Chapter 29: Connecting the Dots

Show Ninjago

Deep below the mansion, Clouse glowered into the empty tunnel as his men cleared away the last of the debris.

It was really too much to ask for the meddlesome ninja to be crushed when the ceiling fell, now was it?

Regardless of the state they were in, the fact remained that the collapsed tunnel was now dug out and the Master of Ice, and who he could have sworn was the Master of Earth were nowhere to be found, leaving only a ragged discarded kimono as a sign of their presence.

And any answer to how he could have stolen the power of Earth when the Master of Earth had an airtight alibi was gone with them.

Because if that had not been Cole Brookstone he'd taken that power from, then who could he have been?

He had checked with the staff. It was definitely the power of Earth he had taken. And yet, when he had arrived to announce that, Cole was already there seated at the tournament, and still able to display his power for all to see. Something he should not be able to do if the staff had done its work.

So unless the Master of Earth was secretly a twin (doubtful, as their background checks into contestants would have found something like that), there was someone else on this island that was a second Master of Earth.

Either way, he wasn't about to find answers to this question here.

With an irritated growl, Clouse turned and stormed out of the caves towards his office. Perhaps there was a spell in one of his books that could provide him with the answers he sought.

Only when he reached the room he noticed something odd.

His books had been rearranged. It was subtle, as the person who had done it clearly was attempting to hide their actions, but a few tomes weren't quite in their proper place, and the dust on the shelf had been disturbed, and it could only mean one thing.

Someone had been in his office.

A bolt of urgency shot through him as he realized what the intruder could have found, and he rushed to his spellbook on the pedestal. Flipping through the pages, he quickly found clear proof the intruder had found his intended spell, as its entire page was ripped from the book.

They'd found the spell, and they had stolen it!

Clouse hissed in fury.

While he knew the spell by heart at this point and had no actual need for the paper, the sheer audacity someone had to break into his room and dare to steal from him was just incomprehensible! When he got his hands on him he'd…

Clouse pounded his fist against the pedestal in outrage, only to pause when he noticed a waft of something rising up from the force of the blow.

Taking a closer look at the pedestal and his book, he noticed a fine layer of what looked like dark dust covering them both.

That was odd. If the thief had manhandled his book, then surely any dust left behind should have been displaced.

Running his hand through the dust, he lifted it up to his nose and gave an experimental sniff.

He then drew his hand away with wide eyes as he recognized the scent.

Ash!

Not only had someone broken into his quarters and vandalized his spellbook, but they'd also apparently burned the page they'd pilfered as well.

Of all the nerve!

It must have been those miscreants in the dungeons. It had to be! No one who worked for Chen would even dare to turn against him and Chen, and all the contestants for the tournament had alibis.

Or did they?

Clouse's eyes narrowed into slits.

Fire in his room and Earth down below, and both the Masters of those elements firmly in view of witnesses.

But there was one elusive contender who always seemed out of the public eye.

And Clouse was determined to make him pay!

Chen was scowling as he paced back and forth in front of DJ Cole and the Fuchsia Ninja, while the other contestants stood to the side, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Unacceptable! Ties are absolutely unacceptable!" Chen snarled. He then shot a dirty look over at the disguised Red Nya. "Didn't I say at the start of the challenge that there would be no HELPING each other?"

Nya, who looked more than a little ruffled by what had just happened, tried to fake a confident smile. "Sorry, I, uh, got in the zone. I didn't even realize I broke their doors too."

Chen let out a wordless growl at that, before staring down the two problems. "I'd declare both of you losers, but then we'd still have an uneven number. I suppose you both could just fight for the last spot…"

Cole and the Fuchsia Ninja both looked at each other and tensed like they were ready for Chen to shout 'start'.

"But without something extra to spice it up, that would be boring," Chen then lamented dramatically.

The other contestants exchanged dubious glances hearing that.

Chen let out a huff. "Whatever. I'll just pick myself." He then began jabbing his finger in Cole and the Fuchsia Ninja's direction, and saying, "Eenie, meenie, miney, mo…"

Cole and the Fuchsia Ninja tensed for when he reached the end of the rhyme, but before Chen could finish, Clouse came bursting into the room. "Master Chen!" he said loudly, startling everyone.

Chen promptly lost his place in the rhyme and turned to glare at his second in command. "What is it, Clouse?" he asked in an annoyed tone.

"I believe I've deduced the truth of what happened before in the dungeons," said Clouse primly. "And who I saw that I… mistook," He spat the word out like it was disgusting to him, "for the Master of Earth. And I believe it will settle your little conundrum."

DJ Cole kept his face appropriately curious but internally was worried Clouse had somehow figured him out.

Chen looked at Clouse, interested. "Well, what have you found?"

Clouse cleared his throat and turned to address all of them. "As I'm sure the Ninja will be grateful to know, the cave-in has since been cleared, and while their little friend remains… misplaced, there didn't seem to be any sign of injury to his person left behind."

Everyone was slightly relieved to hear that Zane was still free, but with what Clouse was to announce, Cliff Cole might still have been found and be in danger.

"That said," Clouse continued, as he moved to stand in front of both Cole and the Fuchsia Ninja. "There was indeed irrefutable evidence that the element of Earth was what one of the perpetrators had used as their means of escape before I was able to use Vengestone upon them. And yet that element's master was in plain view for all to see at the time. Now how could that be?"

Cole glowered at Clouse, daring him to accuse him again, and hoping against hope that he wasn't about to expose Cliff.

But to everyone's surprise, instead of bringing out Cole's counterpart, Clouse instead continued with his monologue. "Curious as to how that was possible, I made my way to my chambers, hoping to find something in my research to shed light on the mystery." His face then darkened, and he said in a furious tone, "Only to find someone has been in my quarters and vandalized one of my most precious tomes!"

Buddy Kai and Red Nya both winced at that. Looks like their snooping didn't go unnoticed.

Chen's eyes narrowed hearing that. "Vandalized how?" he asked.

"A page was burned," Clouse said. "A very important page at that."

Seeing Chen look livid to hear that, he added, "Not to worry, I've long had the page memorized, but the blatant desecration of knowledge is something I can not forgive." His expression then turned sinister. "But… their actions did reveal to me the true culprit of this crime."

Chen was still gritting his teeth at the thought that his grand plan was now reliant on Clouse's memory, and snarled, "Well! Out with it! Who is it?"

Cole kept his expression blank, and the rest of the spectating Ninja waited with bated breath.

But to their surprise, Clouse stood before them like a detective out of a novel and said, "Who was not visibly present at the match this morning? Who had the time and opportunity to slip away to forbidden areas? Who clearly struggled with what should have been a simple task to escape the most recent challenge?"

To everyone's surprise, Clouse slowly turned to the Fuchsia Ninja and said furiously, "Who has demonstrated the ability to use more than one element, and yet failed to display any all day?"

Chen's eyes widened and then snapped to the Fuchsia Ninja as well. "YOU!" he shouted, enraged.

The Fuchsia Ninja took a step back in surprise at the accusation but said nothing to deny it.

"YOU ARE DISQUALIFIED!" Chen roared and reached for the buttons on his throne to drop the pink-clad ninja.

But before his finger could reach it, the Fuchsia Ninja's eyes narrowed behind his mask, and he bellowed, "SURPRISE!" and threw something at the ground.

A smoke bomb exploded at his feet and quickly spread, filling the entire room with smog. Everyone coughed and gagged at the smell of it, and no one could see a thing.

After a few attempts, Chen blindly pressed a button on his throne that activated a fan to clear the smoke from the room, but by the time he did, the Fuchsia Ninja was gone.

Chen was furious!

"FIND HIM!" he bellowed to his men. "Search the whole island! Do not let him get away!"

With Clouse in the lead, Chen's men quickly jumped to follow his orders, with the disguised Buddy Kai only a step behind them trying to hide his guilty expression.

The rest of the Ninja were feeling the same, but making sure it didn't show on their faces. The Fuchsia Ninja was innocent, but their snooping had accidentally implicated him. He may have gotten away now, but for how long?

Hopefully, long enough to take Chen down. If there was one thing they knew for sure about the Fuchsia Ninja, he was sneaky and very good at hiding.

Chen then let out a growl and turned to look at Cole. "Well, I suppose that solves our little issues. Master of Earth moves on."

Cole didn't have to fake his sigh of relief at hearing that.

"The Tournament will continue in an hour, as my men are too busy capturing that cheater to set things up," Chen continued, this time addressing all the fighters. "I suggest you enjoy your break while you can. Dismissed."

The contestants slowly trickled out of the room, their minds all contemplating what they had just seen.

And the Ninja all fully aware of the bullet they'd just dodged.

Turns out, dodging Chen's goons in the forest when you had a giant snake with you was harder than expected.

Luh-Loyd on his own could blend in well with the green of his gi, but poor Noodle was a deep and eye-catching purple. Not the most subtle of colors, especially in a jungle setting.

But Lloyd couldn't just leave him. Not after the snake had saved him from Clouse.

Which was how he found himself in this situation.

Lloyd ran as fast as he could with Noodle at his heels. Just behind them, Chen's men were tramping through the jungle after them.

Lloyd jolted to a stop when he heard Noodle let out a distressed hiss behind him, and he turned to see the snake now had several darts sticking out of his purple scales and looking sleepier by the second.

"Noodle!" Lloyd shouted and ran back to the snake, reaching him as his head thumped onto the jungle floor, sound asleep.

"Oi! No more tranq darts in the snake!" he heard one of the rapidly approaching henchmen shout. "Clouse wants it back alive."

Lloyd had a brief moment of relief that the darts were just tranquilizers, before grabbing a sturdy-looking stick off the ground to use as a weapon, and readied himself to fight off the guards.

Seeing this, the guards laughed, clearly thinking their superior numbers would ensure their win.

And it was true, the odds were unfair…

… For them!

Luh-Loyd once fought off far more of his father's generals all while carrying and comforting a baby in a tight apartment kitchenette. Taking down these chumps in a wide-open jungle was a breeze.

Unfortunately, while he did manage to beat all the goons, one of them still managed to radio for backup before the Green Ninja could knock him out. It would only be a matter of time before even more of Chen's men were on him.

Casting a concerned look at Noodle, Lloyd was quick to cover the snake in foliage to hide him. "I'll come back for you," he promised the still sleeping snake.

Just as he finished making Noodle look like an oddly long and spiky bush, he heard the reinforcements approaching.

Hesitating for a second to make sure they caught sight of him first, Lloyd once again resumed his flight through the trees, making sure the thugs all chased after him, and left Noodle safely undisturbed in his slumber.

Sadly, after seeing their comrades lying defeated around their quarry, these goons were harder for Lloyd to ditch, even with the lack of giant purple tagalong slithering behind him, and loathed though he was to admit it, Lloyd was running out of steam. If something didn't change soon, he'd exhaust himself and be easy prey.

He was so focused on those running behind him, that he wasn't paying quite as much attention to the front as he should have, and almost didn't see it until it was too late.

Still, he managed to catch himself and skid to a stop just before he ran headlong into a large open cage sat randomly in the middle of the forest.

Thinking it was some trap Chen's men had set, Lloyd started to dart around it before its shape registered to him.

Doing a double-take, Lloyd stared at the bars in front of him.

Why was there a giant empty birdcage in the middle of nowhere, and was… was that cage Master Built?

How? No one in this world even seemed aware of the skill until Luh-Loyd himself had introduced it. How did someone on Chen's island learn to do it?

And why, for the love of his grandfather, did the style of the build seem uncannily familiar to him?

But a shout behind him reminded Lloyd that the bad guys were right on top of him. Resolving to ponder that question later, he moved to run again when-

"SURPRISE!"

A flash of pink came swinging down from the trees on a vine like Tarzan and snatched Lloyd up off the ground and both of them went flying over a pile of leaves.

Startled at the sudden appearance of the Fuchsia Ninja, Lloyd felt himself being dragged like a rag doll through the air along with him. To make sure their swing went as far as it possibly could, the Fuchsia Ninja used winds to propel the vine as long as possible before letting go.

They landed a short distance away, and Lloyd looked at the Fuchsia Ninja in, well, surprise. "Wait! WHAT? What are you doing here? You're supposed to be back at the tournament?" he exclaimed.

The Fuchsia Ninja didn't answer and instead kept ahold of Lloyd's arm to drag him into running again.

"And why are you helping me?" Lloyd asked. "You don't even know me!"

It was hard to tell, but he could swear the Fuchsia Ninja rolled his eyes and gave a quiet scoff at that question.

Seeing he wasn't getting any questions answered, Lloyd glanced back at their pursuers.

It seemed they were just as surprised as he was to see the pink ninja arrive on the scene.

"It's the pink guy!" shouted one of them when he realized what had happened.

"The one who cheated on the last challenge!" shouted another.

"Get him!" yelled a third.

Shaking off the shock, the goons raced after them once again.

Only, as they ran past the strange birdcage and trampled through the leaves the Fuchsia Ninja had swung them over, one of them stepped on something that made a loud 'Click!'

The second he heard that the Fuchsia Ninja stopped running and looked back expectantly. Confused, Lloyd followed his gaze.

Startled by the sound, even Chen's men stopped running and looked down at their feet, wondering what had made the click.

That turned out to be a mistake, as a second later a large flat sheet of metal shot up from beneath the leaves, and catapulted all of the goons into the open birdcage before snapping over the opening to seal it shut.

The guards all shouted in alarm and indignation as they were cramped and piled on top of each other inside the cage, but before they could do anything to try and escape, more metal began rising out of the foliage around the cage in the shape of long metal spider legs that lifted the cage off the ground, before scuttling away, the trapped men yelling in outrage all the way.

And from the smug way the Fuchsia Ninja was beaming under his hood, Lloyd knew just who to thank for that little trap.

"Nice build. When did you get the chance to make this?" asked Lloyd.

As usual, the Fuchsia Ninja gave no response.

"Well, it was cool," Lloyd said. "Nice touch with the legs. That sure was un…expec…ted…" he trailed off as he realized what he was saying.

The Fuchsia Ninja gave his signature "Surprise" but said it in a way that most people would have said, 'Duh!' to that description, but Lloyd's growing epiphany wasn't about that.

It was instead about the cage, and how familiar its style was.

He recognized it!

All Master Builders had a signature. Something about their builds that was unique to them and them alone. Some only built spaceships, others tried to make sure everything was black and edgy (and maybe bat-shaped, they had a brand to follow after all), and some just were fascinated in adding more and more levels to a couch. Lloyd's personal signature was that most of his builds would end up being at least vaguely dragon-shaped, or have the creatures incorporated into them somehow.

But there was only one person he knew that had a build signature in the unexpected.

Words of a child spoken forever ago rang through his head, "I like for all my builds to do something unexpected. You think it does one thing, but then, surprise, it does something else."

There's no way!

It couldn't be!

"A boat that's really an airplane!" Lloyd shouted aloud.

The Fuchsia Ninja looked at him like he was crazy.

But Lloyd only looked back at him with a look of realization and grinned like a madman.

"Did you think I wouldn't recognize your building style?" he asked. "You taught me everything I know… Morro."

The Fuchsia Ninja froze at that name, and gave Lloyd a look that he read as, 'Is that your final answer?'

Seeing it made Lloyd's epiphany start to deflate and doubts began to set in. "But… wait, then how did you do all those elements? Is it really surprise? And how did you get out here and have time to build that trap? How did you know where I was? There's a challenge going on right now, and Chen would totally notice if you weren't there to take it! Heck, those guys said you were there and cheated, but you can't be in two places at once…" Lloyd's eyes widened in realization again. "Unless…"

Mentally, Lloyd thought over all of the elements he'd seen the Fuchsia Ninja use. Wind, then Speed, then Shadow, then Light in his first challenge. Then Wind again, Metal, and Poison in Lil'Loyd roller derby. Almost all elements that matched a certain set of contestants in the tournament. And as for wind, well, a certain childhood memory suddenly made a lot more sense.

"Unless it's not just you," said Lloyd, his eyes wide as everything started to make sense again. "It's all of you! Karlof, Shade, Paleman, Tox, Griffin, and Mind's not obvious, but I bet Neuro's here too! ALL of you are the Fuchsia Ninja!"

The Fuchsia Ninja stared at Lloyd for a long moment, and he got the sense that he was beaming behind his mask.

Then, ever so slowly, the pink ninja reached up to grasp his hood and pull it away.

Lloyd stared as familiar pink-streaked hair came free.

He was right. His cousin was beaming at him.

And Lloyd could only grin back at Morro just as widely.

A/N And Finally the big reveal. Kudos to everyone who guessed this particular twist. It wasn't everyone, and some other people had their own fun theories, but I was always very happy to see when people guessed at least Morro was the Fuchsia Ninja if not everyone else. But yes, Morro and his friend use matching outfits to be the Fuchsia Ninja. More details will be explained next chapter.

Anywho, Fuchsia Ninja is collectively out of the tournament. Clouse did some decent detective work, and while his conclusion wasn't right it was sound, especially since dimensional doubles aren't a conclusion people logically come to. Still, the rest of the Ninja aside from Luh-Loyd are going to be feeling bad Fuchsia paid the price for their plans.

Special thanks to Kay Hau for beta reading this chapter. Morro being the Fuchsia Ninja was my idea, but I presented it as a crack idea for a joke side story. She's the one who jumped on it and told me it was actually a good one I should use in this story, and we came up with the rest of the Fuchsia Squad being there with him together.

Check out my Tumblr for a picture of the Fuchsia Squad.

Next Time: With the Fuchsia Ninja unmasked, Luh-Loyd has more than a few questions.