So, even though I know I shouldn't, I am starting another story. It's been circling my head for a couple months, so I hope you like it.

Summary: Ten years ago, everything changed… Mostly for the worst.

Pairings: EDeN (Eric/Natalia), slight mention of CaRWash and H/Y

It's funny. Ten years ago, I would have laughed at someone if they called me a Shadow. But, a lot has changed in the last ten years and when my daughter came home calling me of such a thing a couple days ago, it hurt. It is weird how society took such a simple, unimportant word, and made it something to be feared being called.

Maybe I should start at the beginning, yes?

Well, my name is Natalia and it is now year 2018. My husband, Eric, and I have been married for eleven years and one month. Our daughter, Danielle Maria Delko, is nine and half years old.

Ten year today, society completely reversed itself all over the United States. The only two states not affected by what happened are Hawaii and Alaska. The rest of the 48 states have fallen into, with no better way to be described, complete chaos. Well, it's more like organized, complete chaos.

No one knows exactly what happened, but it did start at the capital. Before anyone knew it, we were thrust into a war. People fighting to keep things the same, the new powers fighting to keep in control and everyone else hiding and not voicing an opinion.

We lost. We lost our freedom. The actual battles only lasted about a year. I didn't actually take part in that part very much, seeing as when it all started I was three months pregnant. The war is still going on, but it is more of an underground thing and there are not really any big battles. So, that's where you find us today. My husband and I were forced out of our job. The new powers sent their own people, and they didn't wait for evidence. If they thought that you did something wrong, they took handled, no questions. It was like something you read in all the history books.

I had to explain all of this to my daughter. Though, I am not sure if she actually understands it. She came in and told me they were learning about it in school. Surprising that they actually teach it, isn't it? Anyways, evidently, they were talking about two of the people who fought against the Powers, whom they call Rebels in school, and a girl made a comment about it which caused Danni to come home and question us and call me a Shadow.

I was taken aback. She bad mouthed the people they were talking about in school. It hurt and I had to explain who the people were. I told her the couples real names, Calleigh and Ryan. I told her that I knew them, that they were some of my best friends. She looked ashamed of herself.

Well, now to explain a little more, the team at the lab had all fought for freedom. There were three things that happened to you if you were a fighter. The first was the one that Ryan and Calleigh were unlucky enough to be put with. They died six months into fights, during its peak. Their home was invaded and burned. It left a whole in the rest of us that was left in our group of fighters.

The second happened to Horatio. He, Yelina, Ray, and Lorene, his daughter that is a couple months older than Danni, just up and left about a week after what happened to Ryan and Calleigh. No one knows exactly where they went or what had happened to them. Eric thinks they may have made it to Brazil, like Yelina had a dozen years ago.

The last, Eric and I agreed on. It was to convert. We had no other choice. I gave birth two weeks after what happened to Calleigh and Ryan. Though, once you converted, you have the choice to join The Powers, fall into the millions that are just there, or you could fake convert, where you're a spy on the inside.

We are somewhere in between the middle of the millions of others and the few that risk spying. You have to be careful, though. It's a dangerous game to play, and a thin line to ride. If you're caught, they can take your family and if you get in to deep, there is no coming back.

Miami, well, it's become the torture place for The Powers. They use the wildlife to accomplish such feats. It makes me sick to be living in such a place, but moving is one of the things that they deemed illegal.

I was startled out of my thoughts as a hand came to rest on my shoulder. I realized that I was sitting in my front room on my couch and I looked up into the face of my husband and smiled, "Hey Eric."

"Hey," he sat beside me; his face worn down like it seemed to be for the past ten years. He smiled back at me, but it wasn't the same smile that I remembered from when I first fell in love with him. But, neither is mine. I'm just as worn down. With Ryan, Calleigh, and Horatio gone, everything just seems so worn down.

I leaned into him and closed my eyes. I had told him about what Danni came home saying and that I told her about Calleigh and Ryan that night after I got done talking to her. He had closed his eyes, the memories coming back all too vivid.

Horatio had phoned us and we hurried over there. We stood there watching as the firefighters, who were allowed to keep their jobs, tried to put out the fire. We all had tears in our eyes, the firefighters telling us that if anyone was in there, they wouldn't have made it out. They never got to look for bodies, though, because as soon as the fire was out, The Powers sent everyone away and cleaned it up themselves.

"You okay?" he asked and I nodded.

"You're home earlier," I stated. I didn't work anymore. I stayed at home and took care of things. He usually worked from eight to six and it was only noon right now. When he first started, he had made the joke about normal hours. I laughed, though neither of us thought it was funny, we liked the crazy hours of the lab.

"I decided to come home early today," he told me, burying his head into my hair. This is the one thing that hadn't changed, the way we sat. I still bury me head into his chest, and he would bury his in my hair.

"Good," I sighed in content. These were the moments I liked, when we sat cuddled up, like we had before this whole nightmare had started.

I felt him gently kiss my head a couple times before he spoke, "Yeah, I'm glad I did too."

We hadn't this comfortable and care free in a long time and I missed it. I know he did too. I moved my head and captured his lips. Breaking it off, I looked him straight in the eye, "I missed you."

"I missed you, too," he responded, knowing that I wasn't talking about since he left at eight o'clock this morning, rather what was lost years ago.

There's chapter one. Tell me if I should continue.