Summary:
The Grid, the legendary Tron System, has always intrigued Duo Maxwell. After years of dreaming and months of tireless work, he finally receives the final part he needs to unlock the door to the digital frontier. A blast of a digitizing laser later he finds himself in the world of his dreams. However, soon that dream becomes a nightmare as he comes to realize that his existence in this new world is both a danger to him and to the programs who reside there. With the help of Security Program Trowa and a mysteriously damaged and glitchy program named Heero, he embarks on a journey through The Grid to seek help from a mysterious entity known as the Gatekeeper. Will he be able to get out of the Tron System, or will the organizations who are hunting him manage to derez him first?
Author Notes:
This is a Gundam Wing/Tron Legacy crossover written by Black-Haired Girl and myself, originally posted over on AO3. Main pairing is 1x3 with a bit of 3x4.
For progress updates, reference material and related artwork please find us on tumblr at gw-endofline
Hope you enjoy!
"Aegis?!"
He could hear the desperation and panic in his companion's voice. It wasn't often that his normally stoic lover showed anything but focus and determination in the face of adversity. Aegis could tell he was scared. He could feel his fear manifest within his own chest.
"Ancile," he croaked hoarsely. "I'm here..." He tried to force more power into his voice but despite his best efforts his words seemed to vanish as soon as they were released.
He peered up through the darkness at the white light-lined edge of the obsidian cliff twenty-five stories above. He could barely make out the faintly glowing outline of his partner as he stood on the edge, looking down into the gloom in search of him.
He had fallen into a pitch black chasm, and while the fall itself hadn't derezzed him his legs had been rendered useless and a deep, pixelated gash on his left shoulder made the use of his left arm impossible. He groaned in pain, pushed himself up to a half-sit with his right arm and groped around in the darkness for his baton, which had fallen out of his hand when he fell.
The low, resounding hum of incoming recognizers filled the air as the massive vehicles came to supply the enemy purgers with more troops. He knew that if Ancile didn't get out of there he was going to be captured, or worse derezzed. Ancile had to protect Elios and he had to guard the Gate.
"Aegis?! Can you hear me?!" The sound of his name being called out so despairingly caused Aegis's eyes to involuntarily fill with radiant, cyan tears. The terror in the other program's voice was foreign. He had never heard him sound so fearful before. He wanted to reassure him that he was there and that he still existed, but the now deafening roar of the incoming enemy became too great for him to yell over. The ground beneath him began to vibrate as the enormous recognizers grew closer.
"Come on, we've got to go! NOW! Ancile, he's gone! We must go!" Asher's voice bellowed through the din of the battle raging on the cliff above him.
"He's there! I'm not leaving him behind!"
"Think of your function! Do you deny your directive? Go! We must get to the Gate!" Their fellow Aether guard commanded. Aegis frowned. He knew that Asher was right and he could feel the tension of Ancile's struggle at their fellow guard's words. Through their shared connection Aegis felt his lover's frustration. However, the sensation quickly transformed. He felt his reluctance, and then finally steeled resolve.
The thin, invisible thread that bound them together became taut as his other half retreated. Aegis felt his entire body tense as their connection pulled tighter and strained as the distance grew between them. Finally it snapped with a painful, violent jolt. The anxiety and fear that his lover had once projected to him began to fade away as their physical beings were forced further apart.
Soon he felt nothing of his second half and for the first time since they were both compiled he was completely alone.
"I'm sorry," he murmured into the darkness. He looked up at the empty, black cliff and watched as its edge filled with the bright red, glowing shapes of Clu's Black Guard. I've failed.
Churning, cool aquamarine waters roiled overhead, glistening with mid-afternoon sunbeams as the sharp undertow of the retreating wave tugged at Duo's legs as it attempted to suck him away from the shoreline. He kicked hard against its pull and swam as hard as he could up, in the direction of the oblong, black silhouette that was his wayward surfboard. He broke the water's surface with a loud gasp followed by an unrestrained, excited laugh.
"Woo! Now THAT was a phat wave!" he yelled to nobody in particular as he groped the water near his ankles for the tether that connected him to his white and neon green shortboard, which was attempting to ride the next incoming curl on its own. He reeled it in by its tether and flopped his wetsuit-clad torso across its waxy deck as he tried to catch his breath.
"DUO! HEY, DUO!" A familiar voice broke through the crashing roar of the high surf from the direction of the beach. Duo heaved himself up to a sit on his bobbing board and shaded his eyes as he peered back at the sand. He spotted Howard on the shore standing ankle-deep in the water with an unlit cigar hanging from the corner of his mouth holding something clutched in an upraised fist.
"Oi! Howie, what's up?!" he yelled at his old friend. He flopped down onto his belly and began to paddle the board to the shore.
"I've got the thing!" Howard yelled, his voice accented with excitement.
"The thing?" Duo muttered to himself as he casually rode in on the waves. "What thing… oh shit, what? The thing!" He exclaimed excitedly as he realized just what the 'thing' was. He paddles his arms frantically through the water as he rode the board in. When he neared the water's foamy edge he stood up and jumped hurriedly off of the board as it skid to a stop. A few paces later he was lying face-first with a mouth full of sand. He had completely forgotten about the ankle tether.
Howard's belly laugh accompanied Duo's gagging and dry coughing as he dragged himself up from the sand, yanked the tether angrily from his ankle and stumbled over to him.
"Oh shit, man, I can't believe it!" Duo panted as he attempted to dust off the thin crust of white sand that coated the entire front side of his body. "Where did you find it?"
Howard held up a polished lens the size of a clementine for Duo's inspection. "Found it after our last dredge," the older man replied with a satisfied smile. "Some guy who worked out in California had it, said he scrapped this from some old arcade. Wanted a pretty penny for it, too."
Duo frowned. "Arcade? Like… the arcade? " He grasped his braid with both hands and began to wring the saltwater from of it, his expression stunned. "3882 Watseka Ave, Culver City, California?" He recited the legendary address from memory the way a priest could cite scripture from the Holy Book.
"Well, he didn't say all that," Howard admitted as he rolled the lens between his forefinger and thumb and admired how it caught and concentrated the bright afternoon light.
"How much did he charge you for it?' Duo asked as he peeled off the arms and upper torso of his black wetsuit. "How much do I owe ya?"
Howard chuckled. "He wanted fifty-thousand for it," he began. Duo scoffed loudly in response. "But I ended up winning it in a game of darts, so this one's for free."
Duo's grin stretched from ear to ear. He hurriedly peeled the remainder of his wetsuit from his body, grabbed his board from the sand and hauled it all in the direction of his seaside bungalow which stood nestled beneath a cluster of lush, windswept palms. He leaned his board up against the peeling red, orange and yellow painted slats and quickly draped his wetsuit across a nearby weatherbeaten beach chair. He wiped off the remainder of the sand from his hands against his damp purple and swim trunks before he made a toddler-style grabbing gesture with both hands at Howard, who handed his prize over with a satisfied smile.
"This is custom. This is definitely custom made, I mean… look at this. The optical axis looks like it has that thick, specialized AR coating like the kind Flynn said he made, so…" Duo was mumbling to himself as he carefully handled the lens while he inspected it. Howard propped his hands up on his hips and chewed the end of his cigar as he watched Duo study his new part.
"So what are you using all of this stuff for anyway? It's like you've been collecting things for months," Howard asked curiously. He peered over his dark, tinted sunglasses and quirked an eyebrow at him.
"Seven months, twenty-two days, thirteen hours…" Duo reported with a smirk.
"You're counting the hours?!" Howard asked incredulously.
"Nah, I'm just kiddin'..." Duo replied before he trudged across the sand in the direction of the front door of the bungalow. "It's been only nine hours, thirty-one minutes and sixteen seconds, seventeen seconds, eighteen seconds…" he chanted as skipped up the steps to the door.
Howard chuckled. "So you're not gonna let me in? Not even after that amazing find?"
Duo paused with his hand on the doorknob. He smiled and eyed the older man over his shoulder. "Maybe. One day. I promise, if I ever get the damn thing to work you'll be the first person I show it to."
Howard tossed his hands in the air in a gesture of defeat. "Well then, see ya later kid," he grumbled around his cigar before he turned on his heels and hobbled away down the beach.
Duo watched him go until he was nothing more than a shrinking dot on the shore before he dug his key from the small, hidden pocket in the waistband of his swim trunks and unlocked the door. As he slipped inside he flicked the light switch to illuminate the hidden, packed hoard of computers, wires, server racks and white, cardboard comic book storage boxes within. Rainbow cascades of wires and cords spilled across the floor and poured forth from the blinking, humming server racks. Despite the two air conditioning units roaring at full blast on either side of the crammed room it was still uncomfortably warm and stuffy from the excessive amount of electronics whirring and buzzing from every corner of the single-room bungalow.
He hopped over a zip tied cluster of power cords and padded up to a large video game arcade cabinet tucked away in the far right corner of the room. The cabinet itself had seen better days. Its sides were slightly warped. The right side had a large, vertical crack in the wood that was held together with neon blue duct tape. Its black varnish had faded off in spots and the decals had long since peeled off, leaving only the remnants of dry, adhesive behind.
Duo approached the cabinet reverently with the lens clutched tightly in hand.
"This is it! I've got your last piece, baby!" He exclaimed. He dug around in a nearby milk crate and fished out a small polishing cloth and began furiously wiping down the lens.
He was beyond excited, he was ecstatic. After months of searching, tinkering, building and creative jury rigging his plans were finally coming to fruition. He had the last piece of the puzzle. It had taken months to acquire what he needed to complete the digitizing laser, and the lens was the final piece what would, hopefully, gain him access to the Tron System, a legendary digital world.
Duo had first heard of Tron and the works of Kevin Flynn at a very young age. He had overheard a few of Howard's Sweeper pals joking around and telling stories about the digital frontier as if it were merely an urban legend. Maybe he was merely acting on the obsessions of a fantastical childish mind, but he had always felt that it was real and that it was still there, ubiquitous and just beneath the surface of every piece of technology that he encountered.
Finding a way in became a passion that gradually evolved into a moderate obsession. He began studying computer science and engineering in college simply to facilitate his search for the gateway into a world he knew just had to exist.
Real life soon fell by the wayside as he began to commit every ounce of energy and free time to his personal quest. He failed out of school and ended up drifting for nearly a year with Howard and the Sweeper Group until he could get his feet back on the ground. To get by he scrapped and started to do odd hacking jobs, contracted programming and bug bounties under an alias for extra cash to put into his pet project.
Soon his hacker moniker "BL^CKWYND_SHINIG∀M1" became well-known in the Darknet. Eventually he had to start turning down jobs and contracts to make time for his personal project. He had amassed enough income to go into what he liked to call " temporary retirement", purchased the bungalow on a secluded beach on Oahu in cash and for the past six months had dedicated the majority of his time to finding a way into his personal mythical Land of Oz, the Tron System.
He had studied all of Kevin Flynn's old publications and books. The texts were nothing but classic science fiction by the general population but Duo considered the contents of those books a literal map that could direct him into the digitized world.
He carefully set the lens aside and grabbed a black rectangular box from the top of the antique arcade cabinet that housed the laser head and diode. He gathered it up with the new lens, set it on a nearby workbench and began the tedious task of installing the new pump focusing lens Howard had won for him. After nearly an hour of intricate work there was a knock on the door. He scowled down at his nearly completed project. There was no way he was going to tear himself from his task, especially considering how close he was to finally finishing. He dipped his fingers back into the laser housing and flinched as a fist banged the door again, louder this time.
"Nobody's home!"
"Fo'real, haole?! You think we bakatare?!" A familiar child's voice sounded through the door.
"Huh? Nah! Hold up!" Duo yelled back. He set his tools to the side and hopped off of his stool, jumped over the chaotic jumble of wires and surge protectors on the floor and opened the door. Three round, cheerful faces grinned up at him.
"Duo! Why you lyin'?!" six-year-old Makaio asked as his darkly tanned face morphed into a scowl.
"Sorry, sorry guys," he said hurriedly as he forced his body through the door and slammed it closed behind himself. "I was busy, is all."
"You're always busy," the eldest, nine-year-old Kahili, complained. "Can we come in and see now? Or you still keepin' it kapu?"
"Yeah, I heard you got video games in there!" Puanani exclaimed as she rolled and tugged her two long, black braided pigtails eagerly with both hands. For being seven-years-old she was just as tall as her older brother, Kahili.
"Video games?" Duo echoed as his smile turned upside down into a frown. "Who told you that?"
"Dem wave hogs who surf over on the atoll! You know, the big hairy 'n ugly one with the pinapple tattoo! He says you're hidin' your video games in there and that you're lolo," Makaio explained with a sigh as he rubbed the back of his sandy head. It was obvious that the statement had bothered him. The boy had grown rather fond of him since he had moved there, and he had a feeling he was more offended by the comment than he was.
Duo knew that there had been rumors floating around the island about him that he was always holed up in his bungalow doing something secretive. The standing rumor for the past few months had been that he was running a meth lab on the beach. After a few unexpected visits from the island's VICE police division he figured those rumors would eventually be squashed, but he had no idea that the new word on the street was about videogames. He had been especially careful not to mention his work to anyone on the island so he was surprised to hear this news. Word tended to travel fast and he began to wonder just who started this rumor, and how much they actually knew.
"Well, I do have some video games," he confirmed to the kids with a grin as he leaned his back against the closed door. He crossed his arms over his bare chest and eyed them closely. "And I am pretty crazy, so they're not wrong there."
"Why won't you let us see 'em?" Kahili asked, "I thought we're friends?"
Duo sighed. "Well yeah, of course! You guys are the coolest 'lil keikis I know," he attempted to assure them with a smile. They weren't buying it.
"You won't show us your video games, and here we brought you some of that manapua you like!" Puanani pointed at a crumpled white paper bag clutched in the little Makaio's hand. If Duo had dog ears they would have perked at the mention of his favorite Hawaiian snack. He could go the rest of his life eating nothing but those delectable barbeque-pork filled buns.
"Oh? For me, you say?" he said with a predatory grin. Makaio screamed and turned on his heels to run. He darted off in the direction of the water with a series of shrill, excited shrieks.
"Run, Makaio, run! He's mean, no manapua for him!" Puanani laughed. Duo smirked and launched himself from the deck of his bungalow to chase after the little boy, who was quickly approaching the water's edge.
"Don't waste perfectly good food!" Duo whined.
"Show me your games!" Makaio wailed as his feet splashed into the surf. He stopped knee-deep in the water and spun around with the bag held high over his head as he threatened to dunk it into the ocean. Duo skid to a stop as his toes were licked by the waves and laughed.
"You wanna play my games that bad, huh?" he chuckled between pants. "Fine-fine, just don't ruin the buns, okay?"
The little boy laughed and sloshed happy back in the direction of the bungalow with an accomplished smile. He's gonna let us play!" he exclaimed happily to his siblings.
"Eh? No foolin'?" Kahili's face illuminated with surprise. Duo had known these kids for months and never once were they allowed inside his bungalow. He figured that if the entire island was going to be in on his business he might as well feed into it a little bit. He knew that if he showed the kids a good time and let them mess around a little they would run to tell anyone who would listen that they were over at his place playing games. He hoped that the innocence of the story would satisfy the locals and maybe get them to shift their curiosity to someone else.
Little Makaio shoved the now damp bag of pork buns eagerly into Duo's hands before running up to the bungalow to meet his older brother and sister, who were already stumbling over one another to get through the door to see inside. He paused just outside of the door to slap the sand loose from the bottoms of his feet before following them.
"Oooh! What's that? And what's this? Can I have this? What is this thing here?" Puanani was chirping cheerfully as she poked around the shelves of equipment.
"Your house is messy," Makaio observed loudly as he made a show of jumping over a cluster of extension cords. "Do you sleep up there?" He pointed up at the worn red and blue hammock suspended across the backside of the small, crowded space.
"Yup. And no, you can't have that," Duo said quickly as he plucked a wad of explosive Semtex putty from Puanani's hands as she bad begun to mold it into what appeared to be a penguin. Or maybe it was a velociraptor? He quickly darted across the room, stumbled around her older brother Kahili and shoved the wad of putty into the refrigerator.
"This is just old junk," Makaio said, ever the frank small child. "There are no games."
"That's a video game, you dummy," his older brother snarled as he pointed to the massive, dilapidated arcade machine in the corner. The boy approached the cabinet with interest and let his fingertips trace the coin slot mechanism on the front. "Does this work? Is this the videogame everyone keeps sayin' is makin' you lolo?"
Duo sighed. "Yeah, that's the one."
Puanani was picking at what little of the original instruction decal that remained around the cracked and faded blue joystick. "It's old, an' it's ugly," she muttered, clearly unimpressed.
"Hey! Stop it!" Kahili yelled as he slapped his younger sister's hands away from the machine. "You're ruining it."
"It's already ruined," Puanani said in a haughty voice. "Look, it doesn't even work."
"That's cuz it isn't plugged in," Kahili said smartly as he pointed to the power cord lying on the floor by their feet.
"I don't want to play it. It looks boring, like a game momma and fadda played back in the olden times," she said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't want to play no stupid games."
Duo fished around in the damp paper bag for a pork bun and bit into it happily as he stood back and watched Kihili defend his admittedly grotesque hunk of junk from his sister. Little Makaio hopped over and shoved his meaty hand into the bag and joined him.
"It's stupid."
"Is not! It's classic, amirite, Duo?" Kahili asked as he peered over his shoulder for affirmation.
"Yep. That's a classic," Duo said in a muffled voice through a mouthful of bun. He swallowed hard and coughed. "Sorry to say it isn't workin' right now, though."
"Awww, you said we could play games!' Makaio whined.
"Nah, I said you could see 'em. Well, there it is." Duo said with a grin as he gestured to the darkened arcade machine.
"Awwwwwww, mannn." Makaio deflated and kicked at a bundle of cable by his bare feet. "You makin' things up and tellin' stories again. We go!" The little boy scowled up at him before dragging his pouty ass out of the bungalow.
"Lame, lame, lame," Puanani chanted as she stomped out through the door in pursuit of her younger brother. Kahili hung back just inside the door and cast a curious glance at the arcade machine.
"You ever gonna have it workin'," he asked curiously.
"Yeah, someday." Duo smiled.
"Shoots den, Duo," the boy said as he gave him a little a wave.
"Yeah, okay. Mahalo for the buns, guys," Duo called after him as he vanished out onto the beach. He secured the door and locked the two deadbolts at the top before he rushed back to his workbench to finish the laser. Finally after another twenty minutes it was ready to install. He slid on a pair of white anti-static gloves and carefully installed the laser housing onto the digitizer power cell and concentrator. He made sure everything was properly connected and ran through his mental checklist he had formulated by months of study and deconstruction of Kevin Flynn's ENCOM notes and published research papers.
"Okay. This is it," he said proudly as he took a step back to admire his handiwork. It wasn't the prettiest thing to look at, but after years of dreaming and months of tedious preparation it was finally done. He had, to his knowledge, successfully completed what he considered the closest thing to the completed, original Tron Arcade Machine. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He peeled off the white gloves and tossed them on the workbench before crouching down to connect its power source. The machine itself required more power than the average arcade game normally consumed and he had spent two weeks building a custom hook-up with a built-in circuit breaker that could accommodate the energy required to boot and run such a sophisticated piece of machinery. Once everything was safely connected he reached over and flipped the red light switch on the wall behind the cabinet to allow power to feed into the machine. He quickly stepped back, excited to watch the blue, glowing grid and title screen flash on the darkened monitor.
Except nothing happened. He blinked, frowned and waited a few moments to give it a chance to change its mind.
"Are you fuckin' kiddin' me?" He stalked up to the red switch and toggled it a few times before he checked the monitor again. It was still black. Nothing had activated.
He felt the heavy, oppressive weight of disappointment and frustration settle in his chest.
I should have known better, he thought bitterly as he approached the front of the cabinet to scowl down into the blackened monitor. Nothing ever goes my way. Nothing can ever be that fuckin' easy.
He knew he was close. He was so close he could almost taste it. He thought that the lens was the last thing he had needed, and he began to chastise himself for getting his hopes up and for being too eager and excited. Maybe he had rushed something? Maybe he was missing a crucial piece?
"Or maybe you really are just a big 'ol hunk of fuckin' junk," he said irritably. He swung his leg back and planted a hard kick against the front fascia of the cabinet with his bare foot, and immediately regretted it.
"Oww, for fuck's sake!" He lifted grabbed his now sore big toe and hopped around white muttering choice obscenities, unaware that the monitor within the cabinet had activated.
A few perky 8-BIT notes chimed melodically as the white, blue and red-lined letters "T R O N" illuminated the center of the screen. His head shot up at the sound of the introduction music and before he could say anything else the laser above his head clicked, hummed and then burst to life. Blinding, cyan-colored light shot out of the laser head and captured him within it's widely flared beam.
He couldn't move and he couldn't scream as his body began to break down. Each and every molecule in his body split and transformed into lines of pure digital code. He felt as if he were disintegrating into a fog of pure energy. Soon his vision filled with the same blinding light.
Then it faded to black, and as his eyes came into focus he found himself looking straight at a black and blue glowing blob as it careened straight for him.
"Oh… OH SHIT!" he stammered, stunned, as his body reacted on it's own. He lunged to his left and just barely stumbled out of the way of whatever odd vehicle almost made him a pancake. He spun around to stare at the spot he had once stood and blinked with confusion as he let his eyes scan upward to study the black, glowing accented skyscraper towers looming just overhead.
It was dark. Everything was black, glossy, sharply geometric and accented with bright white and blue glowing lights.
"W.. where am I?" he muttered as he rubbed his forehead with his hand. He looked from side to side and realized he was standing on a sidewalk in an alien city. No, not aliens. There were people, just like him, walking up and down the sidewalks. They were wearing futuristic looking clothes, and they too seemed to glow with an unnatural, internal radiance.
"Hey, sprite! Move out of the way!" A man who looked like he was wearing a wetsuit with fluorescent yellow accenting shoved past him. Duo stammered but the words wouldn't come out. He scampered quickly to the wall of the nearest building and pressed his back to it as the strangely dressed people made their way past him. Many paused to study him while others just cast curious glances as they hurried along to their destinations.
"Oh fuck. Oh, fuck. Oh-fuck," Duo chanted as his confusion began to slowly dissipate. It was quickly replaced with enthusiasm and pure excitement. The laser had digitized him. It had done what he built it to do. He was in. He was in the Tron System. He had finally made it. He stiffened his back, straightened his purple swim trunks and grinned from ear to ear.
"I'm in the fucking Grid."