"SETTLE DOWN!"  Shaw demanded as the camp sat down to eat.  The tent went quiet and all eyes fell on him.

Venus took a raspy breath in, knowing what was coming,  and knowing that the announcement would make everything more final.

Peter stepped up next to him, "Thank you for your attention everyone.  We have so new information that is beneficial to the camp."

Peter quickly glanced at Venus who was holding both babies close to her as she intently watched him.

"One of our informants saw on the news that New Anada was taking MB refugees.  They are offering us freedom to live our lives out normally.  Both Shaw and I have decided to lead a group, of all those that what to go, to the border."

Hushed whispers spread throughout the tent, and to everyone's surprise, Layla, Shaw's sister, stood up.

"What if we don't want to go?"  She asked.

Shaw's brows knitted together and a scowl darkened his face, "Layla," he said warningly, but she only returned his glare.

"We are strongly encouraging all those that can go, to follow us," Peter told her. "This is a chance at a better life, a real life!"

"But what if some of us don't want to leave our families?" She asked.

Peter sighs, "No one is being forced to go.  If some of you want to stay you can, but Shaw and I won't be here to protect you."

The murmurings picked up again.

"Then I'll stay and keep what's left of the camp going, " Layla announced.

Shaw grimace deepened, "Sit down," he ordered his sister, "we'll discuss this later."

With a hard plop, Layla sat down and threw her arms over her chest in a huff.

"The details aren't completely worked out, but we know we will be moving within five days. So, moving preparations need to begin," Peter told the group.

Venus glanced over at Mars to see Bridget whispering to him, but his eye were on her and their children.  He gave her a reassuring smile and whispered something back to Bridget.  A scowl crossed her face and she pulled away from him.

"What do you mean you're not going?" Bridget asked him.

"V just had the babies.  She's not going to be able to make the journey and I'm not leaving my kids behind," Mars told her.

She glanced over at Venus who was already watching Peter again.

"I want you to stay with me, though," Mars told her as he rested his hand on her leg.

"This is a chance to live a normal life, Mars.  I don't want to live in these woods forever."

"I don't either," he chuckled, "we'll only be waiting until V is strong enough and healed enough to make the trip."

Bridget sighed and ran her hands through her dirty blonde hair, "I don't know."

"It'll only be a few more weeks, a month tops."

"Just let me think about it, okay."

"What's there to think about?  You'll get to stay with me, your ruggedly handsome sidekick.  We can go hunting all day and cuddle all night," he grinned.

"In between spending all your time with her," she says nodding toward Venus.

Mars looked over to see Peter settled down next to her and starting to eat his dinner.  The twins were nestled in her arms, as he stared on wishing he could hold one of them.

"Yes, I'm going to have to spend some time with her to help take care of the twins.  That's the whole point of me staying."

Bridget drew invisible circles on his hand, "I hate that I have to share you."

"Venus was pregnant when we got to camp.  You knew what you were getting into from the beginning," He pointed out.

"I know, but I didn't expect it to be so hard.  It's just...she knows things about you that I don't.  It's not fair."

Mars frowns and pulls his hand away from her, "I'm not talking about this again."

"I just don't see what the big deal is."

"The big 'deal' is that I was forced to do that since I was thirteen.  I'm not ready, and you know that.  I will never be forced into do that ever again.  It'll  be what I want and only when I'm ready."

She sighed and grabbed his hand, "I  can't imagine what you must have gone through in the Cube, but I am trying to understand."

"I know," he smiles.

"My parents thought about buy from the Cube, once.  They thought about getting another child since I wasn't cute anymore," she told him. "I remember hearing them talk about the different facilities and my father brought up the Cube. 'It's more natural,' he told my mom. She hated the idea. 'It's well enough for the boys.  The get to screw beautiful girls all day, but what about the females?  Those poor girls.'  I never considered that it would be a violation to the males, until I met you."

"The worst part was, that I knew I was  hurting the females more than as I was hurting myself.  I  would watch their bellies grow and watch them suffer as the life I helped create grew in them.  Then they would disappear and every time they came back I would see a peice of their soul missing."

"It's not your fault, Mars," she told him.

"Maybe not, but I could have refused."

"And then you would have been dead," she pointed out.

"Sometimes that seemed like the better alternative."

Bridget hugged his arm tightly,  "Well, I'm glad you didn't.   You wouldn't be here if you just gave up."

"I never understood why people bought from the Cube, knowing how the process was done, and I became bitter toward people on the outside."

Bridget gently traced the blue veins on his arm, "You  facility prided itself on being the most natural alternative.   Norms miss the idea of babies being conceived the 'old fashioned way,' and  the idea of the Cube is comforting to them.  My parents hate me because I was conceived in a dish and grown in a machine.   They would lock me in my room every night, out of fear, because they weren't sure what their soulless child would do to them while they slept.  The idea of the Cube gives them the illusion of how it use to be."

"It's funny," Mars chuckled,  "they call us soulless, because of how they made us.  But I would never put them through the horrible things that they have done to me."

"Once we get to New Anada it'll be different,"  she assured him, "we'll finally get to be free."

Mars glanced over at Venus one last time, "Soon, it'll all be over."