Chase and Skye were both sound asleep in their puphouse. Usually, the two would always have a calming and restless night together. After all, they enjoyed each other's company above anything else.

However, their rest-filled sleep was interrupted, when the door shot open, creating a loud thud. Skye yelped and jumped out of bed, not knowing what the source was. Now that he was also awake, and he could see his mate was scared, Chase protectively stepped in front of her.

However, he quickly realized his mistake once he noticed who was standing in the doorway. Marshall, and to say he looked scared would've been a large understatement. He looked genuinely terrified, almost like his life was at risk.

"Marshall? What's wrong? Why are you even up this late?" The shepherd asked, immediately lowering his guard. The dally attempted to respond but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't form any words. Chase had never seen him panicking like this, before or after his diagnosis, even in the most serious of situations.

"Woah, woah calm down bud. Take deep breaths." He demanded after seeing that the dally couldn't even speak clearly, Marshall nodded and was trying to do as he was told. However, it didn't do much, as he was still freaking out as the stress and fear were already running their course.

"Alright, so what exactly is happening?" Skye interjected, clearly confused. Chase only shrugged before turning to Marshall, signaling him to attempt and explain the situation at hand.

"S-she's gone. I-I lost h-her..." He trailed off, not even able to finish talking. The couple looked at each other in confusion, only to look back and noticed the dally weeping violently, completely overwhelmed.

Seeing how upset he was, Chase changed his priority from learning what had happened to calm the spotted pup down. The shepherd wrapped him into a hug as he continued to cry his eyes out.

"It's ok, buddy, you're safe." He whispered, even though he knew he himself couldn't do too much. Everest was the only one who could fully calm him down, mainly due to this anxiety from being separated from her.

Once the dally had finally stopped crying a bit, Chase saw his chance to try and talk to him more. "So, are you ok now?" He asked, hoping for some sort of positive answer in response.

"No, I'm not ok! H-how do you expect me to be ok right now!?" Marshall snapped back, clearly not giving the shepherd what he had wanted, who himself was a bit surprised at the outburst, but he kept his cool. The last thing he wanted to do was upset him even further.

"Alright, do you want me to just go get Everest?" He asked calmly. The dally looked back at him, wiped away a few tears, took a deep breath, and forced himself to speak.

"Y-you can't. S-she's gone. H-he took her, Chase. He t-took my Eve from me, a-again." He answered, trying his best not to break down. The couple looked at each other, having no idea who or what he was talking about.

"Wait, what do you mean gone?" Skye interjected worriedly, her face beginning to show the questioning look that her mate's did.

"S-she...s-she was p-pupnapped." He whimpered, still trying to wrap his head around the situation. The fact that Everest had been torn away from him still just seemed like a living nightmare, but as much as he wished it was, this was no dream.

"But who would do that?" Chase questioned. The dally wanted to answer, but he couldn't. He couldn't even say his name, thinking about him too much would lead to far too many painful memories for him, more than he was already experiencing with Everest gone.

Despite no words coming out of his mouth, Chase could see the look in Marshall's eyes. All he saw was fear. The only time he had seen that look was after Everest's funeral when they had been paid a visit by one certain husky.

"Oh...oh no. Marshall, it was him, wasn't it?" The shepherd asked, purposefully avoiding saying his name for Marhsall's sake. The dally only gave him another nod response. It was clear why he was so terrified now. Not only was Everest, who was the only one who seemed to keep his anxiety levels down, gone, but now the one who had done all this to him was the cause.

"N-now what?" Marshall questioned in panic. Chase thought for a moment before coming up with a simple answer.

"Well, let's go tell Ryder and the others. They need to know about this situation." Chase proclaimed, both of the other pups agreeing instantly. With that, the spotted pup left his side and walked out with the couple close behind.

Knowing it would wake them all up, Chase took out his megaphone and did the usual, telling everyone to get up. Just as they always would, the pups slowly stepped out of their own puphouses. Before they got the chance to ask any questions of why they were being woken up in the middle of the night, someone quickly interrupted them.

"Don't ask any questions. All you need to know is that this is a serious emergency, so come on, we need to go wake up Ryder." He stated. Everyone knew better than to try and argue with him, so they all kept their mouths shut and followed him to the elevator until one pup realized something was off.

"Uh, Chase, I know you said not to ask questions, but shouldn't we also wake up Everest?" Rocky asked after noticing the husky was nowhere to be seen. Skye shot a glare at him and sharply nodded to a very upset Marshall, who was still panicking. The mix got the message and didn't push it any further, figuring he'd get an answer soon enough anyways.

The elevator slowly came to a halt as the doors opened, and everyone walked out into the dark, empty lookout. Without wasting any time, Chase went straight to Ryder's door and went in through the dog door that was installed. The rest, although most of them still had no idea what was happening, followed him.

"Ryder sir, wake up, it's an emergency." He spoke rather loudly. Almost immediately, the boy opened his eyes and sat up. He rubbed his eyes tiredly before looking around the room, seeing almost all of his pups sitting next to his bed.

"W-what is it?" He asked, trying to get himself awake. It was rare that any of the pups woke him up, but if they did, it was usually serious. And although night emergencies were also uncommon, this wasn't the first time it had happened. He just didn't know how different this one would be.

"I have no idea Wyder, Chase just woke us up and told us to not ask any questions and that thewe was an emewgency." Zuma replied, unaware himself. Ryder looked at Chase and raised his eyebrow, signaling him to explain the situation.

The shepherd sighed and turned back to Marshall, who was still clearly upset. "Buddy, you might wanna cover your ears. I have to tell them what happened, and I know you probably don't want to hear it." He suggested. The dally didn't have to be told twice and immediately put his paws over his ears.

Chase looked back over to the rest, who were all eagerly waiting for an explanation, except for Skye as she was already aware. "So, don't freak out, we don't wanna scare Marshall anymore than he already is, but...Everest has been pupnapped by Damian." He explained.

Everyone in the room went from excited for the first mission in months to just plain worried. It was no secret would what happen to Marshall if Everest wasn't around. Even though he hadn't necessarily been close with her recently, with him pushing her away and all, he always knew she was safe. Sure, he didn't like being without her, but it was better than her being completely gone like now.

"Hey, Marshall, you can listen now, he already told them what happened." Skye let him know, lightly tapping him. The dally took his hands off his ears and looked up at Ryder, hoping he would be able to hear some good news.

"Ok wait a minute, how do we know Everest was pupnapped? And how do we know he is the cause of it? Maybe she just went for a quick night walk." Ryder suggested. Before anyone got the chance to reply, Marshall held up a small note. His leader bent down and picked it up, then silently read it to himself. Not wanting to say it out loud as he knew it would probably scare the dally even more, he proceeded to show it to the rest of the pups, who were all equally as shocked as him.

"Well...that answers that question. It really is him. Ok, we have time, let's think of a plan, and then we'll all go save her. " The boy stated. Of course, everyone was on board. Well, almost everyone. To all of their surprises, there was one pup who seemed to not like the idea.

"W-wait, hang on. What do you mean we?" Marshall asked in a shaky voice, finally saying some after being silent for almost the entire conversation. Everyone looked at him, confused by his question.

"Uh, buddy, it just means we're all going to save her. That's not a bad thing, is it?" Chase questioned in return. Everyone glanced at each other in confusion at what was going on, but they decided not to interject unless necessary.

"Chase, are you insane?! Did you even read it?! I-It said I had to go alone, and that if I didn't, h-he'd k-kill her. You guys aren't going with me." The dally exclaimed, showing a surprising amount of bravery.

"Pup, listen, we'll make sure he doesn't see us, ok? Sending you to him alone would be too big of a risk. We've done stealth missions before, we can sneak in without getting caught." Ryder explained calmly.

Even though he was just trying to help, Marshall couldn't believe what he was hearing. He was specifically told to go alone, and he was by no means willing to risk any chance of the husky getting hurt.

"W-what? Why are you ok with putting her life at risk? You have to let me go alone." He insisted. Although Ryder completely understood why he was so worried, he knew that it wouldn't end well to send Marshall alone, it just wasn't worth it.

"Marshall, I'm not trying to risk her, this is just the safest option. Besides, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, but you just aren't in the right condition to do something like this alone." The boy responded, hoping his pup would understand that it was simply for his own good.

"What, you think I care what happens to me?! I-I don't. I don't care if I get hurt. Honestly, I don't even care if I die. What matters is that Eve lives. I-I can't just let her d-die again. Y-you don't know what that was like." The dally replied.

"I know I don't know what it's like, but come on. I'm trying to help you. Don't push us away." Ryder answered, stopping Marshall dead in his tracks, remembering how similar his owner's words were to Everest's, the very one to whom he was trying to open up to once again.

The dally let out a quiet sigh, now realizing his mistake. "Ok, fine. You guys can come with me." He huffed. That being said, he still was very unsure about the whole idea, he even considered taking back his remark. Anything that would jeopardize Everest's life was always something he wouldn't want to do, but it was too late now.

"Ok, good. Now, we should all get some sleep before we go and get her. We have more than enough, and besides, we'd all be more prepared with some extra rest." Chase instructed, now that everyone seemed to be in agreement. He assumed they would all be ok with that, but of course, he ended up being wrong.

"W-what?! No! We're not just gonna leave Eve there with him. Why would we wait?" Marshall yelled in confusion. The shepherd looked back to him with sympathy, knowing that all he wanted was to have his love safe, even if at the moment he wasn't anywhere near the right condition to do so.

"Buddy, I know you're scared, but it's two in the morning. We're all tired, we wouldn't be able to work properly if we went right now. Don't worry, first thing in the morning, we'll get her. Ok?" He offered

"B-But...ok fine. First thing in the morning though." Marshall sighed in defeat, seeing this to be completely unnecessary. The rest nodded as they all walked to their puphouses, except for Ryder who just laid back down in his bed. Without saying any words, the dally silently walked back to his own house, shutting the door and laying down.

However, the silence was something he never really liked. If there was nothing to distract him, it made him feel open to any thoughts that might try and provoke him. Eventually, he began to quietly cry to himself, which was an all too familiar situation. Hours seemed to pass, and even then he didn't get any sleep. It was so lonely, so quiet, nothing but him and the voices in his head.

Suddenly, an idea came to the dally, one that might be able to set his concerns aside. Everyone else was almost definitely asleep right now. He could easily sneak out with no one noticing. It might not have been the best idea though, as he was trying to let the others help, but another part of him said that this was the only way to guarantee saving Everest's life.

He continued to lay there in silence, trying to weigh his options. It wasn't exactly the easiest decision to make. He was still terrified of what could happen. He had experienced the same horrifying dreams of Everest dying, but now, it could happen for real. Everything would go back to the way it was a few months ago, except this time, she would never come back. No more surprise returns, she simply would be gone, forever.

Quietly, Marshall stood up. He knew what he had to do. He couldn't just stand there while the love of his life was suffering. If he ever wanted to have Everest back in his arms, he would have to do something other than crying in bed, just waiting. As much as it terrified him, he would have to face his fears, even if he'd have to do it alone.

Because that's exactly what Everest would do for him.