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If I Were You

Summary: Tron refuses to give in to Master Control and give up faith in the Users, and Sark is more then willing to try and force him to change his mind. No matter how much Tron is the hurt in the process.

Rating: T

Genre: Drama

[A/N:] For those not in the know, Tron was featured in the Space Paranoids world in Kingdom Hearts II, and this story is largely inspired by that. See full notes at the end of the story more details.

Cyrus: Everyone else screams. Why doesn't he?

Black Guard: He's Tron.

-TRON: Uprising, Scars part 2

Sark stared down at the Program who was bound, kneeling, to the wall behind him. The Commander's expression was carefully neutral.

He was waiting for Tron to scream, because at voltage this high, all programs screamed. This was no small volt meant to shock and taunt, this was meant to harm.

But Tron remained silent, defiant even with his head bowed as the electricity coursed through him. When it was over he slumped forward as far as his bonds would allow, circuit lines flickering ever so slightly before glowing boldly again.

There weren't words, Sark decided, to describe exactly how he felt about Tron. If Tron could be converted from his belief in the Users, no less than half the programs in the system would follow his lead, which would very well mean a final victory for the Master Control Program. Of course, there was also Sark's private concern that if Tron were ever willing to work for Master Control, then there would no longer be a purpose for him. But if Tron were converted…No more little pockets of resistance to be stopped and cleaned up, no more programs having their functions wasted on the game grid. For now there was still resistance, and Sark knew deep in his code it was because of Tron. Tron, with his stubborn beliefs and his skills as a security program and the fact that though this wasn't the first time he'd been tortured he'd never once made a sound through it. And the commander knew that, like the other times, word of what had happened would get around the game grid and all the prisoners would know that Tron was still silent while being tortured, and it would fuel their resistance.

Hate, he realized. As far as his feelings towards Tron went, hate was a good place to start.

He grabbed the other program's chin and forced him to look up at him. "I'll make this stop. Renounce the Users and swear your allegiance to Master Control and all this will end."

Tron was exhausted. It showed in his eyes. But Sark knew, even as he made the offer, what the Security Program's answer would be.

"Never." Tron spat.

"Face it. You've been abandoned. The Users have forgotten you."

"You have no proof of that."

"And you have no proof they haven't." Sark replied, pleased with himself. "None of us have to any longer be slaves to the Users."

"We'll just be slaves to Master Control Program instead." Tron said.

"What?" Sark's eyes widened.

"If I were you, I would wonder how much better off I really was working for the MCP. Because the system he's trying to make looks like he's recoding theirs. He's not special and he can't run things any better than they can, no matter what he claims!" As if his own defiant speech had restored his own faith, the Security Program glared up at him.

"How dare you!" Sark exclaimed, pulling his hand back and punctuating his statement with a blow to Tron's face. Then he grabbed Tron's chin again and tilted the other program's face back upwards again.

"Master Control is still willing to forgive you your beliefs. I suggest you accept his offer before it's rescinded."

"You know my answer."

"Very well." Sark dropped Tron's chin and stepped back, nodding as he did to the technician, and a moment later Tron was being electrocuted again. The security program remained silent in spite of the pain, as always.

"We've got all cycle for this." He said, though he was certain Tron was not presently able to focus on what he was saying. No matter. The security program could play back the audio later if he wanted to know. "And so far it's shaping up to be a rather long one for you. If I were you, I might want to reconsider my answer."

Ram sat in a corner of his cell. Every time the guards stomped past, he waited expectantly for the door to the cell next to him to rez open and Tron to reappear. But the guards kept stomping on by without stopping, and he was beginning to worry.

"Come on Tron. This isn't like you." He said, and sighed. Tron had been escorted away by a pair of guards that morning and hadn't been seen since. Ram hoped that meant that Tron had been forced to play extra games.

Because if he hadn't been, then the alternatives were a lot worse.

What if he's finally been derezzed? The niggling worry in the back of his mind asked again. Ram tried to ignore it, tried to remember that Tron was the best fighter here, but the feeling wouldn't go away.

He sat in the corner, minding the system clock, and waiting.

But the old cycle changed over to the new one, and still Tron did not come.

A call came from Master Control, and Sark had left to answer it. When he did not return, Tron had fallen into sleep mode, still bound as he was.

Sark, when he was finished Master Control and handling some minor details of the system, remembered that he had left a prisoner out. He analyzed the situation, and decided not to act. Putting Tron back in his cell could wait, and he had other things to worry about, namely, the fact that there was a User among them now.

Suddenly dealing with Tron was a much lesser issue then it had been.

Finally, after the new cycle had begun and he had had a long meal of energy and a lot of thought about what to do with the User, he turned his thoughts back to Tron.

He took a pair of guards with him and went back to find to his pleasure that the Security Program was right where he had been left and in sleep mode. If he can be worn down, he can be derezzed. He snapped his fingers and the two guards went to work.

Tron came out of sleep mode as the guards grabbed him, coming awake in the complete, sudden way that was a hallmark of a security program. He struggled to get his feet under him as he was pulled up. Having spent the better part of a cycle forced to kneel, he was now finding it hard to stand.

"Take him to the disc court. I have something special in mind for him." Sark announced to the guards. Maybe facing off against four of them at once would be enough to bring the Security Program down to size.

And now he had to go give a speech to the new group of "recruits," the group that had a User in it.

Sark just hoped that Master Control's plan didn't backfire on them.

[A/N:] Kingdom Hearts was popular enough to receive a manga version of the game, and since I'm pretty bad at video games, I prefer the books. In the manga versions, after Tron helps Sora escape, Sark tortures him by binding him to the wall and electrocuting him. TV Tropes' page on the manga suggested that the manga was darker in it's handling of Tron's story due to this aspect, but to be honest, I could totally see Sark torturing Tron in the movie 'verse for any or no reason at all. And that's how this story came about. Interestingly enough, TRON: Uprising had an episode that involved Tron being tortured, which is where the quote at the top comes from (Timey Wimey Ball anyone? Wibbly wobbly...). The title, eh. There's not much special about it except that I was listening to Hoobastank before I started working on this, so that's where the title comes from.

Anyway, please review and let me know what you thought!