Tron: Rebellion

By: Shadow Chaser

Author's Notes:

This story covers the entire comic, Tron: Betrayal, flashbacks from Tron: Legacy, and my own story Tron: Adagio. The scenarios of the game Evolution are not mentioned in here as I did not play the game. All characters are not mine, they belong to Disney.

Summary:

This is a five chapter short story taking place in between Chapters 16 and 17 of Tron: Adagio. Tron did more than protect the Isos. He began to secretly aid the growing rebellion against Clu and his regime. Does not include the scenarios for Tron: Uprising.

Story:

Act 1 – Spider's Web

Music: ENCOM Pt. 1

She pounded on the door frantically, her breath coming in gasps as she hoped someone would answer. "Come on," she muttered, glancing behind her as she continued to pound. Her fists were hurting by now, but finally she heard the bolts click and stopped her frantic pounding. The door opened and even before she was able to see the face that greeted her she shoved herself into the crack and pushed the door close behind her.

"Whew," she gasped, giving the person who had let her in a crooked smile, "thought I was going to be rectified out there."

"Do you even know what time it is right now Ariadne?" the person muttered, sounding exhausted and even yawned loudly, "Creator all mighty…"

"Hey, remember what Ophi said? No swearing!" she chided her companion before placing an arm around his shoulder and nudged him back deeper into his house, "now dear program-brother of mine, would you like to know what I got this time?"

"Oh, let me guess, a new security code to break the barriers holding the prisoners and like last time, it will not work and we'll be doomed to run to another safe house and hold up there for cycles on end," he groused.

"Silly Leto, not this time," she guided him into a chair in the kitchen before bustling over to grab a glass and filled it with some pure energy to which she downed in several gulps before shivering at the abrupt renewal of her command lines and processes. Turning, she saw that Leto was staring at her, his eyes wide before the hint of a smile appeared on his lips.

"Really?" he sounded a little more awake now, "you really did it?"

"Stole it from Central Control myself," she grinned, pouring another glass of pure liquid energy before sipping it, "wasn't easy, but hey, I told you I could do it."

"And you didn't even get caught? Not even by the high and mighty security program himself?"

She snorted into her glass, "Tron? No…I was able to compel a few gridbugs to distract him and a couple of unit of security guards to chase after those horrid things."

"Ari, if Ophi finds out you've done that…"

"She won't," she gave him a steely glare behind her glass as she drank the rest of the liquid energy, "will she?"

"Not from me," he held up his hands away from his body, "you should know that sister."

"Good," she set the glass down before a wide grin appeared on her face and she impulsively bent down and hugged him, "this is our chance, Leto. Our best chance yet!"

"So," he returned the hug before she sat down next to him, "tell me, how you got in and out of Central Control without anyone noticing you?"

"Not quite, Leto, I did have some pursuit, but I think I lost them when I entered our sectors," she shook her head, "it was hard, but Shaddox's building codes worked perfectly."

"So when do we make our move?" he asked, his lips twitching with a grin of anticipation.

"I say we go now, before they realize that the codes are compromised," Ariadne suddenly shook her head as Leto got up from his chair and moved towards a communication outlet, "we can't let any of the others know. Not this time…"

"Why not?" he frowned at her.

"They'll know that it's another raid if we bring the others! Then these codes will be for nothing!"

"Ari, there are a lot of guards in there…" Leto looked at his program-sister, worried, "even I know that neither you nor I are that good. Cesta's taught us all that we know-"

"Which is why we have to do this now Leto," she looked at him her eyes imploring, "if not for the others, but for Cesta's memory."

"He's not derezzed-"

"He might as well be after being rectified by Clu," she shot back.

He sighed shaking his head before looking at her. "All right, let's do it."

"Yes!" her smile returned in full force before she grabbed his hand and practically dragged him out of the door.

Tron delivered the coup de grace on the final gridbug by smashing it with the heel of his boot, an electronic squawk issuing out from underneath before he looked around, his disc held aloft, wary for anymore gridbugs. They had appeared out of nowhere, attacking Sector 34 with such ferocity that he had not seen in a long time. He had thought that there was a gridbug leader amongst them, but none existed when he had arrived on the scene.

Shaking his head, his passive sensors pinging back an all-clear he holstered his disc once more and placed a hand on a nearby pillar, deactivating the security force field he had erected to prevent any regular program from entering. It had done its job at containing the gridbugs to several blocks within the sector so he did not have to go chasing after them. In the many cycles since the poisoning of the Sea of Simulation, the attacks made by gridbugs had lessened which had only served to further his suspicions that the gridbugs were from the Sea. But he still could not break into their shielding and scan their code and since they were few and far in-between, he had not had the chance.

The attack just now had been a bit odd. He was able to scan the gridbugs, but they did not even have shielding upon them and they read like ordinary programs. In the middle of his battle, he had tried to trace the origin and source of the programming, but his own skill and efficiency at derezzing the things had worked against him. It also did not help that they had swarmed him, forcing him to derezz them as much as possible before they could injure him.

"Security breach, prison block 1138," one of the Guards alerted him through his ear and he tapped back.

"Notify Clu and deploy units, I am on my way," he grabbed his baton and split it in half, forming his lightcycle before speeding off, headed back towards the central area of The Grid. This could not be a coincidence.

Clu had ordered Shaddox to build a prison facility to hold those he had deemed to be terrorists and rebels against the perfect system. Tron had protested, but after several guard towers had been destroyed around the city and several civilian programs injured, he had withdrawn his protest in light of the need for a place to hold those who tried to disrupt the security and safety of The Grid. However, he had only entered the facility once and it was to memorize the layout. Clu had all but barred him from entering the other time, saying that his presence was detrimental to the prisoner's rehabilitation.

He had a feeling that it was more of Clu's attempt to rectify the prisoners' functions ever since he had been unable to stop Cesta's rectification.

He arrived shortly at the checkpoint and got off of his lightcycle, sticking his baton back in its usual spot. "What's going on?" he asked as he saw the units of Guards he had ordered deployed to the prison area standing about.

"We've been ordered to cordon off the area, sir," one of the Guards spoke up.

"Why? The prisoners may have escaped and there are programs in there who may be threatened-"

"I ordered it," Clu's authoritative voice made Tron turn to see the senior program walking towards them, dressed in his yellow-black armor. Several Guards stood behind him, wielding staffs and while their faces were hidden behind the helmets they wore, their body language radiated their intent to harm any program that would even try to attack Clu.

"Clu-"

"I have reason to believe that the prison has been compromised and must be demolished," Clu overrode him easily and Tron stared at him.

"What?"

"You heard me," the program stared at him and he thought he saw the ghost of a smile on his face, but perhaps it was just a flicker of a corrupt file or something. "We do not know how many of the prisoners have escaped, but I have reason to believe based on the protocols written for the prison that the best solution would be to demolish the building."

"And all of the Isos in it," Tron narrowed his eyes.

"They have disrupted the safety and security of The Grid itself; surely it would serve a better purpose if they were not allowed the chance to cause mischief anymore?" Clu raised an eyebrow at him, his tone simple.

"That's killing them outright! And we have fellow civilian programs in there! You would sacrifice them too just to eliminate all of the...criminals...in the prison?"

"Such sacrifices must be made for the greater good, Tron," Clu replied.

"I've had enough of this," he shook his angrily; appalled that Clu could even think of such a thing, "You will not demolish the building. There are innocents in there." He unholstered his disc and giving one final look at Clu, daring him to contradict or stop him from doing his duty, before brushing past the line of Guards and headed in. As soon as he got into the door he saw several Guards lined up against the wall, peering beyond some pillars deeper in. Some of them held discs while others held staffs and the occasional sword.

"Level schematics sir," one of the Guards spoke up, his helmet disappearing as he held his disc aloft towards him, a small projection of the various levels of the prison visible.

"Thanks," Tron reached his fingers into the prison schematic and downloaded it to his own disc. He rarely had any help from the Guards themselves, most of them blindly following orders ever since Flynn created them to help patrol and protect the various sensitive areas of The Grid itself. This one though, seemed...different.

"Phoebus," the program deactivated the projection, but held onto his disc as he introduced himself; "my unit was the first on the scene. We waited for orders inside, but since Clu has ordered the demolition-"

"Not if I can help it," Tron cut him off a bit roughly before stalking forward, "your schematic says that the Iso prisoners are held several levels above near the secondary catwalks. How many Guards are stationed up there?"

"Lei is holding my second team up there," the Guard ran to catch up with him.

Tron touched a nearby pillar and activated the emergency protocols within the building and surrounding area. The processes of all the Guards in the vicinity flooded into his own audio filters, but he was used it and shoved it under several layers of encryption so he would not be distracted.

Lei, take your team to level four and await my orders, he ordered over wireless. To Phoebus he tilted his head, "Do not kill any of the Isos. Do you hear me?"

"Yes sir," the Guard replied and the rest of his unit also nodded their assent. He repeated his order to the second team and got a curt assent back. He directed part of the unit towards a secondary stairwell while he took the primary one and left at least two Guards back at the elevators in case any of the Isos were to take that suicidal escape route to the ground floor.

As they headed up, Tron overlaid the schematic through his eyes at brief intervals coming to a halt as they reached the level where the Isos were. Entering the floor, he saw that shards of data cubes and several discs were on the ground, civilian programs and prison guards killed by whoever was attempting to free the Iso prisoners. He gestured to two of the Guards to pick up their fallen comrades discs, knowing that they would have to be given to their next-of-kin programs after Clu was done examining the data left behind.

Continuing on, he thought he saw a brief movement beyond a secondary door and hurried towards it.

Multiple contacts! We need reinforcements up here! Lei's strained communication suddenly broke through the wireless.

"Get your team up there," Tron ordered Phoebus who hesitated.

"But sir, what about-"

"Get up there! We need to contain the situation!" he shook his head before the program nodded once and redirected his team back towards the stairs to take them to where his second-in-command was.

Switching his disc to his dominant left hand, he overrode the protocols on the door and opened it with a definitive click. If the majority of the prisoners had overwhelmed Lei's position that meant that it was a diversion. The more important Iso prisoners were located here, or at least those that Clu had deemed serious offenders and were subjected to either deresolution or rectification. Tron activated the masking subroutine that all but made him seemingly invisible. He disliked using it, preferring to have a more pronounced presence so that all citizens of The Grid knew that he was amongst them, protecting them, but in this case, he wanted to make sure that the perpetrators did not have a chance of escaping.

"...hurry up!" whispered voices came from around the corner, "I thought I heard someone come in the door."

"I'm trying, it's hard you know!" a frustrated voice replied, "This isn't the easiest to hack!"

Tron slid up against the wall and peered out. Down the hall were at least four Isos still in their cells, all of them eagerly lining up against the doors, waiting for the opportunity where two Isos were trying to override the security protocols to deactivate the electrical field that surrounded the cells. Any prisoner attempting to escape would receive a jolt enough to shut down their command lines and leave them paralyzed for several centicycles. It was an ingenious design by Clu that Tron recognized from a modification of the MCP's old cells in the old system. Clu had probably picked up the design from whatever Flynn had given to him when he created him so long ago.

The two Isos hoping to free their compatriots were male and female. The male one was attempting to hack into the system while the female looked worriedly on, her disc activated, the buzzing sound echoing in the hall. He shook his head wordlessly as he watched them. From what he was able to passively scan because of their advance shielding, they were only children, barely created before the poisoning of the Sea of Simulation.

He expected the older Isos to be involved in a rebellion against Clu, but now even children? He made his decision; better to be scared off than to be captured by Clu and face imminent deresolution. Activating his own disc with a buzzing hiss, he threw it towards the two Isos, watching it ricochet off of the cells, startling the two of them. Stepping forward at the same time, he deactivated his subroutine and caught his disc easily in his hand.

"...Tron," the female Iso whispered before her face twisted into an ugly furious expression, "Damn you!"

"Leave now and I'll pretend I didn't see this," he ordered, letting some of the anger he felt at their actions bleed into his tone.

"Those bugs-"

"Ari, I'll handle this! You're better at hacking!" the male Iso suddenly grabbed her arm and forcibly knelt her down next to the glowing outline of what he had been trying to hack.

"Leto!" the female Iso, Ari or whatever her name was looked about to protest, but immediately stopped talking as he stepped forward and activated his disc.

Tron shook his head as he stared at the young Iso, "You don't want to do this Leto. Leave now with your friend and I won't even mention this to Ophelia." It was a bluff since he and Ophelia, the leader of all of the isomorphic algorithms, had not talked since they had parted ways many cycles ago, but the Isos did not need to know that.

"She's my sister and you're a hypocrite," Leto narrowed his eyes before suddenly throwing his disc at him.

Tron ducked under the disc before move to his left as the disc completed its apex and returned to the Iso who snatched it out of the air and charged at him. Outside of the arena, he could count on one hand how many times he had to draw his disc and actually fight against fellow programs. Fighting Isos was completely new and different, having stayed out of most of the conflicts between the Guard and pockets of occasional Iso protests.

It was not because he was not summoned or ignored the pockets of conflict, but he was either dealing with another problem or his presence more or less had basically stopped the conflict before it could escalate. Still he did not hesitate and acted, his skills and instincts built into his programming and honed by the cycles of combat in the arena, gridbug eradication, and defeating the MCP and Sark. He deflected the wild swing with the side of his disc, his leg coming up to kick the Iso in the stomach, making him stumble back a little before regaining his footing.

"You don't want to do this," he warned as the Iso spat out a wad of excess liquid-like energy to the ground from his forceful blow.

"You don't understand us at all," Leto growled out before charging at him again and to Tron's dismay, the same attack again.

He blocked the blow, swinging the program's arm wide, but suddenly leapt back as he realized that the program had only used one hand instead of both – his free hand holding a lit baton that swiped a blade down at him. Tron barely avoided the blade and brought his own disc up defensively.

"Not expecting that were you?" the Iso sneered triumphantly, pressing against the guard he had up.

Tron shook his head almost imperceptibly. He had hoped that the young Iso would give up, realize that he was fighting a losing battle and leave, but it seemed that the program was bent on making sure his compatriot succeeded in their plan. He did not want to do this, but he had no choice at this point. If the other Iso was a better hacker than this one then he would have to end this quickly before things got out of control.

He broke the stalemate and suddenly elbowed the program in the face, smashing his grin away before kicking him roughly in the inner thigh, making him howl in pain. Flicking his own disc a certain angle, he flung the Iso's disc away, before spinning and disarming the baton he had in his hand. His momentum also shoved the Iso backwards until he fell to the ground, stunned.

Tron stood over the Iso, his disc held at the program's throat, a grim expression on his face.

"Leto!" the female Iso's cry made him turn his head to stare at the stricken girl whose hands hovered above the panel.

"I'm asking you again, leave now and I won't report this to either Clu or Ophelia," he flicked his gaze between the two of them.

"Don't listen to him! Leave Ariadne!" the young program called out, straining underneath his disc.

"No...no," she shook her head, but started to back up towards the other end of the hall, "I'm not going to watch you be executed!"

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Clu's booming voice echoed from the entrance of the hall and Tron half turned to see the senior program walking in, Guards forming behind him. He silently cursed the foolishness and stupidity of the two Isos for not escaping sooner when he gave them the chance.

"You..." the visceral hate that emerged from Leto's mouth made him stare at the Iso he held under his disc with surprise, but what was even more shocking came next.

It was a circuit-chilling scream of anger and hate that emerged from the female Iso's mouth that made all them, all of the Isos still in their cells, the Guards behind Clu, even Clu himself, recoil. To anyone else, it would have sounded eerie, but to Tron, it sounded familiar. In that moment of hesitation, the Iso drew her disc and threw it towards the other entrance, utterly destroying it, before running through the escape route she had created.

I want her alive! Clu's command reverberated through the wireless as the Guards behind him surged forward in an effort to capture the young Iso girl. Tron stood up, holstering his disc as he pulled Leto to his feet and held his arm tight. They were ignored by the Guards as they passed by him to chase after Ariadne, but Clu stayed behind and approached them.

"Good job Tron," the program smirked at him and he bristled at the condescending tone. "Take him back to Central Control, I have a few questions for him regarding what's happened here," the program ordered and Tron raised an eyebrow.

"Wouldn't it be prudent to question him here? He-"

"And have everyone here sympathetic to him be allowed to witness it? No," Clu shook his head, "you can use the Recognizer I brought if you wish. I know how much you don't like those things..."

It took a huge amount of effort and a boost in his personal firewall not to voice a few choice User obscenities and phrases at Clu. He was not his lapdog, yet the senior program was treating him as such. Finally he managed to ground out, "I do not answer to you. He will be kept-"

"Where I deem it necessary to the safety and security of The Grid," Clu stared at him, his gaze level and steady, challenging him to defy the authority given to him by Kevin Flynn, the Creator.

"Then I would like to supervise the questioning of Leto," he tightened his grip on the young Iso's arm, knowing that somehow if the Iso was left alone, he would be neglecting his duty to protect every and all citizens on The Grid. He could not openly defy Clu, but he would make sure that Clu would be held in check when questioning the young Iso.

"If that's your wish," Clu agreed with a wave of his hand before walking away, his hand touching one of the blank walls and Tron felt the emergency protocols deactivate.

Clu was making too many changes to The Grid without Kevin Flynn's approval and he knew that it was up to him to make sure that the safety of everyone was still adhered to.

Author's Notes:

No, this is not Tron: Redemption, but consider it a side-story of sorts. The end results of this little short story will have an impact on Tron: Redemption when I eventually post it. Also, this can be considered either a drabble-like fic, or short story that fits between chapters 16 and 17 of Tron: Adagio. Visualizations for both Leto and Ariadne – Ellen Page exactly as she appears as Ariadne in Inception and James McAvoy exactly as he appears in Children of Dune mini-series. Music cues are semi-optional, but it gives you something to listen to and since here in the States we don't have access to that 2nd CD that was released in Europe, you can find the corresponding tracks on youtube.

Questions and comments, as usual, are always welcomed and I will respond to inquiries through reviews or PMs. See you next chapter!