Title: Champion
Summary: It wasn't like anyone would ever declare him to be a saint, or call him "program of the cycle" material, but they didn't want him to be. They liked him just the way he was.
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For the most part, they looked up to Rinzler, even as in the privacy of their backups, they admitted that they would never want to be him. It was that ever present hitching growl that sent eerie currents across their circuits. It was soft, but it was a sure sign of a program that had been practically shattered and painstakingly pieced itself back together with no outside assistance.
Rinzler inspired them… from a distance. He was strong, he was striking. Unique and mysterious with his strange ownership of two identity disks. In his presence, he was a terrifying specter who could look at you and pierce you to your kernel data. Silent and intimidating, looming despite his rather average height.
But there were whispers from programs who watched and listened and learned. Those whispers spoke of the few words that Rinzler said, in echo other programs' speech, especially their Ruler, CLU. Not once did they hear him speak of his own accord, despite the fact that Rinzler was obviously frighteningly intelligent, in defiance of his stubborn core deep wounds that could have made him less than nothing.
When he wasn't out searching and derezzing, or slaughtering his way through the rogue programs in the Games with vicious efficiency… he was… kind, despite that ever present stuttering growl, that sometimes, on the rarest of occasions, smoothed out slightly and resembled something more of a purr, coming from a system that knew no other way to show contentment.
In some ways, despite the potential for sedition, they held him even higher in their regard than they did their Ruler. Rinzler was many things: merciless, abrupt, callous, frightening, brutal, but he was there, and they could behold him, unlike their often elusive Ruler. And he was always, always honest, in silence and in deed there was not even the tiniest spark of deception in him.
He was their champion, their intimidating, violent, taciturn guardian and they loved him for who and what he was.
What they didn't know was, deep within the damaged program a similar love for them burned inside him.