Hear me out-
In my AU, Zane never dies in S3, the actually create a large amount of energy to make a portal. The Overlord does die, along with the rest of the nindroids...except for two. two nindroids that we love dearly, Cryptor and Mindroid( I named her Gidget). All three of these nindroids, or in my AU, Cyborgs, they all fall through this portal that was accidentally created by Zane, and the land in a very familiar realm. The farthest realm from Ninjago, The NeverRealm.
I'm going to get into a lot backstory with these 3, so it's going to be long, I'll make this as short as possible though.
Zane in his past is actually human before he becomes a cyborg. He had 3 younger siblings, and his dad wasn't Dr Julien, it was the original Master of Ice. Dr Julien would be Zane's uncle. Zanes younger siblings are going to be very familiar to you all: Cryptor is the sceond oldest, Mindroid(Gidget) is the 3rd, and Echo is the youngest. They are all biologically related.
Sadly, the family doesn't have a happy ending. The army of skeletons had attacked the village they lived in, and the Master of ice couldn't stop them due to old age. The army burned the village, and along with Zane's parents. But before Zane's dad dies, he gives Zane his elemental powers, which helps him protect his siblings.
They are later found by their uncle, Dr Julien. Zane is badly burned from the fire unfortunately. So Dr Julien had to do some upgrades, which concluded his not-human features. They all lived with Dr Julien for around 3 years, until the skeletons found them. They Dr Julien and the 3 other siblings were kidnapped, while Zane was left out cold, which triggered their amnesia.
Nearby villagers found him and raised him without knowing they weren't entirely human. The helped Zane get into high school surprisingly. He stayed in school for another 3 years, and made a few friends. He had made friends with someone that you might remember as Pixal. This is before she decided to be half human and more robotic (yes she is also cyborg). Later on his last year of school, he gets really mad at some bully in his school and accidentally freezes him. of course everyone was watching and Zane was super freaked out about his powers. He runs off from school before Pixal could catch him, and thats when Wu finds him.
Then we go through the whole pilot series and then skip to season 3. Zane is reunited with Pixal is also upgraded. The Overlord returns, Nindroids are created, along with cyborgs. Skipping through the season, Zane sacrifices himself thinking hes gonna die, but accidentally creates a portal from his energy overload, and falls through.
Now we get to Zanes siblings, Echo and Dr Julien are taking to the lighthouse, and Cryptor and Gidget escape from the skeletons. They end up in Ninjago city and find a job to work at. During season 3, they are captured again by the Nindroids and turned into cyborgs(not a pretty scene). So now they don't know who the heck they are and why they are fighting, until Gidget was able to remember who she is. She tries to get Cryptor to wake up during Zanes sacrifice, which almost doesn't work. They both find out Zane is the white ninja who is literally dying in the process of killing the Overlord. The portal is formed, and they both fall in, along with Zane.
Now everyone thinks their dead, so it takes like 6 years for the ninjas to get to season 11. I will be making a part 2 for this if anyone is interested