. It's making you unstable", Marshall said, hanging his head, as did Rocky, who just nodded.
"Why Zuma's room?" Skye asked Marshall.
"Because Rocky's room has all of his projects in. If we kept him in there, he'd just keep working". Rocky just gently kicked something towards Marshall. "Rocky, this isn't a punishment, I'm only doing it because you're gonna make yourself sick and I've run out of options. Zuma will keep an eye on you. What is this?" Marshall said, pointing at the tube on the floor.
"Fuse. Goes in that panel over there", Rocky said, lifting his paw towards the panel marked 'Engines'. "Now, if you guys will excuse me, I apparently have to go sleep". Rocky headed out towards the stairs, followed by Zuma.

Marshall looked at the box and Chase's bear before him on the floor. Rocky had acted out of heart and mind, doing what he believed as the right thing and it made him feel awful for doing this. Still, he was going to make himself ill at the rate he was working, so what choice did he have? Carefully, he placed the fuse back into the slot on the wall. The whole ship hummed back to life, causing everyone to lightly stumble as the boat began to move forwards again.

5:15am - 7 Days after Crash

Rocky sat, rubbing his muzzle looking over at Zuma. "You didn't have to slap me y'know?" Zuma lifted his head and sighed,
"I know. I'm sowwy, I weally am. But you tewwified me Wocky. Diving near the surface is one thing, but going all that way down to the bottom of the sea? It's dangewous even for me!". Rocky could hear the sincerity in Zuma's voice, and remembered the terror he felt himself when he swam through a cloud of Zuma's blood last time the two went for a swim*. "Honestly, I couldn't believe that it was you who stole the sub patwoller. You weally shocked evewyone with that one", Zuma said, lightly laughing. Rocky looked confused. "Don't you dare scare me like that again", Zuma said, lunging fowards and wrapping himself into a hug with the unprepared mixed breed, "I love you". Both of the pups held each other, Rocky finally succumbing to sleep after days of constant work. The sound of his light snores pleased Zuma, who cuddled up closer to his mate and closed his eyes too, drifting to sleep.

12:10pm - 7 Days after Crash

By now, Chase knew the Ryder's routine. The only thing that seemed to wake him from his sleep was when the sun was at its highest through the day, filling the cave with its bright and sweltering light. Chase sat by him, waiting, holding the flask in his teeth. Despite not showing it, Chase was actually scared. Sure, being on a random island in the middle of no where would be terrifying to anyone, but for Chase to be legitimately scared of something requires a lot of boxes to be checked. First off, he was wounded; if whatever was out there decided to attack, he'd stand no chance with only three of his four paws. Second, it had been a full week, he thought. Honestly, Chase didn't know at this point, every single day had blurred into the next, and it's not like he crashed with a calendar. He assumed it had at least been a week, and surely by now, someone should have found them. Finally, there was Ryder. Chase liked to think of himself as a decent leader for the team, but Ryder, Ryder was an elite in comparison. He was intelligent, compassionate, quick thinking and had never failed a rescue yet, so seeing someone he looked up to in complete admiration and trust laid out on a stony cave floor, half asleep and barely eating terrified Chase more than anything out there on the island. He had a lot of time to sit and think to himself over the past few days, and he agreed with himself that Ryder's survival was much more important than his own. If he was gone, Ryder would eventually find a new police pup to replace his position on the Paw Patrol, but without Ryder, none of the pups would know what to do. Sure, there were contingencies in place for when any of the members of the team were unfit to do their duties, usually another pup would stand in for them. If Ryder was unwell and unable to lead, that job would fall to Chase. But Ryder didn't just lead the pups, he loved them. He brought all of them together from various beginnings, took them in, cared for them, gave them a life, a duty, a home and even a family. None of the pups would emotionally survive the loss of Ryder, and so Chase put all of his effort into making sure he was as well looked after as possible.

Chase was dragged out of his thought as Ryder stirred, the sunlight piercing through his closed eyes. Carefully, he sat up, coughing intensely, causing Chase's ears to flatten with every outburst. His eyes opened, slightly. Looking over, he saw Chase sitting by, loyal as ever. Smiling, he took the flask and patted his pup on the head, scratching behind his ear. Chase let out a pleasured sigh, feeling comfortable for the first time in days.

Chase's eyes were filled with concern and pity for the human, but he knew something that might brighten his outlook. Standing up, Chase walked across the cave. Ryder closed the flask, placing it down besides him and leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes and placing a hand over them, trying his best to block out the ever-persistent sun. Then, he felt something on his lap. Moving his hand away and opening his eyes, Ryder looked down to see Chase sat on his legs, holding something. Ryder held out his hand, letting Chase drop the object into it. "It's been blinking like that all night. What do you think it means?" Ryder looked down and opened his hand, showing Chase's puptag, which was indeed, slowly blinking its signature blue light softly. Ryder wasn't sure. He knew all the functions of the tags, but this was something he'd never seen happen. Sitting up, prompting Chase to move off of his legs, Ryder held the tag in his other hand and used his fingernails to pry it open. Thanks to his tinkering earlier in the week, it gave little resistance and popped open almost immediately. Inside, he studied each of the various chips and components surrounding the blue light in the centre. For once, Ryder genuinely wasn't sure about what he was looking at. Perhaps it had finally malfunctioned after all the beating it had taken over the previous days. Perhaps it was picking up stray signals floating in the wind. Ryder closed it, clipping the yellow star cover back in place.

"Well?" Chase asked, looking down at the tag and then back up at Ryder, "is it them?" Chase sat, his tail slightly wagging. Ryder wasn't sure what he meant by "them", which Chase noticed. "I mean, is it the pups?". Ryder's heart sank. Part of him hoped it was, but then again, he would expect the pups to be smart enough to know that this is a task too big for them without him. He trusted Marshall entirely, of course, but this would be one of his first rescues and it would be too much to ask for one pup to manage. "You once told me, Ryder, that the only things that can contact our tags, are our tags. How can it be anything else?" Chase said, standing up smiling. Ryder knew he was right. Although he'd been broadcasting an SOS to every possible craft he could find, he knew the only ones that could respond were all the way across the ocean in Adventure Bay. But.. if they were responding, how could they be doing it from so far away? Chase's tag had no where near enough power to accept international transmissions, which means they were using the short range transmissions. Ryder thought to himself for a while, all whilst Chase patiently awaited his answer, his smile fading slowly each minute. The only logical explanation was that the pups.. they were close-by. Within range of the short range transmission. He looked back down at the blinking tag, and then back up at Chase. Coughing slightly, Ryder looked Chase in the eyes, and saw the smallest amount of hope the pup had left. "It has to be them", Chase whimpered, "it has to be, there's no one else who could do this", he continued, pointing at his tag. Ryder just sat, watching Chase justify his hopes. Carefully, he brought Chase into a hug, wrapping his arms around the pup. He held Chase for a while, both of them enjoying the embrace, relishing what little comfort they could get. Slowly, Ryder lowered his mouth down to Chase's ear.

"It's them". Chase's entire body shuddered, almost as if it was rebooted. He jumped out of Ryder's arms, skilfully landing on three paws. A huge grin was plastered across both of their faces.
"It is?" Chase asked, simply gaining a solid nod as a response from Ryder. Chase howled in delight in response, for a moment, Ryder looked worried for a second, but quickly attempted to hide it. Chase noticed. "Is that.. is that not a good thing?" Chase asked, turning back to face Ryder.
"Of course it is", Ryder said, weakly.
"So why'd you look so worried?" Ryder just shrugged. "Ryder, sir. There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?" Ryder shook his head. Slowly, Chase walked back over to him. "I need to know what's watching us at night Ryder. I know there's something, I've seen you staring out there during the day", Chase said, turning his back to Ryder and looking out over the swaying canopy of trees outside their cave. Ryder's fake smile faded instantly. Of course Chase would know.
"I'm not sure", Ryder said. Chase didn't buy it. He knew Ryder too well, and Ryder was too smart not to come to a conclusion on what was watching them. Unlike Chase, Ryder needed only a few clues to figure it out.
"I don't believe that Ryder. I know you, you wouldn't just find a potential threat to me or you and just shrug it off. I've seen you sleep, you move around restlessly, like something's following you through the trees. When you found me on our first day here, you acted like I had come back from the dead. What is it?" Chase asked. Ryder, hearing some slight frustration and what he could only depict as anger in Chase's voice, sighed and took a long drink from the flask.
"When I came out looking for you, the day after the crash, I found something in the bushes. I'm not going to describe it because it's awful, but whatever it was, had claw marks. Large ones",
"You're talking about that half-eaten, half-rotted thing in the jungle, aren't you?" Chase asked, "I saw it, well.. I smelt it too". Ryder could only imagine how badly it must have smelt to a dog.
"Looking at the tracks, the prints looked almost similar to some kind of cat. Chase, I believe there are panthers, or at least one, on this island".

Chase wasn't exactly sure how to react. Of course, he knew it was some kind of predatory animal, he was expecting that much, but.. a panther? He was hoping for bears. He'd dealt with bears before, it wasn't that big of a deal. He and other members of the Paw Patrol were constantly out on missions, saving stranded hikers who had got too cocky for their own good. The best thing about bears were they were clumsy, bulky, and on most occasions, slow. A panther was agile, fast and patient. He wouldn't stand a chance against one, especially without his gear and his broken paw.

"You ok Chase?" Ryder asked, coughing heavily again. Chase turned around, the fear evident in his eyes, despite trying his best to hide it.
"Y-yeah, yeah. I'm good Ryder. Like you said, we keep the fire lit, it'll keep it's distance, right?" Ryder nodded, providing some comfort to the pup. "Well, whilst it's daylight, I'm gonna go find more firewood", Chase said, standing up. "Thanks for telling me Ryder". Ryder watched as Chase limped out of the cave. He looked back down at the tag on his lap, seeing the light blinking still, for a second, he thought it was blinking just ever so slightly faster, but he put that down to his illness confusing all of his senses. Carefully, he wrapped his hand around the tag, grasping it and holding it close to him.

"Come quick pups. We need the Paw Patrol right about now".

*Chapter 10 - Rocky's Rescue; Zuma injures himself during a repair on a ship after sending Rocky away.

Hey all, hope you're all doing good. Enjoying the conversations I've been having with some of you, and your ideas have all been noted down, I promise. At this point, I'm not taking ideas for this story, because I have everything planned out completely now, and I basically wrote the ending already. Yes, I know, that means the story is coming to a close soon, and I just want to express my absolute adoration of you guys. Every favourite, every follow, every review gives me new drive to continue, and I really thank you all for that.

Hopefully, this chapter was more interesting than the last.. I did change something when Rocky stole the Sub Patroller. Instead of Zuma being upset with Rocky, I was going to have Marshall be angry with him instead. Since he had spent days awake, I had planned to make it seem as if Rocky was becoming delusional, or 'crazy'. (Not off the rails wacko crazy, but making decisions he wouldn't otherwise make, like stealing the Sub). In my original draft of this chapter, I had Marshall distract Rocky, and then sedate him (inject him) and let him rest in the Medic Room, sparking an argument with Marshall and Zuma. Instead, I went with Zuma being upset, and Marshall being less drastic, as I personally think that would have been incredibly out of character for Marshall and I don't want that.

I've had a few people ask why I don't give the other pups much attention in the story, and it's basically because this story was originally meant to be completely about Marshall. I have, obviously, deviated from that a few times, but I try my best to drag it back to his perspective a few times. I actually feel as if I give all the characters enough lines and such, since I even gave Rubble a backstory in the last chapter. In the end, the main characters this story focuses on now are Marshall, Chase, Ryder, Rocky and Zuma. Skye, Everest and Rubble are basically supporting characters.

One question I have also been asked is, why not make the animal on the island with Chase and Ryder, a wolf. Basically, because everyone seems to go for wolves in their stories. Around 40% of the stories I have read on here have wolves in, and only a few manage to pull it off successfully. I believe a Jaguar fits the environment easier, and it would be something that none of the pups would stand a chance against, hence making it an actual danger. (Also, cats don't speak in the Paw Patrol universe, so it means I won't have to make it into an original character with some kind of cheesy name and backstory).

Reviews:

Hannahgrxe: Thank you so much, I'm very glad to hear you are enjoying the story. I am actually in the process of planning out my own take on each pup's origins. If you read the last chapter, then you can guess I already have some ideas in mind for Rubble and Zuma. Chase isn't gonna get one since I gave him one waaaay back at the start of this story. I am actually struggling with ones for Marshall and Skye though. It had always confused me why Rubble got a backstory episode, but none of the other pups. And even that was just, Rubble was nearby when he saw a ball, and that was more or less it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hauchen: Thank you so much! I can't believe, (or understand), why anyone would spend hours reading through this lol. But I've been in your position before. I spent all of last month glued to my phone reading lots and lots, (and I mean lots, as in, more or less every Paw Patrol fiction on here), of fanfiction. I'm so happy to hear that I've been able to make one that can make others do the same as I did. It's awesome to hear that the story has you hooked. Hopefully you won't have to wait long for the next chapter and the ending. Thanks for all the follows and favs too!