Disclaimer: I don't own negima or avatar in any way.
I have increased the average amount of words per chapter from 3k to 5k from now.
Now please i want to mention, my Word 2010 messed up. So when i was writing this chapter, the space between some words dissapeared, i already checked it many times i tried to correct it.
If there is anything out of order, please dont be ashamed to review and tell me(as well as telling your opinions about my first story).
Chapter 21:The Resort.
Air, Water, Earth, Fire, These are elements of the balance in this world. 10000 years ago I was the hero who brought peace to a terrible war. I along with my friends and teachers travelled around the world to find and face the fire lord Ozai, but one day everything change, I find myself trapped in a distant future, I'm alone but I will remain determined to find my reason in this place.
Following the events of the last chapter…
Evangeline used her entire free time reading everything that she could to discover the purpose of Aang appearance on the future. Her only tip was a single word: Avatar. And the most interesting answers were being shown to Aang from the ominous nameless book, Chachamaru found on the Library Island.
"Well, what exactly you want talk to me?" Aang asked unsure of her intentions.
"I have investigating a while, and I found some interesting things. So, I want to confirm a few things. First…"demanded her showing another of her books, so it began; it took several minutes of demonstrating evidence so that Eva could explain properly.
"… Now considering this, let me explain what I learnt. The Avatar is the spirit of the planet or better, existence, incarnated on a mortal vessel portraying extreme power, the only person that can master all the elements that constitute the universe, in other words energy, which your people diversified and thought that everything was made from four separate forces of nature, thus making the existence of the four nations: Air, Water, Earth and Fire."
"The Avatar's duty in your past is to master all these elements and maintain balance of the world, to help them; they can request aid from their past lives that live on an alternative parallel world only known was the Spirit World, home of the first spirits that existed since the beginning of the existence."
"The Avatar himself is mortal, so its existence follows a cycle of rebirth designed by your people 10000 years ago between the nations themselves. Considering what happened on the school trip, everything matches; that woman, Chigusa, that used the latent powers that Konoka possess and summoned an Army of demons that was defeated by your appearance when you fought with that Demon lord as well as the lethal injuries you inflicted on her." And then she took a long breath and pointed him,
"With all those theories, is there anything I missed?"
"No, you have told everything, even things that I dint knew, How did you all of this?" he was quite shocked from hearing it.
"I have sent Chachamaru to the Library Island to search anything linked to the word, Avatar, I must say, it's interesting, that Huge Library was been built thousands years ago by an secret organization called, White Lotus or something."
"(The Order again… What they were planning while I was gone?) Wow… if it's like that, then I don't need to hide anymore" he said.
"Exactly, and that brings us to the beginning. You said that your life was unusual, how?"
"Well, how should I begin…My life began at with the air nomads. I was born like any other person, and I travelled the world many times, I made many friends and I on that time, I felt… free… once that day came…I will never forgetwhen they revealed it"
"The Avatar…" she added.
"Exactly…it all began when I was playing with other kids at the Southern Air temple, teaching the ability that led me into the mastery of Airbending, when the monks came… to recognize the next avatar my people utilized a simple test,once a child is born, it presented to him thousands and thousands of toys, and he was supposed to choose only four… the same four that belonged to the former avatar lives on the endless cycle… and from that day everything changed"
"Changed?"
"… Yeah…Once it spread out, my fun began to end, being the Avatar, cause the elements around you more…obedient, to say… To me, bending always has been easy(expect for earthbending…), and because of that, my friends refused to play with me on anything, they said it would make the game unfair… the only person that considered me as an equal, was Monk Gyatso, if possible I could say that he was my father at then things worsened…at brink of war, they desperately wanted someone to make the difference and put an end to the coming war… so they decided to relocate me to the Eastern Air temple so that I could complete my training…"
As Aang remembers when he sneaks at the elders meeting and learn their decision about his fate, Eva could feel his Chi burning with anger.
"They wanted to take everything I knew, everything I loved…" he said looking down, Eva for a second could see his tattoos glowing, which made the story even more interesting.
"And then?"
"I couldn't bear the pressure, I was afraid… confused, I felt powerless and sad, unable to do anything, and that led me to my greatest mistake… the extinction of the Air Nomads."
"How?"
"I ran away… during the night, I was aware of the weather at time, even so, I had no choice… that when I realized my mistakes… I lost control on a terrible storm and fell… if wasn't for my Avatar powers, I could have died…for 100 years, I have spent frozen in an iceberg suspended from time…and during that time, the fire nation, the ones who began the war, started a mass genocide against my people, just to find… me, the last airbender."
"I have spent the rest of my life, trying to restore the balance and put an end to that war andI did everything, I won, I brought peace to the world, only to lose everything it fought and end here. In this place,a future without purpose… without a reason… and now I have no clue of what's happening neither whyI am here. What I'm supposed to do."And then he sighed.
"That's my story, satisfied?" he asked but got no answer, "…I'm going to sleep." He muttered.
Eva just stood in silence thinking about what she just heard; in a way, she didn't care about that pitiful story, but still so, somewhere in her heart, she felt that they are the same, puppets of destiny, controlled by things beyond their grasp. Eventually she ordered Chachamaru to handle her books while Aang simply left for his room without saying anything.
Inside there, he just stood on his futon staring at his necklace, the only thing he has in common with his past. He hated to be the Avatar, he just wanted to be a normal person and live his entire life as a common, he do, of course, recognized his crucial purpose and serve the world's necessities loyally, it just was annoying to handle the burden, especially now when he is alone.
The only thing in his mind right now, was a memory: The renovation of the southern water tribe. During that time, thanks to the efforts of the master Pakku and the northern pole's help, the southern pole was been reconstructed and selected to be the new base of the Order of the White lotus, where they could focus on helping the Avatar and track the next one when necessary.
From mere huts it once were, it changed to a massive city with large walls, impressive wooden houses and temples inside, it was both Katara and Aang's home, that day was so special that he was visited by everyone he loved, his best friends and teachers. He could remember their smiles that day echoing in his ears…
FirelordZuko& Mai; Toph and her metalbending students, Penga, The Dark One and Ho Tun; The Kyoshi WarriorsSuki and Ty Lee;Aang's Pets: The Winged Lemur Momo and the Sky Bison Appa; White Lotus most notable members: The Dragon of the West and the Leader, Grand LotusIroh, King Bumi, Master Jeong, Master Pakku,Sokka's Master Piandao and mostly important, Sokka and Katara themselves. Everyone reunited on a very big party, celebrating that day…He stood thinking on that for several hours before finally sleep in darkness.
On Next morning…
On this morning, Aang woke up with his body unresponsive, for obvious reasons considering yesterday, eventually did stood and proceeded on his normal morning routine for the day. Nothing in particular happened until Negi came seeking training. Knocking the door, Aang goes to greet him.
"Oh hello, Negi!"
"Aang-nii-san! Hey, is master in there?"
"Yeah, she is just upstairs, probably sick or reading something, come in."
And then both head to Eva's room and found her indeed reading other of her ancient books Chachamaru found, once noticing, she felt annoyed at their presences.
"What, You want boya?" she quickly demanded.
"Ah, I want to continue my training, Master" He said bowing to her like usual.
"Tsk…How annoying… Fine!" she quickly snaps the book shut and then stands up.
"Chachamaru!" she calls for her servant who appeared is seconds.
"Prepare the resort, we are going to use it for training" she quickly ordered, "you two, get out my sight, we are going to meet in there…"
"Just a second…" Aang then gone to pick Zero.
"Aang-sama!" She greeted.
"Hey, good morning Zero-chan, how do you feel?"
"I've felt better…" and then Aang takes her and leave the room with Negi.
They stood on the coach speaking about the recent events for an while, like the fact that Asuna indeed have forgiven Negi after all; That he didn't like to hear that the library girls wanted to know magic; and that he still haven't decided his fighting style yet,as well as other events; Negi found creepy when he saw Aang intimately speaking with Zero as they were really good friends.
Moments later, Chachamaru came to warn them that everything was ready; she led then into a room downstairs, a place that Aang was really curious to know since he came. In there was many doll hanging out which it was a very creepy scene to see, their objective was a pedestal on the end of the room containing a glass sphere with appears to be a model of an structure inside.
"This is the resort, this glass was magically designed to compress the time in a factor of one day per hour, in other words, a single day inside means one hour outside."
"Wow, that is something I want to see" Aang commented inspecting the constant stream of spiritual energy deeply compressed inside.
"Amazing!" Negi shouted, "How do we enter inside?"
"You have to stand exactly there" she explained pointing to a designed area, there was something marked on the ground, a glyph, "Master is waiting inside"
"Then what we waiting for, let's go!"
"Ah! Wait Aang-nii-san!" Aang quickly stepped on the glyph with started to glow engulfing him on bright energy before fading away.
Evangeline's Magic Resort
Arriving there, he finds himself on a wonderful place; the resort was supported by a massive pillar high up on the air surrounded by a sea, at his front, a massive bridge that connected to a bigger part of the structure and to a familiar massive spiritual energy at its speaking of energy, there was another minor one linking to his head, or better, to the doll of his head, who surprisingly started to move onits own.
"Eh? Zero-chan?" he said surprised to watch her stretching herself.
"Ah… it soo good to move again…" she stated.
"Oh? You can walk?"
"Yup, but only on this place" she explained.
"Cool… so if it's like that, then I can tell that Chibi-chan also can cast magic in this place, correct?" he thought.
"Yeah, cool place isn't?"
"I couldn't agree more, what the hell is Negi doing." he was very curious to meet with Eva and learn more of this place; he kept inspecting around for at least oneminute before Negi finally warps in with Chachamaru.
"Finally! I was beginning to ask what took you so long to come" he shouted.
"Eh? But we followed you a second later after you warped." Negi replied confused.
"The time dilated Aang-sensei, so inside here time flow faster than outside, therefore explaining our delay." Chachamaru explained.
"Whatever, let's go, Chibi-chan is waiting for us." And then they crossed the bridge leading to the main area, a massive courtyard with a spire at its center, another entrance at the other side, the view was impressive. After a few seconds admiring it, Evangeline came wearing her dark outfit to face them.
"Welcome boya, to your doom" she threatened him, "for the next days we will be using this place to for your training hell, are you ready?" as she said, Negi shivered for a second before finally clenching his fist confidently.
"Hai, Master!"
"Good! First, start an spar with him, no holding back!" she pointed at Aang.
"Eh? With Aang-nii-san?"
"Exactly, he will be useful on your training, now stop wasting time and get in position!" she ordered fiercely. So both stood against each other at the courtyard, Negi was quite worried about going on full assault.
"Master, isn't that a bit-"
"Stop grumbling and do it already!" she yelled impatient.
"Don't worry Negi, I will be fine, you must focus on your training and test your limits if you want to get stronger" he said, but Negi wasn't very sure yet, nevertheless of that, Aang bowed to him and then it began.
Aang assumed his airbending stance ready to strike and waited a few seconds as Negi felt worried to even begin.
"If you are not coming, then I shall begin" and then a second later, Negi could only see Aang flashing at his front with his body glowing before being sent flying with a punch on his chest and falling hard on the ground. Aang gave him a change to recover as he struggled to get up; that punch was devastating as Negi lost his breath.
"Negi, you won't grow up if you fight like that" Aang lectured slightly serious, before making spiral gestures and send blasts of air at him, Negi rolled to side to dodge and quickly recovered to block another charged punch, but since he wasn't magically prepared, again he flew away.
Not taking any chances, Negi began to chant: "Sim Ipse Pars Per Centum VigintaSecundas, NegiusSpringfieldes!(Activate the contract for 120 seconds for me, Negi Springfield)" and then imbuing himself with magic, he finally went for offense and clashing in melee combat, first by a upward elbow, followed by a punch at his chest and other on stomach, and the last, a palm thrust with both hands.
Negi tried to overwhelm him but Aang blocked everything with ease, and noticing an opening, he counter attacked with a palm of his own, making distance. Aang quickly followed by bending a tornado towards him, Negi wasn't able to dodge, forcing him to rely on his magic barrier and minimize the damage.
"Come on Negi, I know you are better than that!" Aang encouraged, as he decided to get more serious as he changed his style, taking a rough stance to firebend.
And with a forward fist followed by a roundhouse kick, launched a fire ball and a fire wave, at Negi which he dodged with ease, but then he was forced to block the next waves of fire as Aang began to step forward at every fire he bended; Negi couldn't handle it the oppression and was sent on ground by the concessive force behind each blast.
Not losing time Aang went for a flying fire kick, seeing that Negi began to chant: "Ras Tel Ma Scir Magister: Flans PariesAerialis!(Flowering Wind Ward Barrier)" and in time he blocked it, by casting a fast spell; an instantaneous wind shield that pushed Aang away, allowing him to continue: "Ras Tel Ma Scir Magister: VigintaSpiritusAerialis,CoeuntesInimicumSagitent! SagittaMagica Series Aerialis!(20 spirits of wind, gather over my hand and strike down my enemies! Magic Projectile: Barrage of Wind Arrows!)"
Negi casted a wave of magic arrows at Aang who in response, began to spin with his body bending the air around him and subsequently, redirecting the arrows back at the caster. Negi was forced to diverge them away and dodge a fire stream coming at his direction. Eva saw the fight rather disappointed, as she knew that both were holding back in a way.
"How pointless…What kind of fight is this?" she said as Negi blocked or tried to block Aang charged blows and kicks, but nevertheless he was overwhelmed and sent flying at the Eva direction,who once near, she simply smashed his face.
"That's it? What the problem eh? With this current skill, you never will be able to beat that white haired boy!" She taunted, them looking at Aang, "And you, stupid monk, didn't wasn't you who wanted him to be stronger? Why did you hold back?"
Aang answered with a grin, "Sorry, it's my nature…"
"Huh? Nature?" she gave a questioning look.
"Well, as an Air nomad, we are taught the way of pacifism and respect for all life. Learning Airbending is a form of discipline among us, not an art used to fight, that why I held back there, sorry." He answered.
"Hmph! How pathetic!" she taunts.
"Hey!" he shouted back.
"If it is like that, then!" she lifted him and delivered a devastating punch and sent him flying away, "we continue from here!"
"Fine… I guess…" So Aang stood there and saw her punish the poor boy away on that hellish training.
4 hours later…
They still kept was forced to defend as Chachamaru went for a coordinated punch while Chachazero strikes with her dual knives, and due the short time to react, he uses the same spell he used on Aang.
"…Flans PariesAerialis!(Flowering Wind Ward Barrier)" but unfortunately, he was too tired and weakened to defend properly so Chachamaru crushed him on ground, but at same time Negi rolled to dodge the followed strike from Zero and quickly tries to recover but even so Chachamaru caught his arm and threw him away.
In meantime, Evangelineflew at his direction, casting lightning arrows without chanting, followed by dangerous spell, "Lic Lac La Lac Lilac: Kenotetos, Astraphsato, De Temeto! Dios Tukos!(Come forth from the void, O thunder, and cut down my enemy! Zeus's Thunderclap!)"and then, a small spark came from her hand, and once reaching its target, a massive lightning strike struck on the poor boy, luckily his magical barrier disintegrated as it absorbedmost of the blow in process.
"Whoa! Negi!" Aang quickly went to check the boy.
"This was a very effective combination of lightning magic, one of the favorite combos of Thousand Master." She explained as the boy saw amazed by, a second later, Aang encases Negi's injuries with the water he remotely bent from the sea during the training, and began to heal him.
"You did well Negi" Aang encourages him.
"Thanks…" he replied. His entire body was aching; his nose, bleeding, and one of his eyes were purple from the blows; surely that was one hell of training sessions and it's going to get even worse.
"After you recover, we are going to do another training session, understood!" She ordered.
"Hi, master!" So the healing process was completed and Negi could stand own his own again.
"Well despite this savage training, if you keep on this way, you be stronger in no time." Aang spoke, and then he felt Eva energy suddenly fall as he saw her a bit dazed and disoriented.
"Are you ok, Chibi-chan?" he asked.
"Tsk… I think I have gone too far… boya, it's time to pay the fee…"
"Eh? Fee?" Negi gasped, what she could possible ask for?
"I told didn't I? If you want something from an evil mage then you must learn to pay the price!" she stated.
"Hmm… May I ask what kind of price you want?" Aang asked suspiciously.
"Isnt that obvious, blood! Let me suck your blood so tha-"
"Denied!" Aang replied crossing him arms, "The last time you drank my blood, you went crazy against me. Like hell I'm going to let you drink from this boy" he shouted back.
"Oh? Then he have to find another person to train him" she replied and threatened to leave.
But Negi intercepted, "Ehhh? Wait, Master!" that stopped her tracks.
"No, Negi! It's far too dangerous!" Aang warned, considerably concerned for his life.
"It doesn't matter! If it is to get stronger then I will do it" he shouted.
"Negi…"
"Oh? Is that so?" Eva turned back.
"Hai!" Negi was very confident to keep on, leaving Aang and Chamo concerned about his safety.
"This is bad… I knew that Evangeline-san training would be hard, but this is suicide, is Aniki going to be okay?" Chamo asked.
Aang was in thought, he does agree with what Chamo said, but since it was Negi's choice, he had to put more faith to him, "… Yeah, I think he will be fine, I just have to keep an eye on him so that things don't go too far"
And then, both Evangeline and Negi went back to their rigorous training. In meantime, Aang spent the rest of his time to figure a bit more about Eva's curse, until he found a gap on his studies; he noticed that inside the resort, Evangeline can utilize her magic with no restrictions, which it shows that the curse somehow weakened in a way, even so, she mustn't overexert herself, as the curse still hinders her magical batteries.
If his theory is correct, then maybe that washis chance to find Avatar Roku's Chi hourglass on the Spirit World and therefore make contact with him. Confident, he quickly finds a quiet position and begins to meditate, after a few seconds, his tattoos began to glow for a second and then an ethereal version of himself wearing his air nomad clothes leaves his body and fades in the sky.
Somewhere on the Spirit World
A light, flying around the dark skies of the fallen spirit world descends, on one of its surreal realms. Arriving on the ground, the light sharps back to his human form. In there, Aang found himself on an unknown place;itwas similar to a modern city as therewere tall buildings oddly shaped and countless towers here and there.
("What is this place?") He thought deciding to explore around. That place was horrible, the water felt tainted, the skies were encased in a smoke, the ground he steps on was cold and harsh, it felt like metal; from what he could, there was no spirit on that realm, notasingle spirit energy to be tracked. Whatever it was that realm, sure it wasn't that friendly, nevertheless of that, he kept exploring, unaware of strange presences following him.
Exploring for an half hour, he felt frustrated as he didn't found nothing in that realm, not a single tip, the avatar souls also didn't answer his call on his heart. And without them, he couldn't go back to the physical world, unless something disrupt his connection like what happened before with Chachamaru, which is unlikely as there in no barrier curse to interrupt him this time.
With no other options, he continued his search for anything suspicious; while crossing an empty corridor, he partly noticed strange presences around him, as well was their ill intentions, it felt like bloodlust, so he stood and waited, maybe that could be his lead.
And then it began, four shadows appeared out of nowhere and began to attack from distance with arrows and darts which he nearly redirected them but then he was forced to dodge lightning spears and a rope from the other two enemies; once done, he flips backwards to get distance and caught a glimpse of his perpetrators.
Four spirits, shaped as humanoid beasts, lions to be precise, had black tattoos, and red eyes, each of them were armed with something. The first, with what appears to be a blowgun; the second with spears; the third with a bow; and the last, something similar to a rope, all weapons were glowing gold, current intentions: unknown.
"Who are you what you want from me?" Aang demanded and got no response, spirits were silent, unresponsive, and ready to strike him.
("This is bad… I'm greatly outnumbered and disarmed… I have to flee") He thought as Bending doesn't work on the spirit world. Then he quickly turned around and fled, dodging everything they threw at him and the chase began as Aang made his way on at appears to be a sewers.
Aang kept running away hiding in the shadows from the relentless spirits, on the way, he saw a cave beyond the waterfall on the path, so after losing sight from them; he crosses the water and climbs it, entering into a cave, there he saw spirits passing by unnoticed.
("I don't know who they are, but sure they won't help me…Damnit, I have to find a way out of this place")He thought. And then they have returned, Aang saw them inspecting around and for some reason, they are able to track him. It didn't as long before one of the shadows spotted him, so signaling to the others, the chase restarted, andAang was forced to flee again.
After some nasty chase inside the cave, he eventually lose sight of them again, but not taking any chances, he kept running; spotting a exit, he made his way to what appears to be the courtyard of an massive labyrinth, around him, there where countless entrances, that was perfect to lose them for good.
He did quickly choose one of them that led to edge of a small waterfall and down there, he found a river. He felt rather relieved, now the only thing left to do is to just find a way back to the physical world for now. Unfortunately, the shadows were able to track him again as they began to appear from the exit he chose before.
("How the hell they found me!?")He thought forgetting that this was their world, it likely that they have their Rope shadow, tried to snatch him away, in response Aang wasforced to jump down in the river, but he was quickly followed, the shadows jumped down as well and the chase continued on the water.
Swimming as fast was he could, Aang made his way to reach an edge, climb out the water, and ran as fast as he could through the corridors of the city, the shadows were relentless on their chase as they ran faster than he could. Using his keen agility, he quickly climbs up one of the buildings and invades inside; his only hope was to flee to from the roofs, there was no way.
But then, they didn't stop no matter what he did, jumping roof after roof, eventually he found himself unable to escape as he found himself on the tallest building. The shadows blocked all the exits, now it was a dead his chi to help him, fighting them was not an option, but he had to try. The shadows began to aim at him with their weapons.
("This is it… Think Aang, Think! What I'm supposed to do!") He was frustrated; everything was a loss for Bow demon was the first to attack, forcing Aang to dodge by instinct and survive, shame, as he hadn't the same luck on the following attacks, and then the fight began. Aang focused on engaging those with range weapons to reduce the risks; even so,the demons were rather resistant against blunt trauma, making his counterattacks suffering, He switched his strategy to stay alive, trying dodge or block any lethal wounds from his enemies, which was considerably hard as took many wounds at same time, eventually he couldn't handle it.
("Arg… So this is it…") he thought, he was on the ground bleeding hard, it was hopeless now. In a way, it was curious to think was happened if he died in the spirit world; he was close to find the answer as the shadow demons were ready to kill him.
But then, the black sky began to tear itself, and from the rift, countless green orbs flew out from it. The formless spirits themselves came at Aang's side and engulfed his body in light protecting him from the shadows, who couldn't bear it as a mere touch could burn them to death. This event was rather similar to what happened when he first entered on the spirit world on the future.
Eventually, Aang's unconscious body, or better,soul became one with the spirits, who carried him out from the rift, making his fate unknown.
Evangeline's resort, several minutes before…
As Aang spent some real time on the spirit world, both Eva and Negi were inspecting his body, which was completely motionless.
"What happened to him?" asked Negi to Chamo.
"I don't know, after we talked, Nii-san was very focused on something, he was studying I guess, that was when he simply came and sat on the floor, since then he didn't do anything." Chamo explained.
"He's in a trance… his body is empty." Evangeline spoke after inspecting him.
"Eh? Empty?" Negi gasped.
"Yes" And then Evangeline mercilessly kicks Aang's head sending his lifeless body flying away, "see? Nothing happened (He must be on the Spirit World…)."
"Aaah Master!" Negi panics as tries to reanimate Aang, shaking his body with no success.
"Could it be that Nii-san is… (gulp) dead?" Chamo gasped.
"No, his body still lives but his mind is actually somewhere" Both Negi and Chamo became relieved when they heard that. Eva herself was rather curious about what and how it is the Spirit World realm.
"Hey, if his mind is somewhere then where he could be possible doing?"Asked Chamo also curious.
"Like If in I knew!" Eva then, a second later, Aang's clothes began to rip themselves, somehow, his body was being attacked by something as the blows slowly became more rigid causing severe injuries on his clothes.
"Ahh! What is happening!?"Negi shouted; he instantly began to cast any healing spells he knew hoping to save him but it didn't stopped, Aang was taking more damage than Negi could heal it. All three of them, stood there worried thinking that he was going to die before, strangely enough; the sky of the resort began to shine in a bright blue tone and from that sky, a huge light ray fell hitting Aang's body.
"…arg…" the body began to move again as Aang temporally regains conscience, but it didn't last long. The severe injuries he got from the Spirit World were transferred to his physical body as well with everything that happened on the Real world, like Eva's kick and Negi's spells; he gasped only last time before fainting and be rescued by his friends.
TO BE CONTINNUED
The scene on the Spirit World is a parody of another cartoon, which unfortunately got discontinued, I have heard something about a movie, but its very likely that it will never happen it, such shame.
S****** ****
The biggest tip is the descriptions of "shadows" that follow him but there are others as well.
"…shaped was humanoid beasts, lions to be precise…"
"…each of them were armed with something. The first, with what appears to be a blowgun; the second with spears; the third with a bow; and the last, something similar to a rope…"
That's it for now.