CHAPTER TWENTY: THE REPLICATOR !

8x24

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THE REPLICATOR WAS BACK. That's all the team knew. He had hacked into Garcia's computer with spammed messages written: 'Zugzwang'. Casey was currently in a vehicle with Spencer, Rossi and Hotch and they were going to go and pick up Blake and Strauss.

       Reid and Casey had currently been trying to get ahold of the two. After for what seemed to be the millionth time, Casey was left on voicemail from Strauss. The girl groaned and announced: "Strauss isn't answering. All I'm getting is voicemail."

"Keep trying," Hotch encouraged. "Reid, any luck with Blake?" Spencer shook his head. "Not yet." He told.

"The pictures of you were taken outside of Beth's apartment. I get it if you want to stay with them until we find him." Rossi told Hotch. When Garcia got hacked, a lot of pictures were shown on her computer, most of them were of the team on this most recent case.

"I've got agents surrounding Beth's building. She and Jack are safer without me, since we're the targets." Hotch explained and Reid had finally gotten ahold of Blake. "Blake, we'll pick you up in a few minutes. The Replicator's back."

"Willows, don't worry about Strauss, we'll swing by her hotel room." Rossi told and Casey had put her phone down. They picked Blake up and then made their way to to the hotel. Hotch parked as Rossi had made his way to the hotel and five minutes later, Hotch received a call that something was wrong.

Soon, Blake, Reid and Casey had made their way to the hotel room, meeting with JJ and Morgan. Hotch had exited the open room that Rossi was in, Strauss' room and announced to the team: "Strauss is missing. Blake, you and Reid talk to hotel security. We need access points and footage from every camera." Casey and Spencer exchanged a look and Casey squeezed his hand before he made his way down to the lobby with Blake.

"Morgan, back up Dave on the roof. JJ, take the west staircase, Casey and I will take the east." Casey followed beside Hotch as they made their way to the staircase and as soon as they did, Hotch received a call from Strauss.

"Erin." Casey sighed in relief for a moment but not before Hotch had given the girl a look. A look that said that this was not Strauss he was talking to. "Where is she?" The two began to make their way down the staircase faster.

The two had exited the building and Casey looked around, in hopes that maybe she would find her. They began to run down the sidewalk and looked around for her. Until Casey finally saw her, drunk and stumbling on her own two feet. "There!" She pointed.

Hotch had called Rossi as Casey tried to run her down and make sure she didn't lose her. "Dave! Dave, We've got her! She's on a bench, she's a block east of the hotel. Casey, call the EMTs." Casey grabbed her phone from her pocket and dialed 911 as Hotch and Casey approached her. "Erin. Is he armed?"

Strauss looked confused at first and almost looked scared until she blinked and realized it was Hotch in front of her. "Hello, SSA Casey Willows with the FBI, I have a woman here, she's been drugged, we're on the block east of the Plaza Hotel in front of a bench, please hurry." Casey told and she hung up.

"It's okay. Help is on the way. Go--" Strauss had coughed as if she was hacking something up. "Erin, you've been drugged." Hotch told. "We need to get you to a hospital." Casey stated.

"No, I can't. It's happening so fast." The woman sat down in tiresome and Hotch sat with her and Casey kneeled in front of her. "Casey's called the paramedics." Hotch assures. 

"He said he's gonna race you home. Does that mean anything to you?" Casey and Hotch look to one another and notice she's talking about the Replicator. "You have to find him." Strauss paused. "It's so quiet. Why is it so quiet?"

"Strauss, did you recognize him? At all? Did he look familiar?" Casey questions. "He put a gun to my head. He made me drink." Strauss cries.

"I'm sorry." Hotch tells. "I wish I'd let him kill me." Casey looks down as Strauss speaks. "Did you know him?" Hotch asks. "No," Strauss begins to freak out as she comes to a realization. "He knows my family. He knows my children! You have to protect my kids! You have to find him!" The woman stands up and Hotch tries to calm her down and sit her back down.

"Erin, we will. We will. Just take a breath." Hotch shushes as Erin groans. "I love my children. Please tell them." Hotch nods, "They know. They know." Strauss looks at Hotch. "Once you said I loved my son the most. That's not true." Casey looks at her boss as he speaks. "I'm sorry. I was wrong."

Strauss begins to cry. "Aaron, I can't see you."
"I'm right here," Hotch assures. "We both are." He motions to Casey, who tries her best to blink her tears away.
"I don't want to die alone." Strauss cries and Hotch begins to hold her. "I'm right here. It's okay." Casey grabs onto one of her hands and Hotch tries to keep the woman calm and in her last moments, she was.

Casey and Hotch looked at one another once they realized she was gone and Casey no longer felt a pulse. Rossi and Morgan had come running down the street and once they reached her, Casey looked at Rossi with tear-filled eyes and shook her head.

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Rossi had decided to bring Strauss back home and to tell her family in Bethesda and to do the autopsy. The rest of the team had decided to go back to the BAU to solve this case and none of them were going to get any rest until they did.

They were in the elevator when Hotch was explaining the phone call that he received when he and Casey were trying to find Strauss. "He knew about Foyet?" JJ asked. "Who's that?" Blake questioned. "He's the man who killed my wife." Hotch stated.

"That's a classified case that's not in any database." Morgan told. "Then how would he know about it?" Casey asked. "If he had access to the file, we're talking about someone on the inside." Reid answered. "Conference room in five." Hotch told.

Casey had taken the five minutes to put her stuff down near her desk and to use the bathroom. Once she finished her business, she went over to the sink and washed her hands and dried them. She had taken a look of her appearance in the mirror and then turned sideways, lifted her shirt and looked at her stomach. Her stomach was still small and you couldn't really tell if there was a baby growing inside it. I mean, she was still in the first few weeks of being pregnant, she was hardly showing. After realizing her five minutes were almost up, she pulled her shirt back down and went down to the roundtable room.

"Garcia, is this everything?" Hotch asked as he walked in. "Yeah. The Replicator stuff is here, and the team stuff is there and there." Garcia looked at Morgan. "How's Rossi?" She asked. "Not good." Morgan answered.

"Is he with Strauss?" Garcia asked. "Yeah." Morgan nodded. "Ok. Uh--uh, I started with the question you asked-- why attack Strauss, and on this day?" Garcia said. "The most obvious answer is that it's an anniversary of some sort." Reid answered. "But there's nothing historically relevant." Garcia pointed. "It could be the smallest thing. Concentrate on New York. If the date's that important, the setting could be, too." Reid told.

"It would be easier to attack Strauss at home. Is there a reason why he waited for her to be out?" JJ asked. "Well, considering she's hardly ever in the field, he sure does have a lot of photos of Strauss. It's like he's obsessed with her. Just as he is us." Casey explained. "Maybe Strauss was always his first target. He attacked the top of the BAU chain first." Blake told.

"All right, Reid, you've matched up all the murder locations with the dates. Now, we need to know how long it would take to drive to each of these locations, assuming a home base in the district. He brought the fight here for a reason." Hotch told and Morgan continued, "Well, it's nearly impossible to figure out when he arrived and departed New York, but we should try."

"I'll collect all the public and private transport stuff." Garcia said but before she could move, Hotch stopped her. "Garcia, I need Kevin to go through every single pixel of these photographs. This unsub gets off on taunting us. He's given us answers here. We just haven't found them yet."

Soon after, Hotch had received a call from Rossi, who had found a carving in Strauss's wrist and he had sent a photo to the team. "Dave, a figure 8?" Hotch asked. "That's what it looks like. I just sent you all a picture."

"Maybe it's an infinity symbol." Reid thinks as Casey looks at the photo sent to her tablet. "Well, if it's infinity, he could be boasting 'I'll go on forever'?" Blake suggests. "Or if it's an 8, Strauss was his eighth victim." Morgan thinks.

"If this is a taunt from him, it's too random." Hotch tells. "Well, he's only sent one message and he seems to be real proud of it." Morgan says. "Zugzwang." Spencer tells, reminding them and they all nod. "Then what does this mean?" Casey asks.

"Rossi, the cut looks jagged." JJ points out. "Any idea what caused the serration?"
"Best guess is a piece of glass." Rossi tells. "Maybe he used empty bottles from the mini bar?" Morgan guesses. "Those were all plastic. The ME is checking for splinters now."

"All right, let us know what you find out." With that, Hotch hangs up. "Anything from the photographs yet?" He asks Morgan. "We blew up a few more and this one seems to stand out." He holds out a picture of Morgan in a tux.

"I remember that." Casey states. "When were you in a tuxedo?" JJ asks. "It was a British Embassy event." Morgan tells. "Security clearance is high." Blake says. "Security was insane there," Garcia nods. "That kind of accessibility, plus knowing about Foyet, the fact that he was able to get through all of my security clearances alone, you guys are right. You have to trust your gut. The Replicator has gotta be on the inside." Garcia explained.

        The team had taken a bit of a break so they had gone to go get coffee from the machine. "If the Replicator's an insider, is there any way Strauss knew him?" JJ asked. "She said she didn't recognize him." Casey answered. "To her defense, she was disoriented by the drug overdose." Spencer tells as he hands his girlfriend a cup of tea. "She was adamant about it." Hotch sides with Casey.

        "Well, even if Strauss didn't know him, it doesn't mean he didn't know her." Morgan tells. "Within the Bureau, she is the face of the BAU." Blake tells. "And clearly a target from the beginning. But why?" JJ asks the big question.

        "More importantly, what was he replicating?" Spencer asks. "The drug overdose?" Casey furrows her brows. "I mean with the 8," Spencer clarifies. "It hasn't been part of any other case, and he's not one to make mistakes. He thought he was replicating a crime."

         "The Director made us walk away from the case a few months ago. Strauss said that she wouldn't let it go. What if she hadn't?" Hotch guesses. "You think she started her own investigation?" Blake asks.

        "Well, if she thought he was an insider, she might have done something to trap him." Hotch tells. "Why wouldn't she have told you about that back in New York?" Morgan asks. "Maybe she didn't have proof. But her determination, plus the fact that he doesn't make mistakes makes me think that the 8 was part of her plan to catch him." They had made the connection. "Do we have her laptop?" Hotch asked.

          After finding out that Strauss lied about the MO on a case, Hotch had to go and check in with representatives and they had given to help them.

        The rest of the team had been sitting and trying to debrief. "Well, at least this narrows it down. Finding someone on the inside should be easier." Blake tells. "Not necessarily, if our unsub was trained by law enforcement, he'd know how to fit in perfectly." Reid tells.

       "Well, there's mainly a purpose for everything he does. Why did he choose to replicate the Silencer case?" Morgan asks. "Well, that unsub went dormant for years 'cause he was locked up. Is that a clue about the Replicator?" JJ asks. "Well, it speaks to his patience." Morgan guesses."What about his MO? He sewed mouths shut." 

        "It symbolizes keeping secrets." Blake tells. "There could be something in that." Spencer begins to think himself. "He's targeting everyone. So how does that particular case factor into all of us?"

       "It's the first one Garcia, Casey and I worked on with Blake." Morgan spoke and motioned towards Casey as she nodded. "And after that case, Spencer and I got together. That definitely changed the team dynamic and everything." Casey had assumed.

       "Yeah, but the rest of us worked on the Seattle case before that." JJ told. "Right, the unsub who used his kid to bait the victims." Blake thinks. "We need to see if he replicated that one." Spencer tells.

     
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         Shortly, Rossi had arrived at the BAU and he had looked morbid about losing Strauss. Casey couldn't even imagine what he was going through. As he walked away, Casey was going to go and follow him to see if he was okay but Spencer stopped her. He knew that Rossi needed that time to himself and Casey understood once Reid pulled her away.

        As he entered his office, Casey turned back over to Spencer. "I've never seen Rossi look so defeated." She stated. "He lost someone he loved. He just needs time." Spencer assured and Casey nodded. "If that was you, I-I wouldn't know..." Spencer stopped the girl from continuing because he didn't even want to think about it either and Casey had taken a breath. "And I don't even wanna know what you went through when I went missing." She told. "Hell, definitely." Spencer nods.

       Hotch had then walked into the BAU office. "I need everybody in the conference room." He announced and everyone followed behind. "A dozen federal employees have read our case files over the last two years. They all went through the highest levels of security. Each of those names needs to be checked against Reid's list." Hotch tells. "We should get them all in here and start the interrogations." Blake told.

      "If he knows we're looking his way, he might retreat. We should also check the support staffs of all those employees." Hotch stated. "Each one has two assistants, so we're already up to 36 people." JJ said. "We should start with agents who work a 4-day, 40-hour week, given the fact that most of the murders happened over a long weekend, which means if the unsub traveled by car, no one at work would've missed them." Reid explained.

       "Well, he probably wouldn't take a jet or a plane. It would leave a paper trail." Casey told. Blake had handed Hotch a file. "What's this?" He asked.

       "The Replicator's first case was the same as mine. Remember the sadist who made Ridgeway look tame?" Blake refreshed Hotch's memory. "In Seattle, so it wasn't the Silencer."

       "Do you think it's a coincidence he started all of this when I joined the team?" Blake asked. "I don't know." Hotch shook his head.

       Hotch had taken a look outside and placed the file down. "Dave's back? Excuse me." Casey had rushed right after Hotch next. "Uh, Hotch?" Casey called. "Rossi's only been back a few minutes and it looks like it's hitting him pretty hard."

       "Well, they were together for the last year." Hotch said and suddenly, his phone began to ring and he checked the phone. "That's the Director. I'll be right back." He walked away back towards his office.

        Casey looked towards the closed door and took a deep breath before knocking and entering the room. "Hey, Rossi." She greeted and Rossi slowly looked up at the girl and he looked like he had been irritated. "You all right?" She asked. "You look like you're gonna hurl." Casey tried to be funny but it looked like Rossi was not laughing.

         Rossi stood up from his seat. "Get out." He told. "What—?" Suddenly, Rossi pulled his gun out and aimed it towards Casey and Casey held her hand up in surrender. One hand was up while the other was on her stomach. "Whoa, okay." Casey didn't know if this was a joke or why Rossi was holding a gun to her but it was freaking out. "Okay, Rossi, you got me, stop it. You're scaring me." Rossi stayed where he was, the gun still aimed at her. "Damn it, I'm serious!"

         "Where's Morgan?" Rossi questioned.
         "What?"

         As if on cue, Morgan had walked in next after hearing Casey. "What's going on—?" He had noticed the gun. "Rossi, what—?" Rossi looked at Morgan and aimed the gun at him next. And Morgan had stood in front of Casey as he watched Rossi gun carefully and tried to make sure that if he did shoot, it wouldn't hit Casey.

          "Rossi, put the gun down. Rossi." Hotch had slowly begun to walk in the room next. "What's going on?" Hotch asked. "Morgan's DNA was on the glass that cut her wrist."

         "Strauss?" Morgan asked.
         "You did that." Rossi seethed.
         "No, I didn't." Morgan told.

         Hotch slowly walked towards Rossi. "Dave, someone on the inside is doing this." Rossi looks at Morgan. "You're looking at him." He told. "Derek did not hurt her, and you have to trust me on this."

        "Trust you?" Rossi's nose was beginning to bleed. "I bet you told Erin the same thing. Look what that got her." They had noticed the blood. "Dave, you've been drugged." Rossi's eyes began to well up with tears and he looked over at his couch in the room. "I was too late, Erin. I'm so sorry." Casey looked over at the couch, he saw her there.

       "He wants us against each other. If you pull that trigger, he wins. She's not there. Give me the gun." Carefully, Hotch took the gun from Rossi's hands and both Morgan and Casey took a sigh of relief.

       "I'm gonna call the paramedics." Morgan walked out and Casey had held her stomach and exhales. She was glad that this hadn't gone too far and that Hotch had sat Rossi down to calm him.

        The paramedics had come to get Rossi and Hotch was sending him off. Morgan had been on the phone with ME and Casey had sat over at her desk, thinking to herself as the rest of the team spoke to one another about the encounter. "They've given him a sedative and they're going to take him to the infirmary. He's gonna be okay." Hotch assured everyone.

        "How did it get into his system?" Blake asked. "The report must have been dusted with whatever he used on Strauss." Hotch figured. "Luckily, the transdermal absorption rate was lower than her ingestion of it, so it wasn't fatal for Rossi." Reid explained.

        "Then, this was a warning. If he wanted to kill Rossi, he had every chance to do it." JJ told. "If this is his endgame, why is he wasting time with warnings?" Blake asked. "He's toying with us and we're playing into him." Hotch said. "He's turned Rossi against Morgan. Even if it was temporary, he wanted to show it could be done. And with Casey, he showed that he was gonna get to Morgan no matter the cost." Hotch nudged over to Casey, who looked like she was in deep thought. Clearly, she was in shock.

        "But why?" Blake asked. Morgan had finished getting off the phone. "Strauss was dosed with a chemical cousin of Doctor Death. He altered it so her torture would be longer." JJ scoffed, "A biochemist, computer hacker, and federal agent? Who the hell is this guy?"

       Spencer took notice of his girlfriend, dissociating from the world and had taken it upon himself to go and check on her. "Hey, you okay?" He kneeled in front of her and snapped her back to reality. "Yeah, yeah, I'm—" Casey paused and realized who she was talking to. Tears welled up in her eyes. "I was scared... not for me, but for..." She looked down. "I know." Spencer nodded. "One wrong move and something would've—"

        "Well, nothing did, okay?" Spencer put a hand to her cheek and Casey grabbed onto his hand and sighed, blinking her tears away. "You're okay, now." Casey took a deep breath. Hotch approached the girl next. "Are you okay?" He asked and Casey nodded. "Yeah, just a little shocked... is all."

          "Hey, lovelies! I need you guys up here, please!" Garcia announced and everyone followed behind, Kevin joining the team as well. "Okay, only half the cameras are working because the system is still rebooting itself, so the security guards have to go old school. That means everyone has to sign in. You can't take your ID and run it through-- well, you know what old school means."

         "So, if you have a badge, you don't get harassed. The man who signed in to see Rossi went up to the sixth floor, held the door open for Kevin and Anderson..."
         "I can't believe he was right there." Kevin shook his head.
        "Walked through our BAU into Rossi's office, signed in as Adam Worth."

        Both Spencer and Casey turned their heads. "Adam Worth?" Spencer asked. "Isn't that the same alias he used when Casey went missing?" JJ asked. "Yeah, which means it's not just a taunt. It speaks directly to his psychology. Adam Worth was a famous criminal from the late 1800s, commonly referred to as the Napoleon of Crime. This unsub obviously sees himself in the same light."

       "So this guy is a malignant narcissist who wants to be known as the worst enemy we've ever had. Too late, buddy, we've seen worse." Casey told.

       "And look, he's careful to hide his face from the cameras." Blake pointed out. "Because he knows exactly where they are." Hotch told.

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      The team had sat themselves down as Blake had made a list of the things that the Replicator had done to the team. "The Replicator has directly taunted everyone on this team except for me." Blake told.

"You may be part of his endgame." Blake told. "Then so was Strauss." Blake pointed out.

"I mean, I haven't exactly been taunted either." Casey told. "Technically, the Zugzwang message was directed at you, too." Reid said. "No," Casey began to think. "What's up?" Morgan asked. Casey was now in deep thought again.

Casey thought about the day that Cooper and her had a conversation. "A little before I got out, I got a visitor. Told me that they were looking for you. Watching your every move..." She remembers the words.

"He went to go and visit Cooper. That's when he knew to send the Zugzwang message. He knew about me." Casey pieces together. Blake added that to her list.

"He chose to use drugs as his final replication. That's no accident." JJ told. "Is that a connection to you?" Hotch asks Blake. "Strauss and I had issues during the Amerithrax case. It started in New York with poison." Blake told.

"And it was delivered by envelopes." Reid added.
"Why would anyone on the inside hold resentment over that case?" Morgan asked.

"Because that person suffered a professional setback just like Blake, but was patient and psychotic enough to get revenge." Casey stated.

Garcia walked in the room. "I am all over the DOJ names including support staff. I have Kevin pulling files and photos. System is down, so it's hard to check entire career paths, but there were two agents in New York in 2001. Scratch that-- Lehman died in October -- that leaves Curtis." Blake looked down at the file.

"Wait a second..." Blake muttered as she looked at the file. "John Curtis?" She asked. "You know him?" Garcia asked. "I haven't seen him in a long time. He was a nice guy. We were first office agents together, but I thought he left the Bureau after the Amerithrax case."

"Could it be him? Does he fit the profile?" Hotch questions and Blake thinks: "He was quiet and a loner, but brilliant. He specialized in a lot of fields, but his passion was biochemistry."

They had found the Replicator.

The team had gotten their vests on and were ready to get down to the coordinates Garcia had sent to them. "He inherited a family compound in rural Virginia. Coordinates on on your phone."

"What else do you have on Curtis?" Blake asked.

"Just like you thought. John Curtis was demoted in the FBI after the Amerithrax case. He was slated to take over the coveted New York field office, but then was shipped to the not coveted Kansas City one. He worked there for many years quietly before he was able to weasel his way back into the nation's capital. On paper he is a rock star. He immediately transferred to the Department of Justice, the intelligence oversight section. He's a genius on multiple levels." Garcia explained.

"What's his background?" Hotch asked as the team had made their way up to the roof. "Only child, parents died when he was 18. Never married. Total loner, just like Blake said."

"Then all he's ever had to care about is his work." Hotch said. "And when he lost that, he snapped." Morgan added.

There had been two helicopters for the team to separate and take. Hotch, Reid and Blake in one — JJ, Morgan and Casey in the other. They had been flying in different spots of the location to trap Curtis.

That didn't end up working out, when Casey, JJ and Morgan spotted a helicopter that crashed and once Casey saw it was one of theirs, she immediately flipped out. "Spencer." She muttered and quickly unbuckled herself and got out of the helicopter and JJ and Morgan followed closely behind. She had silently prayed in her head that nothing happened to Reid as she rushed to the helicopter.

"Spencer! Spencer!" Casey shouted and she quickly opened the door as Morgan opened Hotch's side. "Spencer..." Casey sighed in relief. "Please tell me you're okay." Spencer nods, "Yeah, I'm okay."

"Are you guys all right?" Morgan asks. "Yeah." Hotch answers. Suddenly, JJ asked the million dollar question: "Where's Blake?"

They discovered that the Replicator had taken Blake and that he had done so by tossing a canister that knocked them out. They found his home successfully and had the police, SWAT, anybody on their side helping them on all sides of the house.

"We're ready to breach the house." Hotch announced as SWAT headed in. They had found a way in and discovered where Blake had been locked up in. JJ had taken Blake's gag off and spoke. "Which way did he go?" She asked. "I don't know." Blake answered.

"Morgan, you and JJ find him. We've got this." Hotch told as Reid and Casey knelt down in front of the woman and looked at the locks. "He said he used 8 locks because there used to be 8 of us." Blake said. "That's all he said?" Hotch asked. "About that, yes." Blake nods.

"There's only 6 keys. That mean two keys will be used twice. Each key is a letter, likely corresponds to a number on the locks. 7-- seventh letter of the alphabet's 'G.'" Reid told.

"What are the other letters?" Hotch asked.

"Um, Z, U, W--" Reid pieces it together. "Zugzwang."

Casey groans and Reid responds, "It's too easy." Casey nods, "Way too easy."

Not even a minute later, JJ and Morgan come rushing back. "He's got the placed lined with C-4. We've only got 3 minutes." Morgan announced. "This seems too easy," Reid told as he and Casey had finished getting the locks off Blake. "Zugzwang almost means a dilemma in chess where the best move is not to move at all."

Blake stood up and Reid had realized in a millisecond. "Wait, don't get up!" He shouts. "It's a pressure sensor."

Suddenly, the door behind the team closes and that had been their only way out. With quick thinking, Garcia is called and she blocks the signal to get them out in time. They had met up with Rossi, who helped and the rest of the team had focused on getting everyone away from the house.

"Everybody get back! There's C-4 in the basement. Everybody back!" Hotch yelled as everyone ran in their direction. "Wait, where's Rossi?" Reid questions. "He was right behind me." Morgan tells. "Dave!" Hotch calls. "He just let us out. Why would he go back in?" Morgan questions.

Casey doesn't even hesitate to think as she tries to run back to the house. "Rossi! Rossi!" She calls and Reid stops the girl and holds her back from doing so. She knew Rossi, she knew he wasn't go out that easy and luckily, he was come out just in time. Five seconds before the building had burst into flames.

The Replicator was no more and the team had taken another victory, even thought, it didn't really much feel like one.

only one more chapter and we're onto s9!!!
i'm so excited and this was literally so long omg
-mya </3