Ace woke up in his room and glanced at his clock; it read 6:30. Just on time to wake up. He stood up and got his gear on before leaving his room. He noticed Chase and Skye already standing at the elevator, almost exactly the same as they had been the previous day, except Skye didn't seem annoyed at all this time. Ace was immediately suspicious and approached them.

"You're up early." Ace said to the cockapoo.

"Uhh yes... yes I am." Skye responded, clearly blushing a little.

Ace glanced at Chase, who was smiling, before looking back at Skye. "Alright then..." Ace said, he then joined them on the elevator.

Chase sent the two upstairs as he called out his megaphone. The two canines covered their ears as the elevator rose, waiting for Chase to wake everyone. Even though they were covering their ears, the two could still hear him as if they were standing next to him.

"That megaphone needs a option to be quieter." Skye said.

"Let's be honest, even if it did, he'd still use it on the max volume." Ace pointed out.

"Fair point." Skye responded.

The elevator then stopped at the first floor, the two left it before it began descending back down to pick up the others. Ace then decided to ask her about something he was curious about.

"So, normally you're annoyed when you're woken up this early." Ace began.

"Yes?" Skye questioned.

"Why aren't you annoyed today? What happened between you and dad?" Ace asked.

"Uhh... Nothing..." Skye responded.

"You sure? Your face is almost bright red, something clearly happened." Ace stated, he then noticed loud, heavy footsteps coming toward them.

"It's nothing, I promise." Skye told him.

"Alright..." Ace responded, he then began trying his best (yet still failing) to put two and two together.

"Hello Ace, Hello Skye." Someone greeted the two. Skye yelped and jumped a few meters in the air in surprise, While Ace was startled from it.

"Oh hey AL." Skye said, trying to laugh it off.

"Jesus AL, don't do that." Ace said.

"Sorry sir, I didn't mean to startle you two." AL responded. "Anyway, It's fairly early, do you two need anything?"

"Nah, we're fine." Skye replied.

"Yeah, we don't need anything." Ace added.

"Hmm, alright then. Where are the others?" AL asked.

The elevator then arrived and the rest of the pups hopped out of it and headed toward the main room.

"Nevermind." AL said before following after everyone else with Ace and Skye behind him.

They entered the main room, and the pups got into formation while waiting for Ryder. AL watched as they sat in a straight line and waited patiently. Soon, Ryder arrived, and roll call began. AL sat and listened as he called their names one by one. There was then a long pause before he heard his name called. He stared at Ryder in silence, waiting for a command.

"You're supposed to say 'here' or some variation of it." Ace informed him.

"Here." AL said.

"Alright, c'mon pups." Ryder said before leading all the pups toward the kitchen.

AL once again stood and watched all the pups. As he was a robot, he didn't need food or water. All he needed was power, which wasn't an issue as all that was required was for Rocky to charge him every once in a while and his battery lasted quite a while.

"So, I see tewminatow ovew thewe is getting used to living hewe." Zuma said.

"Yeah, He's only been here one day and he's already been amazing!" Rubble said.

Chase paused in eating. "What he said." He then continued eating.

"I don't get why you guys awe so quick to twust him, I sweaw he's plotting something! Have you guys nevew watched any movie evew?" Zuma responded.

AL looked at him, completely unamused by his accusation. The pups soon finished their food and left the kitchen; Ace followed them before being dragged aside by someone. Ace turned to see who it was and saw it was Chase.

"Oh, hey dad. What do you need?" Ace asked.

"We've been getting distracted recently by missions and AL, but we need to get back to the plan. Christmas is only a little over a week away and time is quickly passing." Chase whispered to him.

"Oh right. Sorry, I completely forgot." Ace apologized.

"Don't worry, I sorta forgot too." Chase told him.

"What do we do though? Don't we already have everything we need to execute the plan?" Ace asked.

"Mostly, yes. But we still have some problems. We can deal with Marshall easily enough, he isn't the brightest to be honest. But Everest is a different story, she'll probably get suspicious and figure out something is going on soon." Chase told him.

"Okay? And you plan to avoid this happening... How?" Ace asked.

"Simple, I want to recruit Jake to join us." Chase said.

"What, why? Wouldn't he just tell her himself?" Ace questioned.

"Not exactly, He's very likely to join us actually. He's been planning to do what we've been plotting for a couple months now." Chase informed him.

"Really? I thought we were the only ones who noticed they like eachother." Ace replied while looking over at Marshall.

"Everyone's aware of it. I'm pretty sure even they know themselves, their both just too nervous to actually ask eachother." Chase said, also looking over at Marshall.

"So what's today's plan?" Ace asked him.

"It's simple, I'll ask Jake discreetly if he'd like to join us while you distract Everest somehow." Chase explained.

"Sounds like a... decent plan, when we going?" Ace asked.

"Whenever you're ready." Chase replied.

"How about right now?" Ace asked as he turned toward him.

"Sure, meet me at the fuchs." Chase said.

"The fuchs? You sure you know how to drive it?" Ace questioned.

"I've driven a lot of things, It can't be that hard to drive." Chase replied.

A couple minutes later, In the fuchs.

Chase looked around at all the small levers and switches on the console of the fuchs. He couldn't even figure out how to turn on the engine without Ace's assistance.

"Jesus, what kind of nonsense is this monstrosity!?" Chase asked, not excepting an answer.

"What do you mean? It's fairly simple." Ace replied, he then started pointing at different switches and explaining what they do.

"Why is it made like this?" Chase asked, barely understanding anything.

"It's 'military grade' which means it was made by the cheapest bidder." Ace informed him.

"I can tell." Chase responded, looking around for how to turn it on. Ace saw this and decided to help him a little. He got up and turned it on for him before sitting back down.

"Thanks." Chase thanked him.

"No problem." Ace replied.

They then began their journey up the mountain and to the resort. It took a while due to Chase indeed not exactly knowing how to drive it, but he knew enough not to crash it. Once they got there, they parked the Fuchs and got out before entering the resort.

Both of them looked around for either Jake or Everest; Chase had called Jake on the way there, so he knew they were coming. Chase called out his name and, after a few seconds, Jake responded, calling out that he was in the resort kitchen. Chase told Ace to keep Everest distracted while he went to get Jake on board with the plan.

After Chase left to speak with Jake, Ace began looking around the resort for Everest. While he was walking down one of the hallways, he heard Everest calling to him from behind; he turned around and saw her with what looked like a German Shepherd sitting next to her.

I guess she ended up finding me. Ace thought to himself. "Hey Everest." Ace greeted her as he approached.

The shepherd that had been chatting with Everest turned toward Ace and he immediately noticed her expression change; they both froze when they looked at each other. Everest noticed this and looked at them in confusion before asking what was wrong.

"Hmm? Oh nothing Eve, don't worry." Ace said to her.

Everest looked at Sarah, who was still frozen in place staring at Ace. "Do you two know each other?" Everest asked.

"I-I don't know." Ace replied.

Sarah was still staring at Ace in silence, Everest waved her paw in front of her to try to get her attention. "Hello? Earth to Sarah, you there?" Everest asked.

"Huh? Oh... yeah, I'm here. What is it?" Sarah replied.

"Do you know him?" Everest asked, gesturing to Ace.

"...M-Maybe." Sarah responded.

Meanwhile, with Jake and Chase.

Chase walked into the resort's kitchen, where jake was cooking something.

"One second Chase, I'll be with you in a minute." Jake told him.

Chase waited at the door of the kitchen for a couple of minutes before Jake finished preparing the food and put it into the oven to cook. Jake then walked over to the table and picked up a newspaper that was nearby before sitting down.

"Alright, now what do you need Chase?" Jake asked.

"I don't exactly like spending a long time in the freezing cold up here so let's get to the point, you've noticed how Marshall and Everest have acted with each other recently, right?" Chase asked.

"That's honestly the last thing I expected you to ask. But yes, I've noticed. They aren't exactly the best at hiding it." Jake replied.

Chase giggled a little before continuing. "Okay good. Me and Ace have also noticed this and have decided to be cupid this Christmas and plan something to get the two together." Chase said to him. "However, we likely won't be able to accomplish this by ourselves. So we wanted to recruit you into the plan. What do you say?"

"Hmm... Alright, I'm in." Jake responded.

"What? Really?" Chase asked.

"Yeah, I'll help you dude." Jake replied.

"I knew it'd be easy but I honestly expected it to at least be a bit harder to recruit you into the plan." Chase said.

"Well, you were wrong." Jake said to him. "So, what exactly is your plan?"

Chase then began explaining the plan he and Ace had come up with to Jake. Jake listened and pointed out different aspects of the plan that could be improved. Eventually, they both settled on a newer version of the plan and Chase began getting ready to return to the lookout. Before leaving, he said goodbye to Jake and headed towards the lobby where he would meet up with Ace and Everest.

"Ace, you go ahead and meet me outside. I need to discuss something with Everest." Chase said to him.

Ace listened and headed outside but noticed Chase pull out a piece of paper and showing it to Everest before he got outside. He waited minute after minute until finally, Chase arrived outside.

"Took you awhile." Ace said to him.

"Yeah, sorry." Chase responded.

The two shepherds didn't immediately jump into the fuchs and drive home. They instead stood on the mountain, looking down at Adventure Bay. The view from there was amazing; they could almost see the bay in it's entirety.

"I still can't get over how large it is now." Ace said in amazement.

"Neither can I. It used to be such a small town." Chase responded.

They both continued just staring at it for a couple minutes before finally hopping into the Fuchs and returning to the lookout.

In the resort.

Sarah finished the conversation she was having with Everest and went to her room; she shut and locked the door behind her before going to the mirror.

"So Ace and Eve do know each other, that definitely complicates things." Sarah said to herself.

Sarah looked at herself in the mirror. When she first began disguising herself, she was sure no true shepherd would fall for it in the slightest. But Ace had proven her wrong. Though he did seem to somehow recognize her, she thought, or maybe not; maybe it was something else. Sarah thought about the possibility but quickly wrote it off. Although she'd prefer it, she was sure that the idea was wrong.

She went over to her bed and hopped into it, staring at the ceiling for a few minutes, thinking. She still needed a way to get revenge; she wanted to get revenge against Ace for betraying her and Locke, but she didn't want anyone else to get caught in the crossfire. Suddenly, an idea began to form, and a smile crept across her face as she plotted.

At the lookout.

Chase and Ace arrived back at the lookout. Once again, not without trouble as Chase still struggled to park the APC. Once the Fuchs was finally parked, they both hopped out and Ace began walking toward the lookout before Chase called out to him to follow him. Ace turned toward him and followed him toward the edge of the cliff that bordered the bay.

"What do you need dad?" Ace asked.

"I forgot to tell you this earlier but I have a idea for Marshall and Everest." Chase said to him.

"And this is?" Ace questioned.

Chase pulled out the piece of paper from earlier from his jacket and showed him it, Ace looked at it and saw it was a flyer advertising a performance at the Barkingburg theatre.

"Ryder received a call earlier from one of the people running it, they asked if we could assist them with the performance to make sure nothing goes wrong. They even asked if some of the pups could perform in the theatre. Ryder, being Ryder, accepted. He asked me if I could ask the rest of the pups if they wanted to join the performance, I already asked Marshall and he happily accepted." Chase told him.

"I'm honestly not surprised, uncle loves singing." Ace said.

"Yeah. Anyway, none of the others were interested in joining in, except Everest." Chase said while smiling.

"Is that what you were talking to her about?" Ace asked.

"Yep." Chase replied. "And what's even more perfect, is the performance itself."

Chase pointed to a specific part of the flyer that showcased the many plays being performed. "This one here," he said, pointing to the play they had specifically asked the PAW Patrol to perform. "Romeo and Juliet."

"There's no way, do the two of them know?" Ace asked.

"They do, but I don't think they're aware of who is going to be acting the other role." Chase replied.

"Hmm, when's it happening?" Ace asked.

Chase pointed to a different section of the flyer. 'Romeo and Juliet - Saturday - 1300-1500.'

"In 3 days." Chase told him.

"This is perfect, we won't have to do a thing." Ace said.

"You won't have to do a thing." Chase corrected him. "Since it's happening in Barkingburg, I'm going to be keeping an eye on Sweetie most of the time to make sure she doesn't try anything during the play."

"What's the chances she'll try something in front of the princess?" Ace pointed out.

"Oh, you'd be surprised about the stuff she'd do." Chase replied.

The two shepherds then returned to the lookout, they entered and saw the rest of the pups sitting around the TV, watching movies. They both looked at what was on and noticed it was Apollo.

"So, I assume Rubble was the one that got to choose the movie?" Chase asked.

"Yep." Zuma replied.

"It's better than what Skye picks." Ace said.

"Hey! They aren't that bad." Skye responded.

"I agree with Ace, your choices ain't the best." Rocky said.

"I also agree." Zuma added.

"Me too." Marshall said from across the room.

"Well... Chase, are those movies really that bad?" Skye asked.

"I'm not saying anything." Chase replied.

Meanwhile, in the next room over

Ryder and AL were in the kitchen just chatting, Ryder was telling AL more about Adventure Bay and the surrounding area. They both could hear the pups from there, and the two just looked over at them through the doorway.

"What's going on?" AL asked.

"Their arguing about the movies, again." Ryder replied.

"Arguing? Do they do this everytime?" AL asked.

"Pretty much, Skye has vastly different taste in movies than the other pups." Ryder told him.

"Will they ever stop?" AL asked.

"Probably not." Ryder said.

They soon continued their previous discussion. Eventually, while telling AL about their various missions, Ryder brought up Barkingburg and told AL that they'd actually be going there in a few days to attend a performance at the theatre and asked the robotic canine if he'd want to come along. AL said sure, even though he had no clue what a theatre or a performance was, he still wanted to learn.

Back with the pups

The pups were still arguing, and eventually, Ace decided to just go to sleep early. He said goodnight to Chase and Skye and headed for the elevator. He descended to the basement and walked to his room at the end of the hall. He entered and removed his gear before hopping onto his bed.

He laid there for what felt like hours, thinking about the day's events. Not much had happened, but he had met someone new. Though, even though Sarah seemed new, she also seemed familiar. He couldn't quite put his claw on it, but something about her just seemed familiar. Eventually, however, he was finally able to fall asleep.

That's the end of chapter 4.

Sorry for the long wait; I took a break from writing for a few days (for several reasons), and when I finally returned, I just didn't really have any ideas.

I will also add that updates will be happening less frequently. I originally tried to post one update to this story per day, but that didn't really work out; I'm also writing another (unrelated) story at the same time, which also added to the delay.

Anyway, until the next chapter, bye everyone!

-König der Könige