AUTHOR'S NOTE: Before we get started, I'd like to explain a few things. This is my first ReBoot fic. It may be a bit confusing at times, but bear with me- the fic explains itself as it goes on. I may not be 100% accurate with all the technical info- once again, bear with me. This story is set sometime after the Daemon arc, just so y'all don't get confused. And no, I don't own ReBoot. (Big surprise there, huh?)
Oh, and please review! Claire, Dan- I'd especially appreciate an honest opinion from two of the best. If anyone's actually bothered to read this far, I'm done boring you- on with the fic!
PROLOGUE:
COMMAND.COMHigh atop the Principle Office, a lone figure ascended the final stairway and stood breathless at the pinnacle of the silver dome. The day had dawned gray and cheerless, and ice-cold winds buffeted Dot as she clutched at the doorway behind her for support. Shivering, regaining her balance, the sprite gazed out across the rest of the city.
Dot Matrix... Command.com of what was left of Mainframe. Though the rain cascading off the mushroom-like spread of the Principle Office shields distorted her vision of the desolate expanse, it couldn't block out the memories...
Even though she knew she shouldn't, even though she knew it was tearing her apart, Dot couldn't stop thinking about it. She couldn't get the pictures out of her head... the fall of G-Prime, the desperate defense against the invader, and the final stand before the Principle Office. They'd lost so many lives in that last, desperate defense... lives that had been necessary to give Phong and Mouse the time they needed to get the shields back online... lives that Dot, as Command.com, had so coldly ordered sacrificed in full knowledge of what would happen to those few last defenders.
And the very last of those lost had been her own brother, Enzo. She could still picture that youthful face, always ready with a smile or laugh that could brighten up a room- almost like a son to her... and then that same face, rigid with horror and mouth open in a silent scream as the Principle Office shields went up. Mouse had arrived just in time to yank Dot back from certain death- but Enzo, little Enzo was trapped on the outside. Dot shuddered. She could still remember what that thing had done to Enzo, with her less than ten feet away and powerless to intervene...
The images played themselves over and over in her head, tormenting her with the agony of each loss... tormenting her for her failures. And Dot had failed, she knew that. Failed at every turn to prevent the holocaust from happening. Failed to stop Matrix from reactivating the ancient system below G-Prime... failed in her attempt to halt the invader in its inexorable progress toward the Principle Office... and failed Enzo. Her own brother, the only family she'd ever had...
Failure... Failure... Failure... the words played themselves over and over in Dot's mind. And she deserved every instant of agony those words, those memories brought. Because of her, thousands of Mainframe's citizens led an appalling existence devoid of warmth, light, or anything except the seemingly irrepressible will to survive. Those that were still alive in the first place...
Because of her, Mainframe's few surviving defenders were huddled inside the Principle Office, the heavy shields the only thing between them and deletion. And it was because of her that little Enzo had been killed, murdered like so many others...
They think I'm some kind of emotionless, calculating machine. They think I can pull off miracle after miracle, and that I don't see all the lives that are lost when even one single aspect of a plan goes wrong... or even when it all goes right. I wonder what they'd think if they knew the agony I feel with every new plan, every order I issue, knowing that someone else is going to die today because of me... I wonder what they'd think then.
Well this time, I'm all out of tricks. This time, there won't be any last-minute miracles to save us if that shield ever comes down... I'm breaking. Tearing apart on the inside. I wonder if the others would rest as easily at night if they knew that their only defense was a single, pathetic shield... If they knew that their vaunted Command.com was nothing more than a scared, used up old woman...
Dot's shoulders began to shake. She cried helplessly, tears of frustration and rage at all that had been done to the city... of the evil she was powerless against, and the nightmare she had failed to stop. This is just too much to handle- too much for anyone to handle! There's only so much I can do...
The door slid softly open behind her, and a familiar, comforting arm went around her shoulders. Bob... Even after all I've done to him, he's still there for me... She cried harder at the shame of it all, but made an effort appear her usual calm, logical self as Bob gently guided her back down the stairwell to the War Room. After all, the others still depended on her, still looked to her as a source of inspiration even in these times.
I've got to go on, Dot thought to herself as she turned her back on the apocalypse Mainframe had become. Somehow, I've got to keep going... Maybe somehow, I can find a way to atone for everything I've done... For all the times I've failed. Like Enzo said, on that day so long ago... I've got to go on. Because there is no one else.
