Summary: After the events of Kingdom Hearts 2, Sora returns to dataspace to tell Tron what happened to Ansem.
"Hey, Tron."
Sora kicked the ground at his feet and blinked bright shapes from his eyes as Tron approached. The Dataspace was a strangely bright, yet dark world, so different to many of the others he'd seen. Today, it seemed more dark than usual. Maybe that was just him.
"Sora. It's good to see you." Tron blinked, "You're alone?"
"Y-yeah. Donald, Goofy and me…well, we've parted ways for a little while, now that the worlds are safe."
Tron smiled. "It's good to hear the User World is fine but…your friends?" he squeezed Sora's shoulder, "You miss them, don't you?"
"That's not…Well, I do. Really. But I know I'll see them again soon. Anyway, that's not why I'm here."
"Oh?" Tron raised his eyebrows. "Then why? It wasn't just to see me, I assume."
"No. W-well, kind of. Uh. I mean, I'd come see you without any reason to anyway but…" he broke off into a series of stuttering sounds.
Tron pressed his lips together. "Sora, I get the feeling something is wrong."
Sora licked his lips. "It's about Ansem."
Tron set his jaw. "Oh."
"Are you mad?"
"I told you before Ansem was once my User. We were friends, of sorts. Until he changed and brought back the MCP. I don't know what happened…"
"See, I do!" Sora blurted. His heart leapt to his throat. "That Ansem, the one who acted different, he wasn't really Ansem. He was someone else called Xehanort and he was pretending to be Ansem. He was the one causing the worlds trouble."
Tron's eyes widened. "So my User…was innocent?" he sighed, "And I suspected him. I should have known there was something more. I betrayed him."
"Come on. It wasn't your fault!" the last thing Sora wanted was Tron to blame himself for anything. This was hard enough already, "Xehanort gave us all the run around."
"I see. So your enemy was this…Xehanort?"
"Right. And, uh, the thing is…after we also found out what happened to the real Ansem."
Tron's face brightened and a huge grin spread across his lips. "You found him!"
Sora's chest stung. "Yeah."
"That's wonderful! How is he? Is he returning? I would like to work with him again. Oh, the things we could do together. He is truly a brilliant mind."
"Tron."
Tron, seeing the apprehension on Sora's face, returned his own expression to neutral. "What is it?"
"Ansem. He's…gone. I'm sorry."
Tron's face fell. "He's not returning."
"No."
"Why?"
"Tron, he's gone." Sora licked his lips. "There was an accident."
Tron shook his head. "I'm afraid I don't understand, Sora."
Sora steeled himself. "Tron, he's dead."
But Tron's expression didn't change. "I don't understand."
"You…" Sora blinked before he realised, "You don't know what death is."
"It must be a User-only concept, Sora. I am just a program. Please, explain it to me. Where is my User?"
My User. Sora screwed his eyes shut and turned away. He couldn't look at Tron. "Do programs ever stop working? Or disappear?"
"You mean derezzed – deleted." Tron's voice had gone soft. "Ansem the Wise has been derezzed."
"Uh, yeah." Sora glanced over at him, but Tron's back was to him. "He helped save the worlds."
"I see."
"…Are you going to be okay?"
"Yes." Tron still didn't turn around. "But, if you don't mind, I would prefer to be alone."
"Right." Sora glanced at his feet again, "See you around, Tron."
Nobody in Radiant Garden could access the computer that day.
