Author's Chapter Notes:
Things are getting darker!

Warning!!: disturbing scenes and thoughts described!!!
You sensitive soul shall not be reading unless you like hurting yourself.... Your responsability!

Thanx so much for all the nice reviews and sorry for keeping you waiting for so long. And sorry, because Jean doesn't die, well not right away...or maybe not, I still don't know.
Hope you enjoy this one too.

Reviews are my daily bread... (*g*)

PS: I own nothing at all
Chapter 2

I never knew I could feel like this again, so free, so alive and absolutely sure that tomorrow can only be brighter. In fact, it only happened once, when I got back to her after months of nothingness, stuck in a vain quest. Everything that does not include her presence next to me is vain, I know. It scares me out of my mind to see how much I need her, yet I keep thinking that she deserves so much better than anything I can bring her, so much better than me.

Her arms are tightly wrapped around my chest, hands closing on my heart. I know she has her ear on my back listening to the poundings of that old heart of mine. I had to wait more than a century to finally meet her in this rat hole in the North.
How many lives have I lived? How many men died at my hands and at those claws? I’ve been hurt almost a million times, killed maybe even more times but I always healed... survived; even this, the andamantium and all the shit that suits it.
But I believe that if I did, it only was to be able to meet her, then all this mess would at least make some sense. I don’t really believe in destiny, though. Yet all those coincidences, our suiting mutations, the bond that not even Xavier could explain, they must have a sense. Does every single thing has to make sense? Why don’t I just live this new life to its fullest? With her; Marie.


We drive until darkness starts to stretch its velvet veil once more on the virgin sky. We haven’t spoken a word since we left nor have we stopped. We drove as to forget the things we’re leaving behind and I feel guilty about tearing her apart from the world she finally got used to. How much do I have to take from her to be satisfied? I want her whole, I want her for me alone. Is it too much? Am I too much?

We should find some place to spend the night; I can’t make her miss some most needed sleep. The faint lights of a city afar are welcome after such a long time without seeing any sign of life on this deadly cold road. I knew she was cold during all our way but she never complained. She just held on to me without exactly moving and sometimes I needed to concentrate on her heartbeats to make sure she was still with me.

I make it to a shabby little motel that reads ‘vacancy’ written with blue neon lights. I put out the engine and wait a few seconds before standing on my feet. Marie holds me even tighter and I can feel her bury her face between my shoulder blades. I squeeze her fingers lightly and swing my leg over the motorbike still holding her hand. She stands and walks after me barely able to stand straight. The guy at the front desk doesn’t really acknowledge our presence. He just throws a couple of keys on the worn out counter and mutters gruffly ‘twenty five bucks cowboy’. I try not to pay too much attention to my itching knuckles and draw the little money I have in my wallet and put the crumpled ‘twenty five bucks’ in exchange of the keys.


The room number: 1845. Ironic, huh? It’s my supposed year of birth. Yeah, it is damn too ironic. Marie notices and smiles at me innocently. She’s in fact one of the few who really know about it. In fact one of the three except me. Inner circle.

I can see the shadows under her eyes; she’s exhausted but she won’t say a word. She walks past me inside the room. One big bed, a table on which reigns an old fashioned phone, and a TV that certainly matches the antiquity on the table across from it.
Marie throws herself unceremoniously on the bed and then turns around on her back lifting her arms to me, beckoning. I obey the silent order and creep up in her embrace and fall in a dreamless sleep.

__________________________________________________________



Do you believe in God or in destiny?

I mean, do you believe in the things that are just meant to be?

He’s in my arms right now in a motel room in the middle of nowhere and I wonder how things turned out to become what they are now. Is it a trial? Does it happen to test the depth of our love? Were we wrong?

What the Professor said and the way he said it makes me think that maybe, just maybe we were.
Don’t get me wrong it doesn’t change my feelings but I can’t help but feel wrong, like I disappointed everyone back there. I can’t help but feeling unsecure about tomorrow and I just know I can’t tell Logan about it because he’d only worry and I don’t want him to.
But I’m realistic, though. We don’t have money, we don’t have anywhere to go and I know Logan damn too well to sense the cage fighting stuff to make some money not so far.
Is it what I wanted?
Welcome to the real world Rogue.

I’d better say goodbye to the few dreams I still cherished because it’s going to be one hell of a life. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t want to leave at first, when Logan told me once that we could live what we share with less pressure if we left the mansion. At the time, I could only think of our comfort and about all the things this place was bringing, and I don’t only talk about the material aspect. We had a family there but we had to leave because they couldn’t understand; they wouldn't. Or was it our fault? Should we have waited a little bit longer; until I was older, ready in my heart and my body to be with someone like Logan?


If I think of it, I’m the one who started it all. If there’s someone to blame it’d be me. I know Jean would say I lured him, attracted him with my innocence. But with all the shit I have in my head, I can swear there’s no trace of innocence; a lack of experience, yeah, but innocence, certainly not.

I was in love with him from the very first minute and if I didn’t sense that his thoughts could meet mine at a certain point, I wouldn’t have taken my chance and telling him how I felt.
There were all those things he did for me or because of me, and it made me feel different, in a very good way. He was kind and always showed concern; he never treated me like a freak. He never flinched even when my skin was poisonous.
And then he gave me his dog tags; that moment I knew he was giving me something more. Come on, the man had nothing, not since all his belongings exploded in that old camper! And even then he didn't possess much. These were all he had, his past, his future, all he was, and he gave them to me, hello?
So I cherish them, I have them all the time around my neck, nestled between my breasts.
That’s what may have shocked Dr. Grey. That and the fact I was visibly naked under my fluffy blanket and stuck on Logan’s bare chest, yeah, I can see why now. It’s perfectly clear. Ahem...where was I?

So I told him; one week ago, after he returned from Alkali lake. I told him I loved him in the most girlish, most embarrassing kind of way. He was genuinely pleased, well I don’t know if it’s the word, but he responded quite *positively*.
I never thought of Logan that way, I never could imagine he would be so loving, but, hey, who will complain? It was so simple, though; maybe too simple.


So what do we have now? I have him, and he has me, shouldn’t it be enough?

Is it what I truly wanted? And what about him? What does he think about it?

Am I ever going to be enough for him?

I’m not going anywhere here, I really should get some sleep because I’m *really* out of it.


__________________________________________________________



Another day brings a new life, that’s what people say, don’t they? I’d better go and get us something to eat before she wakes up starving.

How much do I have left? Not even a hundred. I need to find a solution, something, anything. This city isn’t in the cage fight circuit so we’ll have to move soon. I never thought I'd go back to this life, not with Marie with me.

I wonder what she’ll say about it. It’s all I can do; hurt and kill. I’m a fucking killing machine, and she’s with me regardless of all that shit. Does she know what it takes to *be* with *me*?


I get up without a noise and flee through the cigarette-paper-thin door. The guy at the front desk is still there, sleeping more or less, I think.
Outside, the cold winter light welcomes me with an unknown familiarity. There’s a small supermarket on the opposite street. What does she like? What she doesn’t? I am clueless. Guess I should know things like that, uh? What am I doing to her? What made us take this step to something else? Damn, she’s only seventeen! She’s just a kid. The Professor was right...What kind of animal am I?

*******

She’s still asleep when I get back, the sweetest smile on her lips. She makes me want to join her and share some of her present happiness.
Then she frowns a little; she smelled me. She finally makes a good use of the *me* she has in her head. Baby, please don’t wake up, you’re so peaceful right now, I don’t want to ruin it.
She frowns once more and I see her eyelids pressing tighter one on the other.

The wake of Marie.


“Hey beautiful.”

“Hey handsome. I didn’t even hear you leave. ” She says stifling a yawn.

“How’re you feeling?”

“Better now.”

“Better? What do you mean?” What the...?

“Nothing, I just felt a little strange, but I’m all better now that you’re here.”

Okay, it’s true her scent has changed a little, but it’s nothing to be worried about, right?

“If there was something wrong, you’d tell me?”

“Yeah, don’t worry Logan, okay? I’m fine, I just need a shower, and a breakfast, in that order.”

She winks at me and makes it to get off the bed.

“I didn’t find anything that looked like pancakes in that grocery and there’s no diner or restaurants around, so I just picked a few stuffs.”


Her voice now echoes from the shower corner. “I don’t drink beer. Hope you have something a girl like me can eat.”

As I don’t answer, she peers out the shower door an amused smile playing on her face as splashes water in my direction with one hand.


“Want to join me?”

And 'no' is just not an option because I can already feel my morning condition responding for me.

I dress off as I look at her looking at me with expectation written all over her beautiful face. She leans on the metal door frame biting at her lower lip in an inviting way. Is she aware of what she does? Because this look in her eyes could get any man into serious trouble. But it’s just me, so it’s okay.

She steps back as I enter the small space of the shower cabin almost taking it entirely for me. She leans on the far tiled wall, clearly hesitating, tempted.
Warm steam is like a veil between us, hot water dripping on our skins. I approach slowly and turn her around by her shoulders laying a soft kiss at the base of her neck. Her hands are on the tiled wall before her now , head slightly turned as to see what comes next.

The scent of her arousal is almost intoxicating in the small space filled with steam, like enhanced by it. I take the small washcloth she has in her hand, pour some liquid soap on it and start to wash her body, starting by her front as I press myself against her back.
I go slow, really slow; I want to feel each and every part of her body reacting to this new kind of touch. She doesn’t move but her erratic breath tells me she appreciates my ministration.
I allow my hands to go lower, closer to Heaven and I stop right above that secret place of hers.

It seems like eternity before she turns around. She takes back the washcloth and graces me with the same loving care I was giving her body minutes before, and she does it with a kind of awe in her eyes, almost admiration.
She doesn’t look at me in the eye, though. I’d like to know what she’s thinking right now but I don’t want to break the sacred silence around us.

Her small hands roam over my chest and my stomach going lower and lower before they stop completely. With her head leaning against my chest, she makes me turn around so that my back is now facing her, her head leaning between my shoulder blades and her hands over my pounding heart. She presses her body to my back no longer trying to make her hands move and I know something is happening right now, something she couldn’t realize before now.
I have to speak, ask if she’s alright. I turn around and lift her chin to connect our eyes but she avoids my gaze and I could swear I can smell her tears.

“Marie, you okay?”


She doesn’t answer and closes her eyes, shutting me out.


“Baby, tell me what’s wrong.”

My voice is pleading and weak. I lean down almost broken in two to meet her height.
That’s when she warps her arms around my neck and kisses me deeply.
Her taste has slightly changed since the last time we kissed. There is something going on inside her and it’s killing me to be clueless to what it is. But it affects her, that much I know. She's been strangely over reactive those past few days. I know a lot has happened but it's so much not like her...

Is it regret? Is it fear?

No, it’s not, it’s something else, more primal, deeper.


I feel her legs giving up on her as she slides limply from my arms. It's not good. What the…


"Baby, you hear me? Marie!" No reaction. "God Damnit, answer me!"


Still no answer. I burst out the shower cabin carrying her limp body in my arms and I deposit her as gently as possible on the bed. That’s only now that I can see the strange expression on her face. Her eyes are half closed and her lips slightly parted moving like she’s saying something. Her heart is awfully slow and I don’t know anything else to do but call her name and caress her face endlessly until she wakes up from whatever it is she’s in right now.

She shivers and spams, her lips blue, and I wrap her in the covers and curl my body around hers cradling her, rocking her back and forth.
She closes her eyes and for a minute I fear the worst, but she’s still with me, her heart tells me so. It’s starting to beat more normally, soft and steady. Oh God.

That’s only now I allow myself to fall apart. I can’t remember the last time I cried like now, tears of relief and utter fright at the same time.


__________________________________________________________



Logan? Where am I? What’s this place?

It hurts. So much. I'm bleeding. I'm dying.

It changes...Someone is lying on the ground in the distance.

Oh my God… Logan…No, Logan! Wake up! Please wake up…


Blood, pain and darkness.
His blood all around and the strong smell of fear and death.

Bullets screaming in the dim light. People giving their last breath. So young, so scared. Their voices screaming for help but no one comes, no one can hear them.


And there is Logan lying on the scattered ground, blood staining his blue uniform and splashed all over his handsome face. A huge dark hole in his chest, blood oozing from it in dark and thick rivers.


This place, it’s a battle field.
What am I doing here? Logan, please, I'm begging you, WAKE UP!


Somebody, help me…


Darkness…It hurts so much.

__________________________________________________________



She still doesn’t wake up. It’s been hours now. Oh God let her be okay. Whatever it is that we share, it’s too early to take her from me. The only reassuring thing is her steady heartbeats. What the hell is going on here? That’s not how it should be, not like I wanted it. Marie, don’t leave me baby.

Her heartbeats are alarmingly growing faster until her horror filled eyes shoot open.


“LOGAN!!” Her screams fills my body and I tense painfully.

“I’m here baby, I’m right here. It’s over, shhh…”

“Oh my God Logan… Don’t leave me! Don’t…”

“I won’t move, I promise. Marie, it was just a nightmare, you hear me? It’s all over now, look at me!”

“Oh God, you were dying and there was nothing I could do. Tell me you're ok, please Logan!” She sobs, choking, uncontrollably shaking, tears staining her pale face.


Was it one of my nightmares? I thought the Professor taught her how to lock them away from her own consciousness. Why now?

“I'm ok, I won’t die Marie…I promise”

I try to hush her promising everything and anything that crosses my mind; I want her better, and now! Because it’s starting to scare the hell out of me.

“There was blood everywhere and screams and gunshots. I thought I’d lost you.”


What the hell is she talking about?

She sobs until her lungs are almost emptied, clinging to me for dear life, nails planted in my upper arms. Whatever it was it must have been horrible and it crushes my heart to see her like this without being able to do anything.

“It’s okay, Marie. It’s over, you see? I’m right here, now calm down.”

I cradle her against my chest until her breathing returns to normal. After a long pause, I hazard “ We should eat something, it’s almost dark outside and you’ve been out for the whole damn day.“


“Yeah... So What is there for diner?”


Her sudden casualness reassures me a bit. I try to read her once more but I still can’t see or feel anything I can identify.

“You should get dressed first I think. Not that I’d complain about the view.”

She smiles weakly at the little tease and extends a hand to the covers she’s wraped in.

“Need a help?”

“No, it should be okay. Where are my clothes anyway?”

“At the foot of the bed, here. You sure you okay?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry. Just get your nice sculptured ass away enough from the covers so I can reach for my stuffs, will you?”

“Oh, so you do remember?” I ask playfully.

“How can I forget?” She mumbles under her breath, a shy smile curling up her lips.

I’d like to leave things at that but I just can’t. She fainted and stayed out too long to take it lightly. I need to know she's okay.

“Marie, what happened in the shower?”

“What, what happened? We were having a kind of…intense moment together. That might be why I’m so tired.”
Her tone is light, she doesn’t seem to remember much. Or she doesn't want me to worry too much. But too late, I am.

“Baby, you collapsed and stayed out for hours. And then there’s this nightmare that quite shook you, and saying now that I’m worried crazy is an understatement.”

“Logan... I don’t know... I don’t even know where this awful dream comes from. I’ve never seen anything like that even in your nightmares, it was so real.”

“I need to know, tell me what you saw, and it 'no' is not an option.” My voice sounds harsher than I truly intended. But I do *need* to know.

“I…I was on a battle field. There was blood and scattered bodies everywhere. You were there too. You seemed… Oh God, you seemed dead, for real, you had huge holes oozing dark blood in your uniform and blood splashed all over your face. Your eyes were still opened staring at some horrible nothingness... God...it was awful.”

She plunges to my chest and starts to sob harder by the moment. I try my best to sooth her but I’m helpless.


“A uniform?”

“Yeah, like those the Northerners wore during the civil war. I swear I’ve never seen anything like this. It was like I was living it, like it was me lying on the muddy ground feeling the life running out from my body. I was so afraid. And then it was like I could see the whole thing from another point of view, like I was an outside viewer. That’s when I saw that it wasn’t me but you soaking in your own blood…”


She stands and flees through the room and barely has the time to make it to the toilets.
All I can do is running after her and hold her hair as she empties herself from the whole sickening scene.

I just hope that there won’t be any other nightmare like this one. She doesn’t deserve it. Yet I still wonder where it all comes from. Was it one of my nightmares? I can’t remember being a soldier. But if the aging tests are exact, that could be a possibility.

Who knows what I could have been in more than a century of life? Being a soldier seems to suit me, though. Killings and screams and distress. Yeah, it could be me.

We spend the rest of the night in silence, worry biting at me. The fact that she collapsed in the shower still unexplained. Something is going real wrong here...God, let her be okay, whatever it is.


__________________________________________________________



I’m so tired!

I slept the whole damn day and I still don’t have the strength to raise a finger. Man that dream really scared me shitless. I’m tired but I’m afraid to fall asleep and see this all over again.

Was it real? Was it a part of Logan’s life? The part he can’t remember?
It seems so impossible, how could I have an easy access to memory his own mind can’t find.
Could he have passed them onto me at the same time as the others?
And how come it comes biting at me now, when I thought I had them sealed away in some dark folder of my head? Something is going wrong here, and I’d be glad to know what it is, and now wouldn’t be bad.

***********

The days pass and we move from place to place, and just like I knew; Logan is back to cage fighting again.

The late winter days are kind of bright up here. The motels are not too bad compared to those I sometimes slept in when I was on the streets, and the food is not bad either.


So I guess we’re just fine. Well as fine as we can be given our situation.

As I hoped, the dream never came back. I’m glad.

It’s been three whole weeks now and our relationship grows stronger day by day.

The only regret I have is that I can’t help Logan much.

I can’t work and my strengths often play tricks on me.

I’m not sick, but sometimes lifting a single finger requires more than I can give. According to Logan I lost a lot of weight. He's worried like crazy, even though I tell him I'm okay. I’m ashamed to let him support the both of us; I feel like such a burden. As there’s no kitchen here, I can’t even cook. Not like I’m a Chef or something, but you know, just to show I’m grateful.

*******

Logan wakes up early in the morning and doesn’t come back before 1 or 2 am, after his 'night session'. He has a regular job out of town as a lumberjack but he says it's not enough. So after the sun sets, he goes fighting, beating the living piss out of some rednecks.

With the money of his first winnings, he bought a small camper that makes me think of the one that burst a few hours after our first encounter. The main difference is that the ‘new one’ is much more…how could I say that? Decent. Yes, that’s the word. It’s more decent; really cozy in some ways, intimate. It’s us.

**********

Well there’s nothing I can really do to pass the time so I buy second hand books with the little money I saved from my monthly allowance at Xavier, and read until my eyes hurt too much to go on. I think I’ve never read that much at school despite the fact I really was a library rat at the time.

School…

I wonder how the others are doing right now. It’s not like I often think about them but you know I’m not that insensitive. I sometimes take time to think about others than myself.

So all in all life is good, well despite that tiredness that bites at me every now and then.
Logan does great too. He’s less, gruff in the morning and lets me watch TV and read as much as I want. He doesn’t ask me anything, really. I’m feeling like a spoiled little brat and not like an equal, a partner.
*That* pisses me out; really. But what can a seventeen-year-old-girl can do to support the man she loves? I think I’ve never been that aware of my age, of what it means and what it prevents me from.

Who am I kidding? It's not fine, it's not dandy, and I'm scared. I've been noticing a few changes. That and the fact that I'm a little bit late...I think I should tell Logan but it’s a little embarrassing to talk about that; I need to be sure first. I need to get a pregnancy test. To be more precise, I feel like shit every single morning...
The more I try to hide it, the more suspicious Logan gets.

My smell must be different although he keeps telling me he never smelled anything that good. Well I personally think I stink a little, well recently. Hormones, hey! Everything stinks when I come to think of it, even food; there are times I can’t even eat.

What do we do if the test is positive? Are we ready for that?

Am I ready to be that: a mother? Oh God, don't even mention it...

I can't help it, I'm scared and I can't tell Logan. I can't do this to him, he's trying so hard. I don't know what to do. What will he do with a seventeen-year-old pregnant girl on the road?


__________________________________________________________




She’s prettier every day, and her scent holds now a sweeter note than usual, like mango and vanilla it seems. Where does that come from?

There’s also a new light in her eyes, like a new life spreading through her whole body. I need to be sure. If it is what I think it is, then I’ll be the happiest man in the whole damn world. Yet I can’t help but feel that I’m really stealing something from her: her youth and her innocence; her life. I know someday I’ll have to pay for whatever it is that I’m putting her through.

I never told her why I loved her or why I took her on my truck at first, I was too afraid of her reaction, afraid that she’d laugh at my face. The big bad Wolverine moved to tears by some teenager girl with big brown eyes and thick southern accent.
But that’s partly the reason why I am with her now, why I couldn’t wait to claim her as mine: My Marie, and no one else’s. I say partly because going for a full length explanation would take two lifetimes, and I don’t have the time; no, she doesn’t have the time.

The weather is great today despite the coldness of the air and the snow. I’ve rent a comfortable cabin by the Canadian border and try as much as I can not to be too much on the move. I want Marie to feel she has a tangible home, not just some shabby motel rooms and days and nights on her own waiting for me to come back from whatever I’ve found to make money. I just want to make her happy, as much as it is possible for someone like me.

She never complains, though. She’s all smile and mischievousness; she does what she can to make me feel at home too. But what she seems to ignore is that anywhere is home for me, as long as she’s there.
She decided to cook some Spanish dish today; I don’t know what it is but it’s kind of smelling good. I can’t remember the name of it but I’m sure it’s worth the shot.

Something’s wrong though, in her scent, I can smell…fear. What the hell...?

“Marie? Hey, baby you afraid of frying it too much?”

I say teasingly, not wanting to sound too obviously alarmed. She doesn’t respond, looks at something that doesn’t seem to be in the kitchen, that very same void expression in her eyes as in the motel room weeks ago.

“Hey, you still with me?” I ask cautiously.

Still no answer. Okay, time to panic. I can hear her heart slow down deathly, her skin progressively taking a grayish aspect. I just have the time to catch her as she falls to the floor. I cut the gas stove and rush to the room lying her on the bed.

What the hell is going on? Not that, not again!!

“Marie, baby talk to me, please, stay with me. I try to shake her a little in a desperate attempt to bring her back to me, but nothing happens.

Her eyes are still staring at some nothingness. She coughs frantically and it smells blood. I scan her body in search of any injury, but there’s none to be found.

What the hell? Blood starts to pool in her mouth and long neat cuts appear on her arms and between her knuckles and start to bleed.

In the blink of an eye, Marie is lying in my arms dripping blood as cuts on her body open and close alternatively. I can see her mouth something, it’s my name, she’s calling me.

“I’m here, Marie, wake up!”

I hear myself shout at top of my lungs as I try inefficiently to stop the blood loss with towels and sheets. Her heart starts to slow down more than dangerously; I need to do something, anything!

“Baby, touch me, I need to heal you, okay, put your skin ‘on’! You hear me? Put your skin ‘on’!”

I touch her face, nothing happens. She’s still bleeding and her breath is just a mere whisper, she’s leaving me…

NO WAY!

“Put your fucking skin ‘on’ Marie, I need to heal you!!”

Still no deadly pull, nothing but the smell of her blood all around me.

“No, Marie, don’t leave me! Don’t, I forbid you! God damn it; Marie, stay with me!”

Her eyes close softly as I hear her exhale her last breath. Then all of a sudden, her heartbeats grow faster until it almost bursts out of her chest and she opens eyes wide in horror as the remaining cuts on her skin knit back progressively.

I need help here. I need a fucking help right here and right now!

“Baby, you hear me? It’s over, I’m here, look at me. It’s over now.”


She blinks tiredly but still doesn’t recognize me it seems. Her skin is so cold but she breathes again, finally.

I hold her close and start to cry uncontrollably. This is my entire fault, whatever it is that is happening to her, I must be the one to blame. This is my reward for taking her when I shouldn’t.
Now, I’m paying. No she’s paying, for me.

I need help, and this help whether I admit it or not, is at the mansion. I never thought I’d have to go back there. But it’s not about me, it’s all about her, and I’m powerless now more than ever.

She shouldn’t be the one to pay for my sins.

“Marie, you hear me? We got to go. We’re going back to the mansion, we need help, I just can’t leave you like that, I don’t know what to do.”

She doesn’t answer, her eyes still vacant, her skin paler than death itself. I try my best to clean her up and dress her, take her to the truck and drive like a mad man.

She’s lying at the back of the truck, lifeless it seems. She can’t leave me, never, she’s mine.


I didn’t even call once in the past months, I had absolutely no reason to do it. Last time I checked, I was the one who stole a student’s virginity and smashed all the doors closed behind me like I was all righteous.

Now I bring her back scattered and used and pregnant; there’s no doubt she is. I've ruined her.

It's hard to go back but I don't care.

For her I'd burn myself and offer her my ashes, for her I’d go to hell and back; if that could save her.
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