Chapter Eight: Pain is Dead... Long Live Pain.
"Haven't we been here before?" Mixy moaned as she slowly came to.
Groaning Pete looked around at the people clamped down in chairs the same way he was. His regenerative powers helping him get over the effects of the blast first he watched as everyone around him began to wake up. Soon almost everyone was conscious except Emma.
"Is everyone okay?" Adam asked the group. Getting varied responses, most yes, he noticed that Emma hadn't said anything. Twisting in his seat as much as he could Adam tried to see her. "Emma?"
"She's still out, Adam," Jesse told him, sitting next to her. "She looks okay but I can't tell anything else."
"She's a sionic, they always take a little longer to wake up when I've knocked them out."
All eyes turned to the man in the doorway, leaning against it, watching them. His long brown hair fell in waves around his shoulders; his eyes boring into them with ferocity that ran shivers up their spines. Taking the final step into the room he walked between the chairs until he was at Emma's side. Reaching out the man gently stroked the side of her face until she began to stir. Blinking Emma opened her eyes, jumping when she felt the mans fingers on her face. Frowning she shrank away from him, still trying to figure out what was going on and who this man was that was creepily stroking her face.
"You're scared," he whispered. "I don't blame you, I'd be scared too."
"Who are you?" Adam demanded.
"A New Mutant thanks to you." Moving away from Emma the man walked up to the table that was standing before all of them at the head of the room. Leaning against it he folded his arms and stared out at the group held prisoner. "Because of you I've never been able to lead a normal life. I'm a freak that you designed. But thanks to you I'm finally able to take my revenge."
Without another word the man got to work, one by one moving each of the team members to the table before returning them to their chair, unconscious, beginning with Adam. When he was finished only Emma remained alert to his actions, the young woman growing more and more worried about what he was doing to her team. Standing before her, staring down at her, the man released her bonds and stepped back one step.
"With all of their fears I'll make his greatest fear come true. But I'm afraid there's nothing I can do with you; as a sionic you'd be immune to my powers. You, my dear girl, will have to be removed the old fashioned way."
Before she knew what was happening he brought his fist swinging down to meet her jaw. Knocked from her chair Emma scrambled to get away but couldn't move quick enough to avoid the kick to her midsection. Gasping for air she couldn't avoid his blows as they rained down on her body. Bloody, beaten, just before she felt she could keep conscious any longer he suddenly stopped. On the floor, tears of pain streaming from her eyes, mixing with the blood that seeped out from her face, Emma saw Adam throwing the man across the table, a look of pure rage filling his face. Getting up from the floor, blood spilling from a cut on his temple, the man fled the room.
Adam let him go, choosing to fall to his knee's next to Emma, his hands reaching out to gently pick her up and lay her out on the table so he could examine the beaten girl. Cursing under his breath as she lost consciousness Adam did what he could to help her as the others began to wake. Leaving Shalimar to waken the others Pete and Adam carried Emma out to the Double Helix where he got to work with the emergency aid kit. No sooner was everyone on board than they were in the air heading back toward the Sanctuary.
Laid out in the chair, still unconscious, Emma was treated for her wounds and left to rest in the med lab. Out in the sanctuary, the air tense as they waited, yet again, to know if she would be all right. Some pacing, some trying to read, others simply staring out into space, each one too aware that they had no recollection of what had happened to her, not knowing how Emma had gotten beat so badly.
"The last thing I remember was being locked down in the chair while some freak was talking to us."
The group agreed.
"Something had to have happened between then and the moment I came to, because I saw that man beating the life out of Emma. He was trying to kill her," Adam informed them.
"Then why not just shoot her? No offense but there are a lot of easier ways to kill someone than to beat them to death."
Adam shook his head. "I don't know."
Still working at the computer while they talked Jesse finished the diagram of the man that had held them all at his will and fed it into the computer, waiting for what seemed like forever until it gave him a name in return.
"Jonathon Krait," he announced, reading the screen before him. "He was a GSA agent but he went rogue about a year ago, something to do with an accident in the lab that killed his two partners. He fled the GSA and has been on the run ever since."
"Did it say what the accident was?"
"No, just that the two people that died did it to themselves. The one, Jessica Webster, killed herself by jumping from the roof of the fourteen-story building, and the other, Rodney Perez, injected himself with some sort of poison. That's all it says. After their deaths Krait fled and they never found him."
"Jessica Webster?"
All eyes turned to Adam but it was Brennan who spoke up. "You know her Adam?"
"Jessica was a lab assistant when I was with Genomex. She was terrified of heights. Anything higher than the second story and she froze like a deer in headlights; she wouldn't budge. I find it difficult to believe that she would make it to the fourteenth floor let alone jump from it." Face drawn in a frown Adam slowly paced the floor, his mind whirling in a thousand directions at once. "What would cause her to kill herself? And the other one as well?"
"Well they were working for the GSA, that'd put suicide thoughts in my head." Everyone glared at Jesse who just shrugged. "Well it would..." he defended himself.
"Jesse, see if you can dig up anything else on this Krait guy. In the meantime I don't want anyone to go anywhere. I'm not taking any chances that he'll try to get at us again."
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He couldn't help it.
Sitting in a chair in the corner of his room Pete couldn't stop staring at the gun in his hands. For the longest time he had refused to even look at one of these weapons, not since it had killed his best friend when they were nine years old. He had been terrified of guns ever since. So why was he sitting here, staring at the gun in his hands, finger over the trigger?
He just couldn't seem to help it.
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X
The pain was the first thing that filled her mind as she slowly came to. Everywhere she could feel pain. Even her hair hurt. Blinking, groaning, Emma opened her eyes and saw Adam staring down at her, concern edging the sadness in his eyes. "Haven't we done this before?" she tried to joke. A small twitched at his lips but it died sooner than it could grow. Something wasn't right. "Adam, what is it? What's wrong?"
Closing his eyes for a moment he took her hand in his. "Pete's dead, Emma."
The pain that had filled her body was nothing compared to the pain that filled her heart. "That's not possible!" she cried. "He was a regenerator, he always healed himself!"
"Not this time," he whispered. Tears filling her eyes Emma tried to sit up but Adam pushed her back down. "Not yet, you need to rest."
Lying back on the table, her emotions overwhelming her, Emma began to sob, clinging to Adam as he hugged her tightly, trying to help her deal with what had happened. Eventually, too exhausted to stay awake any longer she fell into a restless sleep, tossing and turning at the nightmares playing themselves out in her head.
Sometime later, though how many hours had passed she didn't know, Emma woke again in an empty lab, no sign of anyone around at all. Getting up she hobbled out to the main room, her body still in pain, though not as bad as before. Following the sound of Mixy's tearful voice she found the group standing around the water garden, seven candles floating in the pond, all lit, one for each of the people who had lost a friend. Coming to a stand next to Brennan Emma looked at them, seeing the pain that filled each of their faces, feeling it as it flowed from their hearts.
Laying a gentle arm around her, the scene all to familiar to the even more painful one a few months ago, Brennan looked down at her, unable to stop the joy that filled his heart that his friend was still alive. Looking up at Brennan Emma could feel his bittersweet joy and smiled a small smile at him, knowing exactly how he felt, and feeling a bit of it herself. She had lost a friend to death, but the others were still here and for that she would be eternally grateful. Turning back to the candles in the pond Emma watched as, one by one, they burned out. When the last one was done she closed her eyes and wished her friend well, wherever he was.
Gathered around the pond, giving and taking the comfort from each other that they needed, the group didn't move. "I just don't understand," Jackie said, wiping the tears from her cheek. "Pete hated guns, he was terrified of them. Why would he...?" unable to go on.
Confused Emma looked to Mixy for the rest of the sentence.
"Emma... Pete... he... well, he..." she couldn't bring herself to say it, her emotions getting the better of her before she could go on.
Moving to Emma's side Adam was the one to tell her.
"Pete shot himself, Emma. A single bullet through the head; it was the only way to kill himself before his regenerative powers could save him."
Her legs giving out from under her Emma sagged into Brennan, his arm tightening to support her. With a quick nod from Adam Brennan picked her up, carrying her back to the med lab, back to the chair, where Adam ran a scan to make sure she was all right. Lying on her back, staring up at him with tearful eyes she asked the one question that was ringing through her head. "Why? Why Adam?"
"I don't know Emma, I just don't know."
Taking his hand in hers Emma closed her eyes against the pain that filled her heart. "He was the one who called me Eve, did you know that? He said that I looked like an Eve, innocent but dangerous. When I found out about the Haven he was the pone who told me everything. Pete was the first friend I had when I didn't know anything else." Tears slipped past her eyelids as she squeezed them tighter. "He was like a big brother," she whispered painfully.
Watching her grieve for her fallen friend Adam wished he had an answer to her question. He'd done a scan of everyone when they had returned to the Sanctuary; there had been no indication of anything wrong with Pete, nothing to indicate that he was suicidal or under the influence of any brainwashing of any sort. What had happened? Why had such a promising young man with a long future before him chosen to cut his life short so quickly? Adam had no answers to his own questions, much less Emma's.
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Sitting in the window of her room overlooking the ocean Emma stared at the currents, dwelling in their peacefulness and tranquility. Though she had been thinking a lot about her time with Pete and the others some of her other memories had continued to surface as well. She remembered falling from the top of the parking ramp, grabbing the railing about halfway down before falling the rest of the way. Her body still trembled at the fear from that moment. Most of her memories had returned to her but Emma knew there was still some missing. There were still a few chunks of her life missing but not so many that she no longer felt comfortable with who she was.
She was Emma DeLauro, member of the rebel group Mutant X.
As Emma sat there, her mind going nowhere and yet everywhere, she was suddenly filled with an incredible sense of fear. Focusing in on it she jumped up from her seat and raced through the halls, calling out to whoever could hear her. "Somebody help! Help!" she screamed as she ran through the halls, down the stairs, to the lower levels of the Sanctuary. Passing through the final doorway she heard feet pounding behind her and knew that there were people following who would help. Sliding to a halt on the wet cement floor Emma hit the button that opened the hatch to the bay doors of the boat dock at the very bottom level of the Sanctuary. As the doors opened she looked to the right and the left, her eyes searching for the source of the fear she had felt gripping her heart moments ago.
"What's going on Emma?" Jesse asked as he skidded to a stop next to her, Shalimar with him, Adam and Mixy not far behind.
"It's Brennan; he's in the water somewhere, I can't find him!"
"Emma, Brennan wouldn't go near the ocean; he's electrical, they hate the water."
"I know that!" she cried. "But I can feel his fear! It's getting weaker, like he's loosing strength. Help me find him before it's too late!"
Each pair of eyes scanning the ocean were doubtful that they would see him out there until Shalimar cried out, "Oh my God, there he is!" pointing to a body a few hundred yards away from them, floating face down in the water.
Jesse and Adam dove into the ocean, swimming, racing out to the young man and dragging him back to the safety of the boat dock. Getting the soaked elemental out of the water and onto the relatively dry floor Mixy immediately set to work doing CPR to get his heart going again. Instinct wanting to breathe the water in his lungs soon came forth as he began to cough to expel it from his lungs. Collapsing back onto the floor, pain filling his chest, Brennan opened his eyes.
"What happened?"
"You were out in the ocean, man!" Jesse cried, bent over, trying to catch his breath, Adam in much the same position. "What the heck were you doing, going for a swim?"
"I... I don't know. It was like I couldn't stop myself, I just had to jump in."
"Oh you stupid..." Shalimar began, unable to allow herself to finish.
Relief filling her Emma sank back onto her heels and breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at each of her friends she realized that one was missing. "Where's Jackie?"
"Last I saw her she was working out on the platform."
"Let's get you to the med lab," Adam broke in, reaching for Brennan's hand. "I want to examine that head of yours, find out what sort of stupid thought convinced you to go for a swim," he tried to joke, trying to lighten the tense mood a little.
The group stood and moved back into the hallways and on up to the med lab. While Brennan, Emma and Adam stayed in the med lab to run their tests on the young man the other three continued out to the main room to find Jackie and let her know everything was all right. As the first scan was finishing a scream rang out through the Sanctuary, chilling Emma to the bones. Running out to the main room she saw Jesse running back towards them to get Adam. Passing him Emma stopped at the edge of the water garden, frozen in pure shock at the sight before her.
There, in the shallow waters of their beloved garden, Jackie lay face down.
She was dead.
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"Haven't we been here before?" Mixy moaned as she slowly came to.
Groaning Pete looked around at the people clamped down in chairs the same way he was. His regenerative powers helping him get over the effects of the blast first he watched as everyone around him began to wake up. Soon almost everyone was conscious except Emma.
"Is everyone okay?" Adam asked the group. Getting varied responses, most yes, he noticed that Emma hadn't said anything. Twisting in his seat as much as he could Adam tried to see her. "Emma?"
"She's still out, Adam," Jesse told him, sitting next to her. "She looks okay but I can't tell anything else."
"She's a sionic, they always take a little longer to wake up when I've knocked them out."
All eyes turned to the man in the doorway, leaning against it, watching them. His long brown hair fell in waves around his shoulders; his eyes boring into them with ferocity that ran shivers up their spines. Taking the final step into the room he walked between the chairs until he was at Emma's side. Reaching out the man gently stroked the side of her face until she began to stir. Blinking Emma opened her eyes, jumping when she felt the mans fingers on her face. Frowning she shrank away from him, still trying to figure out what was going on and who this man was that was creepily stroking her face.
"You're scared," he whispered. "I don't blame you, I'd be scared too."
"Who are you?" Adam demanded.
"A New Mutant thanks to you." Moving away from Emma the man walked up to the table that was standing before all of them at the head of the room. Leaning against it he folded his arms and stared out at the group held prisoner. "Because of you I've never been able to lead a normal life. I'm a freak that you designed. But thanks to you I'm finally able to take my revenge."
Without another word the man got to work, one by one moving each of the team members to the table before returning them to their chair, unconscious, beginning with Adam. When he was finished only Emma remained alert to his actions, the young woman growing more and more worried about what he was doing to her team. Standing before her, staring down at her, the man released her bonds and stepped back one step.
"With all of their fears I'll make his greatest fear come true. But I'm afraid there's nothing I can do with you; as a sionic you'd be immune to my powers. You, my dear girl, will have to be removed the old fashioned way."
Before she knew what was happening he brought his fist swinging down to meet her jaw. Knocked from her chair Emma scrambled to get away but couldn't move quick enough to avoid the kick to her midsection. Gasping for air she couldn't avoid his blows as they rained down on her body. Bloody, beaten, just before she felt she could keep conscious any longer he suddenly stopped. On the floor, tears of pain streaming from her eyes, mixing with the blood that seeped out from her face, Emma saw Adam throwing the man across the table, a look of pure rage filling his face. Getting up from the floor, blood spilling from a cut on his temple, the man fled the room.
Adam let him go, choosing to fall to his knee's next to Emma, his hands reaching out to gently pick her up and lay her out on the table so he could examine the beaten girl. Cursing under his breath as she lost consciousness Adam did what he could to help her as the others began to wake. Leaving Shalimar to waken the others Pete and Adam carried Emma out to the Double Helix where he got to work with the emergency aid kit. No sooner was everyone on board than they were in the air heading back toward the Sanctuary.
Laid out in the chair, still unconscious, Emma was treated for her wounds and left to rest in the med lab. Out in the sanctuary, the air tense as they waited, yet again, to know if she would be all right. Some pacing, some trying to read, others simply staring out into space, each one too aware that they had no recollection of what had happened to her, not knowing how Emma had gotten beat so badly.
"The last thing I remember was being locked down in the chair while some freak was talking to us."
The group agreed.
"Something had to have happened between then and the moment I came to, because I saw that man beating the life out of Emma. He was trying to kill her," Adam informed them.
"Then why not just shoot her? No offense but there are a lot of easier ways to kill someone than to beat them to death."
Adam shook his head. "I don't know."
Still working at the computer while they talked Jesse finished the diagram of the man that had held them all at his will and fed it into the computer, waiting for what seemed like forever until it gave him a name in return.
"Jonathon Krait," he announced, reading the screen before him. "He was a GSA agent but he went rogue about a year ago, something to do with an accident in the lab that killed his two partners. He fled the GSA and has been on the run ever since."
"Did it say what the accident was?"
"No, just that the two people that died did it to themselves. The one, Jessica Webster, killed herself by jumping from the roof of the fourteen-story building, and the other, Rodney Perez, injected himself with some sort of poison. That's all it says. After their deaths Krait fled and they never found him."
"Jessica Webster?"
All eyes turned to Adam but it was Brennan who spoke up. "You know her Adam?"
"Jessica was a lab assistant when I was with Genomex. She was terrified of heights. Anything higher than the second story and she froze like a deer in headlights; she wouldn't budge. I find it difficult to believe that she would make it to the fourteenth floor let alone jump from it." Face drawn in a frown Adam slowly paced the floor, his mind whirling in a thousand directions at once. "What would cause her to kill herself? And the other one as well?"
"Well they were working for the GSA, that'd put suicide thoughts in my head." Everyone glared at Jesse who just shrugged. "Well it would..." he defended himself.
"Jesse, see if you can dig up anything else on this Krait guy. In the meantime I don't want anyone to go anywhere. I'm not taking any chances that he'll try to get at us again."
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X
He couldn't help it.
Sitting in a chair in the corner of his room Pete couldn't stop staring at the gun in his hands. For the longest time he had refused to even look at one of these weapons, not since it had killed his best friend when they were nine years old. He had been terrified of guns ever since. So why was he sitting here, staring at the gun in his hands, finger over the trigger?
He just couldn't seem to help it.
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X
The pain was the first thing that filled her mind as she slowly came to. Everywhere she could feel pain. Even her hair hurt. Blinking, groaning, Emma opened her eyes and saw Adam staring down at her, concern edging the sadness in his eyes. "Haven't we done this before?" she tried to joke. A small twitched at his lips but it died sooner than it could grow. Something wasn't right. "Adam, what is it? What's wrong?"
Closing his eyes for a moment he took her hand in his. "Pete's dead, Emma."
The pain that had filled her body was nothing compared to the pain that filled her heart. "That's not possible!" she cried. "He was a regenerator, he always healed himself!"
"Not this time," he whispered. Tears filling her eyes Emma tried to sit up but Adam pushed her back down. "Not yet, you need to rest."
Lying back on the table, her emotions overwhelming her, Emma began to sob, clinging to Adam as he hugged her tightly, trying to help her deal with what had happened. Eventually, too exhausted to stay awake any longer she fell into a restless sleep, tossing and turning at the nightmares playing themselves out in her head.
Sometime later, though how many hours had passed she didn't know, Emma woke again in an empty lab, no sign of anyone around at all. Getting up she hobbled out to the main room, her body still in pain, though not as bad as before. Following the sound of Mixy's tearful voice she found the group standing around the water garden, seven candles floating in the pond, all lit, one for each of the people who had lost a friend. Coming to a stand next to Brennan Emma looked at them, seeing the pain that filled each of their faces, feeling it as it flowed from their hearts.
Laying a gentle arm around her, the scene all to familiar to the even more painful one a few months ago, Brennan looked down at her, unable to stop the joy that filled his heart that his friend was still alive. Looking up at Brennan Emma could feel his bittersweet joy and smiled a small smile at him, knowing exactly how he felt, and feeling a bit of it herself. She had lost a friend to death, but the others were still here and for that she would be eternally grateful. Turning back to the candles in the pond Emma watched as, one by one, they burned out. When the last one was done she closed her eyes and wished her friend well, wherever he was.
Gathered around the pond, giving and taking the comfort from each other that they needed, the group didn't move. "I just don't understand," Jackie said, wiping the tears from her cheek. "Pete hated guns, he was terrified of them. Why would he...?" unable to go on.
Confused Emma looked to Mixy for the rest of the sentence.
"Emma... Pete... he... well, he..." she couldn't bring herself to say it, her emotions getting the better of her before she could go on.
Moving to Emma's side Adam was the one to tell her.
"Pete shot himself, Emma. A single bullet through the head; it was the only way to kill himself before his regenerative powers could save him."
Her legs giving out from under her Emma sagged into Brennan, his arm tightening to support her. With a quick nod from Adam Brennan picked her up, carrying her back to the med lab, back to the chair, where Adam ran a scan to make sure she was all right. Lying on her back, staring up at him with tearful eyes she asked the one question that was ringing through her head. "Why? Why Adam?"
"I don't know Emma, I just don't know."
Taking his hand in hers Emma closed her eyes against the pain that filled her heart. "He was the one who called me Eve, did you know that? He said that I looked like an Eve, innocent but dangerous. When I found out about the Haven he was the pone who told me everything. Pete was the first friend I had when I didn't know anything else." Tears slipped past her eyelids as she squeezed them tighter. "He was like a big brother," she whispered painfully.
Watching her grieve for her fallen friend Adam wished he had an answer to her question. He'd done a scan of everyone when they had returned to the Sanctuary; there had been no indication of anything wrong with Pete, nothing to indicate that he was suicidal or under the influence of any brainwashing of any sort. What had happened? Why had such a promising young man with a long future before him chosen to cut his life short so quickly? Adam had no answers to his own questions, much less Emma's.
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X
Sitting in the window of her room overlooking the ocean Emma stared at the currents, dwelling in their peacefulness and tranquility. Though she had been thinking a lot about her time with Pete and the others some of her other memories had continued to surface as well. She remembered falling from the top of the parking ramp, grabbing the railing about halfway down before falling the rest of the way. Her body still trembled at the fear from that moment. Most of her memories had returned to her but Emma knew there was still some missing. There were still a few chunks of her life missing but not so many that she no longer felt comfortable with who she was.
She was Emma DeLauro, member of the rebel group Mutant X.
As Emma sat there, her mind going nowhere and yet everywhere, she was suddenly filled with an incredible sense of fear. Focusing in on it she jumped up from her seat and raced through the halls, calling out to whoever could hear her. "Somebody help! Help!" she screamed as she ran through the halls, down the stairs, to the lower levels of the Sanctuary. Passing through the final doorway she heard feet pounding behind her and knew that there were people following who would help. Sliding to a halt on the wet cement floor Emma hit the button that opened the hatch to the bay doors of the boat dock at the very bottom level of the Sanctuary. As the doors opened she looked to the right and the left, her eyes searching for the source of the fear she had felt gripping her heart moments ago.
"What's going on Emma?" Jesse asked as he skidded to a stop next to her, Shalimar with him, Adam and Mixy not far behind.
"It's Brennan; he's in the water somewhere, I can't find him!"
"Emma, Brennan wouldn't go near the ocean; he's electrical, they hate the water."
"I know that!" she cried. "But I can feel his fear! It's getting weaker, like he's loosing strength. Help me find him before it's too late!"
Each pair of eyes scanning the ocean were doubtful that they would see him out there until Shalimar cried out, "Oh my God, there he is!" pointing to a body a few hundred yards away from them, floating face down in the water.
Jesse and Adam dove into the ocean, swimming, racing out to the young man and dragging him back to the safety of the boat dock. Getting the soaked elemental out of the water and onto the relatively dry floor Mixy immediately set to work doing CPR to get his heart going again. Instinct wanting to breathe the water in his lungs soon came forth as he began to cough to expel it from his lungs. Collapsing back onto the floor, pain filling his chest, Brennan opened his eyes.
"What happened?"
"You were out in the ocean, man!" Jesse cried, bent over, trying to catch his breath, Adam in much the same position. "What the heck were you doing, going for a swim?"
"I... I don't know. It was like I couldn't stop myself, I just had to jump in."
"Oh you stupid..." Shalimar began, unable to allow herself to finish.
Relief filling her Emma sank back onto her heels and breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at each of her friends she realized that one was missing. "Where's Jackie?"
"Last I saw her she was working out on the platform."
"Let's get you to the med lab," Adam broke in, reaching for Brennan's hand. "I want to examine that head of yours, find out what sort of stupid thought convinced you to go for a swim," he tried to joke, trying to lighten the tense mood a little.
The group stood and moved back into the hallways and on up to the med lab. While Brennan, Emma and Adam stayed in the med lab to run their tests on the young man the other three continued out to the main room to find Jackie and let her know everything was all right. As the first scan was finishing a scream rang out through the Sanctuary, chilling Emma to the bones. Running out to the main room she saw Jesse running back towards them to get Adam. Passing him Emma stopped at the edge of the water garden, frozen in pure shock at the sight before her.
There, in the shallow waters of their beloved garden, Jackie lay face down.
She was dead.
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