Ninjago s11 AU the guards are sentient and can think for themselves, Zane AND Vex just have some bodily control over them so that’s how he makes them attack and stuff.
They realize like 40 yrs into Zane’s ruling that the Ice Emperors not really the one in control of everything but instead it’s Vex, then they realize that Vex doesn’t allow the Ice.E to leave the palace without him and even that’s rare. So the guards come up with this idea for a coup, and then they suddenly decide to actually do it when Grimfax joins them.
So they start their plan off by befriending the Ice.E so they have his trust, while doing it they realize that the real REAL bad guy is Vex. So they decide to take him away form there. Then one night they barge into the throne room dragging him up and when he goes “the hell u doin’?” they’d go all like “Vex is totes planning a coup so we’re taking u someplace safe”. So they leave the castle with him, while walking they throw away his armor, expect the staff because it’s stuck to his hand.
Vex, when he realizes what happened, is of course mad. And icing on top of the cake is that every ice samurai that went had been an alive one, so he only had ice zombie samurais left, a.k.a. Blizzard Sword Masters and Blizzard archers. So Vex starts chasing them with the ice zombies while the samurai run away with Grimfax’s lead while protecting the Ice.E, who still doesn’t realize that he’s Zane. During their travels Zane starts to bleed through the Ice.E, this of course confuses the samurai who get him to open up. They kinda go “shit” when they realize that he’s amnesiadic, so while they travel they try all kinds of way to bring his memories back.
At one point they end up at the ice fishers village, the villagers are of course scared of them but when they explain their situation to them they kinda understand but don’t trust them. When Sorla learns that the Ice.E has no memory of his past she offers to help, he agrees and the ceremony begins.
It’s around the fire, with everyone from the village and the samurai there watching by the walls, or through the windows. Then it goes through kind of a montage of sound and flashes of events in the fire, some notable ones are about his father and the fact that he was a good guy. Also the fact of his brothers and sister (the ninja) existing.
Zane ends up befriending the villagers and he and the samurai end up staying there, but nothing good can last long. So Vex shows up, while the samurai (still iced) are fighting the ice zombies the Ice.E is having a mental breakdown. When Vex shows up to the place he’s panicking in he goes onto this tangent how only he can be trusted and he’ll make sure that the Ice.E’ll be alright, the Ice.E doesn’t really answer because panic. So Vex has two ice zombies escort him out, then he drags him into the middle of the lake and shouts something about the Ice.E being on his side and that they should just surrender.
But guess what, the Ice.E wans’t panicking for no reason. No, he was having wivid flashbacks and getting his memories back. So Zane just fucking explodes with ice, sending Vex of to the side, destroying the ice zombies and freeing the samurai while destroying the scepter. Basically freeing the realm in the process. Everyone’s of course confused as fuck, but they quickly contain Vex before he can scamper away.
So then they kinda gather around a crying Zane, having no idea what to do. But fun times! Zane’s gone back to the point when he was just a few years old, so he snaps out of the crying confused as to where he is and asking about his dad. He consistently gets his memories back one by one, so that’s not a thing they have to worry about. Grimfax is put back into rule and all is well, and Vex is executed because fuck him. Zane ends up living with the samurai, with them getting attached to him. He keeps boreal, but he’s now more like a giant guard dog that really loves petting.
So then he spends the next 20 years gaining back memories and bonding with the samurai, then the ninja come. They still take super long to get to the castle, but this time it’s because of ice birds, wolves some off road trips to magical tea trees and a montage of Kai getting his powers back. He leaves on a god note, even though the samurai are all in tears and many of them are totally not feeling like their kid is leaving home. No, they totally aren’t. Grimfax especially, somebody’s just cutting onions and he has allergies. Nothing more.
