4Disclaimer: Dot, Enzo, Bob, Dot's father, and anything else ReBoot related belongs to Mainframe Ent. I don't own them, so don't sue me. I just spent all my Christmas money, and a lot of it was on ReBoot things. This version of Dot's mom belongs to me, 'cause I thought her up. The story also belongs to me. The virus Mosaic belongs to whatever user made it, I just borrowed it for my story (yes, there was a real virus named Mosaic).
Time: A cycle equals a day, a microsecond equals a minute, and a day equals a year. I think that's all you'll need to know. Now, on with the story!
"Dot? Dot? Hey, Dot!" Enzo said quietly, shaking his sister awake.
"What is it?" Dot mumbled as she awoke. She could smell something burning, and she half-expected Enzo to tell her that he'd burnt down the kitchen or some other part of the house. But he didn't. Instead, he held out a tray of slightly charred (aside from the orange juice), but still edible, food.
"I vidwindowed Bob to ask him to come over here and help me, but he was asleep. You know how heavily he sleeps! I bet a game cube could have dropped and he still wouldn't have woken up!" Dot laughed at this. "So I had to cook everything all by myself. I forgot to put butter in the pan and so the eggs kinda got stuck, and when I scraped them out the yolk leaked out the bottom, and then I totally forgot to flip the bacon, so it got a little burned on one side. I turned the toaster on too high, and so the toast is a little burned too. I tried making you some java, but I accidentally mistook the kind you put in the coffee maker for the instant kind and there were all kinds of specks in it, so I just got you orange juice instead. You don't mind, do ya Dot?"
"Of course I don't," Dot said, hugging her younger brother. "That was very sweet of you. But why the sudden burst of loving-ness?" she asked. It wasn't her birthday or any other sort of holiday, at least not as far as she knew….
Enzo handed Dot a handmade card with "Happy Mother's Cycle," written on the front, and a picture of a stick figure Enzo hugging a stick figure Dot inside. Dot, starting to get teary-eyed, looked at Enzo questioningly.
"I know you're not really my mom, but you're the closest thing I have," Enzo explained. "And since there's no sister's cycle – well, not that I know of, anyway – I figured it'd be okay if I gave you stuff for Mother's Cycle."
Dot hugged Enzo again. "Oh, Enzo," she sighed. "You are an incredibly sweet little sprite, you know that?"
Enzo smiled. "Yep."
Dot laughed at her brother's 'modesty,' then grew serious again. "Enzo, do you remember Mom at all?"
Enzo thought for a microsecond. "A little," he said finally. "I remember that she had purple hair. I remember that because you and dad and me all had green hair, and she didn't, so it was different. And I remember her taking care of me when I was sick. She would sponge my forehead and sing to me – like you do," he added with a smile. "But her voice was different than yours. It was… I don't know how to describe it exactly. It sounded almost like a flute or something. And she didn't sing words. That's how I could tell you guys apart."
Dot nodded, remembering as well. "Enzo, have you ever seen any pictures of Mom?"
"We have pictures?" Enzo said, astonished. He had never heard anything about them. Then again, maybe it wasn't so surprising – after all, he had never asked.
"Yes," Dot said. "Dad and I used to look at them together a lot. But after he was deleted, I never took them out. He was in a lot of the pictures, and it was hard to see both of them together, since neither is around anymore." She bit her lip and looked down, willing herself not to start crying.
"Hey, Dot? D'ya… would it be okay if… if we looked at the pictures?" Enzo asked quietly. He didn't want to upset her, but he really wanted to see his mom. He hadn't seen her since he was a baby, and he couldn't even remember what she looked like.
Dot hesitated. Half of her was afraid to see the pictures again – she didn't want to cry in front of Enzo. Then again… maybe it was time to get them back out. She hadn't seen the pictures in days, and maybe it would help her to get over it a little. She smiled at her brother.
"Sure Enzo, we can get them out," she said, standing and crossing the room to her closet. After a microsecond or two of digging, she uncovered an old box marked "Photos." Inside were a few dusty old photo albums that obviously hadn't been touched in quite some time. Dot gingerly lifted the top one and blew away the dust. Walking back over to Enzo, she took a deep breath and opened it.
The first page of the album had a full-page picture of the entire family – her mother, her father, Enzo, and her. Their mother, a violet-haired, violet-eyed, green-skinned sprite was holding Enzo, who looked to be only a couple cycles old, and Dot was sitting on her father's lap.
"Whoa, I was tiny," Enzo breathed, amazed.
"Yes, and you were quite spoiled, too," Dot laughed. "I used to get jealous of you because mom and dad would give you all the attention. One time I hid you in the closet and told them Frisket ate you. Then you started crying, and mom and dad found you. I got in major trouble for that one."
Enzo giggled at the thought of his sister being the one getting in trouble for once, then looked back at the photograph. He studied his mom intently for a moment, and then looked up at Dot.
"Wow, you look just like mom," he told her. "Except for the hair."
"I know," Dot said, sighing. "Dad always used to tell me I was looking more like her by the day."
"Dot? How was mom… deleted?" he inquired softly.
Dot took a deep breath. "A virus, named Mosaic," she said, clenching her fist angrily. "She was a strange virus – she pretended to be a portrait painter, then deleted whoever came to her for a picture. She didn't infect, she just deleted. We were the first system hit. Only a couple other systems were attacked before she was caught and sent to a deletion chamber. Mom… was the only Mainframer deleted. She went to her to get her picture painted and never came back. Mosaic left before she could be caught. It was horrible…. I remember them finding mom's icon in Mosaic's apartment…." Dot trailed off, voice shaking. Enzo hugged his sister.
"It's okay, sis," Enzo said, though he felt like crying too.
Dot took a couple of deep breaths and hugged Enzo back. "Yeah, it is okay. For now, we've got each other. And we'll see them again some day. A lot of sprites don't believe in an afterlife, but… there's gotta be something after deletion, right?"
"Right." Enzo smiled up at his sister. "Happy Mother's Cycle, Dot. And…. Happy Mother's Cycle to you too, mom… if you're listening."
As he said that, the two siblings both felt a soft, cool pressure on their cheek, as if a hand was being pressed to it. It lingered a second, then disappeared. The two looked at each other, then back at the photograph album. Dot turned the page.
END
