I do not own Tron, the franchise belongs to Disney.
When Lux opened her eyes there was a light, a blinding light. She blinked, struggling to make her visualization centers properly adjust. Eventually the fuzzy outline of a familiar face materialized out of the whiteness. It was different than she remembered.
The face was creased and worn, haggard. Whereas the other had been bright and happy, full of life and childlike optimism. His brown hair, falling into his face, was streaked with gray. The exhaustion leaving burning scars in the form of bruises under his eyes, lines on his forehead and around his mouth, couldn't smother the duel flames of hope she could see flickering in his eyes- however little.
Hope at the sight of me? Why? I am nothing. Nothing special, insignificant in the grander scheme.
His fingers were curled around her forearm, transferring warmth and electricity, data. This was the glow of a User's energy, given off as he rearranged her broken code back into some semblance of order, feeding her lifeless code energy like blood to a long dry corpse.
"KevinFlynn." She said.
He smiled an aging, but kindly smile.
She had only ever met the User once.
Lux remembers his voice now, echoing up from the past, buried deep in her memory files. It was her very first memory in fact. The audio file attached to the video, was the second of its kind her processors had ever registered.
The entire world as she knew it was a program wearing a wide healthy smile, grey eyes warm and glowing, filling all she could see.
After rezzing into existence, she remembered being unsteady on her feet. Her functions weren't quiet meshing together in the proper sequence that would give her control over her limbs. Her knees buckled and she fell.
"Careful!" Tron exclaimed in alarm. A pair of strong hands clasped around her shoulders before she could crash into the floor.
"Greetings. Welcome to the system." He said, laughing, making light of the catastrophe that was so narrowly avoided. A half formed program such as herself was so unstable, she would derez from a fall like that, shattering as soon as she connected with the floor.
A new program needed a micro to settle into its code. He helped her back to her feet. She experimentally shuffled from one foot to the other, and when he was sure she had her balance, he let go.
Surrounding her was a white room filled with translucent furniture, and three individuals separate from what she determined to be herself. There were others in the background, moving to and fro, occupied by whatever jobs they were tasked to perform.
Their circuits came in what seemed to her an impossible variety of colors. She saw green, blue, and yellow. Her circuits were white. They were Games staff pre-existing data in her data bases told her, including sirens, guards, technicians, and others. They were the many programs that presided over Games activity, ensuring Games matches were carried out in the most safe and efficient manner.
"Hey man, not fair. I want to speak to her first." Tron was shoved out of the way by his grinning, playful friend. She immediately recognized him, User KevinFlynn. "Hi there, well aren't you a pretty one?" He said, running a hand through his thick brown curls. "I think we'll call you… Lux." Flynn decided.
"Program Identity received: designation LUX." She rattled off the words mechanically, as if the response had been a pre-coded function. It was.
Flynn's double ganger looked at her from behind the User's shoulder, an annoyed expression on his face, his arms were crossed in front of his chest and his foot tapped impatiently.
The administrator placed a hand on his creator's shoulder, steering Flynn away from his newest creation.
"Enough fun." Clu said the word with disdain, like it held its own special place at the top of a list of the many things that were slowly driving him insane. "There will be time to create latter, when this system has been updated to accommodate for the needs of the millions of programs already trying to survive here. Now, if you would please follow me, there are critical errors that require your immediate attention."
Flynn was led away by his program, out of the room. Tron waved goodbye to the newly christened Lux as he followed them. A pair of automatic glass doors slid shut behind the trio with a hiss like an airtight seal being broken.
When the three were gone, she looked around herself, unsure what to do next.
One of the other programs stepped forward.
"My name is Ebi." She said. "Let me show you where you will be working."
That was the first and last time Lux would ever see Kevin Flynn, until now.
And like that he was gone. His face vanished from her line of sight. All she could see was the clear black sky overhead. She turned her head just in time to watch him vanish into the darkness, pulling his hood up to hide his face as he went. He disappearing as quickly as he had the millicycle she first met him.
Lux was lying on her back, this was the same location where her body had crumbed away as she was derezzed.
She wondered what she was supposed to do next. There was no Ebi to instruct her now, only her own ambitions. Humans groped blindly in darkness. Humans had grown accustomed to leaps of faith, to charging forward on a path they had selected for themselves, even when they had no idea where it would lead them.
For a program who was gifted with a purpose, a path to guide them on their journey since birth, the unknown was the most frightening thing of all. The best, most dynamic programs, could conquer their fear and strike out on their own. Slowly and carefully, Lux stood. Her body ached, a pain that started in her stomach where she had been wounded, but the feeling was steadily fading.
She thought I have to find Tron.
Lux wouldn't waste the life her creator had returned to her, she would start where she left off, and do her part in the fight to take back her world from Clu's tyranny.