Author's Note/Disclaimer: I don't own Ninjago. Like you actually thought I did, anyway. :P

So, it's TOTALLY Christmas in July! :B Just kidding, it's a very late Christmas present for ShinyShiny9. Hope you like it, even if it's not quite what you asked for. I tried.

"An Edifice of Snow"
By Skylark Starflower
Started November 21st, 2019
Finished July 9th, 2020

By the time the ninja returned from the now ex-Ice Emperor's fortress, it was late evening. The decision was unanimous to wait at least until morning to begin worrying about how to get home. The ice fishers were more than happy to continue providing lodgings for however long the ninja ended up staying.

It didn't take long for most of the ninja to nod off. It had been a busy day. Even Krag was asleep in moments, snoring away on a mat at the foot of Cole's bunk.

Zane, however, laid awake, mulling over the course of events that had led to this. So far, no one had brought it up, but it must be bothering them as much as it was him, right? He had lost his memory –again– and done some terrible things over the years because of it. And yet, his friends, and even these villagers, who were directly affected by the things he did, were acting like everything was fine. Like none of it mattered. That what he had done meant nothing in the long run. Zane couldn't believe that it would be that simple; it was just a matter of time before someone decided to discuss it with him, and he would end up banished like Vex. To be honest, he felt he deserved it on some level.

These thoughts continued to roll through his head as he tried to sleep, and eventually he fell into a troubled slumber.

X X X

"Oh wow, would you look at that?"

"So pretty!"

"Betcha it would pack a mean snowball."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Do you want it to be?"

"Heck yes!"

Zane's eyes fluttered open, awakened by the others' excited chattering. He sat up, taking in the scene. The others were a flurry of activity as they got hurriedly dressed, but for what, Zane wasn't sure. He turned to look out the window and noticed it was snowing.

Not blizzard conditions, not anymore. Instead, fat, lazy snowflakes came down slowly, blanketing the world in white. Zane could see people from the town, already out and about, taking care of their day to day business. Not far away, in a field just outside town, there were already children out playing in the snow, building snowmen and peppering each other with snowballs. He could hear them laughing and screaming as they played. Zane watched as Cole, the first to finish dressing, ran out the door, followed by Krag, to join the children. As the other ninja raced to catch up, the sound of merriment grew louder still.

Zane wanted to join in on the fun, longed to, but at the same time, he didn't feel like he belonged. Not anymore. Not after everything he'd done to these people, knowingly or not.

Zane's thoughts were interrupted by Lloyd's voice. He blinked and looked around. Everyone else was already outside.

"Are you coming?" Lloyd held out a hand to his friend, a genuine smile on his face.

Zane didn't reply right away. He didn't really know what to say. After a pause, he finally asked, "it's okay?"

For a moment Lloyd seemed taken aback, but then he broke into a grin and laughed. "Of course it is! What are you even talking about?"

"I just thought–"

Lloyd didn't give him a chance to finish. "Well, stop thinking and get out here!"

With that, Lloyd grabbed him by the arm and dragged Zane out into the snow. Zane wanted to protest, but he didn't get a chance before a snowball smacked into his face.

For a moment, everything went silent as everyone went still. Zane wiped the snow from his face and turned to the gathered group, intent on identifying the culprit. The look on Jay's face made it apparent it was he who threw the offending snowball.

Zane bent over, gathered a handful of snow, packed it into a ball and let fly so quickly, Jay didn't get a chance to dodge. Caught off guard, he was knocked over as the snowball struck him right between the eyes. He disappeared into a snowbank.

Jay was laughing as he emerged, snow piled on his head. "Ha! Good one, Zane!"

Zane smiled. And then everything erupted into chaos, snowballs flying everywhere. Everyone quickly teamed up; Krag and Cole versus Jay, Kai and Nya versus Lloyd and Zane. The local children moved off to the side and started cheering the ninja on.

Lloyd dodged a barrage of snowballs from Jay and Nya, only to get buried by a gigantic missile from Krag.

"Ha, ha, yeah! Nice, Krag!" called Cole, as he hefted up an equally huge pile of snow. "Hey, Zane! Head's up!"

Cole wasn't counting on Zane to use his elemental powers to catch the snowball in midair and throw it right back. With a yelp, he turned and ran, just barely dodging the attack.

"You seem to have forgotten just who the Master of Ice is around here," Zane replied.

Cole stuck out his tongue, only to get buried in an avalanche of attacks from Lloyd, Kai, Nya and Jay. He shook the snow off his head, laughing. "Hey, come on, guys, not fair!"

Everyone was too busy laughing at Cole to pay attention to Krag. The yeti rolled up several huge snowballs and threw them, one by one with pinpoint accuracy. One by one, Kai, Nya, Lloyd, Jay and Zane disappeared under the sudden barrage of snow.

Now everyone was laughing as they pulled themselves out of the snow. Kai, not angry but deciding he'd had enough, burst out of the snow in a ball of fire, more putting on a show for the kids than anything else. The children for their part, found this totally awesome, and when Kai noticed them laughing and hollering, he decided to start chasing them around, still in human torch mode. Shrieking with laughter, they fled into town, Kai hot on their heels, literally.

"Well, I guess that's the end of that snowball fight," said Nya, shaking her head, but smiling just the same.

"It was fun while it lasted," agreed Jay. He flopped over onto his back and started making a snow angel. "This is fun, too."

Nya joined him as Cole and Krag started rolling up another huge snowball.

"What's that for?" asked Lloyd. "I thought the battle was over?"

"It is," replied Cole, "Krag and I are gonna make the biggest snowman this town has ever seen!" Krag rumbled in agreement.

Now that everything had calmed down again, Zane found himself feeling much the same as he had after waking up. Everyone was acting like nothing had happened, and that was bothering Zane even more. At the same time, he didn't want his friends to be angry at him, but he was afraid to broach the topic lest it turn them all against him.

"Didn't help, huh?"

Once again taken by surprise, Zane looked up to find Lloyd watching him. The green ninja wore an expression Zane couldn't quite read, somewhere between worry and disappointment, and a little bit sad. Zane didn't reply, but cocked his head questioningly.

Lloyd smiled, but it held no mirth. "I was hoping that would cheer you up."

"Ah. Thank you for trying."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Zane paused. Did he want to talk about it? He thought about it for a moment, coming to the realization that, out of everyone, Lloyd was perhaps the one he felt most comfortable discussing the situation with. Zane nodded.

Lloyd smiled again, warmly, and threw an arm across Zane's shoulders, leading the nindroid to a nearby bench. The two sat, and for a while, they just watched the others, still playing in the snow. New Ninjago City didn't get much snow at the best of times, and the ninja rarely had the time to head out to places like the Birchwood Forest just to play around. This was a rare treat.

"Do I really deserve to be forgiven so easily for what I've done?" Zane asked suddenly, taking Lloyd by surprise.

Lloyd's kneejerk reaction was to assure him that, yes, he did, but Lloyd held himself back and actually considered the question.

"That depends," Lloyd said eventually. "What did you do?"

Zane's expression became confused. "I don't understand…"

"What did you do that you need to be forgiven for?"

"You know what I did."

Zane seemed to be getting a little tense, but Lloyd didn't let up. "I'd like to hear you describe it."

Zane fidgeted, clearly uncomfortable and upset. Lloyd hated to see him like this, but it was the only way he could think of to get Zane to face the situation. Otherwise, he feared the nindroid would just bury the problem and let it fester. Lloyd had enough experience doing the same, and he knew how much it sucked. It would be best to just rip off the bandage now.

"I – I subjugated this realm," Zane said after a long while.

When it became clear that Zane wasn't going to elaborate, Lloyd prodded again. "Why?"

"I don't know…"

"Yes, you do, Zane. Now tell me. Why?"

"I don't know!" Zane insisted.

Lloyd sighed. "Did you enjoy it?"

Zane blinked, clearly not expecting that line of questioning. "No. The whole time, Vex assured me that I was doing the right thing, but it never brought me pleasure. Something always felt…off, but I had no reason to distrust this man who claimed to know me. Who told me of the "evils" of this realm and helped me conquer them."

"Do you think you would have done the same if you hadn't lost your memory?"

"I… probably would have been less trusting of Vex if not for my memory loss."

"It's not such a bad thing to be wary of strangers, though. And it's no surprise to me that you were so ready to believe Vex's lies with your memory wiped again." Lloyd shook his head, smiling fondly. "I know I wasn't around when Uncle Wu first formed the team, but Cole's told me stories about what you were all like back then." He looked at Zane coolly. "You once followed a bird because it danced for you."

Zane let out a sound somewhere between a sigh and a chuckle. "That is true." He closed his eyes, his expression becoming somber. "I miss my falcon…"

Lloyd said nothing, simply leaning over to wrap his arms around his friend in a hug, resting his head on Zane's shoulder. The two remained like that for several minutes, sitting in silence.

"It really wasn't my fault, was it?" Zane said eventually.

"No," replied Lloyd, still hugging Zane. "It's plain to anyone who knows you to see what happened, Zane. Between your basic nature, the corrupting influence of the scroll and Vex, you really didn't stand much of a chance. Everyone can see that, and no one blames you for it."

Zane didn't reply, but he did raise an arm to hug Lloyd in return. "Thank you."

"No problem," Lloyd said, smiling. "You'd have done the same for any of us."

"Hey! Lloyd, Zane!"

The two looked up, startled by Cole's voice. He and Krag were holding up a wobbling pile of snow that must have been at least twelve feet tall.

"Little help here?"

Zane and Lloyd exchanged looks before grinning at each other and running over to help the two with their snowman.

The End