(A/N): Hey guys, back with another one for you. Again, I would like to reassure that even though it's sad right now, It does have a happy ending so please stick with me and all the sad stuff will be gone in no time.

However, this is another sad one, as we explore Marshall's life before Paw Patrol. Let me tell you this right now, it defiantly wasn't gentle for him.

Welcome back to Paw Patrol: The Ballad of Dally!

Chapter 10: Life is Cruel

Chase and Skye walked up to Alex's bedroom door in complete silence. Nothing was something on the other side which made the two curious as to what was going on

Skye stepped up and knocked on the door "Alex? It's me, Skye. Chase is here too. We want to talk to you."

A few moments of silence as the two pup stared at the door. Skye looks at Chase. "He's not answering Chase."

"Try again." Chase said without missing a beat.

Skye was a bit surprised by Chase's quick response, making her hesitate a little. She knocked again. "Alex? Come on now. Let's talk. We wanna see if you're okay."

Again, no answer. Skye was starting to think that it was a lost cause. That Alex just will not answer. Chase however, thought differently. "Chase. I don't think he's going to answer. He probably doesn't want to talk to anyone right now. Maybe we need to give him sometime.

Chase kept his determination on. "That's not an option Skye. If we want to help Alex, we've got to help him now, or Alex will never come out."

"But Chase, how can we do that? We can't even get him to answer the door." Skye stated, whimpering on some words for her friend.

Chase looked at her still determined. "We push Skye. We push till we hit something." He then looks at the door as he knocks. "Alex. we know you're in there. Your grandpa told us you were. You might as well come out and talk."

Skye shot her head over to Chase when he was calling Alex. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Chase wasn't pulling any punches and was not being nice about it at all.

"Ignore us all you want Alex, but I'm not leaving here until you talk to us. I don't have anywhere to be today, so I can do this all day." Chase called.

"Chase!" Skye jeered. "Don't say that. We're trying to get him to talk to us not scare him."

Chase ignored her. "Alex. I know my voice is annoying to you. If you don't answer, It'll be the only one you'll hear all...day...long."

Skye was miffed at the fact that Chase flat out ignored her there. It was like he wasn't even listening to her at all. She was also annoyed at the fact that he was being a little hostile at Alex, like Alex had actually done something wrong. She didn't know where Chase got this sudden attitude, but it needed to stop, or they will never be able to talk to Alex at all.

"Chase, stop." Skye ordered. "You're not helping at all. It's only going to…"

"Shh!" Chase hushed her.

Now Skye was getting heated. "Wha? Don't shush me. We're in this together. Now come on. You're making it…"

Chase slapped a paw on Skye's mouth to quiet her, which only enraged the cockapoo more. She squirmed to get out of Chase grasp but he made sure that wouldn't happen as he went on.

"Alex, come on now. Either deal with me now and get it over with, or listen to me all day. Which one will it be buddy?"

Skye finally got her face out. After spitting the taste of Chase's paw out, she practically flew at Chase. The shepherd barely noticed as Skye went off on him. "Don't ever do that again! I don't care what plan you're doing! Don't ever put your paw on my…."

Suddenly, in the middle of Skye's rant, the door clicked. Skye stopped yelling as slowly, the door opened. Skye couldn't believe it, but Chase's tactic worked as soon enough, Alex came into view.

The sight was pretty ugly to see. The boy was bandaged everywhere, his right arm was in a sling, and his nose was sunburn red. His eyes were far past bloodshot and his clothes were drenched in tears.

Then, he spoke. "Chase, Skye. You don't want to talk to me. In fact, you don't ever wanna be my friend anymore."

Skye doubletaked on that. "What? Alex no. That's not true. Why would you say something like that?"

Upon looking at the both of them, Alex dipped his head in shame, as if he had something that was weighing him down to the floor. "Because….Because…...Because….." Alex started to cry again, as it prevented him from finishing. "You don't wanna know."

"Alex. You can tell us anything." Skye cooled. "I'm pretty sure it's not so bad that we don't want to be your friend anymore."

"Yes…...it is." Alex insisted while holding back sobs.

"Alex." Skye said. She quickly looked at Chase, who was still staring at Alex. Not saying a word. She then looked back to Alex. "Please. Tell us. Tell us why you think we don't want to be friends with you anymore."

Alex hesitated as he continued to hold back. "Because...Because….. Because." Alex screamed out, finally letting it all out in front of Chase and Skye.

"I KILLED MARSHAAAAAAAAAAALL! WAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

Alex's knees buckled as he dropped to them. He then cried uncontrollably saying the same thing over and over.

"I killed Marshall! I killed Marshall! I killed Marshall! WAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

Upon seeing this, Skye looked at Chase in shock, with Chase finally looking at Skye with more emotion, as shock was on his face as well.

This was going to be a long hour.

When everyone got settled down in the lookout, Ryder was still paralyzed in shock. He barely remembered what happened next. He guessed his father invited the two dogs in the lookout to talk and Ryder pretty much was on autopilot mode going into the lobby. He was swimming in so many polarising thoughts, his mind was blown on so many levels.

It wasn't that He thought Marshall didn't have parents, the dally had to be born somehow. It's just that Marshall never really talked about his parents. In fact…. He never did talk about them at all. Whenever Ryder asked him about it, Marshall would get very nervous and sad, and would shrug the question off. Ryder assumed that his attitude about it meant that something had happened to them and the memory was too traumatizing for Marshall to recall. But that insight was tossed when they suddenly showed up, and definitely at the wrong time.

Ryder could tell by looking at the both of them, that they knew what happened to their pup. But why now? Why hadn't they showed up anytime during this past year? Surely if they cared for him, they would keep up with him or Marshall had indeed kept in contact with them, but Ryder found that highly unlikely.

Before he could go deeper into his thoughts, his father touched his shoulder to bring him back to reality. Ryder felt like he was bright out of a very deep sleep.

"Huh? What?" Ryder stumbled, looking around for awareness.

"Ryder, calm down. They wanna talk to you." His father stated.

Ryder looked at Sparky and Ashley, while Ember was sleeping peacefully on the floor next to her. They were looking at him with a mix of curiosity, and depression. Ashley looked like she could break down at any moment. He felt bad for having zoned out in front of them. They were probably waiting for a good minute for him to answer.

Ryder felt immediate guilt as he looked at the two dally's. Even though he just met them, he could feel their pain and misery. He was almost scared to speak up, fearing that they may be hostile to him. Marshall was their son after all, and he died under HIS responsibility. It didn't matter whether or not if they met or not, the pain of loss efforts you know happened.

He took a deep breath as he finally addressed them. "I-I'm assuming you know what happened."

Ryder felt like bashing his head on the table when he said that. He didn't want to be blatant but of all the things he could've said, why in the world did he say that? Clearly not a good thing to start off with.

He saw Ashley turn her head and bury it in Sparky's side, while Sparky tried his best to keep a straight face. "Yes. We-We know what happened to our son. That's why we're here."

"I-I'm so sorry." Ryder pushed out. "I-If I had known about you two, I would've had more of an effort to reach out to you. So we could've met under better circumstances. But Marshall….didn't really talked about you. He always shrugged it off without saying a word."

Ashley dipped her head away from Sparky as he responded. "You have nothing to apologize to us about Ryder. We're not surprised at all that Marshall never talked about us that much, if not at all."

Norman tilted his head in curiosity. "Really? Did something happen between you and Marshall?"

Sparky and Ashley look at each other painfully before revealing. "Well…..

For reasons we're not sure of….Marshall…..ran away."

Ryder and Norman were practically lifted out of their seats at the bewilderment of the statement. Ashley suddenly began to whimper in which Sparky nuzzled her to comfort. Once Ryder was able to process what had just been said, he tried to speak "...r-run away? You mean he just left you?"

Sparky nodded slowly as he was still comforting his very distressed mate. The atmosphere changed as it was painfully quiet.

"That's…...very peculiar." Norman said, still trying to piece together everything. "Do you have any idea why he would do something like that?"

"Like I said, we're not really sure." Sparky stated. "But we think we have an idea as to why."

Norman and Ryder paid full attention as Sparky went on.

"You see, to tell you this, I have to tell you a little bit about Marshall." Ashley put a paw on her mate's paw for support. "Marshall had a very challenging time, proving himself to everyone that he was an amazing fire pup. But most would bat an eye to him when his….disability came into question."

"His….disability?" Norman asked.

"Yes. Marshall had a very challenging disadvantage for himself, and that was that he had a hard time being careful with himself and other sort of things. He would regularly knock into things and would almost always trip on his paws. All the time."

Ryder then calmly chimed in. "I know what you guys are talking about. We know for sure that Marshall had a little trouble in being careful sometimes.

But for the most part, he was able to overcome it a little bit."

Sparky's tail wagged slightly for a bit before it stopped when he continued. "Well, I don't know how much of a problem it was here, but back home, it was a real problem. At first, we thought it was a phase, but years went by and he still had problems." Sparky choked up a bit as Ashley rubbed his paw and nuzzled him. "...we...we tried everything to help him but there was only little we could do. It really became a problem when the Fire Dog Association got word of it. They were very vocal about Marshall's disadvantage. So much that they weren't really thrilled when he went into the academy. When Marshall got his permit, They watched him like a hawk from then on."

Sparky took a few breaths as he looked at his mate who looked at him in return. Ashley licked him gently for support but it only did so much to keep Sparky from his thoughts.

Ryder thought about what the dally was saying with sympathy for Marshall. He never knew that Marshall's "disability" was so troublesome to him that bad. Sure he was very clumsy for as long as he knew the pup, but the amazing part was that whenever it came to rescues and missions, Marshall didn't really have that much trouble. He was always careful and tried his best to not bring his clumsiness with him on the job. Obviously, he wasn't perfect, but it was more of a comedic thing than a disadvantage. It impressed Ryder to watch Marshall excel past his issues, and be one of Ryder's most trusted pups to do the job.

After a few minutes of despair, Sparky finally went on, but Ryder could hear the discourse in his voice as he continued. "It pained us so much to not do anything for him because the Fire Dog Association had it out for him. At least that's what I thought. Thankfully, my boy was strong. He pushed on through the naysayers at the association, got his permit, became a fine fire pup, and was even considered the fastest in his class."

Ryder could see pride in Sparky's eyes for just a moment. "All was well and Marshall was looking to move up in the association, and was so close to get his first real assignment…" Before it suddenly went away and was replaced with despair again. "But then, the firehouse caught fire. When that happened, they finally had a reason to hound him."

"What happened? Why was Marshall in deep trouble after that fire in particular?" Ryder asked.

Ashley looked at Sparky very concerned as Sparky answered. "During one of rescues, Marshall was left at the house. When we came back, we ended up having to put out another house fire, right at the firehouse."

"A fire at the firehouse? How literal." Norman commented.

"I'm guessing Marshall was the one who was implicated." Ryder assumed.

Sparky nodded shakingly as if he was embarrassed. "Yes. Naturally, our own son was blamed. Since he was the only one there while we were out, he took all the blame."

Ashley whimpered as tears went down her face. It took a minute before another word was spoken.

"It was very traumatizing for him. The FRDA jumped to the conclusion based on his clumsy way. They came down hard on him for the fact that he caused the fire." Sparky added.

Ryder felt horrible for Marshall. To be shunned for a big mistake especially if he didn't mean it. He had always known the dally to be very insecure about his clumsiness and very apologetic whenever he would mess up. Was this the reason he hated his clumsiness? Whether it was or not, was not the subject at hand right now. What did matter was what happened to his pup before, and why he ran away.

Norman then asked a question that Ryder was going to ask himself. "Well? Was it true? Did he start the fire?"

Sparky nodded. "Yes. It was him. Marshall started the fire."

"How did you know for sure?" Ryder asked back.

"It's because….Marshall told us. He admitted to the whole thing." Sparky revealed.

Ryder wasn't very surprised to hear that about Marshall. Considering how open the dally was, for the most part. It was very expected for Marshall to own up to his mess up. But was it enough to cause Marshall to run away?

"Like I said, the FRDA came down on him. They wanted to unrecognize Marshall, take his permit away, and never consider him a firedog." Sparky said with spite and distaste.

From the way Sparky described it, Marshall was starting to sound like a criminal that the association wanted to stay away from. "But, why. Why did they treat Marshall like some sort of nuisance? Surly, there were more pups than they could keep track of. Why was Marshall so concerning for them?"

As Sparky answered the question, the two humans could hear the hint of anger in his voice. "One thing. Marshall's disability. That's the only reason why."

Ryder himself felt very bothered that an entire organization wanted to snub a little pup. No matter if Marshall could help his disability, there should be no reason anyone would go out of their way to come down on the dally who truly didn't deserve it.

"The Fire Dog Association is a very professional organization. It's reputation is well known around America for being the most prestigious group for fire dogs alike. If you wanted to be a fire dog, you went through them. No one else, and it's there rules and standards you have to follow if you even want a fire dog at a firehouse."

Ryder was very intrigued by this. As strange as it sounded, he had never heard of such organization. He didn't even think of the possibility of there being one. He wondered why Marshall never said a peep about it. Was it possible that Marshall was trying to hide from the association? Probably not, but he wouldn't be surprised if it was the case.

"This is very sad to hear to say the least Sparky." Norman said. "From the way you make it sound, The FRDA is a very corrupt organization."

"It's not all bad." Sparky admitted. "The actual dogs who are in action and really run the organization are great and fine canines of all breeds, if you can believe it, not just dalmatians. If any dog wanted to be a fire dog there would be no problem at all. We have a lot of friends that work for the association that we've known for a long time. In fact if it wasn't for them, Marshall wouldn't have gotten very far to begin with. The problem is that the old dogs who are in charge have a certain view on what a fire dog should be, and what they can do, and poor Marshall was not who that view was."

"But Sparky." Ryder said. "Marshall was a tremendous fire pup here. Many people here called him the best ever. His heart was as strong as a bull, and put that heart in everything he did. How can Marshall's clumsiness overshadow all of that for them?"

After Ryder asked that, Sparky's face lifted up a little. He could tell that Ryder putting Marshall over like that made him so proud of his son. Even Ashley, when had been somber and not said a single word the entire conversation, had finally begun to show signs of joy with a small smile for her pup.

"I have no clue Ryder." Sparky answered as his face fell again. "It's just the way they want things I guess. That's the best I can give. I will say this, you are very lucky that the FRDA hadn't found out about Marshall performing his duties here until two days ago. If they did find out before, they probably would've blacklisted you until you gave in to their demands.

Ryder was so glad he never had an encounter with them while Marshall was still alive. From the sound of it, it would've been a handful to deal with. Ryder would have never given up on Marshall for anything, so it probably would've been a hair pulling fight to make sure Marshall could still do his job.

Norman pushed his glasses to his face. "I'm assuming that is what they did to you all."

Sparky dipped his head as he whimpered out. "You would be correct. "The FRDA pressured our house to unassign Marshall. The house fought hard to keep him. We were family to them, and Marshall meant a lot to the house. But the association used that to manipulate them. They threatened to pull us out of the house if they recognized Marshall as their fire pup. Marshall would have been dropped from the organization and would never be allowed to be a fire pup under their banner, which pretty much meant that he would never be one at all."

Hearing about the struggles that Marshall and his parents had to go through bothered Ryder immensely. He couldn't understand why an entire entity wanted to scrub Marshall away from their records like that. Marshall was an amazing fire pup. The dally had made Ryder proud on so many occasions, but not just him and the other pups, but Adventure Bay itself. He was recognized as a hero and continued to be a helping paw to everyone till the day he died. He didn't deserve it. In fact, no one deserved to be hounded like the FRDA did. He was really glad the association never found out about Patrol Patrol, or else Ryder would've had some very harsh words directed at them for even making his fire pup feel bad.

"It obviously didn't happen, did it?" Norman asked further.

Sparky whimpered himself and shook his head. "No. It didn't. Before they really could do anything, and bring the hammer down on him, Marshall…." tears formed in both Sparky's and Ashley's eyes. "...Marshall left."

Ryder looked at the two dogs curiously. "Left? Meaning…...he ran away?"

Sparky nodded at Ryder. His voice cracked a little as he explained more. "Yes. He ran, and there wasn't any note that he left behind, so we could know for sure why." At the end, Ashley sobs out as Sparky lets his tears fall himself.

Ryder was very surprised. "What? No note? That doesn't sound like Marshall at all. That would imply that he didn't even care about you and vice versa."

"That's impossible!" Sparky blurted out suddenly, making Ryder, Norman, and even Ashley jump out a bit. Ember sired a bit and whimpered, almost waking up. As Sparky went on, tears splashed out of his eyes. "Marshall loved us and we loved him! We would've done anything to help him and make him happy! There is no question about it!"

Norman shot a hand in front of the raging dalmatian, being sure to shift in front of his son to protect him from anything. "Hey, hey, take it easy. Take it easy. He didn't say that Marshall didn't love you two. He just said that it seemed like it. He didn't mean to say that."

After Norman's reassurance, Sparky settled down after taking a few deep breaths, while Ashley was tending to a disturbed Ember. "I-I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to lash out like that. It's just…" he paused a bit. "Ashley and I loved Marshall so much. So when he ran away, we felt like we failed as parents."

Ryder could only look with sorrow while Norman spoke up. "I'm so sorry for you two. I can't imagine how it feels to lose your son like that." As soon as he said that, Norman noticeably put a hand on Ryder's knee and gripped tightly. Ryder looked at his father as he continued and saw that he had a very concerned face. "Especially if you were around him so much. It must've been hard searching or him and getting back nothing I assume."

"Believe it or not, it was more of a fight to keep the search going than it was to keep him in the house. Once Marshall was gone, the association got off our backs, and when we searched the city with the police, no one from the FRDA, with the exception of some very trusted friends who kept their eye out for him, lifted a paw to help."

"They got what they wanted." Ryder implicated with distaste. "Why would they help if they got what they wanted." Ryder clenched his fist in answer. "Can't believe they drove a pup like Marshall to run away like that."

Norman looked at his son and noticed the anger coming from him. He put his hand on his son's shoulder. "Calm down son. There's no need to get upset about it now."

Ryder did just that, as he visibly calmed himself. Norman turned his attention to the two dally's. "How long did you search for Marshall."

"We never really stopped. We somewhat accepted that Marshall was gone, and hoped someday that he would return. We searched everywhere for him, but San Francisco is a big city, and he could've gone anywhere for all we knew. After about a year, all we were doing was keeping an eye and ear out for him, and hoping he would come home." Sparky then dipped his head as Ashley whimpered. "...it wasn't until a few days ago, when one of our friends from the FRDA told us that she had found where he had been…" Sparky then noticeably shook as he broke down silently. It took him a good minute to finnish his sentence. "...and that it was too late…."

Ryder's breath was nearly stolen out of his lungs by the grim statement. He thought he had it bad losing Marshall, he could never have imagined being in Sparky's and Ashley's position. Not knowing where your son was until the day he died.

His heart hurt for them. Life had been cruel to them for absolutely no reason.

He wanted to say something to them. He wanted to tell them how glad he was to meet Marshall, and how much of a great fire pup he was. But the story he heard froze him solid. He couldn't think of any words to say. His mind was shuffling words as he could only look at them with sympathy. Despite this, Ryder pushed through and thought of the best words he could say. "Sparky….Ashley…and even you Ember, I don't know where I would even begin to say sorry." His voice cracked as he went on. "I know I said it before, but I feel like I need to say it again. If I had known about you guys before, I would've made sure you had a chance to see him. I feel so awful that this has happened to you and Marshall. It pains me to know that Marshall went through all of this at such a young age. He didn't deserve to be blacklisted by an organization that doesn't understand how Marshall lived and did his job. It's a shame because I'm going to tell you right now. Marshall was one of the best pups I ever knew. He had a heart the size of a mountain and pushed himself to the limit everyday to be the best fire pup ever. I WISH you could've seen him. I do because you would have been so proud of him….." Ryder nearly broke down as Norman comforted him.

"...Just like I was."

Sparky and Ashley locked their eyes with Ryder as the boy gave his tearful speech. Ryder saw through his own tears, that the both of them looked very astonished after hearing Ryder put Marshall over like that. Sparky smiled proudly as he responded. "Th-That means a lot to us, to hear you say that. When we came here, we were just very grateful for having taken care of our pup. It makes us so happy to hear that he at least got to be what he wanted to be. A pup who wanted to help others anyway he could."

Both Ryder and Sparky have a sorrowful stare down. Each of them showing every ounce of pain and misery in their eyes, as if they shared each other's feelings.

This came to an abrupt end when the lookout doors suddenly shot open, causing everyone to look towards the doors. What they saw was Rocky and Zuma walking in for breakfast.

Zuma looked very excited while Rocky was looking at him. It was the first time Rocky had been out of his pup house since Marshall died, and it looks as if Zuma had finally gotten him to come out of his pup house. He was even smiling a little, as he walked with Zuma. But that suddenly changed when Rocky caught sight of Ashley. His smile disappeared instantly and he turned ghost white with his eyes ready to come out of his sockets.

It took a bit for Ashley to recognize him but when she did, her attitude changed in an instant. Before anyone knew it, a long growl sounded, and suddenly, Ashley bared her teeth at the mixed breed.

Ryder and Norman were stunned as Sparky suddenly stood in front of his mate. "Ash! Calm down!"

Ashley didn't listen, as she snapped at Rocky. "YOU!"

Rocky looked at Ashley as he had just seen a ghost, as he breathed out. "Oh no."

After about thirty minutes of Alex crying his heart out, Chase and Skye finally seemed to get the boy to calm down enough to talk.

Alex hugged Skye like she was a stuffed animal, while Chase sat beside them and did his best to reassure Alex that he did not kill his friend. "Alex, trust me. You didn't kill Marshall."

Chase's words were not working at all, as the boy insisted. "Yes I did! I started the fire! I didn't do what grandpa always said to me! I left the corn cob to burn! It's all my fault! The fire started because of me! I killed him Chase! I killed Marshall!"

Skye looked at Chase nervously as if to say "What do we say?" She relaxed when she saw that Chase was calm and hadn't lost himself. "Yes, I know you started the fire Alex, but that doesn't mean you killed him."

Alex looked at Chase very tearfully. "It doesn't?"

"No buddy." Chase assured as he rubbed Alex for comfort. "It was just an accident. A very unfortunate accident. There is no way in the world we would hold you responsible for what happened to Marshall. Nor would we stop being your friend Alex."

"But the fire started because of me Chase." Alex argued. "The accident would've never happened had I not been so stupid."

"Maybe so Alex. But, that does not make you a killer. A killer does it on purpose and makes sure the person dies. You didn't trap Marshall in there, you didn't tie him on anything to keep him from getting away. In fact, he had already saved you before it happened." Chase explained.

Alex looked at Chase very surprised. "What? What do you mean? I was trapped inside, he had to go in to save me. Did he go back in or something?"

Chase's face fell as he nodded slowly. "Yes Alex. He did go back in, after he rescued you."

Alex was confused at Chase's answer. "Why? What did he go back in for?"

Skye looked at Chase as suddenly, her full attention was on him. Chase had his head hanging when he answered Alex's question. "He…..He went back in…...to save me."

Alex was now done crying as he was listening to what Chase was saying. Skye was now looking at him with concern, hoping that Chase wasn't going to do what she thought he was going to do.

"After I saved the mayor, I fell through the floor and wound up trapped myself. Marshall and Skye had to go in and find me. When they did, we were trying to escape, but my paw gave out and Marshall had to save me from falling debris. Instead though, it fell down on him." Chase revealed to Alex, as he whimpered at his story. "So you see Alex. If anyone should be at fault, It should be me. I was the reason he had to go back in."

"Whoa whoa whoa. Chase." Skye called out. "It's not just you, It's me too. He was saving me too. I'm as much to blame as you."

"I know Skye." Chase said immediately. "But there's no point in putting fault on any of us. It was just a really bad accident. Nothing else. That goes for me, you, and Alex."

Alex dipped his head in shame. "I-I know Chase. I just miss Marshall so much….." Alex nearly cried again at the mention. "...I thought that if I had never started that stupid fire, Marshall would've never be dead and even if he wasn't, I think that he would be mad at me for starting the fire."

"Alex." Skye popped. "That will never be true. You know Marshall wouldn't have been mad. He would've wanted you to be okay. He didn't care about whether you started the fire or not."

"But Marshall hates people who start fires. I'm one of those people." Alex cried.

Chase then countered with. "No Alex. You're very mistaken. Marshall hates people who start fires on purpose to hurt other people or cause chaos. You didn't mean to start the fire. It was an accident and Marshall didn't die because of you. Nothing more."

After Chase's explanation, Alex started to light up, as if Chase simply picked the weight off of his shoulders. But it obviously didn't do away with his sadness.

"You're right Chase." Alex croaked out. "You and Skye, but everything's still the same. No words will bring Marshall back."

Alex teared up again as Skye nuzzles him to comfort him as tears formed in her eyes too. "C-Can I tell you two something?"

Chase and Skye look at Alex. "Yes Alex?" Skye acknowledged. "What is it?"

"I want to say that you, Ryder, Rocky, Zuma, and Rubble are the coolest team ever. You all are my best friends and I am so thankful that you all have continued to be my friends ever since I met you all. You all do things that I dream of doing every night. I'm thankful that you not only help me and grandpa, but also the Mayor, Farmer Yumi, Captain Turbot, and everyone in Adventure Bay. I truly wanna be like you and Ryder when I grow up."

Chase and Skye Wagged their tails in response as Alex put them over. However, They soon stopped as he continued.

"But I'm going to tell you the truth. Marshall…...Marshall was…..special." Alex paused a bit, as memories of Marshall flooded his mind. "He was so special…...to me. I don't wanna make you feel bad, but if it ever came a time, where Ryder gave me a choice to keep one of you….It would be Marshall."

Chase and Skye look at Alex with intrigued faces.

"Out of all you pups, Marshall was always the most fun to play with. He always found time to be there if I wanted to play with someone, he always made sure I was okay and happy. Like he himself is happy if I am." Alex's speech started to deteriorate as he went on about Marshall. "W-When G-Grandpa told me a-about M-M-Marshall….I-I did-didn't want to be-believe it. Th-There was n-no way that M-Marshall c-can just g-g-go like that. He's super cool and st-strong, like all of you are. You all s-supposed to be heroes. Heroes are not supposed to die!" The boy went from quietly crying to loudly crying. "That's what I saw Marshall as and what I saw all of you as! But when Grandpa told me how Marshall died, I was shocked! I thought that there was no way Marshall would be gone, he's had so many crashes, wipeouts, and stuff fall on him all the time! Now you're telling me that this one little pile of stupid rubble suddenly took Marshall away? No! No way! I can't be okay with that! Marshall's my friend! He's supposed to be my friend forever! Now he's gone! HE'S GONE, AND I'LL NEVER EVER EVER SEE HIM AGAIN!"

Like a crumbling building, Alex broke down and cried his heart out. Skye instantly went to comfort him, nuzzling, hugging, and licking him as he bawled more tears. Chase suddenly joined Skye, and hugged Alex, as the boy cried on his shoulders.

Chase held Alex tightly as the boy continued to cry. He suddenly was in deep thought about Alex. For as long as the Paw Patrol has been in action, Alex has always been the group's number 1 fan. He always made an effort when he could be a part of them. Even though he definitely wasn't perfect and on more than one occasion, being the reason the Paw Patrol had to be called out, Chase and the others have never thought of him as a nuisance, just a very oblivious boy. His closeness to Marshall was no secret. Even though Alex could have fun with every pup, it seemed that Marshall was the pup Alex had always wanted if he would ever get a dog. There was nothing wrong with this as Chase didn't really care about that sort of stuff, especially if his owner was amazing enough, but what did matter was Alex's well being with Marshall being gone.

He thought about Marshall's promise all of a sudden. He figured why should he stop at the pups? Adventure Bay has to move on without Marshall, and everyone needs help.

"Shhh, it's okay Alex." Chase cooled, softly while rubbing his back with his paw.

Alex stopped sobbing, mostly because he couldn't cry anymore, and looked at a very caring Chase.

Chase got up close to Alex as he started. "Alex. I want to let you know about something, Marshall meant a lot to everyone. He touched so many lives as well as we touched him, and he loved everyone of his friends. You're not alone Alex, we all were thinking exactly what you are thinking. That nothing bad would happen to us. But as you know, that wasn't the case. Marshall's gone…" he paused at that. "...and there's nothing we can do to bring him back. No matter what, we have to accept it and move on."

Skye's heart hurt as Chase was talking. She didn't know why Chase was being so blunt, but she could tell that It was getting to him as much as it was getting to the both of them.

"But Chase, I don't wanna move on! I want Marshall back!" Alex responded in agony.

"I know Alex. I want him back as much as you do….probably more than you, but that's not going to happen. No matter how much we will wish for it, Marshall will never come back. But that doesn't mean you, me, and everyone else should be miserable everyday. We need to move on and be happy because that's what Marshall would want."

"He….He would?"Alex asks as he sniffles.

Chase nodded confidently. "Yes Alex. Marshall loved his friends and family more than anything in the world. He hated seeing anyone sad or lonely. He would do anything to help them lift their spirits up and be the happiest they had ever been. That's why he did what he did every day. To see smiles on everyone's faces so he could smile and have fun with us as well. That's all he ever wanted Alex."

It took a minute for Alex to respond to Chase's words as he was trying to think of what to say. "...But how can I do that? Marshall was not just a friend to me. He was a best friend. How can I move on without a pup like him?"

"You've got us Alex." Skye responded. "You're not alone on this. Marshall was our friend too and we are in the same boat as you. Marshall meant a lot to us as much as he meant to you. We can help each other get through this and be happy again."

"We can?" Alex asked.

"Of course we can." Chase said with a warm smile. "All we have to do is be there for each other when we need it." Chase then got in front of Alex. "Alex, locking yourself in your room and being alone is not the way to do that. If you continue to do that, all your sadness and misery will stay with you. Trust me Alex. You need to remember that you have friends who would pass up anything to help you. One of them is your own Grandpa, who right now is so worried about you ever since you got home."

Alex sat there and looked to be processing what Chase was saying right at him. After a few minutes of silence and thinking, Alex hugged Chase and Skye with more tears flowing down his face. "Thank you Chase, thank you Skye. You, Ryder, Rocky, Zuma, and Rubble are the best friends I could ever have. So will Marshall."

"That's what we ever want to be Alex." Skye said warmly. "Your friend forever.

Alex gripped them a little tighter at that. The three hugged each other for a good minute before Alex finally let go and jumped off the bed. "I better go and apologize to Grandpa for worrying him so much."

"That will be a good start buddy." Chase said, as Alex walked out of his room and went downstairs to talk to his Grandpa.

Before he could follow, Skye called out to him. "Chase?"

"Yeah Skye?" Chase called back.

Skye looked at him impressed. "I can't believe you were able to get him to open up after you were so hard on him."

"Yeah, me too." Chase admitted. "I was probably a little too hard on him, but it was what I had to do to get him to talk to us."

"How did you know it would work?" Skye asked curiously. "How did you know that pushing so hard would get him to open the door?"

Chase looked at Skye and gave her a somber look. "Because that's what Marshall did to me."

The two look at each other for a moment of silence. Before each of them could say a word, their pup tags went off.

"Chase? Are you there?" Ryder called.

Chase answered his pup tag professionally. "Yes Ryder sir, I'm here. What do you need?"

"I didn't see your pup house outside so I wanted to check on you and see where you were."

"I'm at Mr. Porter's Ryder sir. Skye is with me as well." Chase responded.

"That's fine. Well, can I get you guys to come back here? I may need you here." Ryder requested.

Chase and Skye became very curious. "S-Sure Ryder sir. May I ask why?"

"It's a bit difficult to explain but we have important guests here at the lookout." Ryder answered.

"We do?" Skye asked through her tag. "Who are they."

"Well, my father is here."

Chase suddenly sounded very excited. Norman always was a second father to Chase, and would always be excited to see him. "Mr. Norman is here?!"

"Yeah Chase. Dad's here." Ryder confirmed. He then added something that took the two pups by surprise. "So as Marshall's parents."

Both Chase and Skye's jaw practically fell to the floor at Ryder's announcement. Neither of them ever expected that to enter their ears. Chase and Skye looked at each other as they both spoke.

"Marshall's…...parents?"

(A/N): Wow. What a whole lot of stuff we learned about Marshall's troubled past. There's now wonder why Marshall kept silent about all of this. I feel so bad for Marshall's parents. They really have been through a lot.

Chapter 11 is coming along nicely so it should be up very soon.

Question of the Chapter: What do you think was up with Ashley snapping and Rocky like that? Do you think Rocky did something to get that reaction form her.

Let me know in your review!

Please review and tell me your favorite parts and if you have any questions about the story or anything else, just put it in your review or pm me and l'll get back with you as soon as I can.

This Is Sean Thames of Dragonsfire Entertainment signing off!