I am so sorry it has taken two years to update this fic, but I'm back and the next upload shouldn't take as long.

Now, first off, I'd like to thank everyone with all the supportive reviews they've given since the remaster of Chapter 2 came out. And for those who left... slightly negative review about my lack of updates (You know who you are) please note: It does not get the author to upload faster. Quite the opposite. In fact, it makes us not want to update and depletes us of all motivation. This is why the chapter came out today instead of yesterday because I found those comments again and it threw me right off balance. I am also not writing this story for reviews, favourites or follows. I am writing this because I love to write about the Pokemon universe and always wanted to write my own rewrite of the anime journey fic, just adding my own twist with the Mark system (Which I have developed a tonne since I came up with the idea over 5 years ago.) and the main companions. (Don't worry Misty lovers, she will be a companion in the future. HintHintJohtoHintHint).

Anyway, all that aside, I do plan on finishing this story (With possible sequels if you guys would like it) and it, along side the other Pokemon story I'm focusing on, will be my only updates to this site from the Pokemon spectrum. Currently I am nearing the end of my major exam period and would rather I focus on my grades than writing fanfiction chapters, but possibly, I will be semi-free to write once my last exam is over.

That being said, I hope you enjoy this chapter, cause those who vaguely remember the original will be in for a suprise!

It was early in the morning; the sun was slowly rising on the horizon. The light blue of the sky melded into the orange redness of dawn. Still highly visible in the sky was a nearly full moon, basking alongside a now trickling river of clouds. An early chill settled in with droplets of dew still sticking to the grass, though a lack of a breeze made it feel refreshing rather than nerving. Without any help from external forces, a multitude of leaves floated up in the air surrounded by a pinkish hue.

"Tell me why I'm doing this again?" A very annoyed Ralts asked as she continuously used her psychic type move on the once fallen leaves.

"Because to learn Psychic, you need control, and to learn Magical Leaf, you need to be able to create psychokinetic leaves and throw them so what better is there than practising on the real thing?" Ash took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a small headache coming on. "I know you don't learn Psychic until you're about to evolve into a Gardevoir, but you can learn Magical Leaf now and even if you can't master it by Pewter, the next gym afterwards in Cerulean is a water type one where it'll be highly effective. Plus, it'll help strengthen up Confusion and give you a feel for how the leaves should feel."

"You really thought of everything…" By now, Ralts was getting increasingly angry and thus lost control, sending the leaves flying in multiple directions, striking tree trunks and cutting through small shrubs. She froze briefly, realising that she had let her emotions get the better of her. "Sorry, I shouldn't have done that."

"Ralts, don't worry about it. You're still in training," her trainer knelt down beside her, gently rubbing her hair. "You won't get everything first time around. It's just a matter of repeating and trying again, just like anything in life. I know you can do it, it's just practise, okay?"

"Okay…" Ralts sighed heavily, slumping her shoulders over. "So, from the top?"

"As long as you can get some leaves together, then sure, we can try again," Ash quickly glanced around at the circle of destruction left behind in Ralts' outburst. "As long as you promise not to harm the plant life this time around. I don't want to anger any of the Pokémon that live around here."

"Alright, I promise."

The small psychic type continued immediately, gathering a bunch of leaves and began floating them once more, every now and again trying to move them around in patterns to increase her control and concentration. Sometimes, Ash gave her some advice, remembering what Professor Oak had taught him about certain grass type moves like Razor Leaf, that also applied to Magical Leaf, which turned out to be quite helpful in the end. By the time the sun had reached its peak in the sky, the basics of the move were down to a t, but it was still a huge work in process, along with strengthening up Confusion.

Both trainer and Pokémon settled down for lunch, with Ralts being delighted to find some Oran berries mixed in with her food. The silence lingered whilst they ate, only to be disturbed by a small rustling in the overgrown grasses nearby.

Ralts immediately jumped into action, eyes glowing underneath her fringe of a bowl cut whilst her trainer tensed up, preparing for the worst. The rustling continued, slowly increasing as whatever was causing the noise got closer, and closer still. Just as Ralts was about to use her psychic powers on whatever was coming towards them, the grass parted as a blue Pokémon collapsed in front of them, into the middle of the clearing they had set their lunch up in. It took a second for either of them to process what just happened, however, once they had, it was all hands-on deck.

Ash leapt from his seat, grabbing his backpack in the process, before he knelt next to the fallen Pokémon – Ralts doing the same.

"Holy Mew, are they okay? They look bad." Ralts commentated as her trainer gently pulled the Pokémon into his arms, looking over them. They were a Riolu, and in a very bad condition. Their fur was covered with scorched tips, some parts matted with a brown substance which raised their concern greatly. The Riolu looked extremely dehydrated, and felt underweight, their body littered with scars and some still unhealed wounds. "They look really bad. Is there anything you can do to help them?"

"I have some healing items, and I'm sure I've got some extra berries just in case…" She could see the fear of failure in her trainer's eyes, a fear she planned to stamp out right at that very moment.

"Ash, listen to me. We are going to help this Riolu and they're gonna get better, no matter what." Ralts opened his backpack for him, popping her head inside to try and find what he needed to help him out. "Now, tell me what I'm looking for again?"

"I think I should have a couple of Potions in there, the blue spray bottles," Ash told her, calming himself down. "And some Sitrus berries, they're the yellow ones with the visible seeds on them."

"Right… hold on a sec…" Moments later, she emerged holding the requested items. "Ta da! Here they are!"

"Thanks, Ralts." Her trainer smiled at her, then began to spray the wounds with the potion whilst frowning at the unconscious Pokémon's whimpers of pain. Slowly the cuts began re-stitching themselves together, and the scars began to fade. Pokémon medicine was truly a marvel, able to heal the most damaging of injuries in a second. With the worst of the problems sort of dealt with, what the Potion couldn't cover then the Sitrus berry would. The problem was getting the Riolu to eat. "Here, please have a bite." He held the berry to the Riolu's snout, watching as their nose twitched twice before they weakly opened their mouth to take a chunk of it. It took a while, but soon a sizeable chunk of the berry was gone, and the Pokémon was looking a lot better.

"And now, we wait…" Ralts muttered, plopping herself down harshly next to the sleeping form of the Riolu. She already looked tired out of her mind and it had only been a couple of minutes. "Urgh, I'm bored. How long is this going to take?!"

"You could always practise with the leaves again."

"I guess I could technically wait a while longer…"

"Yeah, I thought so."

O~0~O

It was like wading through a murky fog when he woke up, unable to recall what had happened prior. He remembered fragments; an explosion, screaming, the terror of howls that followed him as he ran, a clearing, a trainer…

Riolu shot up, eyes wide and paws ready to strike. If there was a trainer nearby then they'd just capture him and treat him the same as the poacher… until he realised he was lying on a sleeping bag with a makeshift pillow under his head. His body no longer hurt, at least not half as badly as it had when he was running – escaping, the returning pieces of his memory happily reminded him – and despite the mess of the charred ends of his fur, he seemed to be in good condition. How? Why?

"Welcome to the land of the living, wolf-kin." He turned his head to see a Ralts standing beside him, her arms folded in front of her torso awkwardly. "We hope you enjoyed our free services at Chosen One and Co. Campsites. Please leave us a five-star review and a helpful tip in berries when you leave, thank you!"

"Excuse me?" Riolu could have sworn that this psychic type was five Poké-yen short of insanity. She just grinned at him, only to stop when another voice called out from the other side of the clearing.

"Ralts, please stop antagonising them," This voice sounded exasperated, potentially due to dealing with this mad-female for an unknown amount of time. "We've only just managed to heal them enough so they can move, I don't want a full-blown fight breaking out because you wanted to be funny."

"But Ash," The Ralts moaned, sulking like a hatchling that was denied an extra hour of playtime. "I am funny and you know it!"

"You're as funny as one of the professor's poems," It was then Riolu realised that the Ash Ralts was referring to was not another Pokémon but a human and he began to quake in fear. The human noticed this as he slowly walked over, hands empty and up in a position of peace. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you or capture you. You collapsed into where we set up for lunch and we've tried to heal you as best as we could. Sorry if the Potions aren't good enough but they're all I have." The human – Ash – gained a guilty expression, gaze turned down to the floor. "I should really buy some better items when I get to Pewter in case Ralts ever gets badly hurt on the road."

"Excuussseee me, Princess, but I ain't ever getting grievously injured." The psychic type scoffed, ignoring the sudden unamused glare she was getting from her trainer.

"Oh really? So, if we come across a dark type, without you knowing any fairy type moves, and we can't win… would you rather I had powerful healing items that would get you back into action minutes afterwards or wait to heal for days using the stuff I have now?"

"Well… fine! But it's not gonna happen because I have Shadow Sneak, an egg move, remember? And I'm learning Magical Leaf!"

"Yes, but ghost type attacks don't do much to dark types, and you should really be learning Disarming Voice around now." Riolu was watching the back and forth bantering, extremely confused. How on earth was this human understanding the Ralts, just how? It was through this mini argument that he spoke his opinions.

"How on earth are you able to understand her?!" The human and the Ralts froze in their tracks, staring at him as if their brains had frozen and they were slowly rebooting themselves up.

"Umm…"

"Urh…"

"Well…"

"He's psychically adept!" The Ralts finally shouted, nervously twitching. Riolu had to supress the urge to roll his eyes at the two of them.

"You two are horrible liars. But…" It was around then the slow trickles of his memory returning erupted into a waterfall of information. His body involuntarily shook, paws clutched at the sides of his arms as the faint feeling of ghost pains returned.

"Riolu? Riolu!" The human began rubbing his back gently, whispering calming words to him in an attempt to bring him back to reality. "It's okay, you're safe. No one is going to hurt you, you're with us…"

"Yeah, you're with the princess and me, his knight in shining white pyjama legs!" The Ralts was trying to calm him down too with the only way she really knew how, comedy. "Hey, Ash. I don't want to try reading his mind but he's broadcasting some extremely disturbing images. Do you think it would be better to get him back to sleep?"

"What images?" The boy's tone changed suddenly, all warmth lost and replaced with a sense of urgency.

"The others…" Riolu involuntarily interrupted them, seeing everyone trapped, crying for help. "The poacher still has the others! Oh Arceus, I shouldn't have left them, I should never have left them alone…"

"A poacher?!" The Ralts too shifted her tone, aggressiveness rolled off of her in waves. "In this area of Kanto? Why? Ash…"

"I know, I know," The human growled, muttering something under his breath. "Riolu, please, hang in there. I'm going to call for help and… wait!" As he was speaking, Riolu rushed back into the overgrowth, ignoring the shouts of his name coming from behind him. He had to go back, he had to…

He ran as fast as his short legs could carry him, ignoring the lingering pain despite being healed. He was in no fit state to be running like he was, but he didn't care. There was no way he was going to stop, he had to get back he just had to. His body did most of the work for him as he barely remembered the near flight back to the poacher's basecamp. Remnants from the fight to escape began to appear on the trees and forest floor, scorch marks on trunks, the paw prints of the chasing Houndoom. It was all coming back to him, how multiple Flamethrowers barely missed his body, how claws almost sliced through his skin. Riolu pushed it to the back of his mind, pushing on and on until he reached the basecamp and…

… Found nothing.

There was a scattering handful of evidence that someone had once resided there for a short period of time. A pile of smouldering ashes from where a campfire once stood; footprints and pawprints that followed specific patterns, the warped and twisted bars of a once secure cage, and tire tracks that sped off into the wilderness. There was nothing left, no terrified Pokémon, no smug grin leering down from the other side of the cages, nothing. Only the discarded remains of a messy and quick evacuation remained. Riolu had escaped thanks to the others, to get help, to get allies, but he had failed in his sole mission. He hadn't saved them, all the others were still in the hands of that horrible man, ready to be sold off for dirty money.

Riolu didn't even realise the human and Ralts from earlier had followed him until he heard their shocked gasps from behind him as they stumbled across the scene.

"Riolu?" The Ralts asked cautiously, being careful with her words whilst also getting directly to the point. "What happened here? Why did you run so madly to this place?"

"I couldn't…" He began to cry, falling to his knees which stained his fur with the dust from the dry ground. "I promised them I'd save them… I couldn't get help in time… I wasn't strong enough… I failed them…"

No one spoke for a while, the shear severity of what happened devoured them of speech minus his occasional sobs. The human was reaching for some kind of communicative device, most likely calling an emergency number with his Ralts piping up to remind him to add all the details they knew. Something was nagging at the back of Riolu's mind, as if he had forgotten something extremely important. As he remained, knelt in the dirt, it suddenly clicked when a shadow began to loom over him.

The poacher had an Ariados too. It was standing on its hind legs, having sneakily crept up to him whilst he was in a catatonic sense of shock. This Pokémon was the sole reason behind most of the captures under the poacher's reign, poisoning its foes and then wrapping them up to drag them back to its master. It must have been lying in wait for him, fore legs glowing an acidic purple as it began to lunge down at him.

"Ralts, Confusion!" The human cried out, to which the psychic type responded immediately, blasting the part poison type back easily. Riolu, frozen in place, couldn't believe it. No one had been able to land a hit on that Ariados before, not like the small, measly Ralts had done. The spider like beast shook its head, clicking angrily that it had been deterred from re-capturing its escaped prey, and it turned its attention to the boy. Riolu knew that all sentience and personality had been drained from the Pokémon under the poacher's command, they were just tools to him, a means to an end. It was terrifying to watch them, even more so as a spectator to a battle.

The Ariados lunged again, this time with fangs in full view steeped in a murky green glow. Before Riolu could even warn them of the oncoming danger, the human and the Ralts acted accordingly.

"Shadow Sneak!"

"Roger that, buddy!" Ralts melted into the floor, becoming naught but a barely visible purple mass that skimmed across the ground towards the confused bug type before leaping up underneath it with a punch for additional damage. The Ariados was flipped over onto its back, legs violently jabbing and wiggling in an attempt to get itself back on its feet. However, the duo of trainer and Pokémon were not willing to give it a chance to even accomplish that attempt.

"Use Confusion and blast the Ariados into the densest thing you can!" Another well timed psychic powered blast sent the bug flying headfirst into a sturdy tree, the hit knocking it unconscious instantly. Riolu watched in amazement as the human quickly called the police, possibly, whilst the Ralts began to cheer and congratulate herself for their win. They were strong, really strong. If he could become as strong, or stronger than they were, then he could stand a chance at finding and saving everyone. But he knew he couldn't do it alone. A Pokémon in the wild was less likely to be as strong or stronger than a trained Pokémon.

It was then he had an idea.

O~0~O

Ash breathed a sigh of relief following the investigation of the small handful of police officers that arrived on the scene. Apparently, the poacher who had taken Riolu and his possible friends was highly wanted by the authorities for not only kidnapping Pokémon, but from stealing from trainers and for endangerment of human and Pokémon lives. The Officer Jenny leading the investigation told him he was extremely lucky to have only ran into one of the man's Pokémon, and thanked him for giving them a lead in their case. Of course, the hard part of the entire thing was conveying how he knew this was the site of a poacher without revealing he could understand Pokémon and came up with the cover story of "I just assumed since Riolu's behaviour and the cage remains". That seemed to work and not long after, he was sent back on his way with the officers promising to take Riolu to the nearby Pokémon Center for a check-up before returning him to his home.

Despite having helped Riolu get slightly better, Ash couldn't help but feel anger at the entire situation. He just couldn't wrap his head around why someone would do such a thing, let alone put a numerical value on a Pokémon's life. Pokémon were friends and priceless, they weren't trophies and objects to sell. Call him naïve, but he just couldn't see why and how someone could do such a horrible thing. Ralts must have picked this up from his demeanour and tugged at his trouser leg.

"Ash, cheer up, we did all that we could," she gave him a big smile, to reassure him that he did the right thing. "And even if we had shown up when the poacher was still there, what could we have done? You're a starting trainer and I'm not even a Kirlia yet! We did what we were capable of and it helped the police out a lot, they'll catch him, you'll see."

"Yeah, you're right…" he sighed deeply, still regretful that he couldn't do more. "It's just, well, you know…"

Ralts nodded, patting his leg gently. "Yeah, I know. You actually have morals and a good sense of justice so you wanted to solve everything. Just because you have the mark of the Holy One, it doesn't make you invincible and all powerful. It's like you said to me, practise and training. We'll get there someday."

"I didn't know you were such a motivational speaker."

"Thank you, I try…"

"HEY! WAIT UP!" A familiar yell stopped the duo in their tracks as behind them, running to catch up, was Riolu.

"Woah, woah, woah, hold your Horsea," Ralts positioned herself between the fighting type and her trainer, holding her stubby arms out to stop him from bashing into her Ash's legs. "Calm down and breathe. Can you see how many fingers I'm holding up?"

"You don't… have… fingers." Riolu panted whilst glaring at her as if she was insane.

"Well I could have, in my mind…"

"Riolu, what are you doing here?" Ash knelt down so he was closer to the Pokémon. "You should be back in Viridian City recovering. Look, we'll help you back but you really need the rest…"

"No! I don't wanna go back!" Riolu shouted, fired up temporarily by his driving motive. "I wanna go with you!" This came easily as a shock to both the psychic type and the human, who gave each other confused stares.

"Why do you want to join the team? I mean sure, having an extra 'Mon around would be great, but…" Ralts was interrupted almost instantly.

"I want to be stronger. You two managed to take on his Ariados like it was nothing! I want to take revenge on him, and save all the others he took. But, right now, I'm way too weak!" Riolu stared at his paws, clenching them tightly as fury worked its way through his body. "I thought, if you could train me, then I'd be strong enough to one day save everyone. So please, let me be your Pokémon!" He bowed, closing his eyes whilst waiting to hear the 'no can do, you're too weak and narrow minded' response he had heard about before. But, it never came.

"Revenge is never a good motivation for being a trainer's Pokémon," Ash answered truthfully, reflecting on his own state of mind. "But I get where you're coming from. Right now, I feel mad that I wasn't able to do anything more than I did, that I wouldn't be able to save anyone, even if I had tried. You want to be a trained Pokémon to be able to one day stop the continuation of a terrible 'business', and whilst you are following your emotional state you do have good intentions behind them…" He turned to his starter, still somewhat frowning. "What do you think Ralts, should we allow Riolu onto the team?"

"I'm okay with it, as long as he answers one question," she turned to face the fighting type and lifted her fringe so he could stare directly into her eyes. "After you've completed your goal, after you've destroyed the poacher's ring. What are you going to do then? Are you going to abandon us or will you stay?"

"I don't have anywhere to go, and whilst being strong enough to defeat him is my main goal, isn't it any Pokémon's goal to become the strongest, to evolve and go as far as they possibly can?" Riolu spoke, steadfast and determined in his resolve. "All trainers aim for greatness and I want to be the best Lucario I could ever possibly be, so as staying with you two will lead me towards that path, I intend on sticking around as long as you want me too."

Ralts simply grinned, and offered out her arm. "Welcome to the team, mutt."

"Thanks for the kind welcome, nerd."

"Break it up you two," Ash groaned, whilst pulling an empty Poké Ball out from his trouser pocket. "Okay Riolu, to be a part of my team, you need to get caught in one of these. I'll let you out as soon as it's done, alright?" Riolu nodded, and slapped the white button in the centre, being sucked in with a red light. The contraption shook once, twice, three times and then pinged, signalling a successful capture. "Alright, I guess I caught Riolu." He immediately released the fighting type, who shook himself off but seemed no different from when he was sucked into the ball.

"So… what now?" Riolu asked.

"Well since it's getting dark, set up camp for the night, and then tomorrow train in Viridian Forest for the Pewter City Gym," Ash yawned slightly as he spoke. "It has been a long day after all, for all of us, and we all need a decent night's sleep. All we need to do now is find a clear spot to sleep and start a fire in." His two Pokémon nodded in agreement, and they continued on down the road when Ralts decided she wanted to pip up once more.

"I guess this is a bad time to tell the new guy you're the Chosen One of Arceus, hey Ashy-boy?"

"Wait… HE'S WHAT?!"

O~0~O

The room was dark, only illuminated by the projection on the board, showing blueprints of laboratory. A man in a black suit and tie was pointing to it, staring down at the taskforce of roughly twenty that was gathered in front of him, all of them in roughly the same attire he was.

"So, in closing, Team A will infiltrate the building whilst Team B will create an external extraction of the data. Remember, this is a highly important mission, so failure isn't an option, understood?" Without waiting for a response to those seated, the man finished his presentation. "Alright, dismissed."

Some of the people in the room left immediately, in a rush to get back to whatever they were doing before the meeting had been called, others remaining to talk to their comrades about the mission. One such person was Agent Looker, who most of his colleagues jokingly called a 'wannabe timelord' for the way he dressed. As soon as the presentation was over, he flagged another agent, Agent Blue, for a quick chat.

"Ah, Looker," Agent Blue spoke calmly, despite the fact she was fiddling with her scrunchie to a small degree. "You're on Team A, right?"

"They don't call me a master of disguise for nothing!" He laughed heartily, sitting down in the vacant seat beside her. "I'll be fine. It's you I'm more concerned about."

"Me?" Blue began to splutter, fiddling with her fingers and the sleeves of her navy-blue jacket. "Why are you worrying about me, I'm perfectly fine…"

"Delia," Looker gave her a serious stare, as if the usage of her actual name hadn't already made it apparent to the other agent. "I know you're upset because you couldn't see him leave, aren't you?"

Knowing who Looker was referring to, mostly due to the fact he was a family friend, Blue sighed and nodded. "Yes, I feel so awful leaving him with Samuel and never being there for him. But after everything, I just… I'm just not strong enough."

"That's a lie and you know it," Looker scoffed, ignoring her frowning. "You're the strongest person I know, and we're working for the International Secret Police and I know a lot of people here."

"But…"

"Blue, what happened to Agent Red was a travesty, we were all there," he said softly, trying to make her feel better instead of putting her in a worse mood. "But we all deal with loss in completely different ways, and yours is to overwork yourself to the bone, which isn't healthy for you might I add." Looker paused, checking his co-worker just in case he was pushing too far. "However, I know you love your son and would do anything for him, and it's not as if you don't ever see him. I'm sure you'll be able to run into him whilst he's out on his journey someday."

"Right," Agent Blue took a deep breath in, steadied herself emotionally, and gave her fellow agent a small smile. "Thank you, Looker. I'll try my best to remember that."

"No problem, anything to help the best agent in the same division as I'm in," Looker got up to leave, only to realise he'd forgotten to mention something. "Oh, and by the way, I passed your computer on the way here. You had an urgent email from Professor Oak. Just wanted to let you know, it was flashing up on your screen."

"Alright, thanks." Blue rushed out of the meeting room, past Looker and towards her desk, passing multiple other officers and officials as she did so. Skidding to a halt, she practically jumped into her swivelling chair and opened her emails. Just as Looker had said, an urgent email from Samuel resided at the top, with no subject matter other than "R.E: URGENT!" which was highly unusual, for the professor's standards. She cautiously clicked it open and began reading when she finally found out what the urgency was about.

He body froze, blood turning to ice. Head spinning, pupils dilating, she was terrified at what was there in black text on her screen. Following a long bought of blinking, she rubbed fiercely at her eyes to make sure what she was reading was not an illusion.

It was not.

It wasn't for a while until Looker came in to check on her that the full extent of the effect that the email had on her. Blue was sobbing harshly, curled in on herself whilst muttering "Not him…" and "Not my baby boy…", blabbering on and on about how such a tragic fate was her fault. The computer screen had turned itself off to conserve power, so he had no idea what was so terrifying that it had brought one of the ISP's best agents to an emotional breakdown. He tried his best to help, bringing her herbal tea and being there as a calming voice and a shoulder to cry on until she had managed to pull herself together.

"Are you… alright?" Looker inquired gently, wincing at the fractured breathing of the other agent.

"Not really, but I think I'm getting there," her expression changed instantly from tear-stricken and broken to cold and deadly, terrifying the globe-trotting man. "Agent Looker, can you please give me an hour or so, I need to make an important phone call."

"Of course," he instantly agreed, knowing how dangerous it was to mess with her when she had that dark look over her face. "If you need me, I'll be down the hallway." With that, he left her cubicle, leaving her alone once more. Agent Blue stayed motionless for a moment, plotting the best way to address this issue to the aging professor she was about to express her… discontent, for a lack of a better word… at the situation. Once she had figured out the easiest method to start the conversation, she picked up the phone on her desk and dialled Samuel's number. She didn't have to wait long before a cheery greeting met her ears, one that would not be cheery for long.

"Hello, Samuel? It's me, Delia…" With that, the atmosphere of the call became near freezing as the man on the opposite line was hit with the scenario he was now in. "I'd like to chat with you about the email you sent me, about my son. I hope it's not too much of a bother, I'll take up as little of your time as possible…"

It was true what people say, never drop bombshells involving a mother Ursaring's cub on the said mother, or you might not live to tell the tale.