Well... it's been a while...

A lot of you probably thought I was done with writing, and that I would just leave this story unfinished and collect dust. Not going to lie, even I thought I was going to be done with writing. But I think all I needed was a break. I invested a lot of time into this site over the past few years and it started getting repetitive and almost not really fun anymore. But after a while I started to miss it and I knew I couldn't break my promise and leave this story unfinished. So here I am, back to give you a long awaited Chapter 6. As I've said before I am going to finish this story. Beyond that, I'm not too sure what I plan on doing, but regardless, I won't leave you guys in the dark like I did for the past few months. So I am very sorry for that.

Anyway, enough of me rambling.

In the previous chapter, Marshall came across a shocking discovery that may have lead them to a suspect. After consulting Sylvia, the two of them somewhat hesitantly devised a mischievous plan to try and find more information on this man. However, will their ploy work? Continue reading to find out ;)

**As it's been a while, it may be a good idea to reread some chapters and just refresh your memories on what's going on. I know I had to.. heh... Again, my apologies.*

"Hey Marshall," greeted Ryder as he exited the Lookout. It was the next day, and the boy caught the dalmatian just as he was pulling his fire truck out of his spot. "Where are you off to this early?"

It was half past eleven, and normally the pups and Ryder would never consider that to be an early time. However, sleep had been a struggle for the entire team over the past week, given their current situation, and the pups recently began waking up around noon.

"Oh, I'm just meeting up with Sylvia to—" Marshall paused, realizing Ryder wouldn't necessarily approve of their plan, "...talk about finding the man in the photo."

"Okay," nodded Ryder, "Let me know any progress you guys make. Hopefully it will be enough to revitalize the pups…"

"Sure thing, Ryder," promised Marshall, "I'm going to hunt this guy down if it's the last thing I do."

And so, the dalmatian pup headed off on his journey to Foggy Bottom, where he and Sylvia were planning to risk it all in an attempt to gain more information on this suspicious man. The dally wasn't worried about anything, nor was he having second thoughts about what they were going to do. His main priority was to obtain justice by punishing the man who brought so much pain upon the Paw Patrol, hopefully bringing peace among Chase's life as well. If achieving that meant trespassing on University property, then so be it.

Sylvia on the other hand was much more anxious about the whole situation. The german shepherd paced in circles outside of the police station, patiently awaiting Marshall's arrival. Sure, she wanted to arrest the man responsible for killing Chase's brother, but her job was one of the only things she had and she loved it. The last thing she wanted to do was throw it all away. At the same time though, she also wanted to rebel against her ignorant handler, showing him that pup lives aren't any less valuable than human lives.

In the midst of her thoughts, she saw Marshall round the corner of a nearby intersection. Sylvia let out a deep breath, mentally preparing for their plan, and then hopped into her police cruiser. The fire pup pulled up next to her just as the clock struck twelve.

"You ready?" he asked her.

Sylvia simply nodded in response, still somewhat ashamed that she was breaking the rules behind her authorities' back.

"Well then, lead the way!" requested Marshall who was motivated as ever to start investigating.

The two pups made their way down the main road of downtown Foggy Bottom. As they drove through the crowded streets, the gravity of this whole situation seemed to dawn onto Marshall. He looked left and right; all that was there were people, hundreds of them. How on Earth were they going to find one guy in such a densely populated city? However, the dally quickly brushed these thoughts aside. Remaining positive in a scenario like this was key to success, and the fire pup would do anything to fix the broken Paw Patrol.

After a few minutes of driving, the tall, brick-walled, university office building came into view and nerves began to run through the pups' veins. They didn't really know what to expect at this point; things could either go really swell or they could take a turn for the worst.

The pair parked about a block off site in an attempt to avoid drawing any attention towards them, and slowly walked up to the giant building. They almost pointlessly tried the front door, knowing it would be locked, and so it was.

"Shoot," cursed Marshall, "Now what are we supposed to do?"

"We can try one of the windows," Sylvia suggested, "We got a call from here once when a raccoon climbed into one of the windows and began causing a ruckus. Hopefully they didn't learn their lesson and left one open."

Marshall nodded and followed the police pup as they scaled the base of the building as unsuspiciously as they possibly could on a Saturday afternoon during closed hours. Once they reached the rear of the building and were out of the public's view, for the most part, they had found what they were looking for.

About four feet off the ground was a slightly open casement window, presumably ajar to allow a refreshing breeze to enter the hot, humid building.

"Jackpot," Sylvia smiled, indicating the open window to Marshall.

The dally fist-pumped and jogged over to their alternate entrance along with the german shepherd. Although they seemed to be blessed enough with a way inside the building, the height factor was still an issue.

"Okay, so I used to do a lot of training before I became Head Investigator, including jumping," explained Syl, "I should be able to make that jump alone. Do you want a boost?"

"Please and thank you," Marshall conceded, knowing that there was no way he would be able to jump that high.

Sylvia made her way to the base of the building and stood tall and firm, allowing Marshall to climb on top of her body and hoist himself up into the window, opening it even more. Despite the police pup trying to make it easy for him, the dally didn't fail to perform this task with his trademark clumsiness.

"Ouch! Watch your paws!" Sylvia groaned and held her snout, as Marshall forcefully stepped on it.

"Sorry!" the dalmatian apologized as he jumped through the window. However, the dally's entrance was followed by a series of crashes and the sound of things toppling over. The female german shepherd pup cringed at the loud, painful noises, but not long before Marshall spoke again.

"I'm okay," the dally informed as he shook himself off from the fall.

Moments later, the fire pup watched as the police pup gracefully leapt through the window and stuck the landing perfectly, not making a sound.

"Marshall! We're supposed to be being stealthy," Sylvia rolled her eyes.

"Heh, sorry…" he innocently shrugged, "I guess stealthiness isn't my strongest trait..."

The german shepherd chuckled slightly and waved him over.

"Alright, let's go and look around for clues," she ordered. "Who knows how much time we have."

The determined and obedient dalmatian listened, following his partner in crime into the hallway. As they entered the eerily silent wing, Marshall and Sylvia began to look for anything that could potentially be a lead, while also trying to cause the least amount of disturbance possible. Their journey down the lengthy halls was relatively uneventful until they reached the end. There stood the entrance to the library.

"Follow me," Syl instructed the dally as she entered the library, "I have an idea."

"If you say so," Marshall shrugged.

The police pup lead the dalmatian pup, walking past many long shelves of books dedicated to different genres. It was almost like a labyrinth in there.

"Horror, Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Non-Fiction…" Sylvia mumbled to herself as she scanned through the maze of books.

"Aha! School Relics!" she cheered.

"What's a relic?" Marshall cocked his head at the german shepherd.

"It's basically some historical object," Sylvia explained as she flipped through some of the books on the shelves.

"Well, why would we need to look at these?" Marshall continued to question.

Just as the dally finished his sentence, Sylvia pulled out just the book she was looking for, rendering a satisfied grin.

"For this!" she declared, holding up the book to show the fire pup. "Last semester's yearbook!"

"Ohhh," Marshall slowly began to catch on, "this way we can find his picture and name!"

"You bet!" the investigator pup smiled. "Hopefully we can find out some more information too."

"Wow," exclaimed an impressed dalmatian, "I can see why they made you Head Investigator."

"It's what I do," Sylvia replied with a smirk and a shrug.

As the pair began flipping through the pages, they soon reached the section of the book which displayed pictures of all the students attending the university, along with their full names. Last years graduates were placed first and they included a quote from each person. Judging by the picture that they had from their beach day, their suspect seemed old enough to fit into that category.

Starting from 'A', Marshall and Sylvia carefully analyzed the alphabetically ordered photos, keeping their eyes out for one person in particular. It wasn't until they got down to the 'M's when they hit the jackpot.

"There!" Marshall shouted, instantly reacting once spotting the familiar face.

"SHHH!" Sylvia put a paw to her mouth, reiterating that they were supposed to be as stealthy as possible. The dalmatian pup mouthed an innocent apology as they looked back towards the page.

"Cliff Meyers," the german shepherd mumbled to herself, "interesting."

"Look at his quote," Marshall directed her attention, "It says, 'Soccer is life.' "

"Hmmm," Sylvia rubbed her paw on her chin, "let's look at the sports section! Maybe he's in there too."

"Good call," complemented Marshall.

Unfortunately, as they flipped through that section, specifically the soccer related pages, their lucked turned sour. This 'Cliff' guy was nowhere to be seen.

"Darn it," cursed Sylvia, "I guess he's just a fan."

"Oh well, at least we know his name... and that he likes soccer," Marshall shrugged. "Where should we look next?"

"Ehh, I'm not sure we'll find any more information on him to be honest," the german shepherd spoke truthfully, "Besides, I don't want to overstay our visit here and get caught."

"Yeah, you have a good point," agreed Marshall.

"I'm going to take this though," she said as she closed the yearbook, "it might be important to have."

"You're going to… s-steal it?" Marshall stuttered, as he was somewhat and rightfully uncomfortable with the idea of taking part in theft.

"Technically… no," answered Syl. "It's in a library, so it's considered a library book. We're just… checking it out for a little bit and then I'll pop it in the return box when we're done with it."

"Well… I can't really argue with that," the dally chuckled, "Besides, I can get behind anything to help find this culprit and lock him up for good. Especially if it means helping Chase."

"Exactly," agreed Sylvia, "Now, let's get out of here!"

Without hesitation, the shepherd and dalmatian jogged back to the room where they entered, still remaining as silent as possible. Once they reached the window, however, Sylvia stopped dead in her tracks, causing Marshall bump into her.

"Hey! What's the big idea?" questioned Marshall with a perplexed look on his face.

"Do you hear that?" she whispered back to him, perking her ears. "Listen."

The fire pup obeyed and stood there quietly, attempting to detect whatever noise his partner-in-crime was hearing. She was right. There was a constant, faint buzzing sound that could barely be heard in the background, almost sounding like some kind of motor. It not only struck a sense of confusion between the two pups, but also a sense of worry.

"What is that?" the dally asked.

"I'm not sure…" Sylvia pondered, "Do you think it's coming from somewhere inside the building?"

"I don't want to wait to find out," Marshall voiced, not wanting to get caught for sneaking into the University.

The german shepherd nodded in agreement as they both hopped up onto a desk that was against the wall. Right in front of them was the open window; their escape route. The trespassing pups victoriously leaped out of the window and tumbled onto the ground, successfully completing their mission. However, they weren't just finished yet.

As Marshall and Sylvia hit the grass, the buzzing sound amplified, forcing looks of dread upon both of them. Simultaneously, the pups turned to their right only to see what must have been the groundskeeper mowing the University's lawn.

"Uh-oh…" they gulped.

The dally and shepherd got up as fast as they could, trying to make a hasty exit, but not before the groundskeeper could spot them. He quickly turned off the lawnmower and ripped off his earmuffs, allowing enough silence for his shouts to be audible.

"Hey! What were you two doing in there!?" he yelled.

Unsure of what to do, Marshall and Sylvia looked at each other, and then bolted in the direction opposite of the groundskeeper. They could hear the man's running footsteps follow behind them, but luckily they were getting fainter the further they travelled. The pups' running and stamina drills that they practiced in training seemed to come in handy after all.

The dalmatian briefly looked back toward the University as they rounded the corner to the street they parked on, to see the man standing still on the front lawn, hips on hands.

"I think we're safe for now," Marshall said, panting, as he and the police pup started to slow down.

"Thank God," Sylvia sighed in relief, "That was a close one."

"You still have the yearbook?" asked the dally.

"In mint condition," the shepherd grinned.

"Perfect," he smiled back. "Do you think this is strong enough lead? Like, should I inform the rest of the Paw Patrol?"

"Well…" the police pup pondered, "..we can inform them of what we've found so far, but I'd wait for them to actually get involved. It's still relatively early, and we still technically don't know if this guy is guilty."

"Fair enough," compiled Marshall. "Let's take it to them now, before that groundskeeper comes back."

"Good call," nodded Sylvia.

With no hesitation, the duo hopped into their respective cars and zoomed out of that neighbourhood, determined to solve this case as quickly as possible.

Ryder gently rubbed his hand through a certain cockapoo's soft fur, as the troubled pup lay on her owner's lap, sobbing. The two of them, along with Rocky who was on the other side of the couch, simply sat together in the lounging area, attempting to cheer up the flying pup.

Throughout the past two weeks, the boy had gotten used to comforting his pups in this sort of manner, as it was a common occurrence that they would come to him in distress. Days went by and slowly, most of the pups came to terms with the situation and were eventually able to contain themselves.

However, apart from Chase himself, who rather displayed depression as opposed to tears, Skye seemed to be the only one left who couldn't accept what had happened. At this point, it wasn't even Swift's death that was causing her so much grief. They all loved Swift, despite only meeting him briefly, and they would mourn his death forever. But the aviation pup was now mostly upset about Chase's new behaviour.

All these years of adoring everything the german shepherd did, whether it was looking up to him or drooling over him, in the end it all led to nothing. Those brave, talented, athletic traits that he always presented were seemingly gone. In addition, she couldn't enjoy the fact that they had finally opened up to each other because the police pup no longer showed any emotion, not even sadness. He still loved her very, very much but simply couldn't show it due to this plague of depression constantly surrounding him.

Skye was even more worried for Chase's sake, which was the reason for Rocky being present with them too. While the cockapoo was much more emotional and in need of comfort when coming to Ryder, the mixed breed tagged along as a voice of reason. He wanted to inform their owner of this worrying, depressing behaviour since he was also very concerned for the shepherd's health, as were all the pups.

No sooner after Skye started crying, she began venting.

"...I just can't stand seeing him like this," she sniffed, wiping tears from her eyes. "I get that he's going to need a lot more time to recover from this than us, but it just seems like things are just getting worse and worse…"

Ryder continued stroking the crying pup's back as he shot a glance over to his environmental pup. Rocky exchanged a very concerned look, even giving Ryder a nod to confirm Skye's claims.

"I don't want him to be depressed forever…" she continued sobbing, "...I miss the old Chase. The one that wasn't afraid of anything… the one that encouraged all of us to do our best… the one that could always put a smile on our faces... "

"I miss the Chase I fell in love with..."

With that statement, the cockapoo went into a deeper cry as Ryder pulled her into a hug, which Rocky quickly joined. The two males continued to hold the cockapoo tight, as she let her emotions rain down upon them.

Although Skye may have lost the pup that meant the most to her, she sure was glad to have the others to comfort her when she needed them most.

Moments went by of the two pups and Ryder embracing each other, and eventually the aviation pup began to calm down. The trio were still in the middle of group hug when they were interrupted by the smooth, glossy opening of the Lookout's sliding glass doors.

In came Marshall and Sylvia, seemingly more motivated and vibrant than usual. The latter pup had something in her mouth, causing Ryder to get his hopes up. The mysterious book held in the shepherd's jaws along with their positive vibes gave the boy the impression that good news was to come.

The trio's hug ended prematurely as Rocked cocked his head slightly and Skye stopped crying. Marshall and Sylvia hopped up onto the couch with their tails wagging as the police pup spat out the book in front of them.

Minding the dog slobber, Ryder picked it up and read the title out loud.

"Foggy Bottom University Yearbook 2015," he gave a perplexed look. "What about it?"

Skye and Rocky also exchanged confused looks as their owner questioned the pups.

"Go to the graduate pictures," instructed Sylvia, "Last names beginning with 'M'. You may see someone.. familiar."

Ryder opened up the book, finding their beach day picture lodged in there between the pages. Slightly puzzled at first, the boy began scanning over each grad picture, looking for someone he would apparently recognize. And to his surprise, the female german shepherd was correct.

"Oh my gosh!" Ryder gasped.

This caused the other two pups to become concerned.

"What is it, Ryder?" asked Rocky as he and Skye got up to look at the picture.

"This guy, Cliff Meyers," he read, "he's the man in the back of our beach day picture… the one staring at Chase."

"Precisely," Sylvia confirmed.

"Now we have a lead to build off of," Marshall enthusiastically grinned, relieved that they were finally getting somewhere with this case.

"So... he's the one who… you know..." Rocky's voice trailed off, not wanting to finish the disturbing sentence. The other pups understood him anyway.

"We can't be sure yet," the female police pup informed them, "Marshall and I are going to do a bit more detective work before we fully commit ourselves to this guy."

"Smart thinking pups," Ryder complimented, "you guys have done a pretty good job so far by the looks of things."

The two pups blushed at Ryder's praise but the mood was soon switched as the boy read the small writing on the cover of the yearbook.

Property of Foggy Bottom University.

"Speaking of detective work, how did you guys exactly get a hold of this?" the boy raised an eyebrow at the pups.

The dalmatian and shepherd both looked at each other in a slight panic. They didn't quite expect nor prepare for this to happen.

Luckily for Marshall and Sylvia, the sliding noise of the Lookout doors interrupted the conversation again. However, it was the pup they least expected who walked through the doors and was headed towards them. Of all times for him to come in and visit with the other's, it just had to be now, at the worst possible time. Every person in the room held their breath as they directed their attention to Chase and welcomed him into the room.

"Hey Chase! How's it going buddy?" Ryder cheerfully greeted.

The German Shepherd simply kept his straight, emotionless face and shrugged; not quite the response everyone was hoping for.

Almost instantly, Chase darted an intimidating look towards Marshall and abruptly changed the subject.

"So, is he the guy?" He bluntly questioned.

Despite the vagueness in Chase's question, Marshall knew exactly what he meant; he was referring to the man in the photo which the dally previously inquired about. But that didn't stop Marshall from playing dumb. He, along with the others, didn't want to get the shepherd's hopes up and potentially cause him more grief. Plus, keeping Chase caught up in this situation was only making him worse.

"Heh, what are you talkin' about?" The fire pup nervously chuckled.

All Chase did was raise an eyebrow, and Marshall knew he was onto him. The police pup was no dummy. He caught a whiff of Sylvia's scent as she walked by the pup houses when she arrived and he knew exactly why she was here. Hence the German shepherd was stood in front of all of them wanting answers.

"Oh, right, the man in the photo," Marshall pretended to realize, "well, uh..."

"We don't know yet," Sylvia intervened, "all we have is the picture of your guys' beach day."

On cue with Sylvia's lie, although Marshall hated lyingl, he stepped over the university yearbook he had to try and keep it hidden. Unfortunately, Chase noticed this and was beginning to catch on.

"Whatcha got there Marshall?" Chase intimidatingly asked.

Once again, Marshall was at a loss for what to say. His brain was telling him to do one thing, which was to lie and divert Chase's attention away from it, but his heart was telling him to be truthful to his best friend.

How could something feel so wrong but so right at the same time? The Dalmatian pup thought to himself as his face went red. As a result, Marshall did what he is best at: stalling.

"Oh... this old thing?" He attempted to buy time, "ehhh it's nothing..."

"Can I see it then?" Chase asked, almost demandingly.

Suddenly, Sylvia interrupted once again.

"Chase, I know you want to see, but we can't really have anybody tampering with the evidence," she explained, "besides, as a family member, anything that you involve yourself with regarding Swift's case can be dismissible in court. You know that."

"Yeah Chase," Marshall chimed in, "It's probably for the best."

"I just wanna see it..." Chase continued on innocently, still displaying little to no emotion, "...he was my brother."

For the third time, Marshall didn't know what to say, and this time even Sylvia was stumped. The police pup played the emotional card. All of the other pups exchanged unsure looks as an awkward silence was left in the air after the German shepherd's statement.

With seemingly nothing else to give, the fire pup hung his head and sighed as he handed over the yearbook to Chase.

The others lowered their heads in defeat as well, disappointed but also cognizant of the fact that they would've done the same thing if they were in Marshall's paws. With nothing left to lose, they all just quietly watched Chase.

The German Shepherd opened the book directly onto the bookmarked page that contained Cliff's graduation picture. He analyzed the beach day photo and the dozens of pictures, slowly putting together all the pieces that Marshal and Sylvia had done before.

Looking at the man, who he now knew the name of, was beginning to get to the police pup. Anger caused him to clench his paws, slightly crumbling the paper pages. However, Chase contained it for the most part, before it turned to sadness which was evident by the tears he refused to let flow from his eyes.

Everybody else in the room expected him to break down in front of them and they were ready to be comforting. But instead, the shepherd swallowed hard and held it in, producing a cold glare towards the rest.

"Just find him..." Chase faintly growled, "...and punish him for what he did.

"Make him suffer."

With that, Chase tossed the book back to Marshall and headed out of the Lookout and towards his pup house.

That was a side of Chase that the Paw Patrol had never seen, and it's what they were fearing. They were all left shell shocked in another period of silence, as everybody processed what just happened.

Getting involved and mixed up in this whole situation was ruining the police pup bit by bit. Of course they agreed with him, in the sense that Cliff should be properly punished, but the way Chase put it was just so merciless and unlike him to say the least.

For a certain pup, it was too much to handle. As the Lookout doors shut, leaving Chase behind, Skye looked down and began lightly sobbing once again. Rocky quickly walked over and gave her a friendly hug.

"He's completely broken," the cockapoo wept, "not even you can fix him, Rocky. And you can fix everything."

"Well I'm flattered," Rocky chuckled, trying to lighten the mood.

"But I'm worried too, he's gone beyond depressed," the mixed breed added a serious note, "it's getting worse and worse."

"I know it looks bad pups, but there's a solution to everything," Ryder tried to encourage his pups, as it was his job.

"Yeah, I know the real Chase is deep down there somewhere," Marshall tried to motivate them.

"I think there's only one thing that can fix him," Sylvia proposed, "and that's to find this Cliff guy."

"Please do it!" Skye begged with tears in her eyes. "I want— ...I need the old Chase back."

"Yeah you two," Ryder directed his attention to Marshall and Sylvia, "You've done an excellent job so far."

The two pups blushed at the compliment. Praise coming from such a smart and handy guy like Ryder was something to be very proud of, and it added extra motivation.

"This is far from over yet," informed Sylvia, "But we'll do everything we can."

"We will restore Chase back to his old self if it's the last thing we do," Marshall declared, "I promise."

The female police pup nodded in agreement and gave a friendly smile that was contagious to everyone, even Skye.

With Marshall and Sylvia's detective work, along with everyone else's love and support, they truly believed that they could find the man responsible and bring back the confident, happy, german shepherd that left them a week ago.

Success! Not only did Marshall and Syl not get caught, but their plan was actually worth-wile and got them some valuable information. What they do next with it, however, will be interesting to see.

Disclaimer: It's exam season for Uni, so probably don't expect me to upload much (or at all) until Christmas break. During that break I will grind and try to get as much done as possible and then regularly upload chapters. Bare with me lol, school is pretty rough, as you can imagine.

~SwarmX