Another cross was scribbled over the previous day on the calendar, joining the collection of crosses laid out on the days before it. Putting the marker back down on the desk below it amidst the messy, disorganized surface, Ryder turned his attention to a large collection of sticky notes beside the calendar. Many of the sticky notes had doodles revolving around three specific subjects. Above the collection of sticky notes was a large piece of paper stuck to the wall.

Pups Away: 14 Days

It had been two whole weeks since Marshall had left the lookout, followed by Rocky and Everest. That was two days after Marshall's one month countdown had begun. So, if his math was correct, at the end of the current day, that would mark seventeen whole days since Marshall was suspended from the team, leaving him with only two and a half weeks to prove his innocence before he would have to seriously hunt him down and take him to the pound, like he had told the Dalmatian the day of his suspension.

Many of the sticky note doodles were of the three pups that had left the lookout, drawings of their faces, their pup tags, as well as the vehicles they used back when they were on the team. The drawings were made by himself, as well as the other pups. When they noticed Tracker drawing the three MIA pups at the top of the lookout, they had decided to do the same. While they weren't nearly as good as Tracker's drawings, they could at least tell what each other was drawing.

All of them had been doing this, save for Chase, who couldn't bear to even walk into Ryder's bedroom to look at the mural of illustrations that grew bigger by the day. Out of all of the pups, he could tell that Chase was working overtime to keep his own emotions in check. Seeing those drawings of the pups the team were left without wouldn't do him any favors.

His pup tag then began to vibrate on his nightstand, the buzzing noise amplified ever so slightly by the wooden surface it was laid on. He turned himself away from the calendar and sticky note mural to look at the electronic device still vibrating on the nightstand. For once in his life, he picked up his pup tag with the sincere hope that there wasn't any issue in Adventure Bay. He wasn't sure how well they'd be able to perform in their fragmented state, and the citizens of their beloved town seemed to notice this as well.

From the moment Marshall had been the face put to the 'Thief of Adventure Bay' title, public opinion seemed to shift away from him, as well as the PAW Patrol. Their help seemed to not be as needed as it was before everything went left. Had Ryder not publicly come out and stated that he was personally looking at ways to bring Marshall to justice, it would've been a lot worse for them.

The young leader picked up his pup pad, studying the screen. It was his alarm. Was it morning already? He could've sworn that he sent the pups to their pup houses for sleep an hour ago. Had he inadvertently stayed up the entire night again?

Whatever the circumstances, despite how exhausted the team was, physically as well as mentally, he would have to make sure they stayed on schedule. Time for breakfast.

Ryder opened his door and walked out into the lookout observatory. His bare feet met the chilly surface of the slick floor as he made his way over to the kitchen. Each step seemed to be more heavy than the last, slowing him down as he trudged across the top of the lookout. Just as he rounded the corner to walk into the small kitchen area, his eyes quickly spotted a presence on the floor.

Sitting in a small circle were the remaining PAW Patrol pups. Chase, Skye, Zuma, Rubble, and Tracker, who Ryder had invited to stay with them due to the empty spots needing to be filled on select missions. All of the pups in front of him wore faint smiles, each of their paws on their food bowls, anticipating the special moment where they would be served their first meal of the day. The young leader mustered a faint smile, walking past them and pulling the dog food from on top of the refrigerator.

He slowly poured the food into each of their bowls, making his way around the circle of pups. As soon as he was done pouring food into one bowl, the owner of the bowl would push it away and to the middle of the observatory. Last up was Chase, who had offered to allow the other pups to get their food first. He didn't seem to have a problem with waiting. The German Shepherd looked up at Ryder, finally getting a good look at his owner.

Out of all of the pups that were proud to call themselves members of the PAW Patrol. Chase had known him the longest. From the moment Ryder had jumped in front of a moving truck in order to make sure that the German Shepherd's life wasn't cut short before it even started, they seemed to have a more special connection with one another than with any of their teammates. They knew when something was wrong, and could realize that something wasn't normal. Chase was slowly coming to one of those realizations as he stared at the young inventor.

It had been years since he saw Ryder come out of his room in the morning without being changed. The only exceptions would be him being sick, or it being Christmas. Not only that, just one look at the boy's head would show that his hair hadn't been brushed or combed that morning. On top of that, one whiff of the air between them, and the police pup could easily notice the foul smell that was coming from his owner.

"Um... Ryder, sir?" The Shepherd cringed.

The young leader seemed to be confused by this reaction, "What's up, Chase?" He crouched down to get closer to his first pup, which didn't make the situation for the little officer any better.

"When was the last time you took a bath?" Chase inquired, taking a few steps back, "...You're kind of smelly..."

"Huh?"

Confused, Ryder lifted up his right arm before sniffing himself. The instant he inhaled, his eyes comically bulged wide. The smell that assaulted his nostrils had been the result of multiple days of lazing around the lookout, not doing much but thinking about his pups. Now that he was really thinking about it, he couldn't remember the last time he bathed. Has it been a couple of days already? Whatever the reason, he couldn't lie to himself. Chase was right.

As Chase pushed his bowl to join up with the other pups, who were already eating their breakfast, Ryder stood back up completely and stalked off to his room, not another word being spoken to the other pups.

"He didn't say anything to us again..." Rubble commented, his face falling.

Chase looked over at the English Bulldog. He was right. Aside from that short conversation that he was forced to start himself, Ryder hadn't said much to any of the pups. He was sure it was because of how Rocky and Everest left the team on their own accord after Marshall ran away from the lookout. He knew the young leader was still struggling to come to terms with that. The whole team was, including himself.

Tracker put a paw on his back, "It's okay, amigo. Ryder just needs some time."

"Tracker's right," Chase nodded in agreement, "Ryder's having a hard time too with Marshall, Rocky, and Everest being MIA... Even if he's the leader of the PAW Patrol, he's still only a few years older than we are."

Zuma turned to look at Rubble, "He just needs some time to adjust, dude."

"If we're being honest, we all do, don't we?" The Shepherd looked between the four pups, "So I was thinking that we could take a breather from all of this."

"What do you mean?" Skye, who was sitting beside him, squinted with confusion.

Chase suddenly pulled something out from under his collar, tossing a small piece of paper to land in front of each of their pup bowls.

"I mean that we need a day where we can just relax and take a load off..." He speaks as the four read the text printed onto the small pieces of paper.

Admit One: Adventure Bay Fair

"The fair!?" The four pups asked in unison, whipping their heads to look at the German Shepherd, who wore a gentle smile.

"What do you say?" Chase asked, his gentle smile evolving into a grin, akin to what an old friend would give, "How about we just be carefree pups for a day?"

Without hesitation, the four pups around him howled with excitement. Rubble excitedly ran in place, Zuma sat on his haunches, throwing his forepaws in the air, Skye performed her signature flip-and-yip combo, and Tracker laughed at how comically expressive the members of the PAW Patrol were. As the team continued to howl and bark in excitement, the Potcake's laughter slowed. His attention narrowed in on Chase, who was being shaken around by Zuma and Rubble.

"What's the deal with this?" Tracker wondered, "When did Chase plan this out? How did he manage to get his paws on tickets and have them ready for the fair? How'd he even get the money for it?"

The jungle pup soon shook his head. That didn't matter. Not at the moment at least. He allowed his excitement to occupy his mind once more as he hurried over to thank Chase for the tickets he had gotten them.

Once the promise of going to the amusement park was on the table, the group, save for Chase and Tracker, refused to waste time finishing up their breakfast. The first to finish was Rubble, who had picked up his bowl and let the food fall down into his mouth, the Bulldog somehow managing to unhinge his jaw in the process. Zuma and Skye had struck up a competition, seeing who would be able to finish their breakfast faster. Chase tried to warn them that they could choke, but there was no reasoning with the two once they were in the zone.

After breakfast, Chase told the group that they would need to wait a few hours for the fair to open, as it was still early in the morning when the tickets were presented to them. Until noon, they would have to find their own ways to entertain themselves and pass the time. Skye and Zuma obviously went for a few rounds of Pup Pup Boogie, and Rubble went to teach Tracker some skateboarding tricks. Chase decided to sit off to the side and watch Skye and Zuma's matches.

He was glad that the pups were beginning to do physically active activities around the lookout again instead of sulking around and waiting for the next meal or mission. He missed seeing his team do their favorite recreational activities.

Hours passed, and the time finally came.

The quintet of pups stood outside the fair, one of the first groups in line. Chase stood in front of them all, holding each of their tickets with him. There was no way he would leave each pup with their own ticket. The chance of them losing it or leaving it behind were way too high to risk. As he allowed himself to relax where he was standing, the jumbled symphony of laughter, talking, and screaming slipped into his sensitive ears.

Tracker, meanwhile, occasionally glanced at the silent officer pup.

From the moment he joined the PAW Patrol, it didn't take a genius to realize that he was one of the less recognized members of the team. He wasn't one of the original six, and he wasn't a girl like Everest, who immediately got recognition and attention for being the second female pup to be on the team. Because of that, the majority of his interactions with the pups that were supposed to be his friends felt forced. Off. Like they were waiting for him to take his leave at any moment before going back to their normal lives.

One upside of his isolated status, though, was how observant he had become following his introduction to the team. He knew a lot of things about the pups. Things even they didn't know about themselves. It was almost as if he were the reader of a story, watching how everything played out and remembering things about certain characters to see what happened next. And as of right now, he was flipping through a real page-turner.

There was no shortage of things to look into. Many stones that remained unturned. He'd have to do his best if he wanted to even begin to understand what the pups were going through. His friends.

"Hey, Tracker!"

The Potcake flinched at the sudden shout, which his ears instantly picked up. The noise sliced through his eardrums, eliciting a stinging sensation to fill his sensitive appendages. He backed a few feet away, yelping in surprise.

Rubble, who had been the one to yell his name, remembered Tracker's special skill, "Whoops, sorry..."

"Que pasa, Rubble?" The jungle pup asked with a faint groan, rubbing his ears as he sat on his haunches.

Chase, who was standing in front of them, turned his head in order to look at his friends, "Welcome back to Earth. We're already inside."

"Huh?"

Tracker had spaced out enough to the point where he hadn't even noticed Chase handing over their tickets before they walked inside. Or that there were only three of them standing there at the moment.

"Where are Zuma and Skye?"

"They said they wanted to find all of the attractions that allowed them to compete against each other so they could see who was the real master of the fair..." Chase let out an exasperated sigh, the fresh memory of the two pups running off the moment they entered the fair bringing a smile to his face.

"Guess that leaves the three of us..." Tracker looked between Chase and Rubble.

The officer pup's lips straightened, "Sorry, it'll just be you guys. There's a herding event for pups somewhere around here, since the fair knows that Adventure Bay has half as many talking dogs as they do humans here..."

"Really? You too?" The English Bulldog's eyes widened.

"Yeah... Sorry, buddy..."

"It's okay!" Rubble's mood seemed to instantly improve, "I still have Tracker with me!"

"You bet, amigo!"

Tracker was more than happy to spend some more time with Rubble. For the longest time, he always thought of the construction pup as simple-minded. To him, it seemed that the other pups were always playfully teasing him about how much he seemed to be able to eat. Well, that is whenever Everest isn't around. That Husky can really eat when she wants to. Unlike Everest, though, Rubble seemed to be the one to catch the heat for his eating habits. It felt so natural to the point where even he would crack a few jokes about it.

At first, that was all what Rubble seemed to be to him. The simple-minded construction pup of the PAW Patrol. But soon, he realized that he was doing the same to Rubble that many had been doing to him since he joined the team. The first couple days after his introduction to the team, many were all over him, but it was for a limited time. People only seemed to like him because he was the newest thing at the time. After the first couple times of him showing up, because again, he wasn't a female pup, many became indifferent to him. To everyone else, he was just that bilingual Potcake or Chihuahua who hated the dark.

Like come on, most didn't even care enough to get to the bottom of what his species actually was.

Nobody seemed to know how skilled he was at anything art related, despite being a puppy with no thumbs. Nobody seemed to care about how many types of flora and fauna he had knowledge of. His skills, his aspirations, his goals. He was a blank canvas to most. Not many knew about who he really was outside of that surface view. But could he really blame them? It's not like he was around much before all of this Marshall stuff kicked off.

Once he took a second glance at Rubble, he realized that they had something in common. None really seemed to talk about them, and who they were. None really noticed them, as the more prominent and popular pups who go on the most missions like Chase, Skye, and more recently Rocky, seemed to take priority. Rubble had it a bit easier though. At least he was at the lookout to be interacted with.

Then, after what happened between Rubble and Zuma, he found himself more interested in Rubble as an individual. He was observant, yes, but he hadn't really observed Rubble as much outside of his innocence and gluttony before that day. Well, it wasn't just Rubble he learned about. He learned more about Zuma. Katie as well.

Rubble wasn't just innocent. He wasn't only a glutton. He was actually one of the more diverse pups of the team, in his opinion. His skills with a turntable while he's DJ Rubble, his love for skateboarding and snowboarding, even his softer side when dealing with others, masked by his determination to be a tougher pup.

He was just a pup trying to prove himself. Just like Tracker was.

"¡Vamos, Rubble!"

Shoes scraping against the concrete surface of the sidewalk, Ryder slowly meandered in the direction of Katie's Pet Parlor. His mouth was forced agape, a cartoonishly long yawn spilling from his chest and out into the air. Tears from the yawn brimmed the corners of his eyes as he stopped in his tracks for just a moment.

A cold breeze wafted over the exhausted boy, bringing a solemn expression to Ryder's face. Time really was passing, wasn't it? He could've sworn just the other day that they were relaxing at the beach before that mission came along. It felt like it's been months. Years. How was he supposed to know, anyway? His lack of sleep had begun to warp his sense of time days ago. Or was it weeks?

Yawning once more, Ryder sluggishly continued down his path, tiredly greeting those who stopped to look at the boy. He was too tired to notice or care about the fact that many of the Adventure Bay citizens made double takes as they glanced at the young leader. Their eyes widened, stopping what they were doing in order to take a closer look at Ryder. No. Their eyes weren't deceiving them.

"Is that Ryder...?"

"...Why does he look like that?"

Whispers filled the air, which were casually blocked out by the exhausted boy. He didn't feel the need to pay attention to whatever the people around him were saying.

Meanwhile, Katie put her hands on her hips, satisfied with the restored clean state of the parlor's floors. In the morning, the owner of a large, shedding dog finally came in for the dreaded scheduled deep cleaning she had been worried about for weeks. It took hours, but she endured the cleaning and was left with a layer of soggy fur on the floor, waiting to be cleaned up. It took a whole other hour, but she was satisfied in knowing that there weren't any more things on the schedule for the rest of the day.

Exhausted, the young stylist stumbled into the nearest chair she could get to, slumping down within it.

"Ugh... I need a vacation..."

She used her right wrist to wipe the sweat from her forehead, only for the sensation of a rough fabric material scraping over her skin to make her flinch in surprise. Her eyes shot open, darting to look at whatever was on her wrist. Her confused eyes quickly calmed upon realizing what was there. Wrapped securely around her right wrist was an orange collar. Rocky's collar.

Her train of thought immediately began chugging along in the direction of the memories of the time she spent with Rocky, Marshall, and Everest. She smiled. Despite the circumstances that led the pups to live with her and her aunt, she couldn't deny that she enjoyed it.

Most of the time when she woke up in her house, the building would be silent, as there was nobody else living with her the majority of the time. She had grown accustomed to going about her day in silence. Waking and feeding Cali, taking a shower, and eating her own breakfast. The only type of excitement there was about her mornings was the rare instance in which Cali got into some kind of strange situation.

Upon Liz, Rocky, Marshall, and Everest coming to live in the house, though, every morning seemed to be filled with vibrant colors, each day being more unpredictable than the last. Her free time when she wasn't at the parlor wasn't spent with just Cali anymore. She spent her free time working with Liz to make sure the pups they took under their wing would be safe and taken care of. She got to know the pups, as well as her aunt, on a deeper level than she ever had before.

At first, she had always thought of Marshall as a pup who would always be smiling. A pup who would always be cracking jokes. A pup who didn't care about showing his excitement about things. That was until she found the Dally on that sidewalk during some harsh rainfall. From there, she got to see another side of Marshall. One that wasn't as cheerful. A pup that was fearful of everything around him. A pup that was too scared to even accept help from the only two members of his team that wholeheartedly believed him.

She had even learned about Everest's developing feelings about Marshall, and was honored to be the one who was there for her when she came to that realization. The young blonde found it adorable. Kind of like how Chase seemed to be more worried for Skye while on missions, as Ryder had told her, Everest seemed to become more protective of the still meek Dalmatian after realizing how she felt for him.

Katie couldn't lie and say she didn't always have a soft spot for Rocky, even prior to him staying with her. Sure, bath time with the mixed breed was a nightmare most of the time, but despite that, she couldn't help but to laugh each time she was splashed with water. Outside of baths, though, Rocky always seemed to have an air about him that seemed to make her gush.

Each of the three pups gave her typically uneventful days a new and crazier spin, and she loved it.

She stared at the collar around her wrist, a gentle smile on her face, "I hope they're doing okay."

Soon, the gentle chime of the bell on the front door brought her back to Earth. That was odd, she didn't have anything scheduled. Well, nothing aside from Ryder's visit for some medicine in half an hour.

"Katie, I'm here for the medicine!" She heard from the direction of the door.

What?

Katie sat up in her chair. How long had she been spacing out for? She fumbled with her phone as she took it out. It was two thirty, the exact time in which she told Ryder she'd have everything ready to give over to him.

"Oh no! I lost track of time!" She stood up, putting her hands on her head.

"Um... Katie?" Ryder asked, confused as to why he hadn't seen her yet.

The young blonde appeared from around the corner, sheepishly gripping onto the edges of her skirt, "Sorry, Ryder, I lost track of time, and—" She immediately stopped speaking upon seeing her friend for the first time in days.

Katie's eyes bulged wide, stopping in her tracks.

Ryder, meanwhile, yawned, "Something up?"

"Um... Ryder?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are you wearing your pajamas?"

Standing in front of her was easily recognizable as Ryder, sure, but something about him was very wrong. Not only was the young leader still wearing his pajamas, having only changed into his outdoor shoes to make the walk to her parlor, but there seemed to be a negative air surrounding the boy. Everything about him was messy, no care having been put into his appearance in the slightest. His normally neatly groomed brown hair was unkempt, spreading out in various directions that she didn't even know was possible. She had her fair share of bad hair days, but something like this was unsightly.

Additionally, the pajamas that Ryder was wearing were loose around his body, barely hanging off his person and drooping down toward the ground. Scattered on his strange choice of attire were different stains and blotches from what she prayed was from food instead of other things that came to mind. Ryder didn't seem to notice this though, only looking at her with befuddlement.

"My pajamas?" He began to look down at his clothes, "I'm not wearing my—- Oh... Oh man..."

Katie leaned herself up against a wall, "You seriously didn't notice?"

"I didn't notice that I hadn't changed..."

Her eyebrows furrowed with intrigue. He didn't notice? What was going on with him? Katie knew that Ryder had been having a bit of a hard time since Marshall ran away, which made him lose not only Marshall, but Rocky and Everest in the process, but the front he had been putting up deceived her into thinking that he was holding up alright. Now she knew he wasn't. Time to step in.

"Hey, Ryder?"

Ryder was still somewhat occupied with looking at his clothes, "Yeah?"

"Are you okay?"

"Of course I am, why do you ask?"

Katie's expression went deadpan, "Great..." She thought, "Now he's trying to act tough."

The boy quickly noticed the stylist's unamused stare, "What?"

Katie began to walk over to him, her hair swishing over to cover her eyes as she walked. Ryder took a step back, his eyes beginning to widen with fear. He hadn't seen Katie like that too often, but whenever he did, he knew to just shut up and listen.

She grabbed Ryder's wrist, beginning to drag him to the back room, "You. Come with me."

Chase tiredly sat down on a patch of grass, as did a plethora of other pups. The herding competition had just come to a close, and the Shepherd had put his all into it. Judging by the other performances he had observed during the competition, there were few that matched his skills. At least, from what he saw. Besides, there was only one other pup who could even match him in herding, and Chase hadn't seen that pup in months.

A woman spoke into a microphone, "The winner of the third annual Adventure Bay herding competition is..."

The Shepherd got ready to stand up.

"...Sylvia!"

"Wait, who?" Chase's eyes went wide.

The officer pup silently spectated as a familiar light blue pup began to walk toward the podium the woman was standing on. His neutral expression developed into one of both surprise and amusement. He should've known. Sylvia would be there for any type of event that herding was involved in.

Walking from the area, a second place medal hung loosely around his neck, Chase wondered what he'd do next. He hadn't seen the others for about an hour by that point. Maybe he could play some games? Maybe throw some balls at a man in a dunk tank? That was always fun.

While walking along his path, a human nearly tripped over the Shepherd.

"Woah! Watch out!"

"Sorry!" Chase instinctively apologized.

As the human continued along his path, talking with another male human, Chase stopped in his tracks. The two humans that continued to walk further and further away from the little officer remind him of the times he would spend with Marshall. Obviously, one of the humans was more clumsy than the other, almost having crashed right into him. That was so Marshall.

He shook his head. No! This wasn't the time to be thinking about him. This was the day where he was supposed to take the team to have some fun to avoid thinking about everything that happened. But something about everything did seem a bit off to him. If they were the only ones who knew about the bones, and since they had ruled Humdinger out as a suspect days prior, then who else could it be? Why was Marshall fighting this so adamantly?

This earned a laugh from the six before Rubble continued, "He wanted those bones so bad... I bet they were worth about a kajillion dollars!"

"You might be onto something, Rubble..." Marshall nodded, "Get us some of those, and we'd be living nice!"

Chase was quick to interject, "You two know stealing is bad, right?"

"Well, yeah stealing is bad..." The Dalmatian looked away for just a moment, "But would it be a bad guy thing if you were doing it for the good of the ones you love?"

After all, every sign seemed to point right at Marshall.

Marshall was the one to consider getting his paws on those bones. He was the only pup aside from Rocky to be unaccounted for the night of the theft, having abandoned his pup tag at the lookout during that time. The cloaked figure tripped, just like Marshall always would. Everything just lined up! So then why? Why was Marshall fighting back so hard?

"You win!" Chase suddenly heard in the distance, "Go ahead, little girl, pick you out a plushie!"

He turned to look at where he heard the exclamation from, only to see a little girl with black hair neatly tied into pigtails, excitedly jumping up and down at the prospect of winning a game of throwing darts at balloons. To this day, he still didn't understand how you could get top prize in that game, but apparently, that little girl did.

The little girl looked up at the plushies all the way at the top, which were, to Chase's surprise, life-sized plushies of the PAW Patrol pups. Himself, Skye, Zuma, Rubble, Rocky, even Marshall. Though for reasons he was already aware of, there seemed to be more Marshall plushies remaining than the rest.

The officer pup watched on, wondering which one she would pick. His bet was on the Skye plushie. Skye was the favorite of most little girls.

"That one!" She pointed at one of the plushies.

"What?" Both the mother of the little girl, as well as the man at the booth, asked confusedly.

"Ashley, sweetie..." The mother of the little girl crouched down to get to her height, "...You do know who that pup is, right?"

"Yeah, it's mister Marshall!"

"And you know what he did, right?"

"Mommy, he's a good pup!" Ashley protested, adjusting what seemed to be new glasses to keep them from falling off, "He saved me! He was the pup that saved me when I fell at Jake's!"

"...It was him?"

"Yeah!"

Chase raised an eyebrow at this. Marshall did what now?

"I want Marshall!" The little girl insisted, "He's my hero!"

Hero, huh?

Chase's ears fell. The pit in his stomach that seemed to be there for the past two weeks finally was made known. The officer pup quickly turned tail and ran in the opposite direction. His eyes shut tight as he approached a smaller building.

Meanwhile, Rubble and Tracker were sitting on a bench not too far from where the now distressed Chase had been just a few seconds ago.

"This cotton candy is pawsome!" Rubble commented as he took a large bite out of the soft treat, "You can never beat cotton candy after some playing."

"Demasiado dulce..." Tracker shook his head with a smile, "Too sweet for me."

"Why didn't you get anything?" The Bulldog asked curiously after taking another chunk out of the ever-shrinking supply of cotton candy.

"I don't want to get a cramp when we—" He began, quickly stopping the moment his ears picked up a strange noise, "Wait..."

"Huh?"

The Potcake's eyes narrowed, "I hear something..."

"What do you hear, Tracker?"

"It sounds like..." He trailed off, "...Like panting and running."

"Running? But everyone is running around!" The construction pup seemed confused, "It's a fair!"

"No, this is different... Like, panicked panting and..." Tracker's ears suddenly shot up, "A crash? Vamos, we have to check it out!"

The jungle pup swiftly jumped off of the bench, rushing in the direction of where the crash he heard had come from. Rubble, not wanting to leave his cotton candy behind on a bench, stuffed the remainders of it into his mouth and followed behind. That was until he felt a pain in his side.

"Ouch!" He yelped, coming to a stop in order to look at his side.

Tracker, now completely focused on figuring out where the noise had come from, followed his ears to the entrance of a mirror house. The jungle pup closed his eyes once more, focusing the entirety of his concentration on his ears. The faint sounds of what sounded like glass clinking off of a hard surface caught the attention of the room, prompting Tracker to head inside as quickly as he could.

As expected, he had trouble navigating the labyrinth of mirrors that seemed to be at every turn. The Potcake had massively underestimated the disorienting experience of trying to find the right path to go down when seeing reflected images of yourself from multiple angles.

All angles but one.

Among the various images of himself being reflected and refracted across countless mirrors, one of which to his far right wasn't the same. It wasn't like any of them. It clearly displayed the back of a familiar pup, one of which he recognized.

"Chase?"

Katie, frustrated by what she was seeing in one of her closest friends, dragged Ryder into the back room and shoved him in front of a mirror.

"Does this look okay to you?"

The young inventor looked at himself in his disheveled state, "...I, um..."

"Answer me!" She stood behind Ryder, crossing her arms.

"Of course it doesn't! But what does anybody else care!?"

The blonde's eyes widened a bit, surprised, "What...?"

Ryder's teeth clenched, "I'm not okay! But right now, I don't have the right to be okay!"

"Calm down, what are you talking about?"

"You know... There were skeptics on the internet..." The boy explained, "...Once the news of Marshall's new title went public, many grilled me and the rest of the team for believing such flimsy evidence... They constantly told me, over and over, that they couldn't understand how I could say I was sending Marshall to the pound..."

"Mhm..." Katie nodded along.

"Do they honestly think I don't know how flimsy that evidence is? I'm not stupid!" Ryder glared at himself in the mirror, "If I was so against Marshall, then he would've been at that pound by the end of that day!"

"So then why...?"

"Because, as of right now, Marshall might as well be the culprit... I gave Marshall that time because I thought there was another explanation out there! Why else would I let Rocky convince me to give him some time?"

"So you believe him?"

"I don't know anymore!" He glanced at her through the mirror, "At first, all signs pointed to Marshall. After all, the PAW Patrol, Humdinger, and Mayor Goodway were the only ones to find out about the golden bones! It couldn't have been Humdinger, since he was at Foggy Bottom that night, Goodway has no reason to steal those bones, so... It was down to one of us... And I saw a Dalmatian on that camera! I saw it myself!"

"Yeah?"

"So I gave Marshall a month. We're already halfway through that month, and there's no evidence! All that we know is that theft rates have been going down since sightings of Marshall stopped being reported..."

"...It wasn't Marshall, Ryder."

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry to say this, but you're wrong..." Katie stood up, "Marshall didn't do anything wrong. So help me... If you try to take him to that pound, I'll have to get that through your skull myself!"

As Katie stormed off to grab the medicine for Ryder, the boy remained still, staring at the mirror.

It wasn't Marshall?

That couldn't be right. It wasn't like the PAW Patrol was just sitting down on their butts since Marshall's suspension. They were trying to make sense of things themselves. Ever since citizens of Adventure Bay had stopped reporting sightings of the Dalmatian, he and Chase had begun to sniff around as well. First things first, they wanted to clarify whether or not their original assumption that Humdinger wasn't the cause of this was correct. They took a trip to Foggy Bottom and interrogated the purple mayor. He didn't give anything up, instead stating, while embarrassed, that he was at a night time yoga class at the time of the theft.

Of course they didn't believe that right out of the gate, so they ventured into the residential area of Foggy Bottom, a place they hadn't seen much of before. They found the spot Humdinger had reported to be, and they looked into it. And there it was. On a sign-in sheet listed for the morning of the theft, Humdinger had written his signature on the list. It wasn't tacked on at the end, though, as there were signatures before, and after his own.

That completely ruled him out. And besides, Humdinger had a way of letting everyone know it was him somehow if he were to be the culprit.

That left Goodway, as well as the PAW Patrol themselves who knew about the golden bones.

Obviously Goodway wouldn't have caused her own building to collapse. Even if she wanted the bones for herself, she would've called the team to make new pillars. She isn't really the type to want to do that on her own.

That just left the PAW Patrol.

He didn't understand. It all pointed to Marshall. But Katie, and Rocky, and Everest, and some others all had his back when it came to this. For what seemed like the thousandth time since Marshall ran away from the lookout, he was questioning everything again.

"I failed him... Didn't I...?" He asked, his voice faint as he fell to his knees, "Not just him, but the PAW Patrol... If he really isn't guilty... Then..."

"...Who are we to keep calling ourselves heroes!?" Chase asked, glaring at himself in one of the mirrors scattered around the interior of the building.

Tracker stood behind him, his eyes glued to a shattered mirror on their right, closest to Chase. Upon meeting the distressed Shepherd, the jungle pup was suddenly ambushed with a rant about his stress relating toward Marshall, and how everything he thought he knew always seemed to be wrong. Knowing that it would be hard to reach where they were, deep into the mirror maze, Tracker decided to sit and listen.

"I'll be honest..." Tracker sighed, "I don't know Marshall as well as you guys do, but I can't help but to think that Ryder jumped the gun to preserve the team's reputation..."

"Huh?"

"I know Ryder didn't kick him out, but giving Marshall a time limit in order to prove he wasn't the thief seemed kind of weird."

"Who else could it be?" Chase's eyes darted to look at the reflection of Tracker, "There were three parties who knew of the golden bones. Humdinger and Goodway had already been cleared. The only other ones who knew were us. Even you didn't know about them until recently. We have no other leads saying it wasn't him."

"I guess that's true... Is that why you let him go?"

The Shepherd pup nodded, "He can't look for leads if he's trapped at the lookout."

The room, for the first time in what seemed like ages, fell silent. For just a moment, Tracker's eyes rested on the shards of glass resting on the floor beneath the frame of the one intact mirror. He still hadn't gotten to the bottom of why the mirror was shattered like that, but upon noticing Chase's shaking paws, he assumed the answer was sitting right in front of him.

"I've been wanting to ask you, why did you bring us all here if you were feeling so crummy?"

Chase's ears perked up at the question, "You see... All of this stuff going on showed me that I'm not ready to be a leader, not a good one, at least."

"Don't say that about—"

"Just hear me out!" He cut Tracker off, looking down at the floor, "Maybe I could have done more. Maybe I could have taken Marshall's side. But I didn't. Everest was right..."

The Husky shook her head, "You lost the right to call yourself that when you didn't take his side!"

"How was I supposed to take his side against all of that evidence?" Chase asked, glaring at Everest, "I couldn't just—"

"What? Go against Ryder?"

"...One of the main reasons why I didn't step up for Marshall was because... I was too loyal to the boy who saved my life. The boy who gave me a home... Sure I also saw the evidence and believed it too, but... Maybe if I hadn't turned away from Marshall, he'd still be here. Maybe we could've found something proving his innocence."

"Chase..."

"So, from here on out, I'm dedicating myself to becoming a better leader!" Chase puffed out his chest, "And one of the things a leader does is make sure everything is running smoothly behind the scenes. Even if that means I sometimes can't handle myself..."

"I don't think that's for the best, we care about you too, Chase. We can handle some of that load, just as much as you can."

"No..." He shook his head.

"...I don't want to lose any more of you guys."