This takes place after Lloyd was found hanging from the flagpole, at the start of the Serpentine season. The ninja aren't Wu's students, some other people are. Nya was saved by the other ninjas, which is why she's not living with the guys.

Lloyd

Lloyd had no idea who these people were or why they helped him, but they were nice to him, which was not something he could say of his uncle's students, who hanged him from the flagpole by his cape and mocked him, despite the fact that he was eight and alone and they were much older than him.

The guy who got him down by making a tree bend over and gently put him down was making something that smelled like heaven after living of stuff people threw away for the past few months since he got thrown out of Darkly's School for Bad Boys.

Even if it was vegetables.

"Wow, Zane! That smells great!" That was the guy with the weird collar around his neck and the two little studs in his one ear which was apparently some kind of device. He just walked in, holding a toolbox and a bag with something in it. "I can't wait to taste it!"

At first Lloyd thought the guy was some kind of punk and might be a little mean, but actually, he was pretty nice and talked a lot. Apparently, he could read minds and move things with his mind (he didn't do the latter as much), so Lloyd had to be careful about thinking about misbehaving around him.

Maybe.

This guy didn't seem to be the kind to get angry so easily. He sat down next to Lloyd and started tinkering with the stuff in the bag, getting zapped several times, and then joking about him replacing the Lightning Ninja on Wu's team.

Some guy named Ash.

"Morning Kai! Morning Cole!" The guy called out to the two newcomers in the room.

The one newcomer had covered all of his skin except his face with light orange clothing, while the other one was busy shapeshifting, turning into a wide array of people, before settling on looking like he did yesterday.

"Morning Jay," the shapeshifter greeted. "Zane. Kid."

Right. Lloyd didn't get the chance to introduce himself to these people yesterday, when they brought him to their secret hideout, an abandoned Serpentine tomb (Lloyd had no idea who released them) and put him to bed after a bowl of warm soup and a bedtime story from the guy who was covering all of his skin.

He had to learn their names and he had to tell them his. He didn't want to be called "Kid" forever.

The mind-reader next to Lloyd suddenly stared at him with a horrified expression. "I just realised something! We didn't introduce ourselves to each other yet!" He reached out his hand and shook Lloyd's hand. "I'm Jay Walker!"

"I'm Lloyd," Lloyd answered as he was being shaken by his new friend.

"Hello, Lloyd, I am Zane," the guy at the stove said, plucking some herbs from a nearby plant and putting them in whatever he was making.

"I'm Cole," the shapeshifter said, prying Lloyd from Jay. "You're going to break his arm off!"

"And I'm Kai," the guy who read him the story last night said.

Lloyd looked around the tomb. "This is a pretty weird place to live," Lloyd told them. "Isn't this a Serpentine Tomb? What happened to all the snakes?"

Cole rolled his eyes. "They're still here." That wasn't exactly comforting. "They let us live here because we unsealed their tomb and don't make a lot of noise."

Lloyd just became aware of the dark, snaky shadows moving along the walls. "They won't try to eat us, right?"

Kai shook his head. "No. Just…" Kai gestured to a dark cave Lloyd didn't see there before. "Just don't go in there."

Jay squealed, holding up something he was just done making. "Done!"

It was some kind of headband or something, but with several buttons and wires sticking out of it. Kai gave it a look of pure terror. "Jay, what's that thing for?"

Jay pulled a flash drive out of his pocket and dangled it around in front of Kai. "It goes with this!"

"And what is it supposed to do?" Kai asked, backing away slowly.

"Well, you know how you sometimes have trouble with your memories because of your powers?"

"Yes, I know how I sometimes have trouble with my memories because of my powers."

"Well, if you just put the headband on, and if I put the drive in my collar, then it will be easier to help without accidently turning you into a vegetable." Jay turned to Lloyd. "Like a carrot. Or a comatose person."

Cole made a face of disgust. "Please tell me there isn't any carrots in the food, Zane."

Zane shook his head. "No, Cole. We're all out."

Jay started staring at Cole, who stared right back.

Lloyd watched them. "Are you having a staring contest?" He asked.

Cole seemed to think so, but when he was lifted off his chair by an invisible force and put on top of the fridge, he was proven wrong and started yelling at Jay to put him back, despite Kai and Zane's begging for him to stop, lest he "wake the snake".

Jay didn't get Cole down. It was Zane, who used a nearby potted plant to get him down.

"Well, I have to get to work," Jay said cheerfully, running upstairs to the outside, crabbing a set of keys as he ran.

"So you guys have jobs?" Lloyd asked. He didn't want to be left alone on the creepy snake-tunnels.

Zane nodded. "We do all kinds of jobs around the village where we found you."

"Like gardening," Cole said with a smirk, which led to the lavender plant above the sink grabbing him around the ankles and twirling itself around him like a cocoon. "Hey, let me out of here!"

"Yes, like gardening," Zane told Lloyd. "And we also help with the harvest every now and then, and sometimes, when we get word from our regular employer, we go to the city and do whatever he or she needs us to do."

Kai started stabbing the lavender with a steak knife from the drawer to get Cole out. "Cole, wiggle if you can hear me!"

The cocoon wiggled.

"So I'm going to be alone here all day?" Lloyd asked.

Zane shook his head. "No, of course not."

Cole's head poked out from a hole Kai managed to make. "Air! Sweet air!"

"You'll have the Serpentine to keep you company."

Kai smacked Zane on the shoulder. "Don't tell him that! He's obviously scared of them!"

"I don't have work today, so what if I look after him?" Cole asked, pulling the little purple flowers from his black hair. "We can get him some new clothes in Ninjago City. He can't wear that all the time, after all."

The lavender retreated back into its pot and Zane gave everybody some of the weird stuff he made.

Now, when Lloyd was little, his mother used to take him shopping for clothes all the time, and he hated it. Then she went missing and he was forced to go to Darkly's School for Bad Boys.

And those trips ended.

And he started wishing that he could go on them with him mom again, even if it's just for one last time.

Hope you enjoy this! Please comment! Fanfic No. 3, thank you!

Please be patient if my grammar isn't right, English is my second language.