Ferb could hardly think as he ran back to his house. By the time he got there, Isabella and Marissa had begun a discussion about something, but Ferb knew this was more important. Without waiting for a turn to speak he interrupted: "Phineas is gone!"

Both of them turned to Ferb, although Marissa was the first to speak. "What?" she exclaimed, "What happened?"

"The robot took him," he panted, catching his breath, "If we don't find Moon in three days he said he'll kill him."

"What do we do?" Isabella squeaked, "Moon's not even home!"

Marissa frowned. "There's definitely something fishy about this. Two days ago Moon wasn't home, and now there's someone that will kill to find her. This isn't right."

Ferb nodded in agreement.

"Well, do you think we can find her?" Isabella asked, "Once we tell her what's happening she'll probably help us."

Marissa shook her head. "If this isn't just a coincidence, that means she knew this guy was coming and she wanted to get away from him. She's probably long gone by now."

"Well if we don't find her then Phineas will die!" Isabella exclaimed, "We have to at least look-"

"We will," Marissa agreed with a nod. She took a deep breath to keep her heart from racing - whenever something happened to Phineas, she always reacted this way. She was protective of him, since he was her brother, and she didn't want to think about what would happen if Moon wasn't found. She wondered what had made Moon run off so easily. She had been able to kill Bellidor in a fight; what was so different about this?

Then, she wondered, what if this was different? If it had driven Moon away, what could she and Ferb and Isabella do about it? Her first thought was to try and find Phineas instead, and leave Moon to herself, as she seemed to prefer it that way in the first place, but then she discarded the thought. She had a feeling that finding Moon would be simpler. "We'll start at her house," she said, "Then we'll work from there."

"I thought you and Phineas were there yesterday," Isabella frowned, turning to Ferb, "Was she even there?"

Ferb shook his head.

"Well, it's a place to start, anyway," Marissa sighed, "I just hope Phineas is doing okay."

Isabella nodded in agreement. "Well, let's go, then."

Ferb followed them back to Shadowshire, and he caught himself going to knock on the door once they got there. Instead he just pushed it open, and he and Marissa and Isabella peered inside. The house seemed vacant, and apart from the three of them it was silent.

"Moon?" Marissa called, her voice echoing back to her in the huge front room. "Moon? Hello?"

There was no answer, although after a few minutes Khan waddled into the room. Seeing them, she sat with a soft plop on the floor.

"Hi, Khan," Isabella sat in front of her, cross-legged, and folded her hands neatly in her lap. "Have you seen Moon in the past few days?"

Khan shook her head.

"Did she tell you where she was going? Do you have any idea at all?"

Khan, again, shook her head.

"I wonder what it is about this guy that made Moon run off," Isabella pondered, putting a thoughtful hand up to her chin, "I mean, all we've seen of him is this little robot, right? Moon's handled bigger things than that."

"Maybe that means we should steer clear of him, too," Marissa said quietly. After a minute she added, "After we get Phineas back, I mean. Maybe Moon knows what she's doing. You said he was an old friend of hers, right?" she turned to Ferb, one of her eyebrows cocking inquisitively.

Ferb nodded. "He said his name was Six-Bolt."

"Well, no matter what his name is, we have to take Phineas back," Marissa resolved, "And in order to do that we have to find Moon."

Khan suddenly chattered, drawing their attention to Khalia, who had just wandered into the room and begun gnawing on Khan's tail. Khan pulled it away, and Khalia whined.

Isabella picked Khalia up, holding her carefully under the arms like the boys often did with Perry, and gave her a careful look-over. "Maybe she could track Moon," she though out loud, "I mean, we don't have any bloodhounds or anything, do we? And we're not getting very far on our own."

Marissa paused, thinking about it for a few moments, but then shrugged. "It's worth a try, I suppose."

Khalia squealed, a high kitten-like sound, and out of instinct Isabella quickly set her down, in case she'd hurt her. She rolled over on the floor for a minute, then hopped back onto her feet and sat by Ferb's side. She liked Ferb. He smelled the best of all of them. She sat by him for a moment as the humans finished discussing whatever it was that they thought was so important, but then lost interest in them and wandered off.

Before she could get too far, Ferb suddenly picked her up and held her firmly in his arms. If it had been Isabella or Marissa, she supposed she might have squirmed away, but instead she just lay still, her six stubby tails wavering in place. She looked up at Ferb, reaching up with one three-clawed paw and smacking his collar in amusement.

Ferb took her outside, to the front step, and sat on the cold concrete for a moment. He sat down and then asked her, "Can you find Moon?"

Khalia, immediately distracted, spotted a rabbit at the edge of the unkept grass, watched it for a moment, bounded after it, caught it, killed it, ate its death, and then killed it again, snapping its neck in one chomp and then taking it back onto the step and presenting it to Ferb as if he might eat it.

Ferb only blinked.

"Khalia, come on," Isabella groaned, "We need you to help us find Moon, okay?"

Khan chattered.

Khalia understood that. She squirmed in Isabella's hands, both paws stretched out in a playful grab for her nose, and Isabella reluctantly set her down on the edge of the step. Sticking her nose in the air, she began searching for Moon's scent. It was old and hard to track, but the trail was there and soon she hopped off into the grass and into the trees, headed into the forest away from town.

"Wait for me!" Isabella exclaimed, quickly chasing after Khalia and disappearing before either Ferb or Marissa could follow her.

It was almost dark by the time Khalia stopped. They had been at it for hours; Isabella was certain they'd started before noon, and it was nearly sundown now. That was what, nine, ten hours, maybe? Too long, she thought. Her feet hurt; her legs hurt; her stomach rumbled fiercely from not having eaten since breakfast. She was starting to get a little cold. She was tired. She just wanted to go home. Why had she gone after Moon, anyway? She didn't even like Moon. She'd be just as happy if this Six-Bolt guy took her away forever. That would suit her fine.

The coastline was somewhere up ahead, she knew. The air had taken on a faint marine scent, and sometimes if it was quiet enough she could hear the seagulls screaming from somewhere far-off. She wondered why Moon had followed the coast; it seemed almost too easy to track her from here, but then again if it hadn't been for Khalia she wouldn't have made it this far. It was cold here, too; after having left the summer of Danville, the wilderness quickly grew harsher. She should have brought a jacket; she could see her breath now, if she was looking for it, and she couldn't stop herself from shivering.

She just wanted to go home. Screw Moon. They'd probably have better luck finding Phineas than finding her anyway. That's what they should have done, she knew. They should have just found Phineas. Problem solved, right?

Khalia sat on Isabella's feet, keeping them warm, but after a moment she turned and headed quickly up a steep slope.

"Khalia, wait," Isabella called after her, but Khalia wasn't listening. She led Isabella up, up, until she could see a few flecks of snow that hovered in the air but didn't seem to want to settle on the ground. Still higher they went, until Khalia finally stopped at the edge of a sharply defined cave that had been hiding just over a ridge in the half-frozen ground. She sat, clearly expecting praise, but Isabella just scooped her up in her arms. She glanced down at the other side of the ridge, her eyes widening as she realized just how high up they were. It must have been at least half a mile; she could see the tiny peak of Danville Mountain far off in the distance, dwarfed by the surrounding landscape and almost invisible in the near dark. Far below was the coast, just a mangled pile of rocks housing rough choppy waves that seemed to beckon to her.

She held Khalia in her arms for a moment, trying to calm herself from shivering, and did her best to keep her balance as she slid down into the cave. "Moon?" she called, "Hello?"

Her voice echoed endlessly through the empty cavern, returning back to her several times before falling into silence. She could hardly see a thing, but she had a feeling that maybe Moon wasn't here after all. She turned back to Khalia, whose eyes glowed the faintest honey yellow in the dark. "Are you sure she's here? I don't think there's anyone-"

Before she could finish, there was a sudden hand clamped over her mouth and she was pulled back, into a hidden corner of the cavern. Panicking, she squealed, squirming and pulling away from the hold on her. Turning back, she glared. But then her eyes widened. "Moon?"

"Quiet," Moon hissed, giving a brief glance to the opening of he cavern before turning back to Isabella. "What're you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Isabella retorted, crossing her arms. "You pretty much skipped town!"

"Yeah, what of it?" Moon snapped, giving Isabella an irritated glare.

"Marissa and the boys are so worried about you," Isabella told her, "Haven't you even considered that?"

Moon shook her head. "They don't concern me," she said, "I think they'll survive on their own."

"Oh yeah?" Isabella challenged, her glare intensifying, "Well what if I said Phineas has been kidnapped by a guy with a robot?"

Moon faltered. "What?"

"Yeah, you heard me," Isabella snapped, "And the guy's after you. He said that if you don't show up he'll kill Phineas."

"He wouldn't-"

Isabella nearly screamed. "Moon, listen! If you don't go back there Phineas is going to die! Don't you care for him at all?"

"Well," Moon sat, pensive, in the corner for a moment, then turned back to Isabella with a sigh. "Not really."

"What is wrong with you?" Isabella cried, her voice echoing through the cave. She glared as hard as she could at Moon, knowing Moon wasn't intimidated by her but determined to get her point across. Her breath came out of her nostrils in thick angry puffs, and even Moon's presence made her a little uneasy, but still she refused to break her stare. She had to make Moon understand what she was doing.

Moon only stared back, her face completely blank. After a moment she spoke again, her voice its usual sullen quiet. "I wasn't going to stay anyway, you know," she said, "Even if this hadn't come up."

"So you know exactly what's going on, then," Isabella accused, settling her hands on her hips. She should have known Moon had been behind this, the reasoned. Tons of stuff ended up being Moon's fault, one way or another.

"No," Moon shook her head, her wild ponytail flicking back and forth as she did so, "I only found out a day or two ago."

"Find out about what? The robots? How much of this do you know? You're not telling us everything, and we need to know," Isabella demanded.

Moon snorted. "It's none of your business. Six-Bolt's not after you."

"It's exactly my business!" Isabella exclaimed, "Phineas just got kidnapped by a robot and I have to know why!"

Moon was silent for a long time. Her expression was unreadable; she only stared off into the darkness of the cave as if nothing else even existed. After a moment she turned back to Isabella. "Fine," she said quietly, "You really wanna know? I'll tell you."