Zane wondered, not for the first time in the past few days, if he could somehow have made that encounter on the peninsula play out differently. He had simulated various scenarios, starting with the moment when he and Pixal split up, but in none of them they would have stood much of a chance. All those simulations were pointless anyway, he reminded himself, because the past could not be changed. Wise words: their Sensei had repeated them more than once. They could only strive not to repeat their mistakes in the future.

The decision to separate had been the first of those mistakes. Zane had approached the modest shed, which he assumed to be a workshop, on his own. It looked deserted, and he had curiously opened the door.

That had been the second mistake.

The moment he stepped over the threshold, he felt an invisible net tightening around him. A human might not have noticed it, but Zane knew instantly that he was trapped in some sort of electromagnetic cage. He could still receive sensory signals, but his movements were confined to a very limited space. His limbs felt heavy. No chance to get out his shurikens, either.

Ice Powers? Negative.

There was no vengestone to be seen, but the electric field somehow interfered with his ability to control his powers, and he didn't want to take the risk and harm himself. The force around him was so strong that it could levitate him! He was lifted up into the air and set down in front of a workbench in the back of the room.

"Welcome, android."

The young woman behind the bench swiveled around in her chair. She held a soldering rod in her hand; the table in front of her was covered with blueprints and electronic parts, but that was not all: there lay pieces of fur in various colors from brown to gray, four little animal legs were lined up neatly next to a tawny tail, and the head of a mouse-like rodent, separated from its body, stared with empty eyes at the captured nindroid.

Zane stared back at the head, unbelieving. This was the last thing he had expected, and yet it made immediately sense. He had once had a robotic falcon friend himself. He would, however, never have thought of employing it for criminal purposes.

The nindroid looked again at the woman, who didn't seem to fit into any category of villain the ninja had fought before. She could be no more than a few years older than Kai or Cole. The curly hair that framed her lightly tanned face was jet black, with a single copper-colored streak falling into her forehead. The color of her eyes oscillated between dark gray and blue, like the sea under the clouds of a heavy thunderstorm.

Unable to move his limbs, Zane realized with relief that at least his voice box was still functional.

"Who are you?"

"You may call me Joan." The woman gave a little laugh. "A nod to Dr. John Dolittle, you know? They told me stories about him when I was a kid. I've always loved animals."

She leaned back in her chair. "My real name doesn't matter."

Zane tried to take a step towards her, but his attempt was thwarted by the invisible cage around him.

Joan shook her head. "Oh, no. You will play by my rules for the time being."

"Why do you think I'll be content with that?" he growled and glanced around, taking in as many details as he could about her and the workshop. There must be a way to free himself if he only could gain time.

"Because I believe that you are rather attached to her."

She turned the large screen on her desk for him to see. The shock went straight to his core. Pixal! The whole estate must be equipped with cameras, which had recorded every movement of the two nindroids since the moment when they had climbed over the fence.

"We'll deal with her later. Right now," Joan casually glanced at the screen, "she doesn't do much harm. I will prepare an appropriate reception for her. And no," she gave Zane a quick glance, "you won't warn her. None of your signals can be transmitted beyond the walls of this room."

Zane looked at the ground, forcing himself to remain calm and trying to slow down the incessant stream of alarm signals that raced through his nerve circuits. They had been blindsided. Whatever he did now, Pixal would have to pay for it as soon as that woman managed to lay her hands on her. The only thing he could do was to gather as much information as possible – and hope that Pixal would somehow, miraculously, be able to escape the trap that was being set up for her.

The young woman's voice startled him from his thoughts.

"Where are the others?" she asked sharply. "Your ninja team."

He hesitated for a split second. Should he try to gamble? It could be dangerous to reveal the vulnerable position he and Pixal were in, but everything else was ... not the truth.

"We came alone," he admitted.

"And why should I believe you?"

He couldn't help giving a dry laugh. "Because I have trouble telling you anything but the truth."

She pressed a button on a control panel he hadn't noticed before, and for a moment, he felt an odd tickle run through his body. First Master, she had probably connected his circuits to a lie detector anyway! Cooperating was his best option right now.

The outcome of her little test seemed to please her. "Great. I always knew that AIs are easier to deal with than humans." She tilted her head and smirked at him. "You know, an advanced droid like you, who is unable to tell lies, comes in really handy right now."

He didn't know what she meant by this; he probably didn't want to know. But as long as he wasn't in immediate danger, he could as well try and make her talk.

"Where is the necklace?" he asked. "Why did you go to such lengths to steal it? There must be more valuable jewelry in Ninjago. A heist from the palace was unnecessarily risky."

"You see, that's exactly where you can be of use to me," Joan replied. "I wonder why it had to be this particular piece, too. I have no interest in jewelry, but I agreed that my animals occasionally execute someone else's orders. In return, I am allowed to live and work here and got," she waved a hand around, "all of this. I also thought I got ..." she glanced out of the window, and her expression suddenly became softer. Or was it only an illusion, produced by the dim, gray light outside?

She didn't complete the sentence. Zane had no time to think about the matter, because she immediately pulled herself up and opened a drawer.

"Here," she said abruptly and placed the necklace on the table. Then she produced a second item; an old ceremonial dagger with a cream-colored gemstone on the handle. Zane bent forward to inspect it, but was forced to stay back due to the cage that held him.

"Oh, yes," the young woman glanced up with an amused smile. "My apologies. Come closer!"

She let him approach just enough that he could examine the two artifacts.

"Scan them for me, please. You know where the necklace comes from. I have no idea how the dagger got onto the peninsula; it must have been here for a while, and I had nothing to do with it. But I noticed that the stone on the dagger and the center piece of the necklace are almost identical. I want to know everything you can tell me about them."

Zane gave her a surprised glance. Was she really asking him, and politely at that, to identify stolen goods for her? He was unable to make heads nor tails of the situation, but they both knew that he had little choice and wouldn't be able to deceive her.

Besides, curiosity was getting the better of him.

He focused on the two jeweled pieces. "These are no common gemstones," he began. "They are only found in the mountains of a kingdom far away from here. Shintaro."

She nodded. "That much I already guessed myself. These artifacts were crafted in Shintaro."

"The stones are extremely similar," Zane agreed. "Could you turn them a little bit for me?"

She obliged, and he nodded. "It seems like they were once part of one larger stone. Can you see the dark vein that runs through both of them? If you hold the stones next to each other, the vein connects."

Joan did as he suggested and looked thoughtfully at the stones in her hand. Together, they formed what looked like half of an even larger stone.

"Two more pieces and it will be complete," she said more to herself than to the nindroid. "You are confirming my suspicion. The old legend seems to be true, then."

Zane's processor whirred. An old legend from Shintaro, involving a gemstone ...

She noticed his confusion. "Ah, that story is unlikely to be in your library. If I had not seen that book on a certain bedside table, I would never have known about it."

He glanced at her. What book was she talking about? Whose book?

"What do you know about Shintaro?" Joan asked suddenly. "They say that you and your ninja friends were there at the time when the king was overthrown and his daughter claimed the throne."

Zane looked at the woman in mild surprise. "Is this what people in Ninjago think? That Queen Vania dethroned her father and wrongfully assumed power?"

She gave a shrug. "I don't know what other people think. The news only reported the dry facts that the king was removed from power and his daughter was crowned the new queen. I have been told a few things, but I'm starting to have doubts that my source is ... entirely reliable."

Her lips curled slightly into an expression of scornfulness.

Zane hummed. He didn't really have time for a discussion of Shintaran politics, but he couldn't let Joan's misconception go unchallenged.

"I am afraid the information you received is incomplete and far from the truth. King Vangelis was revealed to be an evil sorcerer, who with the help of an ancient magic skull enslaved two tribes dwelling under the mountains of Shintaro. He forced them to work for him. His daughter, a very courageous young lady, helped discover his unlawful and immoral activities and set an end to them. The king has been punished for his deeds, and Vania reunited the different people in Shintaro. I am convinced that she will become a wise and kind ruler."

Joan gave him a long look. Her expression was inscrutable.

"I believe you, android," she said eventually. "I know you cannot and have no reason to lie. Someone else, however …"

Somewhere below her calm facade, Zane sensed a hint of sadness and ... anger. Yes, that was it: suppressed anger, which seemed to grow stronger with every moment. Her fingers absently tapped on the windowsill while she stared into the gray afternoon.

When she suddenly hissed and uttered a string of curses, Zane was nevertheless surprised by her outburst.

She quickly checked herself and turned round. Zane could tell that she had come to a decision. Her features had hardened.

"Listen to me, android. This isn't about a shady lover of antiquities who wishes to add to their collection of rare artifacts. And this isn't about the repatriation of cultural property, which the authorities of Ninjago have failed to hand back to King Vangelis of the sky folk, as I was led to believe. The stones on these artifacts," she gestured at the dagger and the necklace, "hold a power much greater than you are aware. They are part of the ancient dragon gem – a gem that controls the dragons of Shintaro. Can you imagine what this means? No wonder King Vangelis was so keen to recreate the gem. His undercover agent has been working for years on a scheme to track down and retrieve the pieces that were located in Ninjago."

Zane raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Vangelis was behind this? But as you mentioned yourself, he has been removed from power months ago. He cannot have ordered the theft of the necklace!"

"Oh, but his agent," Joan sneered, "has been acting rather independently for a while. The king was not the only one lusting after the power of the dragon gem."

She shook her head. "No, this whole affair has taken a different turn. Now that the king is out of the way, nothing will stop his agent from getting hold of the remaining two pieces to pursue entirely different goals. This is about provoking a war between Ninjago and the mountain kingdom."

Joan slowly clenched and opened her fists, visibly struggling to contain her emotions. "I don't really care about people, but I don't want them to be hurt. I would be disgusted to be involved in this. It will be up to you and your friends to prevent it."

Zane suddenly felt himself becoming angry. "I have no idea what you are talking about. But you provided the robotic animals for that plot, and I would suppose that you are the only one who can and should take responsibility for the consequences of your actions. I cannot see how the ninja could help you with that."

"Do you really think it is as easy as that?" the young woman sneered. "Someone of high rank is involved, and as soon as my animals have served her purpose, she will drop me. I must have been blind to ever think it could be otherwise."

She gave a humorless laugh. "Nobody would believe me if I made public what I know. Nobody is interested in the work of a weird little engineering student. Nobody ever was. Now, if I was Cyrus Borg, that would be different ... You know him well, don't you?"

Joan gave the nindroid a quick glance. "I did an internship once at Borg Industries. I'd been working on swarm intelligence for a while, and my animals are the perfect model for studying half-automated communication processes between AIs. There was even a prototype for an inbuilt information exchange device that could have been implanted in the CPUs of androids as well. Borg was friendly and listened to me with interest, but at the end, he said he couldn't set aside resources for developing this further. He argued that the androids built by Borg Industries were equipped with such advanced speech processing ability that adding other means of communication wasn't of high priority. I should join one of his existing teams and work with them, and perhaps there would be an opportunity to look into my ideas as well. Nothing came of it, of course."

"I recognize you," Zane said suddenly. "You must have been in Borg Tower when the Oni attacked. You were among the people who were caught and frozen by the darkness. I saw footage of the city on that day. At least I think it was you, but your hair was different."

She looked up and shuddered involuntarily. "Yeah, that must have been me. I didn't dye my hair back then. It was a horrible day," she said slowly.

"But come to think of it," she continued and suddenly gave a brief laugh, "that was probably the only other time I saw Borg up close. When I collapsed next to his wheelchair. His managers kept assigning me boring tasks and told me the director was too busy to discuss my projects with me."

She shrugged. "I have no idea if this was true or they just didn't want to bother him. Anyway, I wasn't surprised," she continued, her voice becoming bitter. "It was very similar to the way those committee guys always got rid of me when I applied for funds and research grants at my university. Every single time, they found a pretext for not even letting my projects enter the second round. When I left Borg Industries, I swore that one day, with or without Borg's support, the world would recognize the use of my communication system."

She had talked herself into a rage. "I don't care about fame. But never having to worry about the money for hardware and other supplies would be nice. I didn't ask too many questions when suddenly someone came along, took an interest in me and promised to support my little wildlife sanctuary – in return for a few favors my gerbils and pelicans would do them."

She turned round to open a door to a neighboring room, and Zane felt himself being pushed forwards. Begrudgingly, he accepted that she still held the upper hand; her control of the cage around him didn't weaken for a second. Forced to enter the room behind her, Zane could see lines of shelves with blueprints, electronic parts and various other materials – colorful feathers for parrots or hummingbirds, more fur, beaks and claws, even the antler of a moose.

"Your friend," Joan said with a glance at another screen at the wall, "has just discovered the completed counterparts of these models outside. I will open the aviaries and stables when I leave this place. The animals deserve freedom."

"And what are your plans for us?"

She didn't reply, but led him farther into the room. He had to acknowledge that she was a genius. While Cyrus Borg had perfected the technology of androids, this young engineer was already unrivalled in her art of designing and creating robotic animals; a tinkerer and builder like Nya or Jay, she also had incredible programming skills and an impressive knowledge of artificial intelligence. In addition, she seemed to be amazingly productive, and this with limited means that were comparable to those of Zane's creator rather than to the facilities at Borg Industries. Did Cyrus Borg know what talent had been an intern at his company – and had never been given a chance to really show her abilities?

Joan opened the shutters of a window In the back of the room, and when Zane looked outside into the enclosed backyard, he gasped in surprise.

"One of my favorites," the woman said with a smile that revealed her pride. "I thought you might like it."

"It is beautiful," Zane admitted, awestruck. "Absolutely stunning. Is it functional?"

"It should be, according to my calculations. There are just two little parts missing."

Zane tore his eyes from the window. Genius or not, the young woman in front of him was also involved in a series of thefts, and they had to end this charade sooner rather than later.

"Your work is amazing, and I am sorry that it has not been more appreciated until now. But criminal activities are a waste of your talents. Let me and Pixal go, hand those gems over to the police and tell them everything else they need to know. I am sure you will be given a second chance."

She gave him a look that clearly showed how utterly naive she thought his suggestion was.

"You were designed to be a truly upright character, weren't you," she said, raising her eyebrows sarcastically. "Borg had a preference for those, too. One more reason to stick with animals. No one expects an animal AI to show morals, which makes the set-up so much easier."

She laughed and shook her head. "I will choose the terms of my second chance myself. As I said, I have reasons not to go to the police. I'd much prefer ..." she smirked at Zane, "a deserted island. With a lighthouse, perhaps? And animals to keep me company."

The thought seemed to cheer her up. Her voice wasn't so full with emotion anymore; her mind, the mind of a clear-thinking engineer, was already occupied with her next plan.

"I need a head start," she continued, "and I must cover my back. That's where you come into play. Your presence on the peninsula hasn't gone unnoticed. You will understand that I'll have to show proof that I've rendered you harmless, or else neither you nor I will get out of here."

Noticing Zane's concerned look, she laughed again.

"Don't worry. I won't meddle with your code. But I will temporarily deactivate you, and you will have to dispense with your body for a while."

"Don't you dare ..." he hissed through clenched teeth.

"Tsk tsk tsk. You seem to forget that I'm making the rules here." She took a wrench from a nearby shelf.

"The ninja are clever. I'll dispose of your body in a place where they'll find it."

He struggled, more than before, against the invisible force that held him back, and Joan watched his unsuccessful efforts with an amused smile.

"Save your power," she advised eventually. "I don't wish you harm. Do me a favor and keep still while I tell you what to do. If everything goes well and your friend plays along, too, the three of us have a chance to get away from the peninsula without arousing suspicion."

It was her mentioning Pixal that finally made him give in. He nodded reluctantly.

"Very good." Her face suddenly showed again the passion that had overcome her when she had cursed that mysterious Shintaran agent, the mastermind behind a scheme that Zane still didn't understand completely.

"You will bring her down, android. You and your ninja friends. I know you can do it."


Zane sighed when he recalled that conversation. Had his fear for Pixal clouded his judgment? The young engineer wanted revenge; she had been used and betrayed by someone she had trusted, and she had a personal interest in bringing that person down. But she also sincerely wanted to prevent a war, and she knew that Zane must be on her side once she revealed the information she had gathered about the plot. With the nindroid, she had found a means of turning the tables. He had agreed to her plan. To the phone call … and to everything else. What else could he have done?

So far, Joan had kept her word. She had done exactly what she had told him, and she had been careful. But those mood swings of hers, which he had witnessed in her workshop, made him wary. Her true character remained a mystery to him.

He could only hope that her desire for vengeance didn't extend to Cyrus Borg and his daughter.

He could only hope that she had not touched Pixal.