Hello all! I'm back with a new PAW Patrol story! This is going to be (hopefully) a fairly long-ish two shot (originally supposed to be a one shot; see below AN for more info.)

I hope you enjoy! I own nothing but the plot.

Conqueror

Chapter 1

The day started off innocently enough. Ryder felt the pups had earned a long overdue break from rescuing people after such a long three weeks of work. He asked Jake if Everest wanted to come over and spend the night. The young man readily agreed- he needed some peace and quiet from the business of the Ski Lodge, and Everest hadn't seen the others in quite the while.

Tracker and Carlos were visiting for a few days as well, Carlos wanting to come see the Adventure Bay Historical Museum and see for himself where the treasures he'd been digging up back in the jungle were now being displayed. Naturally, he also agreed to have Tracker come over and spend the night with the other pups- he never had a proper introduction to their mountain rescue pup, and he really missed seeing his amigos.

As for Ryder, he truly didn't see any trouble with it; if he were honest, he was excited about it himself. It meant there were other humans- other males, specifically- he could finally catch up and talk to.

The sleepover was held at the Lookout, with the pups all camping out on the main floor, and Jake, Carlos and Ryder on the top floor. After a check to make sure no one needed rescuing, and everything was secure and locked up for the night, it was time for the eight pups and three humans to finally unwind.

Of course, thunderstorms were popular in Adventure Bay, especially unexpected ones. So it was no shocker when Cap'n Turbot called Ryder, freaking out about a really dark thundercloud rolling in. Carlos and Jake looked out the window and confirmed what the captain warned them about, and all three males decided to call the pups in early.

Ryder had all the pups come inside around 8:30pm, warning them about the storm and letting them know they had to stay inside. To pass the time, they watched Apollo the Super Pup (all 12 episodes since Tracker had never heard or seen the show before). Afterwards, they laid out their pillows, snuggled under their unique blankets and told rescue stories with one another.

"Alright pups, I'm heading up with Carlos and Jake. Don't stay up too late, alright?" Ryder announced as he checked his pups one last time to make sure all was well. A sudden thunderclap startled all the pups but Everest, who was looking outside with interest, and Chase, who was busy getting his pillow ready for bed.

"Wow, it's really pouring rain out there! It's weird, it was nice just a minute ago!" Everest shrugged her shoulders and joined the others, plopping on top of her unique teal colored blanket. "Guess it's a good thing we didn't have to do any rescues tonight, huh?"

Rocky was cowered under his green blanket, his head poking out and staring outside with obvious fear. "Y-Yeah... g-good thing, all right..." he stuttered before another thunderclap caused him to jump in fright. He landed right on top of Zuma, who was half-way close to dozing off.

"Heh heh... uh, sorry, Zuma." Rocky sheepishly apologized as he rolled off the chocolate pup. Zuma gave a half sleepy grin before he curled in his orange blanket and let out a yawn.

"No worries, Wocky dude." he mumbled. "Mhmm… n'ght…"

Ryder laughed a little, as did the others, before he gave each pup a reassuring pat on their heads. "We're just an elevator ride away if you need anything, okay? Good night pups!"

"Good night, Ryder!" they called. After Ryder went up with the other two, the pups wondered what to talk about next. Another thunderclap startled them again, adding with it flickering lights as the strong winds rocked the Lookout Tower. Tracker yelped and hid under his dark green blanket, shaking like a leaf.

"Oy yoy yoy… odio la oscuridad! Es tan aterrador! I hate the dark! It's so scary!" he whimpered. Rocky nodded in agreement, and when another thunderclap came and went, the two pups huddled closer together.

"Y-You can say that again, Tracker!" Rocky hated water in general, but this was a whole new level of freaky. "W-We've never h-had storms this weird before!"

As another thunderclap passed through and caused some of the younger pups to whimper in fear, Rubble noticed Zuma hadn't made a sound or moved even a little. It was like the pup couldn't hear anything, he was that deep in his sleep.

"Man, Zuma's SO lucky!" Rubble commented, laying down on his pillow and adjusting his sleeping mask on top his head. Chase, who finally had his pillow fluffed the way he liked it, pushed it a little closer to the elevator before tugging his blanket to join the others, occupying half of Marshall's pillow for the time being.

"What do you mean?" the police pup asked. Rubble looked outside then back at Zuma.

"He's not afraid of ANYTHING! That pup can sleep like a log!" The other pups had to agree on that- in all the time Zuma had been with the PAW Patrol, he had never once voiced his fears about anything. Or woke up from anything. Unlike the others...

"Yeah... he sure is lucky... " Rocky mumbled to himself, pulling his blanket closer to him. He was glad no one could hear his comment. Skye looked at Rocky.

"Wait, Rocky? Aren't you and Zuma really close friends?" she wondered.

Rocky nodded slowly. "Yeah...?"

"And you're telling me Zuma never EVER told you not one time about a fear he had?" She asked curiously, arching an eyebrow. Rocky whimpered as yet another thunderclap passed, before he started to muse on the question at hand.

"N-No... well, honestly, we never talked about it. I mean, I think everyone knows I can't stand water-"

"Rocky, we can sometimes SMELL that!" Marshall chimed in. Everyone got a laugh out of that one.

Another silence fell upon the pups as they ran out of things to discuss. Other than the occasional whimpers from some of the frightened pups, no one knew what to talk about.

Until Tracker noticed that Everest was frowning, as if something was bothering her. "Senorita? Are you alright?" Tracker asked, catching the attention of the others.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine, but... well, I don't know..."

"Don't know what, senorita?" Tracker asked, glad for the temporary distraction from the dark, freaky and loud thunderstorm. Everest tapped her chin in thought for a moment.

"Well, I don't think Zuma ISN'T afraid of anything..." Everest started thoughtfully. Finally, a conversation starter! The other pups looked for her to continue. She shrugged before getting comfortable on top her blanket.

"I'm just saying, maybe, just maybe, he hasn't found something to be afraid of, you know?" Everest suggested. "Everyone is afraid of something. Even Ryder and Jake and Carlos."

"You think so?" Rubble wondered.

"Remember the dentist issue? Ryder actually admitted he was scared of brussels sprouts!" Chase fondly recalled with a small laugh. Marshall shook his head and tugged his blanket so close to his face and body he almost suffocated himself.

"I can deal with those things. But heights, stage fright... none of those are great!" He kissed the ground and sighed happily. "Forget about flying, that's Skye's thing! Oh, ground! I will never let you go!"

Chase rolled his eyes and lightly bopped his best friend on the head. "You're so strange, dally."

Marshall looked sideways at him. "And YOU were scared of the dentist! Remember? That's really the only reason why Ryder told us about the brussels sprouts thing!" he said with a wide grin. Chase hit him a little harder this time, and once again, laughter filled the small area.

"Shut it, you."

The mention of fears had Tracker thinking- since he was pretty close with the PAW Patrol, and he trusted them fully, he decided to tell them his own little secret.

"Hmmm... well, now that you mention it, me and Carlos have had nightmares before, but I always thought it was because he's a ten year old who lives on his own and I was stranded in the jungle." Tracker pulled on his blanket a bit more and looked outside again, his ears flattering upon seeing the dark skies and hearing the loud winds and thunder.

"Las tormentas en la jungla no son nada comparadas con esto… the storms in the jungle are nothing compared to this!" he whimpered. He really, REALLY hated the darkness.

"We usually never have storms like this." Chase said. "It's just like Ryder said- the storm is just a freaky one. It'll pass by the time we wake up in the morning. Nothing to be afraid of!"

The pups looked at one another and more or less agreed. It still didn't ease Rubble's curiosity of their aqua rescue pup and what made him scared. As the other pups let out yawns and settled in for a good night's rest, Rubble wondered to himself, "It's always strange how much this pup can sleep and never hear anything! Or fear anything! Still... I wonder what Zuma's fear is..."

Later on that night, it was still pouring rain, but with howling, strong winds and the occasional thunderclap here or there. The pups finally wore themselves out with a LONG conversation about Apollo the Super Pup and other things before, despite the thunderstorm going on outside, they slowly dropped to sleep one by one.

Tracker, Rocky, Rubble and Marshall slept as close together as possible, since the sudden loud sounds scared them the most. Chase slept closest the elevator, in case anyone needed Ryder, Jake or Carlos. Everest and Skye slept next to each other in a separate pile, away from Marshall and Rubble's snoring.

Zuma was sleeping closest the four male pups, but still had some space to himself. Which was a good thing, because he was tossing and turning as if he were actually trapped in a nightmare of some sort.

"Nnrgh… n-no... W-Wocky… stop..." he mumbled in his sleep.

"H-Huh? What's going on? Whewe am I?"

The chocolate pup seemed to be wandering in a really huge, really bare piece of land. He had never seen that kind of land before, even with all the adventures he had been on. Water surrounded him on all sides, but something was very wrong.

"Okay, maybe I just need to find Wyder and the others. I mean, dude, I'm dweaming… yeah, that's it..." Zuma closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm himself down.

"Okay... okay. I gotta go somewhewe… I guess this way?" He walked a few steps to his left, noticing the darkness swirling around above his head, but doing his best to pay it no heed.

"It's just a dweam, it's just a dweam… I'll find my way out..." Zuma muttered to himself. "Or I'll wake up eventually..."

After a few minutes that seemed like a lifetime, he realized that his paws were getting wet. Glancing down, Zuma noticed there was red on his paws. It make him a bit nauseous, but he swallowed it back.

"M-Must be chewwy pie awound here or something...maybe I'm dweaming about pie?" Laughing nervously, Zuma tried to wipe it off against whatever he'd been walking on, but it wasn't coming off.

"Ewwww, this is totally gross, dude! Gotta be some way to get this off..."

Then a thought came to him. "Wait! Duhhh, this place is totally surrounded by water! I can wash it off!" Darting to the edge of... wherever he was, Zuma leaned forward to see what was in the body of murky water, and to try and clean his paws off.

What stared back at him was Rocky's head, missing his left eye and grinning rather creepily.

Everest opened an eye. She wasn't crazy; she heard something...

Another small sound. Her ears were on alert. There was no one anyone could get into the Lookout- this thing was sealed up tight! Unless...

Everest heard it again, clearly this time. It sounded soft and close. She squinted, looking hard at each of the pups.

Tracker, Marshall, Rubble and Rocky were snoring and tangled with one another... even though they were the most afraid of the storm, they were sleeping as if nothing was wrong. She glanced down. Skye twitched a little, but was still asleep. Glancing toward the elevator, Chase was sleeping as well, as easy as any other time she'd seen him.

"What was that...?" She frowned, then laid back down to try and ignore the sound and go back to sleep- when it happened again.

"Wait... that sound... is someone... whimpering? But who...?"

Then Everest remembered. She looked at the mess of a pile of four pups, then tilted her head a little to see past them.

Zuma was tossing and turning in his orange blanket. Everest wondered how she missed that, until she remembered- Zuma had never had a nightmare. At least, not to her knowledge.

'Zuma? He looks... stressed? Or maybe it's his happy face? I can't tell... wait, is he having a nightmare or a really good dream?' The mountain pup carefully wedged herself from Skye, who had using half her body as a pillow, and slowly made her way over to him.

Zuma's face was pinched and his breathing was picking up. Everest knew right away that was no good dream he was having. "Strange... I don't recall the others saying Zuma ever had a nightmare before. I wonder what's going on..."

Rocky was grinning widely, his teeth stained with his blood. Zuma gagged and staggered back, shaking his head in disbelief.

"N-No... no, I... Wocky, you're not dead... this is seriously getting bad..."

Zuma decided to make a huge mistake and leaned forward again. That wasn't Rocky, there was NO WAY that was his best friend!

...right?

When Zuma looked into the water again, there were ripples where the floating head had just been. Zuma stared into the water a little longer, watching, waiting... and then Rocky's head appeared again.

This time, more of the young pup's fur had been peeled off in some spots on his cheek and forehead. His left ear, which had already been damaged before, was ripped nearly in half. His left eye was gone, leaving only a socket which was leaking red.

"W-what's happening... what AWE you?" Zuma staggered back, still unable to comprehend what was going on.

"I've gotta get out of hewe… I need to find Wyder and the others!"

Zuma tried to get his legs to move, but it felt like he couldn't. He was stuck, staring at the very dead body of his best friend as Rocky slowly rose out of the water.

Then Zuma let out a scream.

Everest was caught completely off guard at the sudden shriek that Zuma let rip from his lips. Everyone else was soon startled awake as well, rubbing sleepy eyes and looking around in confusion.

"W-Wha… wha's happe'n?" Marshall mumbled sleepily. He let out a large yawn and looked around before he realized all eyes were on Everest and Zuma.

Zuma was beginning to thrash a little, his head shaking from side to side as his nightmare tightened its hold on his mind. Chase approached them, trying to get Zuma to calm down before he found a way to hurt himself.

"Everest...?" Skye asked, worried. "What happened? Why is he screaming like that?"

Everest frowned as she tried to help Chase get Zuma to stop thrashing. "I don't know! It must be one bad nightmare!"

The other pups were really confused now- Zuma actually had nightmares?

"Is he okay? We gotta wake him up, don't we?" Rubble made to do just that, but Chase put out his paw to keep the construction pup back.

"No! We can't wake him up like this; he'll think we're the bad guys and try to attack US!" Chase managed to explain. "He has to wake up on his own!"

The younger pups watched with worry as Zuma continued to groan and toss and turn in his sleep. Rocky frowned a little- Zuma never had a nightmare in his three years of being with them, right? He should know this- he's Zuma's best friend!

'Zuma... why would you be having a nightmare so suddenly? And about what?'

Zuma let out a scream that he was certain would be a record breaker if he were awake.

Half of Rocky's body was gone. From his midsection down, there was nothing there but dripping blood and torn flesh. Zuma felt bile rise up in his throat and couldn't stop the retching from happening.

It looked sickening. It smelled sickening. This was just wrong!

"W-wh... what awe you..." Zuma tried to ask but couldn't speak around the burning in his throat. 'Rocky' was still grinning from ear to ripped ear, but when he opened his mouth and spoke, Zuma felt chills go down his spine.

"Aww, YoU actually remember me this time! But look, little Zuma, I don't feel so good!" He sounded odd. Like Rocky's voice mixed with something else, something evil. What would that even be?

Zuma didn't want to look at the mess that was supposed to be his friend. But he didn't have a choice.

A cold, wet paw grabbed him by the leg. Zuma struggled to break free, but his other paw clamped down on his second front leg and wasn't letting go.

"W-what are you doing?! Let me go!" Zuma panicked- 'Rocky' felt damp and squishy, and smelled horrible!

"CoMe on, ZumA, don't be afraid of me!" That voice was starting to sound less and less like Rocky and more like... whatever this creepy thing was dragging him to the lake.

Wait. The lake...? Zuma's eyes widened. He was beginning to understand what was going on.

"N-No... no, let me go! Let me go, Wocky!" Zuma struggled harder, even tried to use his hind legs to force the thing to stop. But it was stronger, and it just kept pulling on the poor chocolate pup until he was dangerously close to the edge of the lake.

The water was very murky and dark. Zuma couldn't see anything on the surface. He looked at his friend in complete horror.

He didn't understand, why was this happening now-

And then he remembered. He froze as he found himself staring at the floating body in front of him, the missing half of Rocky about the same spot where his... mer-pup tail was...

"W-Wocky… y-you-"

'Rocky' cackled before yanking Zuma over the edge of the lake. Zuma let out a scream as he tumbled into the dirty water. He still felt his body being dragged deeper still, and Zuma realized where they were going.

That broken, horrible ship. The one thing Zuma could honestly say scared him to literal near death.

"No, no! Wocky, NO!"

It was no use. Zuma couldn't see the surface through the thick, murky substance surrounding him. His lungs quickly filled with liquid, and the last thing he saw was that creepy face, still grinning at him as his world went dark.

"W...Woc...ky… why..."

"NO!"

Zuma's eyes shot wide open. He sat upright so suddenly, he knocked Everest and Chase over.

"Z-Zuma...?" The chocolate lab was panting heavily, sweat beads rolling down his nose and cheeks. It felt like he was drowning even though he was awake, and he was gasping for air. Chase and Rocky approached him, both of them rubbing Zuma's back to get him to calm down before he blacked out. The other pups rallied around him as well, all talking to him and trying to get him to relax.

After a few moments of catching his breath, he finally realized he was safe, out of that nightmare... and now the center of attention.

"H-Huh?" Zuma coughed as his body finally realized he wasn't in that horrid nightmare any longer.

"D-Dudes? Wha-"

Everyone started asking questions and talking at once. As they advanced on him with the questions, Zuma felt nervous and scared. There was too much going on at once, his chest burned for some reason, and he still hadn't come to grips with that new version of the nightmare he'd just had.

"D-Dudes, stop, please..." Zuma coughed again, feeling that same burning feeling in his chest. He curled into a ball on his pillow, trying to get his head to stop hurting and his chest to stop burning. But his friends were still asking too many questions, and it sounded like they couldn't hear his pleas.

"Dudes, come on! G-guys, chill out!" he tried to say, but he was being drowned out by the voices of his friends.

Finally, he had enough. In as loud a voice as he could muster, Zuma yelled, "GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Just like that, all was silent. The pups backed away from Zuma, none of them ever seeing him so rattled and upset. Rocky tilted his head- what was going on with his friend?

"Zuma...?" Zuma couldn't keep his composure anymore, and didn't like all eyes on him in his state. Without a word, he got up and bolted out the Lookout, ignoring the howling, cold winds and the pouring rain.

Rocky and the others shared worried looks. No one knew what to do for a short while.

"S-Should we go after him?" Rubble finally broke the ice.

"I don't know... he seemed pretty shaken up." Marshall added in, not liking the sound of the crazy weather outside, but still worried for Zuma, too.

As the other pups tried to figure out what to do, Rocky looked at the pouring rain, then out the Lookout door where Zuma left from, and made up his mind.

"Guys? guys!"

All eyes were on him. Rocky looked pretty serious as he said, "Stay here; I'm going to go talk to him."

"You sure?" Chase was already up, his natural police pup instincts already at work. He started making his way to the elevator. "It's pouring rain outside; should I get Ryder or Jake or-?"

Rocky shook his head, telling himself he was REALLY going to regret doing this. He hated/feared water, that wasn't news to anyone.

But he had never seen Zuma so upset or even heard him raise his voice before. Something bad happened just now, whatever that nightmare was. And if everyone went after Zuma in that state, Rocky had no doubt the aqua rescue pup would completely shut down from all the attention.

"No, no. I just... let's not wake Ryder up. He needs a break, and I don't think Zuma's going to talk to him, either. Just..." Rocky sighed and offered the most reassuring smile he could to his friends.

"Just trust me, okay? Besides, Zuma's scared. Like, really scared. And that's... that's just water. Just have a towel ready for me, okay? For both of us. I'll get him to come inside and talk to us." 'Especially since I'm starting to think I might know what shook him up so bad, anyways.'

Before anyone could ask what he meant, Rocky ran off. Chase sighed and watched as Rocky bolted as fast as he could to Zuma's pup house. Everest could see the worry clear as day on his face.

"You alright, Chase?" Chase shook his head no.

"It's just... I've never seen Zuma act like that- ever! I'm really worried about him, you know? And I don't know if we should get Ryder or what... I feel like an idiot..."

The other pups sat around the two. "We all are, Chase." Marshall said, placing a paw on his shoulder. "But Ryder does a lot for us. He should be allowed to rest."

Skye nodded. "Marshall's right, Chase. Rocky is Zuma's closest friend, so let Rocky talk to him first. Maybe he can get him to come inside and then we can talk to him together."

"Marshall and Skye are right." Rubble agreed. "We can't do anything if Zuma doesn't want to talk about it. You know he can stay quiet for, like a LONG time."

Tracker and Everest shared a look. "Amigos, Es... ¿es la primera vez que Zuma ha tenido una pesadilla? Is this the first time Zuma's had a nightmare?" Tracker asked them.

All of them nodded yes. Chase looked at the door and sighed. His friends were right, but that didn't really ease his worry for Zuma.

Zuma was curled tight in his pup house, the rain pounding on his roof. He couldn't get himself under control, and he knew he needed to apologize but that nightmare was far too gory and real and he almost lost his best friend and he couldn't breathe-

"Z-Zuma?" A small knock at the door. Zuma almost jumped out of his skin. He heard the knock again and tried to get his heart to stop racing.

"Zuma? It's me- can you let me in?" Wiping his nose, the brown pup sniffed and buried his head in his paws. He really wasn't in the mood to answer any questions or talk or anything at the moment.

"Go away, dude." he answered.

Rocky whimpered- man, it was pouring rain and he was stuck! But his best friend needed him first, and it was just a little water, it would dry off... and leave a nasty smell. "It's Rocky. Can I come in? Please?"

"No, Wocky. Go away." Zuma buried his head in his paws as much as he could- his head was beginning to hurt. "I don't want to talk wight now."

"Come on, Zuma, pleaseee? It's wet out here!" Rocky pleaded, hating how soaked he was getting. He yelped as a flash of lightening tore through the sky. "And there's lightening! Please, Zuma? Pleasssse?"

Realizing Rocky was outside in the pouring rain and wasn't planning on leaving him be, Zuma finally opened his door and quickly resumed his spot so Rocky couldn't see him crying. Rocky shook himself dry a little, sighing in relief of being out the rain. He closed the door behind him.

"Man, the water! Yuck, yuck! Why did I agree to this again?" Rocky whined, being careful of Zuma as he continued to shake himself dry. Even with the little droplets that fell on him, Zuma hadn't moved. He sniffed a few times, trying to get his crying under control.

Zuma had stopped crying, but his eyes were a bit puffy and red and he wasn't lifting his head until Rocky left.

"Zuma?" Rocky approached him. "Hey, you okay?"

Zuma didn't verbally answer, just shook his head no. Rocky sighed and laid down next to him, close enough they touched shoulders.

"I know you answered this already, but... you want to talk about it?"

Again, Zuma shook his head no, and inched a little away from Rocky. Rocky let out a small whimper- was Zuma angry at him? Did he do something to him recently? Maybe he said something that offended him?

"Did... did I do something to make you mad at me?" Rocky asked sadly. Zuma shook his head no, still sniffling, staying away from Rocky, and not lifting his head from his paws.

'Too weal... that was too, too weal! I can't face him! He probably hates me! No... no, I can't talk to him wight now. Not after what I've done...'

"Z-Zuma... did you have a nightmare?" Rocky finally asked the big question. Zuma's whole body tensed, and Rocky figured he was getting somewhere now. Or maybe he was just getting Zuma more upset, it was still hard to tell.

"Was it bad? Can you tell me what it was?"

"No, Wocky! I told you I don't want to talk about it, okay?! Just leave me alone!" Zuma finally, finally yelled. To Rocky's odd shock, he was quite relieved- a quiet Zuma was WAY too hard to figure out, too hard to crack open.

But he never had to deal with an emotional Zuma before, either. Not once. In fact, no one saw Zuma in this state before. Zuma was usually a laid back, go with the flow type of pup. What kind of nightmare did he have that rattled him like that?

Rocky tilted his head and studied Zuma's face for a moment. His eyes were red, tears had dried on his cheeks, and his body was trembling something fierce. "Zuma, you need to talk to me. Please, can you tell me what happened? You're shaking like a leaf."

Zuma was failing miserably at the tough guy act. He tried to keep his composure, but as Rocky laid there, patiently waiting and staring at him, Zuma slowly lost the energy to stay angry, and flashbacks of his nightmare ran through his head.

'That... that smell... the blood... h-how did I fail? I saved him! He's wight here! O-Or maybe... I'm still dweaming…? No, I- I can't be! Wocky's wight here! A-And... he's in one piece! Oh, my tummy... and my head... they huwt...'

"Y-You... I... " Rocky kept waiting- Zuma was reaching his breaking point. Although it hurt the eco pup to see one of his friends suffering like this, and his first instinct was to hug the heck out of him, he knew each of them handled things differently, and Zuma was no exception.

'He's not open and touchy like Marshall is. All you would have to do is just hug him and he'd break in a minute. But he's not stubborn and tough like Chase is, either. I've only seen him have a nightmare once, and trying to get HIM to crack is something else entirely. Zuma's... just different.'

Zuma inched closer to Rocky, mumbling all types of nonsense. Rocky simply extended his paw out to him and continued to wait. 'Zuma never experienced a nightmare before. I mean, heck, usually nothing actually scares him! But... whatever this was... it must've been bad... really, really bad...'

"... I failed you, Wocky…" Zuma mumbled. Rocky tilted his head.

"Failed me? Zuma?" Rocky was worried- did something happen that he just overlooked? "What do you mean?"

Zuma looked at Rocky, and the eco pup's chest tightened. His best friend looked painfully lost and upset.

"I'm sowwy, Wocky… I'm so sowwy…" Zuma barely got out in a whisper before his tears overtook him. Rocky didn't know what to do, so he went with his first instinct and hugged him tight.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm right here. You're okay, you're okay." Rocky consoled him. It didn't seem to help, though, because Zuma was just a mess. Rocky frowned as he continued to console Zuma, rubbing his back.

'What happened? When did anything change with him? That's the problem- if something was bothering Zuma, it'd be so hard to tell because he's so hard to read! He seemed normal, more or less! Except... after that mer-pup incident. But that wasn't so bad- sure, being a mer-pup was fun, and Zuma was so excited to be one, too! He was a bit shaken up when that ship almost killed us both, but he seemed to take it way better than me, than Ryder, than pretty much all of us! So what went wrong? Or maybe... maybe he was never okay...'

Rocky was getting frustrated- he couldn't seem to figure this one out! Maybe one of the others might know, but... how much would they really know? Heck, Rocky was his

"Zuma?" He'd been so deep in trying to figure out what changed within Zuma, he honestly hadn't noticed how long Zuma had been quietly sitting. Where Zuma's head rested against him was damp, or that might of been just the rain. Rocky felt Zuma's breathing on his wet fur, which made him shudder a little, and Zuma's chest was still rising and falling slowly against him.

"Zuma? You still awake?" In response, said pup shifted a little, indicating he was still quite awake.

"...ummhmmm…" The pup mumbled below him. Yeah, sleep was NOT an option right now. Not for a long while, honestly. But Rocky's fur felt nice against his cheek, and he was alive and whole and breathing and NOT DEAD-

"Listen, Zuma. Uh... well, the others are worried about you. I can stay here as long as you want, but..." Rocky sighed and stroked Zuma's head. Zuma was starting to feel a little heavy against him, but he wasn't sure if he was asleep or if he just felt scared and wanted to feel someone against him.

'I'm soaked to the bone! I guess it doesn't bother Zuma, him being a water rescue pup and all, but... ewww! I don't want to smell like TWO wet pups! Yuck!'

"But they want to know what happened. I want to know what happened. I just know it was a nightmare- can you tell me about it?"

Zuma shook his head no. "I... I don't... want to." he continued speaking in a soft, low voice. "C-Can you stay here instead? Please?"

"I can, but it's not fair to the others." Rocky explained. He sighed. "Please, Zuma. Just talk to me. Was it something scary?"

Zuma shook his head no again and pressed his head a little more against his shoulder. 'It's okay, Zuma. Wocky's wight here. You didn't fail, he's alive, he's alive, you and him are okay, evewyone's okay-'

For a while, Rocky didn't know what to do but let Zuma stay close to him. Zuma wasn't trying to talk about what had happened, or even hint at it. The eco pup listening to the rain pounding on Zuma's pup house roof and whimpered.

"It sure is coming down hard out there." Rocky commented, mostly to fill the quiet space and to distract himself from the stupid weather. Zuma closed his eyes and decided to ask Rocky a question that, up until now, had never crossed his mind.

"W-Wocky?"

"Hmm? Yeah?"

"How do you... deal with losing someone? Like a... a weally good fwiend?" Rocky wasn't sure why Zuma sounded so quiet and strained, but chalked it up to his heavy crying earlier.

"You mean, someone dying?" he clarified. Zuma nodded. Rocky blinked- no one has ever died in Adventure Bay! At least, not to his immediate knowledge.

'Maybe someone died in his nightmare, one of us? But what would make him dream of something so scary? We're all here and together, he saw that for himself! No one's come that close to death, ever! I'm so confused... Zuma... what happened to you to make you dream of something so scary?'

"Zuma...I don't... know. I don't think I've ever had to deal with it before... I don't think that any of us have before." He paused in thought for a minute, then asked:

"Is that what you're afraid of? Death or someone dying?"

Zuma whimpered; he didn't know what he was scared of, still didn't, but that nightmare was beginning to make sense. 'Maybe... maybe it's losing Wocky I'm afwaid of. Especially since I came so close to that happening. What kind of fear is that? I'm pawt of the PAW Patwol!'

And done! Originally, this was supposed to be a one shot, but with the idea shaping the way it was, I figured it would be best to split it into two. Besides, this chapter is PRETTY long in of itself.

Anyways, I hope you guys liked part one! Let me know what you think, constructive criticism, thoughts, comments, but no flames.

Until next chapter!