DONE!

[daughtershade]

I am done with this quarter. I just finished my last final. I so didn't care about finals this week. I had good grades in all my classes and I knew the finals wouldn't affect them too much so it was just a matter of getting through them. I just finished my last one so I'm free for three whole weeks. We get two weeks off from school, and I'm going home the first week of classes. Bliss.

So I've started writing this thing at work, instead of working on the next chapter of If I Knew Then... I plan on working on that now that I have time off from school. I just have to get the next chapter out, I've started on the final chapter because Restless is going to be too much fun. But in the mean time, here's just stuff that fell out of my head in my work minded boredom.


The blue eyes were concerned. He blinked up at her with confusion. Why was he on the floor? The blonde woman helped him sit up her hand warm on his wrist.

"Are you okay? I was sure your heart had stopped," she said.

"What happened?" he asked.

The woman looked over toward a man standing beside what looked like a stone altar. The man pushed his glasses up his nose and shook his head slightly. There was a gun in his other hand which he quickly slipped into the back of his pants when realized he was being watched.

The woman, who he realized was holding a gun too, asked, "You don't remember?

"No. Who are you?"

She blinked the concerned blue eyes at him again and said, "I was about to ask you the same thing."

"Oh. I'm...." he paused. "My name is..."

Reaching for that simple piece of information was as difficult as trying to hold a wind storm in your hand. There was nothing to grab.

Finally, he said, "I don't know my name. That's bad, right?"

The man in the glasses moved over to them slowly shaking his head.

"That always happens to me after I come back from the dead."

The woman slapped his leg with the hand not holding a pistol. They were obviously close friends, because the glasses man just looked chagrined instead of angry.

"My name is Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter. This is Doctor Daniel Jackson. We're with the United States Air Force," she said.

He blinked up at Jackson. The dead comment threw him. Had he died? Surely he'd remember that if nothing else. Or maybe, that was the way. You didn't remember trauma, but then everything else should make sense. He tried not to dwell on it. The Colonel Lady had mentioned his heart had stopped. He unconsciously rubbed his chest, but he couldn't feel anything. The woman was still looking at him curiously.

"There was another man here. He's-" and here Carter paused as if trying to figure out how to explain, "Gone," she managed. He waited to see why this was relevant, and she continued probably at his look. "He called you Spike," she said.

"Spike? What kind of name is Spike? I don't feel like a Spike."

"Well," Jackson said, "if it's any consolation, you kind of look like one."

"I do?" he asked.

Carter ignored them both and helped him to his feet. "We need to get you some medical attention. Do you think you can walk?" she asked.

"Yes," Spike replied trying to get used to the name in his head. He looked down at himself once he was on his feet. He was a vision in black from head to toe. There were black boots that led up to black jeans and belt. A black button up shirt was rucking up out of the jeans, and a long black leather coat covered it all. The coat smelled like stale cigarettes and was cool against his neck.

"I see what you mean," he said. "I look like I'm ready for a funeral, or to jump on some motorcycle with some young thing behind me holding on for her bloody life." He stopped at that. "I also appear to be English. Knickers," he said randomly. The other two gave him a look. He shrugged in return.

"Wait until you see the hair," Jackson muttered heading for the door.

Spike's hand self-consciously went to his head. He found his hair slicked back and stiff, but he had no clue as to the color without a mirror. He could only hope that it wasn't one of those badly dyed bottle black jobs that the emo kids were sporting now-a-days. He paused to wonder what an emo kid was, but dismissed it as unimportant.

Jackson led them through some dark corridors that slowly began to open up as they walked. The smoothed walls became choppy and course until the hall opened up into a rather large natural cave. Outside, the night air was a blessing after the stale underground air. Spike took a deep breath and nearly swallowed it as five heavily armed men in black stepped out from behind some brush and held them at gun point.

"Stand down," Carter said authoritatively, and the men stood at attention. The one in front snapped a quick salute and turned back to start ordering the others. They followed a trail through the grass and in the moonlight. Spike could see that there was an open field spreading out from the mouth of the cave that ended in a forest further on. He looked back to see that the cave was part of a large rocky cliff that climbed up into the darkness. Military vehicles were parked off to one side, and Spike could distinctly hear a helicopter, but it was too dark to see just where it was. All of this told him nothing about who he was, but it worried him. Was he in some sort of trouble? Maybe he was a spy.

As they headed for the closest vehicle, a large dark man headed toward them. He was impressive from a distance and only got more so as he approached. Spike didn't even realize there was another man behind him, until the dark man turned to talk to Jackson and the second man stepped up to Carter and himself.

"What's up, Sam? We lost radio contact," the smaller man said.

Carter turned to Spike and said, "Will you be all right? We have medics coming."

He nodded and she stepped away with the other man. They walked far enough away to speak privately, but for some reason, Spike could still hear every word.

"Cam," Carter said, and at least he now had a name for the other man, "I've seen some wild stuff, but this just-"

"What?" Cam asked.

"We went to check out the artifact, but there were already people inside. Two guys were fighting and I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it but that guy over there-" Carter paused to look in Spike's direction. He made sure he was looking over toward Jackson and the large man. She continued, "He stuck a wooden stick into the second man's chest and he turned into dust or ashes or something."

"Dust?" Cam asked, incredulous.

"I know! Then the artifact started glowing, and the room shook like an earthquake. I was sure it was activating, but before we could do anything there was this big flash. We were shielded by the wall, but that guy took it full blast. By the time we got into the room he was on the floor and the artifact was gone."

"You think someone teleported it?"

"No, it was more like an explosion, but there wasn't any heat."

"I guess it won't be helping us with the Ori, then."

Carter shook her head and said, "That's not even the strangest thing. I checked him and he was dead."

"Looks alive to me," Cam replied.

"I know. A couple of minutes later as we were looking around, he moved. I was checking his pulse and he woke up."

"Wild. He and Daniel should do lunch."

"No, Cam, you don't understand. My fingers were still on his neck. There still wasn't a pulse. I was checking his arm as he got up. No pulse."

Spike gasped and turned his back on them. Carefully, he checked his neck. Carter was right. He didn't feel anything no matter where he moved his fingers. He started to think, had he even been breathing while he listened to them talk? Cam was still talking.

"Are you sure, Sam? I mean, do you know what that sounds like? The dude may look like Billy Idol, but he's no Bela Lugosi."

Spike's first reaction to the comment was that Billy Idol was a cheap thief. His second was that Lugosi was a poser. Spike wasn't sure why he thought either.

"I know how it sounds, but Daniel and I are both witnesses. There has to be a scientific explanation. Who knows what that artifact has done to him," Sam said.

Spike went from not breathing to hyperventilating in a blink. He bent over trying to catch his breath. A strong hand landed on his shoulder startling him. He reached across and snagged the large wrist in his hand. Spike twisted underneath the arm pulling it back behind broad shoulders right before he kicked a knee out from under the man. The large black man went down hard on his knee. As he was starting to struggle, Spike realized what he had done. He quickly let go and looked up to see that he was surrounded at gun point. Both Jackson and Carter had their guns out. The soldiers in black were training automatic weapons on him. Spike stumbled back in shock holding his hands up.

"Whoa," Cam said running up, "Billy's got some moves. You okay, Teal'c?"

"I am fine," the large man said getting back to his feet. He turned to look at Spike and raised a hand to the others. The guns were lowered slowly.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't...I didn't..." Spike stuttered.

"It is all right. I was not injured. I should not have startled you," Teal'c said.

Cam came over to the big man as if to confirm for himself that Teal'c was okay. He looked back and forth between the two of them.

"I've never seen anyone get the drop on you, buddy."

Teal'c did not look at Cam as he replied, "Indeed. You are fast and quite strong..."

"Spike. I think my name is Spike. That's what your friends tell me," Spike supplied.

The large man inclined his head in acknowledgement.

"One might say his strength and speed were...supernatural," Daniel said.

"I'm not dead!" Spike yelled at them. "I can't be! That's crazy!"

Carter blinked at his outburst probably trying to figure out how he'd heard them. Cam seemed less surprised. He just shrugged and said, "Dude, we eat crazy for breakfast."

"Spike, we just want to help you," Sam said. "We need the artifact that was in that room, and right now you're the only one who can help us. We have to find a way to get your memory back, for both our sakes."

"You probably want to stick me in some tiny room with electrified walls or something," Spike grumbled.

Cam shook his head. "Nah, it's not in the budget, but we are underground which should make you feel at home."

The others shot him dirty looks. He just grinned back at them.

Spike sighed, "I don't know who I am, or where I am, or anything about what's going on. I guess I don't have much of a choice."

----

Spike thought they had been joking about the underground thing. The trucks in the field led to a plane which led to more trucks which lead to a huge safe door inside a mountain. Past the safe, he was whisked through security checks and into an elevator. They went down exited and entered a second elevator which went down again. Carter, who insisted on being called Sam despite her title, led him to a small room equipped with medical equipment. He tried not to notice the guards that were following them. She sat down on the gurney next to him to wait. His eyes kept going to the well armed men by the doors.

"It's just regulations," Sam explained.

"Yeah, I bet. What exactly do you do here?" he asked.

"Research."

"What kind of research?"

Sam smiled and replied, "I can't really talk about it."

"Because you're making super soldiers or something?"

"What makes you say that?"

It was Spike's turn to smile at her. He answered, "That Teal'c guy. He's not like the rest of you."

Sam blinked, but her face didn't give anything away. That was mostly how he knew he was right. Sam seemed like a friendly person, the blank expression was obviously her trying to hide something.

"What makes you say that?" she asked.

"He smells all wrong. Don't ask me to explain it. I just know it isn't right."

Before Sam could try to explain, or out-and-out lie, a nurse joined them and started to take Spike's vitals, or lack thereof. The thermometer refused to budge from room temperature and there was no blood pressure seeing as how he had no pulse. Perturbed, the woman took out a stethoscope and tried listening to his chest. He didn't breathe as she felt around and around looking for a heartbeat that obviously wasn't coming. The woman's eyes kept flickering over to Sam.

"I really am dead, aren't I?" Spike asked.

The woman's only reply was that she was getting the doctor. Sam took the stethoscope from her to get a listen. He startled her a bit when he let out a sigh.

"You don’t need to breathe either?" she asked.

"Only apparently to talk, luv."

Her touch was gentle as she moved the circular disk around and around his chest. At least she wasn't horrified by him. Although, Spike would admit that her curious looks were making him nervous. It was as if any minute she was going to start cutting him open to see what made him tick, or not tick, whatever. To cut the tension, he flexed his chest muscles a bit to get her attention.

"If you want to feel me up, you don't need a pretense. Well, not unless you just like playing doctor."

Sam smiled and realized what she'd been doing. She moved away and set the stethoscope aside. It was just the beginning though, because doctors and nurses started coming out of the woodwork to gaze at and examine him. The Chief Medical Officer was a woman with a very skeptical look on her face. She'd checked him over twice with two separate sets of equipment. She seemed to take his condition as some sort of joke. It didn't matter that he was a modern medical mystery. Spike felt a bit like a bug inside a Petri dish. Sam must have sensed his unease, and rescued him from the mob, once the Dragon Lady Doctor was done with him.

"Sorry," she said leading him to a conference room with no windows. Although, there was a rectangular door down the length of one wall that could have been hiding a window. Despite Sam’s apology, the armed guards still following them didn't look sorry at all.

They were the first people in the room, Sam pointed him to a seat and they waited. A few moments later, Jackson and Teal'c wandered in and took their places. Spike kept eyeing the large man trying to figure him out. Sam noticed his interest. Cam rushed in holding some folders a few seconds later. Finally, a door at the end, beside some window that was also a map, opened. A man in a starched white shirt entered the room.

"Colonel Mitchell has given me a quick debrief and explained our visitor," the man said taking the seat at the head of the table. Spike was confused at first until Cam looked over at him with a grin. The older man looked back at Spike. "My name is General Landry. I'm in charge of this base."

"Spike. So far as I know."

Landry nodded, looked at Sam, and asked, "What did Dr. Lam have to say?"

"He's dead. If it wasn't for the whole up and around talking, he'd be in the morgue right now," Sam replied shooting him an apologetic look.

He merely rose and eyebrow at her in response.

"And you think it was this artifact you were trying to retrieve that caused his unusual condition?" Landry asked.

"We're not sure," Daniel chimed in. "Our experience before the artifact disappeared would seem to suggest that something else may have been going on, but we can't be sure. Since the artifact is gone we can't test it. All we have is Spike here, and due to what happened, he has no memory of what occurred."

Landry turned to look at him once again. "What do you remember?"

"I know things like...Manchester United is the greatest footie team ever. I hate hippies, but I don't know why. I could give you directions in London to anyplace you want to go, but I couldn't tell you if I ever lived there or where if I did. It's like anything that has to do with me or who I am is just a blank."

"This kind of amnesia is rare isn't it?" Landry asked.

"I'm hardly an expert, Sir, but as far as I understand it, yes. Dr. Lam says they'll know more once they run some EKGs and CAT scans. Those are scheduled for later today," Sam said. "The medical team is understandably hung up on the dead thing, Sir."

"No wonder," Landry replied.

Spike snorted and said, "Don't particularly care for getting poked at like a rat, but suppose I've got no choice."

"Dr. Jackson?" Landry said turning to the other man.

"Well, I've already started looking at the research I've cobbled together about the artifact. I'll see if there is any mention of it affecting people like it's effected Spike. I also have some other sources I'm looking into."

"Good. Spike, there's some things I'd like to go over with the team. These gentlemen will escort you to your quarters. I'm sure you'd like to rest," Landry said motioning to the two guards.

Spike frowned at them, but didn't say anything. He left with one guard in the lead and one behind. The corridors all looked alike, but he tried to memorize the path they took, just in case. His room was one level up from where the conference room had been. The room itself was a badly disguised cement block. Take out the furniture and it looked like solitary from any prison you could think of. Spike flopped down on the bed stewing. So far these people had treated him like an enemy. Did that mean that he was? If only he could remember. He rubbed his eyes and drifted off to sleep hoping that he wouldn't wake up in the morgue like Sam had said.

----

Sam woke him up some time later. He had no idea how long he'd been asleep, but she assured him it had been most of the day. He wondered if she'd slept too, and she admitted to taking a cat nap in her office. They headed back to the infirmary for the tests he was supposed to get. All in all it wasn't too bad, except for Lam yelling at him to stop fidgeting inside the CAT scan machine. He really wasn't the sit still type, he found. When the doctor had made some remark about him playing dead, he'd almost come out of the machine after her, but he knew that the guards were just outside the door waiting for him to try it. Instead, he laid back and hummed a song whose name and band he couldn't remember. Once he was freed from the torture chamber, Sam led him to the cafeteria. The others were already sitting at one of the tables. Cam looked as hyper as always, but Jackson looked like he was about to fall asleep into his powdered mashed potatoes. There was a book on the table at his elbow. Spike took the seat next to the man and started thumbing through it.

"Reading up on me, are we?" Spike asked realizing the book was about vampire myths.

"We don't know you're a vampire. Not really," Sam said coming over with a tray of food. She looked at Spike but he merely shook his head. He didn't feel like eating.

"According to my research," Jackson said around a yawn, "he's fit into the profile so far."

"But isn't what you are reading essentially legends, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked.

"And that's different from most of what I look up, how?" he replied, and then looked over at Spike with a curious face. "You knew what I was reading."

"So?" Spike said defensively.

"This is written in Latin. You can read Latin."

"Well, I am English. Probably learned it in school, didn't I?"

Cam hopped up out of his chair and said, "I've got a tried and true test. Wait here."

They all watched him hustle out of the cafeteria.

"Should I be worried?" Spike asked.

Daniel blinked his tired eyes behind his glasses. "Yes," he said simply.

Spike watched the others eat. Daniel had reclaimed his book and went back to reading it, ignoring his meal. Sam and Teal'c traded pleasantries about their day. It was all really boring. Spike was dying for a cigarette. He paused at that thought, and let it go.

"I don't suppose any of you smoke?" he asked. The others shook their heads, so Spike leaned over to his two guards who were watching him from the next table over. "Either of you smoke?" One of them nodded and pulled a pack out of his breast pocket, shaking one out, but refused to hand over any matches or a lighter. Spike scowled at him. "Oh, ta very much." He stuck the cigarette behind his ear.

About that time, Cam came back into the room, but headed for the kitchen. Spike watched until the man stepped back into the cafeteria proper. He set a mug down in front of Spike and held out his prize. It was bag of blood obviously lifted from the infirmary.

"Cam!" Sam said shocked.

"What? If he is a vampire, this will prove it," Cam said pouring the blood into the empty mug. He slid it closer to Spike and stepped back.

The others watched him. He didn't want to react, but the smell of the blood was overwhelming. It slammed into him like a coppery wave. He sniffed the air ferally before reaching out and taking the cup. The first splash across his tongue tasted like nervousness and hope. The clinical taste of the plastic bag didn't detract at all from the warm feeling of connection as he gulped downed the rewarmed blood. He heard something that sounded like twigs snapping, but ignored it as he savored every last drop. He set the mug down on the table and looked up into the shocked faces of his companions. The room was in chaos. The team had frozen, but everyone else seemed to be moving away from the table. Behind him, he heard the guards bringing their guns to bear. The room seemed overly bright where it hadn't a moment before.

"What?" he asked and realized his voice sounded a little funny.

"Your face, man!" Cam yelled, startled.

Spike reached up and felt his face. His brow was much more prominent. He could feel the bones under his skin sticking out in new ways. His fingers traced down to his teeth which were now sharpened points. Everything seemed so much more. The lights were brighter. The sounds were louder. The smells were much sharper.

"I guess that answers that question," Daniel said wryly.

Spike blinked and heard the snapping noise repeat. The room seemed normal again. He felt his face and it felt no different than before the transformation.

"What did I look like?" he asked.

Sam took her seat slowly. He hadn't even realized she'd half risen out of it. Cam was motioning to the guards who were taking their seats again. Spike looked at her knowing the curiosity she'd shown in the infirmary would mean she was the best source of information now.

"Your eyes were yellow, like a lion, and your features were kind of skeletal, but not exactly," she supplied.

"I'm a vampire. I drink blood. Oh god, I probably kill people. Do you think I'm a murderer?"

"You haven't harmed anyone yet," Teal'c reminded him.

"But that's just because I don't remember being a vampire, innit?"

No one was jumping to defend him. Spike sagged in his seat.

"Maybe you're a good vampire?" Sam offered after a moment.

He frowned at her and scoffed. "Right, like that happens."

Cam filled the mug again with the rest of the blood. Spike looked at him in confusion.

"Rather have you full than munching on me," he explained.

Spike nodded and tried not to imagine all the horrors he couldn't remember committing.

---

Spike was sitting on a table in front of a full length mirror. He could clearly see Sam and Dr. Lee arguing on the other side of the table behind him. Mostly because he didn't have a reflection. And wasn't that a turn up for the books? He wasn't really following their argument. It was all over his head involving theories he'd never even heard of. Spike wasn't sure what kind of man he was, but it wasn't the kind of man that understood physics. Ever since the blood drinking thing he'd become less of a medical curiosity and more a scary monster. People avoided looking at him in the halls. A couple of the guards that had been assigned to 'escort' him had started carrying pencils in their belts. The only ones that were really treating him the same were Dr. Lam, because she'd hated him on sight and her opinion hadn't changed, Sam and the others, and funny enough Dr. Lee, whom he'd just met an hour or so ago. The man was all scientist and didn't seem to see any danger in a man that lived off his life essence. He just wanted to know why. Then Spike had accidentally walked in front of a mirror that was there for some sort of experiment and had made a shocking discovery. The base hadn't been full of mirrors, and due to the dead thing it wasn't as if he'd gone into any bathrooms, so it was the first time he'd gotten to see...well nothing.

The two were still going at it behind him when Daniel walked in, nose in a book. Spike figured it was his natural state. The man had been hold up in his office trying to find out more about vampires. Apparently, there was a lot of material. Jackson was starting to say something when he noticed the mirror. He moved over and started waiving his arm behind Spike's back. In the mirror, Daniel waved at himself with no obstruction.

"That's-" he began.

"Annoying," Spike finished. "Now I'll never know what I look like."

"I've got a digital camera in my office. I use it on digs. Come on, there's some things I want to talk to you about."

Spike hopped off the table and started to follow. Jackson glanced over at Sam and Lee who were still arguing. Spike just shook his head and they set off. The guard waiting at the door followed dutifully.

In Daniel's office, Spike let the archeologist snap some pictures, both normally and when he was wearing what he was starting to call his 'scary face.' Once the pictures were loaded on Daniel's computer, Spike took his place at the desk and stared.

"I'm a handsome bloke. Hair kind of suits me. I'm a little pale, maybe..."

Jackson smirked and said, "I wouldn't recommend trying to get a tan, all the research I have seems to indicate that vampires and sunlight don't mix."

"Shame," Spike said and flipped through to the last pictures. "My other...face isn't as handsome."

"I think that's kind of the point,"

Spike looked away from the computer and back at the long table in the center of the room. It was covered from end to end in books. Daniel was hovering. He kept fiddling with his glasses nervously.

"What is it? What did you want to tell me?" Spike asked.

"I have some contacts in London. I had them look for any references to vampires and anything including the name Spike."

"You found something?"

"You've been around for a very long time, Spike, and that wasn't always your name." Spike waited for the man to continue. Jackson looked sad as he said, "The first records of you are listed under the name William the Bloody."

Spike closed his eyes. He said, "Bugger. Don't suppose I got that name from being a nice guy."

"No. In fact, you probably don't want to know how you got the new name of Spike, either. You were part of a group known as the Scourge of Europe."

"Footie team?" he asked hopefully.

Daniel looked down at his book. Without lifting his head he looked over the top of his glasses at Spike. The nervousness from before hadn't abated.

"Not so much, no. I haven't found anything recent, but my contacts are still looking and they'll get back to me."

"Can I look at what you've got?" he asked.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Spike."

"I need to know."

Jackson handed over the photocopies of books and left Spike alone in the office to read. From the computer screen behind him, he could feel the yellow eyes from the picture Daniel had taken staring holes into his back.

----

The heavy bag swung wildly on the chain as Spike slammed it with his fists. His strength scared him, and he knew he was making the guards nervous. The bag flew back at him and he dodged it. A strong arm grabbed it. Spike looked at Teal'c who inclined his head in greeting. Spike had been so preoccupied with the bag, that he hadn't heard the man approach.

"You are troubled," Teal'c said in his deep voice.

Spike went back to punching the bag as the large man held it for him easily.

"I've killed thousands of people. Bloody well right I'm troubled. I'm a monster," he said pounding the bag in time with every other word.

"I have destroyed entire planets."

Spike drew up short and stared at the man. Teal'c let go of the bag and crossed his arms behind his back.

Teal'c continued, "I am not from this world. The Tauri, the people of Earth, keep this as a secret, but I believe you need to hear my story. I was once the First Prime of Apophis, a false god that enslaved my people. I killed many humans and Jaffa like myself in his name. I have done much good in my time here with the Tauri, but nothing will erase what I've done. All I can do is keep trying, keep living, and try to make amends."

"I eat people," Spike replied softly.

"I lived many years carrying one of the creatures that enslaved my people inside me. You have done nothing to harm the people here. Even without your memories you have instincts. If you were really a monster, you would have already tried to feed off the people around you. You have not. What does that tell you?"

"I have a conscience. I don't want to hurt people. Well, I mean I do, when they look at me funny I want to just-"

"But you do not. That is the difference."

Spike thought about it for a few moments. He said, "Thanks, mate."

Teal'c inclined his head again. He held a hand out toward the mat in invitation. Spike quirked an eyebrow and nodded. He slipped out of his coat and they took places on either side of the mat. Spike rushed at him, and Teal'c was like a stone. It was like a violent dance of punches and kicks. Teal'c blocked most of Spike's blows and gave a few good shots of his own. The more they moved and the quicker they moved the more lightened Spike's heart felt. Fighting was something he was obviously good at. All the bottled up strength that he didn't even realize he was holding back was released. He realized that being a vampire wasn't so bad, when you could move like that. There was an unspoken end to the match as the two of them stepped apart. It wasn't until then that Spike realized they had grown and audience.

Sam, Daniel, and Cam were there including quite a few people from the base that he didn't know. Landry and Lam stood near the team. Neither of them looked very happy about the display.

"Teal'c I'd like to speak with you," Landry said looking very unhappy.

"You've been holding back on your reflexes. We need to do more tests," Lam said to Spike.

Spike felt so good, he didn't even mind. "You just want me to take my clothes off again," he said, cheekily.

Lam snorted and headed back out of the gym. Everyone filtered out except for Sam, Daniel, and Cam. Spike looked at them. Cam was giving his usual grin. Daniel offered a small smile.

"So aliens then?" he asked and watched the three of them pale.