Lloyd was soaring the skies, clinging tightly to his dragon as it continued on an unknown route towards Ninjago.

Although the situation he was in was quite terrifying, especially since they were high up in the clouds, Lloyd couldn't help but enjoy the view. He loosened his grip on the dragons neck as he was just catching sight of the distant trees and forests below. However, this proved to be a huge mistake, for once the dragon felt the toddler's grip loosen, he gladly bucked him off straight into the evergreen below.

"AHHH!" Lloyd screamed.

Zane wandered the forests, trying to hide himself from anyone's eyes. He looked down to his hands to find his bloody claws, still there. He grunt, "Why-why now!" He kept running until he felt something slump behind him, making him trip. He panted and looked back to see his tail. He panicked, it was getting worse. Zane ran as fast as he could, hopefully he would find a cave, a hollow tree, or maybe a lake to-

CRASH

Zane hit the ground, hard as something slammed into him from behind. He blacked-out. It was merely just Lloyd, in the same position as his fainted friend, he didn't yet realize he was laying on top of him for once he picked himself up he gestured to the dragon in the sky that did this to him. "You'll pay for that!" he screamed. The dragon just roared and flew off, relieved he had gotten that taken care of.

Lloyd humphed, which then was followed by a groan. The boy jumped and turned to find the person he had been looking for.

"Zane?" he uttered, quite shocked. The guy seemed to be out cold, just his luck.

Lloyd figured he needed to find a way to awaken him, he was sure there would be a river or a stream nearby that could do it. So, rather awkwardly, the boy took Zane by the hands and dragged him, rather painfully forward. "B-Boy, Zane...gngh-you've seriously gained some weight!" he stated.

After a few moments, he found some water supply, a clear river. He set Zane down beside it and rubbed his hands together, "Alright, Zane...you might feel a bit cold..."

He splashed at least a few pints of water in the ice ninja's face.

Zane reacted poorly to the water, immediately awaking to its tinging touch. "A-Ah! What the-"

He spotted Lloyd for a mere second, his eyes shrank.

"AH!"

"WHOA!" Lloyd exclaimed, seeing Zane take cover behind a tree to avoid the child's prying eyes, he whimpered.

Lloyd approached the tree slowly, slightly concerned and confused, "Z-Zane?"

"D-Don't look at me," Zane urged.

Lloyd narrowed his eyes, he then caught sight of something he hadn't noticed before: a tail. He looked up to see it was coming from-

His eyes widened, and then narrowed, showing a pang of fury.

"It wasn't a dream!" he yelled, making Zane cringe.

The ice ninja didn't look back at him, but Lloyd could tell he was doing it purposely. He pulled on Zane's tail, yanking him out of his hiding place. Zane yelped and met the eyes of the questionably angry green ninja. "When did this start? How did it happen!?" Lloyd shouted, getting angrier.

Zane gulped, trying to find his voice, trying to come up with an excuse, "L-Lloyd...th-theres a reasonable explanation f-for this-"

"Tell me then! Tell me the truth!" Lloyd motioned.

The ice ninja scratched the back of his neck, only to find something slender. He removed his hand to find Krip, who had been hiding there. Lloyd immediately took notice of his dragon friend. "Krip!" he yelled, taking him out of Zane's hands.

Zane was confused, "Kr-I'm sorry what?"

Lloyd ignored him and pet his head, "Oh man I was wondering where you've been! You took a ride with Zane, huh?" Krip nodded.

The ice ninja was stuck confused, Lloyd took notice but one look in the green ninjas eyes hinted Zane he wasn't going to explain himself to him. Zane lowered his gaze, guilty.

Lloyd humphed and put Krip in his hair, turning back to Zane, "Why did you lie to me."

Zane winced, trying not to look at him. Lloyd forced his head forward, the ice ninja stiffened, looking into Lloyd's grass green pupils. "Zane, stop making excuses and tell me what's going on. Now."

Secrets out his brain taunted. Zane grit his teeth and looked at Lloyd, sighing. "Lloyd...there's something I must confess," he began.

Lloyd listened in, all ears.

"I-I...I think I might have already reached my dragon potential," Zane replied.

The green ninja stared, a bit flustered. Zane put his hands to his forehead, "Right...uh, you see, the others can-"

"I know what it is, I just don't...believe you," Lloyd started.

"What are you saying?"

"What I'm saying, Zane! Is that, I cant believe you couldn't have just told us! Told me! Told Sensei when he had asked you what was going on!" Lloyd snapped, pointing fingers at the ice ninja. Zane's jaw tensed.

"Instead you had lied! Why? Because you don't trust us?" Lloyd shouted.

"It's not that!" Zane replied.

"They why, why have you kept this from us? We could have...I don't know helped you control it or something!" Lloyd pointed out.

"N-NO! You couldn't have! I-I couldn't have told them!" Zane sputtered.

"Why?! I don't see what the problem is with keeping something from your friends that they already know about! What's the problem with-"

"THE PROBLEM IS THAT ITS DANGEROUS!" Zane screamed.

Lloyd fell back, taken aback by the sudden roar in Zane's voice. The ice ninja, having realized his mistake instantly turned to leave, but...

How could he?

He looked back at Lloyd, who was still looking at him as if, he had betrayed him, and the others. The ice ninja instead, broke down.

He couldn't take it anymore.

He's been through enough, trying to bury it deep inside him hoping they would die away...

But these feelings he's been hiding had only made things worse.

Zane covered his eyes and wept in silence. Lloyd eyed him, concerned. However, he was still confused, but his fretting was greater. He came over to the distraught ice ninja, wrapping his arms around him. Zane looked up, noticing the boy's gentle arms around him, this only made his eyes water...he felt so guilty. "I-I'm so sorry...I should have...I should..."

He sobbed, Lloyd frowned. He took notice of Zane's bloody claws, and was a bit terrified. He consulted him about it, Zane wiped his tears. "I-I...Toxis...the general she...ungh...she was attacking L-Lily...trying to hurt her. I had to do something, it w-was the danger I had sensed..."

Lloyd began to understand why Zane had run off all of a sudden.

"I fought Toxis...the Toxibrai general, who d-didn't show any mercy to me. I didn't show it either," Zane spat, remembering Toxis's determination to destroy him. He looked at Lloyd, who was already enthralled with the story. His mood lightened, "So we...got into a tight tussle between each other...and she had punched me hard. That's when...I got mad."

He motioned over to his claws, which were still dripping red with snake-blood.

Lloyd stared, frightened. Zane sighed and tried to wipe the blood from his fingers, "I lost control...it wasn't until I realized that I was shifting from my human form, to my dragon's...I was scared so..."

"You ran," Lloyd finished.

Zane looked at the boy, who seemed to have resided from his anger towards him. The ice ninja nodded, avoiding his gaze. Lloyd looked at Zane with great lament, he felt sorry for the guy. He must have had such a hard time keeping this from him, the others and his teacher. Still, although Lloyd didn't understand why Zane had done it...he understood.

"Zane..."

The ice ninja turned towards Lloyd.

"I...I'm sorry, for yelling. I guess I just...couldn't think of you as a..."

"Liar?" Zane replied, rather sadly.

Lloyd looked down.

Zane frowned, "It's alright...I can understand as to why you'd think that..."

Lloyd gazed upward, "You did what you had to do."

"Heh...I thought you thought I should have expanded my trust towards the others," Zane reminded.

"Hey, you probably should...but I never thought you would have emotional issues cause of it," Lloyd smirked.

Zane chuckled, sighing, "You and me both, Lloyd..."

His tail wrapped around the boy, quite kindly.

"You and me both..."