A/N: I never intended to write not only one, but two Pixane mysteries in a row, but apparently I couldn't stop myself … Compared to the (mostly) light-hearted Operation Frogspawn, this adventure forces the ninja to deal with suspense and angst from the beginning, making for a somewhat different tone overall. Proceed with care if you're sensitive to topics like loss and grief; you're in for an emotional rollercoaster with this fic. But I always write happy endings, and we'll be back in pre-Seabound canon at the end.


"You stupid android girl! I've given my word not to harm you, but you make it almost impossible to keep that promise."

The electric shock hit Pixal square in the chest. It knocked her back, made her stumble and slump to the ground. Her arms and legs became limp as her circuits failed one after the other.

Everything went dark.


"I can't believe they found out now. I mean, like, one and a half years later." Jay tapped on the newspaper he was flicking through.

"What do you mean?" Nya raised her head and absently rubbed her nose, smearing her face with black machine oil. The engine component she was working on stood on another section of the newspaper.

"An ancient dagger has disappeared from the collection of the Ninjago Museum of History."

"Really?" Nya put down her wrench and scooted over to look at the paper.

Cole quickly snatched his cookie from the table where the wrench had ended up.

"Nya! Do you really have to do this kind of work in the living room and put your tools on the coffee table?" he asked with a grimace. "Grease on my cookies is disgusting."

"It's freezing cold and we only switched on the heating at the hangar this morning," Nya retorted. "I don't want grease on my bedsheets, either, therefore I'm working here."

She turned to Jay, indicating that she considered the question of her workplace settled.

"Was it stolen?" she asked.

"Unclear," Jay replied, frowning. "The museum authorities published a statement saying that during the time when the Sons of Garmadon controlled Ninjago City, many items were transported to a depository outside the city. There's only a small part of the collection on public display anyway, and they wanted to protect the rest from the criminal gangs looting the city at the time. It all happened in a rush, and nobody seems to have double-checked the inventory afterwards. At any rate, the dagger isn't there anymore, and it probably hasn't been for many months."

He shook his head. "There's even a short interview with the minister of foreign affairs, who goes on about how we must protect the country from foreign agents infiltrating criminal gangs in Ninjago and pursuing their agenda by corrupting our national treasures and …" he skimmed through the article "… a lot of stuff that I don't care to read right now."

"Foreign agents? Infiltrating gangs in Ninjago?" Cole raised his eyebrows sarcastically. "That lady talks pretty big. I mean, Ninjago is at peace, except for the occasional snake guy or other mad villain, and we usually take care of those. But the Sons of Garmadon …" he rolled his eyes. "She obviously has no clue about them, or else she'd know that they certainly had nothing to do with 'foreign agents' whatsoever. But I guess she wasn't in office yet at that time."

"Corrupting national treasures," Jay wondered. "What's that even supposed to mean?"

"It's all utter nonsense!" Nya chimed in. "She just loves publicity. She's totally inexperienced, but has been elected for her good looks and now tries to sharpen her profile, as they say. Since she hasn't yet achieved anything worth mentioning, she resorts to giving interviews and rambles on about how she – she of all people – will make Ninjago a safer place. I doubt she's ever been in a dangerous situation herself, let alone has dealt with a criminal. That's what they call politics," she ended, sounding disgusted.

Jay gave her a surprised glance. Nya's outburst provided an unexpected insight into her notion of how the government worked, and he wondered what had prompted it. Was it her secret disappointment at the fact that the only youngish woman in the administration had turned out to be as bigheaded and boastful as her male colleagues? He didn't usually talk much about politics with Nya, but that must be it. She'd never had much patience with people who preferred idle talk over actions.

Nya had, in the meantime, started to peruse the article by herself.

"National treasures!" she exclaimed exasperatedly. "That dagger wasn't even from Ninjago. It belonged to a set of Shintaran ceremonial weapons. If anyone has a right to complain that their national treasures weren't taken care of, it's the sky folk!" she huffed and glanced at the newspaper again.

"Those weapons were brought here hundreds of years ago, at a time when there was more contact between our countries than today. They supposedly were a gift from the King of Shintaro to the Empress of Ninjago."

Nya looked up, apparently diverted from her anger about the minister by a new thought. "This would explain why someone remembered that dagger now and had the idea to look for it at the depository. That huge exhibition of Shintaran works of art, ancient and contemporary, is opening next week. When Lloyd and Kai went on errands to the city today, they said they'd meet Misako at the museum. She's supervising the final preparations."

"The Sensei's there, too," Jay recalled. "Remember how he had no interest in traveling to Shintaro with us at first? Now he just can't get enough of Shintaran art. He was so eager to see the exhibition before it even opens that he accompanied Misako and will stay in the city all week."

Cole rose from his seat and stood behind Jay to peer over his shoulder. There was a picture in the paper, the picture of a small dagger with handsome decorations, nothing too opulent; but the top of the handle was formed by a large, oddly shaped, cream-colored gemstone unlike any sort that would have been used for this kind of precious weapon in Ninjago.

"Interesting," he mused.

He looked as if he was going to say something more, but was interrupted by the door opening with a bang.

"Whoa, it's freezing outside," Lloyd exclaimed and rubbed his hands together.

Kai appeared right behind him. "Yeah, you're right. Can't stand that cold, either."

He looked in the round.

"Anyone mind if I light the fireplace?"

"No, 'course not," Cole replied. "As long as that's the only thing you set on fire ..."

Kai pulled a face and turned towards the fireplace, and a crackling fire soon warmed the room up.

Lloyd dropped down on the sofa. "Much better."

"Zane would overheat within ten minutes," Jay grinned and took off the sweater he was wearing over his T-shirt. "But he isn't here. So, no complaints."

"Speaking of which, did anyone hear from Zane?" Cole asked. "It's been three days since he set out with Pixal to see her father."

"Yeah, and exactly on that day, there was that theft from the imperial jewel collection," Jay added. "As far as I understood Zane's brief message, he and Pixal happened to be nearby and decided to investigate instead of returning to the monastery as planned. Since then, no news." He looked up. "It worries me a bit, to be honest."

"Oh, but Zane did call today," Kai interjected. "I just couldn't answer the phone, because we were in the middle of a conversation with Lloyd's mother."

Nya grinned. "Didn't know you had learned to be polite."

Kai raised an eyebrow. "I always am. Anyway, he left a voice mail saying that they'd need to go undercover." He shrugged. "We should be prepared for not hearing from them for another few days, because they don't want the signal to be intercepted and their location discovered."

Nya hummed. "Can't wait to hear what they find out. It was a brilliant coup. Can you believe someone managed to break into the palace, stole a valuable necklace and disappeared without leaving a trace? It's supposed to be the best guarded place in Ninjago."

"But why did they only take a single item?" Lloyd wondered. "There must have been so much more worth taking if they already got that far."

"Well, it would have made the coup more risky," Jay explained. "More stuff to carry away and hide. I don't know, it looks like a contract theft to me, for a private collector perhaps. 'Cause whoever has got that necklace now can't sell it anyway. The pictures were all over the news. They'll have to hide it well until the dust has settled. I reckon we won't see anything of it for years – unless Zane and Pixal are successful on their mission."

"Is there anything else on the news today?" Lloyd asked with a glance at Jay's paper.

"Some animals going haywire," Jay snickered. "A moose taking a bath in the large fountain on the city square and nibbling at the icicles. And a flock of hummingbirds giving a garbage man the fright of his life when they suddenly flew out of a dumpster."

"Hummingbirds?" Lloyd said aghast. "But ... there are no wild hummingbirds in this region. They will freeze to death at this time of the year."

"There's a picture in the paper," Nya pointed out. "They do look alive. Very much so."

"Odd," Cole remarked. "Where would they come from? There's no zoo in Ninjago City."

"Nope," Jay agreed. "But I recall having heard about some sort of wildlife sanctuary on that peninsula several miles north of the harbor. It's private, and the owner shuns publicity, so no one has really been there. But they're supposed to keep all kinds of exotic animals there."

"Do you think those gerbils your mother talked about escaped from there, too?" Kai asked Lloyd with a grin.

Lloyd rolled his eyes and looked a bit embarrassed. "Yeah, sorry about that, Kai. My mother is no zoologist. I have no idea why she insisted on telling us at length about those two 'gerbils' she saw in the museum the other day. I'm sure they were just ..." He shrugged. "Common mice, perhaps. Or rats. But she was adamant that they were a non-native species and not supposed to be there at all."

"Well, if she really saw them in the museum, she has a point, no?" Jay interjected. "I wouldn't expect to see mice running around the exhibits, either."

"That's true," Lloyd admitted. "And it was probably why she got so upset about it in the first place. She was extremely worried about those Shintaran scrolls, even though they're behind glass anyway."

"Reminds me that it's my turn this week to make sure the gate is bolted for the night." Jay got up. "We don't want a moose invasion, do we," he added and left with a snicker.

The chilly air almost took his breath when he stepped out into the courtyard. It was a cold, starlit night, and he really should have put on a warmer jacket! He'd better get inside again soon, back to the warmth of the fire and the laughter and chatter of his friends.

Burying his hands in his pockets and keeping his head down, Jay walked briskly towards the front door. Only the scrunching of his steps on the frozen ground was heard.

Until, suddenly, there was another sound above him.

Jay's ninja senses immediately went into alarm mode. He raised his head and peered into the darkness. There was a rustle on the roof to his right, then the sound of something being dragged along. Then, everything went quiet again.

Jay felt his heart thumping in his throat. Slowly, he turned to face in the direction where he had heard the noise. His muscles were tense. For a moment, he could not discern anything unusual. Then, he became aware of the large shadow on the rooftop. It was so large that he had thought it to be a cloud at first, a cloud that occluded the stars behind. But the more his eyes adjusted to the darkness, the more obvious it became that the shadow was far too solid for a cloud. Something big, something huge was sitting motionless on the roof of the monastery. And while Jay stared at it, whatever it was, he became aware that it was staring back. Two bright round spots, two spots that could only be eyes, were focused on him.

Jay stood rooted to the ground, his heart racing. He was a ninja, he was an elemental master, and he knew very well how to take care of himself. Yet he would have very much preferred to see his opponent clearly.

On the other hand, the shadow on the roof didn't seem to prepare for an attack. Maybe he should talk to it and find out what it was? Jay felt a nervous chuckle escaping his throat; as if he would likely get an answer!

He hesitated for a few more moments, torn between approaching the shadow in the darkness on his own and returning inside to ask one of the other ninja to join him. Just when he remembered that there must be a torch light lying next to the gate, which would have given him a third option, the shadow moved. It spread what looked like a giant pair of wings and gently soared off the roof, away from Jay.

Jay blinked. Was he imagining things? He slowly continued his way to the gate, every few seconds glancing back at the roof and up at the night sky. Nothing. By the time he had secured the bolt, made his way back over the courtyard and stepped inside, the whole affair seemed so fantastic that he wondered whether that huge, flying shadow watching him from the rooftop of the monastery had been real at all.


Pixal had no idea what had happened to her. She must have been inactivated for at least half a day – or one and a half day, or two and a half days – because it was night.

Or was it, really?

Something was wrong with her vision.

She suddenly recalled the last moments before she had been shut down. That woman!

That young engineer, hardly older than the ninja, with her amazing technical skills and incredible knowledge about robotics. She should have worked at Borg Industries, Pixal thought bitterly, and used her skills for a good cause. But no, she had chosen to become a criminal. And she had captured Zane. He had disappeared in her workshop, and when Pixal stormed in, unawares of whom she would have to face, the woman had not been surprised at all. She knew far too much about androids. She owned all sorts of remote controls. She had been able to paralyze Pixal in a matter of seconds.

Thereafter, she had started to talk, nicely and sweetly, offered to tell her where Zane was, in return for – well, for what, actually?

Pixal couldn't remember, because at that moment, she had been able to boot an override program, a short bit of code that allowed her to regain some basic functionality of her limbs, although it would make her a bit clumsy ... but it didn't matter, because Zane was held captive somewhere here, and Pixal was not one to negotiate as long as she had other options. She could do this, she had to stop that woman at all costs. She hurled herself at her, furious and desperate, and …

… in vain.

This time, the other had not hesitated.

"You stupid android girl! I've given my word not to harm you, but you make it almost impossible to keep that promise." Cursing loudly, she had shocked Pixal once again. "Who would have thought an AI could be so passionate! But Borg's emotion control systems always had their flaws."

This time, she had shut Pixal down completely.

That was what you got for being an AI with feelings.

Pixal shifted slightly. She was alone. Her body felt odd. She was lying behind the bars of what looked like a prison cell, but when she raised her head, she could see that the door was open. She decided to get up and investigate, but her limbs seemed to malfunction.

Something was wrong with her arms and legs.

She glanced down at herself.

Oh, no.

This must be a new sort of nightmare. One that didn't involve losing Zane for once, but losing herself.

No, seriously, this couldn't be real.

Or was it?