Rinzler, now Tron once more, felt life flow back into him even as he began to sink to the bottom of the sea. He was rebooting. Rebooting takes time. It means all of your systems have been shut down and forced to restart. Turning everything back on… it takes time. More time than he had. As he lay immobile at the bottom of the sea, he begged his inactive body to reboot faster. Flynn needed his help. And he needed to be there. Not just because Flynn was a User, or a creator… but because Flynn was his friend. In the end, his reboot took a total of five minutes. Five minutes and his body and mind were his own again. Five minutes and he could find a way to come to Flynn's aid, just as he had come to his so many times in the past. Just as he wished to many more times in the future. But five minutes was too long.

Tron swam to the surface, his own man, just in time to see Flynn, the man he had sworn to protect with his life, scatter across the grid. Flynn had died to protect his fellow User, the boy he had harmed when he was under Clu's control. He had died doing what Tron had been programmed to do. What he was supposed to do.

A scream rent its way through his throat and up into the, now empty, night air. What injustice was this? That he should finally be free to protect and live the way he wished, but the man he wished to protect, the man whose side he only wished to stand beside, was no longer alive? For what possible reason was he alive now?

Rebuild the Grid, Tron. My friend.

It was Flynn's voice. Warm and gentle. Tron didn't now if he was imagining it, or if a piece of data from the Flynn he knew had altered his programming. He didn't care.

"How can you call me your friend, Flynn? I betrayed you. I betrayed my purpose."

Not by choice. I never once thought you betrayed me, Tron. I thought you were dead for a long time, but never a traitor.

"I would rather Clu had killed me on that day. Rather that, than force me to turn against you."

Now, don't say that. Death comes to everyone in time, but it is not yet your time. You will not die in this place. Not here. Not now. And not for me. Not again.. There are many programs in the Grid who were freed from Clu's control. Many programs who have awoken to find they have de-rezzed those close to them. You know the grief they feel. You can help them. Please, Tron. Everyone in the Grid has suffered enough fear. Enough sorrow. It's time for them to know hope again. You brought me hope, Tron. You helped me save my son. Bring some of that hope to the rest of the Grid. They need you, and you need them.

Towards the end, Flynn's voice began to fade. Tron struggled fruitlessly against fatigue and the chill of the sea to concentrate on bringing it back.

"Don't you leave me Flynn! Don't you dare! YOU died on ME! You left me behind! And now you want me to rebuild the Grid, alone?" It wasn't like him to complain or talk back to Flynn, and part of him regretted it almost immediately. He had never refused a mission before. He had never felt this lost before. Maybe it was merely the sound of the waves, but Tron could have sworn he heard a low chuckle. The anger swelled up in him again, only to be banished by these next few words.

No, old friend. I'll be with you. I will always be with you, for as long as you need me. You are not, and never will be, alone.

A few tears escaped. They slid down his cheeks even as he felt himself smile the first smile he'd made in twenty years. He was already swimming back towards the shore, when he thought, "Well, then, it seems you're going to be with me for a very long time. After all, we have a lot of work to do."