Title: Rinzler's Birth
Author: Zipper Nova
Rating: K
Pairing: Slight Rinzler/Clu, Slight Tron/Clu, Itty bitty Tron/Abraxas if you squint and turn your head sideways.
Summary: Tron told Flynn to run. Then Rinzler was born. But there's more behind it than just that.
Disclaimer: I own nothing! It'd be tight if I owned Tron, Clu and Rinzler though. But if I did… It wouldn't be Disney safe… /
"Go," Tron said. He knew he had to get the user off the Grid and back into the real world. Whatever Clu was up to wasn't good.
The virus had been spreading rapidly, infecting every program that came in touch with it. They'd already lost hundreds of programs and now Clu was attacking Flynn and Tron.
Tron derezzed another guard as Clu stood by, watching. Tron didn't know where Flynn had gone but he hoped he had gotten away from this mess. He looked down, noticing that the guard's identity disc hadn't derezzed along with him. He took his stance and held one disc behind him and his own in front of him. Two new guards were standing, waiting to finish off the program.
Clu had noticed Flynn trying to flee from the scene. He wanted the user to see. To see that the ISO's were mistakes, imperfections. He wanted him to see that he could create the perfect system. But to be perfect, things must be lost. Whether that include the user himself, or all programs.
"You've been corrupted." Clu said simply, grabbing Flynn by his neck and tossing him on the ground. Flynn backed up, sitting on the smooth surface of the grid as Clu closed the distance between them.
Flynn couldn't believe it. His own creation turning against him. Why didn't he see it coming? Why was it happening?
"W-Why-what?" Was all he could manage out.
Tron had just derezzed the last guard when he noticed Clu encroaching on Flynn. He ran at him, tackling the bigger program to the floor, right next to Flynn.
Clu felt the sudden force of another program knock him to the floor, he looked up to see Tron's fist coming at him. He raised his arm and pushed against the other program's shoulder to try and get him off. Tron had Clu's other arm pinned against the floor so he couldn't use it. He brought his hand up to try and pull away Clu's shoving one off his shoulder.
"Flynn, go!" He shouted as he continued to fight the struggling program. Flynn got up and ran off to a building leaving himself nothing to do but watch as the battle progressed. He believed in Tron. Tron could defeat his program, he had to. But then again, Clu was programmed with much more intelligence than Tron ever was.
Clu flipped the smaller program off of himself and stood looking at him as he got back up. Tron tried to derezz him with the two discs he had but failed. He had managed to get behind Clu but the other simply flipped him over his arm. Tron rolled to his stomach and looked up from the corner of his eye where he saw Clu's raised identity disc being held high in the air above him. He started screaming before the disc even came close to him. He held his backside in the air, frozen. He couldn't move. Sure, Flynn had told him once that he wasn't programmed with emotions like humans were but, maybe emotions were a natural thing. Maybe they just happened, like the ISO's.
The last thing Flynn heard was Tron's scream being cut off. He knew he couldn't stay where he was. He ran. Ran as far as he could, as fast as he could.
Tron remembered closing his eyes tightly, screaming, then nothing. Everything had gone black after that. His system rebooted after who knows how long. He opened his eyes to find Clu staring down at him. He groaned and heard broken pixels fall. He looked at the floor beneath him and saw blue pieces from his face laying there. He looked up at Clu.
"What have you done?" He stopped, shocked by his own voice. It came out sounding as if he was in the middle of being derezzed.
"Oh now Tron, don't worry. I've got plans for you." Clu smiled down at him. He squatted in front of him and patted the side of his face while holding up the other's blue identity disc. Tron tried to smack his hand away but found that he couldn't. He couldn't move again. He struggled and writhed on the floor.
"Now, as much as I like to see you squirm you should probably stop. There's no way you're getting out of that. I've had you bound so you can't try and derezz me again."
"Where's Flynn!?" Tron asked angrily, ignoring the fact that the other had his disc.
"Flynn, Flynn?" Clu said in mock thought. "Now, what happened to Flynn? Oh that's right! I killed him."
"Impossible!"
"Oh it's not really! He's like a program, Tron. You simply cut them in the right place, and they go away." He placed a hand on the broken gash along Tron's face. The gash he had given him in their battle. Tron shook his head to be rid of the other's hand. Clu frowned and grabbed hold of Tron's face, stilling the shaking head.
"I don't believe you!" Tron yelled.
"Of course you wouldn't, after all you think the users are invincible right? It only makes sense that you'd think I was lying."
Tron held still, looking Clu in his brown eyes. Hatred and anger filled him. Clu could see his rage reaching its boiling point. He smiled, releasing the other's face.
"Like I said, there's no reason to worry, Tron. I've got plans for you."
It was then that Tron realized they were on an Identifier. Tron watched the passing ground below. Watched as programs ran through the streets as the infected programs chased them.
"The virus." Tron stated simply. "What about the virus!?"
"Oh don't worry, I've got it all under control."
It wasn't much later when they came to a building Tron hadn't been to before. Clu dragged him up by his arm and released his ankle binds so the other could walk. He led him to a room that seemed to be crawling with the new virus.
"What is this?" Tron asked angrily.
"Abraxas," Clu started. "I've brought him."
The hooded man that had been standing in the middle of the room turned and looked at Tron.
"Good," He said in his raspy voice.
"What's going on!?" Tron yelled.
"His voice has been damaged in the process." Clu informed the other.
"I won't be able to fix it." Abraxas said as he approached Tron and Clu. Tron started to wriggle in Clu's grip.
"What's going on Clu? What're you doing?" Tron asked as he tried to back away from the intruding program.
"Don't worry Tron. I'll take good care of you." Clu said. Tron could hear the smile in his voice. He backed up against Clu's body and tilted his head back over the other's shoulder in an attempt to get away from the infected program's hand that was now reaching towards Tron's damaged face.
"Stop!" He exclaimed, pushing back on Clu's body.
"Hold him still." Abraxas said annoyed. Clu grabbed Tron's face and tilted it so his gashed cheek was facing Abraxas. Tron tried to shake his head out of Clu's grip but failed. He could feel Abraxas's hand as it lightly grazed the opening in his face. He let out a wretched scream and flexed his body outward as his code was being rewritten, eaten away.
Abraxas pulled his hand away from the other's face and held it out for his corresponding identity disc. Clu let go of Tron's face and handed the disc over. Abraxas activated the coding and watched as some of it turned yellow with the newly implanted virus. Tron's body started to go limp in Clu's arms. The larger of the two held the other up and supported him against his own body. Tron's voice came out more broken than before as he groaned and turned to look at the side of Clu's neck. He tried to say something but it came out as a gurgled mess.
Clu watched as Tron's circuits pulsed a light blue and slowly changed to a yellow.
"He won't be completely overrun by the virus." Clu somewhat asked.
"Once you arrange his coding the way you'd like the virus will all but be gone." Abraxas informed, eyeing the disc still. "Here," He said handing it back to Clu. "Do what you want."
Clu took the disc and sat Tron on the floor. He ended up leaning back against Clu's legs from the inability to hold himself up due to the virus now inside him. Clu activated the disc and looked at the coding just as Abraxas had done. He pulled out certain bits and pieces and replaced them with his own invented coding. Tron made a few different noises of pain and moved from time to time. Abraxas watched as Clu worked. Watched as Tron, the great Tron, slowly turned into a puddle of useless pixels.
"He'll obey my every command." Clu stated as he replaced another one of Tron's codes.
"S-stop." Tron gurgled out. His head was tilted down towards the floor. Clu looked down at him and pulled his head up by his hair. He looked at the half lidded, once blue eyes that were now a yellow.
"Still enough fight to protest?" Clu asked quietly. "Not after this code." He replaced one last code and watched as most of the coding spread over the blue and converted it to red. He let the disc turn to its new red color and stuck the it onto Tron's back. He let out another gurgled, broken scream as his circuits flashed between yellow and red. The code took over and Tron's screams subsided as his system shut down. His circuits flashed a bright red before completely going dark.
"You didn't kill him did you?" Abraxas asked almost sarcastically.
"I wouldn't dream of it." Clu responded.
A long time later Tron's circuits lit back up with their new red color. He found himself laying flat on his back in a clean black room. He sat up and looked around the room. He scanned his objectives, his system. Everything was blank. He had no idea how long it had been since he had been shut down. Had no idea if he had existed before this. It was like waiting to be told what existing was. He turned and looked at the object the was sitting on. It looked like an all black couch. He heard the sound of a nearby door sliding open. He looked over to where he heard it and saw Clu. Clu, he remembered him at least. But there was something else about him. He looked familiar.
"You are Rinzler." Clu said to him. Tron sat silently and scanned him system again. He searched for his directive. His name. He came up with nothing. He let out a low purr from his throat. That must be how he talked. After all he couldn't remember anything.
"Rinzler." Clu called. Rinzler stared at him. Clu gave a hand gesture telling him to come over. Rinzler got up from the couch and walked over to Clu.
"You fight for me. Clu." Clu said, eyeing Rinzler. Rinzler purred again and nodded. "You will follow every command I give you." Rinzler nodded again, his purr had become constant now.
"Good." Clu smiled. He placed his hand on the side of Rinzler's face. The side he had damaged in the fight long ago. He was quiet as he looked at the now red, pixilated gash. The pixels had changed to red just as Rinzler's circuits had that cycle ago.
"Rinzler," Clu said as he pulled his hand away. "They can't know who you are. They think you've been gone for cycles. That you've been derezzed. They need to keep thinking this. I can't have them getting confidence because you're still alive. It was bad enough when you had that side program that kept getting in the way. He's since been derezzed. All the ISO's have been destroyed. You've missed a lot buddy."
Clu placed his hand on Rinzler's back and activated a helmet to come over the others head and hide his face. His glowing red eyes were the last thing Clu saw. Rinzler would play his game as long as he needed him to. Do as he said, act when he said and keep the other programs in line.
Author's Notes: So, I had to replay that scene in Tron: Legacy where Flynn tells you what happened to Tron like twenty times to get the first part of this fic down xD but I noticed that Tron's butt is in the air when Clu brings his disc down to "kill" him. So I just spazzed out at that and watched that part a good twenty more times. / My body is ready xD
Any who, it's helpful if you watch the cut scenes from Tron: Revolution. That will help explain some of this. But if you don't want to then just pretend the Abraxas and the Anon I mentioned are just two new guys or something.
Hope you enjoyed! Please review or follow or favorite or any of those things!