Megaman Battle Network – Rebirth

Chapter 1 – Remembrance

A year on and it seemed like it had never happened. Dad still went to work everyday, mum still cooked breakfast, Ms. Mari took the register and taught the Virus Busting class at school and Dex still went on about how he was going to beat Lan.

But something had changed, Lan didn't have the same happy – go – lucky attitude as before. He tended to go into long silences, even the company of his friends couldn't cheer him up. He didn't put the same effort into NetBattling as he did before and even his virus busting grades started to slip.

He had treated her like dirt and she had given her life for MegaMan, he had maintained that she was less than human and in less than a month she had made more friends than he'd have thought possible. He had let her sleep when she wanted to because it just wouldn't be the same.

He now knew that he had been wrong, he would give anything for one last chance to say he was sorry and he knew he hadn't deserved what she had said. He had never been the best brother she could have asked for.

He could feel it eating him up inside. It felt as though it was going to torment him until he could take it no more. It ate him up and spoke to him in Wily's voice. The voice that alone symbolised everything he hated in the world. He felt like he was going to...

"ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed Lan.

"Feel better," said Mayl taking her hands off her ears.

"Yeah, thanks Mayl," replied Lan.

"No problem," said Mayl. They sat in silence for a few minutes. "You know, I miss her too."

"But you didn't treat her like I did," said Lan, "I treated her like she had no right to exist, and she repaid me by making me believe she had sacrificed herself for me and Hub."

"Why don't you ask your Dad to bring her home?" asked Mayl.

"I don't know, maybe because I promised only to bring her back if I needed her, and I don't think I need her that badly," replied Lan.

"Tee hee," giggled Mayl, "You really are clueless when it comes to girls aren't you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing." Mayl got up off the bench outside of the school, "It's nearly time for class, your mum will flip if your grades get any lower so get moving lazy," she said prodding him.

"Hey stop that," said Lan jumping up and going to grab Mayl but she was already running to class. He couldn't help himself. He smiled and chased after her.

"Hey Lan, what happened to that dull face you had?" said Yai after class, "And stop looking at Mayl and pretending to look through her."

"Huh, oh I guess I just cheered up for once," said Lan, "Hey! How'd you know I was looking at Mayl?"

"Come on Lan, you mysteriously cheer up and then start looking in Mayl's direction with a glazed over look on your face. The only one of us who wouldn't figure that out would be GutsMan," said Yai, "In fact I'm surprised Mayl isn't doing the same thing."

Mayl was looking at her feet her face beet red. She could see Lan looking at her out of the corner of her eye. "Oh my god, he's looking straight at me," she thought to herself, "Why am I thinking like this? It's not like we've never been on a date before. Calm down Mayl, calm down." Luckily Yai and Lan were sitting just so they couldn't see her face.

At home Mayl sat at her computer doing her homework. Her mind was still on Lan.

"Hey Mayl," said Roll.

"What Lan? I never mentioned Lan," said Mayl.

"Calm down," Roll said giggling, "It's not like I don't know you have a crush on Lan. By the way he's sent you an email thanking you for cheering him up earlier. Should I send a reply?"

"No," said Mayl looking out her window at Lan's bedroom window, "He knows what it would say anyway."

Lan was also looking out the window. But his minds focus had shifted from Mayl to Sarah. He was actually considering Mayl's advice. Should he try to get Dad to bring Sarah home or not.