Part 8: Hospital Mayhem

-December 10th, 1999-

"It's a really nice night for December, isn't it Ami?" Serena asked as she and her blue-haired friend walked down the street one early evening after school.

"Yes, it is.  I'm happy we decided to have this girls night out.  I think we all needed it," Ami said indicating to Raye, Lita, and Mina who were about half a block behind them.

"Yeah, it was good for us to get out.  It helped us take our minds off of things," Serena said.  There was no need to mention what "things" were.  The disappearance of Andrew, Molly, Ken, and Greg had deeply upset everybody, Serena, Lita, Ami and Mina most of all.  The conversation between Ami and Serena ceased and they continued to walk in a comfortable silence, the faint sounds of their friends' conversation coming from behind the two girls.  Not far from the two, one of Almandine's servants was on the prowl.  He was sent out by Almandine to find the Universal Warriors by tracking down their power signatures.  He searched, trying to find someone with the same power signature as the Universal Warriors and, finally, his search paid off.  Leaping off the top of a building and into an alley, he waited for the two he found to pass.  At the same moment, Ami and Serena were walking past the alleyway when they heard a deep voice.  "Stop right there," the deep voice said and both girls turned to see a monster with what looked like a machine gun that served as one of his arms.  He was huge, practically 7 feet tall, with bulging muscles that made him look even more gigantic than he even was.  Laughing cruelly, he raised his gun and let out two shots.  Ami and Serena couldn't move; they were frozen in place.  They couldn't believe what was happening.  Serena, at the last moment, turned around to shield Ami and got hit with both shots, once in the lower back and the other grazing her head.  She went down, unconscious immediately, blood pooling from the wound in her back.  Ami looked down in shock and horror at one of her best friends and was about to kneel down to help her when one more shot was fired, hitting Ami in the side.  Ami's hands went to her side, clutching the wound, as her eyes widened in surprise.  She looked down to see blood quickly soaking her light yellow shirt.  She had never seen so much blood before.  Her knees giving out, she collapsed to the ground next to Serena just as Lita, Mina, and Raye arrived at the scene.  The whole incident had taken place in the time frame of about 10 seconds.  The other three girls heard the shots from down the street and rushed to their best friends' sides where they saw the monsters.  Wordlessly, Mina knelt down on the ground and began tending to Ami and Serena, trying her best to stop the bleeding from the wounds.  Raye and Lita both transformed.  "Power of Lightning!  I call upon the armor of Lightning.  Armor of Lightning, TO ARMS!"

"Power of the Firebird!  I call upon the armor of the Firebird.  Armor of the Firebird, TO ARMS!"  Within seconds, Lita and Raye were ready to do battle, rage pumping through their veins.  This monster had hurt their friends and they were going to anything in their power to kill it.  Just as Raye and Lita were ready to start battle, other help arrived at the scene.

***
-A half hour earlier-

Julie tried to ignore the sounds that were sounding on around her as she tried to read.  Trying to concentrate on words that were in a different language was hard enough without the sounds of two sparring matches being mediated, one between Ryo and Kento with just their bare hands and one between Margot and Darien with swords.  Julie preferred the sounds of just Kento and Ryo fighting to the ringing sounds of clashing swords.  Julie looked back down at her book, which was written in Japanese characters.  It still amazed her that she could read and speak Japanese, as could Margot.  It appeared that when Celia brought them over, their powers, which were unknown to everybody at the time, broke the language barrier and allowed them to understand the language.  Margot and Julie figured that their power would allow them to understand any language thereafter.  Or they hoped so.  Margot, at the time, was concentrating on kicking Darien's butt.  Every time they fought with swords, Darien always won and she was determined to beat him.  "I'm going to beat you this time, Darien!"

"Not in your lifetime, Margot," Darien said, blocking one of Margot's thrusts.

"Hey, I can beat you, just watch.  I was the General of the French Army, you know."  Margot paused and brought her sword up to block an attack.  "Well, I was in the play St. Joan at any rate," Margot said in response to Darien's slightly shocked look, as if to say, "You were the general of the French Army?"

"Oh, you were the general of the French Army in a play," Rowen said, who was mediating the fight between the two swordfighters, "I couldn't quite believe that a 16-year old girl was the general of the French Army in reality."  If Margot could have, she would have glared at the blue-haired boy, who was widely grinning at her, but she couldn't take her eyes off of Darien for fear of him winning.  Such was the scene in the training room that afternoon.  Julie leaning up against the wall and reading, Cye and Sage mediating the fight between Kento and Ryo, and Rowen mediating the sword fight between Margot and Darien.  The afternoon seemed to be going along rather nicely when a sudden flash of pain hit Julie and she dropped her book, screaming in pain as visions came to her; visions of Ami and Serena getting hurt.  Part of Julie's power was that whenever something happens that wasn't supposed to happen, she got flashes accompanied with a sharp headache.  Margot also received the visions, partly through her telepathic link with Julie and without the pain that went with the visions, although the visions were overwhelming, overloading her mind.  Margot, who was receiving the visions almost immediately after Julie did, froze, dropping her sword to the ground.  Darien almost didn't pull his sword away in time, which was coming down to strike Margot.  As Margot's mind cleared and Julie's pain disappeared, the two girls looked at each other and each whispered one word.  "Ami," Julie whispered right before Margot whispered, "Serena."  One mention of the two girls sent Rowen and Darien bolting out the door in a panic.  The way Margot and Julie said their names didn't have a good ring to it and they knew something had happened.  Julie and Margot ran after them, Margot shouting, "Wait!  You don't know where it is!"  The other four followed not far behind, not wanting to miss out on the action and wanting to make sure that the girls were alright. 

***
By the time they all arrived at the scene, Julie and Margot had caught up to Rowen and Darien and were showing them where to go, the other Ronin Warriors following along closely.  As their gazes all focused on the scene in front of them, they saw Mina kneeling down next to Ami and Serena and Raye and Lita ready to fight one of Metallia's monsters.  Darien and Rowen immediately saw red, knowing that the reason that Ami and Serena were on the ground was because of this monster.  Both of them launched into their transformation.  "Armor of Strata!  ARMOR OF STRATA!  DAO INOCHI!"

"Power of Spirit!  I call upon the armor of Spirit.  Armor of Spirit, TO ARMS!"  Within moments, Darien stood there in his deep black armor and Rowen in his dark blue, each of them with their weapons in their hands, ready to fight.  As the monster, closed in on Raye, Lita, Rowen, and Darien, the others went over to Mina, who was trying her hardest to keep Ami and Serena from bleeding to death.  Looking up at them, her hands covered in blood, Mina said, "You guys have to help me.  I don't know how to stop the bleeding."  Mina was on the verge of tears.  She didn't know if she could bear having Ami and Serena die on her.  Sage thought about it for a moment before coming up with a solution.  "We're going to have to keep them alive using our power to slow the bleeding and keep them breathing.  Our powers can exert a certain amount of influence and I'm sure we can keep Ami and Serena from losing too much blood before we get them to the hospital."  The others agreed with Sage's idea and all of them transformed into their sub-armor.  "Armor of Torrent!"

"Armor of Hardrock!"

"Armor of Wildfire!"

"Armor of Halo!"

"Power of the Heavens!"

"Power of Destiny!"

"Power of Fate!"  All of them appeared in their sub-armor and they instinctually grabbed hands, forming a circle around Ami and Serena.  They closed their eyes and used meditation techniques to concentrate their powers.  The air distorted with the power waves that were radiating off of the group, the colors of all of their powers mingling, creating a sea of colors that hovered over the two bleeding girls.  They seemed to be frozen in time; the bleeding trickled down to almost nothing and their breathing was stabilized.  But only for the moment.  The others knew they couldn't keep it up forever.  Raye, Lita, Rowen, and Darien would have to beat the monster soon so they could call the hospital.  Ami, who was barely conscious, looked around at all of her friends, who were fighting to save her life.  She wanted to live so badly and she would make it through for the people who were fighting to keep her alive.  At that moment, Rowen and Darien snapped.  Raye and Lita's attacks hadn't worked on the monster and the two guys had had enough.  Both of them looked at each other and nodded in understanding.  Turning back towards the monster, they called out their attacks, fueled with rage at the monster for hurting the women they loved.  "ARROW SHOCKWAVE!"

"SPIRIT SWORD ANGUISH!"  The rage-powered attacks hit the monster, killing it immediately.  Rowen and Darien, who were breathing heavily from the use of their powers, detransformed into their regular clothes and turned to go to Ami and Serena as Raye and Lita detransformed all the way as well and ran off to find a pay phone to call for an ambulance.  Rowen and Darien broke through the circle, surprisingly without destroying the concentration of power, and knelt besides Ami and Serena.  Darien took an unconscious Serena into his arms and held her close to him, mindful of her wound.  He cradled her gently, using his power and love for her to help keep her with him.  Rowen knelt down beside Ami and leaned over her, his face right above hers and his hand gently touching her cheek.  "Hey," he said to Ami.

"Hi," Ami croaked out.

"You're going to be alright; Raye and Lita went to get help.  You just have to make it to the hospital.  Don't die on me, Ami Mizuno."  Rowen's eyes were filling with tears.  If Ami didn't make it through, he didn't know what he would do.  Ami gave him a small smile.

"Don't worry.  I'm not ready to leave you yet.  I'll live, Rowen."  Rowen managed a smile and just looked into her eyes.  Ami was grateful that Rowen was there.  He helped get her mind off the pain.  Looking into his deep blue eyes, practically the color of his armor, helped take away any pain that she was feeling at that moment.  Their eyes locked and Rowen's face came closer, their lips about to meet.  Their moment was interrupted when he heard the shrill of an ambulance's siren.  He looked up to see that Raye and Lita had returned and the others had detransformed.  Giving Ami a reassuring look, he backed away as the medics approached Ami and Serena, putting them both on gurneys and loading them into the ambulance.  The group of young warriors watched with sad eyes as the ambulance sped away.  "This wasn't supposed to happen," Margot said.

"They weren't supposed to get hurt.  This goes against fate and destiny.  That's why I got the headache and the visions," Julie said, "Margot and I are supposed to know when something hasn't gone the way it's supposed to and we're supposed to try and fix it."

"But I guess there's no fixing this.  This is going to have to be fixed in its own time," Margot concluded.  The others nodded in understanding and turned to face the authorities, who had showed up on the scene.  A policeman approached them and, holding out his badge, said, "I'm Detective Masaki and I have a few questions for you kids, if you don't mind answering them.  I just need to know what happened."  The group looked at each other for a moment in confirmation before turning back to the cop.  "Ok," Ryo said, "We'll answer your questions, Detective."  The detective only smiled in thanks before commencing.

***
Later that evening, Rowen, Julie, and Margot sat outside Ami's hospital room.  Everyone else, except for Darien who was with Serena, had gone home.  Rowen and Darien had refused to leave until they found out that Ami and Serena were all right and Julie and Margot stayed to make sure that the guys wouldn't do anything drastic.  Julie sat in her chair, her head back and her eyes closed, trying to get some sort of rest while Margot watched, amused, as Rowen paced back and forth.  "Rowen, will you sit down?" Margot asked him, getting a little annoyed at his neurotic behavior.

"No," he said curtly.  Julie lifted her head up and said, "Well, Rowen, the doctors gave her 2 and a half shots of morphine for the pain.  I'm sure she's going to be more than fine.  In fact, she's going to be a little delirious when she wakes up."

"Are you sure?" Rowen asked.  Margot and Julie gave each other another one of their knowing looks.  They once had a friend who had received 2 and a half shots of morphine and she was really out of it.  "Yes," they both said at the same time, looking back at Rowen.  Rowen opened his mouth, obviously to argue again, when the doctor came out of Ami's room.  "Is she going to be alright?" Rowen asked, rushing over to the middle-aged woman.

"She's going to be fine.  The bullet wound on her side is doing ok and she has a large bump on the back of her head, which is making her a little out of it.  The morphine should have kicked in by now, but I'm not sure."

"Can we go in and see her?" Margot asked.  The woman only nodded and Julie and Margot walked past the doctor into Ami's room.  Rowen was still out in the hallway with the doctor.  "Thank you," he said gratefully.

"You're welcome," the doctor said, "I'll be back to check on Ami in a half an hour."  The woman walked off down the hallway, leaving Rowen alone, so he decided to go into Ami's room.  When he walked in there, he found Margot and Julie standing on opposite sides of Ami's bed, talking to her.  "I wonder if the morphine has kicked in yet," Margot said.

"I don't know, let's find out.  Hey Ami," Julie said.  Ami opened her eyes and looked up at the two girls.

"Yeah?" she asked.  Julie and Margot looked at each other and used their telepathic link.  "Do you wanna ask how many cups of sugar it takes to get to the moon?" Margot asked through their link, remembering one of their favorite movies, A Goofy Movie.

"Of course," Julie said.  They turned back to Ami and said, "How many cups of sugar does it take to get to the moon?"  They knew that if Ami seriously considered the question that the morphine had kicked in because a normal Ami would have given the two of them a look like they were crazy.  Instead, Ami put a finger to her mouth, tapping her lower lip, and said, "Let me think," in a little kid voice, "I know the answer to this question.  Hmm," Ami said, seriously thinking about it.

"You guys are evil," Rowen said to Margot and Julie.  They only smiled at Rowen.  "That's why you love us," Margot said.

"Yes, your lives would not be the same if we were not here," Julie said.  Rowen only gave them a look.  Suddenly, Ami became very aware that Rowen was in the room.  "Rowen!" Ami exclaimed happily.  Rowen walked over to the bed, taking Julie's spot, as the two crazy girls moved to stand at the end of the bed.  "How are you feeling?" he asked Ami.

"Oh, I'm feeling fine.  But, I wasn't before.  I hurt a lot and, and, and they gave me a lot of drugs, but they weren't working and then the doctor did something and POOF!" Ami exclaimed, letting her arms fly in the air.  Her left hand, in all her excitement, smacked Rowen in the face and Julie and Margot cringed, burying their heads in their hands in exasperation.  "I can't believe Ami," Margot said to Julie.

"Neither can I.  She's acting like she has no inhibitions," Julie said back in her mind.  Suddenly, the two of them realized what that meant.  They turned to each other, each wide eyed with horror.  "Uh-oh," they both whispered, but neither Ami nor Rowen heard it.  "Ow!" Rowen exclaimed as Ami hit him in the face with her hand.  Ami looked up at Rowen with a guilty look on her face and said, "Sorry.  I didn't mean to."

"It's alright, Ami," said Rowen.  He took her left hand and placed it back down on the bed.  "Could you try to avoid hitting me though?" he asked Ami, but she wasn't listening to him any more.  She was looking at Rowen, with a wondering gaze, as if she was trying to describe something.  All of the sudden, her face broke out in a big smile and she giggled.  "Rowen, you're cute."  Rowen looked at her, quite surprised as Julie and Margot tried to swallow their laughs.  "No, no, you're not cute."  Rowen looked very disappointed for a moment until Ami spoke again.  "You're gorgeous.  Yes, that's what you are.  Gorgeous," Ami said very matter-of-factly.  Julie and Margot nearly fell over in surprise and Rowen froze.  "What?" he asked in a whisper.

"Did I ever tell you…did I ever tell you," Ami said, "Did I ever tell you that…the sky is green…Wait, no, that wasn't what I wanted to say," Ami said, thinking very hard about what she really wanted to say.  "The sky's not green," Ami said, getting slightly deterred from her original path.  "The sky is…the color of your hair," Ami said, pointing to Rowen's head.

"You mean blue?" Rowen answered for Ami, a little amused and very scared of her behavior.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Ami asked, really wanting to know how he knew.  "But, that's not what I wanted to say.  What was it?  Um…" Ami trailed off, thinking very hard.  Then, it hit her.  "Oh yeah, yeah, I remember.  Did I ever tell you that…"
"Did you ever tell me what?" Rowen prompted.

"Did I ever tell you that I'm…that I'm in…that I'm in love with…"  Rowen suddenly looked very expedient for what Ami was going to say next.

"That you're in love with who?"  Ami only looked up at him and reached up a hand, grabbing the back of his head and pulling him down to her level.  "That I'm in love with…" and suddenly, the morphine really kicked in and Ami passed out.  Rowen looked very disappointed and very heart-broken.  Now he would never know.  Margot and Julie, on the other hand, being the omniscient beings that they were, left the room in a rush.  Once they made it about 20 feet away from the door, they started to laugh hysterically, not believing what they had just heard from Ami.  "She was so close to telling him that she was in love with him, wasn't she?" Julie asked Margot.

"Duh!" Margot exclaimed, still laughing.  Rowen, who had just left the room, walked out into the hallway and came in contact with two very hysterical young women.  "What is so funny, you guys?" he asked.  Julie walked over to Rowen and put her hands on his shoulders.  "Dude, you don't know what just happened."

"You will never see Ami like that ever again," Margot said, finally bringing herself under control.  Julie turned to Margot and said, "Well, actually, he will see her like that again."  Margot shot Julie a look.  "Now who's spilling stuff about the future, hmm?" Margot said to Julie.  Julie suddenly realized that she had spilled a clue about something that would happen many years down the line.  "Whoops, sorry," Julie said.

"Good, don't do it again," Margot warned.

"I won't.  At least, I'll try not to."

"What are you talking about?" Rowen asked.  Those two were always talking about things that no one could understand or comprehend.  It seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Nothing," Julie and Margot chimed at the same time.

"You two are weird," Rowen said, looking at Julie and shaking his head.  Julie only smiled broadly and Margot looked away innocently, a hint of a smile on her face as she pretended to be the perfect little angel.

***

-December 12th, 1999-

It had been two days since Ami and Serena had been attacked by Almandine's monster.  The entire household had been extremely tense.  Ami was fine, after the morphine wore off of course.  But Serena was still unconscious.  The bullet wound to the head had caused head trauma and the longer she stayed unconscious, the less likely it was that she would ever wake up.  Darien never left her side, keeping a constant vigil, waiting for her to wake up.  Rowen came in everyday to visit Ami and talk to her while in the hospital.  He had found out from Ami that the reason why Ami and Serena didn't fight back was because they were surprised attacked.  Rowen then asked why Serena didn't feel the monster and Ami answered because Serena can only feel it when the monster uses magical powers against somebody.  The monster that attacked them was specifically looking for them and would only attack when it found them and it used physical means of attacking, which meant that Serena couldn't sense it.  Everyone worried about Serena and about Darien if Serena never woke up.  But, although everyone worried about Serena, they all had a feeling that she had to wake up while Celia, Margot, and Julie knew that Serena would wake up, but it was a matter of when that had the three stumped.  Margot continued to ponder over it as she stood in Serena's hospital room.  Julie was checking up on Ami and saying hi to Rowen while Margot was surveying the scene in front of her.  The stark white-walled room was deathly silent, save for the beeping of the heart monitor that stood next to Serena's bed.  Although the room was crammed with people, no one moved or said anything.  The white-coated doctor looked around as she measured the reactions from her most recent and very serious announcement on Serena's condition.  It was beginning to look that Serena was never going to wake up.  She looked down at the girl lying comatose on the bed.  Although she was covered in bandages, she could see how this tiny girl had inspired so many people and touched their hearts so deeply.  She hung her clipboard on the bedpost and walked out of the room slowly.  At the door, she paused to look back. 

"I'm sorry," she said regretfully before walking out of the room.  A muffled sob came from one corner of the room as Raye buried her face in her hands.  She pushed her way out of the room and ran down the hallway.  Sage automatically started for the door before he stopped and checked his emotion.  With a resounding thud, one fist hit the wall and he bowed his head, leaning it against the wall in agony.  He wanted to help Raye so badly, but there was nothing he could do to help her.  Extremely frustrated, he hit his other fist against the wall before turning his back to it and leaning against it, trying to stop the tears that were forming in his eyes from spilling.  He just wanted Serena to wake up and make everything better like she always did.  There was a flurry of motion as everyone reacted to the news that rather than improving, Serena was slipping much further into her coma.  Lita slammed her fist into her hand as a solitary tear trekked down her face.  She stalked out of the room behind her friend.  Alex followed her, her face blank but her shoulders slouched forward in defeat, Sage not far behind her.  Mia reached out to place her hand on Darien's shoulder comfortingly.  Ryo leaned back in his chair and mindlessly traced the outline of Serena's hand.  He couldn't believe it.  Serena was one of his closest friends; she was practically his sister and she was his cousin in the Silver Millennium.  They weren't related by blood, but it was the closest thing Ryo had to a living relative as she was going to die.  He bowed his head and gripped her tiny hand.  He felt a pair of arms encircle his shoulders and he looked up at Margot and smiled a little-pain filled half smile.  His other cousin from the Silver Millennium, twin sister to Julie, was almost as close to him as Serena was; he was thankful for her presence.  Margot smiled back a little and nudged him.  He looked up at her in puzzlement and she flashed her eyes at Mia and then back to Ryo.  He smiled slightly and after depositing a kiss on Serena' white hand, stood and moved across the room.  He laid two hands on Mia's shoulders.  When she turned, he could see the tears swimming in her green eyes.  Without a word, she turned into his arms and began to sob.  Darien sat with a dazed expression on his face as he held Serena's hand and absently stared off into space.  It was almost as if he had never even heard the news.  He didn't move, talk, or anything.  He couldn't comprehend how God could take away the only person he could recall loving since the accident that had taken away his mother and father.  So wrapped up in his grief, Darien didn't realize the first betraying motion of Serena's hand in his.  When a second small hand covered his and gripped weakly, he shook off all the daze enough to look down at his hands.  Almost disbelievingly, his eyes traced up Serena's arms to her face. Through tear-clouded eyes, he could see her own cerulean eyes beaming brightly into his deep sapphire ones.  She smiled faintly.  Darien felt an unnatural urge to break into a grin and laugh.  "Oh, Serena!"  Mia and Ryo pulled apart from each other.  Gaping, they came to stand by the bed, where Darien was madly laughing and kissing Serena's knuckles one by one.  Ryo watched Darien as if he were going insane until he saw Serena stir.  Mia and Ryo converged on Serena, their expressions suddenly of joy.  Over their heads, Serena smiled at Margot, who winked back mirthfully as if to say "It's good to have you back!" before walking out of the room to deliver the good news to the others.

***
-December 17th, 1999-

"Ooh, I'm so glad to be getting out of here," Serena said with a smile on her face as Darien wheeled her out of the hospital.  "No more hospital food," Serena concluded, which made Ami laugh, who was walking next to Serena's wheelchair with Rowen walking on the other side of Ami, holding her hand.  He couldn't believe that she was getting out of the hospital and coming back home.  The doctors had insisted that Ami and Serena stay in the hospital so their wounds could heal without the commotion that came from home.  Rowen found that the house without Ami and Serena was boring and he was so relieved that the two of them were coming back, particularly Ami.  And although he knew that the girls' friends were missing and they needed to get them back, he didn't care at that moment; Ami was coming home.  Ami looked over at Rowen and smiled at him.  She didn't know why he was holding her hand, but she didn't care; she rather liked it.  "What are you smiling about?" she asked Rowen.

"Oh, I'm just happy that you and Serena are coming home.  The house has been boring without you and too quiet without Serena.  Even Julie and Margot weren't loud enough to make up for the noise that Serena produces and that includes the loud music that the two of them insist on playing throughout the house at 5:30 in the morning to wake us up for school.  I don't even know who those bands are; I've never heard of them before.  They must be from their world or something."
"Well, you have to remember Rowen that their world is different than ours.  We don't exist in their world like we do here so it's only obvious that most everything over there is going to be different," Ami said.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Rowen said as Serena suddenly realized that they had been talking about her.

"Hey, did you just insult me?" Serena asked, "Are you implying that I'm loud?"

"In a good way, honey, you're loud in a good way," Darien said as they approached his car.  He let Ami and Rowen climb into the back, Rowen helping Ami into the car to make sure that she didn't hurt herself, before helping Serena get into the car and buckling her seat belt for her.  Giving her a quick kiss, causing her to smile, he closed the door and walked over the other side and climbed in.  "Are we ready to go home?" he asked the rest of the car as he turned the key in the ignition and put on his seat belt.

"Yeah!" the two girls said, anticipating their return home.  It was now Christmas break and would be the perfect opportunity for them to rest.  Darien only smiled before pulling his car away from the hospital building and driving away, bringing the two girls back to where the only place where they ever felt they belonged: home.

************

Hey all!  I know this seems like a bit random chapter, but in reality, it's all part of the grand scheme.  Basically, this chapter will help the relationships between a certain two characters come to a rather spectacular bang in the next chapter (guess which couple!).  But if you're going to ask how Serena, who can normally sense youma missed this one, our explanation is that unless a monster is actually using its powers to drain or attack someone, there is no way that she can sense it.  The idea is that she recognizes the power signature being used when the monsters attack someone.

Anyway, the next chapter should be out sometime later this week.  Until then, have a nice week! ~DestinyBabe.