Unlikely Allies (Ninjago Season 11)

Chapter 17: Regrets

After The Never Realm had been saved by two Formlings, The King of The Never Realm, and mysterious heroes known as The Ninja, the realm had once again returned to peace and prosperity, something it had not felt in a long time. Every village had become unfrozen along with its citizens, and there were rumors going around the realm saying that The Ice Emperor was saved and turned into the person he used to be. Even though it would take time to forgive The Ice Emperor, they would learn to forgive him eventually.

King Grimfax returned to his throne and continued to protect The Never Realm with his army of Samurai, and made sure that Vex The Formless was imprisoned for life for being responsible for nearly every single crime The Ice Emperor committed.

Kataru and Akita had returned to their village, being much older and able to help around with the unfrozen villagers a lot more since they had unlocked their animal forms years ago. They even let The Ninja stay at their village, or rather, just Lloyd since he had gotten curious of what The Formling Village had actually looked like.

Finally, The Ninja were working with Sorla to help use The Traveler's Tree leaves to create a portal back in Ninjago, but that meant they would have to spend a few more days in The Never Realm, which gave them a chance to prepare to say goodbye. Zane, on the other hand, was feeling guilt for what he had done and was incredibly quiet.

Lloyd noticed one day and decided to take action. "You ok, Zane?"

Zane looked up and nodded. "Y-Yes, Lloyd. I'm fine."

"Zane..." Lloyd said, narrowing his eyes.

Zane sighed. "Even when in another realm, I'm still a terrible liar....I feel guilty, Lloyd...I feel guilty for every single crime I've done to this peaceful realm. When you freed me, I remembered every single cruel thing Vex made me do. I killed, I froze, and I became my worst fear...I lost my humanity..."

"Zane, listen to me. Don't say that-"

"How can I simply forget that, Lloyd?" Zane asked. "The answer is simple: I can't. I-I've done so many things that I became worse than The Overlord!!" He cried, looking like he was about to cry.

Lloyd's heart clenched and he sat down next to his friend. "Zane, look at me. All those things you did wasn't you!"

"It was me, Lloyd! If I had just found another way to fix the mech-"

"Zane." Lloyd said, becoming stubborn about proving that this wasn't his friend's fault. "It was not you who was doing all those horrible acts. You didn't freeze all of them willingly, you weren't yourself and were being manipulated by that bastard. None of that was you, Zane. Vex made you because he was delusional and got what was coming to him. You aren't The Ice Emperor...You'e Zane. And the Zane I know wouldn't do those things, would he?"

Zane smiled a bit. "Thanks...I really hope everyone in The Never Realm will forgive me though."

"They'll know it wasn't you. They just need time." Lloyd said reassuringly.

Zane's smile then turned into a smirk. "Speaking of forgiveness, Akita quickly forgave you didn't she?"

Lloyd blushed and looked at the ground for a second before turning back to Zane. "I have no idea what you're talking about. You're hanging around Jay too much."

"Maybe. But, it is the truth. You even passed out." Zane snorted.

Lloyd rolled his eyes. "You have no evidence."

"That would be incorrect, actually. I have video footage of that moment."

"...Wait, what?"