Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The feeling of just floating as the water was calm and still, there wasn’t any pain or hurting, just calm as there was the soft clicking of his processors. Then the feeling of the surface tension of the sea was disturbed and someone grabbed him and brought him to the surface. There were faint voices but he could barely hear them from being in the sea for some time. Once he was finally brought back to finally being somewhat alive he felt every pain he could. The terrible memories of being handled like an object was brought back to him, being handled with a psychotic handler. It made his processors start churning and grinding against each other making a painful sound that could make any other program flinch in pain when he would stand in the room. Rinzler could feel hands on him and when he felt his disks being touched he flinched fully waking up and grabbed the disk activating them, derezzing the program's hand off. He stood up activating both standing ready to fight anyone who touched him. He saw three programs standing around where he was just laying. Breathing heavily, his gears grinding harshly as his processors were going crazy at the sudden awakening. He looked around seeing they were on the beach next to the sea where he crashed almost cycles ago. The black guards standing there didn’t flinch at all but the one he derezzed the hand stood there breathing, hardly holding their arm.
“Sir Rinzler, we mean no harm to you.”spoke one of the guards sound female
“Yeah, we brought you back, the grid needs you!”said another guard holding their hands up, sounded male
“Please, let us bring you back to the grid!”said the female
Rinzler stood there for a second before nodding slowly, letting the female program rezz a bike and the second one rezzed on and helped the other guard onto the back of his before the guard he hurt handed him his baton for Rinzler to rezz his own bike. They all rode through the abandoned cities and places falling apart. They arrived at the place Rinzler was way too familiar with, it doomed over the grid, CLU’s command ship. He felt his breath hitch but the other couldn’t hear it, only the grinding got louder once they started walking inside. He immediately wanted to be back in the freezing water instead of this place that was basically a prison to him, he was tortured in this very place. The male took the one guard to the medic while the girl black guard took him to the room he never wanted to be, Clu’s office, the place he hated most. Once in he ducked his head to look at the floor as he heard voices in the room.
“DYSON I swear to the users stop this nonsense!”yelled a program
Rinzler’s head shot up immediately once he heard it.
“Oh my, Emma you don’t even have the programming or respect to run the grid like you are now, you shouldn’t even be running it now!”yelled Dyson back
“Well I technically do! Clu’s gone and Rinzler doesn’t also have the programming to run this but he’s second in command and I was and still am third in command as Clu put it so until we find someone who can run the grid I’m running it. Also I do technically have the programming to run the grid until we find a new leader.”said Emma turning to Rinzler and the female guard,”I don’t have time for this, go do your duties until I actually have time to argue with you Dyson! Klax you and your squad did find Rinzler! Thank the users! Please escort Dyson out and the rest of you take a cycle until I send someone to grab you all!”
The other programs left leaving Emma and Rinzler in the office, Rinzler looked around at it before making eye contact with Emma. She was still staring at him with her eyes watching him. It felt like she was reading him, trying to find out what he was thinking about, reading his body language. She could tell that he was nervous about being in the office again after what had happened in that very room. She cleared her throat before leaning on the front of the desk looking at him.
“I sent Klax and her team to find you, I thought you were dead, I’m holding this place together the best I can but I need you. Yet I’m giving you a choice to help or I can let you go do your own thing Rinz.”She said looking at him
He tilted his helmeted head at her, his gears clicked as he thought for a moment before signing his thoughts to her. He never had a choice so he signed to her carefully. She chuckled at him before speaking.
“Rinz, I’m not Clu so you don’t need to worry also I can handle myself, Tesler and Dyson aren’t my major concerns, it’s mostly the grid falling apart and I don’t honestly know who to trust right now.”spoke Emma sighing
Rinzler signed to her asking about the people left that were working under Clu and asking who he could convince to trust her as their temporary leader.
“A lot of elite guards, a giant fraction of our foot soldiers and sentries.”answered Emma
Rinzler cursed before sighing and thought for a moment before telling he wanted to stay and help her with rebuilding that grid. She looked at him with sadness hoping he wasn’t just doing this to rebuild thinking this was Clu’s orders. She picked some files and sent them to him, taking him up to speed on what happened while he was unconscious. It wasn't a big file but it felt like it was good to send something.
“He's dead so don't think I'm pressuring you to do any of this.”she says
“I want to do this.”he signed
“Fine but if anything happens I'm pulling you out of any mission.”she said turning and facing the view of the city,”the grid is falling apart and i'm trying to fix it but I think we are gonna need the users. That's what I'm afraid of.”
She heard Rinzlers purring get louder and she turned to face him. Concern crossing her face, she didn't like how it got louder.
“Hey, you okay?"she asked
“Why do we need them?”he signed fast
“Because we don't have the codes to fix the grid! It's falling apart!”she said
“but the users could rewrite everything!”he signed
“I know that's what I'm afraid of too!”she sighed walking back to him,”we can hold on for long but I have a theory that we can survive but we need them. Maybe if Clu didn't decide to ruin our peace we wouldn't be surviving on our own.”
The security program just nodded
“I'm sorry, Rinz this is why I’m giving you a choice to stay or go.”she said
He nodded again and she reached out to him, holding his hand as she looked at him. Trying to read him and find anything.
“Promise me that you won’t do anything you're not comfortable with, Rinz. I care Rinz I do.”Emma says
Emma then just stared at him, she knew she was probably being over protective but she just couldn’t be like CLU she would never forgive herself. She wasn’t going to force him or anyone else to do anything. She wasn’t a monster, she didn’t want to be one. Emma held Rinzler’s hand and squeezed it for a moment before letting go and turned back, walking behind and sat at the desk. She didn’t look at him as she spoke,
“Your room hasn’t been touched at all, read those files and we and the other’s will have a meeting on how to help the civilians after CLU’s destruction and the user’s abandoning us.”
“Thanks, I'll read those files!”signed Rinzler
“Also take a sleep cycle, you't have you passing out on me!”joked Emma
“Please don't have those jokes"signed Rinzler
“Okay!”smiled Emma
Rinzler then nodded before walking into the room that was connected to CLU’s office. He sighed before sliding against the wall, sitting on the floor he looked at everything. It was the same, a bench instead of a bed on the south wall, table in the middle of the room. The window was the north wall. A shelf on the west wall, it was never touched by him but Emma put books on it, once he got curious he actually read like two books. He thought about actually reading another one, they were mostly books about coding or boring stuff. They didn't have books like the user world has. She somehow got copies about the user world and some stuff he didn't know. One shelf were his books that taught him how to sign. Emma was so proud of him learning, she actually got him to speak even though it was just some sign but she was proud of him. Emma was the first person that treated him like a normal program and not an object like CLU treated him. Rinzler sat thinking till the point where he passed out and into an uncomfortable sleep cycle.
****
Everything hurt, he was standing in front of his abuser, Emma was standing next to him with her helmet on, holding a clipboard. CLU had that psychotic smile on his face again, Rinzler immediately knew he was in for it. Sam Flynn escaped the battle and he couldn’t catch him, it disappointed CLU, HE disappointed CLU. He just kept his head down as they were searching but he felt the stares of people behind him as the leader was talking. It didn’t take long for him to scream at everyone to leave other than the three higher appointed programs. Once they left Rinzler felt his hands shake, he didn’t want to be hurt.
“Well, anything you want to say?”asked CLU tilting his head
Rinzler kept his head down
“Well the vehicle was not one of our own and it somehow was faster than ours. Kevin Flynn might……”She was cut off by CLU yelling
“DID I ASK YOU!”he yelled
“No sorry.”said Emma holding her clipboard closer to her
“I built you and you still couldn’t even catch Sam Flynn, you're the best security program out there and you couldn’t do one simple outsider vehicle.”said CLU
Rinzlers hands clenched and unclenched, CLU noticed it and taunted him more.
“It feels like I have to do everything now! Since you can’t even do anything!”said CLU,”If only I could’ve made you better! Emma, take everything off my schedule, I’m gonna have to teach Rinzler to not disappoint me and then I’ll make some enhancements.”
“Should you do that..sir, I mean not long ago you said that!”said Emma
“Did I ask you for your opinion on what to do with MY program?”asked CLU
“No..no you didn’t”simply said Emma
“Good now clear everything then leave. Make sure to keep Dyson and Tesler busy. They've been pains in my ass for a long time now!”said CLU
“Yeah, I’ll do that.”nodded Emma
CLU walked into the room that was connected to his office and followed Rinzler closely behind him. She stood there watching Rinzler, he looked at her and they both held eye contact. She signed something to him and he nodded, signing something back that CLU didn’t see. She wanted to help him run away, she knew what CLU does to him but she couldn’t do anything to help because she’ll just get derezzed. All she could do was be his rock, his comfort person, Emma was his everything. CLU leaned against the table in the middle of Rinzlers room, not even, he stood close to the door keeping distance between them in the small room. CLU tilted his head before sighing and stood closing the gap between them.
“Wow just your performance is off today, it's like something is different about my security program, what could it be? Just not feeling it today? I mean I can get rid of that y’know? Maybe I could get rid of whatever you feel for Emma too!” taunted CLU
Rinzlers head shot up
“I figured it out, the way both of you look at each other, the fact that you have those in your room now. Obviously it was her.” said CLU pointing at the books on his shelf
Rinzler stepped forward
“Oh that's what gets you ticking, the thought of me hurting her? I guess I know what I need to do now! Should I bring her in, force her to watch as I strip everything from you and reprogram you again but of course get rid of your feelings. Making sure that you don’t feel anything for her. Then I’ll take the helmet off and show her what used to be there. I want her to see who is under the helmet the grid's best warrior now a puppet.” taunted CLU as he grabbed the helmet
Rinzler was frozen in fear as CLU stood only inches away and he couldn’t move away from him. He just stood there waiting for anything to happen. Only then did CLU snatch Rinzlers disk from their mount on his back, he didn’t know what CLU did but he ended up on his knees as he watched CLU every single memory of him and Emma, he watched CLU start to delete every single one of them. He couldn’t cry for him to stop or beg for him to just torture him already which was what he was gonna do after. All he could do was watch after that he went and removed his ability to feel emotion. Everything was gone, he wanted to cry but couldn’t do it, Rinzler felt his hands start to shake, he didn’t know why but they did. Then everything was gone, his will, his voice now his emotions, the only part of him he could control was gone. He looked up to see CLU smiling at him as his vision went black, the psychopath actually turned the helmet off then Rinzler couldn’t connect to the grid, he then couldn’t feel his own body.
“Now it’s time to have a time out, maybe pray to the users that your precious girl is still alive.” he heard before his audio was turned off
He didn’t know if CLU put his disks back on their port but next thing he felt was pain going through his body and then no memory of Emma and he couldn’t feel the anxiety going through him. He just sat there in complete blackness and silence for a long time, it could’ve been cycles for all he knew but that wouldn’t matter. Programs could’ve been dead but he would still be there, one could be in his room and he wouldn’t know until he was voxels on the floor.
****
Rinzler then woke up to see himself still on the floor and he checked that he was still connected to the grid. He sighed in relief that he could still feel it, then he opened the files that Emma sent him and read through. A good chunk of the grid was destroyed by the explosion that Kevin Flynn created that destroyed him and CLU. That psychopath deserved it. Rinzler looked at everything before he looked at the time and realized that he was out for a long time. He tried to get up but everything hurt inside of him when trying to move. Taking a few breaths he stood up and decided to deal with it later. Walking out he saw Emma sitting at the desk he hated reading through files and other programs working quietly that was interrupted by him walking in with his purring.
“Oh Rinzler, have a nice sleep cycle?” asked Emma, smiling at him
He nodded at her
“Oh good, I’ll let the others know then we can make our way to the meeting room! Dyson and Tesler have been in my ass waiting for you but I wasn’t gonna start without you!” She said
Rinzler tilted his head at her concerned
“What you think I was gonna start without, yeah not happening I kinda need at least one person who doesn’t want to just end people for no reason. We need all programs on deck to keep everything a float.” She said
Emma kept rambling one about everything while Rinzler stared at her, admiring her for being so sweet. She was the one program who cared about him, he couldn’t remember much about her or his feelings toward her since CLU took that away but he felt deep down that she was someone he could trust. She always showed kindness to him, even after he lost his memories. The two made their way through the halls as programs turned their heads looking at them as they walked together. Maybe it was the height difference or maybe it was weird to Rinzler without his handler but Emma didn’t seem to care one bit as she kept happily talking about whatever. As they finally came to the room, Rinzler stepped in first then Emma went in. She didn’t care as she set what she carried in front of everyone else and Rinzler stood in the corner behind her. He felt he could protect her easier that way since deep in his programming he was protecting the leader of the grid well the grid was heavily relying on Emma now.
“Alright now that everyone is here, let's begin with why I scheduled this meeting. We now have at least five sectors down which means we need to most the programs but we are losing a lot of space moving everyone. I saw we start repairing the best we can on these sectors. Fix whatever we can to make them last longer. Since CLU’s disappearance we have lost a lot of programs. A total of about 8,000 programs due to sectors exploding.” said Emma
She had a map in the middle of the table pointing out the sectors in red and the numbers pilling of the death tolls.
“What should we do? We don’t even have the codes to fix anything. We aren’t users!” said Pavel
“I know but I think we can at least wait it out by trying to fix it the best we can. It’s not like we’ve been moving everyone to different sectors but everywhere is getting full.” said Emma
“How are we even going to get the codes to fix any of this!”said Abraxas
“Could we get the users involved?” asked Anon
“NO!” yelled Dyson
“Why would you want them involved?” asked Tesler
“We have no way of reaching them Anon!” said Emma
“Exactly, we would all die and they wouldn’t even know it!” said Abraxas
“Well maybe we can reach them!” said Anon hopeful
“Okay you're an idiot for even thinking that!” yelled Dyson
“Yeah we can’t even trust the users!” yelled Tesler
“Like they would do anything to help us anyway, we should just figure it ourselves.” said Pavel
“Pavel, shut the fuck up, also if we could do this ourselves then we wouldn’t even be having this meeting. The reason I even called this meeting was to see what everyone else thought about us falling apart. We can either figure this out ourselves and wait it out. Temporary fixing the problem or we temporarily fix the problem and figure out to call for help to the users.” said Emma
“How long do you think we can fix the problem for?” asked Abraxas
“I have no clue, that's the problem, we would need to know what the problem is and have the codes to fix it or access to the codes to fix the problem.” answered Emma
“I would say probably enough to hold out long enough until it can not longer hold itself together.” said Anon
“So what do we say, I know your three’s answer but Abraxas Anon what do you think?” asked Emma
“I say fix it until we really need the users help and hey maybe they'll come themselves I mean Kevin Flynn created this they're bound to come back and fix what he started!” said Anon
“WE DON’T NEED THE USERS HELP!!!” yelled Dyson grabbing his disk but Emma screamed at him
“DYSON STOP!!! GET OUT NOW!!” screamed Emma
“YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME!! YOU'RE NOT CLU!” yelled Dyson
“JUST GET OUT! I AM THE BOSS UNTIL WE GET A NEW LEADER!!” yelled Emma
Dyson held his disk up to Emma but Emma walked up to him until it touched her neck all while staring directly in his eyes clearly not scared.
“Do you see what happens but I doubt that you and everyone else will survive without me!” said Emma
“I would love to do the honors and end you miserable life.” said Dyson
Emma looked at the reflection of the wall and saw Rinzler reaching for his disk, she sighed and grabbed Dysons disc and derezzed his own hand. Which made him step back from her, Emma turned around her back facing Dyson as she threw the disc on the table and took back her original position at the front of the table.
“Alright now let's get back to the voting, I suggest we hold out as long as we can, then we decide if we need the users later. I think with teamwork that we can keep these innocent programs from dying.” said Emma
“Yeah I’m with Emma on this!” said Anon
“Yeah same!” said Abraxas
“Fine but I highly doubt that the users will come back for us!” said Tesler
“Fine but no users!” commented Pavel
“Alright Rinzler, your vote is needed.” she said
She turned to look at him, he still held his disk in hand but just stood there before nodding his head slightly. His purring changed to a soft then back to its usual loud grinding sound. Emma smiled then turned to the programs at the table.
“Alright, we’ll hold out until we need help.” said Emma
“You actually understood that?” said Anon astonished
“It’s not that hard when you're used to it!” laughed Emma
“Yeah but I’ve been here longer and I still don’t understand him!” said Anon
“Trust me when you’ve worked under CLU and him long enough you pick up on stuff. Now you all will be assigned districts to look after, there will be a list of programs to look after and a map of that sector, your job is to keep everyone alive and thriving.” said Emma
“What's the point of this!” said Tesler
“To spread out the resources, every sector needs help and this is the way to help!” said Emma
“This is stupid!” shouted Dyson
“Rinzler, please take him out of this room!” seethed Emma
Rinzler nodded and grabbed Dyson
“You have no right lady! You don’t even belong to be the leader of the grid! I should be the leader!” yelled Dyson
“Wow Dyson you are so creative with your words!” said Emma sarcastically
“You are actually really really cool!” said Anon
“Thanks Anon, alright anyone else wanna be kicked out of the room?” asked Emma looking at everyone else“ Alright now I wanna go over a couple things before we end then you are on your way to your sectors!”
After the meeting Emma started talking with Anon about his sector. Rinzler kept to his designated corner.
“Hey um thanks again for letting me have the sector I wanted.” thanked Anon
“Yeah um about that we need to talk about it. Are you and um Dyson fighting again?” asked Emma
“Why?” asked Anon
“Because he asked me to give him Argon!” said Emma
“But he can’t have that! I have it, you promised Argon to me!” said Anon
“He’s also superior to you and I kinda have to give him his wishes.” said Emma
“But I’m one of the best of your executives you promoted me after you took his position! Em please!” pleaded Anon
“I’m sorry but I have to keep the grid a float and you know what Dyson would do if he doesn’t get his way!” said Emma
“But you know as much as I do about Argon!” said Anon
“Not here Anon now please I’m giving Argon to Dyson and I promise they can handle him! Please cooperate with me for now!” said Emma
“Emma! Please!” begged Anon
“ANON! STOP!” yelled Emma
This made Rinzler flinch hard and it caught Anon’s attention but he ignored it.
“Em, what if we do this what's gonna happen to them once they piss off Dyson?” asked Anon
“Then you have the right away to defend Argon and I support you through it secretly of course and we go on our way to keep the grid safe.” said Emma
“Fine but I’m keeping a close eye on him.” said Anon
“Fine and keep Abraxas informed will you? I don’t need him doing anything stupid and trying to take on Tesler once he pisses him off.” said Emma
“Alright Em.” said Anon
“Thank you Anon.” sighed Emma with relief
“Your welcome, now I gotta go hang with Abraxas before we leave.” said Anon
“Okay fine…” said Emma
“Byeee….” he said running out of the room
“Rinzler, you okay?” asked Emma
“Are you hiding something?” signed Rinzler
“I’m sorry buddy but it’s a secret. What you need to know is that I’m keeping the grid together.” sighed Emma
“But why? What are you doing? Emma!” signed Rinzler panicked
“I’m doing what I can, Rinz this is…just…I’m trying my best…But please don’t be mad at me. I don’t want you to be mad at me.” said Emma trying to find the words
“Then tell me your plans!” signed Rinzler
“That’s the thing, I can’t as I’m not the leader and I can’t disclose personal information he doesn’t want out.” said Emma
“Why not!” signed Rinzler
“It’s not in my programming to tell you.” lied Emma
“Your LYING!”signed Rinzler he was getting frustrated
“Rinzler please ... .I'm not allowed too ... .All you need to know is that it's for the grid. Tesler and Dyson, those two won’t like it. That's why it's only between me and the other two because it was planned long ago. When CLU was around, all you need to know is that they want the grid back.”said Emma
“The grid?” signed Rinzler now confused
“Yes they want the grid back, I can only say that much before I get in trouble.” said Emma
“You gonna kill Dyson, Pavel and Tesler?” signed Rinzler
“Yeah they will be gone by the end of it but I’m worried that you might be infected by it. I don’t want to lose you that why you need to be in the dark about it.”said Emma
“Fine.”signed Rinzler
“Now let's go back to the office. I need to get files down, I’m gonna send you out. I need some help rounding up programs causing issues. No one’s dying unless they need to be put down.”said Emma
Rinzler just nodded as she took the sign, Emma and him walked out making their way through the overly familiar halls. She needed to get into those files before she overthinks what she said to him. She thought that she sounded like an ass for not telling him what they were planning or anything. They were quick making it to the office before getting in to tell him where she was sending Rinzler.
“Alright where's the most issues happening right now?”asked Emma to the programs
“Well in these streets its mostly quiet no ones been misbehaving but theres a couple programs being violent…Oh well that's not good.”said the program as the streets suddenly turned red
“That's never good.”said the other
“Okay there's a giant fight in the streets, who should be sent?”asked the first program
“Deploy Rinzler, Klax and her team then a couple extras.”said Emma simply
“Should we arrest them?”asked Klax
“Yeah but if they’ve been causing us big issues then derezz them.”said Emma
“What do you say are big issues?”asked Nord
“Big issues like murder and arson those kinds of issues.”said Emma
“Okay let's go then.”said Hessa
Emma and Hessa both looked at Rinzler
“Fine but let's not be long.”signed Rinzler
“Be safe out there.”said Emma
“Yeah we will.”said Klax
Emma looked as everyone started nodding to her then she looked at Rinzler and he nodded slowly.
“Alright, thank you.”said Emma
“I’ll send the coordinates through and send you on your way.”said the first program
“Thank Laura, briefing is that the programs started rebelling after CLU disappeared so they think there isn’t much order left. We are just correcting them.”said Emma
“What about if they don’t cooperate?”asked Reeve
“Make them, you can only derez them if they are on the chart of criminals that have been causing us issues since we can’t bring the games back until we are stable.”said Emma
“Alright fine, sounds good enough.”commented Nord
“Do we all agree with the plans?”asked Emma
“Yeah I think it's good enough.”said Klax
“What about the innocents that get hurt?”signed Rinzler
“Then communicate with me and I’ll send a medic team your way.”said Emma
“Fine.”signed Rinzler harshly
*Why are you mad at me?*thought Emma
“Alright then let's get you guys moving!”said Emma turning to the programs at the long table behind them
“Alright here's the coordinates and you have communication links up.”said Laura
“Be safe out there, we’ll be watching you guys from here.”said Jessina as she pulled their trackers up on the map
“Yes ma’am, we’ll keep in contact.”said Klax
“Yeah, we’ll teach these programs a lesson!”said Nord
“Dude these are you people!”said Reeve elbowing him in the side
“Yeah Yeah whatever!”said Lot rubbing the now sore area
“Alright go you guys!”laughed Emma
They then left and Rinzler looked at Emma over his shoulder before leaving. She sighed, she fucked up, she knew she did but it’s for the best he doesn’t know what shes doing. Emma sat at the desk and started going through her files and responding to requests she kept getting. All them were basically asking questions and about what to do with the growing resistance. Whoever those people were, she hoped got derezzed. It was all stupid CLU was dead, everyone knew that but they still kept resisting the new order. Emma sighed then heard a knock on the door, Emma looked at Jessina and Laura before nodding as they grabbed their discs and she grabbed here's before she let them in. She didn’t know anyone was gonna visit but she wanted to make sure she and them were prepared before letting anyone in.
“Come in!”she said
Then Abaraxas came in, she sighed before nodding at the girls who put their discs in their port. Anon came in right behind him, Emma looked at the both of them before sitting back behind the desk.
“Alright what are you both doing here?”she asked curiously
“We wanted to talk to you before we leave for our assignment!”said Anon
“What about?”asked Emma
“It’s about Rinzler….We want to ask about him.”said Anon
“Is it about letting him in on the mission?”she said
“Well I think that would need to be talked about with the leader.”said Emma
“Yeah but do we really trust him?”asked Abraxas
“Yeah I do but I have no idea about what the leader would want to do about him.”said Emma
“I would think he would want to discuss this.”said Anon
“But should we trust him?”said Abraxas
“Yes I think we should trust him. I think Rinzler would be a good fit for our mission he just needs to have time to adjust to the new grid.”said Emma
“Why are you vouching for him?”questioned Abraxas
“Because he’s also a victim of CLU, he had no choice!”said Emma
“But Em, he literally killed thousands of programs!...What I’m trying to say is that how do we know he won’t go under us and destroy everything or how do we know that the programs would want him to still be here.”said Abaraxas
“Because I trust Rinzler and I don’t care if you don’t!”said Emma
“I understand that Rinzler fell victim to CLU yet I want to still be cautious around him. We don’t know what would startle him and cause a malfunction of his programming.”said Anon
“This isn’t up for us to discuss until we talk to the leader of our revenge then we’ll know for certain that we are allowed to bring him into this.”said Emma
“How do you know he won’t just say no?”complained Abraxas
“Abraxas let me handle this! Just let me handle this. Focus on your side of the mission.”said Emma
“Fine but this isn’t a good idea!”said Abraxas
“I trust him, you should too!”said Emma
“Whatever!”shrugged Abraxas as he sighs
“I know you don’t think this is a good idea but I think we can let him in.”said Emma
“I want to but I don’t want to trust the program that slaughtered our entire nation!”said Abraxas
“He didn’t, he was being controlled and he didn’t have any free will.”said Emma
“He still killed people. Many people, lets not forget the ISO’s or our programs.”said Abraxas
“Guys we shouldn’t fight over this, please, Abraxas I also don’t fully trust Rinzler but I trust Emma, I think we could give him a chance to prove himself and see if we can actually trust him.”said Anon
“How can he prove himself?”asked Abaraxas
“The mission we sent him on, we can see if he can prove himself that way. Like if he hurts or kills any programs we’ll know if we can trust him that way then talk to our leader about if we can let him in on the revenge for our people.”said Anon
“Are you guys ISO’s?”asked a program
This made the 5 freeze and looked to the program that walked in on them
“And you are?”said Emma straightening her posture
“Oh I’m here to um…I uh…I was sent here to give you energy but you were talking well. I'm interning to be an assistant on big projects but this is my current job for now!”they said with a nervous laugh
“Well that's very convincing!”laughed Anon
“Anon shut it. Well welcome to the office but your supposed to knock before entering any room here. It’s polite but thanks for the energy. Now get out.”said Emma
“Sorry but are you guys ISO’s?”they asked
“No just people who were wronged by CLU.”said Abraxas
“Okay….I’ll take my leave!”the program said before leaving
“What the actual fuck!”said Anon
“I have no clue but you two need to leave before anyone questions why you two haven’t left for your duties.”said Emma
“Fine we made the announcement that we were going to ask about our assignments.”said Anon
“You two are truly idiots.”said Emma
“Technically we’re your idiots”said Abraxas
“Actually your the idiot.”said Anon
“Both of you shut up. Leave.”said Emma
“Fine, bye sis.”said Abraxas winking at her and she rolled her eyes
“Bye, Em. See you two girls later.”said Anon, winking at Laura and Jessina
“Those two boys are the weirdest programs ever!”commented Jessina
“I know but that's my life now working as the new ruler for now. Get me updates on the commotion in the cities and a live update on Rinzler’s progress.”said Emma
“Right away ma’am.”said Jessina
“Can you get a live feed on Rinzler?’questioned Laura
“Yeah if you can byepass CLU’s programming.”laughed Jessina
“It's actually all linked up in the feed if you know where to look, it’s all hooked up in the system. I’ve seen it all happen.”said Emma
“Alright let's take a look and get the live updates on Rinzler.”whispered Laura
“How does she know that?”questioned Jessina
“I’ve worked with CLU, well for him, never with him. Since he’s a fucking psychopath.”said Emma
“That's true. But still how would you know how to do this? I thought Rinzlers programs can’t be touched but anyone else then CLU.”said Jessina
“Well yes and no. Some of it is linked into the system but no one can really access it but CLU. It’s a bit weird.”said Emma
“Okay.”shrugged Laura
“I think I get it but I honestly don’t get it.”said Jessina
“Just pull up the feed.”sighed Emma
“Alright here goes nothing.”whispered Jessina
They went in and pulled up the live feed, they were able to get the other black guard feeds and it looked good. Then the girls pulled up Rinzlers feed, it actually worked which shocked both girls other than Emma. She knew it was gonna work. Watching they saw it was going quite peacefully other than some people who really didn’t want to be silenced. Emma sighed and watched closely. She was hoping this was gonna work, it needed to work to show that they had the grid under control. She didn’t like that these programs were going out of their way to mess things up. All she needed was to make sure everything was going to plan. The only thing was she wanted to make sure Rinzler wasn’t going back to his old programming and attacking the innocents. Emma silently hoped that he was okay, she knew that he wouldn’t want to hurt any innocent programs. This was just the big test to see how his performance was gonna go.

Chapter Text

Rinzler POV

As I was leaving I got another glance of Emma as I left the office. I hated that office. The trauma of what CLU did to me kept trying to resurface. I wanted to leave immediately but I couldn’t so I stayed quiet the whole time. Emma was weird like she kept hiding something like what would happen to the grid if she stays in power. Something was up and I couldn’t figure it out. Something was gonna happen and I wanted to protect the grid. It felt weird something was happening to my programming. Why do I want to protect the grid so bad? I mean I’m a security program but why do I need to protect it from her? Is something bad going to happen? These questions keep popping up and I don’t understand why.
“Sir? You okay?”asked Klax
“No, I’m fine, let’s get this done.”I sign
I signed to her but I pinged to her
“Alright, so we are just going to settle down the protests. If anyone tries to be physical just a quick redirection but no one gets harmed alright!”says Klax
“Yes ma’am.”says Reeve
“What if they try to fight back?”asked Nord
“Then we don’t act into the fight but we defend ourselves.”answered Hessa
“Alright, let's get the move on then.”said Reeve
“Mr. Rinzler, what do you think? Getting back out there in the grid?”said Nord
“Lot leave him alone.”sighed Klax
“Damn, I'm just asking. I mean it must be exciting to go back to work. Sadly no games since Emma discontinued them. I mean it had to be awesome having the grid cheer for you!”said Nord
I just nodded my head spacing out. I didn’t really care for it, I was just putting on a show for CLU back then.
“I mean when I was a young program I always wanted to compete in the games, I mean Rinzler was my inspiration to even join the black guard.”laughed Nord
“You really wanted to compete in the games!?”laughed Reeve
“Yeah I did but I never got too, I almost begged CLU to let me complete but Hessa here knocked some sense into me.”laughed Nord
“Yeah because that's so stupid.”said Klax
“It’s not stupid for me to dream.”said Nord
I looked between all three of them, they were really serious, I thought for a minute before walking away. We were being transported over the area with the most chaos and going to help calm things down. It was easier to be dropped down than to ride the cycles over since it’s in the heart of the city. I looked out the window and saw the towers, they were much dimmer than before. It’s all been infected by half the grid being destroyed, so much damage to our home. Buildings were falling apart and smaller buildings were crumbling to the ground. Once beautiful, now falling to pieces. It was truly sad to see something so beautiful now just falling apart. Looking out I felt someone walk up behind me, I turned my head slightly to see Nord coming up behind me. Turning around I stare right at him, he stops abruptly in his tracks and laughs nervously.
“Hey uh I just wanted to say that we will be making our jump soon.”said Nord
I nodded
“I..I..I wanted to say that earlier in that conversation…”he starts then I cut him off
“Its fine, I really don’t care.”I signed
“It um seemed kinda seemed to bother you.”Nord says kinda confused for some reason
I nodded not wanting to talk to him
“Sir, we’re about to drop.”said Klax
I nodded again
“Woooo, we are about to drop!”shouts Reeve in excitement
“Someone’s excited!”laughs Nord
“This is the most fun in the job.”laughed Reeve
“Damn I thought you said the most fun was the free access to different technology?”said Klax
“Oh, well it’s a lot of things.”said Reeve embarrassed
“Drop in 5.”said a program
“Let's get ready!”I sign
“Hey let's get ready!”shouts KLax
“Dude, calm down.”said Nord
“No actually let's put our gear on and get the hell out of here.”said Klax
“Okay fine.”sighed Nord
“Yeah we kinda don’t want you derezzing.”laughed Reeve
They kept talking and I got bored so I grabbed my lightpack, putting it on. I turned and saw the others staring before doing the same thing. I kinda guessed that they thought it was a good idea to do the same. I stared at them for a second before turning away to make sure I got everything. I made sure that I had two batons. After checking I got ready for the drop point, the other three flanked me KLax on my right then Reeve and Nord on my left. Then me in the middle which I grumbled a little, I hated being in the middle.
“Dropping in 3..2..1, DROP.”yelled a program
Then we jumped out of the ship, I let myself drop for a bit before activating the lightpack and flying to the streets down below. I watched the other three fly behind me, Nord and Reeve seemed to be having fun, I could hear them both laugh as they flew around. The ground slowly became closer and closer as we flew on. Coming to the street I could see the chaos, programs rioting, things getting thrown at one another. I looked around shocked, it was never like this during CLU’s order. Finally we made it to the ground, I dispossessed the lightpack and walked to the chaos, the trio close behind me. There were some poor other black guards trying to keep the peace but the other programs retaliated against them. One guard was pushed onto the ground and the one that pushed them pulled his disc. I grabbed my disc but Nord ran and grabbed the guard, pulling his disc off its port. Klax yelled at him,
“HEY EVERYONE STOP FIGHTING!!!”
“NO, YOU'RE NOT GOING TO DICTATE US!!”yelled a female program
“WE ARE WITH EMMA, SHE WANTS TO RULE THE GRID BETTER THE CLU!”yelled Klax
“How do we know that!”yelled a male program
“Yeah, she could be worse!”yelled another program
“Who would you have ruling? Her or Dyson?”asked Reeve
“Yeah Dyson would be worse ruling over us. He’ll slaughter us all for fun.”yelled Nord
“Anyone ruling over us who is like you would be worse for us.”yelled another female program
“We promise you that she is better for us than CLU was for us. She will not dictate us like he did.”said Klax
“How can we be so sure?”asked another male program
“You don't, we just have to trust but we are sure that she will be better than CLU!”said Reeve
“How can you be so sure? What about us the programs who are left behind by every other program?”said a mother program
“We can assure you that Emma will be better than CLU, you won’t be left behind anymore.”said Klax
I watched from behind the three just watching this go down, I got stares from the innocent programs. I wanted to say something but I didn't. I couldn't do anything, I just clenched my fists and stared at everyone I could. The stares were just astonished programs that I’m still alive after CLU’s death. It was nerve racking that they just stared, somewhere shocked, others disgusted and most were pure hate. Nothing I didn’t expect from the innocent programs, I did probably kill a lot of their friends or family either during the games or during the purge. I mean if I did all those things, I wouldn’t be mad that they are mad. I killed a lot of people while being under the control of CLU.
“What about him?”asked another male program, pointing at Rinzler
“He’ll be Emma’s second command!”said Klax
“WHAT!!”screamed some programs
“He suffered just like the rest of us!”said Nord
“Yeah right,....”I zoned out
Next thing I knew was in “my room” kneeling in front of CLU silently begging for him to forgive me for being insignificant. CLU held my discs both in opposite hands, his hands clenched both.
“How??? It’s not that hard to catch one FUCKING user!!”he yelled
I wanted to argue but I knew I couldn’t, my hands shook against my legs, I guess he noticed cause then he started to taunt me.
“Really, my creation is what? Scared that his master is gonna hurt him?”he taunted
Next thing I knew is my helmet came off, he could then see that I was scared of him. My cover and security was gone in an instant.
“Look at that, Tron is still there. It makes me sick but then yet again I did get to add my personal touches.”he said
He then grabbed my face and looked over the scar that ran down my face and neck. The unthinkable happened and he ran his thumb over it, digging it in. I gritted my teeth, clenching my hands tighter, trying not to cry.
“You gonna fight me?”he teased
I slightly shook my head but he squeezed my jaw
“You disappointed me. Do you know what happens when you disappoint me?”he asked
My breath quickened
“Exactly so I guess a time out would be best.”he said
My eyes widened and he let go of my jaw, picking up the discs from the table he started to play with my coding. Looking at him, I wanted to cry and beg him to give me another chance to fix this but I couldn’t.
“Please”is all that came out of my mouth. He looked at me then smirked, tears formed in my eyes as I tried again.”Please I don't want to go offline” . It was quiet and scratchy but he heard it. He crouched down to my level,
“Oh we both know what your punishment is but I might make it quick or I’ll have you hear for a while. At least we know that you still have an opinion, that can’t happen. What happens if something happens? Is Tron still fighting you Rinzler?”CLU teased
“But he’s dead.”I say
“Not entirely, did I never tell you. You..Your Tron just with my programming. You were never your own program. I just created you on top of your original programming. You were never meant to be your own program.”said CLU
“I…I was..never an original program? Just made from another program?”I say shocked
“Yes, yes you were never an actual program. I just hacked Kevins program and created it for you.”laughed CLU
I was never an original program, I was just a hacked program. Kneeling in the thought that I was never actually Rinzler, I was just a hacked Tron.
“Well I’ll leave you pondering on that.”said CLU
Then he turned everything off and I sat there pondering my actual worth. I wondered what he did to create me. Did he kill Tron then put my programming in?
Then the voices of the protesters came back. I shook my head and looked around why? Why is this happening to the grid? Did they never know who CLU really was? Or did he hold it together long enough that he forced everyone to get along?
“Please contact Emma. Let her speak to the programs.”I signed to Klax
“I uh Rinzler I don’t know what you mean.”whispered Klax looking defeated
“Rinz, I’ll head your way.”I got the notification from Emma
“Thanks.”I contacted her back
“No problem.”as I looked back at the crowd
They were all angry at the fact I was there. Maybe I’m the problem? I mean I should be at the bottom of the simulation sea right now. Something in my programming made me betray CLU but he was an asshole.
“HE should be dead!”yelled a program
“So you all have a problem with my right hand man?”Emma yelled
Oh thank the users shes here
“Yeah, he slaughtered a lot of programs!”yelled a female program
“Yes he did but so did a lot of rogue programs. Yet we should expect that so we can all reunite as one and save the grid. It’s falling to pieces once CLU disappeared.”She says
“How do we know that you're not worse?”asked a male program
“Because I stopped the games and I’m working on fixing the grid. We all need to work together to save our city and not go to waste.”said Emma
“Please let us help you!”said Klax
“Let's reunite and make the grid better. CLU used you as entertainment but I will not. I’ll make it even better than ever.”said Emma
The crowd all shifted their weight and looked at each other. I think they're actually considering her as their new leader or something. I slightly looked at her before sighing heavily as the speech worked and everyone settled down more. She looked proud of herself for getting them on our side. Emma looked at me and smiled before going back to the crowd.
“Let us help you, first we all need to work together to fix the grid and all your lives will be better. We just need you guys to cooperate with us and each other.”said Emma
“We will help you programs stay alive. Many were killed in the destruction of CLU. We will make the grid better than ever before. We will send out a way for you to vote on what we fix first.”said Nord
Everyone, including me, wiped their heads around. We never agreed on that. That wasn’t part of the plan.
“Your joking right.”whispered Klax
“This kid.”sighed Reeve
“I’m so gonna hit him when we are in private.”whispered Emma cracking her knuckles
“He’s so stupid.”whispered a black guard
“Tell me about it.”whispered the other
I honestly thought he was a genius, I mean then we get them on our side, letting the programs have their opinion on what gets rebuilt first. Yet we don’t have a lot of codes to fix stuff but it works. The programs kinda stood around before slowly starting to agree about telling us what to fix in our crumbling world.
“You're serious right? How could you tell them that and not go over it with me!”yelled Emma at Nord in the ship back
“It’s letting them know that we are open to them!”said Nord
“Yes but you're promising them something that could backfire horribly!”said Emma
“But it doesn’t matter they’re on our side now!”said Nord
“This could backfire horribly and then they won’t be on our side later. Then never trust us again!”said Emma
“They could then say that we are as back as CLU!”commented Klax
“Oh.”realized Nord
“It’s fine, I’ll make it work. I think.”sighed Emma
“It’s fine, we got this.”I sign
“Honestly, Rinz we need the codes to fix this place.”she says
“Wait, how do you understand him?”asked Klax
“I taught him so of course I understand.”she said
“So you taught him? How is it not in our coding?”said Reeve confused
“It's not in anyone else's coding he picked it up since he can’t talk.”said Emma
“What?”Nord was really confused
“CLU took that out of his coding ability to speak so I taught him how by using gestures. So he can voice his opinion.”said Emma
The others then realized how fucked up CLU really was
“Oh.”shocked Klax
“Thats honestly really fucked up.”commented Reeve
“Yeah he was a literal psychopath. He did a lot to Rinzler, he fucked with his programming a lot.”said Emma
“Why I mean like Rinzler was his second command why would he basically torture his second command?”said Nord
My this program is innocent I thought while shaking my head
“Because CLU didn’t see him as his own program, he only saw him as a way to take his anger out.”said Emma
“How do you know so much?”commented Klax
“Because I worked closely with CLU and I helped Rinzler out to deal with his trauma.”said Emma
“How do we help?”asked Klax
“What do you mean?”asked Emma
“I mean how do we help to not trigger his trauma? I mean now that he’s gone how do we help him heal? We will be working closely together. It would be nice not to trigger him. Also with Dyson and Tesler they would use him as a way to get to you since both of them are close. We all should stick together since they will be coming after you both.”said Klax
“Yeah you're our new leader and they both will be coming for you guys. We want to help!”said Reeve
“You're also kinda stuck with us!”laughed Nord
“We don’t need your protection. We just need your support.”said Emma looking at me
“Yet we could use them to be helpful with our work.”I sign
“I guess but do we really need tagalongs?”she signs back
“It’ll be helpful to get some work off of our backs.”I sign
“Fine but I have Jessina and Laura for that work.”she signed
“I meant outside work like crowd control and keeping tabs on Dyson and Tesler.”I signed
“Okay but you guys gotta be ready for anything.”said Emma
“What do you mean?”asked Nord
“I mean that if your gonna be little tagalongs then you gotta be ready because it isn’t gonna be light work.”said Emma
“We got this.”said Klax
“Yes!”agreed Reeve
“So what’s our first job?”asked Nord
“Okay slow down, we actually haven't figured that out yet.”laughed Emma
“We could send them out now. To keep tabs.”I sign
“They’ll know instantly that we are keeping tabs. Give them about a cycle before sending them out.”signed Emma
“I want you three to go around and collect data on our citizens then work your way out. I want to know how everything is working now and see what we can fix.”said Emma to the three
“Okay we can work with that.”said Klax
“But keep a low profile.”I added
“And keep a very low profile. We don’t want to scare anyone or make it look like we are stalking them. If they ask say your taking survey for me since I’m very busy.”Emma says
“Alright, we can work with that.”said Reeve
“But you have to be separate and spread out. Can’t be together all the time.”I sign
“Yeah what he said.”Emma says before leaving
“Wait Emma, we still don’t understand how to communicate with Rinzler.”says Nord
I roll my eyes under the helmet
“Oh right, so you're gonna need to work with him on how to communicate with each other. That's your three’s first task, since you four will be working together more. You all need to find a way to communicate with your commanding officer.”says Emma
I sigh heavily then realize that the grinding noise got louder as I got more irritated with these three. I didn’t realize how loud it was until now.
“Okay I think we can actually work with that.”said Reeve
“Maybe we can learn your um hand gestures.”commented Nord
“No that's for me and him, you can’t steal our thing because you guys can’t understand. Thats cheating on the task.”said Emma
“Oh…well I guess we’ll make it work.”sighed Reeve
“It takes time. I want this to be a learning experience for you programs. It should take about a cycle.”said Emma
Once at the office it was actually just us two, Jessina and Laura went for a sleep cycle since it got real late.
“Are you getting nightmares? Is that why you don't take sleep cycles anymore?”she asks me
I look at her before turning on my heel and going into my room.
“Rinzler, please talk to me.”she begged
“No I don’t think I will. I feel like your lying to me.”I signed annoyed
“I’m not, I’m trying my hardest to keep the grid from falling apart. Even if I have to lie to the citizens of the grid but I would never to you.”she says
“It never feels like your telling me the truth.”I sign angrily
“Why?”she asks
“It feels like everything has a double meaning.”I sign
“I’m sorry but I’m not scheming anything. I just want to bring the grid back to its former glory without Dyson or Tesler taking control and bringing the grid down.”she said
“Yet it feels like your hiding something from me.”I signed aggressively
“I’m not hiding anything from you.”she says
Em gets up and closes the space between us, her eyes tell that she's worried and trying to find the words to explain to me. I look at her and she can’t see my facial expressions. I feel conflicted like I want to believe her but I feel deep in my coding that I can't. I don't want to trust her. The last person I trusted nearly murdered me and twisted my coding. Looking at her, this feeling in my coding twisted telling me to murder her here and now so I don’t have to deal with what she’s going to do but the other part was telling me she can be trusted. I was conflicted not knowing what to do was the hardest part when CLU was around. I didn't need to think I would just do what I was told.
“You're confused, it's your first time in a long time that you could actually make your own decisions. Please take your time but I’m telling you that you can trust me that I would never harm you or the grid.”said Emma
All I wanted to do was curl up and die. This new world now is so confusing. Decisions themselves were so confusing. I don’t know if I want to trust her now.
“Rinzler calm down! Please!”cried Emma
I didn’t even know that I was shaking like crazy but the next thing I knew I was on the ground. I was sprawled out on the floor, it was cold, Emma was nowhere to be seen but I noticed I was in my room hidden away from any prying programs. The clicking noises were getting louder with every move I made. Pushing myself against the wall flattened my back as I was so sore from the position I was in from passing out. I could hear shouting from the other side of the wall from the voices I could tell it was Dyson and Emma. Dyson probably wanted me dead thinking I was dead weight that I can’t function properly without CLU telling me what to do but that's Dyson’s opinion. Emma thinks differently and thinks I actually have purpose. Which is surprising. My head snapped as I heard the door open and close,
“Hey you're awake.”calmly said Emma
“Yeah.”I signed
“That's a good thing Rinz. Here's energy for you. Dyson was saying that we should get rid of some cities to put more people together. Thinks its a good thing, which is shit by the way but he’s Dyson.”sighed Emma
I nodded taking that in
“Either way you were out not that long, either you freaked out so bad you crashed or you're not taking proper sleep cycles or both. Which is most likely.”said Emma
“Shut up please, I’m still shaken up.”I sign
“Whatever you say.”she says turning to leave
“I didn’t say leave. I don’t wanna be alone.”I sign
“Then I won’t leave.”She smiled
“Why did I pass out?”I signed scarred
“Like I said you freaked out bad or not a proper sleep cycle.”she sighed
“It could be worse.”I signed quickly
“Rinz, look at me. You're terrified that something is wrong with you. Your freaking yourself out so bad that you panicked.”she said kneeling to my level,”You're scared which you never felt properly. You are scared someone is going to hurt you now that CLU is gone you won’t be able to get proper care if you get hurt. You're scared that someone is just gonna treat you like CLU did. You're terrified which is totally understandable but you're also scaring yourself and it's causing you to crash because you aren’t programmed to feel fear.”
“I’m not supposed to feel this.”I signed
“You're allowed too now, I’m not CLU Rinz. I’m your friend so let me help you.”she said
“Please make this stop.”I sign
“I can’t because I don’t have to codes to but I can be here to comfort you.”she says concerned
Her eyes looked at me. I could tell that she was worried for me as the clicking noise almost turned into grinding and it hurt. Everything hurt but I was mostly used to it. I just wanted it to stop. I wanted everything to stop yet her trying to help made something in me want to stay and help her.
“Tell me something that makes you not want to trust me?”she asks
“What were you talking about with Anon and Abraxas?”I signed annoyed
“Us and other programs were attacked by CLU and other corrupted programs and all of us were repurposed but we got our memories back. We want revenge for what they did to us. Yet with CLU being killed by Kevin Flynn this is something better. We can remake the grid better than CLU ran it.”she says
“What about Dyson and Tesler?”I signed
“Both most likely will be killed but I can use them for now. Klax and her team I’m using to collect data on them to make sure they stay inline and when they don’t I can rightfully derezz them.”she says
“You really gonna derez them?”I sign confused
“Yeah but it’s for the greater good. Dyson and Tesler aren’t good programs, they are psychotic. It’s for the better that they die.”she says
“But your going to kill them for what they did to you or that they killed a lot of innocent programs?”I question
“They did some terrible stuff Rinz like they murder for fun and they enjoy it. Do you enjoy murdering innocent programs!”said Emma
She got up as I pushed myself more into the wall, I didn’t like this one bit that fact that she is okay with this. I don’t like them either but why are we tricking them then killing them? This can’t be right! Tricking them into thinking that they are safe from death?
“It’s a lot to think about but this is the way. To make a better future for the grid and for the innocent programs that will die if they get to rule.”said Emma
“You think they won’t kill anyone else? What about the innocent programs they kill while looking after their cities?”I sign
“It’ll be fine because I thought about that! The sectors they are going too aren’t that big and I sent people to take care of the innocent programs. Trust me they’ll be fine. I’m getting live updates from them as we speak right now. This is going to be fine for now.”she says
“You really think that?”I sign to her
“No and yes but I need you to understand that this is me trying to fix everything.”she said
She looked at me with those brown eyes staring at me in mixed emotion, her eyes the eyes that watched everything that CLU did to me. The ones that looked at me lovingly as she helped me in pain. The ones that I thought understood me. Yet now I couldn’t look at them as something that was comfortable to me. She sounds crazy for thinking this is okay, but it’s better for the grid. Please be as good as you think you are, I silently hoped that I didn’t have to kill her.
“As long as it’s good for the grid.”I signed
“It is.”she answered
“Then let’s get this plan working.”I sign
“You sure? You don’t have too.”she said
“I’m chief of security and your second in command, I’m going to help you fix the grid and bring it back to its former glory.”I sign
“Fine since the grid is falling into pieces.”she says
“Good.”I sign
“For the grid.”she said
*For the grid* I thought as I nodded to her
We then walked back into the room and I kept some distance between us as I was conflicted that I didn’t know what to do. I knew that Dyson and Tesler should be derezzed for what they did. Those innocent programs that were killed without mercy. They should be punished but like this? Being tricked into thinking that they are getting away with this? Something just felt wrong about this.
“Emily! Miss Emily!”shouted Jessina
“What is it!!??”questioned Emma
“Dyson! It’s Dyson!”shouted Laura
“What about him?”Emma questioned
“He’s attacking innocents! Again!”said Jessina
“God dammit! He barely even started!”said Emma
“What should we do?”asked Laura
“Well what exactly is he doing?”questioned Emma
“He’s killing innocents because he’s after the so called renegade.”said Laura
“Fine…shit…Okay we should get someone to go calm him down. Maybe get someone to get in contact with this renegade.”calmly said Emma
“How are you so calm.”commented Jessina
“I’m actually panicked but as long as we save the innocents that's all that matters yet we need someone to investigate the renegade. Laura get Klax and her team to in contact with renegade see if their friend or foe.”said Emma
“Alright, what about Dyson?”asked Jessina
“I’ll deal with it.”said Emma
“You're sure?”questioned Jessina
“Yeah, Rinz? You wanna come with me?”Emma asked turning to me
I shrugged
“I actually need a yes or no.”she said
“May I ask what you're going to do to Dyson?”asked Jessina
“No you may not. It’s between me and my fellow colleague Dyson.”she says extremely calm
*Oh god this is going to shit. But why do I have to go with her to meet Dyson? I don’t wanna go to fight Dyson.* I complain in my head
“I will be going to talk to Dyson about the new rules. Rinzler would you be a dear and hold the fort down here. I’ll send the system codes to run things incase something goes wrong here.”she says
“Wait what?”I sign completely confused
“Dyson makes you uncomfortable right?”she said
“Yeah i guess.”I sign
“Then you will not be going. I also need someone to keep things afloat here so I want you to run it. Keep in contact with Anon and Abraxas but other then that everything should be smooth sailing from here.”Emma said
“Are you going to be okay though?”Laura asked
“Yeah everything will be fine. I’m taking like two other black guards but other than that everything should be okay.”Emma said
“But Em Dyson is like the worst to be seen without Anon or Abraxas, he hates like everyones guts. Clu just kept him in line because he had power but we don’t.”said Laura
“Who said I didn’t have power over Dyson.”Emma laughs,”I have cards that I can play.”
I look between the three. What am I going to do? I’m going to run the grid until Emma gets back. I mean sure that's fine but why right now? I guess that's okay. I’m sure I’m going to be okay right?
“Hey you’ll be okay.”Emma says
“I honestly don’t think so!”I sign
“I promise you’ll be okay, trust me. Okay? I’m leaving the girls with you, they’ll guide you through anything you ask.”She says
I simply nod as she turns back to the girl, again lost in thought and worry. She leaves shortly after that awkward interaction.

Chapter Text

Back at Encom in the real world Alan, Lora and Jethro were in the main meeting area with Sam and Quorra and some of the main shareholders. Alan had been begging Sam to take back the company and with enough pushing Sam finally took back the company and is restoring it back to the way his father had always wanted.
“So Sam you are officially in control of Encom welcome. We as a whole wanted to know what you will be doing now that you're in control.”said some dude Sam could never remember his name
“I was restoring it back to the way my father Kevin Flynn had always wanted it. To be free for all to play.”said Sam
“But how will we be making a profit? The only reason we are so big is that we are making money off of the biggest game around the world!!”said the dude
“Well you were making a profit off of something that was supposed to be free for all. You stole my fathers game and made money off of something that was supposed to be free for all. That's what my father Kevin Flynn wanted so I’m going to respect his wishes and you should too.”said Sam
“Sam…This is a big deal. You should’ve at least told us the biggest shareholders of this company about this.”said another
“No I really didn’t this is technically my company and I’m going to do what I want with it.”said Sam
“You're driving us into a hole!”said a woman
“Well you can back out!”said Quorra
“Yeah like come on you guys saw that some big dude died and then turned his life's project into your bank accounts.”said Jethro
“Back out then.”said Alan
“Yeah while we are respecting a dead man's wishes you can do what you want.”said Sam,”but this is what my father would’ve wanted for his company and his ideas.”
“Fine!! Drive yourself into a hole. Bring this company to the ground.”he said then the meeting was over
“So what do you want to do with the Encom?”asked Alan
“I was thinking about checking on the grid. It needs a little love. Its also my dads life's work.”said Sam
“You want help?”asked Alan
“Yeah that would make it easier and quicker because I don’t know where to start.”laughed Sam
“Well then lets see what we can do.”said Lora
“I’m excited to get back to the grid.”said Quorra turning to Sam
“I too am excited. I want to fix it and make my fathers creation come back to life. Better than the way he left it now that CLU is gone. The grid needs a little love.”said Sam
“Well what are we still doing here! Let’s go!”said Jethro
“Calm down Jeth. We’ll get going soon.”laughed Lora
“Well I’m excited okay mama I want to see the grid.”said Jethro
“Okay okay…Calm down.”laughed Alan
“Can we go now please.”said Jethro
***Time skip brought to you by my depression***
At Flynn’s, Jethro was excitedly bouncing around excitedly while Sam and Alan were moving the game Tron out of the way to get into Kevin’s office. Quorra watched curiously as they walked through the hallway to the office, flashbacks playing through her head from when she first came into the human world. Lora ran her hand on the wall of the office when she saw that there was a table in the middle of the room.
“I can program it while you four are in there.”said Lora
“Yeah, like when it goes out, turn it back on?”questioned Sam
“Yeah so you guys won’t get stuck in there.”joked Lora
“Yeah don’t want that to happen.”said Alan then he kissed his wife
“You guys be careful in there alright.”said Lora
“Don’t worry me and Quorra will protect your family.”said Sam
“I’m worried about you my boy.”said Lora hugging Sam,”You guys be safe”
“Don’t worry we will.”said Quorra
“I expect to see you all when you come back. All in one piece.”said Lora
“We’ll be safe Mama. Sam and Quorra are good fighters but I doubt we’ll need them to fight.”said Jethro
“I won’t be so sure, programs are very territorial and we don’t know what we are walking into Jethro. I’m sure there are still programs that are still running under CLU’s influence and we don’t know who the systematem is and it could be anyone. Maybe more cruel than CLU.”said Quorra
“Hey at least CLU’s gone.”laughed Sam
“I think I can program Tron to be in the program as protection.”commented Alan
“Will that make you feel better Mama?”asked Jethro
“Yes that would.”smiled Quorra
“Then that's what we’ll do.”said Alan
“Alright now let's get you guys going.”said Lora
“Don’t worry you’ll be in contact with us the whole time.”said Sam
“Okay okay let's get you guys going before the tears start flowing.”said Lora
“Honey don’t worry about us trust me, we’ll be okay in there and we’ll be quick you won’t even notice that we’re gone.”comforted her husband

Once in the grid everyone noticed their clothes changed, Quorra and Sam in their suits from before and that Jethro and Alan were in a jacket that also glowed white like Quorra and Sam’s suits. Jethro checked himself out laughing, while Quorra judged him a little. Alan was taking in the sight of the grid; it was truly beautiful. The beauty of the grid, the way the towers were towering over them and the orange ships flying over standing out from all of the blues. Sam watched as the ships were flying over them, it seemed that the grid was in distress. Quorra put her hand on Sam’s shoulder, squeezing it for comfort.
“Okay where do we start?”asked Jethro
“We start by getting out of the city and bringing Tron’s codes over here to bring him back to the grid. Then we will start getting the map of the grid after that then we will start fixing it, bringing it back to life.”said Sam
“That's honestly a pretty good plan.”said Alan
“Well I think it’s shit. I mean we have no cover and we don’t know what’s going on. We need to hide in the shadows and get out of here! Yet me and dad don’t know how to navigate through the city. What if we get lost of captured, they could torture us or kill us. I don’t think mom will like that!”said Jethro
“What, are you scared!”teased Quorra
“No not at all.”said Jethro,”Just…cautious that's all.”
“We can’t do much since we don’t know who’s really ruling right now, the best we can do is get out of the city and bring Tron into the grid.”said Sam
“I mean we can get caught then be killed by the corrupted.”said Quorra
“Honey you don’t have to be so negative about this this is good that we are bringing options to our tables.”said Sam
“We need to leave soon, we can’t stay in one place at a time.”said Jethro
“You're right, let's get moving. We need to get out of the city to revive Tron.”said Sam
“What if we went to your fathers place that your father stayed.”said Alan
“Perfect let’s go there.”said Quorra
“We need to sneak out of here so let's take the alleyway.”commented Jethro
*Tiny time skip, brought to you by crippling anxiety*
In the alleyway sneaking through the dark they go stopped by two black guards.
“State your business here!”one said
“Oh you know we’re just taking a shortcut home!”casually said Sam
“Every program knows that they are supposed to be home a cycle ago due to Dyson’s rule!”said the second guard
“We’re going to have to take you in!”said the first
“I don’t think you will!”said Sam grabbing his disc
“Shit we’re gonna have to fight!”commented Jethro
“Guess we will.”sighed Quorra
The first guard lunged at Sam trying to attack him but Sam held his own, blocking his every move. The second guard tried attacking Quorra while she protected Jethro as he and Alan didn’t have discs yet. Sam was able to throw the one guard to the ground and Alan quickly pulled up his code, working quickly he changed a few things and the orange flickered and turned blue. Shock filled the air, Quorra derezzed the guard she was fighting and Jethro just stood there shocked from Quorra’s amazing fighting skills and the fact at what his dad did.
“How…How did you do that?”questioned Sam
“I don’t know, I was just trying to make him defenseless. Didn’t know I could reprogram him.”said Alan
“We need to get out of here!”said Quorra
“Someone could have been alerted that we’re here.”said Sam
*Magic POV switch*
Beck in the auto-shop was working on a new bike that someone left saying it's not running properly. A few days ago Dyson came to claim the city so he had to be careful not to give himself away to Dyson as he could get arrested or killed. Paige would kill him if he got hurt or found out. Yet it's boring being kept in the garage all the time. Renegade needs to be out to stop the corrupted from terrorizing the peaceful city. Beck started plotting to leave the garage for about an hour to scope out the city to make sure its safe.
“Are you plotting to leave the garage?”asked Mara
“What? What do you mean?”asked Beck
“I said what I said.”said Mara
“Okay but for an hour. I’m soooo bored being stuck here. I need to see what's going on.”said Beck
“There's literally a lockdown on the city right now.”said Link
“But what if innocent programs are being harmed!”said Beck
“You can’t be Renegade right now. It’s unsafe.”said Mara
“But the programs need a new savior after Tron disappeared”said Beck
“Yeah but we need you Beck, you can’t be reckless with your life.”said Link
“Think for yourself for once right now.”said Mara
“What are you guys talking about?”asked Zed
“Beck’s been staring at the door for the whole day, he wants to go out and get himself caught.”said Mara
“I'm just so bored that we’ve been on lock down. I haven’t seen the outside in so long.”said Beck
“So you want to risk your life for programs then get yourself killed by Dyson. Got it.”laughed Zed
“It’s only for an hour please.”begged Beck
“Do what you want but we’re not covering for you to Able or Paige.”said Mara
“Fine and I promise I’ll not get caught. I just need to get some fresh air.”said Beck
“Don’t die.”said Zed
“I won’t it’s not that hard to be in the shadows.”said Beck
“Whatever.”said Link
“You're very helpful!”commented Mara
“Oh shut up, you're kinda encouraging him!”said Zed
“How am I encouraging him!”said Mara
“You're both not helpful!”said Link
“Boy!”said Mara as she smacked him in the head
“Hey!”yelled Link
“That's what I thought now, keep your thoughts to yourself!”said Mara
“What's this about!”yelled Able
“Oh nothing, we are just getting back to work!”said Zeb
“Okay but I need to talk to Beck about something.”said Able
“OH he’s uh in the restroom!”shouted Link
“Well okay but the thing is we don’t go to the bathroom.”said Able
*Y’all let me know if they do or not, probably not but we don’t know*
“Oh uh that was stupid Beck’s out going to see Paige.”said Zed
“Oh so Paige the program who told Beck to not get in trouble is going to see her?”said Able, catching onto their lies
“Well yes because he just wanted to make sure she’s okay y’know betraying the Clu loyalists and all, then now their coming back and all.”said Link
“You two are getting dumber and dumber.”whispered Mara
“I’ll believe it when I see it. So when Beck gets back from this “visit to Paige’s” I’m gonna talk to him.”said Able
“Yes of course. We’ll let him know when he comes back from her place.”said Zeb
“Uh huh, I’m going to message her to tell him to come back.”said Able,”Since y’know there's a lock down and all.”
“Oh maybe they’re busy so we shouldn’t disturb them!”said Mara
“Yeah I think Paige may punish him for being out like this.”said Zed
“Kids my maker I know that you're covering for him so he can sneak out and be some hero. I’m not that dumb. So please just tell me where he is!”said Able annoyed
“He’s out being Renegade and making sure he can protect the innocent programs.”said Mara
“Thanks Mara”said able
“What are you going to do?”asked Zed
“Punish him. He’s gonna be working extra shifts and maybe work ten times as hard. Beck is going to get himself killed by the enemy if he keeps doing this.”sighed Able
“It’s not like we can stop him!”said Link
“Well at least you tried right!?”said Able
“Well yeah of course we tried to stop him but he wouldn’t listen. He kept talking about justice and stuff you know.”said Mara
“Sounds like Beck right there.”commented Able
“No kidding.”comments Link
“Where is he!”screamed Paige barging into the garage
“You actually told her?”surprised Zed
“I did, now Paige he’s out saving the grid.”said Able
“You let him out there? With Emma putting Dyson in charge it's bad like real bad. Emma is a literal psycho, probably worse than CLU!!”said Paige
“Wait wait wait, slow down, what do you mean?”said Mara
“Before anything we need to get Beck back without the black guard and Dyson knowing before you start spilling anything else.”said Able
“Right Beck should be first.”said Paige,”I have a tracker I’ll find him.”
Paige was following the tracker she has on her boyfriend and found him in the back of an alleyway of the city. The lights of the city clashed with her orange suit, standing in the middle of the alleyway she heard the commotion of a fight. Cursing the users if it's Beck she ran to see glowing blue lights fighting against orange lights. She watched from the shadows as she watched a program pulling up the codes of a defenseless black guard and his codes turned blue. Her breath hitched, there was a user on the grid. She also saw an ISO with them, knowing immediately who it was, Quorra.
“Someone could have been alerted that we’re here.”said a program
“We need to hide.”said the ISO
“I know a place you can hide.”said Paige stepping from the shadows
“Who are you!”said another program putting his disk up
“I’m Paige, I’m here to help you, trust me you can’t be here. You’ll die.”said Paige, putting her hands up to show she wasn’t a threat
“How do we know you can be trusted.”said another program
“Take my disc but be quick those programs probably warned their boss that they caught some programs.”said Paige
“We can trust her.”said Quorra
“How do you know?”said the first program
“Because I know.”said Quorra
“ISO?”asked Paige
“ISO.”confirmed Quorra,”Kevin Flynn saved me, I’m the last one.”
“Everyone knows that. Now have you seen another program running around?”asked Paige
“No but we can help.”said Quorra
“Thanks but I can handle that. I’ll send you a place but use the back back alleyways it's not safe on the surface. I’ll let the people know and they’ll bring you up to speed on what's going on now that CLU and Kevin Flynn both died.”said Paige
“Clearly it combussed”said Quorra
“Not even the biggest thing going on.”laughed Paige
“You two seem friendly….”said another program
“That's for a bit later now I gotta find my boyfriend I’ll see you later Quorra.”said Paige as she left
“Paige and me are kinda friends but we haven’t talked since the purge.”smiled Quorra
“She’s an ISO?”questioned Sam
“Oh god no she works for the black guard obviously! We fought each other during the purge but Kevin Flynn saved me. We both were young at the time. It’s a weird story.”laughed Quorra
“Oh okay, now let's go to the safe house.”said Alan
“My issue is what about the whole she works for the people that tried to attack us.”said Jethro
“No I trust her.”said Quorra
“If you say so, I still don’t fully trust her.”said Sam
“Your gonna have to trust her.”said Quorra
***
Paige walking through the alleyways tracking Beck made her way to the shipping containment yard. She heard noises a bit further, crouching down as she got closer to it so she couldn’t be seen well. Paige turns her head to see Beck surrounded by sentries and Dyson leading the group. Looking at the fight, she knew that Beck wouldn’t win the fight and could almost lose his life. Paige watched ready to save the day but was stopped when she heard another voice.
“Dyson what are you doing, Emma told you to leave the innocent programs alone.”said the other program
“I don’t take orders from less programs, especially that woman of a program. She isn’t a true leader.”said Dyson
“Emma is our leader now and she doesn’t want more innocents to die. Swear loyalty to her and you can walk out of this alive.”said the other program
Paige watched in shock, Abraxas and Emma were in it together, the grid is totally doomed for good. She knew Emma was bad but she was with Abraxas and Anon. We, the programs, were all doomed, true evil ruling over the grid. Doom is coming. The storm of corruption was on its way and it wasn’t gonna be good.

Chapter Text

I would beg for mercy but I felt like I deserved it, he hurts me for failing him. He turned everything off so I sat still there in the dark like a statue, cramping in my legs hurt but I couldn’t do a thing about it. I came back to reality to be his entertainment when he wanted other than that I was locked up in the tiny room he kept me in.
“Ready buddy?”CLU taunted
I nodded to him
“Sir the prisoners are ready.”said Jarvis
“Let the games begin.”said CLU
A new batch of prisoners came and they started a revolution against CLU. The leader was put in the games for entertainment and public execution but no one cared as long as people kill each other no one cares that they are still programs. I stood next to CLU in his ship as everyone slaughtered each other, CLU personally had the members put against each other so they would kill each other. Saved him the dirty work.
“Who in the revolution is in there?”asked CLU
“Why would you like to know?”asked Jarvis
“I didn’t ask for your questions I asked who was in the fight.”said CLU
“Just the leader and his high members. The low lifes are still in prison.”said Jarvis
“There was a rumor among the low lifes that there is more than one leader in the ranks.”said CLU
“There is only him….”said Jarvis
“Find them, they wouldn’t lie for a rumor.”said CLU
CLU had Jarvis send an order to drag the leader to us in his ship. He was dragged up to us and put in front of CLU. He was tall with dark hair and bloodied yet he didn’t look scared when put in front of CLU he looked almost relieved to see him up close.
“Tell me what's your name?”CLU asked
“Why would I tell you that you monster.”said the leader
“So I could put you against your own kind.”said CLU
“My kind? Why would you want to know? So I could fight them?”he said
“Precisely but I couldn’t find them.”CLU said
“And you’ll never find them.”he said
“Send him back to the games.”ordered CLU,”Rinzler kill him, send everyone a message. Make it painful.”
I was sent in and I gave him hell but he gave me hell. His skills were mad good, he was able to hurt me. The pain was unimaginable, I was knocked to the floor and had trouble standing up, arms shaking to the point that I couldn’t use them to get up. My legs wouldn’t work, they went completely numb, crawling to safety was impossible. I just laid there hoping for death. Hoped he’d give me mercy, hoped at least he would give me some. Hoped death would be painless. He walked up to me heavy breathing, footsteps loud and wobbly from the tiredness from our fight.
Shaking in fear from him, from my master, from everything I laid there hoping he'd just kill me. He stood over me. I could see his feet through the blurry vision and cracked screen of the helmet. My processors grinded hard and it wasn't making a good sound.
“You have fear.”he simply said
Please just kill me, that was my only thought. I wanted death.
“I’ll give you mercy.”he said and then killed himself
Shock filled the stadium as he was erased right next to my useless body. Black guard came rushing into the ring and grabbed me then dragged me to the horrors that were in store for me. Behind me they put more programs into the ring to distract from what just happened.
“How could you not kill him!”screamed CLU
Don’t move, he’ll hurt you even more.
“You're the grid's best fighter and you couldn’t kill this guy??? That was your only order and you blew it. Your so fucking useless, you should’ve just died and I’ll could just use him at least he could kill!!”screamed CLU even louder this time
Wow that stings.
“What do you think will happen now that the programs know you're not invincible and that you aren’t the best there is!! My right hand man isn’t invincible he’s just as useless as any other program.”yelled CLU
CLU rubbed his hands against his temples then yanked my discs off their port and opened my program. I just sat there broken and in more pain than usual. Jarvis stood next to CLU staring at my program, it was mangled then other programs programming it had a lot of damage in it.
“Jarvis step out into my office and stay there I like to give out punishments to my security program alone.”taunted CLU
I tensed up at his words, they sounded like poison that takes a long time to work but you feel its effects before it activates and you're just in pain as it slowly takes effect. His words are numbing.
“Now that we’re alone.”started CLU as my helmet came off,”Let's start, maybe this time you’ll remember what happens when you disappoint me.”
He kept the discs on the table in the room while he grabbed my jaw and made me stare at his cold soulless eyes. Digging his thumb into the scar that was left on my face from some fight that I don’t remember. He looked disappointed when I had no reaction to it so he grabbed my jaw harder before throwing me to the ground. I was totally useless then, barely breathing from the injuries that he refused to fix before teaching me a lesson. My injured side hit the edge of the table and I let out a pained whimper and of course he heard it.
“You actually feel pain?”laughed CLU
I laid there shaking as he sauntered over to me and grabbed my hair pulling me up. He forced me to look at him as he took his own disc from the port and stuck it in my wound. Tears fell from my eyes in pain and I started choking from holding in my cries. He started to use this as his advantage for torturing me as he created his own injuries to my mangled body. From this I passed out from pain.
Next thing I knew I woke up on the floor shivering. I tried to get up but couldn't. I noticed I had no discs on the table. I was defenseless against any attacker but I had no injuries and my helmet was back on. I pulled myself up and sat against a wall of the tiny room. Then I heard the door open and Dyson, the guy who wanted my spot, walked in.
***
“Sir, why did you let Dyson into the room?”asked Jarvis
“To see who would come out on top. Rinzler disappointed me and Dyson wants his spot on the council.”said CLU
“But Rinzler doesn’t have his discs….How is he going to defend himself.”asked Jarvis
“He can defend himself.”answered CLU
“Sir….”Jarvis was about to ask but Dyson walked out with his whole arm missing and pieces him his leg was missing
“Your security program is a menace.”said Dyson as he limped away
“See?”said CLU impressed
“May I say I’m impressed he could defend himself without any weapon.”said Jarvis
“I did create him….”said CLU
CLU got up with Rinzlers discs and opened the programming, messing with it he turned Rinzler completely off and had Jarvis lock the door behind CLU as he stepped into the room before coming out an hour later. He punished the program in many ways.
***
4 microcycles later three new programs came. I was offline for those microcycles. I stood there with no discs in the corner of the meeting room.
“Everyone this is Emma, Abraxas and Anon our new members of the council.”announced CLU
Emma looked different from the rest, her red circuits mixing with our orange circuits. She had the same features as the two boys sitting next to her.
“Thank you for letting us join.”said Emma
“Of course we always look forward to new members and loyalists.”smiled CLU
“I do hope we can work together to create a new world.”said Emma
“Please the honor is all mine.”said CLU
“Do tell us why a girl and two boys are joining us? They have no contribution to us.”said Dyson
“Actually…”started CLU but Emma cut him off
“If I may, I do think we can contribute very well to your cause. I mean we have very much a meaning to our cause. We have a lot of information for you guys and we can infiltrate and get you anything you want.”said Emma
How is she not dead yet? If anyone else cut CLU off they’ll be dead. Tesler tried that and almost had his tongue cut off. Dyson had his body cut in half the other day and Jarvis lost his right arm.
“This child cut you off sir and you didn’t kill her? Why’s that?”asked Tesler hesitantly
“Because she interests me with the way she defends herself.”said CLU
“Thank you your greatness.”said Emma
“If I may cut into this conversation sir, I think we can interest you Dyson. The sector you're ruling over has been giving you trouble recently with the revolution of Renegade. How haven’t you killed the child that is the leader. I mean if CLU could basically end a whole lineage of a revolution then why can’t you?”asked Abraxas
“I mean he did it easily! But you can’t even catch the Renegade and how about the fact that your own lackey joined them. Who knows what information they’re leaking to them!”laughed Anon
“SHUT UP!”yelled Dyson, pointing his disc at Anon’s throat
Emma got up and pointed her own at him while Abraxas started pulling Anon behind him. CLU laughed before ordering Dyson to stand down.
“I quite agree with these three. How haven’t you stopped the Renegade?”asked CLU
“He’s slippery to catch, trained by Tron is the rumors and the fact that my own lieutenant is with them so she knows how I think.”admitted Dyson
“I see that my friend here is useless. Why don’t I lend a hand to him and send some troopers to his sector and attack the Renegade. I mean you know where he resides?”said Tesler
“I agree.”said CLU
The trio gave each other a look almost silently talking to each other while the others talked about attacking the Renegade. I could tell they were planning something, Emma eyed CLU angrily which alerted me that she wants to hurt him.
“CLU sir may I ask something.”asked Emma
“Sure why not.”said CLU
“Your plan to attack Renegade I would like to ask how do you plan on pursuing after you capture as I have no doubt that Dyson wouldn’t carry your orders to the tea, do you plan to put the Renegade in the games? You know to prove a point.”said Emma
“I see why not.”shrugged CLU
“Where else would he put the bastard.”commented Dyson
“I suggest that I send Abraxas or Anon with so they get a feel of power and how things are run.”said Emma
“And what about you?”asked Tesler suspiciously
“I want to work personally with the ruler of the grid.”said Emma
Both Dyson and Tesler laughed at her. In her eyes she was real serious, no joking whatsoever and I could tell CLU enjoyed it.
“I think that's a perfect idea.”said CLU
He just found another toy to play with.
CLU showed Emma around the security hub as I followed behind the two. She seriously worried me with this demeanor she had was confusing. She charmed CLU but her aura was cold and strong with anger. She reminded me of someone but I couldn’t remember not only her but her two lackeys all had the same aura coldness and anger mixed in. Emma especially carried herself through the disrespect from Dyson and Tesler as she worked her magic in her favor of CLU.
“Emma why don’t you stay around the security hub while the boys are away I can offer you to stay since it would be terrible to stay by yourself.”offered CLU
“Your greatness I would like to but I have to decline you see I wouldn’t want to bother you. Especially while you're so busy!”said Emma
“Oh why you are not bothering me at all. I love the company.”said CLU
“I sure you have all the company!”she says gesturing to me
“Oh why Rinzler is just a security precaution can’t be too cautious!”he laughed
She laughed stiffly at him before turning her charm on to him again as she talked to him casually about the grid and how he runs it.
“I have to admire your rule, how you do it so perfectly. You rarely get any threat to your rule. You make it seem so easy ruling over every program so easy.”said Emma
“It’s really about the technique on the way you rule. You see, I rule over fear and dictatorship really. I keep my rules lean but strict. Also you have to show you're not to be messed with by some programs and it works.”said CLU
“I see….”she said trailing off
“Please later you and your boys bring them to my ship later and we’ll all watch the games in luxury.”offered CLU
“Oh we’d love too.”said Emma
As she charmed CLU, fluttered her eyelashes at him. She turned on her heels, swishing her hair as she walked away from us. CLU watched her admiring her every portion of her body. It almost disgusted me as he basically eye fucked her. I couldn’t say anything as this was him at every female program he looked at.
“Sir I did a background check on Emma, Abraxas and Anon.”said Jarvis
“And?”CLU sighed
“They are completely nothing ... .There's no evidence that they exist. I ran their codes many many times and nothing.”said CLU
“I knew they were sketchy!”said Tesler
“The way the girl brought her disc to my neck without any hesitation….It was off putting as no one does that.”said Dyson
“That's what put you off, not the fact that she literally cut CLU off with no hesitation!”said Tesler
“Send a spy to watch them.”said CLU
“What?”questioned both idiots
“A spy to watch them for a microcycle I want to know what they do.”said CLU
“They probably are boring.”commented Jarvis
****
Within that week CLU still found nothing on the newcomers, the spy he used was found dead within two millicycles near the shipping unit in Dyson’s sector. He got fed up with Dyson and Tesler nearly killing them when they kept suggesting killing them when he needed them for his great plan. Yet it never went the way of finding any information on them. He finally sent me to stalk them.
It didn’t take long, they went to Zeus's club a lot partying with many programs. They favored many whose circuits were darker orange and darker blue then the normal brighter colors which was weird but nothing new. Emma seemed close to this girl with a weird bob and orange circuits. She talked to her a lot. They got real close to each other. I would see her around Dyson some times but never thought about it. After the club the four would go to the shipping unit in Dysons sector and hang out. They would watch illegal races which I'd have to report later yet they did nothing that was wrong.
“Nothing, they are nothing but random programs?”sighed CLU
“So why’d the spy end up dead? Or there's nothing on their backgrounds?”asked Jarvis
“Strays…”said Tesler
“I interrogated Paige, the girl they hung out with and she said that they are random programs that showed up. They hung out a lot when younger.”said Dyson
“So strays are what they are!”said Tesler
“They will be respected when they join the ranks. I like their fighting style and carelessness they hold. They bring a sense of youngness amongst you two idiots, maybe they’ll bring actual smartness!”said CLU
“What!?”yelled Dyson
“Sir they’re nothing! We are programmed for this job! We should be throwing them in the sea of simulation, not bringing them within ranks!”yelled Tesler
My question was why he even cared for random programs; they weren’t much but it didn’t matter. He didn’t care for my opinion on this matter. He did take my speaking privileges away. I didn’t even have my discs right now as I looked at my lifeline sitting on his desk just sitting there. Next to the marbles he used in the games when he put me in the games. He left them in the wide open proving he never cared if I died or not as they sat there. Tesler became edgy when he saw I didn’t have my discs so no defense if he attacked me. Dyson looked cautionless when he saw Tesler but I stood still. I didn’t care I was still stronger even though I secretly wished one would kill me and I would be left alone.
“I see you again took disc privileges!”teased Tesler
“Tesler, this isn’t a laughing matter!”snapped CLU
“Right sir but still isn’t it useless to have your top security program weaponless.”said Tesler
“He beat Dyson….”said CLU
This snapped Tesler to look at me then back at Dyson then nodded in respect. This pleased CLU but didn’t please me much. They both kept CLU busy talking instead of leaving to do their jobs. Finally leaving CLU ordered them gone when he got tired of them.
“Tell me Jarvis, is anything good going on?”asked CLU
“Nothing sir…files…files and reports to file through.”said Jarvis
“Go through them. Send actual important documents to me to look through.”ordered CLU
“Right away sir.”bowed Jarvis then left
“So everyone is fucking disappointing me! First you then the two idiots! Now everything feels like it's going to shit.”complained CLU
He just shouted at me as he backed me up into a wall. Blaming me for what was happening to the grid and his control over everything. I wanted to speak to him but I couldn’t so I just shook my head and put my hands up in defeat of him. I didn’t want to fight him but I didn’t want punishment for anything I just wanted to protect myself. He backhanded me in the face before kicking my knee as I fell to the ground. He grabbed my discs with a mischievous grin as he deactivated my helmet. I was looking at the shiny floor. All I saw was a face that I didn’t know. The face of the stranger was all I saw. He grabbed my hair to make me look at him. The look on him wasn’t a good one before he threw me back on the ground.
He took his own disc and put it against my neck as he studied my face as he activated it but didn’t kill me. All he did was pull it away before plunging it into my abdomen then pulled it out causing me to yipe in pain. Which wasn’t good as his face changed into excitement when he heard my pain, my master wanted more pain to cause me. I couldn’t do anything about it but let him do it. I stayed there in pain as he cut and stabbed me with my own disc as I didn’t make another sound just stayed still not moving.
“Now Rinzler….why didn’t you make another sound?”CLU asked
I looked at him
“Common you asked for it.”he laughed
He hit me again
“That damn face still looks like him after everything!”he complained
The other program
“I gave Flynn everything!! Everything!! I made the perfect world for him but he didn’t even acknowledge what I did!! So I took his precious little friend from him and built a whole empire!! He still hides, not even to rescue his friend!!”he says looking at me
I sit there
“Flynn left you to die but I created you! I repurposed the best fighter in the grid!! Everything for Flynn but he abandons everything for his precious users!”said CLU
I sat there holding myself together while in pain and falling apart
“....Your nothing as close to him, Tron was the security program that Flynn brought to the grid and you were him…you Rinzler were the greatest thing but your nothing but a mere repurposed program.”he taunts
Slow deeps breaths before everything turns black
Nothing but the deep soothness of eternal black of no pain and no abuse but silence and peacefulness. Yet it doesn’t last long as I wake up again in the room and the door locked with no discs in sight. I just sit in the far corner with my knees to my chest and rest my head on my knees. The helmet made it uncomfortable but I couldn’t care less. Hugging my legs close I fell asleep. Sleeping soundlessly to the sound of my clicking noises created by my master. Pain trembled through my body making it hard to breathe. The door opened and I startled me trying to get up yet couldn’t fear shot through me fearing that more punishment was coming. Leaning on the wall
“Sit Rinzler, no need to get up. I’m not gonna hurt you.”smiled Emma
I didn’t sit
“Rinzler I would never hurt an innocent program.”said Emma
She came forward but I backed myself into the corner. She was a foot away from me before I sat in fear shaking, she crouched down in a squat before reaching her hand out for me. I just looked at her.
“I’m not gonna hurt you.”said Emma
I ended up in her arms as she soothed me, I cried in her arms that night. She sat on the floor with me basically on top of her rubbing my back up and down. I looked up at her and she was already looking down at me with her eyes loving and calm. Behind those eyes were sadness and a hint of anger. I snuggled up into her lap with her welcoming me with her arms around me sheltering from the cold.
“Sleep…He won’t hurt you.”she says
I closed my eyes, the clicking became almost like purring
“I shall keep that promise he won’t hurt you anymore.”she promised
I knew that was basically a lie, she couldn’t stop him from hurting me. It was impossible once CLU thought about doing something, he did it, nothing could stop him no one. That's what I worried about this program as I laid in her arms, I couldn’t get attached to her as she would probably be in a pile on the ground if CLU found her.
“Your overthinking is not gonna help and keep you up.”said she says still rubbing my back
“I’m not gonna leave.”said Emma
I looked at her again before moving
“You don’t speak…I know that,”she starts,”I wanna help you, will you let me help you?”
I nod
“Oh good, you'll be able to communicate with me!”she smiles
I smiled under the helmet at her, she's adorable.
***
2 microcycles later I found myself having secret lessons with Emma on some ways to communicate with others through hand signs. She’s really nice to me but to others she was cold to them. She would work closely with CLU a lot which unnerved me with he’d look at her with this evil stare almost lust over her.
It wasn’t until the users that terrorized CLU’s orders that made me realize why these three came. Emma fought with CLU when he tried to punish me for losing the user after chasing him. It didn’t take long for him to get annoyed with her and send guards to escort her out. I still was put in “time out” and never knew what happened with her after I was shut off. Yet he still let her look after the grid and I overheard her talking to someone about taking over the grid and getting rid of the “cursed” programs. Something about a virus.

Chapter Text

*Third person*

Paige stayed crouched down hidden behind the shipping containers listening to the trio discussing what to do with the limp corpse of the Renegade. Her breath was heavy as she started to record what she heard for the others to prove they were evil.
“So this is the dude who was causing us all this trouble?”surprised Anon
“Please, how couldn’t Dyson catch him? It took us like 30 nano-cycles!”said Abraxas
“Because Dyson is an idiot!”said Emma
“Some hero!”commented Abraxas
“You three! Drop the body into the sea of Simulation!”ordered Emma
“WAIT!!!”shouted Paige
“Oh….Paige!”said Emma
“What are you doing here!”surprised Abraxas
“I thought you were dead!”said Anon
“Please don’t kill the Renegade!”begged Paige
“Why?”asked Abraxas
“He caused us a lot of trouble!”said Anon
“You have something with him! Because you don’t work for Dyson but who can blame you!”laughed Emma
“He and I are kinda dating but please don’t kill him!”said Paige
“Why?”asked Anon
“How can we believe you?”asked Abraxas
“He has some secret information and is working to save the innocent programs but please he’s harmless!”said Paige
“What secret information?”asked Emma
“He was trained by Tron, the original Tron!”said Paige
“Tron? The Tron? Never thought he cared that much to train a kid not to mention an annoying one!”laughed Anon
“Exactly!”agreed Abraxas
The boys laughed as Emma stared right at her. Paige felt uncomfortable with her staring at her but she smiled at her as she started to inch towards Beck but Emma smirked at her.
“Are we really going to do this again?”laughed Emma
While the boys caught on as they circled her each watched Paige like a hawk. Paige quickly backed down but stayed strong to get Beck to safety. The three programs stood imitating before Paige quickly drew her disc and activated it, she stood one against three which she was at a disadvantage but Beck woke up and attacked Anon who was closest to him. Emma attacked Paige while ordering Abraxas to help Anon.
Emma easily overpowered Paige as she threw her disc before sliding under her catching her disc and slicing at Paige’s leg. This caused Paige to fall and Emma stood over her. Abraxas and Anon tag teamed Beck kicking his knees in and holding his arms back. Defenseless against the two he looked sadly at Paige who was in pain trying to crawl away from Emma.
“What do you want from us?”asked Beck
“The users, where are they?”asked Abraxas
“I don’t know anything about them!”said Beck,”I’m being honest!”
“We’re not asking you, tiny program! Paige, where are they?”asked Emma
“Why should I tell you psycho’s!”shouted Paige
“That wasn’t a good answer!”said Abraxas
With this Anon grabbed his disc pointing it at Beck before plunging it into Beck as he screamed in pain Paige started to cry.
“You were always WEAK!!”said Anon
“I told them to go to the garage!! The one that Able works!! So they’ll be safe!”cried Paige
“That’s all we wanted to know.”smiled Emma
They released the two and started to walk away
“You gonna kill them like you killed the infected?”asked Paige
“Watch yourself! Or you're gonna end up like the last program you protected!”said Emma
“What was that about?”asked Beck
“Nothing sweetie, I just sent that to Able and told him to get the users out of there we just need to go to a safe place and patch you up okay!”said Paige
“What are you hiding?”asked Beck
“I’ll tell everything once we meet up with the others, okay!?”said Paige
“Yeah….”answered Beck
Paige picked him up and dragged him to safety where they couldn't be found while Beck was injured. Paige stayed silent not knowing what to say to Beck. He just kinda stared into space a little upset at Paige for hiding some secret from him. She knew the three but he didn’t understand what happened between them, maybe about who she protected and they killed? But who?
“Paige? Was it someone you were close to?”he asked
“Yeah…We were…”she said hesitantly
“Okay.”he said dropping it
She finished fixing him and they went to the garage. There was a horror sight to see. The garage was a mess with everything on the ground and motor parts everywhere. The lights were hanging off the ceiling. There were abandoned discs and voxels in piles too. Paige put her hand over her mouth in shock. Beck looked horrified at the discs and piles of his friends. He picked up a disc and looked at it.
“What happened?”he questioned
“Emma and her little followers probably, if I remember correctly this is their handy work.”said Paige nodding her head at the destruction
“Why would they do this?”he asked
“To probably send a message maybe or to taunt me.”she said
“BECK!!”screamed Mara
“Oh my god your okay!”yelled Beck
“Yeah we got almost everyone out when they came!”breathed Able a sigh of relief seeing the two.
“It was crazy!”said Link
“Yeah you should’ve seen the fight!”said Zed
“What happened?”asked Beck
“Some people just came and attacked us! Only three people, Emma, Anon and Abraxas came and attacked us!”said Link
“Yeah and nearly killed Mara but Quorra saved her! Also the users came saying Paige sent them here but we got out quickly tryings to get the others out! We mostly made it other than a couple of people!”said Zed
“Yeah it was a mess.”said Able
“I’m glad your all safe.”said Beck
“Where are the users?”asked Paige
“We are staying in one of my safe houses for now.”said Able
“Thank you for saving them. Now let's go, we should all talk!”said Paige
“Yeah we do. Emma left us a message and some weird clues about your time working for CLU.”said Able
“I know….that's what I want to talk to everyone about.”said Paige looking at her feet
Ables' safe house was closer to the edge of the city and hidden among the small places that lived there. They had a clear view of the mountains and the giant skyscraper that was Zeus's bar. In the living room was a crowd of everyone that worked in the garage and the users. Alan, Jet and Quorra were patching up some injured programs while Sam was sitting there watching and helping some other workers when the group walked into the safe house.
“Ah Able your here with Paige and Beck please come in we’re just helping the last of the injured.”calmly said Alan
“Thank you Alan.”said Able clasping his hands over Alans
“Any way we can help?”asked Mara
“Yeah over here!”said Sam
They helped the injured programs and after all sat around the living room exhausted before Sam sat up and asked the question.
“So what happened here after we left?”he asked, looking around confused
“Yeah that's a good question, last thing I remember was watching Kevin Flynn explode taking CLU with and destroying the ship that held the army on it.”said Quorra
“Yeah well it almost took half the grid with it then brought us to shambles. Now Emma our new “Ruler” is holding the grid barely.”said Paige
“But you knew her!”said Beck
“Yeah I used to. She changed when working with CLU.”said Paige
“Hold up. What do you mean Emma is ruling the grid! She can’t be! CLU would never have that not only him but Dyson and Tesler would throw a fit if they let her be the ruler!”said Quorra now sitting up
“Yeah she took over and was the one that attacked the garage!”said Paige
“Should’ve known with the red circuits!”said Quorra,” and those skills.”
“What do you mean changed?”asked Able
“I knew her before I became a field agent working for Dyson. She used to work the docks or that's what I thought since she and the two boys were there together with a bunch of others were always there. One day when I was working for Dyson he ordered me and others to spy on some people who were to be believed to be spy’s on CLU. Emma and her boys were there already with the rest of those people dead even when they begged she just killed. I knew all the other discs she hung out with them a lot.”Paige said
“She killed her own friends?”said Jet
“That's so cruel!”added Sam
“Emma has always been that ruthless! You should see Abraxas in the games he was worse than her.”said Quorra
“Yeah he was worse than Rinzler in the games and he laughed the whole time he fought.”said Paige
“I remember watching him in the games he scared me.”said Link
“Nightmare fuel.”agreed Zed
“Hey I fought Rinzler, Abraxas can’t be that different!”said Sam
“Sweetie no. No one can even get close to defeating Abraxas.”said Quorra
“No way! I wanna see this. I made it out alive against Rinzler a secretary program and CLU’s right hand man. I can make it out alive when fighting Abraxas.”said Sam
“Rinzler was most likely being held back by CLU’s control so he can have entertainment. He’s forced to hold back. So no you didn’t exactly win against Rinzler. Not to mention Rinzler is a reprogramed Tron and they best fighter on the grid. You were lucky.”laughed Paige
The room went dead silent
“Say the last bit again!”said Beck
“That Rinzler was a reprogramed Tron and they were the best fighter on the grid?”realized Paige,”shit….I never told anyone did I?”
“RINZLER’s TRON!!!”yelled Sam
“WHAT!!”said Alan,”TRON WAS REPURPOSED!!”
“Wait dad why are you mad?”asked Jet
“I created TRON!”said Alan
“YOU CREATED TRON!!”shouted the programs other than Quorra
“Yes, I created Tron.”nodded Alan
“I was trained by Tron.”said Beck
“Oh my really, he was my childhood hero?”asked Sam
“Yeah he was my mentor…”said Beck,”Now I just found out Tron is or was CLU’s right hand man.”
“We all just found out. Sorry kid.”said Sam
“Paige why did you hide this from ME. Your boyfriend!”said Beck
“I hid it because it’s a hard topic to talk about even after everyone thought he was dead. I only found out a bit ago when we were fighting Dyson and he used that information to taunt me. I didn’t want to believe it so I did the math and it lined up with Rinzler’s random appearance and his fighting skills. I’m kinda surprised you didn’t figure it out.”said Paige
“It doesn’t make sense.”said Alan
“I actually put it together a long long time ago. I was friends with the guy.”said Able
“You knew Rinzler was Tron?”asked Beck
“Yeah but I came to accept the fact my friend was dead. If CLU repurposed him then he was no longer in there and there's no reason to hold onto hope.”said Able
“You let me hold onto hope my mentor was still out there? You let me mourn him? While he was still out there!”yelled Beck
“Beck he’s dead!! Tron’s dead!!”said Able
“Maybe he doesn’t have to be dead.”said Sam
“Sam, whatever you're thinking, stop it!”said Quorra
“What are you saying Sam?”asked Able
“Alan, what if we bring Tron here again?”suggested Sam
“Like bringing his programming to the grid? Again?”said Alan
“Guys stop it!!”protested Quorra
“No, that's a horrible idea!”said Paige
“Why is it a perfect idea!”said Beck
“No it’s not. Put it into perspective! Rinzler would find out immediately and tell Emma and she’ll bring an entire army to kill Tron!”said Paige
“Not to mention it’ll destroy our cover and we’ll need to hid somewhere else.”said Quorra
“But Tron can protect us against that army, not to mention we have Tron’s prodigy sitting right here. Also you Paige used to work with Dyson and Quorra you were trained by my dad. Also I survived the games with Rinzler. I think we’re covered. Jet was in the army technically he went through basic training. He can hold his own.”said Sam
“Alan can still get hurt. We can all still get hurt and killed here. Your talking people who don’t hold back.”said Quorra
“But if we bring Tron back he can help bring peace back to the grid! People need to see Tron!”said Beck
“BECK Stop!! He’s gone, your mentor is dead. He’s not coming back.”argued Paige
“The users can bring him back, Paige. He doesn’t have to be gone forever.”said Beck
“Why don’t you two see it the whole bringing Tron back?”asked Jet
“Because why aren’t holding onto the past.”said Paige
“I grew up with Kevin Flynn. I saw how much it hurt him knowing Tron was dead. He said being stuck here and his friend dead hurt the most. I don’t want to see Sam so attached to Tron knowing it was his fathers life. After being stuck here I’m not watching him getting attached to Tron.”said Quorra
“You should’ve seen Beck after Tron’s death. Wouldn’t leave his room for Mircocycles. I literally almost took over Renegade for him, he was so sad. I got feed up and dragged him outside to look at what Dyson did to the city in celebration of his death.”said Paige
“Able what do you say?”asked Jet
“I say do what you think is best. I don’t totally agree with bringing Tron back but I say it could be a big help with this cause. Knowing that Tron wouldn’t agree with being back but having not one but two variants of Tron could be interesting since they would be equally matched.”said Able
“Maybe Emma would be deploying Rinzler into the field now that the games are done would be interesting. Also no one here is equally matched to him since he’s not being held back anymore.”said Paige
“Hey I am almost equally matched to him!”said Sam
“SAM I swear to god you fought him once! The second time you had some help with your fathers disc and my help. The games he was being held back by CLU. So no your not equally matched.”said Quorra
“But….”started Sam
“No no you're not equally matched. I watched my people slaughtered by him. The best fighters of the ISO’s were killed easily by Rinzler.”said Quorra
“The only person who was easily matched was some random resistance fighter who nearly killed Rinzler but showed him mercy.”shrugged Paige
“I was there at that fight and when I tell you he nearly killed Rinzler he did. It was a good match too. CLU was not happy about that.”said Able
“What happened to the fighter?”asked Zed
“I remember hearing he killed himself.”said Mara
“Yeah he did.”said Able
“I remember hearing Dyson laughing about it. He was so happy Rinzler was almost killed. Then later Dyson talking to Pavel I think about how upset CLU was that he was basically humiliated that Rinzler was almost killed by some program. That obviously didn’t go well for him.”said Paige
“So Rinzler’s equal match was some random program who was part of some resistance.”confused Sam
“Yep.”said Quorra
“Alan, if you and Sam bring Tron back he would be the only person equally matched to Rinzler without any setbacks. Beck was trained by Tron but he obviously isn’t Tron. So if we are to bring peace back to the grid before CLU and his rule, we need Tron for that. If you are here to help us restore the grid we need to trust that your gonna help us.”said Paige
“In honor of my late best friend I shall bring his life’s purpose back to life.”said Alan
“Then we need help. If we bring Tron back, Rinzler's gonna immediately know that he’s on the grid. Rinzler’s the only security program here.”said Paige
“Then let's distract him long enough to bring Tron back. Like put him on the other side of the city then it’ll take him forever to get to us to see what we are doing.”said Mara
“But we should bring Tron back somewhere outside the grid. Then keep him there until it's safe to bring him back.”said Link
“What about Tron’s hideout? It’s outside the city and less people know about it. We bring the users there to hide out while we distract Rinzler until we bring Tron into the grid.”said Beck
“I mean what's the worst gonna happen?”shrugged Jet
“We get attacked.”said Quorra
“As long as the distraction goes perfect.”said Link
“Who’s team is on what?”asked Able
“Well the distraction should be the Renegade and his little friends. But Beck should be the one to show you where Tron’s hideout is.”said Paige
“I’ll just give the location of the hideout it’s not like its boobytrapped.”laughed Beck
“What should the distraction be?”asked Jet
“I think I know!”said Able pointing at Zeus’s bar
“You want to blow up Zeus’s bar?”said Paige
“Why?”asked Mara
“Never liked him. It’s also a really big distraction.”said Able
“I never liked him either but that's the most popular place in the grid you’ll never get the plan done.”said Quorra
“You're not thinking properly. You said you needed a big distraction. Never said you needed to blow it up just cause a big enough distraction.”said Able
“I’m so confused.”said Sam
“Leave that to us just get Tron here.”said Able
“I never thought I’d see Able up to something big like this.”said Zed
“Same.”agreed everyone else

Sam and his team got the location of Tron’s hiding place that was hidden in the mountain like his fathers place was. It was almost like his fathers place was just decorated differently with a back room hidden with tubes that were open. Alan went right to work with Jet and Sam’s insights on how they want to resurrect Tron without his original disc. Quorra walked around the place bored as she wasn’t much help. She went to the big window and saw the city they were just in. She watched as orange specks started to surround what looked like Zues’s bar. It did bother her much as much happened in the millcycle she was here.
Quorra turned around to walk back to the room with the weird tubes to see a program start to form with the three boys staring happily around it. Sam ran to her happily with his big goofy grin on his face. Alan smiled happily as he turned the female program.
“Darling we did it! Tron is coming back. Alan remembered his entire original coding.”he said hugging her
“That's amazing Alan!”said Quorra
“I know right Quorra. It’s amazing at my age that I can remember all that from my early 20’s.”laughed Alan
“Dad your not that old.”said Jet
“I should say that Able’s plan is in action as I saw the ships at the bar.”said Quorra
“We should quicken up soon. We can’t let anyone find us here.”said Sam
“How much we got until he’s finished loading up here.”asked Jet
“He should be loaded soon,”said Alan,”20 minutes, maybe.”
“Do we even have that time?”said Quorra
“Quorra, trust my father he knows what he’s doing.”said Jet
“I do trust your father I don’t trust CLU enforcers.”said Quorra
“You seem to trust Paige though.”laughed Jet
“Paige earned my trust.”said Quorra
“When?”asked Sam
“Years ago when we were young.”said Quorra
“How?”asked Sam
“It’s not important right now.”said Quorra
“I mean we have time.”shrugged Jet
“I’m not gonna tell you.”angered Quorra
“Okay okay, sorry I pushed on that topic. I just want to get to know you Quorra, you're gonna be my sister- in- law technically. Your gonna be part of the family.”said Jet putting his hands up“Look I’m sorry for getting mad at you. It’s just a sore topic. I promise there's better things to know about me than that. Trust me, your gonna have the coolest Sister-in-law ever.”laughed Quorra
“You think?”laughed Jet
“Look Alan, they’re getting along perfectly. This is the perfect family outing.”said Sam
“I know but it’ll be better with Lora but once we get the grid all working and back to life we’ll bring Lora in here. Maybe bring the family here and get you two married here.”suggested Alan
“I mean me and Quorra haven’t talked about it.”shrugged Sam
“I hear there is a wedding?”asked Tron
“TRON!!”shouted Sam happily
“That is I.”said Tron
“I can’t believe it before my eyes.”said Quorra in shock
“No way!!”awed Jet
“Alan_1 who are these people?”asked Tron
“Oh Tron, this is my son Jethro and my adoptive son Sam with his wife Quorra. Sam is Kevin_Flynn’s son. Quorra was raised by Kevin_Flynn.”said Alan
“Oh, welcome to the grid, I am Tron the protector of the grid.”said Tron
“He doesn’t know….”whispered Quorra to Sam
“I don’t wanna tell him.”whispered Sam forcing his smile
“Pleased to meet you, Tron. My father told me stories about his greatest program. Please call me by my nickname Jet.”said Jet
“I also was raised by your stories. My father Kevin_Flynn told me amazing things about you.”said Sam
“Both your fathers are great men now, where is Kevin_Flynn?”asked Tron
“Oh uh…”started Alan but Quorra cut him off,”Dead he saved both me and Sam from CLU.”
“CLU? I told Kevin_Flynn he was defected, infected really. He was just bad news. Wait what do you mean dead? What exactly happened? What about Beck?”questioned Tron
“Okay okay slow down.”said Alan
“We’ll all tell you what happened but we should leave to our safe house before CLU enforcers come attack us.”said Sam
“We are running low on time.”said Quorra
The group ushered the poor newly added program out of his safe house where he paused and saw the rundown falling apart grid that was a beautiful place he called home. Alan patted his shoulder comfortably and he followed his user. They made it to the light runner for the users as Sam gave his childhood hero a baton. Quorra rezzed her bike followed by Sam and then Tron. They followed out of the place to the city where they tried to enter unnoticed yet Quorra looked up to see light jets following them, she pointed up which both guys noticed and saw them being followed by orange. They made weird turns just to make sure they weren’t being followed before they made it to the secret hideout. Closing in they still noticed the light jets so Sam and Tron split from the group then Quorra before the father and son duo were left alone. The light jet still in formation stayed with the duo. They had to turn down an alleyway to get rid of the jets who flew overhead unknowingly.
The duo made it to the hideout undetected and last behind the three who were already settled into their chairs with Beck talking Tron’s ear off. Able sat in a chair next to Tron who shared the small couch with the excited boy. The couple shared the loveseat with Quorra on Sam’s lap. The big couch was vacant before Alan collapsed on it and Jet sat on the far end of it sighing big.
“So what happened?”asked Sam
“Got away from the jet that followed us weren’t followed after we lost them. It confused me. Why didn’t they attack us?”said Jet
“I have no idea.”commented Sam
“We all think that was weird right?”said Quorra
“Yeah very…tell me what happened after CLU attacked me and Kevin_Flynn?”said Tron
“Oh that..”said Able
“Dear friend something happened.”said Tron
“Not something, somethings many things happened after your disappearance.”said Beck
“Not from you, you talked a lot.”said Tron
“Well how do you want us to start? Right after your disappearance? Or maybe a bit later. There’s gaps really on everything.”said Able
“Right after my disappearance.”said Tron
“Well after CLU attacked you and my father, my father hid thinking you were dead and then CLU attacked the ISO’s killing them. Barely any survived, Quorra’s the last one. After that he took rule over the entire grid.”said Sam
“Yeah and he put his enforcers in charge of different sectors they’re cruel and violent people. He captures and repurposes any and all programs he can get his hands on. He also arrests them and put innocent programs in the games where they fight to death.”added Able
“Many cycles later Sam comes and changes the cruel ruling of CLU to an end he saved us trying to escape and bring Flynn back to the user world but to end CLU was to end Flynn which happened.”said Quorra
“You said disappearance…yet my coding was brought here what happened to the original body from earlier?”asked Tron
“I think Sam should tell you that.”said Able
Tron turns to Sam
“Funny story actually, CLU repurposed your original coding to his right hand man Rinzler. He killed many many programs, ISO’s and programs. He fought in the games and was controlled by CLU to obey his every command. Yet when me, my father and Quorra were escaping your programming saved us from dying.”said Sam
“How is that a funny story?”asked Tron,”That’s horrible I would never hurt the grid.”
“It's an expression, I forgot you guys don’t have them.”said Sam awkwardly
“I’m so sorry I would never hurt the ISO’s!!”apologized Tron to Quorra
“Tron it’s okay, it was you!”said Quorra
“So let me get this straight, CLU repurposes me and takes over the entire grid and kills then repurposes programs. He rules the grid with an iron fist and evil enforcers. Sam comes to get his father back, who was stuck here for 20 cycles, gets stuck then unstuck by getting to the portal yet Flynn gets killed in the process to kill CLU was to kill Flynn. Yet you two got out of the grid then come back with help.”said Tron pacing around the room
“Basically.”shrugged Sam
“Okay, kid tell me what happened to you?”asked Tron
“Well I did what you trained me to do, I’ve been causing trouble and saving innocent programs with your training. It’s been paying off well also Dyson, the guy who took over us. I’ve been causing him quite the pain, even brought light to one of his lieutenants and have been dating her. She’s awesome.”happily said Beck
“Okay good, you're still an idiot.”said Tron
“So what is your biggest question? Anything you want us to explain?”asked Sam
“Yeah one thing bugs me, this Rinzler? Anything weird about him?”asked Tron
“Yeah he’s you but repurposed.”said Beck
“You never fought him. He’s basically a murder machine, no emotions just murder.”said Sam
“But he works for Emma the person who took over rule after CLU.”said Able
“The thing is that we’re both security programs, we can both sense each other since our base programming is the same thing. So it’s like I can feel him and feel that he senses me too right now.”said Tron
“What do you mean?”asked Alan sitting up straight now
“I feel his pain and almost hear his thoughts.”said Tron
“Describe it.”ordered Alan
“He’s panicking about me now, yet I can feel his worry. His main thought is master? CLU? Timeout? It’s weird. There's a deep sense of scared in him.”said Tron confused
“He can now sense you too? So he might know where we are.”said Quorra
“I don’t know, I don’t know where he is, just what he feels. I could track him to where he is but that’ll take me time.”said Tron
“Both Tron and Rinzler were both created for the same purpose so their base coding is that same. Since both were created the same so that would make sense they could sense each other who would’ve thought they could feel each others feelings.”said Alan stunned
“That's amazing.”nodded Jet
“You're standing in a room of coding and that's interesting?”said Quorra to Jet
“We should still be cautious, we don't know what could happen. Rinzler of all people could alert Emma and we’d need to hide from them again.”said Sam
“He’s trying to communicate with me.”said Tron
“What’s he saying?”asked Alan
“He’s just telling me to get out of his head.”said Tron
“Huh…can you even get in his head?”asked Alan
“No not really if I try he blocks me.”said Tron
“If you get a tiny bit what is it?”asks Sam
“Are you trying to get us killed?”said Beck
“Just curious.”shrugged Sam
“All I see is CLU….”answered Tron
“See!! He’s so loyal to CLU he’s all the guy thinks about. Probably misses him.”said Sam
“My impression is that he’s scared.”said Tron
“Scared? Of the guy who he worked for and obeyed, I'll believe it when I see it.”laughed Sam
The rest looked around not knowing what to say of that information that was released by the pacing program. Able stood from his chair with a loud sigh, shaking his head as he left the room. Beck looked between them before turning to the users in the room before opening then shutting his mouth when Paige entered the room.
“Who may you be?”asked Tron
“TRON!!”scared Paige,”shit this has been a long day. I’m Paige, Beck’s girlfriend.”
“Oh well hello Paige.”said Tron
“Why did Able leave?”asked Paige
“Well you see….”Beck whispered what they found out
“Oh I see, I’m sorry you had to find out that way. Makes you feel better I found out by Dyson who tried to use that against me.”said Paige
“Oh that horrible.”said Tron
“It’s still bad on what CLU did to you…especially the other you imagine he found out.”said Paige
“Maybe he never found out he’s Tron, maybe he thinks he’s just Rinzler.”said Beck

Chapter Text

*Third Person*

Rinzler paced around his room anxiously at this new feeling, he can feel Tron now. He can feel the other him who he was before the thing he was created before him now. He was panicking as he was walking around the tiny room staring off into space. He panicked and panicked making his purring louder and more choppy. He sounded like he was gowling. It worried if the other him could get in his head he didn’t like that feeling.
“Rinz, you okay?”asked Emma
*No No No not at all* he signed
“What happened?”she asked again
*Tron is back and I can feel him. I can sense him.*Rinzler panicked
“Of course you were both created with the same base coding and never thought it would happen. Okay well that's something with Tron being back but it’s okay we can work this out. He can’t hurt you with sensing each other.”said Emma
*He can get in my head. He could possibly see my memories. What if he can see the memories?*signed Rinzler
“He could see them and experience your memories that's a possibility yes.”nodded Emma
*I don’t want him in my head!*he signed angrily
“Well then we can figure out how to stop him but I don’t know how to stop him from looking in you head.”she says
*Please, I can’t have him in my head*Rinzler was practically begging her
“Well try and figure out what to do.”she comforted Rinzler
She got closer to him and he melted into her arms as she welcomed him with open arms. His purring calmed down and became softer and lighter. She rubbed his back up and down.
“I will help you, we will both figure this out together.”she promised
He nodded into her shoulder as she slowly pulled away, holding his hands as she looked at him. She looked so proud at him which he didn’t do anything so he was confused.
“Look Rinz, we have Tron back on the grid but you are still you. I know your scared about what’s gonna happen now that he’s back but we don’t know what we are going to do about that. I’ll have a meeting with the others and see what they want to do. So don’t worry just yet.”she said
Rinzler stared at her confused before sighing
*You're gonna tell them?*he asked
“Not if you don’t want me to tell anyone. Your call.”she said
*Not yet. I want to get to know him first.*he signed
“You want to get to know him? You before CLU?”she confirmed
*Yes*he signed
“Well I’m not gonna stop you from knowing. I’m just gonna worry about you, I’m gonna tell you to not get your hopes up. I don’t know what you're looking for but my guess is closer from your trauma something that you're wondering. What I say is that whatever they say, it's not gonna change you. It may bring closer but you are still Rinzler, your still gonna be my boy.”she said
She looked at him with love in her eyes, she loved him dearly. She didn’t want him to change. She laid her hand against his helmet and he held it while leaning into her touch. She smiled at him. His purring lightened even more she felt the vibrations through the helmet.
“I will always love you, my boy. That’s never gonna change.”she said
*It may change when I come back. We don’t know what they have up their sleeves.*he signed
“And your the one who wants to go to them.”Emma laughs
*I need to know.*Rinzler signed
“I know, I know.”Emma sighed
Knocking on the door broke them apart and he held onto his hand when she answered. Laura was on the other end whispering to Emma who sighed before turning to him. Emma looked at him.
“Time to put your scary face on, we have company!”she said
“What do you mean?”asked Emma
“I mean we have company company.”said Laura
“Oh company company ... .Okay, let’s put game faces on. It’s gonna be long and annoying.”said Emma
*Who’s here?*asked Rinzler
“Someone who no one likes here.”announced Jessina
“Yeah we all hate his core.”said Laura
*Who?*Rinzler asked again
“Freaking Dyson is coming for no reason!”said Laura
“Literally why is he coming?”said Jessina
*You're all freaking out over Dyson?*questioned Rinzler
“Okay he’s when you’ve dealt with his annoying complaints over every little thing? Then listen to him complain over Renegade over and over and over again. Then you’ll understand.”said Jessina
“Renegade this, Renegade that it's all so annoying.”annoyed Laura
*I don’t understand, Dyson just comes to complain? He only came over just to annoy CLU but he didn’t care.*confused Rinzler
“Well we all care.”said Jessina
“Sweetie, why don’t you go to the garage and find out what you want to know. I don’t need you as a bodyguard right now. I think it’ll be good since we have down time right now.”said Emma
*What about Dyson though? You all seem stressed.*signed Rinzler
“We’ll all be fine without you. Dyson just annoys all of us with his problems that he refuses to solve on his own. That’s why we are all stressed since he won’t fight his own battles. We can get through this time together without you.”said Emma
*What about if he tries to fight you, again.*signed Rinzler a little worried about the three
“We can all take Dyson.”confirmed Laura
“Yeah he has nothing on us in fighting skills.”said Jessina
“I killed Pavel so don’t worry about me. Worry about whether he’ll make it out without some injury.”laughed Emma
“Go Rinzler, don’t worry about us.”said Jessina
“Yeah take some time off, relax a bit.”said Laura
“Maybe make some friends.”suggested Jessina
“Don’t worry, I’ll be here when you come so don't worry about me. Remember I’m only a ping away. You come into trouble just notify me and I’ll come get you.”said Emma
Rinzler nodded at that
Emma smiled at him while holding his hands, he stood tall listening to her talk to him and go over rules when traveling by himself. She hugged him before he left as he left he looked back then left without a word. Emma walked back to the two programs behind her and went back to work. Dyson walked past Rinzler in the hall.
“Ah Rinzler what mission are you going on?”asked Dyson
Rinzler paused and turned to Dyson, tilting his head
“Why are you leaving? You never leave Emma’s side.”Dyson said
Rinzler nodded
“I see….well I bet CLU’s best enforcer and right hand man would never let some mer program take you down especially not your past self.”taunted Dyson
He got closer to Rinzler to which the program stiffened as he stepped back to put space between them.
“And I bet CLU would definitely love to hear that wonderful news that TRON is back.”announced Dyson
His words were laced with venom toward Rinzler at the news. The entire hallway, all the programs who were minding their business stopped what they were doing everyone paused and turned to the two. Dyson laughed at the reaction and walked away. Rinzler stood stiff at the interaction, his purring got louder and sounded like grinding now, the way he felt being called
CLU’s best enforcer and right hand man did sit well with him.
“Sir you okay?”asked Reeve
“Rinzler?”asked Klax
Reeve tried putting his hand on Rinzler’s shoulder but was met with his hand twisted and a disc on his neck.
“Sir it’s just us!”said Nord
“Sir please! That really does hurt! Rinzler sir, it's just us!”said Reeve
“Rinzler sir, it's us, Klax, Nord, and you're holding Reeve!”said Klax
Rinzler let Reeve go and walked away quickly out of the hallway passing everyone that stared at him watching both interactions. He made it out and to the city. Walking out felt like a weight was lifted from his shoulders. Rinzler completely relaxed at the sight he saw from the windows. Rezzing his bike he rode from the city to where the Renegade prowls around and causes trouble. He made it there and sat on the roof of a tall building. He watched the ground below him, kicking his feet back and forth lounging there he saw a white and black suit. He knew who it was immediately, it was renegade. They came closer to him, stopping a building away.
“Program, it is dangerous up there. Please come down!”he said
Rinzler growled and sat up displaying who he was.
“Oh nevermind, please enjoy.”said Renegade retreating fast
Rinzler got up and jumped down to follow him. He knew he would lead him right to the program he wanted to see. He kept a distance between them so the Renegade couldn’t see him following him. Rinzler watched from a rooftop when he saw the Renegade stopped and then he was met with programs before being brought into a place. The program's circuits were a mix of blues and greens with one orange in the group. He recognized the orange to be Paige, the traitor program who joined forces with the uprising. Rinzler watched for a bit to see what was going on.
“Were you followed?”she asked him
“No…I don’t know but I saw him.”said the Renegade
“Saw who?”asked a program
“Rinzler…..on the rooftops.”said Renegade
“So he definitely followed you.”said Paige
“Great, now what are we going to do?”complained another
“We can’t let him find out.”said Paige
“It’s fine, I checked he didn’t follow me!”said Renegade
“You don’t know Rinzler then, he did follow you and he’s probably watching us as we speak. We need to move and group up.”said Paige
“But he was Tron before! Please Paige he can help us you know what the users said he was the program we used to know and love.”argued Renegade
“Beck! Stop! Now!”yelled Paige
She pulled him to the alleyway and the other program followed them close behind. Rinzler followed in pursuit, watching them closely, he was careful not to get caught watching them. He followed until they went to a door in the alleyway and they went inside. He looked at the neon sign above the door, Rinzler knew he couldn’t walk in cause everyone knew who he was. He sat on the edge of the roof and waited for them to walk out before he saw who he wanted to see. Rinzler hung his legs over the ledge kicking them back and forth while he laid down. He closed his eyes taking a nap while he listened for the door as he relaxed. He sensed Tron was in the bar almost underground of the building. He was hoping Tron would just come out and stop hiding from him so they could just talk to each other yet that wouldn’t happen the users and other programs would worry he’d kill Tron.
Rinzler thought about it while waiting until he sensed Tron was getting closer to him. He sat up and looked into the alleyway and watched the door but they never came out. They were right at the door with the users and three other programs. Finally coming out he saw Sam and Quorra with two other users who had hoods on. Tron was with the Renegade, Paige and he knew the shop keeper but never knew his name. He couldn’t reveal himself to them but he knew the Tron could also sense him watching them as Tron frequently looked back to where he was.
“Tron you okay? You’re looking back a lot.”asked Renegade
“Yeah I can sense him watching us.”answered Tron
“We’ll its fine he can’t take us all.”said Quorra
“He doesn’t want to fight I know that.”said Tron
“We’ll eventually you’ll have to face each other.”said one of the users
“Well Alan_1 we’ll see when we get there.”said Tron
Rinzler stopped abruptly, Alan_1 he knew that name he didn’t know where but he knew that name from somewhere.
“Okay but what exactly is your plan?”asked Paige
“You’ll see, just you wait!”said Renegade excited
“It better not be stupid.”said Paige
“It is so stupid!”complained Quorra
“Oh users!”sighed Paige
Rinzler kept following them until they came to a smaller house and went inside. He waited for them outside but they didn’t show up. That's when he got a ping from Tron himself.
*Come inside please*
*What?*he pinged back confused
*I know your outside please come in let me talk to you*he pinged back
*No*he answered
Rinzler stayed outside where he was and didn’t move from his spot. That’s when Tron himself walked out of the small house. He carried no weapons in his hands and showed his hands.
“I just wanna talk to you!”he said
*Then do it without everyone worried I’m going to kill you*he pinged back
“Your gonna wanna meet the users please.”Tron said
*I’m not going to do it in a place where you can kill me or worse*he pinged
“Where would you like?”Tron asked
Rinzler moved from the shadows and stood in the light staring at Tron who looked at him. His breath hitched when he saw the program that was him before bad things happened to him.
“I can’t believe my eyes. Please we’re not gonna hurt you. I was brought here by the users and they did nothing to hurt me. I’m you before this happened. The user that brought me was Alan_1 your creator, he can help you!”said Tron
Rinzler heard this then backed away slightly from Tron in fear. He heard CLU talk about Alan_1 and he talked about him like he was a monster. He preached that users were evil and were gonna erase him if he found out about him. That’s where he heard the name from.
“Please Rinzler, CLU preached that the users were bad but actually they are gonna help the grid. That’s what we were programmed to do to help the grid to protect it! Alan, Jet, Sam, even Quorra they’re all gonna help the grid that's why they are here to help! Alan wanted to meet you, I wanted to meet you. That’s why you’re here too right? To meet the person who you were before!”said Tron
Tron tried to step forward to Rinzler but Rinzler moved back away. Tron was infected; he didn't know what users were capable of. He never met them, truly met them and saw the destruction they could do. Rinzler just shook his head at Tron when he moved closer to Rinzler again trying to touch Rinzler but he moved violently away from him. Alan saw this through the window he was watching from, it just caught his eye and thought it was weird watching one of the most feared programs flinching away from touch.
*You’re defected*Rinzler pinged to Tron
Tron tried again to move a bit closer which infuriated Rinzler he didn’t like it at all. He wanted space but wasn’t getting it. It caused Rinzlers purring to turn into almost growling every time he got closer to him.
“Alan_1 could even give your speech back!”said Tron
*I DON’T WANT THAT USER TOUCHING ME!!*Rinzler was now annoyed,
*You talk like he’s some hero where was he when I got turned into this! This is what happens when users touch us! Stop talking like he’s some hero when users can’t even protect us! I trusted Kevin_Flynn I trust Alan_1 and all I got was CLU turning me into his toy. Just you wait until he forgets us again and you're turned into some toy for entertainment!*
“You're not mad at the users, you're mad at CLU who was made by a user!”said Tron
*The users made us all other than the ISO’s who by the way I killed them for CLU! He was made to create a perfect system. I got the short hand of that. If you think for one second that the users are good then go back into your own memories and see for yourself when you…we got left behind like we were nothing!*
Rinzler was really mad at Tron for believing the users and Tron just stood there listening to everything he was saying. It hurt that Rinzler thought the users just left them when he didn’t know himself that Kevin_Flynn tried to save them but couldn’t. He couldn’t because of CLU, he stopped the users from saving them. He wanted to tell him that to show him the true side of the users but Rinzler was so brainwashed he wouldn’t believe him even if he left him to see his memories the ones CLU took from him.
“Why are you so afraid?”Tron simply asked
Rinzler tilted his head confused
“Why are you afraid of the users? You used to be friends with the users. Remember I’m you from the past before CLU took over and took everything from you. I see your nightmares when you sleep. I’ve seen what you’ve been through I never seen a USER hurt you only CLU and Dyson but not a user.”said Tron
Tron was telling the truth, he’s been hurt by CLU, by Dyson but those are programs not users.
“You're scared because CLU told you to be scared of them. You're scared because you’ve been hurt and wanted to be rescued because you told yourself to be scared by them.”told Tron
*I lost faith in them a long time ago. You should save yourself the trouble of believing them. They’ll leave us when they’re done.*pinged Rinzler
“I’m not gonna lose faith in them. I know they won’t leave until they believe that the grid is safe and won’t fall apart. You once had faith in them and I have faith in them. They’ll save the grid and I’ll help them stay safe from harm by the enforcers.”said Tron
*I don’t think Dyson or Tesler would like the users playing with the grid but go ahead. I came here to tell you to not trust the users. Been there done that, you’ve seen what comes out of it.*pinged Rinzler
“You came because you were curious about me, who you were before the memories were taken away from you. Why not meet who created you?”asked Tron
*CLU created me!! I’ve met him!*pinged Rinzler
“He didn’t create you! Alan_1 did! Meet him just once and you’ll see who the users are, they're not scary, Rinzler just try it! Just once!”Tron was basically yelling at him
The yelling almost triggered Rinzler’s fight or flight response, he tensed up and looked at Tron through the helmet. He basically shut down almost in fear that Tron would hurt him. While Tron was yelling at him he was moving his hands violently which made him think that he was going to hit him. His purring went from grinding to choppy which confused Tron who backed away from being so close to Rinzler who stood completely still, if you looked closely you could see his shaking.
“I’m sorry for yelling, I shouldn’t have gotten angry.”apologized Tron
Rinzler didn’t move or ping back, he just stood there not moving.
“Rinzler I said I’m sorry!”Tron said
*You're not sorry, no one ever is. Programs and people say that to make themselves feel better for what they did.*he pinged back
“You were so manipulated you don’t know what it's like to feel loved.”said Tron
*Why do you care?*asked Rinzler
“Because I want you to feel what I felt so long ago.”said Tron
*Love? Kindness? Empathy?*questioned Rinzler
“Yes! That!”said Tron
*Those emotions? You want me to feel that?*Rinzler was really confused
“You’ve felt it before with Alan_1 and Kevin_Flynn with your friends and especially Yori, the person you fell in love with! Many, many cycles ago!”said Tron
*Who’s that? Yori?*Rinzler asked
“Yori, the program you love?”it devastated Tron hearing those words
*Never heard of her!*shrugged Rinzler
“You…never heard of her? Not once?”asked Tron
Rinzler shook his head
“Well I can tell you about her. If you trust me.”said Tron
*You want me to trust you but you haven’t done anything to let me trust you. You want me to trust the users but they haven’t done anything and You! You're supposed to be the grid's savior but I see no saving of the grid!*pinged Rinzler
“If we help the grid, you’ll talk to us?”asked Tron
*Yeah….I guess.”shrugged Rinzler
“Perfect!”said Tron
Rinzler nodded and turned to leave but Tron tried to stop him grabbing his shoulder. Triggering Rinzler, Tron was thrown to the ground with a disc to his throat. Renegade saw this trying to run out but Paige was holding him back. Commotion happened in the house as Alan ran out to Tron and Rinzler.
“DAD STOP!!”yelled Jethro
Rinzler turned to Alan running out telling him to stop, Tron moved, putting himself between Rinzler and Alan. Rinzler was standing still, lost to the sight before him. Not one but two Alan_1’s were standing before him. Renegade, Paige, Quorra and Sam were standing in front of the house with Able holding Renegade’s arm firmly.
“Rinzler Tron what happened?”asked Alan_1
“Nothing happened, just an accident!”said Tron
“DIDN’T LOOK LIKE NOTHING!!”screamed Renegade
“Beck calm down!”said Paige
“I won’t calm down, he attacked him!”said Beck
“He didn’t attack me!”said Tron
“Tell us what happened!”said Sam
“All of you can shut up! Tron is trying to talk and you won’t let him. I believe him and he’ll explain. If it wasn’t an accident more things would’ve happened. Please stop both of you!”said Alan
“Thank you Alan_1”said Tron
“Stop calling me Alan_1 you know better than that.”said Alan,”Please explain why Rinzler threw you to the ground.”
“I grabbed him by accident when he tried leaving and I scared him. Like I said it was an accident.”said Tron
“And I believe you. Now please Rinzler what does it take to actually make you believe I won’t hurt you.”asked Alan
Rinzler didn’t move at all, just stood there.
“Rinzler?”concerned Tron
“What cat got your tongue?”teased Sam
“SAM!”yelled Alan
The loud voices, the teasing, the faces from his past, it all triggered Rinzler so badly he was on his knees in seconds trying to cover his ears as they just kept getting louder and louder.He couldn’t see his vision got blurry but he wasn’t crying. He felt his throat getting dry and closing up. He couldn't talk or make a sound all in return as his purring got more and more choppy. It felt like choking and he knew what it was like to be choked and it felt worse.
Sam watched in horror as he saw Rinzler dropping to his knees. Tron moved quickly trying to grab Rinzler from falling. Alan was the one to get Rinzler as he put his arms around his program. Rinzler kept signing the word breathe in panic as he couldn’t. Tron stood above the two not knowing what to do.
“Slow down, Rinzler slow down.”said Alan
“Dad! He’s signing the word breathe because he can’t!”said Jethro
“Rinzler is experiencing a panic attack!”said Tron
“Why?”asked Beck
“We don’t know!”said Tron,”Probably because of you two!”
“It wasn’t on purpose!”shouted Beck
Rinzler curled up pulling his head down further
“Okay can you two shut up!”said Alan,”For once while we deal with this just stop talking that all I ask!”
“Sorry Alan.”said Sam
“Yeah sorry, I guess we didn’t realize.”said Beck
“You two caused this!”said Alan gesturing at his program in front of him
“Me and Quorra will be taking these two idiots away so you can fix this, maybe teach them something useful!”said Paige
“Oh yes we will!”said Quorra
Quorra and Paige both grabbed their boyfriends by the arm away from the situation. Alan looked at his program and gently moved him to look at him. Rinzler moved away from the touch, still in a panic. He was shaking all over and Alan felt so sad in that situation. He saw how badly his forgotten program was. He felt like he wanted to cry but stayed strong for him. All he wanted to do was hug him but he couldn’t as he didn’t want to spook the poor thing.
“Rinzler please…. breathe please….”said Alan his voice breaking
“Dad? Rinzler?”asked Jethro confused
“Jet I think they need space.”said Able pulling Jet away
Tron slowly kneeled down next to them putting his comforting hand on Rinzlers shoulders. Rinzler pulled away from him and moved away from Alan. He got up and stood before them, Tron helped Alan up and stood with him.
“Rinzler? Are you okay?”asked Alan
“Rinzler?”asked Tron
*No…no I’m not okay*he signed panicked
“Rinzler, you need to talk to us.”said Alan
“Alan, Rinzler has no way to speak to us.”said Tron
“Oh well that’s okay we can figure this out.”said Alan
*Please! I…I…want..want…this gone…”Rinzler signed
“What do you want gone?”asked Tron
*This pain in my chest*signed Rinzler
“Calm, tell me the three things you hear, feel, and see.”said Tron
“Why?”whispered Alan
“To trick the mind into thinking about something else,”said Tron,”Tell me, it’s okay.”
*I hear the ships, I feel the wind and the grass, I see you and Alan_1”signed Rinzler
“Alan_1!! Rinzler, how do you feel now?”said Tron
Rinzler stood for a minute realizing he wasn’t shaking anymore or panicking. He was just standing there and looking at his hands seeing they weren’t moving uncontrollably.
*Better!*amazed RInzler
“That’s better and now that we are all thinking clearly. Please, I want to meet you now. Calmly.”laughed Alan
Rinzler backed up a bit but Alan put his hand up.
“We aren’t forcing you. I just wanted to ask from me not Tron, I don’t want to force you into anything you aren’t comfortable with. It seemed it should be better coming from me not someone else.”said Alan
Rinzler sighed hearing those words, they seemed sweet and gentle and he started to relax.
*I want too badly but there’s something that tells me not to trust you!*signed Rinzler
“What is telling you not to trust me?”Alan asked
*Something deep down.*signed Rinzler
“Talk to me or sign to me. Let me help.”said Alan
*I want to but…*Rinzler was cut off by Alan
“Let me do the talking and if you don’t like what I say then stop me.”suggested Alan
“Or I suggest Rinzler ask Alan anything.”suggested Tron
“I kinda like that.”said Alan
*Maybe just maybe we do it in the house?*signed Rinzler
“Of course, whatever you want.”said Alan
Able and Jethro, who were standing behind them, looked at each other then walked into the house and stayed in the other room. While Alan and Tron lead the way into the house with Rinzler putting distance between them. They led Rinzler into the living room that was well lit and sat on the empty chairs facing the big couch where Rinzler sat in the middle of the couch. He didn’t get comfortable; he just sat on the edge of it. Tron sat with his leg on top of each other and Alan sat comfortably. Both Tron and Alan looked at each other before Alan started,
“Well Rinzler, what would you like to ask?”
*I want to ask, why did you never come?*he signed
“Well that’s a hard question to ask. I never came because Kevin Flynn never asked me to come. He kept this from me and Lora, my wife, he got stuck here and never told us.”said Alan
Both Tron and Rinzler looked at each other then Alan
*He never told you?*Rinzler questioned
“He never told us, Sam only came because CLU tricked me. He knew I would get the page from this page and I thought it was Kevin. It wasn't that he got tricked, we both did. That’s how he got here.”said Alan
“CLU tricked you?”asked Tron
“Yes.”answered Alan
Rinzler sat there then asked the next question,
*Do you want to help us? Like save us from the grid coming apart?*
“Yes Yes of course I want to help you! I want to fix what Kevin Flynn’s purpose was! He worked his life to make all of this! He died saving this place, he lived here 20 cycles to save this place! I want to save this place from destruction!”said Alan
*Why am I here?*Rinzler asked
“What do you mean?”Alan asked
*I mean I’m here and you created me. Why am I here not somewhere else?*asked Rinzler
“You are here because Kevin Flynn wanted you here to protect the grid and fight for the users. I don’t know what else Rinzler that’s what he told me that he wanted to use you for.”admitted Alan
“Kevin Flynn seem very secretive.”said Tron
“Yes he was, Kevin Flynn was very secretive about his work.”said Alan
*If you knew what happened here before would you have come? To save me?*Rinzler asked
“Yes! Yes I would come get you!”said Alan,”I would’ve come in a heart beat to get you!”
*Really? You would’ve come?*signed Rinzer
“Yes Rinzler I would’ve come for you. I would’ve come for you and you Tron anything I would come for you two. I would’ve come before what happened to you Rinzler. I created you, I made your coding, I basically watched you grow up. You and Tron I created you both what happened to you Rinzler I regret not coming any sooner. Tron you were created for a big purpose to fight for the users but it also means that you fight for the innocent programs that reside here right now.”said Alan
“Alan you seem to really think about this.”admitted Tron
*You really think that you could save us? From that fate with CLU?*signed Rinzler
“Yeah Rinzler I want to save you from CLU, that trauma you went through is horrible. A person you trusted ruined your life. Now right in this moment I want to change that for now and give you hope again.”said Alan
*Alan? You want to give me hope*questioned Rinzler
“Alan, you really want to change and make his life better?”questioned Tron
“You both are very confused about this. I want to make this experience better for you Rinzler. I also want to give you Tron a life with me as your user in it. I want to make both your lives better.”said Alan
“Oh that’s what you meant.”laughed Tron uncomfortable
“Please just let me help both of you.”said Alan
“Your aggressive love is uncomfortable.”said Tron
*Yeah I agree. It’s weird.*signed Rinzler
“Sorry kids but seriously I’m technically both of your fathers so yes I’m gonna love you both. I don’t want that to happen again!”said Alan
“What happened to him was tragic but CLU is gone so it won’t happen again to me. We should focus on how to fix the grid. It needs to be fixed so you the users can go home and not turn out like Kevin Flynn.”said Tron
“Yes Tron but it’s not just broken there is a lot more than the grid needs to be fixed. The people need to have hope again, the Renegade is doing a good job but the grid needs Tron again!”said Alan
“Yes it does but…”started Tron but Alan cut him off,”The grid needs you! Not Beck, he's a kid and has a lot to learn from you. Everyone needs you again.”
*The grid needs you! I was that spark but it’s long gone. We need a savior, we need Tron!*signed Rinzler
“Yes they do. Your that spark.”said Alan
“The grid is broken we should fix that we need to get you guys home.”said Tron
“Yes but Lora is up there keeping it open for now. We have plenty of time,”said Alan,”We need to fix the grid for good. Bring the programs together again and make it whole like it once was.”
*Please we can’t do it on our own, CLU made it whole but it was out of fear there was never any respect with anyone it wasn’t ideal. We can’t make the grid like it once was without CLU.*signed Rinzler
“We can and we will. Everyone will help and make it better for you all.”said Alan
The three talked for a bit before being interrupted by Sam, Quorra, Paige and Beck walking in. Both boys were beaten by their girlfriends. Alan looked and laughed while the two programs sitting looked at each other then at the two beaten guys.
*Are women usually this violent?*Rinzler pinged to Tron
*No, I don't think so.*pinged Tron
*I mean, was Yori like that?*Rinzler asked
*No she wasn't, she was sweet and kind, could never hurt a thing.*pinged Tron
*Oh…I would love to meet her.*pinged Rinzler
*Oh, you’d love her to be honest.*pinged Tron
“Okay so what would you guys like to say to Rinzler and Tron but mostly Rinzler?”said Paige
“We both are sorry we acting like children and would like your forgiveness.”said Beck
“We’d also like to apologize to you Rinzler for acting out that Tron triggered your panic attack.”said Sam
Tron smiled to himself at the two before laughing at the two for their apologies before he turned to Rinzler who was stunned and confused that the two actually apologized to him. He sat there before Tron turned to him confused while still laughing. He walked up to Rinzler and squatted in front of him.
“You okay?”he asked
*Oh I’m fine but they didn’t need me.*he signed
“No they did!”said Quorra
*No it’s all okay really it really didn’t bother me!*argued Rinzler
“No, they did need to apologize to you, Rinzler!”said Alan
“You're saying I didn’t need to apologize to him and that beating was for nothing?”said Sam
“You want to go another round? Because I’m ready to go another round if you are!”said Quorra
“Please Quorra darling he doesn’t care he said its all good!”said Sam
“SAM SHUT UP!!”yelled Paige
“Oh please I’d like to beat him!”said Tron
Everyone turned to Tron concerned
“Okay hear me out, Sam and Beck both screamed at Rinzler who now technically according to Alan is my and Jethro’s brother so yes I’d like to take a swing at Sam for disrespecting Rinzler. Also just because I trained you Beck doesn’t mean I can’t hate you right now for being rude. You both are being rude right now which needs to stop!”said Tron
“Okay slow down for a nanocycle….”started Paige
“Alan you're saying Rinzler and Tron are technically your sons?”said Sam
“Yes I created them. They are my kids now.”shrugged Alan
*I wanna go home.*signed Rinzler to Tron
*Why?*asked Tron
*Tired. It's been a long Millicycle. I’m exhausted right now. Also so I can process this. All of this.*signed Rinzler
*You want me to go with you?*asked Tron
*No, I'm okay going home by myself.*signed Rinzler
*Alright, I’ll let Alan know and you can go home. Just tell me when you get home.*said Tron
“You boys okay?”asked Alan
“Rinzler is going home and we are letting him go home.”said Tron
“Of course, you need someone to go with?”asked Alan
“You have a house?”said Beck
“Everyone here owns a place!”said Quorra
“It’s cheap here.”said Paige
*More like I stay in the security hub.*signed Rinzler
“So you stay where CLU wanted you to stay okay.”said Sam
“SAM!!!”yelled Quorra
*It’s because I was the original security program!?*confused Rinzler
“Forget what he said, I’ll walk you to the door.”said Alan
Alan walked him to the door with Tron close behind while the others watched and Paige and Quorra smacked their boyfriends in the head. It hurt them but they were annoyed they wouldn’t stop being mean to the innocent program. Alan and Tron both walked back into the living room standing in front of the two being held by the girls.
“Tron, would you like to start?”asked Alan
“Yes of course. Has Able taken Jethro out?”asked Tron
“Yes so we have the whole place to ourselves.”said Alan
“Okay let’s begin.”said Tron
The girls held on tight on the boys before Tron and Alan smacked the two idiots hard. They let the two have it, they were really angry at how Beck and Sam both treated Rinzler and decided it was finally time to let them both have it. While they were having a smack down in the living room, Emma, Abraxas and Anon stood on the rooftop across from the safe house. Rinzler shortly joined them and bowed before standing in front of Emma.
*I did what you asked.*signed Rinzler
“Good now we have to wait.”said Emma
*Why did you want this to happen?*asked Rinzler
“Because it needed to be done.”said Abraxas
“Yeah we need them to not trust each other so they can get the work done earlier then get out.”said Anon
*They are good people though*signed Rinzler
“They may be good people BUT they will cause distrust in our programs.”said Emma
“It’s not good to have them around.”said Anon
*Oh…why?*asked Rinzler
“Stop with the questions!”said Abraxas
“ABRAXAS!! Stop, he's allowed to ask!”said Emma
“It’s stupid, he doesn’t need to know!”said Abraxas
“If we are going to keep using him then we should tell him SOME of what we are doing!”argued Emma
“You're using him! Not us! We don’t need him!”said Abraxas
“He’s the closest thing to the users right now. So we need him since most trust him.”said Anon
“We caused a riff in their ranks so they should eventually start competing with each other and finish early.”said Emma
“How do you know?”asked Anon
“Simple users are easy to destroy from the inside.”said Abraxas
Rinzler stood there shocked at that, he didn’t even know what they wanted to do. He thought he was just getting to know the user who created him. Now he didn’t want to be used by them. He was used once he didn’t want to be used again. Rinzler backed away from them slowly and Emma noticed he was backing away from them. She walked over and put her arm around him which caused Rinzler to start shaking. He didn’t like the feeling that CLU was back. Anon noticed he started acting strange again which caused him to sigh annoyed.
“Your security program is ridden with anxiety.”said Anon
“I know that makes him so cute!”said Emma
“Cute!”laughed Anon
“Yes just look at him!”squealed Emma
“He looks like an innocent animal.”sighed Abraxas
“And that isn’t cute?”said Emma
“We kill innocent animals!”hissed Abraxas,”If you don’t fix it I’ll personally kill it. Got it?”
“Brother!”said Anon
“We need him for our plans! So you won’t kill him!”said Emma
“We don’t need him if we can manipulate another program within their ranks. Maybe the white version of this one. He seems easy since he just came here but we don’t know. So I say be careful sister, you never know.”manipulated Abraxas
“You won’t touch either of them. I can handle it!”said Emma
“Brother, just leave them alone. This one isn’t going anywhere and he used to work for CLU so we need him!”argued Anon
“You're the most useless out of all of us here! Including that thing!”said Abraxas
“ABRAXAS!! Stop being mean! We are all trying to be useful for our life long mission so please stop yelling at us. We are all tired right now. Let's just go home and have a sleep cycle. Please.”said Emma
“You guys go home. I’m staying out and I’ll come home later.”said Abraxas
“Fine!”said Anon
Emma rolled her eyes and walked away pulling Rinzler with her. Anon and Abraxas glared at each other before Anon spoke up for himself.
“I’m useless but seriously you are too. We both know what’s actually going on! Your pissed about the Rinzler situation!”said Anon
“He has her on a rope. He pouts and she’s all over him! It’s frustrating!”complained Abraxas
“She’s protective, we both know that. You are too with father dying and you taking over!”said Anon
“He’s not our father!”growled Abraxas
“Well about that!”said Anon
“Go away!”groaned Abaraxas
“Oh go to hell!”laughed Anon
Abraxas playfully pushed Anon away from him which caused Anon to laugh more. Anon put his arms around Abraxas tightly hugging him. Abraxas sighed, hugging Anon back before pushing him away. Anon dragged Abraxas off the rooftop and pulled him along. They made it to the house they were staying at.
It was tall and looming over the other houses that were there. It was the next neighborhood over from the safe house but hidden in plain sight. Walking in it was empty without Emma walking around or in her room, that meant that she brought Rinzler to the security hub to hang out with him before coming home. Abraxas went to his room after looking for her leaving Anon alone in the strange house. It was late when Emma got back to the house to see Anon sitting in the living room alone without Abraxas.
“It’s late you know.”announced Emma
“Says the girl walking alone at night.”said Anon tired
“Well I’m also the great Emma who took over CLU’s place so no one is touching me.”she laughed
“Still doesn’t mean anything.”said Anon
“It does though.”said Emma
“Just go get a sleep cycle.”said Anon
“Then you take one too.”she said
“I will, I will relax.”said Anon
Emma laughed before walking to her room and closed the door. She took her disc off its port and sat it on the nightstand. Slumping onto her bed she looked out the window sighing tiredly. Running the grid was hard but what was worse was the mission of taking over the grid. She had so many meetings and files it was so boring she wanted more action. Hearing everyone talk about their missions made her jealous over the others.
She worried over Rinzler being alone now after cycles not being alone. Emma wanted to go back and make sure he was okay but Rinzler reassured her he was fine being alone. She laid on the bed and felt her body relax then passed out from tiredness.

Chapter Text

Alan paced around the room annoyed as Sam and Beck sat on the couch in front of him. Tron stood at the edge of the room. Quorra and Paige stood at the doorway. Sam opened his mouth before Alan snapped his head around to stare at him in anger. Alan’s strong glare held Sam’s eyes, the man he grew up with Alan as his foster father. His soft eyes were replaced with cold anger. Beck sat with his head hung not looking up. Tron started forward towards Alan and started,
“Sir may I?”he asked
“No, these two couldn’t even accept him!”yelled Alan
“ALAN!! He’s dangerous!! He killed so many programs!”shouted Sam
“Sam you don’t understand after cycles of torment and being forced to kill. Do you not think that he’s suffered enough!! Now you're putting more into him. He knows he’s dangerous but he’s trying!”screamed Alan
“DO you hear yourself Alan?”yelled Sam
“Yes!! Sadly I do hear myself. I know it’s crazy but I believe we can help him!”said Alan
“Help him? HELP Rinzler of all programs!!?”yelled Sam
“Sam? I think we should!”said Quorra
“Are you talking crazy?”said Sam
“Maybe but I believe that we should try to help everyone!”said Quorra
“Believe me if I can change and see the good then RInzler can too! I believe he already does see the light he just needs help.”said Paige
“He sees the light?? THE LIGHT are you all crazy!!! Do you even know what you're saying?”yelled Sam
“Sam, are you okay?”asked Tron
“No NO I’m not okay!”said Sam
“Do you need anything to calm down?”asked Tron
“TRON Shut up!! I don’t need your help!”said Sam
“SAM!! Stop it!”yelled Quorra
“No I won’t you're all talking crazy!”said Sam
Sam was screaming at everyone in the room. The others in the house could hear the argument happening. Jethro sat on the stairs listening to everything going on. Mara was in the kitchen at the table listening to it, looking back at Jethro on the stairs. Link and Zed were standing in shock at what was happening. The programs were confused, conflicted, and worried about what would come out of the argument. Able walked up to Jethro and sat next to him hugging him as he started to cry into his shoulder. He was a grown man but hearing his father watching his brother fight it wasn’t fun. He hated it, after Kevin Flynn was thought to be dead, Sam was adopted into their family. It wasn’t very quiet as Sam and his father fought a lot especially when he got older and wanted to be on his own. His father tried to encourage Sam to take on his fathers company but it never worked as Sam fired back that he didn’t want a company that killed his father.
“Sam I’m trying to give my program the one I created a life he never had. One that he doesn’t remember!! You have to understand that I’m trying to be someone he could trust!”said Alan
“Trust? Him? For all we know he’s using us to get information and kill us!”said Sam
“Sam! You have to understand that he was used once and I don’t think he’d do the same as he understands what it's like to be used.”said Quorra
“Why are you defending him?”said Sam
“Because I’ve lost so much to the corrupt! If he’s willing to help us save the grid then we should let him help us!”said Quorra
“He’s dangerous!”said Sam
“No, stop it right now!”yelled Alan
“What!!”yelled Sam
“No, stop it! I’m tired of you always fighting me on everything! For once just ONCE will you listen to me!”yelled Alan
“Stop! Just Stop!! You're gonna put everyone in danger if you bring him in. He’s gonna get us killed!!”yelled Sam
“He’s not!! I was once a general in the armies led by Dyson. Trust me Rinzler is one of the least threatening. Trust me he won’t do anything until provoked.”said Paige
“Paige shut up! I don’t trust you either!”said Sam
Quorra stepped back from her lover staring at him in disbelief that he was acting like this. She didn’t like that he was being rude and arguing with his adoptive father and with her friend. He was something he never was, he loved everyone and was kind and thoughtful, he was sweet to her and others. She turned to see Paige looking at her then back at Sam who was in rage at the others. Quorra walked to Paige putting her hand on her shoulder comfortingly.
“Sam you let me in, you loved me and held me when I was sad. I trust Paige and I trust Rinzler. If you hate them then you hate me!”said Quorra
“You're just walking into their trap! Don’t you all see that their tricking you!”said Sam
“No, that’s not TRUE!!”cried Quorra
“You're too trusting of these people!”said Sam
“Sam you can talk bad about everyone else but leave Paige out of this!! She proved herself to us over and over again!! She saved us many times. She proved that she isn’t like the others!”said Beck
“Do you trust them?”questioned Sam
“I trust Paige! I’m literally dating her! I love Paige! I can understand you not trusting Rinzler but I trust Paige!”shouted Beck
“We all need to learn to start trusting each other but you can’t go around screaming at every program you see! It doesn’t matter, we need to trust that programs and people can change. You both proved that you don’t trust easily!”said Alan
“The last program I trusted literally tried killing me!”said Sam
“Sam! I’m the last program you trusted! I literally came to the user world for you!”yelled Quorra
“That's so messed up!”commented Paige
“I’m talking about the corrupted programs!”yelled Sam
“Sam!! You knew CLU for like 20 minutes! Then he tried killing you, not even you thought he was your dad for five minutes then tried killing you!”said Quorra
“That's exactly it Sam. You're proving Rinzler why he shouldn’t trust us Users for your own gain at this point!”said Alan
“We shouldn’t trust corrupted programs! Period!”yelled Sam
“Hey I didn’t do anything to you!”said Paige
“Don’t bring Paige into this! She’s proved herself!”said Beck
“You're literally no better than him!”said Paige
Everyone in that room kept arguing with each other, while the others sat around the house not knowing what to do. Jethro regretted ever coming to the grid while he overheard everything. It brought him back to when they first brought Sam home and his mom and dad arguing about Kevin Flynn. Able sat with him comforting him the best he could. The others were sitting there listening, getting more and more hurt as Sam kept insulting programs saying they couldn’t be trusted even though he saved them from CLU. The arguing started to die down little by little then stopped by Alan.
“Then get out Sam. If you feel so deeply about this then I don’t want you here!”screamed Alan
“This is how you treat me then fine go “rescue” your fake child!!”screamed Sam
Sam exited out of the living room as he did the others including Jethro glared at him. Sam scoffed exiting out of the house, Quorra held herself feeling lost and alone as she watched her boyfriend turn into a monster she feared. Tron was just standing there not understanding the users problem as even he trusted his corrupted self.
“Quorra, I’m so so sorry about this.”said Alan exhausted
“I’m okay really. I think we all need some air!”smiled Quorra
“You're hurt! He hurt you! His words stung everyone! Don’t pretend to be happy!”said Paige
“It’s…Just….It’s Just…I…”Quorra stuttered as she broke into tears
Quorra’s broken cry broke through the entire house as she started crying so hard. Paige hugged her as she wailed, feeling so broken and alone. It wasn’t that Sam literally turned on her, it was the fact he just didn’t care. He was her savior for so long and now he was nothing but the thing Kevin Flynn talked against. Beck watched as his girlfriend held the program and the gut feeling washed over him as he understood that he was wrong. He didn’t want that for Paige; he didn't want her to feel like Quorra. His eyes darted to Alan as he started to walk out and their eyes briefly met just for a second as Beck understood. Beck watched as Tron, his mentor and old friend walked over and patted his shoulder.
“Well done old friend.”whispered Tron
“What…I did this….”Beck whispered before running after him
“Tron!! Tron!!”called Beck
Beck followed his mentor out of the house into the front lawn they were on just a couple Milicycles before. Beck stood in front of the security program to get what he meant.
“You broke the poor program!”Tron finally said
“I..I..didn’t mean too! I thought I was helping but I realized that I wasn’t helping I was making it worse!! I didn’t even know what I was saying it was like something inside of me was controlling me filling me with rage but I…don’t even know what was happening!!”confessed Beck
“Beck, what are you talking about?”asked Tron
“After the fight with Emma and her two lackeys I felt that I was filled with rage but not to anyone but Rinzler. It was like I hated him for no reason. It’s weird but when Sam and the other users came it got worse. It got so out of control that me and Sam both just hated him.”said Beck
“Beck that makes no sense even for you.”said Tron
“I swear!! I’m not making this up!!”yelled Beck
Tron felt that he was just making this up. He just stared at the young program but something inside of him said he wasn’t. The look on his students face, the sorrow, the worry and the confusion all mixed up on his face. It just said he wasn’t lying. To prove this he asked for the program's disc. The relief on Beck's face settled him. Pulling the discs diagnostics proved that Beck wasn’t lying. In the depth of the programing laid a small virus, Tron looked at it seeing it wasn’t normal. It wasn’t blue or orange like everyone else, it was yellow. Tron and Beck just stared at it then at each other before running to Alan. They burst through the door and ran right to Alan. Startling everyone who was trying to busy themselves.
“ALAN, ALAN!!”yelled Beck
“Dad!!”yelled Tron
“What?”confused Alan
“This!”said Tron shoving Becks disc at him
Everyone stared at the yellow virus in Becks coding. The confusion was strong through the house as it was passed around the circle of programs and users.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before!!”said Alan
“It’s…just I have no words. No one has yellow programing.”said Able
“The…only program that is slightly that color is……Abraxas!!”said Paige
“Abraxas!! How could that make any sense? How would he be able to have such a virus!”said Beck
“This is groundbreaking stuff, it's small but if he could do this imagine what it could do to everyone else. If it’s true he infected Beck, what could he have done to Sam, a user!”said Jethro
“Alan, could you fix this?”asked Paige looking at Beck
“I’ve never seen this type of programming but I can try!”said Alan
“We need a new plan!”said Mara
“What do you mean?”asked Beck
“You're infected with something and now need Alan to fix you but what about the grid? I mean that's why you're here!”said Mara, looking at the users then at Quorra
“I’ll still fix the grid, it's not that hard and Jethro can help too. This though…is gonna be tricky!”said Alan holding Becks infected disc
“Beck, I want you to stay with Alan and Jethro for now. The rest we’ll take care of the garage.”said Able
“What? Why? I’m still okay!”argued Beck
“Sweetie you're infected with something we don’t even know what this could do to you and what if you lash out at the wrong person!”said Paige
“Beck, stay with them for now!”said Tron
“What are you going to do?”asked Alan
“Find Sam and bring him to us!!”said Tron
“I’m coming too! He’s my boyfriend. He could hurt an innocent program or is going after Rinlzer. All I know is that he’s dangerous right now!”said Quorra
“Right ... .Let's go now!”said Tron
“Alright be safe! Able I will take care of Beck.”said Alan
“I know…Beck don’t leave the house! Got it!”said Able
“Yes sir I won’t leave.”sighed Beck
“At ah boy! You three let's go, lots of work to do.”announced Able
The rest of the programs groaned in announcement as they left for their job. Tron and Quorra left shortly after, Quorra’s eyes were still red from her breakdown. Paige hugged her before she left and promised they’ll do everything to fix Sam. Paige stayed behind to help Alan and Jethro in any way.
Sam, who was long gone, wandered around the grid staying in the alleyway in the shadows. Keeping his head down as he walked to get anywhere but that house. The alleyways were cold as the night got darker and darker, it smelled moldy and grassy for a video game, the ground was slippery and uneven. Holding onto the brick wall as it felt all rocky and the groves being smooth. In his head he was noticing the amount of detail his father put into the game to be like this. Wanting to see his fathers face his head started getting light and tingly as he thought more and more about his father. Feeling himself get this choking sensation Sam slid his back against the wall. Taking his disc he noticed it start having a weird yellow pattern on it. It was strange but his hands got shaky and vision started getting blurry and uncomfortable. Then he felt that he had no control over himself as he watched destruction happen.
Only about 2 cycles both Tron and Quorra were only milicycles away from him when Tron lost his signal. They arrived at voxels in the streets and the horrific sight of windows shattered and fire everywhere. Program screams were heard everywhere not only that but Sam’s wanted sign was displayed on large screens. Quorra watched as she and Tron were both searching for their friend and lover.
“What happened?”questioned Quorra asking a program
“Sam, the user that saved us!! He just attacked us!”they cried
“This is worse than the slaughter of the ISO’s!”commenting another looking at their destroyed home
“Even CLU had morals!”muttered another
“Tron!! Do something!!”screamed a woman program
“YEAH!!”screamed a male
“I WILL, I promise!”said Tron
Quorra glanced at Tron who was standing looking at the crowd of programs who started chanting at Tron. She shook her head and walked through the crowd to find her lover. Searching through the destruction only to find nothing. No sign of Sam, no sign of anything helpful, just broken glass, voxels of dead programs and useless discs. Quorra saw a tiny disc holding it in her hand. It still had warmth to it as she turned it over and over in her hands. Staring at it, looking in the reflection of it she saw Tron standing over her.
“It belonged to a child…”she whispered,”Sam killed a child.”
“No, Abraxas killed a child.”said Tron pulling the disc out of her hands
“No it was Sam’s disc…hand..whatever…”she cried
“Quorra….”Tron started
But Quorra slammed her fists into his chest repeatedly as she cried, she kept saying Sam killed a child, Sam killed a child. Over and Over again as Tron let her do it.
Tron finally noticed the orange flying overhead so he grabbed her and ran into the back alleyways. Holding her to his chest and covering her mouth as they watched. Sentries filled in followed by the black guard. Dyson strutted out unusually happy. Bystanding programs watched angrily as they cleaned up the mess. Tron watched them scanning for anything, then Rinzler and three trailing blackguards rolled up. They all looked at the mess as one started asking Dyson questions as Rinzler helped clean up the mess. The bystanders got annoyed as Dyson, Rinzler and the blackguard never answered their questions. Things started to get thrown at them, the three blackguards that Rinzler came with started to protect him. Dyson gets hit with everything thrown at him. Tron watched and used it as his escape as he started to pull Quorra with him. Rinzler saw him but so did Dyson as Tron guided Quorra through the crowd while pushing programs out of the way. Black guards started to chase them per Dyson’s orders. Rinzler darted to the alleyway and up to the roofs skillfully balancing as the ground under him crumbled away.
Rinzler jumped down in front of Tron who hurried to get away. He pushed Quorra out of the way as he activated his disc. Quorra grabbed hers as she got attacked by blackguards. Rinzler stood in front of Tron unprovoked as Tron stood ready to attack and defend Quorra. Rinzler just stood his body tense, his clicking soft and steady. Then Dyson ran up and attacked Tron, the new security program defended himself, their disc’s colliding against each other. The sounds of fighting going on as Rinzler slipped into the shadows of the rooftops. He didn’t get into the fights, he just sat on the ledge carefully balancing himself on it. He watched Quorra take on 6 black guards at once as his personal three did crowd control. Dyson and Tron were head to head yet Tron being skilled overtook Dyson slicing up and nearly turned him into voxels.
Programs screamed and the black guard turned at the sight of Dyson; he was basically nothing then. Rinzler studied the scene before jumping down and ending Dyson. Quorra finished her fight and walked over to them.
“You know we could've used your help!”said Tron
Rinzler shrugged
“Sir, we should get back!”said Klax
Rinzler shook his head them turned to Tron
“Brother I know Alan would love to host you but Emma and the others would worry that you'd disappeared.”said Tron patting Rinzlers shoulder
“Besides we are trying to find Sam he caused this mess and is missing.”said Quorra
“Sir you trust these programs?”questioned Nord
“What do you mean Brother?”asked Klax
“Rinzler will tell when ready but you should go back this place is cleaned up anyway and I doubt Dyson is gonna cause any more trouble okay?”chuckled Tron
Rinzler nodded sighing before turning and leaving
Tron and Quorra's search ended with nothing and returned empty handed. The house was quiet with Beck and Paige sleeping and Alan hunched over Beck's disc. Jethro was nowhere to be found after Tron searched for him.
“Where's Jet?”asked Tron
“He went to fix the Grid..”answered Alan
“Nothing?”questioned Quorra motioning to the disc
“Yeah nothing.”answered Alan sadly
“We’ll figure this out!! I believe in you!”said Quorra
“And hey we ran into Rinzler and he basically begged to come to see you!!”laughed Tron
Alan chuckled at that
“Also Tron crushed his fight with Dyson!!”mentioned Quorra
“You fought Dyson!!”shocked Beck
“Yeah I was gonna give him mercy but Rinzler ended him.”shrugged Tron
“Damn, I wish I could've seen that!”whined Beck
“Same!”agreed Paige
“Beck, you should be resting!”said Tron
“I'm okay really, I'm tired of resting!”argued Beck
“No.Bed.Now!”said Tron sternly
Beck couldn't argue with Tron so he sighed and turned on his heels and left for his and Paige's room. Paige stood in the doorway looking shocked at Tron and Quorra. She looked at Quorra and asked
“You didn't find him.”
“No trace nothing!”answered Quorra
“I feel like this is planned!”said Paige
“What are you saying?”asked Alan
“You the users coming, then everyone getting infected by this, also the trio becoming more and more powerful or something is just off. Not to mention us being basically hunted. Also Rinzler!! And Tron who came back somethings off!”said Paige
“Are you saying we shouldn't have come?”asked Alan
“I'm saying I'm sure that Rinzlee is the next one to be infected and it's going to infect Tron too! Or maybe Jet or Quorra!”said Paige
“Lorra would kill me if something happened to our son! Tron ping Jet and let's go bring him back!”said Alan
“I'll come! I think Tron should ping Rinzler and let him know what's happening! Rinzler will listen to him!”said Quorra
“Do it!”nodded Alan
Tron sighed at them and went to the living room to get in contact with Rinzler.
Brother we figured out the reason both the user and Beck tried attacking you is because of a mysterious yellow virus in their coding-Tron
A few millicycles later Rinzler answered
Weird Emma was talking about his destruction-Rinzler
Paige thinks it's gonna either infect you, Quorra or Jethro!-Tron
Why me?-Rinzler
To get to me!-Tron
Yellow….Brother the only one closer to having yellow circuits is..Abraxas-Rinzler
Are you with him now?-Tron
I'm in danger aren't I?-Rinzler
I'll come get you!-Tron
They started giving me weird energy cycles ago. It made me feel weird. I knew they were poisoning me millicycles ago. I just wanted to meet Alan.-Rinzler
Brother? Brother!!!!-Tron
Tron turned to the doorway to see Paige standing there shocked. Beck ran out from behind her, also shocked. Without a word Paige ordered Beck to stay behind for Alan and the others as Paige and Tron raced to the security hub to get to Rinzler on their lightcycles. Under it both realized how big it was and they didn't know where Rinzler was.
“We need a plan!”Paige said underneath her helmet
Tron looked at her then the guards
“Have you ever been arrested?”he asked
That was the easy part, they snuck up and pretended to attack the guards. Both got dragged all the way up to Emma’s office. She sat there all high in her chair as Abraxas and Anon stood in front of the desk with two girls standing with tablets around a giant display of the grid. Tron scanned the room to see a door to the right. He felt deep to the connection between him and Rinzler as he felt his other half behind the door.
“The original Tron right here!”announced Abraxas
“How exciting and we have the Renegades little girlfriend! What was Lieutenant Paige or something?”taunted Anon
“Boys.. we should welcome them! They're our guests! Welcome Tron and Paige…Now Tron you should introduce yourself tell us about yourself! So what's it like to come back and find the grid a mess or the fact your original body was repurposed to be a killing machine?”teased Emma
“He told me you were his only friend, HOW YOU NURSED HIM AND WAS KIND!!!”yelled Tron
“Sometimes you need to sacrifice everything to get what you want!”said Emma
“He loved you!”shouted Tron
“I loved him! I went against my own morals to save him!”said Emma
Her face was cold and unemotional, you couldn't read it but her eyes told she wanted to cry. She felt that it was true, she wanted it to be true. That she truly loved him but her mission was more important.
“We don't need them, let's kill them and use them! Like him!”said Abraxas
“It's too early, we need the users to fix the Grid and right now your first experiment is running loose! It's destroying everything!”said Emma
“Where is he!”asked Quorra
“Off our radar!”answered Anon
“Did you kill him?”asked Tron
“Probably behind the door!”said Abraxas
Tron broke the restraints and grabbed his discs, slicing both Anon and Abraxas. Quorra was already hacking the door as Tron fought both corrupted programs.
“Quorra I don't want to be rude but hurry up!”shouted Tron
“I'm trying!”yelled Quorra
Emma picked up her blade in that moment as Quorra got the door open and squeezed it as Tron slid in right behind him. Inside it was plain and simple as they scanned the room to find Rinzler in the corner slumped on the wall. Tron ran to him, dropping to his knees as he shook his brother. Quorra stayed in the doorway watching and watching as Tron grabbed his brother's discs and couldn’t find a way to open the diagnostics to see what was wrong with him. Tron picked Rinzler up, turning to Quorra who stared at him. Her icy white eyes stared at him, almost piercing his code. She couldn’t put into words how much Tron just cares for Rinzler the Nanocycles he’s known for the program.
“You care ... .so much for him!”she simply said
“I’ll explain but truthfully I do!”he said
“How do we get out of here?”she asked
“That I don’t know!”Tron answered
Quorra opened the door and the room was empty, no programs were present. She opened it fully and let the two behind her come out. Quorra activated her disc and Tron had his brothers in hand. Both looked at the program's disc before he activated it. Nodding they went to the hall where they were attacked by the blackguard and every other program in the security hub. Tron had the issue of fighting while holding Rinzler in his arms, while fighting he felt his hands go numb with Rinzler’s discs in his hands. They were turning yellow, Quorra turned to Tron as she noticed him getting slower. Tron then got an idea and launched the disc’s into two blackguards. He activated his own disc and fought with it instead, not even noticing the virus creeping through his codes.
By the end of the fight it was up his arm, Quorra noticed it. She walked up but Tron backed away from her.
“Don’t…Don’t do that to me!”she exclaimed
“I don’t want to hurt you!”he said
“Then don’t but we need to leave!”she said grabbing her disc she flung
“Please leave!”he shouted
“NO!! I lost my boyfriend, I'm not losing you too!”Quorra yelled back
“Please your not safe.”he said
Quorra walked over to him, getting closer to him. Her eyes filled with worry and a hint of something he couldn’t pick out. She grabbed his hands, holding them with her smaller hands. Her face got closer as she glanced at his lips. Tron pushed her away from him.
“You have a boyfriend. You love Sam!”he shouted at her
He turned to his brother and picked him up again. She started shouting at him but he didn’t listen.
“Quorra I saved your life because that's my job, my programming. It doesn’t make it right for you to try to kiss another.”said Tron
“I’m…I’m sorry please just forgive me! I didn’t mean too! Just forgive me!”Quorra shouted as he ignored her
Tron just walked out of that hallway and out to their bikes missing and the guards still knocked out. He started walking to a hidden path and through the bushes. Quorra remained silent as she walked behind him in thought of what happened. She tried to kiss him while Sam was missing. She didn’t know what went through her but she did like him. She liked both Sam and Tron; it wasn't right and she knew that. Desire that's what she had but through her childhood Kevin Flynn preached against. She pulled her hands up to her chest as she fiddled with them.
They neared the house as he stopped and turned to her so fast that it startled her. His face was angry as she could tell that he hated her for what happened. She didn’t know how to apologize to him. She kept picking at her hands as she couldn’t meet his eyes.
“That never happened!”he said
“Got it!”she answered through tears
She kept her head low as they entered the house as she listened to Alan running and shouting what happened. Beck was running down the stairs followed by Paige. Jet came with Able behind him. Quorra stayed silent as everything blurred around her.

Chapter Text

*Quorras POV*

Sam is gone, Sam is actually gone and I’m alone again. Why, users! Why curse me with being alone again. I lost Kevin-Flynn, my father, my mentor. Now I lost his son, my first love to the virus. Then I even tried kissing Tron. Everything we built is going down, it's all crashing down and I’m still alone.
Paige came up to me with concern on her face as I looked up holding the tears. I knew I looked upset.
“You okay Quorra?”asked Paige
“I’m alone….I’m alone again!”I cried
The tears started pouring down my face.
“I lost Sam!”I cried
“You didn’t lose him Quorra! He’s still here just…..we’ll find him. We’ll find Sam!”promised Paige
“He’s gone! He’s gone and it’s my fault!”I cried harder
“It’s not your fault, it’s not your fault he got infected, it's the corrupted fault.”said Paige
I just looked at her, I just didn’t even believe her
“I don’t believe you….”I say
“Please believe me!”begged Paige
“No…It’s my fault. I should’ve been there for him. I shouldn’t have let him leave the house!”I said
“It’s not your fault! Someone tell her it isn’t her fault!”yelled Paige
Paige looked around
“Tell her!”she shouted
“Paige why are you blaming yourself?”asked Alan
“It’s my fault…I should’ve told him to stay! Maybe he wouldn’t be infected.”I cried
“No, we all yelled at Sam. We all blamed Sam when we should’ve tried to understand and figure things out.”said Alan
“You’re not alone.”said Beck
“I feel so alone…..honestly.”I breathed between my sobs
“You're not alone!”said Paige
“Yet I feel so alone.”I say
“But you’re not! Just listen to us, you can talk to us!”said Paige
“I can’t.”I said
“Why not?”asked Beck
“You wouldn’t understand. You don’t have everything crashing onto you. You don’t feel your entire life falling apart over a single thing!”I say
“Quorra I carry Tron’s legacy on my shoulders everyday!”countered Beck
“I lost Kevin_Flynn and I lost the love of my life over the corrupted. I’m the last ISO, Beck. I lost my people then the person who took me in. Now I lost the love of my life to the people we are fighting.”I say
“Quorra, please you didn’t lose everyone. You have us and I’m no Kevin_Flynn but I’ll help you in any way you just need to ask.”said Alan
I looked at Alan who looked genuine but still felt sad. I stood there in Paige’s arms as I cried. It didn’t immediately make me feel better but it helped the sadness of losing everything. Paige sat me at the kitchen table and made me some energy and left with Beck. Every other program kinda went their way after my melt down. The silence was loud with casual footsteps as Tron and Alan were in another room upstairs. I didn’t move to help since Tron yelled at me but my thoughts were still unpleasant.
I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I didn’t look up to see who it was just playing with the empty cup.
“He okay?”I asked
Silence and the noise of just grabbing stuff from the cabinets
I was quick to figure it to be Tron from the silence. I took that as my answer and nodded. Then more footsteps came down the stairs, Alan. I turned my head to him.
“Is he okay?”I asked again
“Yes my dear. Not completely better but definitely some progress. I can’t figure the code out but Beck has been a big help letting me test some stuff with his codes.”answered Alan
“That's good to hear.”I say
I glanced at Tron but he had his back towards me, handing the glass to Alan
“Thanks, my son. Quorra I was gonna ask, during CLU’s rule have you ever seen anything like this?”asked Alan
“No never anything this bad, even when I snuck around in the alleys or hiding nothing like this. Not even the purge had anything this bad. I think that those three weren’t even around till like a couple cycles later.”I say
“Not even during my time anything this bad. I could look through my brothers memories but I would need his permission.”said Tron
“No, we want your brother's trust and I doubt you’ll find anything between CLU wiping everything and the virus coursing through him. If anything the virus would affect you.”said Alan
“What if we get Emma to tell us? When we grabbed Rinzler she seemed genuine for us to take him. She didn’t want him hurt.”I say plainly
“NO!”shouted Tron,” That’s the most stupidest idea ever! Your just gonna ask the enemy for information!”
“It’s a thought! You heard her, she seemed genuinely scared for him!”I say
“She was trying to full us! She never loved him, she use him, I’ve seen it! They act all nice then later they break your trust,”said Tron,” You truly want that?”
“I was just saying I mean seriously don’t you think she deserves a chance to see the person she loved suffering to see the damage she did? To see what her love did to him?”I ask
“That’s just twisted, dear!”said Alan
“It’s to show Emma that her mission will break everything and every program she ever cared about. She’s probably not like Abraxas or Anon. What if she’s i don’t know like Rinzler? I’m saying we don’t know anything about them but there's some innocence inside her, something that she doesn’t even know. She has feelings, I know it!”I say
“What are you saying? That Emma is repurposed?”questioned Tron
“Yes! I’m saying what if? She’s not heartless like Abraxas or Anon! Behind her eyes is something soft and kind!”I say
“You're talking crazy!”yelled Tron
“I'm not, just hear me out please!”I beg
“I'm not hearing you out!”seethed Tron
“Tron stop!”said Alan sternly
“Father….please I don't….father I don't feel like explaining but Quorra here is talking crazy!”said Tron
“I'm trying to help! I know I'm talking crazy but I think we can save Emma!”I said
“If it is a possibility then maybe but we can't just blindly trust your thoughts. Tron, my son, stop yelling at Quorra though.”calmly said Alan
“Rinzler….is he going to be okay? Like night terrors?”I ask
“Why?”said Tron, rolling his eyes
“You reminded me, I would like to study your and your brother's connection with each other. You mentioned you could sense him and see his memories. Right?”said Alan
“Yes I can, why?”asked Tron
“I'm thinking, that you can help your brother fight the virus.”said Alan
“Father, I could fight it no problem. So he can too. He just needs time since he took most of it.”said Tron
“I don't think it was that simple. Sam was here for 2 days and look at the city. Yet Beck was infected and he's doing just fine. So maybe Abraxas can manipulate who gets it worse.”said Alan
“I dont think it's that simple. Abraxas can infect some programs no problem but Sam is a user and Beck is a program. There's a big difference. So Rinzler might have it worse since he's reprogrammed. His codes are twisted with two different codes inside of him. Who knows how bad it is!”I say
“But here's my question, did you know that Abraxas was originally an ISO?”asked Tron suspiciously
“WHAT? He was? But how?”I stand up in shock, the chair scraping the floor
“Yes he was. I found out during the duel. His fighting was almost similar to the man that Rinzler once fought.”said Tron
“But how can you just claim he's an ISO??? From a fight? Not only that but because of Rinzlers corrupted memories?”I say walking closer to him,”Now don't lie to me!”
“I believe that who, we are fighting is corrupt!”said Tron,”I think that they are repurposed.”
“How do you know?”asked Alan
“Because Abraxas in Rinzler’s memories is an ISO when he attacks one of those camps. He looks like one of those fighters.”said Tron
“How can you be so sure?”I ask, trying to study his face but he turns
“Enough, I trust my brother's memories. I believe that he got repurposed or something. So maybe your not far off on Emma bring repurposed.”said Tron
He paced around the kitchen, making sense of everything. I stood near the island leaning against it. Alan was watching his son. Maybe we can figure out Abraxas and fix both Sam and Rinzler. Some hope started to rise within me. It was small but it was there. Paige then walked in panicked and the hope died down watching her panicked face.
“Beck!”she breathed
All three of us in the kitchen followed her out and into the front yard. Beck's circuits were watching as he was struggling. Paige sprinted towards him but Tron was faster. He slid on his knees next to him. I held Paige close as Tron gently grabbed him, pulling to the house. Alan was close behind as us two slowly walked to the house.
“What happened?” I asked
“I don't know, we were talking while coming back from the bar but he started to glitch. He kept saying the grid will end.”cried Paige
“Alan will fix him.”i promised
“I know that but Beck won't be back for a while. Alan still hasn't figured out how to fix Rinzler!”says Paige, her tears started slowing but looking at she wasn’t okay
“I’m sure there's a cure out there.”I promise, knowing that there wasn’t,”Alan will figure things out. He proved that users can fix everything.”
“I highly doubt that. While working for Dyson it was clear that the high programs only care for themselves,”she says,”They don’t care
Paige just shook her head before walking out of the kitchen, I stood there holding my hands out to her. I walk over and take her hands. In front of her I look, there's hope I just know it. There's a way to fix everything.
“Alan is a smart user, I’ve seen his work!”I gesture upstairs,”Alan has made the two strongest programs. He even helped create this world and he will fix Beck, Rinzler and Sam.”I say
“Quorra….”a voice came from behind me
Jet stood behind the two of us, his face vague and sad. Able stood next to him with the other programs behind them. All their faces didn’t look happy. Mara held tears and Link his eyes red. I searched their faces yet no happiness was present. Tron came down with Alan, Rinzler held Beck with Tron.
“Well I have news,”started Jet,”Me and the others searched the city for Sam while figuring out how to make dads burden easier,”His voice shook,”We found him. Not…not…in good shape…”Alan realized and held his son,”Sam’s dead. The virus…the virus.. kill…ed him.”
“What?”I choke out
“That’s..No he can’t…Sam can’t be dead.”said Beck, not believing
“We took his disc but the virus tried spreading through. We nearly had to cut Able’s hand off.”said Link
“No…No, please tell me you're lying! He promised!”I cried
“I’m sorry Quorra. He’s gone,”whispered Jet,”I couldn’t save him.”
“If the virus killed Sam then…”Tron looked at Beck then at Rinzler
“It could kill Beck and Rinzler.”realized Paige
“Sam…”I whisper
“I’m sorry….”whispered Jet, a piece of Sam’s disc was given to me
The piece was broken and jagged, it had a sharp end to it. Blood stained on it, his blood. Alan put his hand on my shoulder, I didn’t look at him directly but in the reflection of the disc. His face was tired and full of sorrow. His eyes are kind and red. Looking deep I saw Tron holding Rinzler close to him.
“He promised we’d go back and start our lives fully together.”I whisper
“Sometimes we can’t keep our promises.”said Alan
The rest of the group held each other, talking while I stood there using the island to keep myself from falling to the ground. Paige and Beck stood together as Paige gripped Beck close to her while he reassured her. Alan stood with his three boys as the two users explained everything to the programs.
“Sam was a good user.”said Able
“He was one of a kind, he showed me true love.”I said not looking at him
“His last words were, I promised her.”slowly said Able
“You heard them!”my head snapped to him
“Yes, when I was looking through his disc, me and Jet saw the memory,”said Able,”I can later show you yet this piece was the only uninfected part of the disc.”
“How does that work?”I ask
“That's for you to figure out, little program. I have faith that you’ll figure out.”said Alan walking away
My hands clutched the piece of disc. I clutched it so hard that my hands hurt but I didn’t care. I have to save the grid or Sam’s death would be in vain. Alan then came up to me and I looked up and everyone else was gone. It was just us two, he guided me to the three boys who moved to the living room.
“Now that Sam’s gone, I think it’ll be good to express the feelings of hardship that we’ll face. Since now that there's two new people in our family.”announced Alan
“Dad why are we doing this?”asked Jet
“Because, Sam just died and you haven’t been with us in a bit since taking over my job that we all came here for. Not to mention that Tron just came back and that Rinzler is starting a new life.”said Alan
“I guess I shall ask about Tron and Rinzler, since Rinzler somehow is still standing and Tron won’t leave him alone?”asked Jet
“Well Tron and Rinzler are the same program.”said Alan
“No I know that but still doesn’t make any sense.”said Jet
“Sir or brother? I don't know what to call you..”sighed Tron,”I'm close to Rinzler because I sense that fear as I feel responsible for creating him. My other life.”
“You feel responsible? But your not! It was unpredictable, no one knew it was gonna happen!”said Alan
“But it did!”countered Tron
“Guys!”I yelled
Everyones head turned to me
“Your scaring Rinzler….”I sighed as I panicked,”aslo no one knew it was gonna happen. It did happen but it can't be fixed now.”
“But still!”sighed Tron
“You both are going straight off course of Jets question!”I pointed out
“Litterally!”agreed Jet,”not everything has to be about you two!”
“Jethro!”angered Alan
“DAD seriously your putting so much attention into those two! I feel left out! It's freaking Sam all over again! You and mom are choosing every adopted kid over your own blood son. I want to be apart of this family but your pushing me away!”Jet said letting his feelings out
“I didn't know you felt that way!”realized Alan
“Im sorry Jet, that me and Rinzler…”started Tron
“No save your apology!”Jet sighed heavily rolling his eyes,”you have the spotlight now. You both are going to be his favorites!”
“Jet, you don't have to be angry.”I say
“I’m not angry. I know my place thats all! It won't matter anyway since he'll give me attention then choose favorites!”said Jethro
“No thats not what's happening!” angered Alan
“Is it? You barely acknowledged me when you first adopted Sam, so to fill that role you put not only one new son, you put freaking twins above me!”yelled Jethro,”not only that but you actually never cared about my feelings about that. You basically manipulated me into thinking you still loved me!”
“Jethro thats not what happened! Sam lost his parents and grandparents. He needed some love at that time!”said Alan, staying as calm as he could
“Well when he lost his parents. He took mine away from me!”yelled Jethro
“He needed love!”yelled Alan
“I did too but you put him above me! Every agreement you took his side! Every restaurant had to be to his liking or he won't eat but when I didn't like it you forced me to just eat there.”yelled Jethro
The three programs stared in shock, they didn't know what was true or who was right. They just stayed silent. Alan was shaking in anger as his son yelled but stayed poised. He wasn't going to yell at his son or say something horrible. He let his blood son, his true son say everything he needed. Tron held Rinzlers hand, talking to him through this as he hoped his brother wasn't scared. Quorra sat on the other couch watching in horror. Tron saw that and took action pinging to her.
Hey you okay?-Tron
Scared, I don't know who to believe-Quorea
None, users sometimes yell at each other as a need to get anger out-Tron
That's not..nevermind. Rinzler okay?-Quorra
Shaking but stable. I'm asking about you, though-Tron
I don't want to get into it-Quorra
Tell me-Tron
I’m scared that this isn't only because of Sam's death but of years of pent up anger. That Jet didn't want to say any of this just to keep Sam happy-Quorra
He probably didn't want to show that Alan wasn't as good of a father as Sam thought he was-Tron
No, ,Alan is an amazing father but he doesn't know how to show everyone the same kind of love. There's ent ways of showing love-Quorra
a difference between how he shows his love to all of his kids-Quorra
Jethro doesn’t seem to understand it-Tron
No one does but you feel it-Quorra
Oh…Okay I seem to not understand though. Why is Jethro mad?-Rinzler
Because he feels that Alan_1 didn’t show him the same love as Sam. It’s okay though, they’ll figure it out-Tron
How?-Rinzler
By letting the users figure it out-Quorra
It’s in our best interest to stay out of it-Tron
But…Brother?-Rinzler
It’s fine though, the users will figure it out-Tron
The users….-Rinzler
What?-Tron
Nothing…its nothing-Rinzler
It’s not nothing-Tron
But it is, forget about it-Rinzler
You know you can tell us! As your important to us-Quorra
Yeah, you're important to us. We care about you!-Tron
No…no-Rinzler
I looked between the twins not knowing when to but in. I just stayed silent when the twins got up and left then I followed. Away from the arguing father and son from those issues into the other issues of the twins. I just stayed silent from the short walk from the living room into the shared bedroom of the twins. Rinzler sat on the bed closest to the door and Tron sat on the bed against the wall. I sat on the chair to the desk.
“Are we all good?”I ask
Tron shrugged
“Why did you follow?”Rinzler signed
“I didn’t want to stay there. It got intense.”I signed back
“You know the gestures he’s doing?”Tron asked surprised
“Yeah I do, I learned it in the user world. I’m not perfect at it but I can understand everything he’s saying. He’s not perfect at it either.”I say
“Who taught you?”I sign to Rinzler curious
Rinzler hesitated
“You can teach me right?”Tron asks me
“Yes.”I answer
“If you don’t want to answer me then I’m not going to be mad.”I sign to Rinzler
“I can tell you but I feel that….you won’t like it.”he signs
“I wasn’t going to be mad anyway. Why would I?”I sign back
“Emma taught me but like she gave me the books for it.”he signs quickly
“Why would I be mad?”I sign curious
“My brother, I don’t want him to be mad or Alan.”Rinzler signs
“If you want me to tell him then I will but if I don’t then I won’t. I’m not an evil person.”
I smiled at him, I was feeling like a person in this weird family. A deep sadness formed a while ago when I found out that Sam died. Deep hidden inside was the sadness. I was figuring out how to hide it very well. Everyone seemed to not care that Sam died, so I didn't care either. I didn’t want to replace him but it seemed that I was supposed to not care that my boyfriend was dead. So I played that I didn’t care either.
“Quorra, are you sad?”asked Tron
“No not at all.”I smiled
“Your eyes say something different.”said Tron
“I’m okay, it’s nothing really, just a stressful cycle y’know?”I say
“Everyone played that they don’t care that Sam died.”signed Rinzler
“I know, people and programs grieve differently.”I sign back
“Still they should have at least grieved.”said Tron
I turn to him
“Yet not everyone knew Sam or they only saw what happened earlier. Then never saw him again until he was dead. Alan and Jet though their anger could be them grieving.”I say
“It doesn’t look or sound like it.”shrugged Tron
“You both don’t understand but it's okay.”I say
“How don’t we understand? I understand just fine.”said Tron
“You just came to the grid, Tron, so you wouldn’t know much that went on during that time and you, Rinzler,”I turned and pointed at him,” I doubt would know anything about love or grief.”I say
“I honestly don’t.”signed Rinzler he shrugged
“Obviously.”I laugh
Tron rolled his eyes
We kinda just stayed in the room enjoying each other's company while Alan and Jet went on with each other. I started teaching Tron signs with Rinzler’s help. He got the hang of it really easily which I was so proud of. We stayed in the room until I couldn’t hear Alan and Jethro’s voices. I looked at the twins but Tron shook his head. I looked at Rinzler who’s body tensed and I took the hint. They needed to deal with their own problems. Was probably easier on the both to not get in the fight. We then heard a door open and then slam shut. Then I watched Tron get up and motioned us to stay in the room. So we stayed there while he went downstairs.
“Who do you think left?”I signed
“I don’t know, Jet maybe as I doubt Alan would leave.”signed Rinzler
“Makes sense.”I agreed
We fell back into silence sitting on the opposite beds, Tron’s was a neat blue color with lighter colored bed post while looking at Rinzlers was black and darker bed post. He sat on the edge of the best poised with his hands on his knees. He sat completely statue-like while I leaned on the wall, lounging. I realized we are complete opposites. I noticed his body tensed when we heard footsteps coming back. I looked to see Tron walking back into the room. I looked back and Rinzler became relaxed.
“So Alan, Father is still here and brother, Jethro, left to stay with Able.”announced Tron sitting next to me
“We need to fix the grid.”I say sadly,”It’s what Sam wanted
“That's why Jethro even left but that plan went downhill really fast with the virus. I’m still shocked that both Beck and Rinz are still standing.”said Tron
“Because it barely affected me. I don’t even know how but it doesn’t hurt at all or that I’m not basically dead.”signed Rinzler
“I heard from rumors that he could control who’s infected.”I announce
“Could that have been why Sam even died.”added Tron
“Then what do we do?”signed Rinzler
“I don't know but we need to get Alan, Jet and the others on board. We need to do our job!”I say
“I believe they will be on board. But we need to fix it quickly.”said Tron

****

The screens image of the users played while the table was surrounded by the corrupted. Emma stood between Anon and Abraxas. Jessina and Laura stood on the other side of the table.
“The plan is going south as we rely on the users!”growled Anon
“Well if they would just push their feelings aside they would finish by now.”yelled Abraxas punching the table
It shook the table
“What should we do?”asked Emma
“I hope kill the users but that's impossible.”said Abraxas
“Your virus killed Sam.”said Anon
“And destroyed more of the grid.”added Emma
“We can force them too.”suggested Laura
“No…..we should use the users against themselves.”said Anon
“How?”asked Emma
Anon turned back on the two before walking to the desk in the office. There sat the two small balls and they glowed as he picked them up.
“Time to get this done.”he said
Abraxas and Emma turn to him, nodding.
“For the resistance!”they both say

Chapter Text

The house once again fell silent, everyone was sleeping. Beck and Paige in their room. The twins in the room next door. Quorra alone in the room across then Alan all alone in the room in the end. Rinzler lay awake not being able to sleep, he turned to his brother who was fast asleep. He felt his body shake as he felt something in his code come back. The dark mysterious urge to kill was coming back. His brother stirred in his sleep. Rinzler stared as he watched him. An order came to him.
Activation protocol: Kill the enemy
Across the street in the big builds sat Emma swinging her legs off the edge. She watched carefully as Anon behind her clutched the two orange glowing balls. She turned to him and looked at the balls then back at Anon.
“How is this going to fix the grid?”asked Emma, she couldn’t meet his eyes
“It’s not, our main mission was to destroy it. CLU ruined everything and then the users ruined our mission to destroy CLU. Now we have to rebuild it.”said Anon
“Oh…”she said sadly
“Don’t worry, everything will come together shortly.”he smirked
“You just love to watch everything burn.”Emma forced a laugh
“You activate it?”asked Abraxas
“Yes shortly they’ll be dead.”Anon basically jumped in joy
“Oh what fun.”smiled Abraxas“Why aren’t you happy?” Abraxas looked down at Emma
“We promised the programs we’ll fix everything. This isn’t fixing it.”she said
“Sometimes fixing is getting rid of the problem.”said Abraxas
“She’s just mad that we’re using her little boyfriend.”said Anon rolling his eyes
“Oh shush! You shouldn’t care about him. He’s built for this. He’s an attack dog, that's all!”said Abraxas
“An assassin mostly.”added Anon
“He’s still a program that we promised to protect.”argued Emma
“Don’t start with us!”growled Abraxas
Abraxas was easy to anger, Emma knew that. Abraxas kneeled down to her to Emma’s eye level. She looked at the anger that burned through his eyes. Everything about him was rage. Emma just turned her head away from him but he grabbed her arm forcing her to look at him.
“Stop acting like you care about that program. You need to learn Rinzler, an assassin, CLU’s toy is nothing more than a tool. You of all people should know that.”hissed Abaraxas
“He’s also Tron.”whispered Emma
“Oh shut up!! You're so annoying!”whined Anon,”Your feelings for him are nothing, you’ll get over him.”
“You need to get that in your head!”said Abraxas
“Fine…”she said
“Good.”said Abaraxas
“We should leave soon, I hear the fighting starting. We should act like we weren’t at the scene of the crime.”announced Anon
Abraxas pulled Emma with him as he gripped her arm. They left as Emma kept looking back at the house. It still laid silent but she saw the flashes of blue and orange through the windows. She caught a glimpse of Rinzler’s helmet.
In the house it was basically chaos as Rinzler attacked Tron in his sleep. Quorra heard the fighting and tried to help but Rinzler’s disc cut her arm, derezzing it. Tron blocked Rinzler’s twin discs. Beck and Paige hurried out of their room and saw the fight. Beck grabbed his disc and threw it but Rinzler pulled away just in time for Beck’s disc to hit Tron’s knocking off balance. Tron stumbled back leaving room for Rinzler to sweep Tron’s legs leaving him to fall. From that point Beck ran to help Tron but Rinzler jumped to his feet and pushed Beck into the wall. No one saw him grab his disc as he nearly cut Beck’s throat. Paige from behind Rinzler pulled him off Beck and Tron grabbed him. They thought they had Rinzler but he threw Tron into Paige.
Alan was standing at the door of his room. When he saw the chaos, not knowing what to do Alan pushed the door closed. He pulled up anything from the grid that could help him. Finding something that could help anything at all yet nothing. CLU was good at hiding his prized possessions weakness. Alan couldn’t do anything to help, nothing in the grid could help them.
“DAD!!”yelled Tron in panic
That was all he needed, thinking like CLU could help him. Finding CLU’s files let him dig deeper but he needed to be quick. He remembered something so he grabbed his own disc and opened the door.
“Tron throw me one of your brother's discs!”he yelled
The scene in front of him was horrible but Beck threw one of Rinzler’s corrupted discs. Alan grabbed it. He typed in some coding and threw it back at Tron who got out of Rinzlers grip and slid on top of him and slammed it back into the port. Making Rinzler basically crash.
“Help…help…help Quorra!”cried Paige
She could breathe, no one could. Everyone was out of breath or a little damaged but Quorra had the worst of it. Her arm was basically gone and all over the floor of the twins room. The fighting took from the twins room to the hall most of it was in front of Alan's room to the end of the hall. Alan kneeled to Quorra and took her disc, opened the code and fixed her. He turned to Beck, to help but he refused.
“Beck!”started Paige,”no Paige I'm fine just worry about Rinzler please!”said Beck
“Okay I will!”promised Alan
In truth he didn't know how to help Rinzler. He thought he fixed him or at least stopped most of the virus. Alan looked over at his son who was out cold, clicking quiet but scratchy. Tron sat against the wall breathing heavily as he looked at his father. His eyes worried with concern in the mix. He looked at everyone else and sighed looking at the ceiling.
“I…I couldn't stop him. Dad I couldn't stop him.”he buried his head in his hands
“It's not your fault.”said Alan
“I couldn't stop him….Now Quorra is missing her arm and Beck…I failed to teach Beck how to save himself!”Tron kept blaming himself
“No one blames you. Tron you're not to blame.”comforted Alan
“Please fix him.”begged Tron,”I promised him.”
“Of course I will but you need to stop blaming yourself. You're strong enough.”said Alan
Tron nodded at his father. Alan touched the disc on Rinzlers back and pulled up his codes. Once again he looked at the familiar twist codes that were blue and orange mixed in with the little yellow from Abraxas. He looked through trying to find something, something that could've caused it.
“What if you pull up his memories?”suggested Beck
“CLU made it impossible to access them.”replied Alan
“Now that's dark.”commented Paige
“That's CLU for you.”sighed Tron
Alan sat back on his legs in defeat. He breathed steadily as he looked at his son. These dark thoughts came flooding back as he felt he couldn't fix his son.
“Dad?”asked Tron noticing
“I don't know how to fix him.”shakily said Alan
“Alan? What do you mean? We've come this far!”said Beck
“Beck without CLU access codes I can't fix him!”said Alan angrily than he wanted,”I need CLU's permission to actually look at his codes but he's dead.”
“You can't fix him? But couldn't a sysadmin give you an access code? Like Emma? Or Anon?”questioned Beck
“That's the most stupidest idea ever.”sighed Tron
“Well it’s worth a shot. We need Rinzler!”said Beck
“Yeah, let's just give him to the enemy!”yelled Tron and he stood up in anger ”Why would you even think about that!”
“I’m just trying to give us suggestions, y’know a start!”said Beck but he got quiet as Tron glared at him
“Tron, I know your stressed but calm down.”said Paige
“Shut up, you're not in this!”yelled Tron,”It's your people who did this!”
“It’s his people too!”yelled Paige,”He’s corrupted too! Just because his traumatized and was CLU’s plaything doesn’t mean he’s the only one! Who deserves redemption”
Everyone just sat there, Paige was the only one brave enough to yell back at Tron. Beck sat there just zoning out as Paige stood up for him.
“You need to watch yourself. Belittling everyone while you are mad is not okay!”said Paige
“Yeah…I understand, sorry.”said Tron
He quieted too then the whole house fell silent. No one spoke or breathed loudly. The only thing that made noise was Rinzler’s clicking and Quorra’s coding fixing her injury. Quorra then woke up with a startle which Paige took action and held her.
“What happened?”she asked looking around
“Rinzler…”sighed Paige
“Yeah I remember that but this looks worse. Everyone is just so sad.”she said
“Yeah, Alan just told us that Rinzler can’t be fixed without CLU’s access codes and or a sysadmin.”said Beck
Quorra looked at Tron who returned her gaze
“Oh, that’s just horrible.”said Quorra
“Yeah but we don’t know what to do.”said Paige
“I suggested we get Emma to fix him.”said Beck
Quorra looked at Tron who glared at Beck
“It seems that someone didn’t like that.”commented Quorra
“Yeah he really didn’t like it.”sarcastically said Beck
“Yeah no kidding but understandable.”commented Alan
Quorra didn’t understand what to do or think. She was out cold for all of it and only got a glimpse of some of it. She sorta stared at the unconscious Rinzler as Alan tried everything he could. It was he who startled everyone in the hallway when he jolted awake.
“Rinz?”questioned Tron
No one knew what was happening as Rinzler pushed himself against the wall. Alan tried to talk to him but he tried making himself smaller.
“Son?”asked Alan
“It's us!”said Tron
Rinzler was shaking violently
“It's us, your family and friends.”said Alan,”me, Alan_1 your father and Tron your brother.”
Tron tried to use the twin link and try to help him but was blocked out by Rinzler. Quorra pushed in front of Alan and Tron, she sat in front of him.
“It's Quorra, remember your friend. You tried to kill me one time but you're on our side. CLU died so you're safe.”she signed to him
It took a split second to figure out but it happened so fast and Rinzler ripped his disc from Alan's hand and held it to Quorra's throat. Her breath hitched as it glowed against her neck. Paige tried to intervene but Beck held her. Tron pushed himself in front of Quorra.
The fighting started again, Quorra pulled out of the way as his middle child attacked the youngest. It went through the house and Rinzler disappeared. Tron was injured from his brother stabbing him, voxels spilled from the wound. Alan came running to his son.
“What do we do?”asked Beck
“I…i…I don't know.”said Tron
“We find Rinzler, then go from there.”said Paige
“Where?”asked Tron
“The security hub.”said Paige
In the office sat Rinzler in the middle of the room. He kneeled obediently before the duo, Anon and Abraxas. Emma wasn't there. Abraxas lifted his head to examine him. He saw his own reflection through Rinzler's helmet. The clicking that came from him sounded more like grinding and hard. It echoed through the office as he sat there. The more Abraxas held Rinzlers helmet the louder it got.
“So this is CLUs attack dog. I'm impressed you responded so quickly!”he laughed
“Honestly he looks scarier farther away. Here he looks so…..helpless.” teases Anon
“Trust me he fights like a true assassin.”announced Emma
“So you did show up!”laughed Abraxas
“When Klax said she saw Rinzler I had to come.”said Emma,”Why?”
“Well Em, if you must know these are great.”said Anon
He tossed Emma the two balls and she caught them. Rinzler tensed at the sight.
“So these actually make you scared!?”laughed Abraxas at Rinzlers reaction
“Abraxas! Stop!”said Emma her voice higher pitched than normal
“No, CLU purposely got dominance over him by these!”said Abraxas snatching the balls from her
“He got dominance by torturing him!”glared Emma
“See? Not the worst!”shrugged Anon
“Both of you are crazy!”said Emma rolling her eyes
“Don't roll your eyes missy! This is serious!”said Anon
“What's the point of stealing back Rinzler when he was happy with Alan and Tron? Or that you have him now you can use him for your own personal gain?”asked Emma
“The second one!”said Abraxas
Emma's face changed, concern grew. She wanted to destroy the grid for what it has done to her but this was what she didn't have planned. Using programs was not on the list.
She stared at them then at Rinzler. She didn't understand the whole point of this. Why? She looked back at the two, noticing the reflection of herself in the window. It wasn't her but another program. Instead of her black hair and red circuits it was blonde hair and blue circuits. She didn't know the program or even recognize them.
****

“There was a rumor long before your time little ISO.”started Zuse pointing to Quorra who glared at him”before the resistance came to power. There was the rumor of the three heads. The first one was to be a murder who'll unleash death. The second one to be a monarch whose crown will weigh heavy. Then the third whose ideas will change history.”
“The three heads… Of the resistance!?”said Quorra
“Abraxas, Anon and Emma!”said Paige
“But why?”questioned Beck
“Together they'll bring death and change. The rumor was that they're the most powerful together.”said Zuse
“But they'll bring death to all!”said Tron
“Oh no not entirely. The whispers heard that they will fix the grid.”said Zuse
“You're wrong. They killed Sam.”said Quorra
“The user?”asked Gem
“Yeah!”said Quorra
“I thought users were off limits?”said Zuse
“No it was only so they could kill us!”said Tron
“No, it was because Abraxas killed Sam. With his virus!”said Beck
“Virus?”said Zuse confused
“The virus that Abraxas is carrying and he can give it to anyone!”said Beck
“Anyone?”asked Zuse
“Anyone!”answered Beck
“Beck what are you doing?” whispered Paige
“Trust me!”whispered Beck
“How does this virus work?”asked Zuse
“Turns you into a monster!”said Beck
“And how do you know of such a thing?”asked Zuse
“Because,”Beck got closer,”he gave it to me!”
“You're gonna have to be smarter than that. I already know of such a thing. I highly doubt your under its…control.”said Zuse
“Sam was given the virus. That's how he died. But before he destroyed a lot of the grid!!!”Quorra spoke up
“That was Sam!?”shocked Gem
“Yeah!”answered Quorra
“OH!!”Gem sat shocked
“I'm sorry to hear that darling!”said Zuse
“You should respect her!”commented Tron, he didn't like how Zuse talked to her
“Oh darling…”said Zuse
“Okay that's enough! We need to look for Rinzler!”shouted Tron
Zuse looked Tron up and down. There was a glint in Zuse's eyes that Quorra recognized easily. She turned sharply to Tron and he was already nodding at her. Beck and Paige took the hint. Zuse sold them out. Beck and Tron guarded Alan.
The skylight crashed through and Rinzler, leading three black guards, stood behind him.
“Great!”sighed Tron
“Thanks for selling us out!”yelled Quorra as she kicked him in the face and Gem stood up,”fight me I dare you!”
Gem just nodded at her and handed her a baton.
“I'm sorry about Sam and save the grid!”she said
“Promise!”said Quorra
Quorra followed Paige and Tron down. The girls took on the three while Tron took his brother on. Tron and Rinzler collided, again Rinzler wasn't holding back. He was more aggressive, he kicked Tron so hard Tron flew back. Rinzler slid over and sliced Tron's leg from under him. Getting up behind him and kicking his head.
Quorra and Paige teamed up against the three black guards. Quorra would be attacking the top while Paige took them by surprise then switched so they couldn't figure out who to attack. Quorra sliced Nord's torso and Paige sweeped the opposite leg. Then Quorra grabbed his arm and flung him to the ground. Paige then derezzed his arm.
They then attacked Reeve, Paige took the top attack, Quorra took the bottom attack. Paige held Reeve back and Quorra slashed him. Then they switched up on Klax but she outsmarted them. Klax kicked Quorra away and flung her disc at Paige. She took on Quorra as they matched each other's skill. Quorra quickly stabbed Klax before turning and blocking their disc with the baton and Paige attacked Klax behind.
“That’s not Rinzler.”whispered Klax
“What?”Stopped Paige
“They did something to him,”whispered Klax,”Help him.”
Paige looked at Quorra who was confused.
Tron and Rinzler’s fight was dangerous matching each other's skills and Tron had to quicken his moves to match Rinzler’s deadly skill. Rinzler using both of his discs attacked, throwing one and purposely missing to then attacking with the other one. Once he got Tron in position the one disc he flung attached itself into Tron’s back. Tron seethed in pain from the attack. Rinzler stood above him before knocking Tron out.
Then Rinzler watched his blackguards fail to take down the girls, he stalked them like prey. He watched the girls trick the guards not knowing who was the weakest one then getting injured. He watched as Klax whispered something to Paige and both girls looked at each other confused.
Tron’s protege Beck protected Alan from Zuse and Gem who attacked him unexpectedly. He easily took on Zuse, throwing him against the wall before Gem quickly surrendered. He froze when he heard growling clicking. Like grinding gears. Beck slowly turned around with his arms up in surrender.
“Rinzler!”said Alan but Rinzler quickly knocked him out
Beck looked at him in horror before his world went dark. Beck, Paige and Quorra woke up in a cell. It was dark grey with orange lights lighting it up. There was a bench on the wall in the back.
“That wasn't Rinzler.”said Paige
“What?”asked Beck
“One of the black guards told us.”added Quorra
“We can't do anything in this cell!”said Beck
“Well no kidding but it's impossible to do anything. That we don't know how to help!”said Paige
“Well they have Tron and Alan!”said Beck
“They have my father!!”shouted Jet
“Wait Jethro!?”shouted Quorra running to the cell door
“Quorra!”shouted Jethro
“Who's with you?”asked Quorra
“Um, Mara, Link and Zed but they have Able!”said Jethro
“They have Able?”shouted Beck
Sentries came to their cell hallway
“Shut up programs!”they shouted
They backed off until they heard the sentries leave.
“Jet, you're a user! You can maybe get us out!?”asked Quorra
“I need to pull up the codes but yeah I can!”said Jethro
“Will that take long?”asked Quorra
“No!”said Jethro
Alan and Tron woke up in an interrogation room. Abraxas and Anon stood in front of them. Emma stood to the side of the room.
“Tell me why are you here? You could've forgotten about us but you came back. Now you ruined our plans. To fix the grid but we wanted to destroy it.”said Anon
“Why would you want to destroy it?" said Alan,”it's your home!”
“Our home was destroyed long ago!”said Anon
royed by your little friend Kevin_Flynn and those damn ISO’s. CLU took it over to create the “perfect system” but it failed to Sam and that ISO trying to get out.”said Anon
“What? The ISO’s were created by the grid just appearing out of nowhere!”said Tron
“Yeah but before that there was no program to create buildings or games. It was perfect and silent now it's turned into a user world,”said Anon,”Destroying the grid is what is needed to actually create a perfect system. By making it nothing.”
Emma looked up at the boys then at the user and the original security program. Her eyes told she didn’t totally agree.
“You want to destroy it? Killing everyone even yourselves.”said Alan
“Being nothing was perfect.”said Anon
“You want to kill everything but you promised to fix the grid!”said Tron
“Exactly! Destroying it is fixing it.”said Anon
“You can’t possibly agree to this!”shouted Tron to Emma
“Em…”started Anon giving her a look
“Yes I agree to this.”answered Emma
Anon relaxed
Tron was picking up on tension between Anon and Emma and Abraxas. He was not letting the other two speak at all. He was making sure they didn’t say anything. He looked at Alan who was in defeat, he picked up he was not liking this at all. Tron had to think about doing something to save his home. Quorra, Beck and Rinzler were all counting on him. He thought about how Quorra and Beck were probably down in the cells down there and Rinzler was probably enduring all of his trauma. Tron didn't want to think about it.
Quorra sat on the floor still waiting for Jethro to finish. She heard the door hissed as it opened and everyone in the cell stood. Jethro with Able and the other programs stood in front of it. Quorra hugged Jethro who slowly hugged her.
“We need to get out of here!”said Paige
“Already trying to find a way out.”said Able
“We should get Alan and Tron first!”said Quorra
“They’ll try finding Rinzler first!”said Beck
“Then we’ll meet them there. Common, I know a way out.”said Quorra
“HOLD IT!”yelled the Senteries
Every program plus Jethro got ready to fight but Beck was quicker followed by Paige. They fought the Sentries and quickly derezzed them. Abraxas and Emma both got the alert from the cells. Both looked at Anon who was standing above a broken Tron with Alan trying to fix his son.
“Anon!”started Abraxas,”Take care of it!”hissed Anon
“RIght away!”said Abraxas
“No you go to the office,They’ll go for the asset.”said Anon,”Em, go take care of it.”
“Rinzler….”whispered Tron
“GO!”shouted Anon
Emma nodded then left and Abraxas held back for a minute then both looked at each other and Anon nodded. Abraxas left with an unsettling smile.
“What are you doing?”asked Alan shaking
“Watching the grid burn.”answered Anon
Emma made her way down to the cells, her helmet on and disc ready. From the stairs she watched the renegade fight the sentries and black guard followed by the traitor Paige and the other fighters. Quorra and Jethro fighting together. Emma decided to take out the Renegade first then the rest. She jumped down and kicked Renegade into the wall. The wall behind him cracked with such force. Paige saw this and took action but Emma used her baton to block Paige’s disc. She pulled Paige in front of her, breaking away from the sparks of the weapons colliding jump, twisting and kicking her in the head. Falling to the floor, Paige watched Beck get up and try attacking her. Emma thrusted her disc down on Paige’s head but Paige rolled away. Getting back up Beck had Emma in his arms, Paige tried to attack Emma but used her weight to throw Beck over her shoulder and Beck collided with Paige.
“A two for one deal!”hissed Emma stalking over to the couple baton in hand
Beck pushed Paige away before Emma could derez her too
“BECK!”screamed Paige
Before Emma could derez Beck, Quorra came to save them. Her disc collided with Emma’s baton. She pulled the baton up and Beck rolled away and to his feet. Emma attacked Quorra and they indulged in battle using everything they could. Able yelled at the couple and they ran to the door leaving Quorra and the rest. Mara, Link, Beck and Paige got to the upper floors where more black guards and sentries were waiting for them. Beck sighed heavily before they started fighting again.
“Sounds like someone is coming for you!”laughed Anon
“My friends.”answered Tron
“My son and daughter in law!”answered Alan
“Yeah we'll soon be in voxels when they’re done!”said Anon,”Or pool of blood!” he said looking straight at Alan
“What do you WANT!!”screamed Alan
“To make you all hurt!”seethed Anon
There was darkness in his eyes the way he looked at the two. There was nothing there, just darkness, no light, no twinkling, no life. It was like staring into a void, a black hole. Tron got so lost he didn't even know that Alan was staring at him, whispering something to him. Tron snapped back to reality when Anon slammed the door shut.
Abraxas made his way to the office and looked at Jessina and Laura working on the table in the room. They nodded at him before going back to their work. Abraxas paced around the room itching for battle. Abraxas wanting something to hit something to break.
Abraxas turned to the small door in the office knowing what lay on the other end of the door. He punched in the numbers on the keypad but it didn’t work. He growled and punched the wall making everyone in that room flinch at the wall cracking.
“Why the hell isn’t it working!”he screamed
He turned to see Beck in the room with his device on the wall.
“What did you do?”he hissed
“I changed the password! You're not getting through that door!”said Beck
“You forget I infected you!”smirked Abraxas
His circuits changed to yellow and Beck's breath hitched at the sight. The thoughts rushed over him, the thoughts of murder and rage came over. He wanted to kill the rage feeling consuming him. Yet he just looked at Abraxas as his hands got longer and sharper into claws. His face was scarier and more evil as he slightly changed from normal to a monster. Paige stepped in front of him.
“Yeah and?”said Paige
She wasn’t scared. She saw this many times watching people turn into voxels or monsters by him. She lost too much; the people she cared about were dead because of him and his monsters. She didn't care anymore, she just wanted him dead. For all the wrong doings he did. For all the people he killed.
“Go ahead!”she said
“With pleasure!”he purred
Abraxas ignited his disc and slid it against the wall creating sparks. Paige ignited hers and stepped back. Beck knew and ignited his, they were about to get into a big fight.
Abraxas attacked first slicing at Paige and she dodged, their discs collided with one another causing sparks. Beck attacked Abraxas when his and Paige's discs collided, slicing at him but Abraxas sliced him with his claws. Beck cried out in pain feeling his codes immediately glitched.
Paige got distracted watching her boyfriend glitch. Abraxas took that opportunity to try infecting her but Quorras disc got wedged into his shoulder. Abraxas looked up to see not only the last ISO but the users and the Renegades team.
“Ready for the real challenge?”asked the Renegade
Outside of the room the fight was heard. There were loud booms which woke up Rinzler who flinched at the sounds. He was on the floor and couldn't move at all, feeling paralyzed. He tried moving but felt really weak. Rinzler pulled himself to sit looking around, he was in his room again but didn’t know when he got there.
There wasn't any pain like normal that made him feel paralyzed. It wasn't the sinking feeling through his lower body. Just not feeling anything in his legs.
Rinzler noticed the sounds of grunting but also metal rattling. He felt his breathing was tight and knew what it was. His body shook in fear. He curled up into a ball wanting to cry but couldn't. Sitting there in the corner he pulled himself closer and tighter making sure no one could get to him.
He silently hoped no one could get through those doors and hurt him, taunt him with their disc as they slowly pull him away from his grasp. Then cut his suit and skin marking him as his toy, his pet. Rinzler remembered what CLU did to him when he was bored as Jarvis and Dyson watched the most feared assassin being used as a toy. How they didn't do anything while CLU marked him as his. When he then couldn't breathe at all being suffocated by something, the collar being too tight, getting choked out by either his master or Dyson or something he couldn't remember.
He remembered Dyson enjoyed watching Rinzler in pain, how he laughed that echoed through the room. While Jarvis was unsure this face full of disgust when CLU had his back turned but didn’t say anything till it became normal to him.
Rinzler sat there then startled when something blew up, rumbled under him and the floor became unsteady. It shook violently and it started to feel like the security hub was falling. He couldn’t get up at all or shout for help. It wasn’t like he could crawl away being chained to the wall. He watched as the walls around him started to crack and the floor under him cracked too. He began to panic as the floor was giving away, the door hissed open and Beck stood there with Paige behind him. He heard his brother and father shout. Beck ran to him but the floor gave away making him fall. The cracks got bigger and the floor crumbled under him and he fell behind bigger chunks of floor.
Rinzler was near the end of his chain as he fell more. He started to choke as the collar got tighter and the chain made it worse. He looked up to the ceiling giving away and then at Tron and the others shouting as more people tripped on the crumbling floor. He saw Tron's icy circuits coming towards him then the floor shifted again and then nothing.
Tron watched his brother fall more from where he was standing, Tron watched in horror as he sprinted over to his brother. Beck ran after him and pulled him back as the ceiling started to crumble.
“Tron, TRON STOP!”yelled Beck
“No, RINZLER!”screamed Tron
The others were shouting and Quorra screamed for Rinzler then to scream at Tron to stop. Alan screamed for his sons. Beck for his mentor as he sprinted for him.
“He’s okay but you're gonna get hurt.”said Beck
“I don’t care, I need to get him!”said Tron
“He would want you to be careful!”said Beck
Tron looked back at where his brother just got buried
“I need him.”he whispered
For a second Tron felt so defeated and lost as he felt that he lost his brother forever. Beck slowly let go as Tron started to crumble to his knees. For a split second everyone thought they lost Rinzler forever. The crumbling room went quiet as the ceiling started falling and the ground crumbled under them. For a split second just a split second the world around them slowed and it went silent. Quorra stood still watching Tron sit there while the silhouette of Rinzler appeared in the window across him. It looked like his twin brother. The sadness filled the air it basically suffocated every program and Alan who was so in shock as he watched his son fall through the floor.
When snapped back to reality the floor shook again and it was so strong that everyone there was thrown to the ground. Quorra looked back to see Tron across the room and he disappeared into the crack Rinzler fell through.
“TRON!!”she screamed
Everyone's heads snapped to his direction as Paige was dragging Beck away from his mentor's direction. Quorra got past them and went to help. She slid down the floor and immediately saw Tron’s glowing circuits.
“You need help?”she asked
“Yeah hold him!”he said
She grabbed Rinzlers limp body and immediately became unsteady at his dead weight. The un-flat surface under her made it hard to stay steady as she watched Tron ignite his disc and break the chain she didn’t even notice was holding him. It then hit her why Rinzler did not save himself. He couldn't.
He came back and grabbed his brother from Quorra and helped her out. She watched him do it with such ease but noticed the anger seething inside of him. He helped her over to safety while holding his brother one shoulder. Alan looked at him in shock but helped get everyone out of there.

****
It was quiet in the security hub, a little too quiet for Rinzler. He sat on his knees behind his master's desk. CLU was working on files that Jarvis gave him. Just whistling to himself. That meant that CLU was having a good day and wouldn't need to get his anger out. Yet that sudden dread washes over him as Dyson strutted in followed by his lackey. CLU sighed, closing his files.
“Yes Dyson?”he asked annoyed
“I'm so annoyed, I got to rule over a city which is fine but I fly over to Teslers city right? Why is his bigger and better than mine?”he ranted
“Dyson, Dyson please! You asked for Argon city so you got it!”said CLU
Dyson ranted on and on to CLU which Rinzler noticed that he was starting to get annoyed by him. Rinzler noticed that Pavel started staring at him. He looked back at Pavel. He watched as Pavel nudged Dyson a little and Dyson looked. CLU slightly followed his gaze at the security program.
“Loyal dog!”hissed Dyson
“What's the point Dyson? You want a castle with your statue over the city? Done! I'll give you everything but I can't give you a bigger city! As I know you'll destroy it!”said CLU
“Yet you get everything, people shouting your name. Everyone loyal and even a freaking dog!”said Dyson
“Isn't that Pavel? Your loyal dog!”said CLU
“Yours is an attack dog!”said Dyson
“Just…Just leave Dyson!”said CLU
CLU got annoyed and Dyson just turned and left. Dyson stopped and turned getting an idea.
“If I were you I'd keep it on a leash!”said Dyson
“LEAVE now!”said CLU
Dyson left causing CLU to sigh leaning back in his chair. He looked at Rinzler who was already looking at him. CLU glanced up and down Rinzlers submissive body.
“Keep him on a leash!”laughed CLU
Rinzlers peace was now over, the dread washed over him as CLU maniacal laughter filled the room. His memories blacked out the rest but he just remembers the pain, the flashes of CLU's body over his, the way he put the collar on him, the rattle of the chain. How his weight was on top of him the suffocation felt. Everything but the full memory.

****

Getting out was easier than getting in like the last time. Beck, Paige and his friends ran faster than everyone else. Making it through the empty crumbling halls. Able and Jethro helped Alan who was slower than everyone else. Quorra and Tron were at the same pace even with the dead weight on his shoulder. Beck could see the end of the hallway but halted causing a crash as everyone else skidded to a halt. At the end was the corrupted with the trio standing in front.
“I see you actually made it out of here!”announced Anon,”Now give us our asset.”
“He is not your asset!”said Tron
“That isn’t the right answer.”smiled Anon

****
Rinzler sat at the window watching the games. CLU has decided to let him watch with him. Rinzler just watched occasionally looking at his master's reflection making sure he wouldn't be used.
“Sir we have a new player.”said Jarvis
“We always have a new player.”said CLU rolling his eyes
“One that….”he didn't know what to call Rinzler,”the asset should fight against. He's beaten everyone we put him against.”
“The asset!”laughed CLU,”until I watch him then the asset will fight.”
Rinzler turned to his master to make sure he was right. Why would he have him there if he was gonna fight?
“Relax, I highly doubt the new program will be that good!”he said
Rinzler nodded turning back to the games
He was wrong, the newcomer was that good. Then he did fight against the future sysadmin after CLU. He fought Anon and after that fight, Asset was used more and more. A sign of CLU anger at him, a sign that he was gonna get beaten and forced to sit there broken with new injuries.

****
The walls seemed to halt collapsing as the two groups stood across from each other. Tron who was carrying this brother stood still trying to take at least a nano to think what to do. Quorra looked at Tron patting his shoulder then slowly trailed her hand down his arm. They held hands before looking at each other. Tron's eyes trailed her every feature, her icy white eyes that seemed to hold the world, her black as night shoulder length hair and uneven bangs that fell around her face. He took every feature in feeling some kind of emotion he hasn't felt since Yori was killed.
Beck looked back at them before turning back to the enemy and back at the two programs staring into each other's souls. A pit formed in his stomach, trying to figure things out. They needed to get out but the way out was blocked and their savior was making eyes at another girl. He remembered the stories Tron would tell him of his Yori. Yet now he was staring at another.
“How do we escape?”whisper asked Beck
Tron looked back,”We can't really fight them. But we can outsmart them. Users can think and learn right. So father and brother, how would you outsmart them?”Tron asked
Jethro opened his mouth but a disc was thrown. Everyone ducked out of the way as the left over sentries and black guard ran to attack them. Tron clutched his unconscious brother as Beck yelled for him to get out of there. He grabbed his father and ran followed by Quorra. Emma and Anon ran after the group.

Chapter Text

Tron dragged his brother as Quorra kept Alan close to her. They found a hiding place in the mess of the security hub. The group felt it start falling to the ground so they needed to move fast and swiftly to get everyone to safety. Quorra kept looking behind them hoping no one was following them. She didn’t know how they were gonna fight the corrupted with both Alan there and Rinzler still unconscious.
“Stop here!”said Alan
“Why?”asked Tron
“I’m gonna get your brother online! We need him!”said Alan
Tron nodded and set Rinzler down, Alan grabbed his discs, opening his codes once more. His codes were twisted around, Alan was trying to find something to boot him back up. It took time which they didn’t have. Quorra stood in front watching the crumbling hallways, she saw the looming colors of deep orange and red closing on them. She turned back to them.
“They're coming!”she whispered
“Stay close!”said Tron,”Don’t make a sound!”
He pulled Quorra closer to him as they both watched the lights get closer then run past them. Quorra watched Emma look at their hiding spot as they ran past them. She could’ve sworn they made eye contact but she didn’t say anything. The two programs walked back to Alan and Rinzler.
“I found it but I need CLU’s access codes.”said Alan
“But you're his maker, you should be able to reboot him!”said Tron
“Yes and no! I’m your maker but CLU is Rinzler’s maker. Since CLU reprogramed him I don’t have the access codes to Rinzlers programming to fix him.”said Alan,”If I tried to access his codes to do anything I’d need to fully reboot him.”
“Can’t you just shortly reboot him! Like make him, what you users say, work on power mood?”chimed Quorra
Tron looked at her weirdly
“Like make him run on power saving mode?”corrected Alan
“YES!”said Quorra
“That's a thing?”questioned Tron
Quorra nodded
Alan sighed,”Possibly if I think about it. I could but I’ll need to think how to actually do that.”he said
“We’ll give you time!”said Tron
Tron grabbed Quorra and they ran to where Anon and Emma both ran too. Tron told her the plan he had as they ran through the security hub. Tron found them, pulled Quorra back before giving himself up.
“So the legendary Tron, the savior of the grid has come! Time for your final battle!”announced Anon
“It’s not my final battle!”said Tron
“It is!’correct Anon
Anon ignited his disc and Tron stood still as Anon laughed while attacking Tron. Yet Tron, being smart enough, moved away from Anon’s disc and ignited his own and sliced Anon’s hand that held his disc. Tron kicked the body away, thinking that would somewhat be the end of it. Anon just smiled as Emma kicked his disc back to him. Tron and Quorra watched in amazement as Anon’s arm rezzed right back up. Tron’s plan was not gonna work with Anon being able to re-rezz his own body. Tron sighed, this might actually be his last fight. He slightly looked back at Quorra’s hiding place before advancing his fight.
Quorra did not run away as she watched Tron and Anon fight, she noticed Emma stalking the fight before noticing she too was concerned. She shook her head slightly as Tron fought Anon. How she sorta glitched where she stood. Quorra looked to the window and saw a shadow of another. A program just like Emma was standing where she stood.
Emma stalked the fight again from the glitching. Quorra watched waiting for her to make a move. Her job was to protect Tron from Emma as they both knew she’d join to give Anon the win. Emma saw her opening and tried to take it, Quorra flung her disc at Emma but bounced back to her after Emma blocked it. Quorra started their fight, sliding to her knees and tried slicing Emma and got to her feet. Quorra saw that Emma was still standing, not injured or on the ground. Just watching Quorra’s confusion. Emma flung her disc at Quorra and it nearly hit Quorra but she was pushed away. Emma stood shocked along with Anon who stopped his fight, which gave Tron enough time to get the upper hand on their fight. Rinzler stood over Quorra, protecting her. Emma’s disc laid in front of Quorra which she picked up. Emma stood there confused looking between Rinzler then at Anon then back at Rinzler.
“How…How is he still alive!”screamed Anon
“Alan did it!”smiled Quorra
“That damn user!”hissed Anon
Rinzler ignited both his discs ready to fight Emma, Quorra looked at Tron then nodded at him before getting ready for her fight. Tron alone fought Anon with his now upperhand. Tron used his disc to slice at Anon’s lower body, Anon blocked his attack which led him to stumble with Tron swiping his legs out from under him. Tron slammed his disc down but Anon blocked his attack, throwing up his disc to block Tron’s attack.

*****

Fighting Abraxas was horrible for the rest of the group. He killed Mara by digging his disc into her chest and the screams rang horror. Beck felt that he couldn’t even protect his friends from Abraxas. The nightmare lasted forever when Beck, Paige and Able were forced to fight their friends by Abraxas using his powers to control them.
Beck, Paige, and Able watched as their friends' circuits went from a beautiful range of blues to bright yellow and glitching. Their friends changed into mindless zombies stumbling and angry, they attacked Beck, Paige and Able. The three didn’t want to hurt their friends but they couldn’t get out of the fight without hurting their friends.
Beck let Paige and Able take on their friends while he attacked Abraxas. Beck used every fighting style he could to take on Abraxas alone yet Abraxas was still more powerful than Beck. Abraxas used his claws and sliced at Beck with his corrupted codes. Beck dodged Abraxas attack sliding under him getting behind him to attack. Abraxas growled at Beck using his claws as his long range attack then using his disc as his close range attack. Beck blocked the claws with his disc getting flung to the wall behind them.
The haunting images flashed through Beck's head as he heard Paige cry out for her friends. He knew he couldn’t look back or maybe it was just Abraxas trying to get him off his game so he could kill Beck. He tried so hard to not help Paige as he knew his girlfriend was a really good fighter and could take care of herself but maybe just maybe he needed to help her. He saw Zed’s now zombified body over him as Abraxas pinned him to the ground and he finally looked up. Mara was on top of Paige, her disc keeping her friend from eating her face off, then Able pinned by the extra black guard and Link crawling towards him.
Anger just took over him and everything was blank after that. He woke up and Abraxas was just voxels spread across the ground. He looked at the disc in his hand; it wasn't his, in the reflection of it was Paige's face staring in nothing of relief or surprise but pure straight horror. His friends weren’t there anymore and Able held Paige, his face confusion and shock, the mix of everything that said Beck wasn’t himself anymore. This classifies him as a murder but this wasn’t the renegade anymore… He wasn’t the renegade as he fought for the innocents but he did that to save the grid! What was he now?
“Beck…”he heard Paige’s voice,”What happened?”
“I..I..I don’t know…”he heard himself say
“Why did you kill them?”Able’s voice rang
“I saved the grid….”he said, not sure of anything,”I did it to save the grid.”
“But why’d you kill them?”cried Paige,”They didn’t deserve that!”
“Who’d I kill?”Beck asked, he didn’t understand what happened
“Beck,”started Able,”You killed them, Mara, Link, Zed. You killed them!”
“No..No I didn’t, I killed Abaraxas. That's all I did.”cried Beck
“What would Tron say?”asked Able
“Tron…what? I just saved the grid, that's all I did. I didn’t mean to kill them, Abraxas turned them into mindless zombies and then everything went blank. I swear! I didn’t mean too!”Beck tried to explain
“They were our friends, Beck. I can’t…I think we need a break.”said Paige her voice breaking
“No, don't leave me! Please Paige!”begged Beck,”Able please, you have to understand, I didn’t mean too!”
Able didn’t look at him, it felt cold and the room around him got darker and darker as Able walked away from Beck. He begged in the darkness to forgive him for what he did. A blue light shined above him and he looked up to see Tron. Yet it wasn’t because Tron wouldn’t hold his disc at him. Right?
“Tron?”Beck asked,”Please you have to understand!”
He didn’t speak nor could Beck see his face; it was covered by intense darkness. Tron held his disc in defense then he attacked Beck. To protect himself Beck pushed Tron off of him and his mentor was in voxels with his disc in hand. Light started to appear, programs watched in fear and the city had formed its drones projected the scene in front of him. His face was everywhere, shouting around him rang in his ears as their voices formed into one, ”Rengade is a killer!” Sentries appeared then dragged him to the games where he faced off against Rinzler.
“Rinzler please..you don’t have to listen to CLU, I can help you!”begged Beck
Rinzler fought him to his near death. Beck looked at him with fear, he didn’t know what to think about this. In his mind he wished he could make this stop but then the games shifted a little then Abraxas appeared standing next to him. An evil smile appeared across his face Beck looked at his hands and his circuits changed from blue to yellow. Pain erupted through him as Abraxas laughed at him.
“Make it stop!”Beck cried
“Why would I do that, Rengade? It’s funny to watch!”laughed Abraxas
Beck couldn’t breathe for a sudden and then the scene changed again around him. He was laying on grass then turned to see freshly dug dirt. Beck looked up to see the stone with Paige’s name, he got up and looked next to the stone and there was Able’s name. Questions popped up in his head then the last stone had more names he skimmed through, Alan Bradley, Jethro Bradley, Tron and Rinzler Bradley then the last stone etched in it had Kevin Flynn, Sam Flynn and Quorra Flynn.
“What..what is this?”Beck asked out loud
“The future!”laughed Abraxas, a maniac laugh
“STOP STOP THIS NOW!!!”Beck screamed
“Their deaths are because of you!”Abraxas said,”You seriously think you can save everyone because you're now some hero. Their deaths are in your hands.”
“No, I became who I am to save innocents from people like you!”Beck countered,”We knew what we were signing up for, we want to save everyone from CLU and your control! You kill innocents with a smile on your face.”Beck stepped closer,”While I save everyone with a smile on my face because I want to give them hope for a better future.”
“That a better future?”asked Abraxas, the scene shifted again to the grid burning
“You did this…”realized Beck,”You did this!”
Abraxas smiled,”Atta boy. I’m inside of you! I’m in your head now and I don’t plan on leaving!”Abraxas studied Beck’s face,”I just needed to push you to your limits. I guess this useless place is your limit, wanna break it?”
Beck got confused then it hit him, Abraxas used this to get in his head so they’ll become one, so he could use him to kill everyone right? So his power could fuse with Beck and he would go out of control? Did this happen with Sam too? Or did he kill Sam on purpose?
“Don’t worry child, Sam was a part of the plan but he went sideways. You have a bigger purpose!”said Abraxas
“Purpose? So KILLING Sam my friend was for nothing?? He had a life and a girlfriend! He had a purpose, you can’t just decide who gets to live and who gets to die! That’s not how it works!”yelled Beck, pain erupted through him making him drop to his knees
“I can and I do!”whispered Abraxas in his ear,”Because I have the power to do it!” standing above him,”I’ll show you how but for a price!”
“No…I won’t let you!”yelled Beck
“But your friends, your little family basically abandoned you! You're alone!”said Abraxas
“I'd rather be alone than under your control!”yelled Beck, charging at him
“Kids these days!”sighed Abraxas,”Guess imma have to kill you!”

The scene changed again this time Beck couldn’t feel himself anymore….

*****
Paige and Able watched helplessly as Beck was fighting with himself, his circuits all over the place changing almost fighting with itself. It was changing from bright blue to dull yellow then the blue started fading dulling as the yellow became over powering, turning brighter and brighter. Paige was holding Beck's hand, crying an ugly cry begging him to hold on for her. Able was totally defeated from losing everyone else then to losing Beck who was basically his own kid. He didn’t want to lose him too, he lost too much already.
“Able, Paige!”yelled Alan
“ALAN! You have to help Beck! Please!”begged Paige
“What happened?”asked Alan
“I..We don’t know!”said Paige
“We were fighting Abaraxas then this happened!”said Able, he was in his own world completely oblivious to everything else,”Beck derezzed him then collapsed and now he’s fighting Abraxas control.”
“I’m gonna try everything to get him back to you.”promised Alan
He bent down to Beck and grabbed the discs from Beck.
“ALAN NO!!”screamed Paige
Alan dropped the discs and the yellow code erupted, spreading across Alan.
“DAD! What happened!”yelled Jethro
“Jeth!”yelled Alan
They hugged
“Good to see you bud, I’d love to tell you the details but we have to save Beck!”said Alan
“Beck whose Beck?”asked Jethro
“Beck, the Renegade!”said Alan
“Dad that's not a thing”laughed Jethro
“No, I'm serious! Just ask your mother!”softly laughed Alan
“Why would I do that? Dad, she's been dead for 2 years!”said Jethro, all serious but confused too,”She died while looking for you.”
“What do you mean? Lora was looking for me? Where did I go?”asked Alan
“You went to Uncle Kevin’s game place then never came back for two years when you were there Mom passed, a horrible accident. The place got robbed while she was there then she was gone. Cops said they killed her.”explained Jethro
“No..No that didn’t happen. You're messing with me, son. She isn’t gone!” It hit Alan like a truck. His wife of many years is gone,”She’s not gone!”
“Why’d you leave dad? Why’d you leave us, you said you loved us!”cried Jethro
“I do!”whispered Alan
“If you did you wouldn’t leave us to go live it up with Kevin’s ghost!”said Jethro
“What? You never call Kevin by his actual name…you always called him Uncle Futureistic, you came up with that name when you were only 5. This is a dream by Abraxas, that’s how you trapped Beck and killed my nephew by giving them their worst nightmare?”said Alan
“How?”asked Abraxas shifting from Jethro
“Like I said my son doesn’t call his Uncle Kevin, always Uncle Futureistic. What did you give my nephew to kill him? Quorra dying? His father saying he shouldn’t have helped him escape?”asked Alan
“Actually living without knowing if his father ever loved him? The funny thing is…love! You wanna know something funny? Even Rinzler’s nightmares are always you using him the same way CLU used him. Yet his absolute fear is YOU is always YOU. Even your own program is scared of you. Your kids are scared of the power you hold.”Abraxas said stalking towards him
“Yeah I’d hope so…since I was their father. Being a father Abraxas is a wonderful thing. You teach your kids, especially your sons, powerful lessons. You teach them love but also the consequences of being a man. So I expect my sons to fear me.”Alan glared at him,”I’m not scared of you, so do your worst Abraxas since you are just a program!”
Abraxas growled, cursing under his breath his power somehow didn’t work on Alan, he was scared,”You could die!”
Alan laughed,”I lived a long life, Abraxas. My kids are adults and my nephew finally got a girlfriend so I’m happy.”
“Your not scared of death?”questioned Abraxas
“Yeah but you are.”Alan said and Abraxas started fading
“What? How?”yelled Abraxas
“You’re scared of death and I don’t fear you. Funny thing this is!”Alan said and turned back to the real world
“ALAN!”yelled Paige
“Alan!”sighed Able in relief
“The way to defeat this Abraxas is to realize he isn’t real and you can defeat your worst nightmare. Mine was Lora dying but Beck’s might be harder to defeat, he’s still young.”said Alan
“How can I help”asked Paige
“You can’t”said Alan
“Please Alan I need to help him.”said Paige leaning towards him
“No,”said Alan catching her,”You can’t help him, he needs to do this on his own.”
“Alan please!”said Paige,”He can’t be on his own. He needs me after…after everything that has happened.”
“Thats why Abraxas chose him. He needs people to lean on but he needs to learn that be can be without everyone and on his own.”said Alan

****
“FUCK!!”yelled Emma, she slid back from Rinzler’s kick,”Wow what did I do to deserve this!”
“I mean you basically, what manipulated him?”said Quorra
“Oh now you're perfect!”said Emma,”It was for the grid!”
“And look how that turned out!”argued Quorra
Emma sighed and ignited her baton, her disc was being held by Quorra, Rinzler attacked first and their weapons collided creating sparks. Quorra threw a disc at Emma’s head but she ducked and Rinzler flung his head back, nearly getting decapitated. Emma pulled back from him and hit Rinzler with the baton then turned to get behind him, rezzing another baton. Quorra ran to Emma to make her attack but she got pushed to the floor falling next the disc. Quorra grabbed it and looked up to Tron's defeated groan.
Anon had Tron pinned underneath him, holding his disc to his neck. Quorra looked at Rinzler who also looked at Tron being pinned. Something inside him started coming out, he needed to help his brother. He pushed Emma out of the way but she grabbed him and flung him back. Quorra felt useless but she had two discs in her hand. She gripped Emma’s disc and flung her own disc at Anon, lodging it in his shoulder. Tron grabbed those two nano’s and stabbed up derezzing Anon.
“ANON!!”screamed Emma
It was too late, Rinzler stabbed Emma in the chest.
“No..No”cried Emma,”I’m sorry, I never wanted them to do that”
She was gone, turned into voxels
“Brother…”said Tron
Rinzler turned to him, his clicking started grinding
“I know you liked her,”said Tron, giving him her disc,”Brother curse losing your crush.”Patting him on the back
“Okay lets go we need to get the others out of here.”said Quorra
“Yeah!”said Tron leading Rinzler and Quorra out of there
The scene they came to wasn’t pretty, Alan was leaning against a rock while Paige was being held back by Able.
“What happened here?”stunned Quorra asked
“Abraxas….”whispered Paige
Quorra hugged her,”Tell me!”she said
“Dad?”asked Tron
“Yeah, I’m okay but Beck isn’t and I don’t know how to help him.”said Alan
Rinzler looked between them,”Can’t go into codes and get him out?”he asked
“You can’t take Abraxas code out of Beck?”asked Tron for Rinzler
“I touched both discs and had this vision of your mother dying and Jethro blamed me. It was weird but I don’t think I can help but he needs to defeat him on his own.”said Alan
“So we have to wait for him, we can't just go in and get him out? This structure can’t hold itself for long.”said Tron
“I can carry him out I live my nightmares everyday so I can’t be effected that much.”signed Rinzler
“No I don’t want to put you through that!”said Alan
“I’m doing it anyway I’m not asking.”signed Rinzler
“Rinzler!”started Alan but stopped when Rinzler had that certain demeanor that he didn’t want to mess with
Tron helped Alan and Quorra helped Paige when Tron told her they were leaving. Rinzler picked up Beck after Abraxas codes started spreading through him. He slowed a bit and Tron got concerned. His brother could feel him fighting with Abraxas inside of the codes but couldn’t say anything. Able directed them through the garage and into the back hideout. Rinzler set Beck on the couch and stood up catching his breath.
“Brother?”asked Tron
“Present and I’m gonna need a minute.”signed Rinzler
“So now we wait?”asked Paige
“Yeah but I don’t know for how long.”said Alan
“Until Beck wakes up.”said Able
“But he could fight Abraxas forever, both are strong but which is stronger?”said Tron
“My money’s on Beck.”signed Rinzler
“I thought you didn’t like the kid?”questioned Tron
“Yeah but I dislike Abraxas more!”signed Rinzler
Tron laughed and Alan smiled at his sons
“Shall I get drinks, food? I honestly don’t know but we’ve been fighting for a while and we need strength.”said Able
“Please, anything will be fine.”said Alan
“Nothing for me, I can’t eat, not when Beck is like this!”said Paige
“He’d want you to live your life.”said Quorra
“How’d you bounce right back after Sam!”asked Paige
“I..I don’t know, I just had a lot of support and you..you have that same support I did but you can’t dig yourself into a deep hole. Beck would hate that and he loves you so much.”said Quorra
“How did you keep yourself from falling apart?”asked Paige
Quorra took a deep breath,”By believing that this would be what he wanted me to do!”she smiled but Tron could tell it was fake
“Thanks, I couldn’t ask for a better friend!”said Paige hugging her friend
Quorra nodded before pulling away and she felt some tears starting to form,”You established us as friends!?”her voice cracked
“Of course, Quorra!”laughed Paige
“Quorra, I’m sorry to pull you away but can you help me with something?”asked Tron
“Sure!”answered Quorra
Rinzler who was sitting on the floor across from the girls looked at Paige then at his father who shrugged, Paige felt her heart ache in embarrassment.
“Everyone has been through a lot throughout these couple of cycles so I’m sure that everything is fine.”smiled Alan,”so tell me about Beck and how you two star crossed lovers.”he added
Rinzler pulled himself closer to the wall, basically trying to hide from the others. He clutched Emma’s disc to his chest, he missed her already. All he could picture in his mind was her laugh, her smile, how she took care of him when no one else did. He couldn’t picture why she'd turn against him or how she could just become like him. Something was wrong with her. He could’ve saved her, he could have held back from killing her. Rinzler stared at his hands imagining her in his arms, her body turning into voxels. How her face was written with terror and sadness. The way that the light caught her face the tears glistened in the orange light.
It was strange that he felt this way about her after being programmed to not have any sorta emotion known. He shouldn’t feel this way but he does and there was some sort of emotion he couldn’t tell what it was but he was feeling it. He wanted to feel it so badly yet he really didn’t want to know CLU would immediately hurt him for feeling it. If he was still around he would drag him back and rectify him all over again starting from scratch again. He would go back into that cold room and he would become hollow, he would be cut off from the grid and forced to sit there watching as CLU would rip apart the person he felt for. CLU used anything he could to get advantage of him, taking everything he loved and burning it, crumbling his world.
He didn’t want to go back there ever again. He feared it. Rinzler hoped that Alan wouldn’t be like that, right? He looked up at Alan listening to Paige tell stories about Beck. He didn’t look like CLU did when listening. Alan was more attentive, full facing the person, nodding along, his eyes on the person making them feel seen. CLU was nothing like that, he sat sideways, not looking at the person and fully interrupted and took over the conversation to yell at them about a mistake or they said something he didn’t like.
“HEY! I’m sorry but it's the truth!”yelled Tron
“NO! stop, it's not!”yelled Quorra
“Hey hey hey whats wrong?”asked Alan
“Tron's being an idiot!”sighed Quorra
“I just suggested something!”said Tron rolling his eyes
“What happened?”asked Alan
“Nothing that concerns anyone else!”said Tron
“Oh really!? Well I think we should involve Alan if you're ever so concerned!”said Quorra
“About what!?”asked Paige
“Tron pulled me away to ask why I’m upset and I told him the truth and then he asked if I’m so upset then why did I try to make a move on him. I told him I did that it was a mistake.”sighed Quorra
“Your forgetting the part when I told you that its wrong to try to make a move on someone else right after your boyfriends death.”said Tron
“Just like high school kids,”whispered Alan under his breath,”Okay this is what I’m gonna say both of you are right but mostly Tron since Quorra its wrong to make a move on someone else right when you're not in the right state of mind. And Tron that comment was a little snarky and upset Quorra. Imma say that you both need to leave that moment alone.”said Alan
“When did this happen?”asked Paige
“When we both rescued Rinzler.”said Quorra
“Yeah that might have been uncalled for.”said Paige
“PAIGE!”yelled Quorra
“Hey don’t be mad at me but seriously not when you're both not in the right state of mind. Seriously!”said Paige,”You just lost Sam and Tron was in hysterics that he lost Rinzler!”
Quorra then realized her mistake,”I fucked up didn’t I?”asked Quorra
“Very!”said Tron
Quorra nodded
“It's fine, I’m sure you both can forgive each other when the time is right,”said Alan,”I mean my wife forgave me for all my mistakes so I’m sure both of you can forgive each other.”
“What did you do?”laughed Paige
“A couple of things but thats for another day!”smiled Alan
“Oh please Alan!”begged Paige
“Not now. Right now we have many…other things to worry about.”said Alan brushing it off
Quorra sighed,”Okay but you have to promise to tell us.”she smiled
“Of course, nothing like telling your past stories around the living room with friends and family.”laughed Alan
Tron sitting next to his brother looked at him worried about his brother's position. It was obvious that something was going on deep in his code. The way he gripped at the disc in his hands or the way he huddled closely to himself so no one could get to the disc. It almost seemed he was worried anyone would take it. Tron noticed that his brother became more absent once they got back, never making a movement that would make him notice.
Alan got up and left then Quorra helped Paige leave behind him, Tron thought it was about Able bringing their meal or whatever. He just focused on Rinzler, his brother. He moved his hand to Rinzler's shoulder to help him out of his trance causing Rinzler to flinch and press the disc to Tron’s neck.
“Glad you're still with us!”Tron laughed,”Or are you? Rinz? It’s me, your brother, Tron!?”
Rinzler moved the disc away
“Thank you, brother, please tell me what's on your mind?”comforted Tron
Rinzler shook his head
“Please brother!”begged Tron,”I want to understand you and your pain.”
His brother froze for a second but didn’t give him any way of knowing what he was thinking. Tron looked at his brother’s body language trying to find a way to understand him. Rinzler's helmet wasn’t much help blocking his face.
“I want to understand what you went through, so maybe I can help you feel better or show you that the world isn’t scary.”said Tron,”Maybe just maybe I can make the bad things go away for you.”
Rinzler’s body loosened a little then sat on his knees, he put Emma’s dull disc down in front of him. Tron noticed that his brother's palms started slowly disintegrating, turning into voxels the way he was gripping the disc. There were many words to describe the way he felt for his brother losing his loved one.
“You loved her, Emma that is. I understand coming back after losing Yuri was hard for me.”Tron slightly laughed
Rinzler tilted his head
“Its a way some users can’t handle pain so they laugh. It’s weird but I loved Yuri so much and I still don’t know who killed her.”explained Tron
“What…What would you do if…you find her killer?”Rinzler signed slowly
Rinzler realized something about the Yuri girl
“I don’t know,”Tron answered,”Why?”
He killed Yuri
“I don’t know…I mean you love her, don’t people kill for their lovers?”Rinzler asked

Chapter Text

Sitting there with Tron standing above me, it was just like that time that….time just barely remembering that cold glitching memory. Holding the very thing that could’ve ruined it for him. Clutching the very thing that could’ve maybe saved me from causing it. Causing the deaths of my…my…no…not my…friends…his…..his….friends. I killed his friends but maybe if I realized what I did or his memories helped me realize that I was him that we were the same person. Maybe she…she could still be alive. Em. Em could still be alive with her brothers.
I never understood what that meant, why do people fall in love. Now I see that falling in love…I never want to do that again. Why does it hurt, Em is gone. She's not coming back, she's gone for good.
My brother speaks,”You loved her, Emma that is. I understand coming back after losing Yuri was hard for me.”Tron slightly laughed
I turn my head to the side, confused at him
“It's a way some users can’t handle pain so they laugh. It’s weird but I loved Yuri so much and I still don’t know who killed her.”explained Tron
“What…What would you do if…you find her killer?”Rinzler signed slowly
I realize something about that
“I don’t know,”Tron answered,”Why?”
I killed Yuri
“I don’t know…I mean you love her, don’t people kill for their lover
How my brother speaks about his lover, it’s just like that time. He talks about the girl, i play that memory over and over again. Watching her death over and over, that program being his very lover. Lover? It hits me that I never understood death or why people become emotional.
Tron kneels to my level and pulls his hand close to me but pauses when I flinch at his motion. His face changes but his face just becomes gentle as he starts talking to me about it. The death of Yuri and relates it to Emma’s death, he tells me how much it's supposed to hurt but I just don’t understand. He never let me feel pain, he wouldn’t ever let me feel it. How was I supposed to do my job, my duty to protect him, protect the grid.
I looked up at my brother, his face giving off some sort of concern but all I could hear was Emma’s voice echoing through my circuits. There deep in my circuits was the memory of the voice of her, Yuri, her scream as I..me…Tron’s old body echoing through.
“Brother, we, father and me, we want to understand you! I feel that there is something that you're hiding from me. I want to help you.”he said
He went to move the disc from my hands but in instinct I moved it to his neck, again. This time it stayed there, he threw his hands up in defense, trying to get me to see that he was no threat. It was like I couldn’t control what I was doing. My body took control over me with no sense of who or what was around me.
“Rinz, it’s me your brother.”I heard my brother say
I couldn’t control it
“Hey, listen, it's me. Tron.”he said
He got up and backed away but I followed him, keeping the disc at his neck. I had him back against the wall, waiting for something but I didn’t know what. I felt something I never felt but the need…the need to kill him was there. That he was a threat all along that this whole place crawling with traitors and users needed to be brought back to be rectified.
“Rinzler?”I heard the users voice
Without a single thought I launched the disc I had against Tron over at the user. Screams were heard and Tron suddenly had me against the wall with his own disc at my neck. Every head turned to me then at the user then I saw that Beck had Emma’s disc lodged into his body.
“Wha…No, Beck!!”I hear as Paige's voice break through the noise inside of me
“Rinzler, what the fuck!”I hear Jethro’s cold voice
“Rinzler, why?”Alan’s voice was soft and confused at the same time
I looked at my brother as his head turned from the chaos in front of us then back at me, he didn’t know what to do, it seemed that he was between killing me or trying to talk through it.
“WHY WOULD YOU!!!! YOU WERE FRIENDS!!!”screamed Paige
“Paige it’s okay, I honestly don’t feel it. I don’t feel the pain.”I hear Beck calmly say
“Stop….save your breath!”she said breathlessly
I watched Tron and Quorra look at each other as Alan was just horrified, trying to figure out a way to save Beck and Able next to him just looked crushed. I just stared at everyone wondering what I was like to feel all of their emotions. I wondered why they were crushed, was it like when I lost Em?? Or was it like the programs I personally prosecuted as I killed their lovers just to get to them.
“Quorra, Paige, take Beck into the back. I can stabilize the it.”said Alan
“Dad, what about the assassin program?”asked Jethro
“Rinzler, just keep him here. I want to see what made him do it. If he’s kind enough I trust Able to know a thing or two about coding or I don’t know, you who works as government level coding could work it through.”said Alan
I watched Jethro’s facial expression and how Alan winked at Able who secretly smiled back. I looked back at my brother who didn’t glare exactly but was mad at me. I knew why I tried to kill his father then the disc launched into his protege. I didn’t even know why I did it but I couldn’t control it. Alan left leaving me with the three, my twin brother, my human brother than Alan who’s close friends with Alan now.
“I honestly don’t want to touch the mass killer!”said Jethro looking at Able
“Well I personally understand but he is technically your brother but if we don’t understand why he did it then he could kill your father one day.”said Able walking towards us
Jethro rolled his eyes sighing before walking over keeping a distance between us
“Tron, I believe we can let Rinzler go. I think your brother isn’t gonna hurt us anymore or for now seeing how he will like us touching his discs.”said Able so calmly
Tron let me go, finally taking a breath,”Rinzler why? There better be an explanation on why you’d try to hurt Alan.” Tron asks just so confused and hurt but I have no explanation
“I thought he’s tried to kill everyone like 4 times already! Now you're surprised?"said Jethro
“Yes but we finally trust him more since the enemy is clearly no more but now it’s just strange!”said Tron
“Rinzler, is it okay if I see your disc? I can at least open it some way to see maybe it’s back coding Alan didn’t see before.”said Able
Able kept the distance but distinctively made more distance backing behind Tron
“I see the answer is no. Maybe there's a way or compromise that we can have?”asked Able
“The fuck….who the hell sounds like a broken hard drive?”said Jethro
“What's a hard drive?”asked Tron
“Hard drive? Like something that stores data. That's what your brother sounds like. He’s so freaking corrupted that he sounds like he’s on the edge of failure.”said Jethro,”I guess that sorta makes sense since he literally isn’t even original. He got so rectified that he is on the edge of failure.”
“Jet that is not appropriate to say.”said Able
“Just telling the truth! That he,”Jethro points to me,”could be on edge of failure. That with both codes fighting for control or just with two codes inside of him that he is on edge of failure!”said Jethro
“Rinzler please,”Tron turns towards me,”At least let someone look at your codes. Maybe we can fix something that's broken.”
I shake my head no
“Why not?”he asks
I may not want people to touch my codes after being violated of my own memories, thoughts, emotions, my own body. Last time someone messed with my codes I lost everything and I turned out like this.
“Right, forgot.”Tron turns back to the other two,”It’s gonna be a struggle to have him trust another person to touch his codes.”
“Why?”asked Jethro
Damn users
“Clu turned Tron into Rinzler. I personally don’t know what Clu even did to Tron for him to turn into Rinzler but something obviously bad happened. In short I would say everything bad happened to him.”said Able
“So severe PTSD and trust issues. What if Rinzler just watches us LOOK at his codes and we don’t change anything and let dad handle the fixing.”said Jethro
Tron turns to me,”What if I make sure they don’t change anything? I know you trust me.”he says
I think for a second, I trust Tron with my life. I don’t trust Jethro at all but Able is friends with Alan and he seems nice. That two against one, those odds are fine. I’m here too so I can protect my codes.
I sigh before nodding, I let Tron take the disc off its port and I watch him give it to Able.
Able opens it up to reveal my face to Jethro as his father but younger. Tron’s exact duplicate and Able moved to my code, its tangled mess of orange and blue. The orange varies from lighter almost Clu orange to a deep dark orange almost blood orange. Then my blue codes light as Trons. I look to see that my orange codes are somewhat broken, cracking everywhere. The blue codes seem to be suffocating under the orange that are taking over, breaking over time. I look at Jethro who is just mesmerized by my codes. Then over at Able who is just horrified.
“No wonder you sound like a broken hard drive!”said Jethro,”Your codes are just messed up like I don’t know how you're still standing.”
“How can you manage with this pain?”my brother asked
I just looked over at him
“Okay…anyways do you think you found what caused it?”he asked
“No, my father will probably be the one to understand what Clu did to his codes because this is something. I've never seen anything like this.”said Jethro
“Wait, what about the programs that Abraxas caused, remember? How their codes were all twisted like this?”said Able
“Yeah but this is worse, Abraxas virus was just an effect covering the old codes. This is more complex! Like see here how the corrupted codes are basically strangling the original ones. It's much different!”says Jethro pointing at my codes
I was starting to regret watching this as I saw my own codes, my codes were just so broken. It was just so weird looking at what was inside my programmed body. At least I finally saw how much the rectification damaged my codes. It wasn't just psychological damage, it was the internal too. I finally see why he was so happy when he rectified me, he liked hurting me.
“Dad! Look!”I heard Alan walk in
“What is it?”asked Alan
“Look at Rinzler's codes. It's horrifying but honestly really cool. It's just twisted around and damaged. The corrupted codes are like squeezing the original codes. It's horrifying at what Clu did.”said Jethro
“I'm seeing that. This is…I don't know how to put it into words.”said Alan
I suddenly felt the entire grid on top of me. It was like the whole world came crashing down. My body couldn't stop shaking as I felt like I wasn't in control again. That the overwhelming need to kill was back and it felt worse than before. I couldn't breathe anymore, my whole code felt like it was on fire.
“Brother!”I heard him
“Rinzler,”I felt Alan's hand on,"can you hear me!”
“Brother! Stay with me! Listen to me, listen to my voice!”Tron's voice
Their voices thinned out and blended with the constant ringing in my ears and felt it in my codes. It hurt, everything hurt even worse than before. It felt like a sharp stabbing in my twisted broken codes. It got worse and worse every time I felt my brother or fathers hand trying to help me.
I felt myself get colder and to the point where my programming just started feeling that it shut down. My body just stopped working and I couldn't fight the urge to just kill everyone. The rectifing started fighting back, his conditioning started coming back. I couldn't fight it, I became weak. All my fighting to become something better just to get knocked back. I couldn't..I couldn't fight anymore.
So tired, I'm so tired. I can’t fight this anymore, even when I try I can’t anymore. I tried, I tried to fight it, myself, my own programming. I fought and I fought for them but I can’t anymore, I can’t fight it anymore.

“Rinzler, are you okay?”asked Emma
“Oh, child. My program has…some coding to fix!”his laugh made my codes shiver
“Sir, if I have the right to speak or ask about your coding the fixing what is that for? He’s perfect.”Emma sweet voice asked
“For you, child it might but me! He needs to fit..my standards.”he said in such a cruel way
The poor girl, she couldn’t even understand what he wanted to do to him, her friend, me, I was just sitting there all submissive like his pet, I felt I was just his toy, his play thing I wasn’t anything else to him and I knew that. She, the girl, never knew what I was created for and neither did I. We two never knew why I was created, why WE were there for his new idea.
“Sir! What standards do you need so bad?”she asked again
“Child!”in such a harsh tone,”I need him to be perfect! No program should be able to defeat him! If some user can defeat him! I can’t have that! No user, no program, NOTHING should defeat him!”
I watched her flinch at him but he did catch it as he turned to me.
I held my nonexistent breath as I watched him pick up the disc in front of me before opening it to see the face that wasn’t mine, then to my own codes. He turned to show her my codes. Her face changed to concern as she watched him play around with them, changing them for his own pleasure and my own pain. He then sat the disc down open for anyone to see what damage he did.
“How is he still around? It’s impossible to live like that!”she said
“By training and conditioning!”I could hear his sadistic smile
“No program should live with that!”her voice broke
He smacked her
“Don’t question my work! No one will question my own work! I am creating the perfect system!”he yelled at her,”I am Sysadim! You will obey ME!”
He grabbed my disc and threw it at me. Emma watched, her face changing as he turned to her. He whispered something in her ear then she breathed again, turned and walked out.

The world around me felt cold but the ground was hard. There was a quiet nothingness that happened around me. I felt it through my codes as everything rebooted and I finally felt the comfort of the grid around me. I fully connected to the grid before pulling myself to a sitting position. Looking around me I found I wasn’t in a fully familiar place, it was the color white and had this quiet hum filling the back room. It had white shelves with books on the shelf.
“Brother?”I heard Tron
“Where?”I signed
“Uncles place, well Kevin_Flynns backup to his backup house.”Tron shrugged
“Why?”I signed again
“I understand your questions but we are safe. You bugged out and I deemed unsafe until father figured something out. He has your discs now in the living room.”said Tron
Panic washed over me as I heard my discs were away from me. I got up but pain shot through my codes, making me completely glitch. Tron came to me, making me sit back down.
“Maybe actually sit down please. Take a breath, a break! Please. The grid is okay for now. You need to focus on yourself.”brother said
I shake my head no, I need my discs!
“I'll get your discs, just stay here! Don't try anything! Okay?”said Tron
I nod my head. I need them!
“Trust me! Okay!”Tron patted my shoulder causing shivers in my codes
He left, leaving me all alone in the unknown room. I finally looked around, noticing how bright it was. A bed in the middle of the room then a shelf above it carved into the wall. Another books shelf on the other side of the bed. I tried to stand again but the pain was too much as I immediately collapsed back to the ground.
Someone knocked on the door and it opened to see Alan and my brother.
“Rinzler…”gasped Alan as he came to me,"it's good to see you awake!” he smiled at me
I noticed that Tron held my discs
“I went through your codes and I'd like to make changes but with your permission. That they all benefit you!”said Alan
I sat back in surprise. Not only that something could help me but at the fact that he's getting permission.
I nod my head
“I'm glad!”said Alan as he motioned Tron to come over,”now I'm gonna show you what I'm doing.”
Tron gave the discs to Alan as he opened them up to the codes through the messy damage I watched Alan come to some of my programmed orders. He explained what he was giving me my own orders now that I actually have control of myself. He then went to my controls and I watched as he gave me control of my helmet, my own directives, my own choice. He was giving me so much, things I didn't even know I could have.
“I did everything I could. I did give you access to your helmet!”said Alan
I turn my head confused
“Your helmet! You can actually take it off.”said Tron
I blink for a second before having it derezz, then I see the world out of the tinted visor. Squinting at how actually bright the room is around me I look at Alan and then at Tron. They exchange glances they think I didn’t notice but I did. I see the world before me in actual color.
“Well if I have more time to go through your codes I can fix most of this. If you'd like, you can come to the user world and I can decode and fix at least most of this.”said Alan
I shake my head
Alan turned to Tron confused
“Do you not want this fixed, I mean you can have this all fixed, be a normal program.”said Tron
“I don't want more people to touch my codes!”I sign
Alan sighs,”It makes sense! I can't imagine what Clu did to you but I can tell it's bad. I can understand that, I do feel that if you come with us to the user world for a little bit I can give you more comfortable.”says Alan,”I can give you less pain.”
“I don't want you to touch my codes anymore,”I sign"I don't like it!”
“Thats understandable. When you feel more comfortable you can always tell me or your brother.”says Alan
“
I nodded a thank you
“Now if you will, we should talk about something else that's important. When you blacked out you tried to kill everyone there, do you think you know why?”Alan asked
I look down, trying to think why? I think back to anything that he did that could’ve been why. Maybe he put something in my code that could’ve been why. Maybe because I was disobeying orders that he put in. Maybe that's why.
“Rinz?”asked Tron,”Don’t think too hard, okay! I also had the thought that Clu could’ve put some type of code in but we’ve looked everywhere in your codes. The things that Alan fixed could help but maybe he put in a directive in but that's gonna take time.”brother says
I just stare at him, I don’t have much of a thought to actually put in. I don’t know anything that he would’ve done to me to make me do that. It seems like something he would do to me just to take control over me even in death.
“Rinz, you gotta take a breath!”said Tron
I look at him in surprise
“You're literally shaking while thinking about this issue. It’s fine we’ll figure this out!”said Tron
“For now, let’s check up on Beck after the accident. Jethro and Able are out but the girls stayed behind.”said Alan
I stay put
“Rinzler, Beck doesn’t blame you in any way!”said Tron
I shake me head and step back
Tron goes to come closer but Alan pulls him back,”Don’t force your brother! He’ll come out when ready.”he said patting his shoulder
Tron sighs before leaving
“It’s fine. I’m leaving the door open just a little. Come out when ready, okay!”Alan says
I nod my head as he leaves
Once they are gone, I turn to the room taking in how bright the lights are. I finally saw the actual color for the first time. I look around the room then see the giant window looking at the outside. It’s darker than the room I’m in but it glows so fondly.

“You are such a good fighter!”I hear Emma
She laughs
I start laughing too
“I wonder what the actual world looks like!”She says looking at the city
I don’t look at it only at her
I nod in agreement
“I wonder what the sun looks like, I hear whispers that its warm
Then a flash of her in my arms
“That it's a color never heard of or something like Clu’s suit.”she frowns
“You should be sorry!”she whispers
I tilt my head in confusion
“You killed me, remember!”she says,”I’m dead remember! You stabbed me!”she shifts to the voxel mess where I stabbed her
I try to sign but I couldn’t
“It should've been you. That died!”she says
“I know, Em, I know it should’ve been me.”I sign
She then shifts back into her happy self describing the rumors of what the sun looks like. She’s smiling again, as her hair flows around her from the wind created by the ships. She keeps talking as I look at her, confused but happy that she isn’t blaming me for her death.
“Do you think we’ll always be together? Rinz?”she asks
“I hope so!”I sign
The memory stops as I stare at her blank disc, not glowing its usual red but a faded nonexistent red that it usually was. I stare at it for a while before picking it up just to feel its ridges. I wanted to turn it on just to see her but I couldn’t since she was gone. Gone for good never to come back, I won’t be able to see her again or hear her laugh. She won’t be back anymore.
I grab the disc and sit against the wall, staring blankly at the wall for what seems to be cycles and cycles. Visions start to come back the bed I stare at starts to look like his as the white becomes darker and darker as the lights start to fade to orange. It becomes darker and everything changes. I close my eyes tightly, shaking my head as I pray to the users to not go back, not see his face again.
My pleas don’t get answered when I see him again on top of me as I try to fight against him. He chuckles his dark chuckle that sends shivers down my codes as he keeps laughing at my misery. I can’t make any noise from him deleting that entirely from my codes. So I try to fight him or get him away from me but he just holds me down. I try and try before he makes me give up, making me feel everything from him digging his hands into the damaged codes to him totally violating me, overtaking every right I have to my body. I start feeling powerless, nothingness as I feel his hands roaming and his hands touching everything. He digs his nails across the healed scars retelling everyone he’s given me.
Once he felt that it was enough he left me there, on that bed to do whatever sysadim business he needed to do. I felt the coldness of the room, the way the lights hummed. How orange the lights were, the very shade it was. The way the bed felt so strange under me, the exact feel of the sheets on top of the mattress. How empty I felt, the pain I felt, the numbness from my legs. Nothing could give me the feel of having ownership over my body.
When I finally came back to reality I had felt sick but nothing could help. Nothing could make me feel that I could have that back. I wasn’t human anyway and I was his for a long time. They wouldn’t understand what it was like. They wouldn’t be able to help. I killed most of their friends, imprisoned them, and helped their enemy take control over everything. I had so many voxels on my hands. I ruined their lives and that was so normal to me.
“Hey..”I heard a soft call,”Dad and the girls are preparing food or whatever users call it. Do you wanna come spend time with us? We all can update you on the good things that are happening to the grid. Even Beck is up and around.”said Tron coming over and sitting on the bed
I look up at him then at the time remembering that he was dead then nod a little
“Really!? You wanna hang out with everyone! That's amazing!”cheered Tron
“Better than my thoughts!”I sign
“Yeah..about that!”Tron forced a laugh,”You realize I get those sometimes too, well when it's really strong. I can see them”he said trying to sound calm
I started panicking realizing he could’ve seen it, seen me..ME being weak.
“She’s…really pretty and you shouldn’t beat yourself up from it. It’s sad that you physically had to kill her but..she’s resting now and the grid is healing. Emma wanted the grid better but she didn’t know how to fix it. No one did. The other two made her believe that the grid needed something it didn’t.”said Tron
I relaxed a little but was still on edge.
“It’s still my fault, I killed her! I killed Em!”I sign
“That..yes you did it but what else could have you done.”said Tron
I just give up and nod. I didn’t have the urge to fight him or anyone else. I was tired and the memories flooding back took everything out of me.
I looked at my brother as he also looked tired but something was bugging him that he was on edge. I knew something happened, maybe a fight with Alan or something with Beck. Maybe he fought with Quorra. His eyes kept shifting around and wouldn’t make eye contact with me. Yet everytime he looked at me his eyes would shift around me. It was starting to bug me, making me think about him looking at me with his eyes. I moved, pulling my legs closer to me, building that barrier between me and him.
“So shall we join the other or do you want to stay here?”Tron asked
“Yeah that's fine, I’m gonna sit here for a minute.”I sign
“How about I show you around first! Since you didn’t exactly get to see the amazing view of the city. I mean you can see its beauty!”Tron said so abruptly
I confirmed he saw something, there's no way he’d just say that so randomly and so scared like.
“You okay?”I signed
“Yeah I’m perfectly fine!”he forced a smile
He got up and I followed, then stopped at the doorway realizing that I don’t have my helmet on and everyone is going to see my face. Remembering everything, every scar, ever word that was said, every torture that happened because of who I looked like and what I once resembled.
“It’s fine, Alan already told everyone that he let you take your helmet off. He said how now all his sons look exactly like his prime!”Tron laughed
I took a breath before stepping out of the room and into the unknown that would be the rest of the house.

Chapter Text

Alan walked into the room that held Beck who was recovering but he seemed to be all the jokes he was telling everyone. He was still smiling and laughing at everything. Beck would always ask how Rinzler was and we would tell him that he’s still in sleep mode but now finally Rinzler woke up. So Alan was excited to tell him.
They met everyone in the garage talking and enjoying their company after the longest fight. Beck was working on some light runner while Paige and Quorra were talking to each other.
“Beck we have good news!”announced Tron
“WHAT!”cheered Beck
“Rinzler is finally awake!”said Alan
“That's amazing!”cheered Beck
“Thats great!”sighed Paige
“Paige chill, he’s still on our side. He just had a little glitch, that's all!”said Beck
“It’s great you think that! We woke him up and gave him all his permission back!”said Tron
“Yes we did! I figured out how to bypass all of Clu’s permissions and gave Rinzler everything he wanted back. A little extra for him to figure out too!”said Alan
“Like what?”asked Quorra
“Just regular stuff, he can actually take his helmet off, he can control his directives. Regular stuff.”shrugged Alan
“What do you mean by directives?”asked Quorra,”Couldn’t he control that?”
“No he couldn’t!” said Tron angrily
“Theres a lot he couldn’t do.”said Alan
“He couldn’t control himself? That makes sense! If after Clu died and Emma immediately went into power, he still had someone giving him orders after everyone died, no one was giving him orders that when he could actually make his own decisions.”said Beck piecing everything together
It finally clicked for the other two
“Wait if he never had control over himself that's why he tried to kill everyone! He immediately went back to his first directive, Clu orders, it must've been because he didn’t know what to do and Clu always had him killed!”said Quorra
“Thats somewhat of what happened yes.”said Alan
“What happens if that happens again?”asked Paige
“I have no clue but for one thing, I’m gonna help him. As he has no idea what it’s like to be in control of his own person.”said Alan
Paige just sighed and nodded, Beck looked at her concerned but she just smiled at him and he went back to fixing the light runner. Quorra noticed how upset Tron was just standing there with his arms crossed. He wasn’t making eye contact with anyone. He wasn’t even talking just in deep thought.
“So what happens now? What other things did you fix about him?”asked Quorra
“Nothing much just what he should’ve had control over.”said Alan
“He completely deleted his voice codes.”said Tron speaking up,”He took everything from him, Quorra he made back up controls to where he can take control of his body.”Tron started ranting about what Clu took from him
Everyone quieted down when Tron started talking about what Clu took from Rinzler, himself, his old programming. Clu took everything from him. Tron realized that it was him, his original programming that Clu changed into his personal puppet.
“Clu betrayed us, betrayed Kevin_Flynn, Alan, even me but especially the original program me, he betrayed us all. He rectified me into Rinzler then repurposed him into his personal puppet taking everything he had that was me into an empty code that obeyed his orders.”said Tron
“He messed everyone up.”said Paige
“He took everything away from us.”said Quorra
“I think the most messed up thing was out of everything he did to everyone, he enjoyed it. He laughed at our pain.”said Beck
“That I’ll never forgive, that wasn’t what Kevin_Flynn wanted, he wanted something bigger to change the world only to have it taken over by a psychopath.”said Alan
“It’s not Kevin_Flynn's fault, he didn’t know what a perfect system was until so much later in life. He died to change it. That was his goal, to change the world and he died. I’m not gonna let that stop until we fix it. For both Flynn’s but first we need to help the person who died fighting for him. Rinzler, we need to help him first and fix the grid.”said Quorra
“Thats somewhat of a plan.”said Paige
“So??? It doesn't matter, we need to do something. The grid is in our hands!”said Quorra
“I understand that…im just saying putting one person in front of everything else that our friends died for is crazy!”said Paige
“I understand Paige but this is a serious matter! He could know something we don't because he closely worked with Clu! Himself!”

Tron started to feel some pain in his head

“So I think we can use him to help! This could even redeem some.”said Quorra

The pain Tron started to feel got worse and worse as they kept talking. Beck got up noticing Tron starting to double down in pain to the point of collapse. Beck saw his mentor's circuits blink orange as it got worse. The circuits blinked through his body like the veins of a human. The orange color got a bit brighter then settled down.
He was feeling everything his brother was feeling. He was getting visions, the very memories of Rinzler's trauma. He vividly saw Clu and felt everything that he was doing to him.
“Tron? You okay!?”asked Beck watching his mentor
Everyone looked to see Tron and see him starting to collapse as he was experiencing everything.
“Clearly not!”breathed Tron on the verge of collapse
“Son!!”said Alan noticing
“Makes sense, sorry!”said Beck embarrassed
The pains finally settled down but the visions didn't as they played through Tron's head. They weren't as vivid but he still felt everything and watched helplessly.
“Tron, tell me what's happening!”said Alan
Tron didn't even know how to describe it. How could he describe watching his own brother being violated?
“I…I…I don't…don't know!”said Tron trying to find the words,”it's his, Rinz's memory but it's so strong and vivid!”he said
“Well what's happening?”asked Paige
Tron glared at her,”I really wouldn't want to tell his own memory to other people without him knowing!”said Tron
“But it seems painful!”said Quorra
“It really is!”said Tron
“But are you okay with telling us how to help or for us to do anything?”asked Beck
“Stop asking questions please. I really don't know what to say.”said Tron
“Tron?”started Alan
“I'll obviously tell you, father.”said Tron
Alan nodded
Paige glared back at Tron as Quorra started to look very concerned about him. Beck just stared at him in shock and worry for his mentor. All Tron could do was shrug, feeling exactly as his brother feels when everyone's eyes are on him when something happens.
“Are you okay though?”asked Beck
“Yeah…yeah I'm fine.”smiled Tron
“You honestly don't look like it, let me get you some energy!”said Alan
“Wait, let me go with you!”said Tron
Alan smiled and nodded, he walked out and Tron followed not worrying about the three behind him. Tron felt out of breath while walking through the house, haunted by the things he saw. He was haunted by the visions of Clu, the way he was laughing at the helplessness. Tron had to blink for a second to get the visions out of his head. They kept coming and he couldn't make them stop.
“Tron? Are you okay?”Alan asked
“Father, they are getting worse, the visions. They are so vivid!”Tron said defeated
“What are they about?”asked Alan
“Rinzler and Clu….”Tron didn't know how to describe it,”Rinz is just helpless as Clu does horrible things.”
Alan just stood there in shock, he stood there frozen as he heard it
“But Clu is….Clu is…on top of him….holding…..holding him down as he says inaudible things then there's pain and more pain as he touches him then there's nothingness.”said Tron
He didn't know what to do as he felt completely empty but felt like he was betraying his brother for telling Alan. Yet when seeing these things he felt that his brother felt, it felt so real that it was happening to him. Then he realized that it did happen to him that Rinzler was him just after all the things happened to him.
“Oh, Tron…thank you for telling me. Now I know how bad the situation is.”said Alan
“Dad, what do we do? What does that mean!”asked Tron
Alan stopped what he was doing again, holding the cup and paused pouring the energy he was making.
“That, what you're describing is something horrible. Like terrible to anyone human or program. I honestly don’t know what to tell you. I’ve never had to tell anyone what it is or that it shouldn’t have happened to them.”said Alan
“But it happened to him.”said Tron
“I know, we will have to deal with it.”said Alan
“Dad, it happened to him and it basically happened to me!!!”said Tron
“I know, I know! I just don't know what to do. Y’know its the shock of what happened. I'm still processing what you said.”said Alan
“What do we do?”asked Tron
“Treat your brother the same as every other program.”smiled Alan
Tron just nodded, he noticed Alan was hiding something from him. The way his eyes just faded as he heard everything. They darkened a little but he didn't question anything. Tron just let it go and didn't push his father anymore but he was still haunted by it. Haunted by his own brother's memories, he couldn't get it out of his head.
“Dad, what are you gonna do?”Tron asked
Alan sighed but didn't say anything, he just handed Tron the drink with rage shaken hands and left. Tron stood there in silence drinking the energy. He heard footsteps as Quorra walked in, her body was tense but her face was calm.
“How long were you standing there?”Tron asked
“I don't know what your talking about!”said Quorra surprised
“We both know what I'm talking about! How long were you standing there!”said Tron angrily
“Long enough! I want to know, what happened with your brother, what's bothering you! What happened out there in the garage! I wanna know! Clu, the corrupted! They took everything from me, my people, Kevin_Flynn, my boyfriend, my life they took it all. So when the Rinzler, the loyal dog to the corrupted, is glitching I want to know. So tell me what is happening!”said Quorra
Tron sighed and put the cup down,”his codes are messed up, Clu’s rectifying took over my original coding over but it's causing him pain. Then with his memories come back they come back painfully. We'll for him when they are so vivid, I get them too. So we both experience them. We both see them.”said Tron
“What did you see?”asked Quorra
“I don't know how to describe it!”said Tron,”it was dark cold, his laugh, Clu laughing and enjoying watching him in pain.”
“So Clu liked to torture him.”said Quorra
“It wasn't just that, he psychically liked it. Like he did everything to him. I watched it happen, but it's that he basically did it to me which makes it more uncomfortable. Rinzler is me, we are the same person, just different coding.”Tron got more disturbed at the thought of it.
“I can't imagine what's going through your head but this is good, your talking about it.”comforted Quorra
She was gonna hug him to comfort him but Tron backed away. Her face showed concern, her not knowing how to help him. Tron just smiled at her.
“Sorry but for now until I get him out of my head, no physical contact.”said Tron
Quorra forced a smile,”yeah, totally understandable. I understand, I mean you see how much CLU's betrayal affected your future self? Or past I don't know but I see that it.”said Quorra
“I should go comfort my brother. Get the other two in the living room. We should all bond and get some trust running after everything. I feel that he needs someone.”said Tron
“Of course, I'll help you in any way.”said Quorra
“Thanks, for everything!”said Tron
“Yeah, anything for you and the other Bradleys.”said Quorra
Tron left her in the kitchen and Quorra stood there for a minute. The Bradleys were always so nice to her but her heart aches for Sam for Kevin_Flynn. They were her first family but they were gone. She was left alone even with the Bradley's, Alan, Lora even their sons were there for her but she missed the Flynns. Quorra pushed that away and walked out of the kitchen to the lovers in the garage.
“Hey! We are gonna have a bonding moment in the living room!”smiled Quorra
“A what?”laughed Paige
“Tron wants us all to bond with each other!”laughed Quorra
“Oh so like a trauma circle!”said Paige
“Pretty much, with everything going on, he's like oh we should have a little break!”said Quorra
“I mean we lost like a good number of our friends. With the corrupted.”said Paige
“We made it out alive!”chimed Beck
“Its not anyone's fault but the three heads plus Dyson and Tesler.”said Quorra
“I mean Rinzler also took a good number of our forces!”said Paige
“Paige, it's not his fault! It's Clu’s fault! He didn't have any choice!”yelled Beck
Both Paige and Quorra were taken aback
“It's true he did have any choice in anything. So give him a break Paige, he killed a lot of programs but it wasn't his choice. I mean hey he's literally Tron with different codes. You can be mad about it but you have to understand he didn't want to do it.”said Quorra
“It doesn't change that he killed our friends but I'll put that aside. For now!”said Paige
“Thank you!”said Beck hugging her
Paige pushed him off of her
“Are you mad?”asked Beck
“No, not at your sweetie never.”she said sweetly
Beck looked at her with heart eyes as she stared at him deciding what to do
“At least she loves you!”laughed Quorra
“Oh I love him dearly but seriously he’s a little clingy!”teased Paige
“I am not!”protested Beck
“Yes you are!”said Paige
“Babe!”said Beck
“I’ll leave you two alone!”laughed Quorra
“Wait! No!”whined Paige
Quorra already left laughing really hard. Paige sighed heavily before hugging Beck back and Beck giggled happily as his girlfriend hugged him back. Quorra made her way through the house and sat on the balcony. She noticed Alan was sitting alone on the other end of the balcony. He sat blankly as he was in deep thought. Quorra knew he was upset, maybe he was thinking that he failed his sons or that he could’ve done something to save Rinzler from his past. He couldn’t do anything, they both knew that.
“You couldn’t have done anything.”she said
“I could’ve.”said Alan
“What happened, happened and there's nothing to do about it. Changing the past would change the both of them.”said Quorra
“But he could be happy.”said Alan
“I could’ve ended up in one of them dying. Clu could be worse or Kevin_Flynn could get mad at you.”said Quorra
“He hurt them, Clu ruined everything.”said Alan
“It's sad to say but he’s a part of Kevin_Flynn. He was created exactly like him, Tron saw what he never saw. Yet Clu saw someone who could enforce his idea.”said Quorra
“Was his idea to force himself onto him. Was it to ruin someone's entire life over nothing?”asked Alan
“It was because Kevin_Flynn held Tron to a higher purpose. He maybe have been jealous of Tron and put his anger onto him.”said Quorra
“What he did to them, it hurts that I can’t protect them. Or that I couldn’t help them. We all thought he was dead, gone but he was here so was Tron who thought no one could save him and he was right. No one knows how long he fought against Clu just to give in when he realized no one was gonna save him.”said Alan
“You can’t change the past but you can change the future. You can help him now! Show him the love that he never had! Because that's what a good father you are! To him! To Tron! To Jethro! Even to Sam!”said Quorra
Alan took a second to consider it before turning to her and smiling at her.
“Flynn raised you well, Quorra. He would be proud of how you turned out!”said Alan
“I know he is!”smiled Quorra
“How do you stay so positive?”he asked
“He taught me the art of the selfless.”said Quorra
Alan’s face changed in confusion before smiling slightly and nodded,”I see, well he did a good job on teaching you everything. I also understand what you're doing. I know you're upset, both the Flynn’s are gone and you’re alone in the world both the user and the grid. I will tell you that you're not! You are a part of the Bradley family now. I won’t stop until you feel that you’re truly happy.”said Alan
“I miss them, I love Sam always and forever I will love him. Yet I made a move on Tron and I like him too. Not as a friend of a savior but as a lover.”said Quorra
Shock took over Alan,”Why?”he asked
“I don’t know but with everything going on and the death of Sam, I think its because I’m lost and Tron saved me so many times that it’s not that I like him romantically but because I don’t know who to love.”said Quorra
“I believe that could be a part of it.”said Alan
“What do you think I should do?”asked Quorra
She always thought he was really smart, the way both Flynns talked about him, she knew he was the one to go to when she had a problem.
“I believe you should consider for the both of you, is it something you both need. Is it valid or just because he somewhat reminds you of Sam? Is Tron you see as a romantic partner or someone you can replace Sam with? Think about it then let me know. Okay?”said Alan
“Okay, I will!”said Quorra
“Alright lets go inside, kiddo!”said Alan
He got up, groaning in the process. Quorra followed him inside and she saw Beck and Paige on the small couch then Tron followed by Rinzler. She studied Rinzler’s face for a bit. It was an identical copy of Tron but with a scar running down the right side of his face. It started through his eyes becoming thicker down his face down his neck and probably further but his suit cut it off.
Quorra sat on the couch across from the couple and Paige started talking to her as Alan occupied the bigger couch and she looked up. Tron started talking to his brother but Rinzler just stared at Tron. She couldn’t read them both but Rinzler caught her staring and she put her head down. Beck noticed the two behind them and got up, interrupting Tron who just nodded at his brother.
Alan finally got up and pulled the programs together with him tapping the glass from the table.
“Thanks for attention, I believe that with our recent victory we should have a little time together but I also wanted to discuss our recent loss.”said Alan
Tron tried getting his brother closer but he didn’t budge just eyes on Alan
“I would like to say with the losses of Sam Flynn, Mara, Link and Zed, it is hard on everyone who is here but we can’t lose hope. With the grid with no sysadim it may lose focus on unity. Now I don’t want to stress on uniting the grid but we should discuss on what to do on fixing it.”said Alan
“What should we focus on?”asked Quorra
“We need to figure out what the programs want, what we should do is bring everyone together. Have them choose what to do first. We never got to choose what was happening. We were ruled by cruel people.”said Beck
Rinzler hung his head and fidgeted with his hands
“Not only that the people who were under rule by anyone are in a frenzy, they are free from rule.”said Jethro strolling in
“How bad is it?”asked Alan
“Bad!”said Able
“How do we unite them?”asked Alan
“I think by assembly, I mean they all gathered for the games.”shrugged Jethro
Rinzler’s whole body tightened at that
“So tell everyone to gather for the games, that's not how we do that.”said Beck,”Now that everyone is free we should do something different. Announce that since the corrupted are no more we should rebuild. Together.”
“You think anyone would actually listen?”asked Paige
“The programs will at least be curious.”shrugged Tron
“What about the symbols of the resistance do it? I mean both Tron and the Renegade were the symbols of hope. Let them lead the people.”said Quorra
“That honestly could work!”said Able
“What do you both think?”asked Alan
“I’m okay with it! As long as Tron’s okay with it!”said Beck
Tron slightly looked back at Rinzler before turning to the group with all eyes staring at him
“Let’s do this!”agreed Tron
Alan happily nodded as everyone agreed
“So how should we do this?”asked Alan,”Any suggestions?”
After the discussion Alan walked into the kitchen with the bottles of energy and the little meals that both him and Jethro needed. Tron was helping him clean up.
“Are you feeling any better, after what happened earlier?”Alan asked
“I mean I got him to come out of his room and without his helmet so that's a plus.”said Tron
“I mean with you!”said Alan
“Yeah, a little shaken but that's not unusual.”said Tron
“Anything I can do?”asked Alan
“No, just don’t change.”said Tron
“I can do that.”agreed Alan
“Thanks.”smiled Tron before leaving to his brother
Rinzler hadn’t moved since they got to the living room, he refused any energy offered even after Tron tried to show him no one was gonna harm him. He still refused. Tron eventually gave up and sat it on the tiny table next to him. Beck stayed close to Rinzler trying to strike up conversation but Rinzler paid no attention, he just focused on Tron and the floor.
Rinzler watched Tron come back to the living room, trying to tell him he wanted back to his room. Rinzler never liked social events even if this wasn’t exactly a social event it was still much for him. Tron finally made it back to Rinzler after talking to Able about something.
“Brother, what is it?”he asked
“Leave.”signed Rinzler
“Why now?”asked Tron
“Leave.”Rinzler signed again but angrier
“You can go if you want but I’m not leaving, it’s not exactly time for everyone to sleep.”said Tron
Rinzler rolled his eyes and leaned back against the wall, Tron didn’t understand but just stayed close with Rinzler trying to decide if he should walk Rinzler back to his room and come back or just let his brother suffer through whatever it was.
“So how is this gonna work?”asked Jethro loudly
Everyone quieted down and Alan walked out of the kitchen
“I mean we obviously have the two heroes but what about him?”asked Jethro pointing at Rinzler
”Jet!”called Alan
”I mean, isn't he like the mass killer of the grid? He was Clu’s little dog right? Wouldn’t the people be mad that he’s still walking around?”said Jethro
“Jet that’s not cool!”said Able
“Seriously! Right now!”said Alan
“I’m literally just asking!”defended Jethro
Tron got mad but Rinzler grabbed his arm tightly. Tron looked back to see Rinzler shaking.
“Seriously! I am serious! How you gonna defend the assassin of the grid! Now your gonna say he’s like a little puppy dog attached to the Tron’s hip.”said Jethro
“JET! STOP!”yelled Alan
Everyone froze at Alan getting mad but Jethro smiled tightly
“Do you honestly think he is now just some nice guy after all the things he did? I’ve been in the city! I saw what he and the corrupted have done. The damage he's done, the families he’s torn apart! Everything. I don’t even have to stop there! Paige! Yeah she’s done some stuff too but noooo she’s a nice program after she changed sides.”said Jethro
Alan stared at him in disappointment and disbelief, wondering how his son turned out like this.
“We can’t change the past but we can change the future. Of course what they did is bad but they can make up for it.”said Alan
“Stop trying to see something that isn’t there!”said Jethro
“There is something there! Why don’t you see it?”asked Alan
“I can go there and fill that stadium of programs who he has hurt! I’m saying you're trying to give someone redemption who shouldn’t get it!”protested Jethro
Rinzler started standing up straighter at everything Jethro has said, yes he’s hurt people, yes he’s killed people, yes he shouldn’t have redemption but everyone else is saying that it wasn’t his fault. That he Rinzler didn’t have a choice, he was rectified, abused, and was treated like an animal rather than a program. Didn’t he deserve at least a little bit of redemption, a choice to fix everything he has done?
He thought about it before grabbing his disc off the port, he heard Jethro chuckle a little. He just opened it to his memories and found one that was the earliest he was allowed to have. It was between the transition from turning into the Rinzler, one he buried so deeply. Rinzler slammed it on the table for everyone to see and started at Jethro.
Everyone became horrified as they saw the terrible things that Clu did. Rinzler watched as Jethro’s face turned from cocky to regret as he saw what Rinzler was forced to do. How he was de-programmed from a savior to a living nightmare. Rinzler had to force the shaking of listening to it, how he screamed from pain to the innocent programs he killed to how Clu talked down to him. The conditioning. Everything.
After that one, he played another one. From the purge. How he led the army of corrupted to kill every living ISO. How Clu forced him to go out again and again without breaks, how he wasn’t even allowed to breathe before going out again. Just for him to realize what he has done with the little humanity he had left before Clu completely turned it off. He personally kept it just to torture him with it.
“What have you’ve done! They were innocent programs!”Tron screamed at Clu
“They were an imperfection!”said Clu calmly
“Why! WHY!”yelled Tron
“I honestly didn’t even have to force you to kill them! You did it yourself! And you call yourself a hero!”said Clu with fake disappointment
“What?”said Tron in shock
“Yes you, my program, killed them without a single thought!”said Clu
Tron stepped back in shock and confusion, no he wouldn’t do that! He would kill those ISO’s, those programs. He thought back just another cycle ago. Everyone was laughing and happy with each other, the next vision was the ISO’s screaming in pain and them turning into voxels. Tron looked back at his hands as he pictured their voxels over them and he stood in them. Tron looked back at Clu who stared back at him, with evil and satisfaction in his eyes.
“What have you done to me!?”He asked in pain and betrayal
“What needed to be done, friend!”Clu said
“No, that's not helping killing those innocent ISO's!! They were just programs the same as us!!”Tron screamed back at Clu
Clu tilted his head trying to decide something, he was taking in Tron's anger.
“How'd it make you feel? Old friend! Did you enjoy it? Watching as those ISO's screamed, how they begged you to stop? The betrayal in their eyes!”asked Clu
Tron looked back at Clu not knowing what to say. Did he enjoy it? Killing them or was it something else! He was made to protect the grid, to shield the programs from danger. Yet now he was the danger, he was everything he wasn't supposed to be. He was disobeying his own directives. Something deep inside him actually enjoyed the killing, the thing inside of him felt at home like it was made to kill everything that stood in his master's way, in Clu’s way of rule.
“Why? Why! Why did you do this! To me! To Flynn!”Tron begged Clu for an answer, he didn't understand
“To create the perfect system is to create chaos so we can guide them to be better. To obey orders. To beg at our feet when they need us.”said Clu
Tron just looked at him in fear as he watched his friend become so cruel that he didn't even know him anymore. This was Flynn's creation so why was he so evil? So wrong that even Flynn wouldn't even recognize him anymore that he, Tron didn't even recognize him. Yet Tron didn't even recognize himself anymore.
“I don't even know you anymore!”said Tron
“The bigger question my friend is, do you even know yourself?”Clu said
“I…I…I don't even know..”Tron felt something dark rise inside him. The creature that Clu made was coming back,”I…am ... .Tr…”
The memory cut out, full static as the others watched curiously but most horrified, no one realized or it just didn't come to them that maybe just maybe Tron did fight his darker new programming. The static did however stop and the memory started to play again this time the memory was most static and glitching. The cooler wasn't full and the voices were cutting out.
Now there were voxels around Rinzler and Clu stood above him with his disc in his hand as he stared menacingly. He turned to the side and in the window reflecting was himself but different. He looked over himself with the new orange color in his suit but the voxelly scar covered his throat. He looked back at Clu who stared watching his every move. Like he just won a prize.
“Rinzler…”Clu basically purred as Rinzler snapped to attention,”Find the resistance, kill everyone in it.”
There was a low growl as Rinzler got up now being fully online. Clu handed him his disc and smiled cruelly. This time with Tron now Rinzler fully under his command he stopped at nothing. Rinzler now fully slaughtered everyone ISO, resistance, or really anyone who didn't follow Clu.
In the cycles of the memory, there in the middle of the chaos of killing an ISO group that Zeus helped, there was a small black hair female program. Rinzler killed her mother as she ran, he noticed and chased after her. She ran into the arms of a cloaked man and he put her behind him as Rinzler tried to kill her. Rinzler glitched when he saw him, he looked exactly like his master but kinder. He glitched again and he was back with Clu.

Chapter Text

No user, no program moved or even breathed for a second or a nano. They stayed frozen in time as Rinzler paused the next bit not wanting anyone to see what happened to him. Quorra paused, realizing something about that child, that tiny ISO was her, that it was Flynn who saved her. Yet it was Rinzler who was trying to kill her. That Alan's creation and Flynn’s gift to the world led to the destruction and purge of her people.
Not only that but Tron tried fighting his coding. Tron, Rinzler never wanted this, that he never wanted to be created to be used as some toy for someone else's gain.
“You fought his programming.”said Tron
“Every cycle!”signed Rinzler
“When you purged the ISO's did you ever glitch?”asked Quorra
Rinzler froze trying to think, he couldn't remember as there were just giant holes in his memories.
“If I did, he wouldn't let me remember,”Rinzler signed,”he said it would inspire me to go against him and harm the grid.”
Alan sighed angrily which caused both Tron and Rinzler to turn their heads to him confused.
“I don’t blame you, with this information we can use it as a way to show every program what Rinzler isn’t evil but a victim to Clu.”said Quorra
“My only issue is that how will they believe this isn’t made up.”said Jethro
“They’ll believe the Renegade and Tron, every program always looked up to them. Now and forever they’ll always follow them.”said Paige
“Well this will be interesting.”sighed Jethro
“It’s always interesting when your in the grid!”smiled Able
“So with our plan how do we know if there's anyone guarding the hub?”asked Beck
“We don’t”said Tron
“Actually when me and Jethro took a little tour we found out every corrupted is guarding the hubs anything they they had is under watch.”said Able
Tron looked at Rinzler who looked back at him
“You think they’ll listen to you? You’re in line for Sysadim.”said Tron
Surprise took over the group
“I’m technically a traitor to Clu’s rule now.”signed Rinzler shaking his head
“But if I’m right wouldn’t you? Either of those two would’ve had you in line since you were right hand.”said Tron
“Not if I became a traitor, if it was still under his rule I would be in line but with Em taking over I wasn’t. If under his rule I wouldn’t even be alive if I betrayed him. I would’ve just been rectified again but I wouldn’t even be around. With Em as ruler I’m just now a traitor, they are authorized to derezz or rectify me.”signed Rinzler
Tron stiffened at that, he could lose his brother either way
“We'll make it work!”said Quorra
“We'll should figure out how to protect ourselves against them.”said Beck
“Oh that will be easy, they have no directives, no instructions. So they'll be uncoordinated.”said Paige
“That doesn't help with the fact they could be more vicious while trying to protect the only thing left.”said JethroJethro
“Yeah but the thing is they don’t have a directive. They will be sloppy."said Paige
“Since both you and Rinzler are still connected to the corrupted.”said Quorra
“Techincally that could work.”said Paige looking at Rinzler
Rinzler shrugged not knowing, maybe he could try but then would they actually listen, Klax, Nord and Reeve would listen but the others, now that's a challenge.
“I guess we have some sort of a plan, go back to the grid fight to get in the destroyed hubs to then broadcast over the entire grid Tron and Renegade to come to the game arena to get them united. Seems easy enough."summarized Jethro
“I like the plan.”said Beck
“What do you think, father?”asked Tron looking at Alan who was quiet
“It’s fine.”said Alan
Tron noticed he was upset and didn’t want to anger him so he left him alone, Rinzler noticed too as he looked in between his brother and Alan before looking back at Jethro who just rolled his eyes and looked away.
This plan had to work, for every program in the grid but also for redemption. Not only for Rinzler but for Paige too, they’ve been fighting on the wrong side for so long that they needed a win. Even when they changed sides at different times they wanted to fix everything they’ve done.
“We should have a short sleep cycle.”said Beck to Paige
“Dude count me in!”said Quorra yawning
“Oh yes of course! With the amount of rooms we should have just enough since we have one less room but since Paige and Beck are together we should be okay.”said Alan
“Oh that's perfect!”laughed Able
Tron looked at Rinzler then at Quorra who was already looking at him with wonder before turning away with a hint of red in her cheeks. He looked back at Rinzler who smirked at him, noticing her. Tron hit him in the shoulder as Rinzler started to laugh.
“Not her having a tiny crush on you!”signed Rinzler
“Shut up!”whispered Tron
Rinzler playfully rolled his eyes as Tron glared at him
“At least the boys are getting along.”whispered Able to Alan watching the two
“I wish Jethro would also get along with them.”whispered Alan
“Me too but in our alone time he vents about them, he doesn’t like them. He feels that you are now also having an obsession but to fix what Flynn has started.”said Able
“Of course he does.”said Alan
“Why are you doing this, Alan?”asked Able
“I first did it because of Sam, now I’m doing this for Flynn. He’s dead but has been dead for years to come. I want to feel closer to him.”said Alan
“I believe that now you have to be there for them now. Not only Jethro but the other three.”said Able
“I know, I will be as you are with Paige and Beck.”said Alan
“No, be better than me, be with them, be their father, the person they can count on.”said Able
“I see the way Beck looks at you, you are as much as a father to him that I am to the twins.”laughed Alan
“Oh seriously!”laughed Able
“Yes I am!”laughed Alan
Able sighed, laughing a little before seeing the kids getting along wishing it wouldn’t end before looking at Alan who nodded at him. They got the others to actually take a sleep cycle. Alan made sure that Tron and Rinzler got to their rooms alright and next to each other. He got the room on the end between Rinzler’s room and Jethro’s room. Tron had his room across Quorra’s while Paige, Beck and Able had their rooms on the end across each other. Everyone was happy with their selections. Alan stood in his room thinking about his sons and how this plan would work.
Should he take the kids right after this plan ends? Would that be all right? Or should they stay a bit, help clean up and show that users aren’t bad. Thoughts raced through his mind thinking. Yet it ended up bad as his mind went to what would happen if something goes wrong? What would happen if the programs don’t want to work together? Anything could go wrong. What if they attack Rinzler? Or they demand him off the grid for what Clu made him do? Anything could go wrong.
“Dad?”he heard Tron’s voice
He looked up to see Tron standing at the door with Rinzler behind him.
“Oh boys, everything okay?”he asked
“Rinzler felt something was wrong. I came as back up.”said Tron
“About what?”Alan asked
Tron looked at Rinzler who blinked before Tron turned back,”Something was off with you or with you and Jethro. Rinzler sensed it. I mean we could all sense something was off so Rinzler wanted to make sure you’re okay.”Tron replied
“Well we are okay, thanks for the worry.”said Alan looking between them
“Well is there something going on?”asked Tron
“Yes but it will be handled, it's mostly stress in a new place. It happens a lot, even programs can have it but it's okay.”lied Alan
Rinzler stepped closer, his eyes narrow. He looked Alan up and down. He knew something was wrong, he knew what lying looked like. He knew Alan was lying.
“Rinzler says your lying.”said Tron as he puts himself between Rinzler and Alan
“I am not!”said Alan offended
“He says he knows lying and you are. Even I can tell, your not making eye contact, your hands shake a little and you pick at them.”said Tron
“Okay, so I may be a little bit but seriously I don’t want you to worry about it.”said Alan
“I feel that we should, you are our creator.”said Tron
“Our?”signed Rinzler
“Yes our!”said Tron, really offended,”Father if something is happening we should know about it!”
“Tron it’s not that big of a deal. Families fight all the time!”said Alan
“But still! Shouldn’t we all be happy?”asked Tron
“Yes but sometimes we fight and that's fine.”said Alan
“But families, like Flynn said before, are like packs that stick together through everything!”said Tron confused
“Well Flynn just had Sam at that time. He didn’t have to raise a teenager! Or in your case a 3 year old, well Sam at that time was what ten,”Alan chuckled at the memories,” Still a lot of families are different Tron.”
“What does he mean three year olds?”signed Rinzler
“Age?”questioned Tron
“Age? Oh…Well age doesn’t exactly exist in the grid. Well you also age differently. Anyways, it's basically that it's you become older!”said Alan
Tron looked confused and Rinzler stood there unemotional, Alan couldn’t tell what he was thinking. If he was thinking or had a thought.
“Is that how users die? From old age?”signed Rinzler
“Yes at some point that can be why users die but that isn’t how I’m going.”smiled Alan
“Then how are you gonna die?”signed Rinzler
Tron looked at Rinzler surprised
“Why do you ask?”questioned Alan
“He said that users die from old age or that they shall expire when you try hard enough.”signed Rinzler
“Well sometimes it happens but not always. Users live long but not as long as programs but its fine.”said Alan
“What do you mean? Programs live longer than Users?”surprised Tron
“Son, programs don’t age as fast like Users!”said Alan
“That’s a thing?”signed Rinzler
“Hey look at Rinzler he hasn’t aged since being Tron or then in the other grid.”said Alan
Rinzler gulped at the thought
“But both of you shouldn’t think about it, now as a user I need rest so do the both of you.”said Alan
Rinzler nodded but Tron just sighed annoyed
“Tron…don’t think about it much. Relax and just help us get this done. You have a huge role in our plan.”said Alan
Tron nodded frustrated but listened to his father, he left with Rinzler
“Enjoy your sleep cycle.”said Tron
Rinzler nodded, he knew he wasn’t gonna take one
As he entered his room, he let out a heavy breath. He felt heavy weight on his shoulders. He watched Quorra’s face when he showed them the memories, his earliest memories. He figured out that he was the one who nearly killed her, then he just glitched when he saw Flynn. He knew what punishment he had when he glitched and didn’t fulfill his orders.

“How could you just let an ISO go!”Clu yelled at him causing him to flinch
Rinzler didn’t meet his eyes
“Look at me!”Clu yelled again
Rinzler hesitated before Clu grabbed his chin making Rinzler look at him, how icy cold his eyes were.
“I made you perfect, I fixed everything wrong with you just to have you FAIL with one simple mission. Your FIRST mission and you FAIL ME!”he yelled again his hand getting tighter around my chin
Rinzler wanted to respond to defend himself but he couldn't, all he could do was clench his fists. Clu just stared at him with anger mixed with some emotion he couldn’t tell what it was. Rinzler was forced to his knees in the next moment, Clu let go of his face as he opened Rinzler's codes. With Clus back turned to him he didn’t get to see what he did but the next moment he felt himself being cut off from the grid. Then his body went stiff and he heard Clu say something but he couldn’t even hear him as he felt himself starting to panic. In the silence of nothingness he knew anyone could have the pleasure of taking him out. They could do anything to him and he wouldn’t even know.
Making him kneel before him was his favorite punishment after that, having him just sit there as he did anything. Having his right hand, his assassin, his literal pet. He had him just sitting there behind his desk and watch everyone. Clu usually had his discs on his desk, just sitting there as he toyed with his codes. Yet most of the time he wasn’t even online when he came back online he’d have to deal with more pain than normal. He’d have to figure out what Clu even did to him when he was offline.

Rinzler felt some disturbance come to his room
“Rinz! Are you awake?”asked Tron
Rinzler awoke from the nightmare and looked at his brother who was standing above him. He proceeded to kick his brother's leg out from under him. Tron fell to his knees as Rinzler stood.
“Okay…good morning to you too!”sighed Tron
He realized as Rinzler stared at him how horrified he was, the way that Rinzler’s body was. Tron chuckled and sat back on his knees, putting his hands up to surrender.
“Damn, brother, if I don’t say it myself it seems that you were having a nightmare.”laughed Tron,”I know I shouldn’t have scared you.”
“Never.”signed Rinzler
“Well sorry that I woke you up but we need to get this plan in action. Dad says we should go early just incase we need to battle any corrupted.”said Tron
Rinzler nodded
“You wanna tell me…?”Tron started to ask but Rinzler walked past him to the hallway,”nevermind.”
Tron got up and followed his brother to the hallway, he saw Quorra walk out of her room. They locked eyes then Tron looked back at his brother who stared at him then at Quorra who looked up at Rinzler who walked away, leaving them alone.
“So what are you thinking about this plan of yours?”asked Quorra
“Not anything big.”shrugged Tron
“Do you want me to help?”asked Quorra
“I’m sure me, Rinz and Beck can handle them!”laughed Tron
“What are you calling me weak?”asked Quorra
“OH NEVER!! I’d never say that. I’m just saying we have enough hands to handle the corrupted.”said Tron
“I bet you do, I mean with you being THE Tron, then Beck being your apprentice, not to mention Rinzler being Clu’s enforcer. I guess that would make sense.”said Quorra
Tron stopped in his tracks suddenly and turned to Quorra who looked back at him confused.
“Rinzler is not Clu’s, he's ME!”said Tron
“Yeah I know that, I’m just saying.”said Quorra
She stared at him, her eyes telling Tron that he messed up but he was just so tired of everyone saying that Rinzler was Clu’s or that he is a bad program. He knew everything that his brother did but still he’s changed. He looked Quorra in the face, her icy eyes showing much more emotion than normal, they told him that she’s sorry, that she knew how much the comments affected him. Her face held so much story many didn’t know. Some part of him wanted to know that story.
“I’m sorry, I miss spoken, yes I understand what you're saying. I may be a little upset when it comes to those comments.”apologized Tron
“It’s okay, I realize that your bond is very strong and important to both of you.”said Quorra
“I do hope our relationship is important to you!”smiled Tron and then left her to the kitchen
Quorra stood there shocked at what he said, she saw Paige and ran up to her.
“Paige, Paige guess what!!”she said excitedly
“What!? What are you so excited about?”Paige asked surprised
“Guess what Tron said!”she said blushing
“OH MY GOD!!”gasped Paige
“He said,’I hope our relationship is important to you!’”squealed Quorra
“No freaking way!”gasped Paige again in such shock
“I know right!!”smiled Quorra
“Maybe he does like you!”smiled Paige
“I don’t know! But I think there's something there.”said Quorra
Quorra turned the corner when gossiping to Paige and she looked to see Tron staring at her as he was conversing with Rinzler, Alan and Beck. His eyes looked over her before turning back to the conversation. Quorra blushed before turning to Paige who gasped at the exchange between them.
“Girl! He does like you!”said Paige
Quorra just smiled
“There you two are!”announced Beck,”We need to go over the plan one more time before leaving!”
“Calm down, baby! We just got up! It’s not our fault we are up late!”said Paige,”No offense Alan!”
Alan put his hands up in defense before Able and Jethro walked in from the garage
“Grab some energy before we leave.”said Tron
“The lightcycles are up and running and everything is set.”said Jethro
“Thanks to Beck we are all good to go!”said Able
“The girls are grabbing energy and then we’ll be good to go.”said Alan
“So who’s taking what?”asked Jethro
“Me, my brother and Beck will be on the lightcycles ahead while you, dad, and Able will be in the light-runner. The girls will take light-cycles.”said Tron
“We will be behind the three since it may be easier so we aren’t in the way.”said Alan
Tron shrugged at the comment
“I think it's a fine plan.”said Beck
“My only issue is that we need to get everything working or this was all for nothing.”said Jethro
“That would be my thought too but knowing Clu he’d have a back up for his back ups.”said Paige
“That is definitely true.”laughed Beck
“You girls filled up?”asked Tron
Quorra nodded
“Let’s go.”said Beck
“Rinz?”questioned Tron
He nodded
Then they were off, the three in front of the others. Rinzler, Tron and Beck sped through the rough terrain as Rinzler took in the outside of the grid. He’s barely seen anything like it. The only other time was hunting Flynn but that was it. Seeing it like this was something different.
“Never seen the outside of the grid?”laughed Beck
Rinzler shook his head
“Yeah…there's barely anything out here. Fun fact when you were Tron you hid out here too. You even trained me on this terrain. Made me a better fighter.”said Beck
Rinzler got even more silent as his grinding got louder at the discomfort knowing that
“Seems something I’d do!”laughed Tron
“Well yeah you did!”laughed Beck
“Makes sense with no patrol, nothing out here for miles. It makes sense to stay out here. Seems Flynn had the same idea before what happened. He must’ve taken it from me.”said Tron
“I bet he did!”said Beck
They talked and talked as Rinzler reminisced at the comment from Beck or how they talked like it was just a happy memory for them. Yet it was, Tron never went through what he did and Beck? He was just friends with Tron, he was his mentor. Yeah he suffered but he kept his head straight fighting for everything he believed in. He was strong but those memories were just happy memories for him.
He came out of thought when he saw the city lights illuminating the streets in front of them. Their blue lights reflect on the black structures of the buildings around them. His orange light-cycle stood out from all of the blue lights. Rinzler then took the lead to the sentries that guarded the fallen hub. He looked out at all the programs around, staring at them. Some had disapproving looks, others in shock, very few cheered at them. Rinzler never understood it but appreciated it. Rinzler saw the huge tower that used to be the end of the line club. Its top building was still blown up from Clu, he never figured out if Zeus or Gem were still alive.
Rinzler then felt the codes pick up the hub, he knew it. He was back somewhere he never wanted to be. The three pulled up to the crash sight, the sentries picked up their weapons at them. Rinzler, being on step ahead, already flipped off his light-cycle, collapsing it as he threw his disc at a sentry. Tron threw his disc derezzing a sentry as he got off his light-cycle. Both brothers attacked the sentries as Beck admired his mentor and past mentor were being so cool.
“BECK I SWEAR COME HELP US!!”yelled Tron
“Oh yeah!”said Beck throwing a disc at a sentry
Rinzler quickly signed,”He seriously, your apprentice?”
Tron shrugged then dodged a sentry as Rinzler flung his disc at it, Tron then grabbed it and flung it back
Beck quickly got surrounded by the sentries as he tried fighting them off, one grabbed him from behind and another took his disc. He kicked another trying to use his weight against them like Tron taught him but there were too many. Another almost derezzed his arm but he was able to push him away.
“BECK!”yelled Tron,”Duck!”
He did as told as someone's disc came flying from above and decapitated the sentry holding him back. He picked it up noticing the orange color, Beck looked back to see Rinzler fighting with one disc. He couldn’t take much time to realize as Beck nearly got attacked again but derezzed the sentry. Beck picked up his own disc and noticed the difference of the two. He stared at them for a second, then saw two more coming to fight him. Beck got into a fighting stance as they attacked him, he blocked their discs, ducking under the first one before blocking both their attacks. Using both the discs and derezzed the first sentry than the second sentry. Then he looked back at the other two to see they were busy.

Rinzler derezzed many sentries taking on seven at once. He flung his disc to save Beck before nearly getting tackled by the group. He derezzed another and used their disc seeing that he didn’t need it anymore. He blocked two attacks then used another sentry to throw them into two more, Rinzler derezzed another and left that disc before using the staff to impale three sentries as the staff stood up in the ground. He used it to jump and throw the sentry into the staff. Landing another sentry tried to attack him when down but he caught the disc and used it to derezz the sentry. He kicked up a corrupted disc and used it to derezz the sentry in front of him. Rinzler flipped himself to attack the sentries coming at him from behind. He threw his own disc to derezz the programs behind the one he attacks with the corrupted his. Another comes at him and he kicks that one before grabbing their arm and pushes them into the staff. Rinzler’s own disc comes back and with the two he stands in his fighting position as more come. Rinzler upper blocks the sentry and derezzes them then twists blocking two more behind him. He sees two more coming. He throws the two discs and ducks behind the two while grabbing their arms and pulling them into each other. He grabs the discs and derezzes them.
Rinzler looked back to check on Beck but saw him fight something back in his mind flickered
“FLYNN GO!”
Rinzler shook his head forgetting it

Tron yelled at Beck to duck as Rinzler pinged him to let his know he was throwing his disc. He watched it fly and decapitate a sentry. Tron was impressed at the move. He nearly got tackled by sentries as they suddenly all ambushed the three. Tron made sure to duck their attacks, he grabbed one of the sentries arms and used it to derezz another then the one he was holding got derezzed when using him as a shield. He kicked another, making them derezz as they fell on their disc. A sentry came at him as Tron grabbed their arm, derezzing the one behind him as he derezzed the one he was holding. Tron flipped his disc before slicing the two programs attacking from his left and then he saw sentries coming at him from his blind spot. He flipped himself as he threw his disc, derezz the second sentry and the sentry behind them. He ducked from the sentry in front of him and blocked the second blow, his disc bounced back and Tron caught it before derezzing him.

The fight inevitably finishes with the three being the victors. Tron notices Rinzler staring at Beck who was holding one of his discs. Beck was staring at them noticing the difference in them. As Rinzler got up, Tron ran to them and held Rinzler back. Beck gasps as he looks up, he picks up on something.
“Rinz, calm down!”said Tron
“Wait what's happening!”asked Beck
“I have no idea but I picked up on something.”said Tron
Beck holds Rinzler’s disc out to him and Rinzler snatches it out of Beck’s hand. Tron and Beck watch as he collapses the two together making them one again.
“I do have to ask!”said Beck
Rinzler snaps back at him
“Why’s yours heavier than most?”Beck asked
Rinzler walked away as the others pulled up and got out
Quorra and Paige ran to their respected man as Alan, Able and Jethro walked over
“Wow you guys did a number!”impressed Able and looked to see Rinzler collapsing a staff
“Yeah it was difficult. Well for me anyway!”laughed Beck
“Really!?”surprised Tron
“Yeah you both had to help me! Kind of embarrassing when you need your mentors help.”said Beck
“I don’t think that's embarrassing in any way.”said Tron
“Enough chit chat we should get the move on.”said Jethro
“Let’s get this finished.”said Alan
They walked over as Rinzler stood at the doorway, it was locked with a broken pin pad. Alan and Beck tried to hack it as Rinzler walked over and sliced it with his disc. The door magically opened.
“Uh huh!”surprised Alan
Through the hallway was a mess with everything crumbled down and the lights all flickered. The orange glow was faint with an eerie feeling to it. The group made their way through to the main room. Alan and Jethro walked to the giant table in the room. They hacked through finding what they needed. A bright orange light appeared then a tiny ball popped out of the table. It glowed and a light flashed on the group.
“I think we got it, get ready and then we’ll broadcast.”said Alan
Tron and Beck got in the middle of the light
“Ready!?”asked Jethro, both nodded,”Begin!”

“Hello programs this is the Renegade!”began Beck
“And Tron, the protector of the grid!”added Tron
“After an intense battle we, the resistance and two users took down Clu and Emma and her forces. With great strength we are getting rid of the corruption!”said Beck
“With your help we can fully start a new grid, we can rebuild together!”Tron said
“Those who feel it in their codes to do something, to help us rebuild the destruction that has come to our home! Our grid!”said Beck
“We want to gather you all in the game arena!”said Tron
“In this grid we shall be hosting the grid, so YOU can voice your opinions.”said Beck
“With your opinions we can make the grid better! Something that it was never before!”said Tron
“Come out in one millicycle now we shall be hosting this in the arena so we can hear everyone out, make sure we can know what you, the citizens of the grid, want.”said Beck
“We hope that you, the citizens, will voice your opinions. Now we will be signing off.”announced Tron
“Join us in the arena in one Millicycle at this time.”said Beck,”Have a nice microcycle."
Alan then ended the broadcast.
“You think they’ll listen?”asked Beck
“I hope they will!”said Able
“I’m sure they will, they trust and basically worship you both. AND Tron has a whole city named after him!”said Paige
“Yeah it was supposed to be a joke then it became a thing.”laughed Tron
“I can’t believe this!”said Jethro,”The whole grid got that and its getting all positive reviews! It’s amazing every program is getting excited. We might be flooded tomorrow.”
“Thats amazing!”said Alan
“You excited!”asked Beck looking at Rinzler who was standing in the back who just nodded
“That's great!”laughed Tron,”We’re changing the grid!”he put his arm around his brother
“For the better.”signed Rinzler
“Are you ever gonna actually speak?”asked Jethro
Everyone looked back at him
“You know Alan gave you that back, right?”Jethro said
All eyes were on Alan
“I was hoping you’d find that out accidentally.”smiled Alan