REPURPOSED
Prelude

I am pinned on my front by shackles attached to a table, I can see Clu out of the edge of my vision fiddling with my disk.

"You must stop this, Flynn has been distracted but that's no reason for this." It is my last desperate attempt to reason with Clu.

"No, he's betrayed me...he betrayed you, you're just too blindly loyal to see it."

"You're wrong."

Clu doesn't say anything he just stands and approaches me with the disk.

"Clu - for the sake of our friendship - please!"

"Tron, these human concepts were your undoing."

And then the disk is clipped into place.

I can't see or think beyond a refusal to give in, I can feel parts of my code ripping apart and reforming into something new.

I am vaguely aware that I am screaming, but I pay the noise no mind, I am focused on my one and only purpose, I fight for the users, I must focus on this and refuse to let go.

But even as this singular thing sticks with me I know I am losing other things fundamental to my very being.

I do not know how long it has been when the pain finally relinquishes; Clu is standing over me - he's unclipped the disk that betrayed me.

He reaches down and turns my head and I don't have the energy to jerk my head back as I would like to.

"We will have to add a helmet I think..." he muses aloud.

"Please," I manage to choke the word out and I find my voice sounds distorted.

"What's your name?" he asks me a faint smile playing on his lips.

Name? Do I have a name? I must have but I can't remember it, fear slides through me as I stare up at Clu.

"No?" his smile grows, "What do you know?"

"I - I fight for the users - for Flynn."

Clu scowls, "He's not coming for you, you know this don't you?"

I stare up at him confused.

"What can I do to make you give in? You probably don't even remember Yori, and yet you cling to Flynn."

"Yori?" the name feels like I should know it and a flash of guilt seizes me.

"See!" he seems exasperated.

I draw in a shaking breath and eye the other program, I understand I will loose Flynn as well soon. "Master, no one can know who I was."

"Why do you care? You don't even remember who you were."

"It would...I would be pitied - I should be feared," I don't know if that's true but it sounds right, in all honesty I'm not sure why I'm asking for this.

"Very well, I will ensure that they never know, but you must give into this or you will kill yourself resisting like this."

"I will give," I speak slowly I barely have the energy for speech.

I open my eyes and scan the room for my Master, the helmet between me and everything else feels right, everything feels right.

"Rinzler," a voice comes from the seat across the room from me and I cross to my Masters side, "Look at them Rinzler - look at the great ISOs - they have no idea what is happening, no idea that you are coming to derezz them."

I tilt my head and feel my processes grinding faster, I am pleased - I will destroy these for my Master, as I am meant to, as I was always meant to.

/system reboot...

...

...

...ERROR incompatible data files...

/reboot

...

I wake on the shore of the sea, water laps at my side and I pull myself into a seated position slowly.

I find slow movements are all I am currently capable of, the circuitry I can see on my hand is flickering rapidly between orange and a pale blue.

I know what this means, my programming is at war with itself, there are too many contradicting commands.

I do not know how long I sit there, cycles most likely, the energy of the sea seems to keep me sustained simply by touching it.

I must go through each command, each prompt, every piece of myself, and choose which command will be left unfrozen in each contradicting case.

A hand lands on my shoulder and I move on instinct, I am standing and holding my disks before I recognize Sam Flynn.

He's smiling and doesn't move for his disk, he reaches out a hand and tell me he was hoping I'd be alive.

I know I am dangerous and that Sam should not trust me, but I follow anyways, I have no one else.

Author's Note: I apologize for the long pause in the writing of this story. I in my rush to publish further chapters did things with chapter three I don't particular like. I rewrote small parts of the previous two chapters and rewrote the third chapter entirely. The first two chapters are essentially the same, I added the Rinzler repurposing stuff as part of the new prelude instead of part of chapter three. So possibly re-read but you don't have to. But you will have to disregard the third chapter as it didn't go where I wanted it to.

So to those who've read this for a while this is part of the rewrite, to the new comers...I'll try to update – but I suck at it so...sorry about that.