Cyclic Storm

Summary: After the ISOs, but before the coup, Clu tries to make Flynn understand that his hands-off method of managing the Grid isn't working. Naturally, Flynn doesn't listen.

Genre: Drama

Rating: K plus

[A/N:] As with Return Zero, in this fic a Cycle is about year in Grid time, a millicycle is closer to a day for the purposes of this story, and microcycle is closer to minute.

Cyclic Storm - [Meteorological term.] A thunderstorm that undergoes cycles of intensification and weakening ... Cyclic supercells are capable of producing multiple tornadoes … and/or … bursts of severe weather.

Definition from Weather Underground's Severe Weather Glossary.

Clu leaned against the wall in the silent room and wondered if Kevin would make good on his promise to be "back ASAP" or if it would be another dozen cycles before the User reappeared. Distantly he was aware that when a User said "ASAP" they intended to hurry, but there was quite a chasm these Cycles between Kevin Flynn's intentions and the outcomes.

Personally he hoped that Flynn would hurry because he would rather watch another swarm of Gridbugs tear down half the Grid then have to go to Yori and confess what had happened.

There was a desk at the far end of the room and an examination bed in the center of it. Tron was lying on the bed, on his side. The arm that he had lost in battle had been restored but he was continuing to glitch and it was this fact that had necessitated Flynn's hasty departure from the Grid. The creator of the Grid had cited a need to talk to Tron's User and departed for the Portal. While Flynn was gone it was Clu's job to make sure Tron stayed in standby mode and with any luck, keep any other Programs from learning what had happened to Tron.

Clu stood guard by the door, the white circuits in his armor casting more light onto the table, and watching the circuits on the other Program brighten and dim. He stewed over his irritation. He had alerted Flynn four times to the ever-increasing problems with Gridbugs that both had and spread a viral contamination in the Cobalt sector, and he knew that Tron had warned the User at least as many times as Clu had.

And yet here we are. Clu thought venomously, and toyed with the idea of telling Yori exactly what had happened to her counterpart and whose fault it was.

There was a tapping on the door. "What is it?" He called.

The voice of one of the Sentries came through the door. "Sir, you asked to be alerted when the Portal reopened. It just did."

So Flynn did make it back in a timely manner. Clu had the sudden thought of Tron, after hearing good news that Jalen had survived a Gridbug attack, saying "thank the Users," and thought the sentiment was fitting here.

But Clu didn't feel much like thanking the Users, and especially not his User.

"Good. You may return to your post." Clu said, and heard the other Program depart. He looked back at Tron and sighed. "It's almost over."

The Security Program was silent. Only the dimming and glowing of his circuits showed that he was still functioning.

"The thing of it is, man, neither of us should be here." At least Yori hadn't come looking for her counterpart yet. Clu could predict how the discovery of the millicycle's events would have gone, and it would have been ugly.

A few microcycles later, Flynn entered the room. "Hey hey hey, you're still here."

Despite his best efforts, Clu felt his irritation surge to the front of his processes. "You told me to stay here Flynn. Did you make contact with Tron's User?"

"I did. I know what I need to repair Tron now. Let's bring him out of standby." Kevin said, gesturing at the table.

Clu shook his head but stepped forward in case he was needed. Kevin laid a hand on Tron's shoulder, and used the contact to initiate an energy burst to disrupt the standby process.

Tron's blue eyes flickered open, but there was no sudden recognition in them; none of the immediate awareness of surroundings and process lists that a Security Program should have.

"Welcome back man!" Kevin said cheerfully.

Tron looked confused. "Alan-1?"

"I spoke to him today. He gave me a message to bring to you. See?" Kevin held the memory card up, waving it in front of the Program. "As soon as we get you repaired you can take a look at it. What do you say?"

Tron continued to stare at him.

Clu made an irritated sound. "His processes are still malfunctioning, Flynn."

"Can you go back into standby, Tron?" Kevin asked, but the Program continued to give him a blank look.

Kevin sighed. "Okay. I'm sorry about this Tron." He reached behind the Program and pressed a hand, hard, against Tron's disc dock. A moment later the Program shut down.

"He's in timed shut down." Clu said, hostility obvious in his voice. "He'll wake up in a few microcycles."

"That's plenty of time." Kevin said, rolling Tron onto his stomach. He tucked the memory card he was holding into Tron's hand and closed the Program's fingers around it before he pulled Tron's disc off and accessed the code inside.

Clu watched and wondered what it would be like to be Tron and have a User that he could look up too. "Flynn, I tried to tell you that the Cobalt sector has the worst Gridbug infection in the system. Look at what they did to Tron, and he's the fortunate one. The other security Programs are cubes now. Not only are these Gridbugs more severe – they're contaminated with some kind of virus - they're the most dangerous thing over in that sector."

"Relax Clu, you worry too much. I talked with Radia and she's got some ideas that might help us."

Clu briefly debated the merits of explaining to Flynn the exact value of Radia's last idea (and how long Tron had been doing cleanup work from it. He and Jalen had laughed the whole thing off while they worked on undoing the damage but Clu hadn't found it as funny.) "We don't need more ideas Flynn. We need action. We need something done now to protect the Programs who are trying to live there."

"When I'm done here we'll take a look at it." Kevin said, sorting through Tron's code and making another repair.

The Administration Program perched on the edge of the desk, set one foot on the chair, and frowned. Kevin didn't notice. He was preoccupied with the streams of code that radiated out from Tron's disc.

The User was clearly going to repair Tron before he did anything else. That was good. Clu told himself. It was good that their creator took these things in order; the Grid functioned poorly without its Hero, its Champion. When Flynn was done, they would look at the other things that needed taken care of for the Grid. In the meantime, Clu told himself, he would be patient for a little while longer.

The microcycles ticked by as Kevin tinkered with Tron's code and Clu watched while idly organizing in his mind the list of things that he wanted Kevin to look at.

"There!" Kevin's voice broke the silence as Tron's disc closed up. He stepped to the Security Program and reattached the disc. "That oughta take care of everything. He'll be fine once he reboots!"

"Good. Flynn, I wanted to talk to you about the Cobalt Sector. I was thinking that it might be best if you helped me a code a new containment wall to keep the Gridbugs under control-"

"Hold onto that thought Clu. there's a couple of things yet that I want to deal with first. Alright?" Kevin laughed. "Don't worry. If it's a wall you want you'll get it. I have to talk to Radia. See in a few minutes, all right?"

He didn't give Clu time to answer, instead vanishing out the door. Clu watched him go, unsure of whether or not he should follow. He scowled and sent out a communiqué for the sentries on the security feed. Two of them arrived moments later and he met them out in the hall.

"Is Flynn still here?" He asked, even though he knew what the answer would be.

"No sir." The one replied.

Figures. Clu thought bitterly. "I want two of you stationed here. Tron will be out in a few minutes. I want two more of you to go keep on eye on Flynn so he won't get himself killed. Send someone to find Shaddox. I need to talk to him. "

"Yes sir." They replied.

Clu watched one of the guards go to stand by the door and the other hurry away. He turned, irritated, and strode down the hall in the other direction.

You say you want me to create a perfect system, Flynn, but you won't help me do it.

I am starting to feel like I'm going to have to do that on my own.

[A/N:] My private head cannon on how Clu was at least partially able to able to reprogram Tron was that he had either Kevin's memories of upgrading Tron to bring the Security Program into the Grid or that he'd watched Kevin do some kind of repair work on Tron. So when this idea popped into my head last night I ended up writing it down.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it. Before I close we need to have a Review Rant: Listen, I appreciate you folks who keep favoriting my stories. It means a lot to me that you liked my writing so much that you did that. But I would appreciate it if before you hit the "add to favorites" button you would review. Return Zero is a great example of this. I'm really glad people liked it so well, but it would have been nice if they had told me what they liked so I knew where my strong points were, especially because Return Zero was a very long time in the making. I'm sure I am not the only author who feels this way, either. Please, leave us feedback. For me the most fun part of doing this is seeing what people had to say about my story once they were done reading it.

So please leave a review. Feedback is fantastic. I hope you enjoyed Cyclic Storm.