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Author	Topic: Into The Shining Day - dark OT AU, L/M, H/L - one post - Replies Jul 8! Thanks for the nom!
JediNemesis Registered: Mar '03	Date Posted: 9/28/08 3:04pm Subject: Into The Shining Day - dark OT AU, L/M, H/L - one post - Replies Jul 8! Thanks for the nom! - Date Edited: 7/8 5:55am (4 edits total) Edited By: JediNemesis
	Title: Into The Shining Day Author: JediNemesis Era: Around where ESB would have happened Genre: Dark AU, angst, drama, vignette Characters: Leia; Luke; Vader; Mara; Han; others mentioned Notes: This story skates pretty close to the shadowy line as far as TOS is concerned. However, it's been read and cleared by the mods, and so if you have any objections to issues raised, please take it up with them rather than with me. However, hopefully nobody will feel that need. Enjoy DISCLAIMER: The universe belongs to Mr Lucas, I'm just playing with it. No money has changed hands. Six years; six years since the parody of a wedding we went through; six years in which he’s never so much as touched me, though I know he’s thought about it, in the harrows of a sleepless night when all the darknesses he’s created seem to be hemming him in. Six years ago I stood beside Luke in the echoing hall of the old Temple, tears in my eyes and my fingers trembling as I held his hand. I look at the pictures now and wonder who they are, those people. There, the girl, straight and serene as a lily in her long white gown and gloves, crystal and sea-pearls gleaming at her throat, and there, beside her, the boy, every inch the young soldier, with the flashes of his first commission shining brand-new on his shoulders. There she is, reciting the words of the marriage service in a clear voice; there he is, answering her vows with his own. There they are, caught in the awkwardness of that first public kiss; there again, holding hands as they come down the great steps towards the acclamation of the crowd. And again and again, in a thousand frozen pictures, there they are, the glorious girl who borrowed my body for the day, and the golden boy who has my brother’s face but not his heart. They are perfect, as flawless as a fairytale, and no more real. They walked together into the sunset on that shining day, and left us behind to live out the term of our lie. Because that night, in the dim, close halls of the family mansion, it was broken to us that the bond we had felt, the inexplicable but utter certainty that we were two halves of the same whole, was not true love as we had naively thought it. We are twins, Luke and I, not soulmates, and that is the reason why we understand one another’s minds so completely. We are also married. By the time my mother steeled herself, to a degree I can barely imagine, and confessed that the presumed daughter of Bail Organa was actually her own child - spirited away at the age of only hours in the hope that I would escape my brother’s fate - the arrangements were already underway. All the galaxy was caught up in the dream we represented, of a shining and united future, just as it had been caught up eighteen years before. Our parents’ wedding was the event of a generation, a brief light in the dark years of the Clone Wars. The Emperor’s favoured ward and apprentice courted and married the young, beautiful and talented Senator for an ancient and noble sector, and the galaxy fell in love with them both. Then came Mustafar, and while the galaxy watched with bated breath to see if our father would live, his wife, our mother, gave birth, sent into labour prematurely by the shock, and – or so the story goes for everyone outside our family – only one of the twins she was carrying survived. They recovered together, in the same medcenter, side by side, and when he at last surfaced from the coma she was able to show him his son and heir. And later, she showed him a grave, a little, little grave, inscribed with a name and dates of birth and death scarcely an hour apart. They weathered their tragedies together, and the watching millions loved them for it. Time passed; and a generation on, the son of that marriage, protégé of the Emperor and heir to the Empire, met the only daughter of the influential ruling house of Alderaan. We liked one another: I liked his terrible sense of humour and boyish grin, and he liked the fact that I never in three years of courtship let him have the last word. Someone noticed. Someone told the Emperor, and the Emperor saw, accurately enough, that an alliance between the Imperial succession and that of Alderaan would be no bad thing. Arrangements were made. Luke says our mother aged faster in the few months after our official betrothal than she had in all the years before. He told me she seemed to shrink into herself, crumpling up inside, becoming frail and wan like an old, old woman in his mother’s body. But when she gave up the hope that something would split us apart, and took that duty on herself, it turned out to be too late. The ceremony was planned, the old Temple in the throes of redecoration, a universal holiday decreed for the happy day. The dream was alive, and the Emperor ruled that even the truth would not be allowed to shatter it. The marriage went ahead, and that same evening they broke the news to us, in a warm cocoon of lamplight and opulence in the Imperial palace. We were holding hands, like the newlyweds we were, and I remember that after the last broken words of explanation, of excuse, trailed away to nothing, we held onto one another still, for what else was there? That night, Luke insisted that I have the bed, and took himself off to the long velvet-cushioned window-seat on the other side of the room. I curled up like a little child in the acres of luxurious blankets, and thought I was going to drown in them. I must have slept at least a few hours that night, because I remember waking up to the following dawn; I doubt Luke slept at all. Gradually the first shock and anger bled away into tears. Then, for weeks, we could barely stand to be in the same room as one another, unable to exchange as much as a look without physical disgust; I think we were both thanking every star in the firmament for the strictures of Alderaani propriety. After a month of this, Luke found some urgent offworld mission, and was praised for his selflessness in interrupting his honeymoon. I found a sardonic Senatorial aide with hazel eyes, and was saluted for my dedication to the political causes of my adopted family. Time passed. Luke came back, and we settled back into diplomatic life. We learned how to look at one another as friends again, and to treat the business of sharing a bedroom as a nuisance rather than an ordeal. Luke narrowly survived an assassination attempt, and - in order to prevent a repeat - was given an Imperial bodyguard. This is how I met Mara, who in her field days did double duty as fearsomely athletic commando and redheaded honeytrap; she now does double duty watching Luke’s back and sharing his bed. We’re good friends, though as far as Mara is concerned Luke and I are an arranged marriage which didn’t work, and nothing more. Only four people in the galaxy know the truth: Luke, me, our father and the Emperor. Four people out of trillions. There were seven; then, two years after our marriage, so the story goes, Rebel terrorists hijacked a prototype battle-station and used it to destroy Alderaan. My adoptive parents died with the planet they loved, and so did our birth mother, who was meeting my father in her official capacity. Of course such an important Imperial summit was a prime target for the Rebels. Of course it was, and the four billion other deaths were collateral damage. Of course. It wasn’t. The Emperor had them killed. Father told me not long after, privately, and told me too how, at the last, he had gone down on his knees and begged for His Highness to change his mind. In the end he asked to go to Alderaan as well, to die with our mother, and that too was refused. He told me the whole story sitting at the dining-table in our suite, bare-headed, his helmet on his knees. The room seemed too small for him. He held my hand across the table, my fingers almost lost in the black gauntlet, and waited in silence whilst I cried. Then he got his feet, clumsy in his heavy armour, and hugged me awkwardly and called me his miracle. He has tried to be a father to me, strange though it is to both of us. Years before, my mother told him I was stillborn; I will never forget the hug he gave me after finding out I was alive. He lifted me off the floor and held me so close to his chest I could hear the tick of his cybernetics, and if his tear ducts hadn’t been long since destroyed I believe he would have cried. Since then it has been me, not Luke, he confides in. Luke is the one who inherited the terrifying powers, Luke the one who will inherit throne and Empire. The Emperor keeps close watch on Luke - very close; I know Mara reports back to her master with military regularity. I, by contrast, have no inheritance, no powers, and am female, and therefore I am below the Emperor’s notice. Oh, I am watched - nobody in the Imperial household is not - but as long as sedition is not involved, the watchers do not care what I do, who I speak to, or who comes to the servants' door of the suite late at night. The aide with the hazel eyes stopped seeing me after Luke came back. Since then there have been others, from time to time, although there’s not many men who’ll risk execution to keep me company. The most recent one I met half a year or so ago: a high-ranking pilot, a captain, on Coruscant to receive some decoration for gallantry from me. I pinned the medal to his chest; he bowed; and as he straightened up I took in the wicked eyes, the insubordinate grin, and wondered what kind of man could look scruffy in full dress uniform. There was a reception, and I was introduced to him by name. Han Solo, thirty-two years old, candidly admitting he joined the fleet because it was, at that point, join up or go to jail for diverse crimes. We liked one another. Over sparkling wine and strange alien delicacies, I told him the story of my unhappy marriage. That evening Luke was elsewhere with Mara, and Han and I were left to ourselves. Time passed. His leave lasted three months, three months when I was happy; then he went back to his tour of duty and died in action weeks later, storming the Rebel base on Hoth. By rights he should mean no more to me than the others. But things never work quite so – my brother and father would call it the will of the Force – and so Captain Han Solo, 32, will never know that his child is heir to the Empire. It won’t be long now before I have to tell Luke; I’ve already left it as long as I dare. Luke will be overjoyed, if I know him. He’s always wanted to be father to a child, and he’ll never have green-eyed sons or redheaded daughters on his own account. Not that he knows why; Mara’s never told him that the Emperor had her sterilised practically as soon as she reached adulthood, because an assassin with children is an assassin with a weak spot. It’s one of the oddities of the woman’s character that she finds nothing particularly wrong with this. I do wonder how long she’ll be able to lie to Luke for, though; not only does she love him with a kind of patriotic fervour, but he can and does read minds on a whim. He’s had it drilled into him for too long that there is no such thing as too much knowledge, that knowledge is security, and that every thing you know about a person is another hold you have over them. He knows about Han. There was no point in keeping that from him; he understands. We both find solace where we can. A week ago, I paid an official visit to what was once, before I was born, the Jedi Archives: after the burning of the Temple they tore the shelves out of the hall and converted it to another kind of archive, its towering walls covered with flickering screens keeping tally of those killed in the service of the Empire. His name was near the ground, in the shaft of light from one of the high windows in the opposite wall: Captain Han Solo, 32. Name and age are all they have space for; the list grows day by day, hour by hour. I left some flowers in the great straggling pile that fills the centre of the hall, a huge mass of bright colours, sweet scents, and scraps of flimsy showing names, pictures, tearstains, forlorn messages to the dead. It was a state occasion, the bestowing of the Imperial family’s personal condolences, but the flowers I laid, the words I said, the tears I shed: all of them were for Han. One day, perhaps, my son or daughter will visit that echoing hall, and look up at the names, row on row. The screens will be still, the numbers of the dead fixed: the war will be long since over. There will be flowers on the floor, blood-red and white and purple in the dim shadows. It will be silent. My grown-up child will walk down along the rows of names, reading one here, one there. Perhaps they will lay flowers or say a few awkward, inadequate words. I can see them now, my phantom children: a tall girl with her father’s dancing eyes, or a handsome dark-haired boy with the same air of insouciant command. They are perfect. They are unreal. And perhaps, in that cold hour, the heir to the Empire will pass the only memorial to their father, and walk out into the shining day, and will not know. Feedback much appreciated Nem -----signature----- BeTS Best Author '08 NEW Bad Dreams - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/29893091 Eleven Summers - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/29657584 Into The Shining Day - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/29224914
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dianethx Registered: Mar '02	Date Posted: 9/28/08 4:27pm Subject: RE: Into The Shining Day - dark OT AU, L/M, H/L - one post
	Nem, that was great. I loved how the people still had the same basic fate, Leia and Han, Luke and Mara and yet it's all so tilted offcenter that it seems almost teeth-gritting. In a good way! You are such a wonderful writer. I love your work! -----signature----- Betrayal - http://boards.theforce.net/s/b1/10935143 updated 9/22/09 jedidas3's Master Merlin - Diplomatic Immunity - http://boards.theforce.net/nswff/b10808/30459852
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NYCitygurl Title: Manager of SFFBC, C&G, NSWFF, and Icons Registered: Jul '02	Date Posted: 9/28/08 4:42pm Subject: RE: Into The Shining Day - dark OT AU, L/M, H/L - one post
	OOOoooooh my goodness. This is absolutely chilling - I literally have shivers going down my legs and arms. I can't even imagine Leia's horror when she found out abotu Luke, or when Han died. And the idea of her children passing their father's marker without knowing was so absolutely, horrifyingly sad. Absolutely amazing. -----signature----- I agree with RJ Officially Idri's Muse
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VaderLVR64 Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Feb '04	Date Posted: 9/28/08 6:52pm Subject: RE: Into The Shining Day - dark OT AU, L/M, H/L - one post
	You already know how much I love this! Your writing, as always, is powerful and moving. Bravo! -----signature----- R.I.P John, Alex, Jason, and Christian Never forgotten Soldiers' Angels http://soldiersangels.org/ 2114 soldiers waiting for someone to care
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Bri_Windstar Registered: May '02	Date Posted: 9/28/08 10:40pm Subject: RE: Into The Shining Day - dark OT AU, L/M, H/L - one post
	That is haunting and heartrending and beautifully delivered. I can't even wrap my mind around what such a setting would be like, to live day in and day out for the rest of your life in such an awkward and crushing lie, but you craft it believably and beautifully. It's an exquisite squick factor, if that makes any sense. Wonderful job and kudos for being brave enough to tackle such a plot idea. I am seriously, seriously impressed. -----signature----- Mediocrity- it takes a lot less time and most people won't notice the difference before it's too late. * OMG! SO RIDICULOUSLY AND AGGRAVATINGLY PERFECT!- Gabri * 11010110101000101011
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KELIA Title: The Pretty in Pink Fan Fic Manager Registered: Jul '05	Date Posted: 9/29/08 4:01am Subject: RE: Into The Shining Day - dark OT AU, L/M, H/L - one post
	WOW That was quite the AU! And what a bomb to drop on the wedding night. I can't help but wonder what would have happened if Padme had been strong enough to tell them before the ceremony... I'm glad Luke and Leia have found some happiness, though it's unfortunate they are stuck in their marriage. Great job on this -----signature----- "Do or do not, there is no try." Master Yoda A Light In The Darkness: http://boards.theforce.net/the_saga/b10476/28150602/p1/?8 NaNaWriMo Progress: 11,018
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LASOS Registered: May '08	Date Posted: 9/29/08 6:41am Subject: RE: Into The Shining Day - dark OT AU, L/M, H/L - one post
	Oh wow. That was so chillingly dark and sad, but so beautiful at the same time. The scene between Vader and Leia was heartbreaking, and it's so, so sad that Han died without knowing he had a child and Leia would never find that happiness again. Great job. -----signature----- "STAR WARS Episodes IV-VI are to be referred to as "The Original Trilogy." Episodes I-III are not to be referred to at all." - FakeAPStylebook
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ginchy Registered: May '05	Date Posted: 9/29/08 7:19am Subject: RE: Into The Shining Day - dark OT AU, L/M, H/L - one post
	Wow, this story has blown my mind. What a way things could have turned out! I really like Leia's train of thought. What an amazing vig. -----signature----- Positivity. ** Okay, seriously. It’s a Rebel Alliance t-shirt. It is NOT a fleur-de-lis.
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Jade_eyes Registered: Aug '04	Date Posted: 9/29/08 7:52am Subject: RE: Into The Shining Day - dark OT AU, L/M, H/L - one post
	Lands, you can really boggle and blow the mind!!!!!!!!!! Fascinating gripping all too plausible viggie!!! Your grasp of Leia in this very different scenario is superb. Bravo and roses!!!!!! You must be e-related to the fantastic furrylittlebantha -----signature----- Spock/Nyota, woven forever together in gorgeous bonds of Nyota's "Cherished Moments" diary's gonna be hawt, hawt, melty! Squggles! [face_melting into 10 buckets!]
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Golden_Jedi Registered: Jun '05	Date Posted: 9/29/08 8:37am Subject: RE: Into The Shining Day - dark OT AU, L/M, H/L - one post
	Wow! That was amazing! -----signature----- New Bespin Café - come visit THE place for H/L fans http://boards.theforce.net/fan_fiction_resource/b10304/29538471 Diving (a H/L intertrilogy AU) http://boards.theforce.net/the_saga/b10476/27836852
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JediMasterJessica Registered: Jul '05	Date Posted: 9/30/08 3:48pm Subject: RE: Into The Shining Day - dark OT AU, L/M, H/L - one post
	That was so depressive and amazing! I loved it-so dark! I love AU like this. There's so many aspects of this I liked- Vader wanting to be sent to Alderaan for it's termination, MAra's role in Luke's life -----signature----- Proud lover of A/P, Siriwan, L/M, & TK/J Yo mamma is so stupid, she thought Jar Jar came with Pickles Pickles
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pronker Registered: Jan '07	Date Posted: 10/3/08 9:31am Subject: RE: Into The Shining Day - dark OT AU, L/M, H/L - one post
	"in the harrows of a sleepless night when all the darknesses he’s created seem to be hemming him in." Excellent AU and I liked the quoted above, as it reminded me of Eowyn and her dilemma while living under Wormtongue's influence, that sense of helplessness and inertia, the waiting described so well. Good story! -----signature----- http://boards.theforce.net/the_saga/b10476/29919566/p1/?4 --- Song of Myself, a Ferus Olin [Fess Ilee] story. Sometimes I amaze even myself, especially when I typed 'The End' to this story and then a plot bunny bit bad with a continuance.
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JediNemesis Registered: Mar '03	Date Posted: 10/15/08 6:54am Subject: RE: Into The Shining Day - dark OT AU, L/M, H/L - one post
	Hello everyone! It's wonderful to have so many replies diane I loved how the people still had the same basic fate, Leia and Han, Luke and Mara and yet it's all so tilted offcenter that it seems almost teeth-gritting. In a good way! I think it sort of taps into the idea that our favourite couples are meant to be together. Fate will out. But, in this case, in a really appalling way. You are such a wonderful writer. I love your work! Thank you! NYCitygurl OOOoooooh my goodness. This is absolutely chilling - I literally have shivers going down my legs and arms. Getting that kind of physical response is worth many thousands of words. I'm flattered. Chilling increasingly appears to be my stock in trade I can't even imagine Leia's horror when she found out abotu Luke, or when Han died. And the idea of her children passing their father's marker without knowing was so absolutely, horrifyingly sad. It struck me as a very sad and powerful idea. I'm glad some of it, at least, seemed to come off VaderLVR You already know how much I love this! Your writing, as always, is powerful and moving. Thank you. And especially thank you for 'as always'. Bri_Windstar That is haunting and heartrending and beautifully delivered. Wow, thanks! I can't even wrap my mind around what such a setting would be like, to live day in and day out for the rest of your life in such an awkward and crushing lie, but you craft it believably and beautifully. It's an exquisite squick factor, if that makes any sense. It makes perfect sense. It's a combination I'm getting fond of, too. Wonderful job and kudos for being brave enough to tackle such a plot idea. I am seriously, seriously impressed. That, more than anything, was what made me pause - would anybody read, let alone like, a story that at least allows for the idea of incest? I think I made it pretty clear that, while nothing did happen, something easily could have. Anyway. The mods okayed it, and I'm amazed by the response this has had KELIA That was quite the AU! And what a bomb to drop on the wedding night. Hell, yes. I'm not sure I can think of a bigger one. This is "I am your father" -scale revelation. I can't help but wonder what would have happened if Padme had been strong enough to tell them before the ceremony... I imagine Palpatine would have made them get married anyway. Like a lot of political weddings it was more about maintaining appearances and forging an important alliance. I'm glad Luke and Leia have found some happiness, though it's unfortunate they are stuck in their marriage. I think, being who they are, they would survive. Great job on this Thanks very much! LASOS Oh wow. That was so chillingly dark and sad, but so beautiful at the same time. Ooh, thankyou. It's a contrast I like, when I can do it. The scene between Vader and Leia was heartbreaking, and it's so, so sad that Han died without knowing he had a child and Leia would never find that happiness again. I'm glad you liked the scene with Vader and Leia - that was one of my favourite parts to write. And I'm sure Leia would endure, though she and Han are so right for one another I think I agree with your last point. Great job. Thanks! ginchy Wow, this story has blown my mind. What a way things could have turned out! I really like Leia's train of thought. What an amazing vig. Thanks for reading. It's a hell of an outlandish idea and I'm glad you liked it Jade_eyes Lands, you can really boggle and blow the mind!!!!!!!!!! Fascinating gripping all too plausible viggie!!! Your grasp of Leia in this very different scenario is superb. Thanks especially. Leia is tricky - I think I've only ever written one other story from her POV. I'm glad she seemed 'right'. Bravo and roses!!!!!! You must be e-related to the fantastic furrylittlebantha Hehe. We're acquainted Golden_Jedi Wow! That was amazing! Thanks! JediMasterJessica That was so depressive and amazing! I loved it-so dark! I love AU like this. Thanks! So do I. I have a couple of others, if you're interested. [/plug] There's so many aspects of this I liked- Vader wanting to be sent to Alderaan for it's termination, MAra's role in Luke's life Whatever else might have happened, Anakin loved Padmé. And if he knew she was going to die, I think he'd want to die with her. And Mara - I couldn't leave out Mara. pronker Excellent AU and I liked the quoted above, as it reminded me of Eowyn and her dilemma while living under Wormtongue's influence, that sense of helplessness and inertia, the waiting described so well. I like your analogy. I guess in this case Wormtongue would be the Emperor, and to a lesser extent the whole of the watching galaxy. Good story! Thanks for clicking Thank you again, everybody who read and replied! Nem -----signature----- BeTS Best Author '08 NEW Bad Dreams - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/29893091 Eleven Summers - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/29657584 Into The Shining Day - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/29224914
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ratna Registered: Mar '07	Date Posted: 2/4 11:46am Subject: RE: Into The Shining Day - dark OT AU, L/M, H/L - one post - Replies Oct 15!
	wow, what an au! palpatine emperor before anakin was 'discovered' anakin raised by said emperor and all the darkness that follows wow. beautiful POV from Leia, the nightmare of the Holy Pair when it is enacted literally, the hopelessness, that they as a family cannot even attempt to unite and overthrow the one who has robbed and maimed them so. wow. -----signature----- “What we measure affects what we do. If we have the wrong metrics, we will strive for the wrong things.” Joseph E. Stiglitz
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JediNemesis Registered: Mar '03	Date Posted: 7/8 5:55am Subject: RE: Into The Shining Day - dark OT AU, L/M, H/L - one post - Replies Jul 8! Thanks for the nom!
	Hello Been a long time since I checked in on this story ... ratna palpatine emperor before anakin was 'discovered', anakin raised by said emperor, and all the darkness that follows ... wow. Yes. The course of events is pretty drastically different ... This story began as a nebulous sequel to the AOTC-era bit of the same AU, but I ended up finishing this and not that. So it goes. beautiful POV from Leia, the nightmare of the Holy Pair when it is enacted literally, the hopelessness, that they as a family cannot even attempt to unite and overthrow the one who has robbed and maimed them so. To me, it seems totally in character for Palpatine to force the wedding through even once the truth came out - because surely he would just see a genetic diagram with Anakin's blood, Anakin's powers, on both sides, and never mind anything else. Of course that didn't happen ... but Palpy still controls the members of the family who are present, and as you say they can't escape. It's a horrible scenario. I don't know how I came up with it Thanks for reading! And thanks also to the people who nominated this story for Best Drama in this year's Saga awards. -----signature----- BeTS Best Author '08 NEW Bad Dreams - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/29893091 Eleven Summers - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/29657584 Into The Shining Day - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/29224914
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