"Gerbils," Cole groaned and plopped down on the sofa. "I don't want to see a single gerbil anymore tonight."

Nya gave him a bewildered look and opened her mouth to ask about the reason for his remark, but Cole sat up and cut her short.

"So, did you hear from Zane or Pixal?"

Nya sighed. "I'm afraid not."

Cole frowned. "I can't believe they wouldn't try to contact us if they still have control over their CPUs, they must be sending some sort of signal …" He looked disappointed. "You've been at the computer all day."

"Yes, but … we don't even know how that signal would work." Nya shrugged helplessly, and Cole made a grimace, unconvinced.

Jay felt anger welling up inside him when he saw the barely concealed reproach in his friends' eyes.

"I really don't know what you expected!" he burst out. "Did you think we could snap our fingers and find a magic frequency that transmits Zane's and Pixal's voices loud and clear so that they could tell us where to find them?"

It was only now that he realized just how frustrated the past few hours had left him. "We've spent all day fine-tuning our receivers. What are we looking for, to begin with? I mean, where on the radio wave spectrum should we start? And when we receive a signal, how do we find out if it is from Zane and Pixal if they're unable to identify themselves?" Jay had talked himself into a rage. "You have no idea how many combinations of parameters we've tested. We've programmed the computer to do most of it automatically, but it does take time. Right now, we're waiting for the program to complete the 384th iteration, just so you know."

Cole's jaw had dropped, and he soothingly held up his hand. "I'm sorry, Jay. I wasn't aware of all the work behind it. I'm sure you're doing everything you can."

Jay slumped down, suddenly exhausted. "I hope so," he mumbled.

Nya glanced at her watch, which was connected to the computer at the hangar. "The 385th cycle will start in a couple of minutes." She shrugged again. "After that, I think I'm going to load another update."

She turned to Cole. "What gerbils were you taking about, by the way?"

"The ones in the museum," the black ninja stated matter-of-factly.

"Hang on." Jay looked up. "I thought we'd agreed that Misako must have been mistaken. Gerbils have no business being at the museum, let alone in the museum."

"But they are there," Cole insisted. "Small, tawny fur, extremely fast. You squint, and they're gone. The next moment, another turns up and runs around right between the exhibits. Once you've seen one, you feel they're everywhere. Misako almost got paranoid. And I can understand her, they drove me and Kai crazy, too. We tried to catch one, but it was impossible. I don't think Misako had any success with the traps she set up, either. At least they're not in the room with the scrolls; but I definitely saw a couple of them in the room with the casket we were watching."

He suddenly gave a little smile. "To bad I didn't think of calling Lloyd before he left the monastery to take over from me: he should have brought his kitty to the museum! Where is she?"

"Ah, that's quite a story," Jay began. "She isn't, uhm, active anymore."

Cole looked confused, but before he could ask Jay to elaborate, Nya jumped up.

"Guys! That's it! That's how they do it!"

Jay frowned, but then his face lightened up. He scrambled to his feet as well, leaving a bewildered Cole alone on the sofa.

"Nya! Are you thinking what I think? The gerbils, the cats – they're only there to spy out the place?"

"And steal stuff," Nya added, nodding violently. "Very clever. And totally inconspicuous. Well, not quite; their presence might be noticed, but nobody would associate them with a theft."

"This explains everything! That's how that stone disappeared from the drawer in the house of the mineral collector and the necklace got out of the palace even though no suspect was seen near the imperial collection." Jay gesticulated excitedly. "Whoever sent the animals simply waited outside until they brought their haul through a water pipe or the ventilation system or whatever!"

"Jay? Nya?" Cole's calm voice made them turn round. "Would you mind filling me in? It's been a long day, and my boulder brain simply can't follow," he said with slight self-mockery.

"Not your fault, buddy," Jay asserted, momentarily looking happier than he really felt. "You don't know what we found out today."

They informed Cole of how they had discovered the robotic nature of Lloyd's cat and agreed to immediately call Kai at the museum.

Kai sounded tired – and wasn't easy to convince. "Yeah, Lloyd told me about the issue with Mikka; I think he took it harder than he let show. He really liked her. But are you sure about the gerbils? I mean, a cat could probably steal a single stone of that size, but how do you think those gerbils would transport a casket that could hold five of them? It's way too heavy and too large."

"I don't know," Jay admitted. "Maybe they only gather information, and someone else is going to remove it? At any rate, watch that casket by all means, and try to catch those little beasts!"

"Says the one who spent a cozy day at the monastery and let us do the boring job." Kai sounded slightly annoyed.

"May I remind you that we all agreed on the shift schedule?" Jay's anger returned. "I just had to explain to Cole what Nya and I were doing today, but I don't mind repeating it. Not in the least. I just want you to know that ..."

"Hang on," Kai interrupted. They heard a female voice in the background, then Kai was on the line again. "That was Misako. She hasn't seen a single gerbil for a couple of hours or so. Seems like they've fallen off the face of the Earth, she says." Jay could almost hear him shrugging. "I mean, we'll keep our eyes open. But perhaps this was false alarm, really." He yawned. "I'm off to have a nap now. Sorry for snapping at you. I take it that despite your efforts, you still can't get a signal from Zane or Pixal?"

Jay answered in the negative, and Kai sighed.

"Ok then. Lloyd is staying at the museum until his mother goes to bed, and then I'll join him. Night, guys!"

"Night, Kai," the three ninja at the monastery replied.

They exchanged a glance. "Weird, huh?" Jay said.

Nya and Cole nodded.

But as long as the gerbils stayed put, the gem on the casket was safe. Or was it?


Pixal didn't dare to close her eyes, even though the dragon seemed to be about to fall asleep. She wondered whether she had overreacted. Almost certain of his identity, she had accepted the shelter he had built for her; it was exactly the kind of thing Zane would do. He wouldn't abandon a wounded creature outside on a cold and stormy winter night, even if he considered that creature an enemy.

But then, when he had followed her and tried to touch her, she suddenly felt trapped. It had been dangerous to let him come so close. The dragon had given a rather impressive display of his strength and fury before, and she was aware that with one jab at her already injured side, he could have shut her down completely – whether this was his intention or not. She would have been left to her fate defenseless. Nobody would have come to her aid, because nobody knew who she was.

Pixal shook her head in desperation at the absurdity of a situation where Zane – Zane of all people! – presented a threat to her. She felt incredibly tired, but she mustn't fall asleep now. There was no way of escaping from the cave, either, because the dragon lay in front of the entrance.

His chest heaved, and he puffed softly. She watched him for a while. Not for the first time, she marveled at Zane's trusting nature. Alone in a cave with a griffin that had done everything to fight him off, he allowed himself to let his guard down in this manner. Having been part of his CPU for quite some time, she knew his body language well enough, recognized the pattern of slow, deep breaths that let the air circulate around his internal fans. He wasn't pretending. He was sad and dejected, and close to dozing off. He must be almost as tired as her. And he definitely wasn't in the mood to fight right now.

A thought flashed through her mind. What if he had already recognized her? What if, at some point after he had injured her, he had realized who she was? Then he must feel that she was playing a cruel game with him indeed.

She began to feel sorry for her previous attack on him. The longer she looked at him, the more she longed for him to raise his head again and make eye contact. No more secrets, they had once promised each other. She had to take the risk.

Pixal quietly scrambled to her feet. Her large, furry paws made no noise on the stony ground of the cave, and the dragon didn't notice her approaching. His lids were closed, but the corners of his eyes glistened.

Dragons couldn't cry, could they?

She was overwhelmed by a sudden desire to hug him. The tip of her wing hovered over his head for a moment, and she held her breath. Then, she slowly brushed her feathers against his forehead.

He opened his eyes and jerked his head up, alarmed. This time, she didn't back off. He slowly sat up, and she could see the surprise in his eyes. The truth had to come out now, or else they would have to continue fighting each other. She folded her wings and dropped her gaze.

Neither of them moved for a minute or so.

Then, the dragon opened his mouth and quietly blew a flurry of glittering ice crystals into the air. Pixal looked up, looked into the dragon's bright blue eyes and felt relief washing over her. The Master of Ice was giving her a sign, a sign he must know she would understand! A few snowflakes settled on her ears, and she playfully shook her head. She would have loved to give him a smile. Instead, she opened her beak and let out a hoot – a strange noise, but it seemed not to put him off, and he responded with a soft growl. It sounded friendly. A dragon's equivalent of a purr, perhaps? With a questioning look at him, she got up, took a step towards him, hesitated, and then gently rubbed her forehead against his chin.

The dragon made a soft noise, not unlike a sigh, surprised and relieved at the same time. It was the same sort of noise Zane sometimes made when he woke up at night, dazed and uneasy after a disturbing dream, and found Pixal next to him soothingly stroking his forehead; he would turn his face to nuzzle into her hand, wrap his arms around her and fall asleep again. By the next morning, he would often have forgotten the incident.

But this was no dream, and this time, she could be of no comfort to him. This was their shared nightmare, a nightmare without the hope of waking up to normality in the morning.

The dragon didn't move immediately. Pixal cautiously rested her cheek against his neck. His cool breath tickled her lynx ears when he looked down at her, and she suddenly felt two large, leathery wings wrapping around her. The feeling made her power source heat up and fill her entire body with warmth.

Perhaps ...

Perhaps there was comfort simply in the fact that they weren't alone anymore.

Perhaps they did have a chance to return to normality after all.

Ninja never quit.

The moment didn't last as long as she would have liked. Zane must have noticed that she still kept her left side covered; he pulled back and lowered his head, trying again to nuzzle under her wing. She flinched, and for a moment, her pride got the better of her; she could surely cope with that injury just fine if she got another night's rest! Firmly pressing the wing to her side, she let out an indignant little screech, but he only gave her a telling look. She could neither fool him nor herself.

Sighing, she gave in and lifted her wing. His eyes went wide when he saw the injury up close. A thick, black fluid had leaked out of the wound and stuck to her fur, and while it had practically sealed the hole in her skin, it was only too obvious that the wiring underneath must be damaged. He took a sharp breath. She could see the shock in his face when he realized what harm he had done and that he had, on top of it, prevented Nya and Jay from tending to the injury.

Eager to make amends for it as well as he could, he motioned her to lie down so that he could examine the wound. She kept still while he cleaned the fluid off her fur with his dragon tongue, only wincing a little every now and then. But when he started to reopen the hole in her side to take a look at the torn and twisted wiring inside, she couldn't hold back a cry of pain. He pulled back instantly and gave her an apprehensive glance; then, he thoughtfully looked down at his talons. Did he really think he could use them as tweezers and improvise an override in her pain circuits?

He didn't give her – or himself – a chance to ponder the matter and bent over the wound again. Pixal whimpered when he touched her sensitive circuitry. With utmost concentration, he managed to bend and bypass a wire that had continuously sent pain signals to her processor. It was by no means what either of them would have called a successful repair, but she felt the effects immediately; it would at least numb the excruciating feeling until someone with proper tools could deal with the injury.

She let her head sink back, closed her eyes, and took a few deep breaths. The exertion of the past day had worn her out; she would need a few hours of sleep mode to tidy up and reset her overstimulated systems. When she looked up again, the dragon had settled down beside her and watched her, concerned. She hooted softly, extended her front leg and gently touched his nose with her paw. He let out a content purr and wrapped his wings around her. It made her insides glow again; she knew he couldn't see her smile, but he could feel the warmth of her fur on his skin and would understand. Pixal finally gave in to her tiredness and snuggled up against the dragon, and he shifted a little to make her more comfortable. With her head resting against his chest and his long neck laying on her back, she slowly drifted off to sleep.

In the darkness of the cave, the outlines of the griffin and the dragon, curled around each other, seemed to merge into one single shape like the two elements in the ancient symbol of yin and yang.