A famous philosopher from the 2050s published a text on dreams. She spoke of the power of them, and how having a dream can change everything. While she explained how it gave you something to aspire to and how it gave you purpose, she also said a line that had come to mind now. "Dreams inspire hope, and hope gives you power."

Now, sitting at a bare table and watching the dozens of families - all saved by The Insurgence - gather to socialize, I watched the hope in their eyes. They had nothing, had grown up and felt anything but powerful as they were forced to cower beneath the High Ranked.

Now, their hope was their power. And they had begun to fight.

***

One Hour Before

***
We were both tired. Nya and I had to keep moving, for every time we stopped, it felt like we were in more danger of being caught.

But we hadn't slept peacefully in days, and we could only eat small parcels of food at a time. We were beginning to lose strength, enough that passing out felt close in our futures.

Even Nya, who I had learned to be strong-willed and persistent, had long past the point of wanting to give up. The determination in her eyes had flickered and faded.

Nya ran alongside me, inhaling shakily and exhaling in quick bursts. She had barely spoken a word to me while running.

She had only answered a few questions of mine, refusing to answer any more. So far, my suspicion of her interaction with The Insurgence had been confirmed, and I had learned that one of the leaders of the group knew me, though Nya hadn't confirmed who that was exactly.

"We should stop," Nya said eventually, slowing as she did so.

I nodded, breathing heavily.

We were in a more unfriendly part of the city, The buildings were only shadows in the night as we moved past them. At this point, I could faintly see Nya, even thought she walked only a couple feet away.

"Let's find an inn to sleep in," she said, looking at me. Her eyes dared me to challenge her. But I only nodded, sure it was unsafe to do more. Something between a wary and triumphant expression passed Nya's face.

We found somewhere somewhat practical, and slept with one eye open. The next day, Nya led me to a place close to where the city ende. To my surprise, it was an underground civilization. She said it was created by The Insurgence. Apparently, The Insurgence had existed for a considerable amount of time, beginning as a small organization and growing in numbers little by little over time.

So now, I found myself standing in an underground, particularly pink room.

A young girl ran in. She looked about the age of ten, and stared up at me in wonder. She had curly, brown hair and eyes bluer than anything I've ever seen. And she was wearing, while different shades, pink from head to toe. Judging on how her clothes matched the colors of the room we were standing in, I assumed it was her bedroom. And while it was clear all her stuff was secondhand, she looked utterly content with it all.

I crouched down so her sweet face was at my eye-level.

"Who are you?" Her voice had hints of an accent - southern maybe?

I smiled as kindly as possible. "I'm Selina."

She grinned at my name, and her eyes lit up. "Imma call you Lili!"

I chuckled. "I love that. Now..." I leaned in, as if I were about to tell her a very important secret. "What should I call you?" I whispered in her small ear, her hair brushing my cheek softly.

Her eyes erupted in thought. After a heartbeat, they lit up again, and she bounced on her sparkly pink shoes. "Evie."

"Evie. Sounds good." I said, and she grinned again.

"Hey. Lili. Let's go." I looked at Nya, who appeared in the doorway.

I nodded, and looked back at the girl in front of me. "See you later, Evie."

I rose from my crouch, and followed Nya away. She led me down a dimly lighted hallway. "So where are you taking me?" I asked.

"To one of our leaders, the person who ordered me to retrieve you."

"Why did they want you to retrieve me?"

"I don't know."

I narrowed my eyes. "Well, who are they?"

She stopped, turned around, and glared. "What is this? An interrogation? Stop with all the questions."

"Well, you've barely given me any information." I said with a bit of an irritated snap.

She continued walking. Just as I was sure she had ignored me, she replied, "I haven't given you any information because I was ordered not to, for reasons I do not know." she added, recognizing the question rising in my eyes. "I've already told you more than I should."

I sighed. We turned around a corner, finding an almost identical hallway. Except there was a door where the hallway ended.

Light creeped out from the ajar door, and I heard Nya inhale sharply as we approached it. When we reached the doorway, Nya stopped and I did the same a moment later.

"Go in," she said.

"Aren't you coming," I asked, eyes narrowed.

"No."

I sighed at her inadequate response, and turned back to the door. Taking a deep breath in preparation, I nudged the door open and walked through.

A small room greeted me. Tall, filled bookcases are built against the walls, and dim lights on the ceiling illuminated the room in a hazy color.

My eyes traveled down to the person sitting behind a wooden desk. The person had positioned their chair so it faced away, and their face was hidden from me. They slowly turned.

"Selina Osiris Gray," the person drawled, as more of a thought than an acknowledgement. They continued, "The White Shadow. Both names are powerful, but in different ways." They were completely facing me now, but a shadow had cast on their face from the hood they wore. And I couldn't tell their sex from their voice. "On one hand, The White Shadow's name produces fear and whispers of ghastly tales from those who hear it. But Selina Osiris Gray...that name has a power that's completely different. That name holds an identity. It carries a tale of a girl that has been through hell and back, and still survived. It carries strength, resistance. And most of all, hope. Those who hear the story and name of Selina Osiris Gray are inspired. But those who hear The White Shadow's name... their hope is destroyed. One name symbolizes what the world can thrive to be, what the best of us are like. And one name shows us a reality of the worst of us. The question is...which are you?"

The person removed their hood.

Dark curls, olive skin, eyes so brown they look black. All unfamiliar to me. But the sense of self, the aura of brilliance, beauty, and valor. Those were all things I recognized. But from where?

"Who are you?" I asked.

The woman's expression remained solemn. "I don't expect you to recognize me, Gizem. But I expected you to at least recognize the similarities between my mother and I. After all," Her dark eyes glittered like black diamonds, "you did take her name."

___

"Your mother is the assassin Shadow? That's impossible!"

Shadow's daughter bristled. "I assure you. It is not. My mother is just as capable of producing a daughter than she is of producing a son."

"So you know about Ash?"

"I do. Though I can say with certainty that he is not aware of my existence," she said in a voice fit for a queen.

My head spun. Shadow was always secretive, but this was on a whole different level. A daughter?! How was she able to keep that a secret? And how could she keep Ash's sister from him?! This woman is Ash's family, his blood. It's wrong that Ash was led to believe he was an only child when he wasn't.

Shadow's daughter continued without an acknowledgement of the shock etched on my face. "But my brother is not a topic I wish to pursue talking about. I saved you from death today. Tell me, do you think you were worthy of that?"

There was such intelligence in the woman's eyes, an old wisdom I did not expect to see from someone so young. And yet...

I fixed my gaze on her clear eyes. They struck me for a moment, that feature. The focus within them, the unrelenting concentration. She was observing my every movement, my every decision of action.

"No," was all I said. And I believed it.

She didn't reply. A single moment of silence stretched on as she narrowed her dark eyes. She was standing now - when did she stand? - and she leaned on the desk with her hands, as if she needed it's support to understand me.

Finally, she spoke. "Why?"

"Now that you've heard what I've done, do you?" I was immersed by her, at such a deep level it was shocking.

Our eye contact had not broken.

"I believe judging people based on stories is not accurate. Meeting them yourself however...is."

Slowly, I was falling into her. I was mesmerized by the elegant way she stood, the graceful but steady way she moved, and heartbreaking emotions that were becoming so clear, so obvious on her face...

She blinked. Turned away. And I suddenly became aware of the world around me, rather than just her.

The bookcases, the dim light, the pushed aside chair, the fact that Nya stood waiting on the other side of the door behind me.

When she faced me again, her face was as solemn as the moment I first saw it. She said, though slightly roughly. "Nya will show you your room."

"My...room?"

She wasn't meeting my eyes, but her expression held strength and persistence. "Yes. I saved your life, Gizem. Now, it belongs to me."

___

For an underground secret organization, there sure seemed to be a lot of people who knew about it.

There has to be thousands of people here, I thought as we passed room after room.

Some rooms were full of little children, others had full families, and many had groups of teenagers that chatted and hung out. But each room was an average size, just big enough to fit the two bunk beds and four people who lived in each room. Occasionally, there would be five or six in a room, but because that's how big the family living in it was.

No one had much stuff to fill the space given, but they had enough. Enough to live, enough to enjoy the little things.

Nya led me towards a clearing. The huge room had been created with stone, so the walls and floor were completely made of the gray rock. Families and friends socialized below. But instead of going down the stairs to join them, Nya continued forward, turning left twice, then right, and then straight into a plain bedroom.

It was much smaller than all the others, made for one. A small bed was in the corner, with a pillow thrown on top and a couple blankets folded at the foot of the bed. With the bed, there wasn't much room for anything else except for a small, wooden desk facing a wall diagonal to the bed.

Nya disappeared before I could ask any questions.

I sighed, sitting on the bed. It creaked a little in protest, but not loud enough to be problematic.

I caught sight of a black, circular object in the corner of the ceiling above my bed. A camera. I rolled my eyes. Fine. I wasn't going to be doing anything bad anyway.

I put my head in my hands. My elbows leaned on my thighs.

In the last two hours, my life had changed in drastic ways.

But meeting Ash's sister is what came to mind the most. That might've been the strangest part of today, and not just because of the information she gave me.

It was that one moment. That one heated, still moment between us.

It was only after I had laid fully down on the bed and closed my eyes, just about to fall asleep when I realized I never got her name.