Sylvia was walking over the large bridge that separated the lookout from the town of Adventure Bay itself, thinking about what she was about to do. She was about to warn the PAW Patrol about The Architect's plans, but she was also about to inform them of her involvement in Zuma's kidnapping.
Once she got over the bridge, she approached the lookout and saw Chase and Skye sitting outside the door, seemingly discussing something. Sylvia took a deep breath and prepared herself before confronting them.
"Hello Mr. Schäfer, I need to speak with Ryder immediately about something important. Could you go get him please?" Sylvia asked, clearly nervous about confronting them.
"Uhh, sure?" Chase replied before glancing over at Skye. Both of them nodded to one another before Chase went to get their owner. While Skye walked up to Sylvia, having not spoken to her in forever.
"Hey Sylvia! How have you been? I haven't seen you in forever!" Skye asked, excited to finally meet the Belgian Shepherd again.
"Hey Skye, I've been good, I guess. Also, what do you mean? You saw me at the Romeo and Juliet play." Sylvia replied, still a bit nervous. Skye rolled her eyes before responding.
"Yeah, but that was like a month ago! To me, that felt like forever!" Skye exclaimed. Chase then left the lookout, with Ryder following him.
"Hey Sylvia, what do you need?" Ryder asked her, a bit curious about why she arrived at the lookout so suddenly.
"I need to speak with you about something important. Like, immediately...Preferably in private." Sylvia replied, wanting to explain everything to Ryder before informing the pups, as she didn't know how they would react.
"Alright...Here, follow me. We can speak upstairs." Ryder told her before leading the Belgian Shepherd inside.
Sylvia looked around at the main room as Ryder led her to the elevator. Seeing some of the other pups sitting around, some of them glancing at her, also surprised to see her there. Her and Ryder then entered the elevator and began raising to the top of the lookout. When they got to the top, they left the elevator, before Ryder turned to Sylvia and asked what it was that she needed to speak to him about.
"Ryder, sir. I apologize for my involvement in his kidnapping, and I hope you can do something about it. Zuma has been captured and is currently being held by The Architect. You need to get the pups together and go save him, The Architect likely has something horrible planned for him if you don't." Sylvia informed him, apologizing for her involvement and hoping he could save him. Ryder stood there for a moment, shocked to hear that one of his pups was kidnapped, before taking out the puppad.
"One moment please, I need to call the other pups up here. They need to know this and we need to get ready to save him." Ryder told her, using the puppad to call the pups to the top of the lookout.
"Alright, I was planning to inform them as well anyway. I just wanted to inform you first because I didn't know how they'd react." Sylvia told him, still clearly nervous to inform everyone.
The two of them stood there, waiting, until the elevator arrived with the pups. Sylvia immediately noticed that Marshall was missing from the group, and was confused why he wasn't there. She was also surprised to see Sierra, who upon noticing her, got in front of Ace and glared at the Belgian Shepherd.
"Sierra? What's wrong? It's just Sylvia." Ace asked her, whispering quietly as to not attract the attention of the other pups.
"I-It's...It's hard to explain, but she's not trustworthy. Don't trust a single word she says." Sierra replied, also whispering. This only confused Ace more, as he had no knowledge of Sylvia's connection to The Architect.
"Pups, please listen. Sylvia has something very important to tell you." Ryder told the pups, who were all lined up in formation in front of him. They all nodded before turning their attention to Sylvia, some of them confused, some of them curious.
"First, I'm sorry for my involvement, I hope you don't hold it against me, as I now regret helping them at all. Zuma has been kidnapped, and is currently being held by The Architect in a warehouse on the other side of Adventure Bay." Sylvia told them. Most of the pups were shocked and worried to hear this, just like Ryder was. However, Sierra was instead focused on her first sentence.
You regret helping them? Sure you do, I don't believe that one bit. Sierra thought to herself, still glaring at the Belgian Shepherd. Sylvia glanced over at her and clearly noticed the glare she was getting, gulping in response, half expecting the husky to attack her.
"Warehouse? Do you know the exact address he's being held at?" Chase asked, hoping she knew so they could save him much quicker. Sylvia was silent for a moment before responding, trying to find the best response.
"Y-Yeah, it's down the street from the pet parlor. On the very edge of town." Sylvia replied. She then decided to ask where Marshall was, clearly worried as he was one of the pups The Architect wanted to capture. "Where is Marshall? Why isn't he here with you?"
"Marshall left about an hour ago." Sierra replied, not wanting to tell her specifically where he was.
"He went up to the resort on Jake's mountain. Apparently something happened and he needed to go there immediately." Rocky added. Sierra glared at him, which none of the other pups, except Ace, noticed.
"Okay, that's good." Sylvia responded, relieved to hear that he just went up to visit the resort. She assumed that he went to help Jake with something, unaware that Jake wasn't in Adventure Bay.
Sierra then began interrogating the Blue Belgian Shepherd, not believing she regretted her actions, and still believing that she was still working for The Architect. The other pups were surprised to find out that Sierra knew about The Architect, Ace especially. Sylvia defended herself, and eventually, Sierra gave up. She still believed that Sylvia regretted nothing, but she decided to drop it, and the pups began planning on how they would save Zuma.
Meanwhile, at the warehouse
Zuma was still tied to the chair, staring down at the ground as he thought about how he got into this situation. He was beginning to lose hope that he'd be saved. Especially after seeing that his puptag, which contained the tracker, was destroyed. Sitting on a table next to him in a hundred peices, constantly reminding him that he wouldn't be saved.
As he sat there, he began hearing footsteps approaching him. He looked up to see who it was, but couldn't see anything as the room was cloaked in darkness, except for a small circle around him, thanks to a single lightbulb hanging above him.
"Who is there?" Zuma asked, hoping it was one of his friends. But no one responded, at least, not immediately. Zuma lowered his head back down, assuming he was just hearing things now.
The Labrador sat there in almost complete silence, with the only sound being the humming of the lightbulb above him. He then heard the footsteps again, but this time, he could see the outline of a canine standing at the edge of the darkness.
"Hello? Who are you?" Zuma asked the canine, still hoping it was one of his friends looking for him.
"That is something you should know." The canine replied, entering the light as they approached the wall behind him, revealing them to be a shepherd. However, Zuma couldn't discern any recognizable features through the mask they wore.
"Oh, of course." Zuma muttered, closing his eyes as he heard the shepherd toss something onto the ground.
Zuma continued listening to what the shepherd was doing, with both of them in complete silence. It took a couple minutes for the shepherd to finish whatever they were doing, but he soon heard a loud beeping sound as the shepherd finished setting something up.
Zuma then watched the shepherd walk passed him and make their way to the door, turning to glance at the Labrador one more time, before leaving him alone in the room once more. Zuma tried to turn his head around to see what the shepherd did, but all he could see was a small red light, high up on the wall, blinking in the darkness.
Meanwhile, with Artemis
Artemis was inside her home, sitting at her kitchen table as she read through that days newspaper. Just like the others, she wasn't getting any closer to solving the identity of the murderer. Right now, she was focused on tracking down Tuck and Ella, as they were supposably the last known people to speak with the murderer. However, she wasn't succeeding. Tuck and Ella did a great job hiding their identity. Infact, she couldn't even find anything about their past, like they really just disappeared off the face of the planet.
She soon finished reading the newspaper and stood up, tossing the newspaper onto the kitchen table before leaving the kitchen and heading to her room. It had been a long day of work and she was ready to finally get some rest.
Why must one of my first cases be the most complicated case the town has ever had? Artemis asked herself, a bit shocked at how long it took them to find someone even remotely related to the crime. And they had to be missing for years by that time.
Artemis entered her room and hopped into her bed, ready to end the day. Before she fell asleep, the voices on the tape returned to her mind. While they identified two of the voices, they couldn't identify the second person. Something about their voice sounded familiar to her though, like she heard it somewhere before. She brushed it off as something to investigate more tomorrow and closed her eyes, falling alseep not too long after.
At the resort
Marshall was waiting inside the resort for Everest to return, getting increasingly concerned over time. The Dalmatian would be relieved when he heard footsteps outside. He began trotting over to the door, but before he opened it, he stopped and listened. He could hear another set of footsteps, much heavier footsteps.
He then finally opened the door, immediately seeing Everest standing there, seemingly perfectly fine. The husky entered the resort, greeting the Dalmatian before turning back to the door.
"Hey, Caelestis! You can come inside." Everest said to someone outside the resort. Marshall turned to the door, confused about who she was talking, and saw a wolf slowly entering the resort.
Marshall jumped in front of the lavender husky, worried that this wolf would be aggressive, since Tyrannus did warn them that the other wolves weren't as friendly as him. Caelestis shut the door behind her and turned to the two canines, clearly hesitant to move. Everest laid her paw onto Marshall's shoulder and assured him that this wolf was friendly.
"Hello... Spots?" Caelestis greeted the Dalmatian, making an assumption of what his name would be.
"Marshall." Marshall corrected, still standing between Everest and Caelestis.
"Hello Marshall, my name's Caelestis." Caelestis introduced herself, trying to calm the Dalmatian down.
"Marshy, relax, she's one of the nice ones." Everest told him. Marshall glanced at her, then back at Caelestis, then moved to the side, still not a hundred percent trusting the wolf.
Everest finished introducing Caelestis, which Marshall responded by fully introducing himself. He then realized that Caelestis looked vaguely familiar, which is when Everest informed him that she was the mother of the wolf pup they saved a few years back. Marshall then turned to Caelestus and apologized for being slightly aggressive at first, which Caelestis accepted, understanding why he wouldn't trust her.
Back at the lookout
Sylvia, Ryder, and the other pups were all still planning on how they should save Zuma from his situation. They didn't want to just bust in and get him out, as that would attract a lot of attention and most likely result in Sylvia being arrested for her association to his kidnapping.
Ace proposed that he and Chase could get the ABPD together, and with the evidence they had, they could raid the warehouse and get Zuma out. But this was declined as whoever had Zuma hostage could simply escape with him as soon as they noticed the police cars.
Sierra sat there, thinking of something as a couple of the other pups proposed a few more ideas, all of them being declined as they likely wouldn't work. Sierra then spoke up with her own idea. Everyone thought about it for a moment before accepting it, deciding that it was the best option.
The pups then went to the elevator and went down to their rooms, deciding that they would leave first thing in the morning to save Zuma. Meanwhile, on the top floor, Ryder told Sylvia that she could stay at the lookout for the night so she didn't have to return to wherever she was staying in the dark. Just in case The Architect somehow found out about her desertion. Sylvia wanted to decline, but she ended up accepting, for her own safety.
That's the end of Chapter 12
I apologize for all the short chapters. In hindsight, it probably would've been better to combine chapter 10-12 into one chapter, as they all took place during the same day.
We'll soon find out who the shepherd really is, which will leave The Architect as the only one left to not be revealed.
Until the next chapter, bye everyone!
-König der Könige