Apotheosis
Rating: T
Info: A Betrayal and Evolution fic (although I'm taking some liberties with Evolution). I hope you like you some Shaddox 'cause I don't think he gets enough mention and therefore he will be here. ;D Also, that story summery is subject to change because I think I was dead when I wrote it (EDIT: This has now been done).
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, obviously.

Prologue: The End

The gentle hum of the lift was almost comforting this time, though whether it was due to the presence of his old friend at his side or the much needed energy now circulating in his system he wasn't sure. Not that it mattered. What did matter was that he was finally in a condition to find and aid Flynn to the portal if the User did not manage to escape the Grid before then. He just barely caught a last glimpse of the shining portal before the tops of the city buildings blocked it from view. "For so many cycles I wondered what would happen if Clu were to turn against his creator." Tron gingerly touched the jagged edge of broken coding on his shoulder. "Just before he attacked, I was voicing that very fear to Flynn."

Shaddox gave a snort of agitation before swatting at Tron's hand. "That's just a patch job. Keep messing with it and you'll likely lose the whole arm before you even have the chance to start looking." His stern expression softened then and he sighed heavily. "However, I know what you mean. I think that many of the older programs were beginning to have similar thoughts."

"Which is why there are so few of us left now, I believe." Over the cycles, Clu had replaced many with newer, more competent programs. Some had left their functions behind as Shaddox had. As for the others… Tron was no longer so sure that all of those "accidents" had been quite as accidental as Clu had said they were. The security program folded his arms over his chest to keep from meddling with the wound on his shoulder and glared out the window. "After Flynn is safe, I can focus on Clu."

"With all of your security programs gone, that will prove to be a challenge."

Only one of them remained, and he was off chasing after the Abraxas virus if he hadn't been derezzed yet. Still, this was what Tron had been brought here for, to eliminate threats in the system. As the lift slowed to a stop he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Challenge or not, I will not let him ruin this system."

1982

The system was barren save for the few buildings Flynn had already created and the quickly dissipating remains of coding from the small grid bug swarm that had descended upon them moments earlier. This world was different from the other, darker and so very… empty. There were no programs to protect, not yet, and already he felt almost useless.

"So, what do you think?"

Again with that question. In all honesty… While he was thrilled to have been asked to protect this new system, there was still a lingering yearning to return to the old one. They had only just recently won it back. He had only just found Yori again… At least there was still a copy of himself in that system, too. At least he hadn't left her. Not really. "It's different," he said at last, looking down at his new identity disk. Everything was different, even things that he had not thought could change. For one, he had quickly learned that the new disks were not nearly as effective as shields as the older version. 'Just incentive to find a new way to deal with these grid bugs, though.'

Flynn laughed, a reaction he was prone to these days. "Yeah, and it's just going to get even better from here on out, buddy. There are all sorts of programs getting thrown out at ENCOM every day. With a little bit of tweaking, they'll fit right in here. I'm putting the finishing touches on one that will help me get this place organized."

As he snapped the disk back into place on his back, Tron frowned at this news. Users were much more confusing than he had originally thought they would be. "You… won't be creating the programs for this system?"

For a moment it seemed like Flynn was attempting to keep his expression blank, but a wide smile overtook it in the end. "Do you know how creepy it would be to come here every time to hundreds of programs that looked just like me? No, man, I'm going to make this place so far out, with programs from all over!" He swept his arm toward the glowing buildings. "It's gonna be perfect."

He didn't particularly understand Flynn's reasoning, but the User's sheer excitement was infectious. "I see." It was his duty to keep this system, and the programs that were to come, safe. This place would not be the open, dark expanse that it now was forever. If Flynn said it would be perfect, then he believed him. Tron nodded and matched Flynn's smile. "I will protect it for as many cycles as it exists."

"As I said before, injuries like that need more time to heal, Tron."

The security program opened his eyes with a start to see Shaddox's disapproving frown from the lift's open door. Even with that refined energy, it seemed his system was still having troubles remaining online. Still, for now he was functioning properly and therefore he would continue to fulfill his duties. "I don't have time for a reboot, Shaddox. Clu and his guard are searching for Flynn and-"

Shaddox held up a hand as the determined program passed through the door, his expression so weary that Tron almost expected his friend to topple over himself. "Flynn is the creator of this world. You forget that there are still many programs here that recognize him as such. Clu will not find him to be easy quarry. Come, with the two of us we may yet find him before he reaches the portal on his own."

So, even after these many cycles of working at the End of Line, Shaddox really hadn't changed. Tron nodded and then grabbed and tossed one of his batons at his friend in one swift motion. "If he was heading for the portal, I know a couple of places that he probably passed through. Let's hurry."

::…::

Thankfully at their first stop, a small yet secluded energy café, the ISO owner had seen and even hidden Flynn from the eyes of prying sentries not so long ago. From there, however, the trail ran cold and Tron found it ever increasingly more difficult to reign in his growing frustration. The portal was still open, and for every moment that it remained that way, it meant Flynn was still in danger. He didn't even think of the possibility of the portal closing before Flynn left because that was simply not acceptable.

"Tron, look there." Shaddox pointed with his baton toward a group of guards down the street, the red circuits of their suits glowing like a flame against the dark buildings. The large program inched slowly toward the corner of the closest building, rapping Tron sharply on the uninjured shoulder when he stood his ground. "You're in no condition to fight them all. Stand down for now."

There were only half a dozen of them, hardly enough for worry… Tron leveled his glare at the group as they grabbed at a passing hooded program, throwing the fabric back to reveal the face of a rather broad shouldered female program. When they realized it wasn't Flynn, they shoved the program back into the throng of passersby.

And then there he was, yellow circuits vivid against the wall of red.

Shaddox must have spotted Clu even before Tron did because a hand was instantly on his good shoulder. "No, you were on the brink of deresolution the last time. You are no good to anyone as shattered coding."

"If he is gone, then there is no longer any danger to Flynn or the Grid. Last time I made no attempt to harm him, but I understand now that, though Flynn's creation he may be, he is the reason why I was brought here." Ever since the time when grid bugs were a widespread problem, there had never been so much of a reason. No more was it protecting Basics and ISOs from some phantom force… Now there was a tangible target to finally be eliminated, to finally ensure the safety of those he was charged with protecting. "He is not to be treated as anything other than a common threat, despite his origins."

"Uh huh." Shaddox stared at him for a moment, unimpressed, before tugging Tron around the corner of the building and out of sight of Clu and the guards. "I like the plan of getting Flynn back to the portal better. He can handle Clu from his world and no one will have to risk their coding for it."

Tron reached to tear the hand from his shoulder before he knew what he was doing, and it was only the shrill, grating sound that alerted him to his mistake. His left arm went limp, the break in his shoulder biting deeper and bringing with it a wave of pain so sharp that he could feel his system flicker offline for fleeting moment. He brought his right hand to the cold side of the building that was all that separated them from Clu, and simply bit his tongue as he did when he was injured in the stadium. His left hand was shaking now, tiny bits of shining code falling to the street from the silver gorge of broken coding along his forearm.

"Shaddox, Clu is a danger to every program in the Grid. For now his focus is on Flynn, but next it will inevitably turn to the ISOs. What then? Once they are gone, do you think he will return to who he once was?" Tron turned his attention back to his injured arm, relieved to see that he could see properly move his wrist and fingers. "That is why-"

"Why we need to find Flynn and-"

"This is more efficient and-"

"You're just delu-"

"Hey, you two, what are you up to?"

Both of them turned to see Clu wearing Flynn's brightest smile, at which Shaddox could merely stare in bemusement. Tron, however, had his disc in hand in an instant, though Shaddox took an uncertain step back when his friend then seemed to pull a second disc from the first. "Wait, maybe we can find a way to settle this without-"

As Clu promptly kicked Shaddox aside, Tron was already throwing his own disc with as much force as he could muster. His left hand could barely hold onto the stolen disc… It was in his right without another thought and he swung low at Clu's legs even as Clu's arm and disc sailed over his head.

In that moment he realized he might have slightly underestimated Clu. In all those times they had sparred, now so many cycles ago, Clu had never won, though he had certainly come close on several occasions. He realized that during that long time afterward, Clu might have actually listened to and learned from his words of wisdom about combat. He realized that the damage to his coding had severely slowed him down.

Clu deftly jumped up and away from the offending disc and didn't miss a beat even as Tron both threw his remaining disc and brought his baton, now a staff, down toward Clu's torso. It caught his hip in a graze, but Clu then took a few quick steps back, his jaw set.

He could see a sentry managing to snag his identity disc with a staff and realized that his other disc must have met the same fate. Not that it mattered. He was more than capable of fighting with a staff, though he was a little concerned that he only had one arm with which to use said weapon.

"You know, I'm hurt, Tron." Once again Clu was trying for that amiable façade, if that grin meant anything. "Is that how you greet an old friend?"

"I suppose kicking an old friend is okay?" Shaddox said drily. Two guards had pulled him away from the fight and held his shoulders to prevent escape, though he showed no interest in doing such.

"What are you doing?" Tron tightened his grip on the staff, tentatively grabbing it with his left hand as well to balance the weight. "First you threaten and terrorize the ISOs and destroy the Sea. Then you attack your own creator! He created you, he trusted you! Don't take me lightly this time, Clu. I see no reason why I should not derezz you for what you've done."

Clu considered him a moment before turning his attention to the mass panic around them. Programs, both Basic and ISO, were screaming and running, though many only seemed to run into more guards and, in their terror, simply turned and ran in the opposite direction. "I am simply fulfilling my function. Flynn has left us so many times and for so long that many programs began to think he was never coming back. When the portal would reopen, they forgot what it meant or simply didn't care. Therefore, my function went from creating the perfect system with Flynn to simply creating it on my own. You know where I stand on the subject of ISOs."

"And yet everything that you said was flawed about them was actually created by you to condemn them." The staff was beginning to feel unreasonably heavy and he already knew that he could not sway Clu from his opinions of the ISOs. "You were not there in the first cycles of this system, Clu. I do not think you understand what was meant by a perfect system." He could remember Flynn's enthusiasm and pure joy and it was nothing like the terror that Clu had been forcing upon the ISOs.

"What I don't understand is how you can remain so narrow sighted even after all this time." Clu's eyes narrowed at this, his grip on his disc tightening. "Why can't you see what I am trying to do? You believe every word from Flynn, no matter how crazy, but you won't see the reason in what I have been trying to say for so long?"

Even his arms felt weighty now, and all feeling from his neck to the fingertips of his left hand was gone. Still, as long as Clu was here it meant that he wasn't trying to derezz Flynn or a crowd of ISOs… "It's called loyalty, and trust comes with it. That is something I don't think you know much about considering you are betraying the trust of Radia, Ophelia, and all the ISOs without remorse. They were willing to forgive what you did to them, even if they did not know you were the one behind it all, and they were willing to help make the Grid a peaceful system."

The deadly glow around Clu's disc dissipated suddenly. "Loyalty," he echoed, eyes wide. "Oh, that's all? Half of my guard was once loyal to Flynn and his beliefs, trusted him blindly without thought." His expression twisted into a scowl then, and his voice lowered to a growl. "It only takes a few seconds to place that loyalty elsewhere."

'A tender subject if there ever was one,' Tron noted as he brought the staff up to block a sudden attack by the reactivated yellow disc. The impact jarred his whole body, but he kept his thoughts from lingering on his already grievous wounds. Clu's sudden rage made his movements wide and left his body open. As Tron blocked a flurry of furious blows, he looked Clu straight in the eye for the briefest moment, knowing that when Clu raised his arm once more the target would be-

He fell.

One moment he was preparing to take that final strike and the next the world was sideways and he simply saw Shaddox's furious stare. Clu hadn't moved. It was just his own body, his own system failing once more and trying so desperately to remain online.

"If loyalty is what drives you to these lengths to protect him and these people, then you might be more useful than I originally thought. Well, without all those pathetic beliefs about Users and ISOs, of course."

He just felt the cold of the smooth street against his cheek now. Those last few blows must have deepened his shoulder wound further, though how deep it was he couldn't tell. For all he knew his entire arm and half his body was gone. The corners of his vision were dark, like the barren wasteland surrounding the tiny city that would one day become something perfect. He wondered vaguely if he could move, but hadn't even the energy to attempt to lift a finger to test it.

Then Clu was kneeling beside him, a blue disc in hand. "I once asked you why. You said it was because the creator asked you to and because it was your function. Now, it will still be your function. Also, because I am the creator and because I am telling you to."

That was… He could remember that conversation, back when Clu was still less than a cycle in age and still fawning over Flynn as all programs once did. That was… No. "You won't. You can't."

The fact that he could smile with Flynn's face only made it that much more terrifying. "Can, buddy. And I will."

AN:
Since Shaddox was written by Flynn but doesn't look like him, I'm going out on the proverbial limb and saying Flynn had some help with that one.

Also, in Betrayal, Tron is still very much… well, Tron after the initial encounter with Clu. That's how the plot bunny attacked me with this prologue. Um. Don't kill me? O_o