[the forsaken]

Title: The Forsaken
Author: Link Worshiper
Pairings: 1=2, maybe some others if I feel like it
Rating: PG-13
Stuff: Fantasy AU, fluff, sap, language, adventure, WoW nerdiness
Disclaimer: I own Gundam Wing action figures? Warcraft and its lore belongs to Blizzard Entertainment. Both things are being played with out of fangirl love.

Thanks to danse and Natea for the once over. Despite the fact this is part of Natea's birthday present, I still needed her to fill me in on the Alliance history they don't teach us on Horde, so thanks for that also =P

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Part XX
A Light in the Dark

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Trowa was vastly on edge.

Though he had a shortcut and the protection of a holy priest, he couldn't help but feel like there was something else he was forgetting. At first he thought it might have been the presence of Wufei Hellscream, whose attitude was beginning to show through the longer they spent in one other's company, but considering the last set of traveling companions he'd been with could be just as moody, he wasn't so sure it only that. Maybe it was a sense of threat that Wufei also seemed to exude, as he was never slow to remind Trowa that he was the right hand of the Warchief Thrall, and despite how flippantly Trowa had waved off Heero and Duo whenever they came up in conversation, the blood elf prince couldn't help but be dubious of how legit Wufei thought his purpose was.

Trowa's suspicions that Wufei had been silently questioning some of the things he had thus said were confirmed as they approached the entrance to the abandoned mines Quatre had suggested they navigate to Elwynn. Trowa barely stopped to study the crumbling structure that cut into the side of the ashen crags before proceeding, but Wufei was more cautious, coming to an abrupt halt as he stubbornly eyed the rotten post and lintel that held the mountain aside. There was no denying that the mineshaft had been left in disrepair ages ago, and considering the risks involved with taking an uncharted, underground path, Wufei decided to voice his doubt that following through on Quatre's suggestion was such a good idea after all. "How can we really trust the word of that human priest?" he called out after Trowa, who had already disappeared into the gloom of the mineshaft. He took a gruff step forward, adding, "You haven't even met him; what makes you think that he's not full of mal intent?"

The echo of Trowa's boots crunching across the gravel inside the mine stopped for a moment, and then grew in volume as he returned to the mouth of the mineshaft, his face the very picture of grim practicality. "It serves him to aid my quest," Trowa explained, still falling back on his typically vague answers. He paused, pondering something to himself before continuing. "Besides, he's consistently kept his word to me in the past." A small chuckle twanged his speech as he went on; "I think he might actually be a good person."

Wufei caught the tweak of smile on Trowa's lip, but wasn't sure that it was one generated out of pure sarcasm. He chose to ignore it for the time being and said instead, "That still doesn't mean we should trust him implicitly. Even good people deceive." He crossed his arms and stood stiffly so that he might meet Trowa with a look of dissatisfaction when he reemerged from the darkness of the mine, ready to drive his point home the moment he glimpsed the elf's face again. "After all, they say that even Treize Kushrenada was a good person before he became the Lich King, back when he was a mere human prince," Wufei emphasized when Trowa returned to the mouth of the passageway; "They say it was with the best of intentions that he descended on a plagued village in his own kingdom and wiped out every man, woman and child that lived within - that he drew the evil blade Frostmourne with the same -"

Trowa silenced Wufei's overzealous retort with a rather unsettling, blank glare of indifference. Of course he knew that what Wufei had said was completely valid, but he didn't want to think too much on it, for he knew that his rationality and biases would quickly win out over his gut instincts in the end. With a frown, he killed the topic by saying, "Not even gods are incapable of evil. But that doesn't mean that we need mistrust every soul that treads the earth."

Wufei opened his mouth to argue back, but Trowa with that same uncaring stare blackening his green eyes was enough to make him rescind the urge. He instead settled for muttering under his breath that it still did to be wary around those who had wronged one in the past, charming personality or otherwise, and started to trudge after Trowa and his pet lion, who had already returned to the darkness of the mineshaft. He suppressed a shudder at the cold chill that ran down his spine the moment the blackness enveloped him, wondering how dwarves could ever stand to live hidden from the sun as they did.

They descended into the heart of the mountain by the light of rusted lantern Trowa had found in an old mining cart and lit with the aid of a flint and tinder from his hip pouch. There was no telling how much oil was left in it, but Trowa hoped that there was at least enough oil to get them most of the way through; he couldn't say that he fancied the idea of having to tear his cloak for the sake of creating a makeshift torch should the flame die out prematurely. As they walked, the weight of Wufei's angry glare constantly on his back, Trowa couldn't help but let himself continue to ask himself all the while why Quatre's word constantly rang so true in his ear, even though he had sworn he wouldn't question the matter too deeply. But Wufei had planted the seed of doubt, and it left Trowa only guessing at what Quatre's motivations could truly be, and for the first time, he found the notion discomforting.

All at once, he ceased walking, his impediment so unexpected that Heavypaw trod a few paces ahead before he realized, and Wufei crashed absently into Trowa's back, nearly knocking the lanky elf prince over. Without even bothering to turn around to address the orc, Trowa simply asked, "What is it about Quatre that makes you think he is not reliable?"

Once Wufei realized that Trowa was referring to the human priest, his face took on the scowl he usually reserved for talk of the Alliance and said with an air that was rather haughty and derivative, "Because he is the enemy." He honestly thought this answer was obvious.

Unexpectedly, Trowa whirled around, his face ablaze with an unfamiliar passion that seemed such a stark contrast to the expressionless mask he'd worn earlier. "That is hardly a reason!" he snapped before he had a chance to control the words pouring out of his mouth. When he finally came back to his senses, he blinked in surprise, unable to believe that he had actually said that, and quickly muttered an apology he wasn't sure was that sincere. By the Sunwell, he was starting to sound suspiciously like Heero and his uncertainty towards faction lines. It was unsettling how much this realization didn't bother him.

However, Wufei was starting to reach the end of his rope with Trowa and his ambiguous ties. "It is more than sufficient!" he snapped roughly, fighting the urge to reach for his axe to lob off Trowa's head then and there. "The Alliance has consistently been at odds with us, despite the few times we have been forced to legion with them for the sake of a common goal. There is no reason not to be concerned that your human priest has set us on a path to disturb some long-sleeping creature beneath the Redrocks."

Trowa wasn't impressed by Wufei's confrontational attitude. "If it's such a concern," he bit back, "then why do you follow so complacently?"

Wufei was glad he had a ready answer for this, because this debate was clearly never going to go anywhere. "Have you not already forgotten that I am indebted to you?" he reminded Trowa wryly; "And if it is your will to walk boldly to your death, I am honourbound to follow you to that end."

With a snort and a roll of his eyes, Trowa turned around and said to himself, "You orcs are all the same."

"So are you elves," Wufei groused just loud enough for Trowa to hear, though the regal prince chose to pointedly ignore the jibe.

No sooner had they reached this stalemate did they suddenly become aware that the earth was trembling beneath their feet. Unable to really determine where the source of the tremor was coming from, Heavypaw paced anxiously around Trowa and Wufei, while they warily glanced about with their weapons drawn, preparing for the advance of some enormous and vicious cave beast. Wufei barely had time to shoot Trowa a livid stare that seemed to say, 'This is all your fault,' before the rumbling reached a culmination and the cause of the quake suddenly rocketed straight through the stone wall a few yards further down the passage, flying smack into the craggy wall opposite and slumping to the ground in a pile.

As he watched, the flutter of a brackish hued braid was the first thing to catch Trowa's eye, and almost immediately, he was hurrying towards the wreckage and calling Duo's name with a fearful concern that forgot all the resentment he'd been harbouring towards the warlock prior. He and Heavypaw skidded to a halt a few feet off, relieved that Duo still seemed to be capable of moving a little, and watched as he shakily held himself over Heero's unconscious form and bent low. Trowa suddenly reeled at the sight, though it was unclear even to him if the reaction was to the sudden observation that Heero's body was twisted by evil, or because Duo was now pressing his ragged lips to Heero's demonized ones.

"What is it?" Wufei's voice muttered into his ear as he came to stand beside Trowa, though Trowa didn't bother benefiting the orc with a verbal answer. Instead, he stood there dumbly as Duo collapsed back to the ground, transfixed by the icy blue glow that had overtaken Heero's body the moment Duo had kissed him. The light exuded a power that tempted Trowa's hunger for the arcane, and yet, he couldn't bring himself to interrupt the pure magic as it chased away the fel influence over Heero's person and returned his visage to the one Trowa remembered leaving with Duo in Thelsamar.

It wasn't until the silvery iridescence had completely faded from Heero's body that Trowa dared to even breathe. Cautiously, he took a step towards the unconscious pair, uncertain what he really ought to do. He couldn't be sure what he had really just witnessed, but he knew that it was probably some kind of miracle, and it gave him pause to wonder what benevolent god had been watching over Heero and Duo closely enough to intervene at such a desperate junction. For some reason, he found himself hoping that one of them would stir before he had to intervene, feeling like he would taint something otherworldly should he try to rouse either one.

Wufei was the one to stomp all over the moment with his usual directness once he realized the monstrous demon that had fallen from above posed absolutely no threat. He pushed right by Trowa to get a closer look at Heero and Duo, his eyes narrowing when he found himself staring at an undead warlock that was arranged rather comfortably next to nothing less than a pithy human. Remembering what Trowa had told him about the rogue he was searching for and the sort of company he was keeping, he grit his yellowed teeth, his lips pulling around the large tusks protruding from his wide mouth as his expression took on one of loathing. He whirled on Trowa, grimacing, "Clearly the ancestors have blessed the warchief's cause to dump these vagrants right into my lap."

Unsure what he ought to say, Trowa merely shrugged and watched as Wufei lumbered over towards Heero and Duo. The orc nudged both of them with the toe of his boot as if he wasn't entirely positive they weren't dead. Satisfied that they were, indeed, still alive, he then proceeded to give each of them a hearty kick in the stomach, a surefire method to revive them quickly.

The results were immediate: Duo awoke with a sputter and launched into an upright position, while Heero rolled over, coughing and gasping for the breath Wufei had knocked from his lungs. As Heero continued to recover, Duo took it upon himself to lay into whatever sadist had such nerve, shouting at Wufei before he even got a look at his face: "Who the hell are you?" he demanded to know, spoiling for a fight with a snap that definitely didn't belong to someone that had just been passed out in the middle of an underground tunnel.

"Lucky for you I was even here, ungrateful wretch," Wufei retorted, clearly unimpressed by Duo or his quick defiance. "Who knows how long you and that human whelp might have been left to rot down here if it weren't for me?"

Duo stared at Wufei, aghast. "I don't know who you think you are, but don't come nosing into my business like you even know the first thing about me," he snarled, crossing his arms in a rather petulant way. It made for a rather disturbing sight with Duo's ragged clothing and rotted flesh, particularly with the naked bones of one arm lying so casually across the dead skin of his other.

Wufei smirked around his tusks, his reddish skin making him look hellish in the flickering light cast by Trowa's lantern. "That is where you are horribly wrong, warlock," he countered, kneeling so that he might get right into Duo's face as he spoke. Holding a stern finger under the undead summoner's nose, he said, "I know that you are going to return with me to Orgrimmar clapped in irons for convalescing with the enemy."

"You and what army?" Duo retorted, equally unimpressed with Wufei as the orc was he. Were he able, he might have spat right into his face just to drive his point home.

Wufei didn't appreciate the way Duo refused to be intimidated by his threats. "The entire Horde if it must be so," Wufei snapped, finally losing his patience. "If you had any idea what the whole of Azeroth has been suffering at the behest of your... your childish romping - you would turn yourself in!" Wufei sent a dark glare at Heero, who was still lying, short of breath, in the nearby shadows; "That damned human of yours - if you could even still call him that - cannot be left to wander free any longer," he said, his voice taking on a strangely somber quality.

Duo stared back at Wufei incredulously, and then past him, fixing his stare on Trowa, who still stood behind him. With his face arranged into an expression that silently wondered what he was doing in the company of the orc at all, Duo said, "You say it like he's got to have a jailor or something. It's not like I haven't been taking care of him."

Trowa only stared back at Duo without even flinching, his eyes completely unreadable in the darkness, while Wufei opened his mouth to let Duo know everything that was wrong with such a notion. He never got a chance to even get started on his tirade, though, for just as he was about to, Heero sat up and interrupted the conversation. "Don't talk about me as though I'm deaf or dumb," he said, his voice still a little weakened from the lack of oxygen in his chest. "I am perfectly capable of looking after myself."

Now it was Heero who had to bear the weight of everyone's stare. Even Duo was looking at him in a way that, despite the lack of malice in his expression, clearly denoted that he begged to differ. The culmination of those three pairs of eyes on him actually managed to make the usually confident Heero waver on his claim a little, especially when he caught sight of the Wufei's lips moving with a low mutter of doubt. It was faint, but he was just barely able to make out, "At least not deaf..." before the orc became still as the other two once more.

The eerie silence was more unnerving to Heero than even the cruelty of the slave driving Dark Irons, but he made sure that it didn't show in his face as he met the eyes of Duo, Trowa and Wufei with a placid stare of his own. His voice even as he spoke, he announced with a tiny swallow, "I don't need to prove to any of you that I am more than adept at surviving. I'd have been long dead if I wasn't."

There was a tiny clink as Trowa, still without a single word, set down his lantern and assumed a cross-legged position on the uneven ground, leaning heavily on one knee as he continued to watch the scene as if he were somehow removed from it. Heavypaw's panting ghosted through the dead air, punctuated every now and then with a far off drip-drip that echoed from somewhere else in the mines. Wufei, clearly through with wasting his words on Alliance scum, merely shifted from one foot to the other as he examined a nearby rock face, the faint grind of his plate armour highlighting his every movement, while Duo just looked at Heero as though he were trying to decide what exactly he should say next.

Heero didn't like the scrutiny one bit, even if their intentions were for the good of everyone involved. With a frown and a bit of haughty acerbity, he got to his feet and said, "Maybe it would take a miracle for one of you to make it this far as I have, but I can handle it." He made a show of dusting off his tunic, pretending as though their opinions, valid as each may or may not be, didn't make a difference to him. Then he turned like he meant to keep walking on without them, nevermind that he didn't have a lantern or a destination of his own.

"You walk to a lonely grave, then," came Duo's voice, cracking slightly. "You don't have to believe me, Heero, but the curse is spreading - spreading throughout you... to all of Azeroth...." His voice wavered like he wanted to say something else, and Heero managed to glance back over his shoulder in time to see Duo surreptitiously shoot wary glances at Trowa and Wufei. "To me," he mumbled, mostly to himself, leaving Heero to wonder what exactly he meant by that.

Fed up with all this standing around, Wufei's voice cut through the gloom and changed the mood of the group with a blunt course of action. "If he's that lost to the darkness already, I say we kill him." There was something distinctly morbid about the look on Wufei's face and the way he was gripping the haft of his battleaxe.

"Go ahead and try!" Heero shouted, immediately sinking into a battle-ready crouch. He hadn't liked Wufei's attitude from the moment the orc had rudely awoken him with that kick to the ribs and was more than ready to exact revenge on him for the low blow.

"You idiots - stop! You know not what you do!" Duo shouted, leaping to his feet. He reached out and grabbed Heero by the sleeve of his doublet and held his skeletal hand up to Wufei as a warning that he best back off. He felt like he had explained the reasons why they couldn't just off Heero no less than a thousand times and didn't really feel like taking the time to educate Wufei on the matter just because he was late to the party. "Take my word for it, this is something we will want to do by the book," he said in lieu of such a lecture and hoped it would suffice.

It was clear that Wufei didn't like the fact that Duo had not only intervened in a duel, but that he had also come to the defense of a human. Still, since Thrall wanted Heero to be brought back alive, he decided he would accept the vague excuse for sparing Heero's life - even if it was only temporarily. He nodded and sheathed his axe, though he made sure that both Heero and Duo were well aware of the fact that he only did so grudgingly.

All this while, Trowa had been so quiet, he was almost forgotten even though he was sitting closest to the dancing light of the lantern. It was only when he chose that moment to speak up that any of the others even took notice of him again. "What happened since the last time I saw you, Duo?" he asked softly. "There is an urgency to you that I do not remember."

Duo blinked at Trowa, shocked to silence by the sentimentality of his question. It was a side of the blood elf prince that didn't come out very often, and Duo wondered what Trowa had been brooding over to expose such vulnerability. Narrowing his eyes with suspicion in case Trowa was trying to trick him, Duo wondered aloud, "I can't fathom what you mean."

Trowa glanced at Heavypaw, who had since fallen asleep at his side, and let out a dry cough. Then, returning his focus to Duo, who was still glowering at him with his tempered, glowing eyes, he drew in a deep breath and expressed as much of his thought process as he cared to share. "You can't pretend that something didn't happen in Thelsamar even before I left you. Sometimes, things are so transparent, you don't really need evidential proof," he said slowly, still unsure that he really wanted to tell Duo all this. "But now, I think I understand."

Duo was fed up with Trowa's taste for ambiguity and wasn't even remotely in the mood to play along. "Understand what?" he urged impatiently, his hands flopping to his sides in annoyance. "I swear to you, Trowa Sunbender, if you're gearing up for some kind of usless jib, I'll -"

"I'm completely serious, Duo," Trowa deadpanned so easily that it was impossible to doubt his sincerity. Unflinchingly, he continued: "There is something that binds you to that human, isn't there. Some kind of magic that can counter even the chaos of the Burning Legion and that evil sigil it has wrought."

Duo arched his eyebrows and crossed his arms again. "I'm listening," he said flatly.

With a defeated sigh that was almost uncharacteristic for Trowa, he said exasperatedly, "Don't do this to me Duo. You know what I mean; I'm not blind, after all."

To what exactly Trowa was referring suddenly became apparent to Duo, and the moment realization struck, his face was quickly transformed into one of abject panic. "You saw?" he gaped. Then his brows furrowed tightly over his nose as he added with a darker intonation, "How long were you standing there, watching?"

"Long enough," Trowa answered with an even stare of his own.

Meanwhile, as Duo and Trowa became locked in a battle of wills, Heero stood between them and wondered what they could possibly be talking about. He had only vague recollections of what had happened since he'd first summoned the demon's power in the Dark Iron forgery, like glimpses of a dream he'd seen while only being partially awake. Hadn't Duo been lying unconscious with him when they'd fallen from above? "The suggestion that I have some kind of latent, magical talent is ridiculous," he informed Trowa matter-of-factly, disliking the stench of antagonism that was starting to putrefy the air again. "Those were things I always left to the likes of Quatre or Lady Relena."

The mention of Quatre was met the complete opposite than what Heero had intended. A sneer on his face, Duo leaned towards Trowa and mocked, "Oh, that's right: maybe we should ask Quatre about it."

At the mention of the priest, Wufei suddenly rejoined the conversation, which he'd only been half listening to out of boredom. "Yes, let's," he agreed in all seriousness. "The sooner we get back to Kalimdor, the better." He was flexing his sinewy hands like he was eager to grab Heero by the neck and drag him there on command. "We will not win the day by loitering in this dank place any longer."

"Where exactly are we?" Duo asked, suddenly switching his attention to Wufei, who was, despite his brutish attitude, still less frustrating to Duo than Trowa at the moment. It was at least orcish nature to be a bit on the prickly side, which was enough for Duo to let Wufei's earlier action slide. He thought that a regal elf had absolutely no excuse to act as Trowa currently was - at least, to Duo's mind, anyway.

Wufei simply shrugged and then tossed his broad chin in Trowa's direction as he said, "The priest in Theramore told him this abandoned dwarven route would take us to Elwynn." His tightly pulled tail of black hair quivered behind his head as he shuddered at the mere mention of Relena Proudmoore's domain, unable to resist adding his own two cents: "But I still maintain that he has merely sent us on a trek to meet our end."

"Oh, really? Quatre again, is it? Then we must trust it!" Duo drawled, shooting Trowa another unimpressed face, which went unacknowledged by the elf.

"Actually," Heero said, his quiet voice still managing to interrupt their arguing with its blunt matter-of-factness, "I believe it was a stroke of genius to send you this way on Quatre's part." He pointed to some of the debris littering the tunnel floor, drawing attention to some old rail spikes and discarded iron. "I think this might have been meant to house a tram rail whose construction has been long since discarded." He shrugged and said simply, "If that is the case, then it is as Quatre says, and we will surely be led straight into Stormwind."

Sure enough, upon closer inspection, there was evidence that Heero's theory was correct, for just at the rim of Trowa's lamplight, there lay a pair of rusted rails affixed to a line of worm-eaten ties that vanished into the darkness ahead of them. It was common knowledge that there was an operational tram that ran between Stormwind and the dwarven capitol of Ironforge, but to think that there were other such systems, logical as the case might have been, was not really something that had occurred to the three Horde loyalists.

Still, Wufei glared at the old construction site with distaste, his upward turning tusks making his frown seem even more severe. "Well, even if that is so, there is no telling what has chosen to lurk in this place," he maintained, unable to accept that someone from the Alliance would do anything but lead his kind to their demise. "And besides," he went on, turning his sharp stare on Heero and Duo again, "what does it matter if it goes to Stormwind or not? That human is coming to Kalimdor - now!"

With that, he closed the gap between them with a few quick strides and grabbed Heero by the hood of his cloak, almost threatening to choke the rogue as he yanked it backwards. Heero struggled to unhinge the golden lion's head that clasped the drape about his neck before he suffocated, while Duo's bony hand instinctively twitched at his side with the urge to lay a curse on Wufei with his dark magic for such an affront. Trowa and Heavypaw merely looked on with indifference.

Finally managing to free himself from his cloak, Heero stumbled forward, leaving but the black garment in Wufei's tight fist. "I'm not going anywhere with you," Heero snarled, massaging his reddened throat. "Not until I have gone to Stormwind to obtain for Duo what I have promised."

Duo's hand twitched again, but for a different reason this time. The light of his eyes dimmed for a moment as he contemplated what the best thing to say would be. At length, his eyes on the curled toes of his shoes, he mumbled, "Heero, maybe it's a good idea to go back after all. I appreciate that you want to see our bargain through, but... but to be truthful... I'm not sure even I have the power to help you anymore."

Heero could only stare at Duo like he didn't fully understand what Duo had just said. His brow furrowed and his lips were drawn into a tight frown as he said, "I think you are mistaken." It was hard to tell if he was naively in denial or just being incredibly stubborn.

But Duo gravely shook his head, still unable to meet Heero's eyes. "The last time you used the demon's power, I could barely tell where you ended and he began. I'm afraid that if I try to sunder you now, I'll just... make it worse," he said, still addressing the tops of his shoes and unable to express his worst fears in explicit terms aloud. "I think that Quatre's holy magic would be a better thing to bet on than anything I could do at this point."

"I don't care," Heero said flatly, sounding as if he hadn't even heard a word of what Duo had just said.

Incredulously, the other three stared openly at Heero. "What?" Duo wondered, bewildered, as he lifted his gaze from the dusty ground to meet Heero's serious face with an expression of disbelief.

"I said, 'I don't care,'" Heero repeated firmly. He didn't even cast a glance anywhere but at Duo's face as he continued to speak with even determination: "Take me to Kalimdor, very well - but not until I have found that elixir in the vaults of Stormwind Keep first."

"Heero, that's stupid," Duo protested, unsure he felt comfortable with Heero taking such a risk for no real reason. Considering that the longer they dallied on purging the Epyon demon from Heero's soul, the more fused they became, Duo did not like the idea of continuing on a route that would most likely lead to his death. "I will not let you throw your life away like this!" Duo shouted, though he soon found himself addressing Heero's back as the rogue boldly strode towards Trowa and the lantern, which he then proceeded to claim as his own.

Holding the lantern aloft in one hand, its light casting harsh, white shapes on his face, Heero said, "I am going to Stormwind whether you follow me or not. Duo has made every effort to save me; so, too, will I, him."

An incredibly heavy mantle of guilt descended upon Duo as he watched Heero turn his back on him again, ferrying their only light away. To be frank, Duo was pretty sure he had been mostly serving himself since he had found Heero slinking around that graveyard, driven by the silly notion that he might be able to win Heero again should his heart resume its beat. But the seriousness of the situation had ballooned far more than he had anticipated, and he had reached a point of maturity that allowed him to put things in perspective. Better that at least one of them was still able to enjoy life than neither, and if Duo had any say in it, he'd choose Heero for that privilege over himself any day. And that wasn't something he'd only realized in death, or a responsibility bred out of duty, but rather something he'd known since he'd first held Heero in his arms.

It seemed almost natural to come to the decision that he did, and with new resolve, Duo tossed his shoulders at Trowa and Wufei, and then turned to follow Heero before his light was completely extinguished by the gloom.

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