Sixteen Years Ago

Rain began pelting down on the couple's heads as they ran through Ninjago's thick forest. Leaves bit at their faces and their legs, scratching them, leaving blood. But they couldn't stop. Not until the baby in the woman's arms was safe.

Thousands of footsteps and thumps were heard from behind the man and the woman holding the baby, and leaves fell from the trees above as creatures ran on the treetops. It was the Turans.

They were after them.

"Misako!" the man whispered. "Watch out! Don't stop,"

Misako said nothing to her husband. She knew how dire the situation was. She knew her family were the creatures that were chasing them. The creatures that were ordered by her father to capture her and bring her home.

They knew nothing about the man running beside her. They didn't know he existed, and both wanted to keep it that way.

"There!" she cried. "Isn't that your house?"

The human man's house stood alone in the middle of the forest. It was made of wood and hay, and small enough to only fit the two of them.

"Yes," the man replied. "Hurry. We need to hide there."

Her husband burst down the door as soon as they arrived and ran to the empty guest room. The baby in the woman's arms was crying, and Misako tried to quiet him down.

"Sh, sh." she soothed, and the baby whimpered. "It's okay, it's okay, baby. Be quiet, now, or the monsters will come for us,"

At this the baby quieted down. After a moment, he then busied himself with making bubbles with his mouth. When they popped, he giggled. Misako laughed with him. "That's a good baby." she said. "That's a good baby."

"Mimi!" her husband called from the other room. "Come on! Hurry!"

Misako, practically jogging, dropped down into the chute with her baby boy in her arms. She lay him in one arm and got down on her stomach, ready to crawl with one arm through the chute. Then she looked up.

"Come on!" she called to her husband. "Hurry! I can hear them coming!"

But her husband gave her a look, one that sent Misako's young heart to her stomach. "No. No, you're coming with me. You are coming with your son,"

"No, I'm not, Mimi." he said, and reached down and took her furry hand. Misako looked back up at the young man with tears in her eyes.

"Don't leave me." she said. "Don't leave us. We need you."

"I'm sorry." he replied, the same tears glossing his eyes. "There's nothing I can do. Your father is coming soon, and so is my brother. You are not safe with me. We are not safe with each other."

"Yes, but we're happy!"

"Misako!" the man said. "We have to think about our baby now. Our baby boy. The only happiness and safety that matters is the one of our son."

Misako let out a stifled sob. She didn't want to go. She didn't want to leave the man that she married and had a baby with. She didn't want to go back to be a prisoner to her father and be forcefully married to his co-ruler Garmadon. She didn't want to go back to that life.

She wanted to start a new one, with her husband and her baby.

But the look in her husband's eyes as he looked down at her told her that it wasn't going to happen. That everything she wanted had to be put second, for the sake of her boy.

Misako rubbed her thumb against her husband's hand lovingly, the baby in her arms quiet, not daring to make a noise. He didn't even understand that his own father wasn't going to be with him again.

"I'm sorry, Mimi. I love you, so much. I don't care if you're a Turan. I don't care that I'm human. I love you. I always will. I'll wait for you, and I'll wait for my brother. I promise you." Misako's husband said, sobbing slightly. "I love you."

"I love you, too." Misako replied, tears rolling down her furred face. "And I'll take care of our baby. For us."

The man slowly let go of his wife's hand and shut the trap door.

Misako burst through the end of the trapdoor, and wasted no time in breaking into a run. With her tuned hearing, she could still hear the beating of her family's hearts and their pounding footsteps. Shadows came and then quickly went as the Turans scampered across the trees, momentarily blocking the moonlight.

The female Turan ran on her taloned feet across the dirt with the half human, half Turan boy in her arms. She had no idea where she was going, but she knew she was running away from danger.

Eventually, a cave came into Misako's view, and she bolted toward it. Once she got inside she lit a spare match she had kept and lit a pile of twigs. She set the baby on a large boiler and travelled to the back of the cave for more supplies that perhaps might be useful.

But instead was just dirt and a wall that closed in as the end of the cave. Without knowing why, Misako stared at it, tears coming into her eyes. She was thinking about her husband, and about leaving him for the sake of her child. The woman began to sob.

All that she really wanted was to have a family. She didn't want have a family with Garmadon. She didn't want the arranged marriage. What she wanted was her husband and her son's father. A family.

Misako then, without thinking, picked up dirt and carefully sketched on the cave wall in front of her. She brushed dirt with her fingers, creating a picture, of a tall male figure and a shorter female one. The two stood together, smiling, the woman figure with fur at her face and her husband holding a spear. At the picture she laughed, tears rolling down her face.

She would never forget drawing in the cave that night.

Misako then walked back to her baby and picked him up. He began to cry, hungry, and clung to his mother with his chubby hands.

I barely knew him for eleven months. Misako thought sadly. And his father...he's never going to see his boy again.

Tears fell from Misako's eyes.

I only wish your father Wu could see you now, Kai.