Awakening
((OOC: This entry took way too long, but it is one of the most important for this character. I hope you all enjoy it. It is quite long... but required. ^^))
The forest that surrounded Mideel had always been thick and wild. The branches hang down, twisting and weaving together a fine mess that kept many from straying from the path that had been cut through. Wild vines tore from the ground and grasped towards the sky, holding out their leaves like hands to gather up the rays of the sun. The vines competed with the thick foliage of the large trees that had been standing for more ordeals than had even been calculated, and they would stand to see another.
Dirt was kicked up as the child ran, the path twisting through the forest and making a perfect game of hide-n-seek or even tag. It was narrow with few branches off into the forest, but the path was nice and sandy which made running easy. It even covered over light tracks well if someone cared to take their time while travelling.
Lorelai sniffled as she moved swiftly through the interwoven vines and branches, having strayed from the path to obvious those villagers that thought to take her home. She didn’t want to go back yet, not to an empty house where her mother was just hold her and cry, where the stars were blacked from sight, where she had to face the fact that papa was the element keeping her mommy together all this time. She didn’t want to cry anymore because when she cried, her head would hurt terribly and she would get horrible nosebleeds.
So, she fled into the night with tears still drying to her cheeks and the whispers that had been constant beckoning her into the forest. The hands had not come back, just the calls of this way, Lorelai which she had tried to tell her mommy about. Normally, she would either have her odd claims ignored or soothed by telling her that it wasn’t true and she just needed some rest. This time, however, her mother had shouted at her, actually shouted and sounded truly angry. It made Lorelai hurt.
She stopped running when she came to a clearing in the woods. It was one of the few in the deeper portions, and there was a story that they had been created because the planet had been angry and the Lifestream had bubbled up to create both clearings and the pools that lay in them. The fiery of the planet she didn’t much understand, but she thought it was being mean since a few people in Mideel lost their lives to the upheaval of the planet.
Dragging her bare feet over the soft lush grass, Lorelai approached the glowing pond without much concern. She had spent many nights here with her parents star-gazing, and it had quickly become her spot for time to herself. She always felt safe here, never sick or alone. In fact, most of her sickness faded with the time she spent here, as long as it wasn’t too long or she didn’t get too close to the glowing waters of mako.
Yet, something in the water caught her attention as she approached. There was a darkness floating in the middle, and as she approached cautiously, it appeared to throb like a beating heart might. She felt no fear as she walked over to the edge of the pond, peering down into the darkness that seemed just like night, twisting and swirling in the depths of the exposed Lifestream. Curiously peeked, she leaned over as far as she could without being in danger of falling in, eyes widening when the blackness reached out an inhuman hand towards her.
Return to us…
Lorelai drew back so that she was merely standing on the bank, pulling her toque tightly over her ears as the hand continued to reached out, never coming too close. She got the distinct feeling that she could and should reach out and take that hand, but she understood that she could so easily deny the urge and slip away safely into the forest again. There was no overwhelming pull to take that hand, but a part of her yearned to simply reach out and touch those black fingers.
Childish curiosity pulled at her even as she lifted a little hand and began to reach back slowly. The black hand that entranced her with shimmering images of space, of stars, of galaxies, of possibilities… and it made no movement to suddenly snatch her away. There was no danger to her, she realized, and she managed a childish smile as she said, “can I go to the stars?”
We rule the stars, was the reply, a mental connection that she never knew she had with the black forms that often came to her. The tension in her brain that caused the headache eased with the voice and the sting on her shoulder blades turned into warm pleasant hum against her skin.
Lorelai paused just before their fingers were to touch one another, watching as the black part began to swirl more vigorously, bubbling in the Lifestream that seemed to want to draw away from the darkness. It was oddly beautiful, like two colours of paints fighting for rights on a canvas, and it appeared that the glowing green feared to touch the black.
Her fingers twitched and ever so slowly pushed forward until her fingertips made contact with black ones…
An explosion of images flooded her mind, flitting across her vision with speed of one remembering too much information forgotten. Images… Cetra, fire and mad laughter, silver hair and the tainted smell of mako, scalpels and pain at being reduced to nothing more than a subject, blonde hair and blue eyes shrieking for mercy from her hold on him, Cetra, falling from the sky so far from home on a mission, Cetra, bringing forth Meteor to finally gain back freedom, Cetra, the Lifestream all consuming… CETRA!
Green eyes widened with shock as the information bombarded her mind, green electricity crackling along her skin as her pupils suddenly dilated then shifted form entirely, drawing together into cat-like slits. Her left iris shimmered and flooded with power, shifting to a glowing red that sent more crackling power down her little body.
With one shaking hand, she reached up to pull the toque from her bald head, eyes widening as the pool of mako reflected a different image. Silver hair began to pull and rip its way from her scalp, dragging itself painfully from her with rapid growth that soon touched down on her shoulders. She whimpered loudly and felt each hair pull out, feeling like thousands of little needles ripping themselves free of her, and soon enough, the curtain of shimmering silver reached her knees. The pain reached a horribly agonizing crescendo as large jerks nearly pitted her into the pond, and her new-found hair pooled at her feet, must too long for a child her size… no, it was meant for a form so much taller.
The black hand jerked back from Lorelai’s, leaving her feel empty and alone. It drew back into the pool of black that shifted slowly closer to the bank where she was now standing in a small pool of her own silver hair. The green liquid tried attacking the black, to draw it away from where she was, to make her be alone again… No, not alone again!
Lorelai suddenly reached out a small hand and mentally demand that contact be made again, calling out to all of her cells to return. It was all the incentive that the gathered darkness needed, and it suddenly launched from the pond into the air, taking on a vaguely humanoid form momentarily before falling over her entire body, covering her from head to toe in darkness.
The mound of black suddenly shuddered at the violent scream emanating from the Lifestream, and its incorporeal form shifted before blackened arms lifted outwards, the black swirling around before separating at the bottom in the form of long elegantly shaped legs. Two great wings pulled from the back of the mound that was quickly forming into another humanoid shape that shimmered and twisted with images of the galaxies that it had once sailed among. The body of a humanoid woman stepped elegantly forward, long silver hair cascading down in silken waves to cover over her nudeness.
The pond of Lifestream recoiled instantly, but the figure did not stop walking forward until she was up to waist-deep liquid that seemed to shriek in agony to just her presence. Dark hands caressed the surface of the Lifestream, regaining all of the previously lost knowledge and localizing it in one body again. After the knowledge was gathered, the figure grasped at some of the energy of the very planet, feeding upon it raw before she seemed sated with all that had finally transpired.
“Lorelai! Lorelai, where are you?”
The blackened figure turned to regard the small group of people, glowing green eyes peering curiously at the humans. She lifted her hands to either side of her and slowly rose her form up from the Lifestream, floating forward at a slow and intimidating pace, like she was in full control and enjoying it.
Treacherous little maggots… fleeing into the caves like insects. Leaving us to face the Cetra threat because of your cowardice and then reduce US to torment and torture! Her mental voice froze the group in place, and she set her feet down on the grass so that she could literally stalk towards them. Black tentacles ripped out from her shoulders and lower back, arching under the supreme control before lashing out and grabbing the nearest human threat. Destroy us, will you? Torture us, will you? Succumb to the planet, will you? Weak and treacherous creatures… unfit to live!
She was angry, an emotion that had been developed only from being stuck studying the humans like those in her hold. She squeezed them, each and every one of them, choking the life from their useless bodies before tossing the bodies into the pond with such ease that a shockwave of power blew the nearest tree clear of any leaves.
She walked back to the pond with one victim in her grasp, still squeezing and tearing at it, both loving and hating the weak suffering of such a creature. She loved it for it eased her own torments and remembrances of such pain at the hands of so many others, and it made her feel as if she had some shred of freedom back under her hold. She hated it because she was not hungry and didn’t need the body for food, and the killing made her no better than the useless maggots she was taking the life from.
“Lorelai… Oh my god!” A woman’s voice rang out at the end of the clearing.
She turned to regard the other, tossing aside the now dead body from her tentacles and moved to finish this one as well. She paused though at the sound of a child’s cry in her head, begging for the mercy of her mother, begging to leave this life alone. The crying seemed to reach out around the clearing and even touch the human before her.
“…Lorelai? Lorelai, are you…?”
The silver-haired creature stepped forward, an elegance that spoke of her supreme state of being and power, but she did not attack this new woman for the child’s cries were enough to draw favourable attention. This was the woman that had raised the child within her, which had allowed life to continue for the body that she needed. She regarded the woman staring in horrified entrancement of her form.
She knew what it was like to be a mother and to have to take care of young… many of those taken from her too young, some to war, some to missions, and some… to each other. She drew back her possible attack and turned away from the woman, half-walking half-gliding away towards the pond again.
“Wait… Lorelai?” There was an unwavering question for identity from the woman who was now trembling, whether from fear or the truth… she didn’t care.
“We are… Jenova,” the silver-haired creature’s reply came. The voice was sweet, tempting and loving, the voice of a mother.
Jenova stopped by the pond of mako and heard the woman slip down to the ground in what appeared to be shock, but that was not her concern at the moment. The woman who had been her mother had given the gift of continuing life, and she was required out of custom to return a gift in exchange. It would take a lot of energy, but she knew of a gift that would be appropriate for this woman who was her adoptive mother, who had shown only love and kindness to her.
Gathering a mass amount of her power, two of the five tentacles lashed out and buried themselves in the pool of mako, searching around while making the call out to a particular soul. The other three tentacles gathered up the bodies that she had killed and began to reshape their forms together, molding flesh and bone with audible cracks and ripping before reformation into the shape of her desire. She tried not to let the cries of the planet disturb her working concentration.
She had done this only once before, having only developed such a technique for the reaction of her beloved son, to force him back from the Lifestream into a body of a useless clone. It had taken her years to come up with the proper way to allow Sephiroth to manifest in the human world again, and it had worked quite well while the clones were active and even to give Sephiroth back a body made from mako energy. Alias, the blonde child was a temperamental one and ruined those plans.
Still, she pulled her newly formed appendages back with a glowing light, ramming it into the newly moulded body of the father that had died. The body came back to life only with some severe coaxing, but it came back all the same since cellular function had still be active. Dorran was returned from the dead.
Jenova nodded her head and turned to walk away, the exchange of gifts having been completed. Her attention suddenly shifted as the Lifestream lashed out suddenly, a fine spear of pure life energy ramming itself through her chest in vengeance, and she stumbled backwards away from the pool that wished to claim her power again. You missed…. she mentally scolded.
Despite that, her adult form shuddered and drew back, her skin writhing and slithering before simply folding over into itself. Her form shifted and shimmered with foreign energy, getting smaller and smaller until all that was left was the form of a child, eyes bright with too much knowledge. The impalement from the planet had been above her head and only had the effect of sealing most of her power and adult form.
Still, Jenova was alive and fully functional, ready to take on the planet and strike back…
“I have to go potty!” She suddenly cried out and looked to where her adoptive parents were staring at her with fascinated horror. She clutched her groin regions and shifting her weight from side-to-side in a mini potty dance of discomfort before rushing off to the bushes.
With such long hair, she tripped herself and fell over into a mass of green grass. She whimpered a little and scrambled into the bushes to do her business before coming out skipping as happy as any child might, stopping by her parents with a bright smile. She brush long silver hair back and waved at her two parents. “I have to go now… to find my other family that’s waiting for me. Is that okay?”
She didn’t receive an answer aside from blank uncertain stares and her adoptive mother clutching her father protectively. She looked saddened by their confusion and pointed to the sky. “I’m going to see that stars when I get big! I’m all better, papa, just like you said I would be! We should have never gone to the big city because it was sad there.”
Then she waved again, beaming brightly before turning away. “Okay, I love you, bye-bye!”
She trotted off towards the forest again, tripping and falling over her large mop of silver hair that would grow back even when she pulled some out. She could feel the pulsing life forces of Kadaj, Sephiroth, and Cloud, the three that still remained with her cells… though one was dormant it appeared. She would go and look for secrets to get back home and possibly even remember everything that science had divulged from her.
Jenova and Lorelai were one in the same, one always meant to be the other. She stopped at the beach of the ocean that she had only just travelled on days before. “I must go there… to know whatever it is I must know…” She shivered a bit. “It’s cold outside,” she whined and noted that her clothing was in shambles, only enough to actually cover her relatively decently.
Considering she lived most of her life on this godforsaken rock in a tube without any clothing on, she wasn’t entirely bothered by being mostly nude. She was only seven, of course. Still, there was a world to see and secrets she didn’t know, that she know because she wanted to. Yes, she would learn whatever this place had to offer, especially since the Cetra were no longer around to stop her. That mission had been completed.
The forest that surrounded Mideel had always been thick and wild. The branches hang down, twisting and weaving together a fine mess that kept many from straying from the path that had been cut through. Wild vines tore from the ground and grasped towards the sky, holding out their leaves like hands to gather up the rays of the sun. The vines competed with the thick foliage of the large trees that had been standing for more ordeals than had even been calculated, and they would stand to see another.
Dirt was kicked up as the child ran, the path twisting through the forest and making a perfect game of hide-n-seek or even tag. It was narrow with few branches off into the forest, but the path was nice and sandy which made running easy. It even covered over light tracks well if someone cared to take their time while travelling.
Lorelai sniffled as she moved swiftly through the interwoven vines and branches, having strayed from the path to obvious those villagers that thought to take her home. She didn’t want to go back yet, not to an empty house where her mother was just hold her and cry, where the stars were blacked from sight, where she had to face the fact that papa was the element keeping her mommy together all this time. She didn’t want to cry anymore because when she cried, her head would hurt terribly and she would get horrible nosebleeds.
So, she fled into the night with tears still drying to her cheeks and the whispers that had been constant beckoning her into the forest. The hands had not come back, just the calls of this way, Lorelai which she had tried to tell her mommy about. Normally, she would either have her odd claims ignored or soothed by telling her that it wasn’t true and she just needed some rest. This time, however, her mother had shouted at her, actually shouted and sounded truly angry. It made Lorelai hurt.
She stopped running when she came to a clearing in the woods. It was one of the few in the deeper portions, and there was a story that they had been created because the planet had been angry and the Lifestream had bubbled up to create both clearings and the pools that lay in them. The fiery of the planet she didn’t much understand, but she thought it was being mean since a few people in Mideel lost their lives to the upheaval of the planet.
Dragging her bare feet over the soft lush grass, Lorelai approached the glowing pond without much concern. She had spent many nights here with her parents star-gazing, and it had quickly become her spot for time to herself. She always felt safe here, never sick or alone. In fact, most of her sickness faded with the time she spent here, as long as it wasn’t too long or she didn’t get too close to the glowing waters of mako.
Yet, something in the water caught her attention as she approached. There was a darkness floating in the middle, and as she approached cautiously, it appeared to throb like a beating heart might. She felt no fear as she walked over to the edge of the pond, peering down into the darkness that seemed just like night, twisting and swirling in the depths of the exposed Lifestream. Curiously peeked, she leaned over as far as she could without being in danger of falling in, eyes widening when the blackness reached out an inhuman hand towards her.
Return to us…
Lorelai drew back so that she was merely standing on the bank, pulling her toque tightly over her ears as the hand continued to reached out, never coming too close. She got the distinct feeling that she could and should reach out and take that hand, but she understood that she could so easily deny the urge and slip away safely into the forest again. There was no overwhelming pull to take that hand, but a part of her yearned to simply reach out and touch those black fingers.
Childish curiosity pulled at her even as she lifted a little hand and began to reach back slowly. The black hand that entranced her with shimmering images of space, of stars, of galaxies, of possibilities… and it made no movement to suddenly snatch her away. There was no danger to her, she realized, and she managed a childish smile as she said, “can I go to the stars?”
We rule the stars, was the reply, a mental connection that she never knew she had with the black forms that often came to her. The tension in her brain that caused the headache eased with the voice and the sting on her shoulder blades turned into warm pleasant hum against her skin.
Lorelai paused just before their fingers were to touch one another, watching as the black part began to swirl more vigorously, bubbling in the Lifestream that seemed to want to draw away from the darkness. It was oddly beautiful, like two colours of paints fighting for rights on a canvas, and it appeared that the glowing green feared to touch the black.
Her fingers twitched and ever so slowly pushed forward until her fingertips made contact with black ones…
An explosion of images flooded her mind, flitting across her vision with speed of one remembering too much information forgotten. Images… Cetra, fire and mad laughter, silver hair and the tainted smell of mako, scalpels and pain at being reduced to nothing more than a subject, blonde hair and blue eyes shrieking for mercy from her hold on him, Cetra, falling from the sky so far from home on a mission, Cetra, bringing forth Meteor to finally gain back freedom, Cetra, the Lifestream all consuming… CETRA!
Green eyes widened with shock as the information bombarded her mind, green electricity crackling along her skin as her pupils suddenly dilated then shifted form entirely, drawing together into cat-like slits. Her left iris shimmered and flooded with power, shifting to a glowing red that sent more crackling power down her little body.
With one shaking hand, she reached up to pull the toque from her bald head, eyes widening as the pool of mako reflected a different image. Silver hair began to pull and rip its way from her scalp, dragging itself painfully from her with rapid growth that soon touched down on her shoulders. She whimpered loudly and felt each hair pull out, feeling like thousands of little needles ripping themselves free of her, and soon enough, the curtain of shimmering silver reached her knees. The pain reached a horribly agonizing crescendo as large jerks nearly pitted her into the pond, and her new-found hair pooled at her feet, must too long for a child her size… no, it was meant for a form so much taller.
The black hand jerked back from Lorelai’s, leaving her feel empty and alone. It drew back into the pool of black that shifted slowly closer to the bank where she was now standing in a small pool of her own silver hair. The green liquid tried attacking the black, to draw it away from where she was, to make her be alone again… No, not alone again!
Lorelai suddenly reached out a small hand and mentally demand that contact be made again, calling out to all of her cells to return. It was all the incentive that the gathered darkness needed, and it suddenly launched from the pond into the air, taking on a vaguely humanoid form momentarily before falling over her entire body, covering her from head to toe in darkness.
The mound of black suddenly shuddered at the violent scream emanating from the Lifestream, and its incorporeal form shifted before blackened arms lifted outwards, the black swirling around before separating at the bottom in the form of long elegantly shaped legs. Two great wings pulled from the back of the mound that was quickly forming into another humanoid shape that shimmered and twisted with images of the galaxies that it had once sailed among. The body of a humanoid woman stepped elegantly forward, long silver hair cascading down in silken waves to cover over her nudeness.
The pond of Lifestream recoiled instantly, but the figure did not stop walking forward until she was up to waist-deep liquid that seemed to shriek in agony to just her presence. Dark hands caressed the surface of the Lifestream, regaining all of the previously lost knowledge and localizing it in one body again. After the knowledge was gathered, the figure grasped at some of the energy of the very planet, feeding upon it raw before she seemed sated with all that had finally transpired.
“Lorelai! Lorelai, where are you?”
The blackened figure turned to regard the small group of people, glowing green eyes peering curiously at the humans. She lifted her hands to either side of her and slowly rose her form up from the Lifestream, floating forward at a slow and intimidating pace, like she was in full control and enjoying it.
Treacherous little maggots… fleeing into the caves like insects. Leaving us to face the Cetra threat because of your cowardice and then reduce US to torment and torture! Her mental voice froze the group in place, and she set her feet down on the grass so that she could literally stalk towards them. Black tentacles ripped out from her shoulders and lower back, arching under the supreme control before lashing out and grabbing the nearest human threat. Destroy us, will you? Torture us, will you? Succumb to the planet, will you? Weak and treacherous creatures… unfit to live!
She was angry, an emotion that had been developed only from being stuck studying the humans like those in her hold. She squeezed them, each and every one of them, choking the life from their useless bodies before tossing the bodies into the pond with such ease that a shockwave of power blew the nearest tree clear of any leaves.
She walked back to the pond with one victim in her grasp, still squeezing and tearing at it, both loving and hating the weak suffering of such a creature. She loved it for it eased her own torments and remembrances of such pain at the hands of so many others, and it made her feel as if she had some shred of freedom back under her hold. She hated it because she was not hungry and didn’t need the body for food, and the killing made her no better than the useless maggots she was taking the life from.
“Lorelai… Oh my god!” A woman’s voice rang out at the end of the clearing.
She turned to regard the other, tossing aside the now dead body from her tentacles and moved to finish this one as well. She paused though at the sound of a child’s cry in her head, begging for the mercy of her mother, begging to leave this life alone. The crying seemed to reach out around the clearing and even touch the human before her.
“…Lorelai? Lorelai, are you…?”
The silver-haired creature stepped forward, an elegance that spoke of her supreme state of being and power, but she did not attack this new woman for the child’s cries were enough to draw favourable attention. This was the woman that had raised the child within her, which had allowed life to continue for the body that she needed. She regarded the woman staring in horrified entrancement of her form.
She knew what it was like to be a mother and to have to take care of young… many of those taken from her too young, some to war, some to missions, and some… to each other. She drew back her possible attack and turned away from the woman, half-walking half-gliding away towards the pond again.
“Wait… Lorelai?” There was an unwavering question for identity from the woman who was now trembling, whether from fear or the truth… she didn’t care.
“We are… Jenova,” the silver-haired creature’s reply came. The voice was sweet, tempting and loving, the voice of a mother.
Jenova stopped by the pond of mako and heard the woman slip down to the ground in what appeared to be shock, but that was not her concern at the moment. The woman who had been her mother had given the gift of continuing life, and she was required out of custom to return a gift in exchange. It would take a lot of energy, but she knew of a gift that would be appropriate for this woman who was her adoptive mother, who had shown only love and kindness to her.
Gathering a mass amount of her power, two of the five tentacles lashed out and buried themselves in the pool of mako, searching around while making the call out to a particular soul. The other three tentacles gathered up the bodies that she had killed and began to reshape their forms together, molding flesh and bone with audible cracks and ripping before reformation into the shape of her desire. She tried not to let the cries of the planet disturb her working concentration.
She had done this only once before, having only developed such a technique for the reaction of her beloved son, to force him back from the Lifestream into a body of a useless clone. It had taken her years to come up with the proper way to allow Sephiroth to manifest in the human world again, and it had worked quite well while the clones were active and even to give Sephiroth back a body made from mako energy. Alias, the blonde child was a temperamental one and ruined those plans.
Still, she pulled her newly formed appendages back with a glowing light, ramming it into the newly moulded body of the father that had died. The body came back to life only with some severe coaxing, but it came back all the same since cellular function had still be active. Dorran was returned from the dead.
Jenova nodded her head and turned to walk away, the exchange of gifts having been completed. Her attention suddenly shifted as the Lifestream lashed out suddenly, a fine spear of pure life energy ramming itself through her chest in vengeance, and she stumbled backwards away from the pool that wished to claim her power again. You missed…. she mentally scolded.
Despite that, her adult form shuddered and drew back, her skin writhing and slithering before simply folding over into itself. Her form shifted and shimmered with foreign energy, getting smaller and smaller until all that was left was the form of a child, eyes bright with too much knowledge. The impalement from the planet had been above her head and only had the effect of sealing most of her power and adult form.
Still, Jenova was alive and fully functional, ready to take on the planet and strike back…
“I have to go potty!” She suddenly cried out and looked to where her adoptive parents were staring at her with fascinated horror. She clutched her groin regions and shifting her weight from side-to-side in a mini potty dance of discomfort before rushing off to the bushes.
With such long hair, she tripped herself and fell over into a mass of green grass. She whimpered a little and scrambled into the bushes to do her business before coming out skipping as happy as any child might, stopping by her parents with a bright smile. She brush long silver hair back and waved at her two parents. “I have to go now… to find my other family that’s waiting for me. Is that okay?”
She didn’t receive an answer aside from blank uncertain stares and her adoptive mother clutching her father protectively. She looked saddened by their confusion and pointed to the sky. “I’m going to see that stars when I get big! I’m all better, papa, just like you said I would be! We should have never gone to the big city because it was sad there.”
Then she waved again, beaming brightly before turning away. “Okay, I love you, bye-bye!”
She trotted off towards the forest again, tripping and falling over her large mop of silver hair that would grow back even when she pulled some out. She could feel the pulsing life forces of Kadaj, Sephiroth, and Cloud, the three that still remained with her cells… though one was dormant it appeared. She would go and look for secrets to get back home and possibly even remember everything that science had divulged from her.
Jenova and Lorelai were one in the same, one always meant to be the other. She stopped at the beach of the ocean that she had only just travelled on days before. “I must go there… to know whatever it is I must know…” She shivered a bit. “It’s cold outside,” she whined and noted that her clothing was in shambles, only enough to actually cover her relatively decently.
Considering she lived most of her life on this godforsaken rock in a tube without any clothing on, she wasn’t entirely bothered by being mostly nude. She was only seven, of course. Still, there was a world to see and secrets she didn’t know, that she know because she wanted to. Yes, she would learn whatever this place had to offer, especially since the Cetra were no longer around to stop her. That mission had been completed.