History of Zane (Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu)

Wasted True Potential
Zane is asleep in the Monastery of Spinjitzu when he wakes up to a rumbling sound coming from outside. He goes to investigate and finds the Monastery wall door shaking and glowing. The door suddenly opens, and Aspheera, holding a staff, appears and attacks Zane. She says that she wants revenge.

Zane suddenly has several visions. He sees another, larger serpentine wreaking havoc in Ninjago City and sees a frozen palace. He sees the Ice Emperor sitting on a throne, and then a legion of Pyro Vipers marching through the City terrorizing the people. He then sees an Ice Dragon freeze over a small village, freezing several people solid, including the other Ninja. Jay calls out to him to tell him that Cole has almost beaten his high score in Lava Zombies...

Zane wakes up again to find that it was all, other than the part about Cole beating his high scores, a dream. Zane tells Jay about the dream, and how it was surely a vision. Jay tells him not to worry about it, and to watch Cole with the others.

He joins the others as they play a game on the TV. The Ninja are engrossed in this game, and Cole eventually beats Zane’s score, which Zane congratulates him for. They get the idea to go hang out in the hot tub, so they do. Kai uses his fire to make it hotter, and the Ninja relax. Master Wu barges in and tells them that they are slacking and have forgotten what it means to be Ninja, reminding them that it had been months since they'd defeated the Oni. He takes them out of the hot tub and tells them that they’ve gotten weak. Inside the Monastery, he tells them that long ago, the monks in the Monastery built high walls to keep out beasts, but failed. To defend from the beasts, these monks became Ninja. Wu tells them that if they can survive in a room with the beast for five minutes, they can prove themselves. The Ninja end up getting the beast into a box, but Master Wu tells them that he will be training them more.

Throughout the day, each Ninja would find booby-traps all around the Monastery, leaving them all exhausted. Eventually they would meet Master Wu outside, and he challenges them to a fight. If they could defeat him, they'd prove that he was wrong.

Each Ninja attacks Wu, but none of them are strong enough to defeat him. Even their elemental powers had weakened at that point. Zane and the others are knocked into a pile, and Wu says that they have all failed, before sicking the lightning chicken at them.

Questing for Quests
Zane and the others are in the Monastery courtyard, trying to think of a way to get back in action. They try to take a dip in the hot tub to see if that will help them think, while debating what villains they could go after to pass the time. They find that all of the villains still around haven't been causing any trouble, so they decide to go to the Commissioner to see if he has any jobs for them.

They meet with the Commissioner, and he tells them that Ninjago City has had nothing but peace for a long time. An officer eventually comes in and gives them several jobs to do around Ninjago City, but all of them are busts. They try to save a bank robbery, but it's staged for a TV show, they try to break up a fight at the prison, but it was already resolved. After wasting the day looking for things to do, and ultimately failing, they return home and put on the TV.

Gayle Gossip comes on with breaking news. In the Desert of Doom, she meets with Clutch Powers. He tells the TV that he has dug up a mysterious pyramid within the Desert, and would need the help of the Ninja to explore it. The Ninja quickly run off to the Desert to investigate. The TV shows an ancient plate that appears to have the fire serpentine from Zane's dream on it…

A Rocky Start
The Ninja are scrambling around the Monastery trying to get ready to go investigate the Desert of Doom.

Once they’re all packed, P.I.X.A.L. shows them to the Underground Base, where she has made several new vehicles for the Ninja, including the Land Bounty. Zane, Jay, Nya, and Lloyd board the Land Bounty, while Kai and Cole take their own vehicles to the Desert.

When they finally arrive, they set up a camp around an oasis they have found. Zane reads a book about the Desert, telling them that long ago, an ancient tribe once lived in the Desert. They worshipped a thousand year old giant scarab beetle called Beohernie. One day, the beetle went out of control, and destroyed the civilization, seemingly for no reason. The beetle suddenly appears and attacks, and the Ninja make a run for it to the Bounty.

As the beetle chases them, Cole is knocked over, and is almost left behind. He recuperates himself, and the Ninja are continued to be chased by the giant.

While making a run for it, a major component to the Land Bounty is devoured by the Beetle, and the Ninja are left stranded on a plateau, surrounded by two more scarab beetles.

The Belly of the Beast
Zane attempts to repair the Land Bounty, but it will be impossible to escape without the component the beetle ate.

That night, Zane says that the Bounty is useless without the component, and the only way to retrieve it is to go to the belly of the beast itself. He then gets the idea that one of them has to be strapped to a rope and sent into the stomach of the beetle. They play a rock-paper-clamp tournament in order to decide who goes in, and Zane ends up being the winner.

The next morning, they hook up a wire to Cole’s Dirt Bike, and tie it to Zane. Once Zane is inside, he suddenly has another set of visions. He sees an enormous snake made of fire emerge from a pyramid in the Desert, and sees the female snake from his previous dream attacking him in the Underground base. His visions continue, and he sees himself hurt in a world made of ice and snow.

He then awakens in the stomach of the beetle, and finds the component. The Ninja get him out quickly, and they reattach the mechanism to the Bounty, and head off, finally escaping from the three beetles.

Boobytraps and How to Survive Them
Zane and the others meet up with Clutch Powers in his camp in the Desert of Doom. Clutch refuses to enter the temple. The Ninja try to convince him, but he is unwilling. Zane points out that his book, Booby Traps and How to Survive Them, is key in helping explorers enter ancient tombs and whatnot. Clutch suddenly gets a call from the Explorers Club, saying that since he hasn't explored in over 10 years, his membership will be redacted. In order to preserve his place in the Club, he tells him that he will now be exploring the ancient pyramid.

Clutch and the others enter the Pyramid and find that it is filled with booby traps and ancient markings. He tells them that his book is key in surviving. Their first obstacle is a rickety old wooden bridge. Zane and the others stumble across, but they survive without trouble. Clutch tells them they got lucky, but luck runs out.

As they continue through, they trip over a trap that sends them all sliding down a corridor to a pit of spikes. Kai blasts the spikes with his fire, securing their lives. At the bottom of the pit, they find a pathway to the next room.

Finally, they find the main chamber, where several sarcophagi are lined out. In the next room, they find a large puzzle on the wall, and Zane points out that when solved, might lead them to a treasure behind the door.

While Jay attempts to solve it, Zane inspects the ancient markings on the walls. He translates the writing, that is a warning to those attempting to enter the tomb. It tells the story of a serpent who's anger almost destroyed Ninjago, until a foolish boy locked her away. He suddenly has a vision of his dream with Aspheera, and warns the others not to open the door... He is too late, and the sorcereress is awakened. Her name is Aspheera. She tells the Ninja to help her find "him," the treacherous deceiver who betrayed her. The Ninja don't know who she is talking about, and attempt Zane and the others attempt to fight her with Spinjitzu, but she too knows the art, and so they are unable to stop her.

She takes an interest in Kai, calling him a fire elemental, and tells him that for thousands of years she has been locked up, cold and alone. She starts to steal his power from him, and the others are no match for her, and she successfully steals his powers, and returns to her true form.

Clutch runs away as the Ninja are tied up in chains by Aspheera. She escapes the pyramid, and unleashes her army of Pyro Vipers onto Ninjago City...

Ninja vs Lava
The Ninja are tied up in the ancient pyramid, as lava erupts from within it. The temple begins to collapse upon itself, as Jay attempts to calm himself with Clutch Power's book. They are under the impression that Clutch has abandoned them.

Zane inspects Kai, who has fallen unconscious after his fire was taken. He says his vitals are fine, and he will recover shortly. The lights suddenly go out, and lava floods the room. Lloyd leads the others to break the chains binding them to the wall, which frees them (albeit, still being tied to each other.)

They get out of the crypt, all the while evading the rising lava and dragging Kai behind them. They return to the room of sarcophagi, and find that they are filled with ancient serpentine mummies. As the lava flows around them, the vipers return to life. The Ninja attempt to fight back, but are unable while chained together.

They eventually escape, and find the skeletal remains of an explorer who fell to the traps in the temple. They find that it has several exploring tools in his backpack, and use them to further advance out of the pyramid. After passing through the wooden bridge again, they exit the temple to find that it is absolutely surrounded in lava, with no way of escaping.

They have failed each other. The Ninja accept their fate, and sit, making no more attempt to escape... Suddenly, P.I.X.A.L. arrives in the Shuricopter to save them. She tells them that Lil Nelson told them where they were after Clutch Powers spread the news in Ninjago City.

Kai suddenly awakens, and the Ninja rejoice. They make plans to now return to Ninjago City to stop Aspheera.

Snaketastrophy
The Ninja arrive in Ninjago City just in time to save Fred Finely from being eaten by a Pyro Viper. The reporter tells them that Aspheera is on her way to the Ninjago Museum of History with Gayle Gossip and her cameraman, Vinny.

The ninja, after saving take off for the museum, ready to defend the City and to stop Aspheera from getting the weapon that the Treacherous Deceiver used against Aspheera, or the Scrolls of Forbidden Spinjitzu.

Vengeance is Mine!
Zane and the others battle Aspheera who used the power of the Scroll and her sorcery to make the Titan mech disappear instead. After his friends used the other scroll to battle Aspheera, she overcame them but after getting the scroll Zane used the Scroll to freeze Aspheera and the Pyro Vipers. Jay questions Zane on how he was able to do that and Wu replies that it was the power of the Scroll of Forbidden Spinjitzu and asks Zane to give the Scroll to him. Under the influence, Zane hesitated to hand over at first but regained his wits to try and give the Scroll to Wu.

However, before Zane could, he noticed Aspheera has managed to break her arm free from the Ice and aim her staff to use one final hit at Wu but Zane pushed his master out of harm's way causing him to be hit instead and was seemingly destroyed. The Ninja, Wu, and P.I.X.A.L. were heartbroken that Zane is gone once more.

When visiting an imprisoned Aspheera, Wu criticized her for destroying his pupil. However, she informs him that Zane was not destroyed but banished to the Never-Realm.

In a snow like area, the Titan Mech is laying on the ground while Zane's footprints are shown leading away from it.

A Cold Goodbye
Wu returned to the Monastery where he informs the ninja of how he discovered that Zane is still alive but trapped in the Never-Realm, a place his father told him to never go.