Libber felt awful. Cliff was so excited. She was definitely not. She had a job to do and a baby would not help her. If she was completely honest with herself, the pregnancy felt like a burden.
She needed to protect Ninjago. Raising a child would only be slowing her down. She did not want to pass on her powers to someone else just yet.
She wanted an abortion, but her new husband persisted. Libber had never seen him smile like he smiled when he found out. So she painfully agreed. For him.
Her husband bought clothes, toys and made a room for their child. A little boy, the ultrasound scan read.
There were ten toes, ten fingers and a beating heart. A healthy 22 week old.
It was fair to say that Libber's idea caused a horrified Cliff to get upset easily. After an argument, she stormed out of the house, leaving her distraught husband behind to never hear from his wife ever again.
He never got the chance to give his child a name.
He was born prematurely. Survived, but premature. She knew this because she was 24 into her pregnancy when she gave birth to him in her childhood home.
A hospital with medical attention would have been ideal, but she needed to keep herself and her child out of the public eye - off the radar. She wanted to call for her husband to be present, but after two weeks, she was still mad at him.
If she had to give birth alone in an empty house in the Ninjagian countryside, using a cushion to silence her screams, that is what she would have to do.
Her parents, two Korean farmers, have long since passed and left their daughter the little farmhouse she was trapped in.
Libber was a warrior, a ninja. She could handle childbirth. She was one of the four elementals of creation, although she hasn't had the honour of claiming the Nunchucks of Lightning, just yet.
And she did. For 18 hours she endured the pain of labour without any assistance.
Libber cut the umbilical cord between her and him; she cut the bond between them forever.
Libber held him in her arms while she trekked along the harsh desert. She was careful to not break him; he was so small.
Libber feared that he inherited her power. She knew the chances were high. The elemental gene was a strong one; the power would do anything to live on.
The element chose the life of the carrier. The body would grow to accommodate it. Libber could tell that he would grow to be short with long legs. She knew he would grow to be lean. She knew that he would grow to be fast and flexible.
That was how it would be. The element was a parasite, after all.
His eyes were closed and he had the smallest amount of fuzz on his head. He was quite cute. She could already see that he would have her signature Korean eyes and his father's button nose.
She arrived at what looked like a scrap yard. It was the only thing for kilometres.
She rushed over and got one good look at him. She tried not to change her mind, but it had to be done.
She covered him up in her own orange scarf and nestled him between unrecognizable pieces of scrap. She covered his face with the scarf to protect his eyes from the sand in his short little lifespan.
She ran even faster when she heard his first cries.