AN: Ok, so lord knows I haven't written a thing that wasn't school related in forever, but, well, school is over and I guess my fingers got bored. I'd like to say I was bit by a rabid plot bunny after seeing the movie, but that would imply plot. This was more of an evil, random idea opossum. So, if you're feeling kind leave me some feedback. Good, bad or indifferent, just like to hear your thoughts! Flames are good for toasting marshmellows!
Also, no, I don't really have a beta, so I apologize for my terrible grammar ahead of time.
Now! For the mandatory disclaimer. I don't own Tron, Tron: Legacy or any of the other things that the movie company may own. I wish I owned Garrett Hedlund, but alas. My sister did get me a Sam Flynn action figure for Christmas, but that is besides the point. Don't sue me, I have nothing you want. Jules and Jamie are totally mine though, so hands off. ^_^
(Some background info.) After Sam's return from the grid he took control of ENCOM to try and make it what his father always dreamed it should be. He had Quorra at his side and their intense relationship soon heated into a romance. A year after Sam and Quorra returned they were married and a year after that they welcomed a daughter.
During the time that Sam and Quorra were trying to turn ENCOM into the kind of company Kevin would have been proud of they were also returning to the grid from time to time to see what could be salvaged of that world... to see if Kevin could have possibly survived... to see if there were anymore ISOs in existence, since they were sure Quorra couldn't possibly be that last.
For the most part they tried to keep their presence unknown, for though Clu was gone, his followers and many of their ways of life had survived, albeit in a degraded and more violent 3rd world sort of way. Time passed more quickly on the grid if they left it running while they were on the outside world. Normally they shut it down when they weren't online, but after starting up a resistance movement they would occasionally let the system function to see what the programs could do on their own if given their independence.
Then one day... Sam and Quorra disappeared.
The future. Maybe 25 years after Tron: Legacy.
It was late and the large house set back from the main roads was dark but for one room. The only light was coming from the study around back and it was faint, just the dull blue glow of a computer screen. Jules sat at the large oak desk in her father's study, typing away on a new program she was designing for ENCOM. Her blue eyes flew over the screen, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration or frustration alternately when the lines of code didn't turn out the way she wanted. Eventually she stopped to rub her eyes and realized that it had gotten dark since she decided to sit down so long ago. Her body was stiff from hunching over the keyboard for so long so she got up to stretch and turn on some lights. As she clicked on the desk lamp she got a look at the antique clock her father kept on his desk and was shocked to realize that it was after midnight. Her face scrunched in confusion.
Her parents should have been home hours ago. For dinner, in fact, her stomach told her as it rumbled. She was home for the summer and her parents were planning to have a family dinner to celebrate having the whole family under one roof again. It was weird that she hadn't seen or heard from them all night. If something came up at work or whatever they always called to tell her they were gonna be late or to eat without them. Wondering if she had just been too involved in her programming to notice her phone she went to grab her jacket off the chair where she had thrown it earlier and dig her phone out of the pocket. Tossing the jacket back she checked her missed calls and saw that her parents weren't among them. She frowned and dialed her father's number as she left the study to do a quick tour of the house. She got a message that the number she had dialed wasn't in service. Her dad never went anywhere without his phone on. Confused by the message and the lack of her parents car in the garage, she dialed her mother next and got the same message. Now she was a little more concerned.
She didn't want to cause a panic so she didn't bother calling the company yet. She went back to the study and brought up the vidscreen hidden behind the wooden wall paneling of the office. She punched in Alan's number and waited for someone to answer. She knew it was late but Alan had never failed her yet. But it wasn't Alan that answered the phone.
"Surprise!" came the voice of her lifelong best friend over the vidscreen before his face popped into view.
"Hey!" Jules replied, delight warring with concern on her face. She hadn't seen him in over a year after all, and not in person in almost three.
James looked at her face for about half a second, "What's wrong?"
It was enough to make Jules' concern win out. "My parents never came home tonight. I wanted to check with Alan before I called the company and riled everyone up."
"Hold on, I'll go get him."
Jules paced and cracked her knuckles nervously during the few minutes it took for Jamie to reappear with Alan in tow. One look at Alan's aging face and she knew something was wrong.
"What is it?" she demanded, a little fear and anxiety seeping into her voice.
Alan swallowed and studied her hard for a moment. "Earlier today your parents said they couldn't wait to have dinner with you, that they had something big to tell you... but they had one stop to make before they saw you. They left the office early..." he trailed off.
Jules heart thudded heavily in her chest. "Where. Alan, where did they say they were going?"
James was looking back and forth between his grandfather and his best friend on the screen. There was a question on his face, but he didn't dare interrupt.
"The arcade." It came out hoarse, barely more than a whisper. "They said they had to stop at the arcade," Alan repeated, stronger this time. James watched as the color drained from Jules' face.
"Wait, are your guys talking about the Forbidden Arcade?" The words had capitals when he spoke them. "The one your dad told us about when we were kids? I thought those were just stories to scare us."
Jules was shaking her head, thinking about many things now. "I don't think so... not entirely anyways," she said slowly. "They still don't want me going there and my dad keeps the only set of keys." As she was thinking she brought up the computer interlink on the vidscreen so she could continue talking to them while she let her fingers do some walking.
"What are you going to do?" Alan asked as soon as her face disappeared.
"Whatever I have to." she replied, determination strong in her voice as she hacked into the GPS tracking for her parents car. She needed to confirm were they were last before she did anything.
"Isn't there anything we can do?" came Lora's voice over the com. "I couldn't help but overhear." Alan's wife admitted softly.
"Hey Lora," Jules called, "I'm tracking their location now, but you know until 48 hours is up the police won't do jack. We can't do anything but look for them ourselves." The GPS map finally pulled up. Her parents car was parked a block from her grandfather's arcade, and based on the timestamp it had been there for hours. "Their car is at the arcade. I'm going to go look for them." she stated, starting to shut down her system.
"I'm coming with you." James announced.
"Wait just a minute!" Lora's indignant voice came on, "It's the middle of the night and that is not a good part of town. Why can't we have the police drive by and just have a look around?"
"I don't have time to wait for you to get here." Jules responded to Kevin, speaking over Lora as she grabbed her jacket from where she had tossed it earlier. She checked her pocket for her keys as she pulled the black leather on. "I'll meet you on the road, exit 17 downtown." she called as she started to run from the room. The last thing she heard was Lora's voice fading as Alan pulled her away from the screen to try and reason with her before the connection closed.
Jules' antique Ducati roared through the streets, attracting a lot more attention that she would have liked on a normal day among the quiet electric cars that now ruled the streets. Tonight she wasn't worried about speeding tickets or pissy drivers, not that they were normally high on her list anyways. Being the wealthy brat of famous computer tycoons had its perks, but tonight she was speeding toward something, not just for the hell of it.
Another motorcycle pulled up next to hers as she crossed the bridge to exit 17. It was bigger, louder and driven by one of the people she trusted most in the world to have her back. But as they raced to her grandfather's arcade she couldn't help but feel that they were racing towards something that would change their lives forever.
Jules glanced over briefly to see James giving her the old hand signals for 'Bet I can beat you there.' She couldn't help but roll her eyes. Some things never changed. She kicked the throttle up a notch and shot past James, her speed all the response he needed to know 'Game On.' When they were younger they used to race to relieve stress. The freedom of going fast and the grace of motion as they road in synchrony was enough to clear her head of whatever was bothering her and she was grateful to him now for remembering that.
By the time they reached the underground parking garage where her parents car waited she was in a more centered state of mind, any panic shoved aside so reason could step in. She almost hoped their car had been jacked and their phones smashed and that they were walking home right now. It was unlikely, but better than the alternative that her mind had come up with... that they had simply disappeared. Just like her grandfather.
"I won," she called out of habit after she yanked her helmet off, her messy brown hair, so like her father's in color, falling all around her face.
"Yea yea," James muttered, removing his own helmet and patting his less maneuverable machine. "We'll beat her someday," he told it, "when she stops cheating," he called, somewhat louder.
She gave him a droll look as she swung her jean-clad leg over her bike and went to inspect her parents car. Everything looked fine, the doors were locked and the alarm was still set. She sighed heavily before turning back to James, only to find him watching her.
Jamie hadn't really seen Jules in person in almost 3 years, and their infrequent vidscreen chats hadn't done her justice. Jules had grown up. Her hair was shorter and more sophisticated than he remembered and she had lost her baby fat to finally become a slim, sleek young woman in tight jeans and biker boots with the kind of lips a man would dream about.
Jules gave him a funny look, the lips he had been thinking indecent thoughts about twisting. "You ok?" she asked, cocking her head. He muttered an affirmative, thinking to himself that perhaps it had been too long since he last got laid.
"Well, everything here seems fine. We should probably go check the arcade," she said with something akin to dread in her voice. Kevin gave a curt nod as they secured their bikes and headed over to the old building where her grandfather had once spent so much of his time.
When they got there Jules stood in the street for a few minutes just staring at the place. For as long as she could remember she had been told stories of this place. And from the time she was old enough to get really curious she could remember being told it was off limits to her. No exceptions. James waited patiently for her, a tall, silent, but supportive presence. When she was ready, they broke in.
"Hard to believe after all the warnings that this is all there is. A mausoleum dedicated to outdated gaming tech and bad 80's graphics." James said conversationally as he looked around and Jules coughed on some of the overly abundant dust that hung in the air.
"It doesn't look like anyone ever comes here," Jules said as she wandered further in, flashlight raised. "But the power is turned on, and there are handprints in the dust," she called as she found the fuse box. "See if you can find the light switches!" she yelled, about to head up to the second floor.
"Hold up! Com'ere!" Jamie yelled back.
"What is it?" she replied, peering around the old machines to figure out where he had wandered. He was standing in front of an old machine by the back wall.
"This is it, right?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at her, "The game your parents used to tell us about?"
She walked closer and realized he was correct. "Tron," It came out a whisper. She analyzed the heavily dated piece of equipment while her memory flashed through images of storytime with her parents when she was growing up. The machine was the only one in the place with no dust on it.
"Think your parents came here for a bit of nostalgia?" Jaime asked her quietly, his head cocked inquiringly as he studied the look of consternation on her face.
Jules' mind was racing. Something just wasn't adding up as she looked at the demo lightcycles crossing the screen. The game in front of her simply wasn't complex enough to be the one her parents used to describe to her in such vivid detail. It was too old, too simplistic. The game world her parents told her about was as real to her growing up as the one she lived in now. "...this isn't it. It can't be. Its not... right." she said more to herself than him.
James watched as her eyes flickered frantically over the screen before turning back to it himself. It didn't seem quite right to him either, but he couldn't put his finger on why. The name was right and it was obviously a game of light cycles and disc games. "What's wrong with it?"
Jules turned to look at him thoughtfully. "Its too simple, or something. I can't explain it..." she looked back at the machine. Memories of lightcycles racing for the win flashed through her mind, the determined and frightened faces of the drivers as vivid as Jaime's face right in front of her. She blinked and shook her head suddenly as if to shake off the startling images.
Jaime had never seen his friend look so out of control. Even though she was younger than him she had her parents devil-may-care attitude about life and never let anything ruffle her feathers. Their parents called them Havoc and Mayhem when they were growing up. He didn't know how to deal with the lost young woman in front of him. After a moment he reached out and gently squeezed her shoulder. "Why don't we play a round. This is just the preview screen, maybe the real deal is better?"
A half smile appeared on her face. "Maybe..." she said, bending to grab something out of her boot. " 'Never travel without at least one quarter.' " she quoted as she straightened.
Jaime smiled at the obsolete currency in her hand. "I forgot your dad used to say that."
"Good thing I remembered," she said with a smirk, inserting the coin in the slot. It slid through and rang out as it hit the ground.
"You sure it was a quarter?" he teased, grin on his face.
"Yes." she said, giving him a punch for good measure before bending to retrieve her coin. Jules head tilted when she noticed the scrapes in the floor. "What the..." She looked up at the machine first before leaning to look next to it on the right, then shoving against Jaime's legs as she came out of her crouch and went around the left side to look behind it. "I think this thing moves!" she said with surprise and some
incredulity in her voice.
"Really?" Jaime leaned to look over her head, "By George, I think you're right!"
Jules rolled her eyes, "Alright Watson, help me move this thing."
The game moved with remarkable ease, as if it was on a regularly maintained hinge. Behind it was a faintly lit passageway. The pair looked at each other. "Ladies first?" James offered. He got a dirty look in response as Jules went though the doorway.
When they came to the doors at the end of the passageway Jules didn't hesitate to throw them open. "Dad! Mom!" she called as she stood in the doorway to the room. It wasn't big and she already knew they wouldn't be there, but 'hope springs eternal' as they say. Her shoulders sagged slightly as she released the door handles to step further into the room.
The inner computer nerd in James took him straight to the console located along the back wall while Jules slowly looked around. "Maybe I can find out what they were doing here," he said, taking a seat. Jules let out some sort of affirmative as she looked at the pictures tacked to the wall. The oldest were of her dad and grandfather when her dad was still very young, the most recent a picture of her and her mother on their latest trip to some exotic local, Egypt she thought. "They must come her a lot..." she mumbled to herself, turning for the first time to the computer console that dominated the room. Her eyes widened, "My father's chip!" she took the few strides to the terminal quickly.
"Huh?" Jaime leaned over to see what she was looking at.
She held the cord up where he could see it. "The computer chip my dad always wears around his neck. I've never seen him without it."
"Oh. Well, I guess now we know what it's for."
"Do we?" she came around the terminal to lean over his shoulder. "What did you find?"
"Not really sure. There is a program running, but I'm locked out."
"What the last command code entered? Can you bring it up?"
He was already typing, "Yea, something here... hold on, I'll reenter it, see what happens."
Jules didn't argue. She would soon come to ask herself why she didn't. There was a click and a humming sound behind her. "So... don't look know, but there is a laser pointed right at us," she said as she peeked over her shoulder. The noise from the laser got louder, then, in the blink of the eye it was quiet and everything looked just slightly different.
"What just happened?"