Kira Nerys led her remaining brother out into the wilderness and away from their internment camp Singha. They avoided the Cardassian guards and ducked down into a tunnel that went beneath the barbed wire fences. Once they were in the obscurity of the trees, they retrieved their slings, bows and arrows. They found stones along the ground to serve as further ammunition. Maybe they would get lucky and catch some small game. Nerys didn't really believe that, but she wanted to talk to her brother one last time before she left to join the Resistance. She didn't want him to be completely in the dark and angry. She knew Kira Reon. She would have reacted the same way if he up and left in the gray twilight with no explanation.

The pair of Bajoran siblings looked like living scarecrows. They were lean and hungry with nothing but rags on their bodies and rags wrapped around their feet instead of proper shoes. They shared the same red hair from their father which was bound to darken to auburn when they grew up. Kira had her father's brown eyes as well while Reon had his mother's blue eyes. He had no memories of their mother, and Nerys had only a few. She remembered that she had blonde hair and sculpted pottery and painted icons before the camp. Nerys had been three when their mother died of malnutrition and Reon was only ten months younger.

Kira Reon was waiting for his sister to speak. She was the eldest and more than just a sister to him. Nerys had been forced at an early age to accept the role of the only woman of their family. She was almost a mother to her little brothers. Their baby brother Pohl was only an infant when their mother was taken. Bajoran babies depended on their mother more so than some species. The mothers carried them for five months and shared so many blood vessels. Their milk was vital as well, and Pohl wasn't ready to be weaned, but the Cardassians and the universe didn't care. It was a miracle that he had survived to his eighth birthday. He had died a few winters before, victim of starvation, just like his mother.

Their father Kira Taban had done his best. The siblings didn't blame him one bit. There was no paying work in the camps lately and their rations became more meager than before the past year. Pohl had the odds stacked against him. Taban tried to make his garden grow. He begged the Cardassians to look at his children and have mercy, even though it was humiliating. Nerys and Reon tried to hunt, beg, scavenge, and steal. There was scant wildlife and edible plants beyond the fence. Singha camp was placed in inhospitable land on purpose. At least they had all tried.

Reon and Nerys were made closer from their loss. They were now twelve and eleven. They played spring ball since there was little else to do and played deadly games of hide and seek with the Cardassian soldiers. They learned to hunt and trap. The occasional meat they caught was enough to get them by for the past three years. It was all training for Kira Nerys. She had dreamed of joining the Resistance for a while. She just needed to break the news to him.

"I have to leave tomorrow," she announced.

"I saw you packing your bags. Do you have to do it?" he asked. "Father wouldn't stop crying. If you join the Resistance, you could be killed!"

Nerys sighed, "Did father explain what will happen if I stay?"

"No."

"Reon, if I stay, there won't be any increase in our rations. We lost Pohl already. You or I will starve next. I might as well leave and let you have my share. We still have too many mouths to feed as it stands."

"No!" he insisted. "Let me go! You have always known best how to take care of our father! You know how he gets! He stares into space until you throw your arms around him and kiss him. He would ignore me and Pohl."

"It has to be me. This isn't your decision. With mother gone, it's my parental prerogative!"

"That's not fair! That shouldn't count! You're not the mother!"

"Fine, but I'm still your elder!"

"You have to do better than that, sis!"

Reon didn't have hair quite as red as hers, but he was just as stubborn. Nerys stopped them both in their tracks. She had hoped to avoid fully explaining.

"I have to do this, brother, because you and father will lose me anyway. It's only a matter of time. Do you understand?"

"No!"

"The Cardassians will take me away any day now. It'll probably be that same Cardassian soldier that has been haunting our camp lately."

"You mean the one that kept trying to comb your hair and offered us sweets? But he seemed nice!"

Kira Nerys winced, "Please tell me that you have not accepted anything he offered you?"

"Why?" Reon asked with alarm.

"I promise I won't get mad or tattle to father. Please! You have to tell me the truth!"

"I took some sweets, yes."

His sister squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. Reon immediately realized he had done something terribly wrong, knowingly or not.

"Nerys, what is it?" he cried. "What did I do?"

"Reon, the Cardassians never give anything to Bajorans for free. Now that soldier can come back anytime and drag me away as payment for our 'debt', no matter how small. He's justified to them. You didn't know. I'm not angry! I almost took bread from that snake and father stopped me just in time."

"But shouldn't he take me instead since it's my debt and not yours?" he was confused. "I'm the one that took the food!"

"Cardassians prefer little girls, that is why," Nerys said flatly. "They'd keep me long after the stupid debt was paid and send you and father some extra rations. That sounds nice, but the amount would be an insult and not worth it!"

Reon began to understand her now. He hugged her and began to sob. She started to cry too.

"I've lost my mother, my brother, and now I'm about to lose you! No, Nerys! Why is this happening to us?"

"Because we are Bajorans!" she answered bitterly. "So now you see why I have to go. One of those snakes will come for me eventually. It has nothing to do with you! Got it? Please tell me that you do!"

"I do!"

"Swear to me that you will join me in the Resistance someday. Help me fight the Cardassians and drive them off our planet! We'll be brother and sister in arms as well as in blood! Until then, take care of father! Swear it!"

"I swear!"

"Remember that I'll pray to the Prophets every dusk. I'll face the horizon and pray for you and father. Will you do the same?"

"I will!"

"Good! That way, we'll know exactly what we are doing and saying at the same time no matter what! I love you, Reon!"

"I love you, Nerys!"

"Survive! Do you hear me? Survive!"