DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR ONE PIECE. THEY BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE MANGAKAS.

~!~!~!~

Last Time: "I found them the other day," she said with a mysterious smile, and that was the end of that conversations. She knew they were curious, but there was time. She smiled softly to herself. Yes, the four of them were going to make a name for themselves in this harsh world, there was no doubt about it.

Chapter 4: He was Behind Me

Days passed, weeks followed, and months ran away. The four, and occasionally five, fought together, bathed together, ate together, went on adventures together and much more. They met Luffy friend Makino(and the village mayor), she thought that they were all cute and might have been a little appalled that a pretty little girl like Anne was living in the woods with them, but she wouldn't try to changed that, the other three wouldn't let her go without a fight and Anne would probably put up and even bigger fight than the other three. She just smiled and brought clothes and sake to make sure they stayed safe.

They fought and defeated tigers together, did their best to keep Luffy out of the deathly harms way, and fought with their jii-chan. He went just as hard on Anne as he did the boys, if not more, he knew that atrocities that happened to women who couldn't defend themselves, he was committed to making sure Anne would become strong enough to be able to put up a fight for the strongest of men.

They eventually 'moved out', in reality it was them just moving into a close by tree, where they had created a tree-house big enough for the four of them to be comfortable. They stole together, slept together, sparred together, and cooked together. Ichigo visited whenever she could, which become more and more as the days passed, she said it was because her parents were paying more attention into making her asshole brother in to the best heir he could be. Life was great and couldn't be any better.

Then one day everything changed.

"Give Sabo back! Blue Jam!" Luffy screamed as Anne and Ace lifted themselves off the ground.

"How can I give him back?" A tall man in a suit asked, "He is my son! It is a child's duty to live by his parents' rules! Shame on you for making him run away!"

Ace got mad, "Are you scum after our fortune!?"

"What did you say?!" An enraged pirate punched Ace, his blood spraying up and hitting the nobleman in the face.

"You pirates be careful when you hit those kids! You've gotten their filthy blood on me. I'll have to disinfect myself."

Sabo gritted his teeth in anger, "Stop it! They didn't make me do anything! I ran away myself!"

"You be quiet!" His father yelled back, "I'll leave the rest to you pirates."

"Of course, Sir," Blue Jam agreed, "you've already paid us. We'll take care of these three and make sure they never approach your son again."

"..Wait! Blue Jam! Father, it's ok! I'll do it!"

"What will you do?!"

Anne's eyes widened in disbelief, he wouldn't, "Sabo! Don't!"

"Stop it Sabo!" Ace yelled with her.

Sabo continued on, ignoring his siblings, "I'll do whatever you say! I'll live however you want! Just...don't hurt them! I'm begging you...they're...my brothers!"

"Sabo!"

"Hey?! What are you talking about? Don't go!"

"Shake them off! Don't worry about us! I thought we were gonna be free!"

"Is this how it's gonna end Sabo!?"

"Sabo answer!"

Sabo just stood there, biting his lips as tears and mucus rolled down his face. He walked away from them, his father following after him. Soon it was just the three of them, Blue Jam and his crew.

They all stood there, unsure of what to do for a few moments before Blue Jam had enough and started to talk," Being born a noble is not something you can aspire to. It means born under a lucky star..! I'd change places with him if I could...I wish I'd been born a noble."

The three of them stayed quiet as Blue Jam continued, "So one of you four rotten apples...was a noble...and he came all the way from high town to the dump to fool around...he probably despised you three."

"Don't you dare spout such stupid lies!"

"That's ridiculous! Sabo's not like that!"

"Yeah! We are brothers!"

"...fufufufufu, I see, well, I'm sorry, then...but..you can't see him anymore...if you're planning on seeing him, I'll have to kill you right here and now. If you consider him your brother, you better leave him alone, for his own good..."

"But Sabo hates High Town!"

"Forget about him. It's the nicest thing you can do...you'll understand when you're older. Now you and I have history after what happened with Polchemy...But I don't about him. In fact, I like strong guys. Age doesn't matter. I'm..short-handed right now. You two want to help me out?"

The three of them shared a look before, Anne looked Blue Jam in the eye, she would not trust this man, no matter what...but at this point in time, he had his uses. "Ok. We'll help you. But if you double cross us...I promise...you'll regret it," her eyes almost gleaming red.

Blues Jam just smirked and nodded his head, as if a little girl could scare him, he would deny that shiver that ran down his spine for the rest of his life. "Alright then, then is a map of the dump, the Grey Terminal. We're going to leave a few things where these Xs are. That's all."

The three got to work, they each got a pair of crates and followed Blue Jam's men. "...I hate it without Sabo here."

"Suck it up! I hate it too! But I don't know what's really best for him. Let's just see how it goes. He's strong! If he really hates it, he'll come back."

Anne stayed quiet, she knew as tough of a time that they were having Sabo was having an even harder time. She would wait, wait and see what will happen with this new obstacle. At least she knew Ichigo would be able to give them updates about him...if she could. Anne sigh, "stop worrying about it guys, we'll get through this." The two nodded in agreement and focused on getting the work done.

Later that night the three laid in their tree house, all up unable to get to sleep, Sabo, constantly running through their minds,

"I wonder...How's Sabo doing..."

"Shut up and go to sleep!" Ace was the first to respond, "we promised to forget about Sabo for now. This may be what makes him happy..." Though none of them thought that was the truth.

The following day they met up with Blue Jam, "There you are, squirts...tonight's the big job. I'll tell you about it later."

They followed him for a few hours, putting stuff away, packing or whatever it was, Blue Jam then finally told them the job. Their eyes widened...no way...this wasn't actually going to happen was it!?

"You're going to burn the dump!?"

"You're lying! There's no way you would do that!"

"Keep your voice down, stupid...you don't want the people in the dump to hear you."

"Why would you do such a thing!?"

"Oh no!" Luffy screamed, "We have to let everyone know! He's a bad guy after all!"

"I told you to keep it down...Hey, don't like them get away!...I'm not the one behind this anyway, with those boxes of oil and gun powder you distributed yesterday and today, there'll be a fire so big no one can escape. So even trouble makers like you can have a limit, eh? But now that you know the plan... I can't let you go. Before the fire...there's one thing I want to ask you...where did you hide your treasure?"

Anne gritted her teeth there was no way she was going to tell him, there was a rectangular jewelry box, she found a couple days ago with the rings. It was hard to open at first, but once she got it open, she found nine bracelets and nine rings. Each bracelet varied in sizes, but that was due to the number of jewels on them. The longest one called to her(she could have sworn it glowed when she touched it), it was a long silver chain with nine red small stones, rubies maybe. She left it in there, she knew now what not the time to take it. Anne didn't know what it was, but her gut told her that that box will be important to her in the future. There was no way she was giving up the location of their treasure.

The night always came quickly from them, but this one seemed even faster. By midnight they could smell the burning garbage and almost feel the hot flames on their skin. It was less that five meters away from them. The three increased their struggles before Ace was finally able to cut the rope, "There I cut it!"

"Hot! It's so hot! We can't get away!" Luffy screamed as the flames could almost lick their skin now.

"Damn it! We're in real trouble now! And you! Crybabies get left behind!"

"But it's hot!"

"Shut up you two! We have to get out of here now!"

They trudged as quickly as they could through the garbage and flames.

"Wah! Hot! I mean not hot! It's like a sea of flames out there! It hurts to breathe...I mean, it doesn't hurt at all.."

Anne reached over and pulled up Luffy's shirt so it covered his nose, "Guys cover your noses with your shirts. Try your hardest to keep a breath."

"We'll get through this somehow!" Ace said with a determined glint in his eyes, "You've got me remember?"

Anne couldn't help but roll her eyes, was this really the time for his macho act? Anne's eyes widened as she watched the flames behind them roar into life, "Ace, Luffy! Go! NOW!"

"Run for it! Anne! Luffy!" Ace hollered as they ran as fast as they could away from the flames. As they were running, the flames were catching up and was close to surrounding them completely.

"Whoa!" Ace yelled in surprise as the flames burned down everything in front of them.

"Do you think the guys from the trash heap made it out in time?!"

"This is no time to be worrying about other people!..Ugh! I can't even tell where we are!"

"Shit! This is very bad! Damn it! Ace! Look!"

"And who gave you permission to run, you filthy brats?!"

"Blue Jam!"

"Why are you here?! You guys are the ones who started the fire in the first place!"

"Surely you would have made an escape ages ago!"

"Shut your faces, brats! We're suffering through the depths of despair right now! Who would have thought things would turn out like this? You know, humans are a strange kind of creature, don't you think? When we hit rock bottom, we can't help but stand there and laugh!"

The siblings turned and ran, they had no time to stand there and listen to Blue Jam, they had to get out of there, "Luffy, Anne! Let's get out of here!"

"Don't let them escape! Don't you remember? We're pals, we are! We pulled off this whole job together! So it's only right that we should die together an' all! You never did tell you where that treasure of yours is hidden. We'll take it off your hands before it goes up in flames. So tell us where it's hidden!"

Ace was confused and Anne was mortified, "You're worrying about treasure when your lives are in danger?!"

"By that logic, why don't you tell us, hm?"

The three of them flinched, what was wrong with this man!?

"If you're not gonna collect it, then it'll all go to waste."

Ace and Anne stayed quiet, while Luffy couldn't even think of doing something that stupid. "Don't be stupid! That's the treasure, Anne, Ace and Sabo-"

"...All right. I'll tell you." Ace agreed, Anne clenched her fists, she would let him have it for now, but she would get that box back no matter how long it took.

"ACE! But you, Anne and Sabo worked your asses off for-"

"I'm sure Sabo will understand! All that matters now is you...is our lives!"

Anne put on a brave face, grinned, and turned to Luffy, "Beside Lu-chan, there's much more treasure out in the world. If we die here, we'll never see it all!"

The two turned and faced Blue Jam again, Anne took Ace's hand and squeezed it, "It's in the giant tree, almost to the middle of the forest."

Unfortunately, things don't always go according to plan. Within moments, Blue Jams men grabbed hold of them, "What are you doing?! She just told you where it is!"

"But you might be lying. You'll have to come with us."

"Give me a break! If you do that, you won't be able to get away! You can go without us!"

Blue Jam, fed up with the back talk, pointed his gun at Ace, "Don't make me any angrier than I already am! I'm going to come back and have my revenge on these nobles, even if I have to use some kid's treasure to do it! You 'brothers' should think the same. They think they're special, they think everyone else is trash!"

"Sabo doesn't think that!"

"He's the same as them you idiot! He just liked hanging out with you because it made him feel superior! What danger will a rich kid like that face!? This is just some sort of noble's game! Inside he looked at you and laughed!"

"Don't say another word about Sabo!"

Luffy encouraged by Ace, yelled out, "Yeah! Sabo just wanted to be free!" and bit down on the arm of the man holding him.

"You brat," the man yelled, pulling out his sword and struck Luffy across the face, "I'm gonna kill you.."

"DON'T LAY ANOTHER FINGER ON LUFFY!"

The men around them fell over faint, Blue Jam looked around confused, as Anne stared in wonder Ace had done it too.

"What have you brats done?!" Blue Jam demanded as he kicked Ace. Enraged, he pointed his pistol as Ace, ready to shoot.

Anne's eyes widened, no, this couldn't happen!

"ACE!"

"Stoooooooop! Quit it, you sea brats!" It was Dandan! She hit Blue Jam's sword with her axe, "Let Ace goooo!" Blue Jam was forced to step back from the force of the strike.

"Dandan..!" Luffy exclaimed.

"What are you guys doing here?!"

"We finally found you!"

The bandits had all gathered together in front of the fallen children. Dogura went and scooped up Luffy, "Hey! You're in a pretty bad shape, Luffy!"

"Dogura...!"

"Where Sabo?!"

"Sabo's safe. He's not here."

"You bitch..." Blue Jam interrupted, "You're the boss of the Mt. Corbo bandits, aren't you...?"

"I'm the bandit Dandan! And for some reason I got stuck taking care of these brats...now...RUN AWAY!" She turned and hightailed it out.

"RIGHT BOSS!" Her fellow bandits right on her tail, "Ace, Anne hurry!" One of them called out.

"I...won't run away!"

"And I'm not leaving him."

"What the hell are you two talking about?! Let it go! You don't want to mess with Blue Jam! There's no way two kids, like you could take him on!"

"M-me too!" Luffy yelled, trying to squirm out of Doruga's hold.

"No, Luffy!"

"Take Luffy and get out of here."

"Boss?!"

"I'll make sure these two come back with me!"

"Boss..."

"Go!"

"R-right! Please make it home Boss!"

"A woman and two kids..." Blue Jam said once they were alone, "don't overestimate your abilities or you'll get hurt. Only the strong and the cowardly make it out alive. Heroes always die..!"

Anne started to laugh, "so I guess all four of us are getting out of here huh?"

They all turned to look at here, "Anne?"

"Ace and I are the strong ones, and Dandan too, I guess," she said mumbling the last part.

"Hey!"

"And you, dear Blue Jam, are the coward. Alright then. Ace, Dandan you ready? We have a family to get back too."

The three shared a smile, they would make it out of this alive, no matter what.

~!~!~!~

That night Ace, Anne and Dandan did not return from the fiery Grey Terminal. The bandits stayed inside their home trying to keep Luffy in bed.

"Hang on there, Luffy! Where do you think you're going in your condition?"

Easier said than done.

"I'm going to find Anne, Ace and Dandan!"

"Don't be silly! Your wounds are deep. Now just lie down and rest! There are soldiers all over the dump cleaning up after the fire, and when I say 'cleaning up' I mean not just the trash...but any survivors as well. If you go now, you'll just be killed!"

"...but...! I miss nee-chan and Ace! Sabo's probably worried too...!" Luffy said as he cried himself to sleep.

~!~!~!~

The next morning was a flurry of action. The bandits had given up on keeping Luffy in bed, but they definitely weren't allowing him out of the house.

"Ace and Anne are not dead!"

"Luffy calm down! I understand how you feel...but it's still too dangerous for you to go back to the trash heap with the military on the look out and your body in that state!"

"The blaze was gigantic...the hopes maybe slim, but...we want to believe that our boss, Ace and Anne are alive as well, you know! Dogura is out there right now, trying to scout out what's going on in the trash heap! Leave it to him! This is hard for all of us Luffy...!"

Reluctantly the youngest brother agreed, he knew he wasn't the only one worried, but Anne and Ace were all he had now that Sabo had left. Just as Luffy was about to go lay back down one of the bandits rushed into the house, "Hey! Everyone! They're back! They're all back!"

Everyone rushed out to see their missing family members. There in front of the door stood Anne and Ace. Ace was carrying Dandan on his back and Anne was clutching her abdomen.

"Thank goodness! You really were alive after all!"

Ace and Anne just smirked, "Of course."

Luffy tackled Ace as he was taking his shirt off, "AAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEE! AAAAAANNNNNNNNNNEEEE!"

"What did you think I was dead?"

"I...!"

"What are you crying for?!" Ace yelled, knocking Luffy over the head, "Don't act like people are dead when they're not, dummy!"

Anne let out a loud laugh, "Ace! Stop he was just worried." She said right before the bent over clutching her abdomen in pain. "Anne!"

"Ohhh, it hurts. Ace...it might have cut deeper than we thou-..." she gasped out before she fell to the floor.

"Anne!" They all screamed. Ace went to her and picked her up before he place her next to Dandan. He sat her up and pulled off her burnt shirt. His eyes widened in horror as he stared at the bloody strips of cloth. The bandits behind him gasped, Magra step forward, "Someone cut of those strips, I'll get some water boiling. I need someone to get some needle and thread, and also a couple of towels."

"Right." The bandits got went their ways, each to do what they were assigned. One of the bandits nudged Ace away and cut off the bloodied strips of cloth. "Ace what happened?!"

Ace clenched his fists, "Blue Jam came to cut me down...but Anne pushed me out of the way and took the blow. We didn't think it was that deep...we managed to defeat Blue Jam somehow that night. But our escape was blocked by the flames...Dandan was horribly burned. But we managed to hide out by the river bank in the central forest where the flames couldn't reach us. And I went and stole medicine from the city...we managed to save Dandan, and we tied up Anne...but she didn't tell us it was that deep!"

"Goodness...well, I'm glad you guys are alive."

"Boss, you just rest and recuperate..."

"...sorry to have worried you."

"Out of the way!" Everyone not hurt, lept out of the way for the boiling water pot coming through. He put the pot on the floor, and Magra took a cup and quickly washed his hands. He took a towel, dipped in into the hot water, squeezed the excess out, and wiped down Anne's abdomen. Once it was clean, Sora came with the needle and thread. Before he got to work, Magra rolled up another towel and placed it in Anne's mouth to keep her from biting of her tongue from the pain. He got to work quickly, wiping away any blood that seeped out as he pinched her skin together to tie off the knot. It took another 45 minutes, since he wasn't a specialist, to finish. Once he was finished, he lightly wiped her abdomen down one more time before he got out his special salve and lathered her cut up with it. Finally, he set her up and wrapped her belly, and set her back down.

He pulled up her blanket and let out a deep sigh, "I've done all I could, now we just have to wait and see."

"Where...where did you learn to do that?"

"My father was a doctor...well a quack...but he knew some things, so I watched him as a kid. I guess I kinda got good at stitching up people. And the salve is probably the only medicine that he created, that works. It helps heal, and prevent large scaring.

"Thank you for helping my nee-chan Magra," Ace said bowing to him.

"Don't worry about it kid." He replied back, ruffling Ace's hair.

"I wonder if Sabo's worried about us...after what happened to the dump."

~!~!~!~

It was late evening when Dandan was up again, she asked the question that was on her mind since that night, "Ace...why didn't you run then...?"

"Sometimes...the blood rushes to my head...and I feel like...If I run, I'll lose something important...that time...-"

"Luffy was behind us."

Everyone turned to the young girl, "Anne! You're awake!"

"Of course I'm awake, you idiot. You're talking right beside me, how am I supposed to sleep with all that noise?! Ah!"

"Anne, you shouldn't talk," Magra said, "you're no way never healed yet."

"I'll be fine," she said, waving away Magra's concerns, she turned to Dandan, "Luffy was behind us, there was no way we could run. If we did...he would go after him...we couldn't risk that, he's our little brother."

Dandan looked back and forth between the twins, 'you may curse it...but you can't fight your blood...'

Later that evening, Mogura came back home, bringing horrible news with him. There was no way what he said was the truth...

"LAIR! You can't joke around like that!" An enraged Ace took Mogura to the ground.

"It's not a joke and it's not a lie! It was so sudden...I doubted my own eyes...! I thought I must be dreaming!" He pushed Ace off of him and sat up, "Luffy said...Sabo's parents dragged him home. We rogues know well that there are places you don't ever want to go back to! If he'd been happy...he wouldn't have set sail! He wouldn't have raised a pirate flag and gone off to sea alone, would he?!"

'We promised to forget about Sabo for now. This may be what makes him happy."

"...Sabo...wasn't happy...!"

'I'm sorry to say this, but even though I had parents, I was alone.'

"Why didn't we go rescue him?"

'I'll do whatever you say...! I'll live however you want! Just don't harm them!"

"Sabo...you...idiot! We won't know if you don't say!"

"Where are the people who killed him?!" Ace demanded, dragging Mogura up by his collar, "I'm going to kill them myself."

Ace pushed his way through and ran to the door, grabbing his pipe, "I'm going to avenge him!"

"Wait, Ace!"

"Stop right there, you stupid brat!" Dandan yelled as she smashed his head into the floor.

"Outta my way!" He screamed at her.

"You think you're so strong! What are you going to do?! You'll just get yourself killed! You'll get killed and be forgotten by tomorrow! That's all you are right now!"

She pulled him up by his shirt, "It was this kingdom that killed Sabo! This world! What can you hope to do?! Your father died and changed the world! When you become the man he was, then you can decide whether you want to live or die!"

Dandan dropped him to the floor, "Hey! Someone tie him up!"

"R-right!"

Luffy was all the trying to hold in his tears finally let it all out, "SABOOOOOO!"

As the night wore on, Ace stayed tied to the tree outside, Luffy sitting with him, still crying, "Shut up!" But he could not stop. One of his brothers was now forever out of his reach, he could do nothing more than cry. He cried and cried till he fell asleep.

The next morning Anne was up and walking, with some pain here and there, but she had been through worse, so she told Magra she would deal with it. She walked out to meet Ace with Dandan, and a few of the others, "Have you calmed down a little, Ace?"

Anne looked around not seeing Luffy, "...where's Luffy?"

"He cried all night...He's sleeping now."

"Boss!" Dogura came running to them holding an envelope, "there's a letter...It's from Sabo...! He sent a letter...before he set sail."

"Huh?"

"Give it to me! I won't go into town. That letter's for us, isn't it?!"

Anne took the letter from Dogura and put it in her back pocket and walked up to Ace, she took out her pocket knife and cut the rope off. She handed the letter to Ace and they walked hand in hand to the cliff, Ace, reading it on the way there.

"Ace, Anne and Luffy, you weren't injured in the fire, were you? I'm worried, but I have faith in you. I'm sorry, but by the time you get this letter, I will be at sea. So much has happened, so I'm setting sail before you. My destination...is anywhere other than this kingdom...there I'll get stronger and become a pirate. And when I'm a pirate, I'll be free, and someday we brothers will meet again. Somewhere on the wide, free sea, I promise! By the way, I wonder which of us is the eldest. I know Anne is older than you Ace so you're out. But Anne, do you know?

"I think it should be you. You're probably the most level headed one of us all. Cause you know, it'd be strange if there were two eldest siblings and two younger ones. But you know, this bond the four of us share is, and will always be my g-greatest treasure. L-Luffy is still a...crybaby you guys, but he's out little brother. T-t-take care of him."

By the end of the heartfelt letter, the twins it was the twins turn to bawl their eyes out. The letter had sunk what Dogura said into their minds...their Sabo was gone. And he wasn't coming back.

That afternoon Luffy face down laid in the grass on the cliff. He didn't want anyone to show his tears.

'Ace, Anne, Luffy! Promise we'll set sail! That we'll escape this kingdom and be free!"

The birds chirped and the world went on as the twins walked up to the cliff. Ace saw their little brother laying on the floor and knocked him over the head, which made him pull down his hat and cry harder.

"How long are you gonna lie there like that?"

"..." Anne didn't say anything, and for once, and didn't want to interfere in Ace's tough love. Luffy had to learn this lesson without any coddling.

"We lost all the treasure we had hidden in central forest...other that that chest of Anne's which she refuses to show us the inside of. Sabo couldn't even use any of it in the end...so...I...don't care about it anymore. It's no use hording treasure if we can't even protect it."

"...Ace. I..." Luffy began for the first time in a while, "I want to get stronger! Stronger! Stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger! Stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger! Stronger and stronger! I'll get stronger! And then...I'll be able to protect anything. And no one will ever die...! So please...! Please...please don't you and Anne die too!"

"Don't be stupid!" Ace yelled, slamming his fist down on Luffy's head again, "You should worry about yourself first! You're way weaker than them me! And even more so than Anne! Listen up Luffy! We're not gonna die, and don't you forget it!"

"...ok...!"

"Sabo asked us to...so I promise I won't ever die! How could we die and leave a weak little brother like you?!"

"..yeah..yeah..!"

"I'm stupid, so I don't know what killed Sabo...but whatever it was, it was the opposite of freedom..! He died without ever being free! But, we made a vow with him and we're still alive! So listen up Luffy. Anne, come here."

Anne raised an eyebrow at the command, but complied, she'd let him have this. "I swear I will live a life without regret!"

"Yeah!" Luffy and Anne agreed.

'A noble becomes a true noble at 18. So I'll leave this country when I'm 17.'

"Someday I promise, I'll set sail! And I'll live however I want! Freer than anyone! That may make me a lot of enemies...even Gramps'll be enemy! I'll be risking my life! But I'll still set sail at 17! And we will become pirates!"

"Yes,"Anne agreed, "I want you guys to know this," they turned to her, "I will change this world, no matter how long it takes. I will create a giant family, I will accept anyone who wants to be free and change the world. I will have many brothers and sister, but the two of you," she said, turning to face them, "I will always love you. No matter what sort of pirates you become. Just call for me and I will come to you. This I promise."

She turned her head back to face the sea, "I will change this world, no matter who stands in my world. This world will be free. And I will fight for this til the day I leave in my sleep or I am cut down. So I want you two to be the best sort of captains for your crewmates to follow. I don't know where this came from, but it pops up into my mind every once in a while, 'those who abandon their mission is trash, but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash.' So be the pirate each of us can be proud of."

"Yes." The two boys agreed with her, a grin plastered across their faces.

!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!

R&R