He felt like he was being lit on fire, electrocuted, and frozen all at the same time. Cold circuits crashed into warm flesh, and the two beings merged in a blinding flash of light. CLU stared into his Creator's blue eyes.
"We'll both die," he hissed. Flynn could barely see straight, but he spoke to CLU.
"If that's what it takes… Then so be it," he gasped. CLU dissolved into him and Flynn, for a moment, wondered what death would be like. His screams were muffled by the large eruption that shot forth from his chest as the two finally became one again. Flynn felt like his skull had spilt open and his face felt like it was melting. His entire body vibrated.
*This is it.* he thought. He opened his eyes with the last bit of strength he had, and saw his son and Quorra go through the portal. Smiling, he let himself fall into oblivion.
What he wasn't expecting, what had been the absolute LAST thing on his mind, had been to wake up afterwards. He gasped in the harshly metallic air and his eyes snapped open. It was all blurry, then he could make out a single shape above him with a very familiar 'T' pattern across it's chest.
"…TRON?" he asked, his voice hoarse and dry. TRON was hesitant in moving towards him, but did so anyway. He removed his disk from his back and Flynn's eyes got wide.
"TRON, it's me. It's Flynn," he said carefully. His voice was a bit less gravelly than before, and he wondered why for a moment, then dismissed it.
"…If you are Flynn, then tell me something that only Flynn would know. Tell me about the old grid." TRON said, disks still drawn and ready to use if need be. Flynn thought for a moment and then looked back up at TRON somewhat sadly.
"If I were anyone else, would I know about RAM?" he asked. TRON blinked and stared at him for a couple of seconds, and then let his shoulders relax as he put his disks down. Flynn looked at his friend confusedly.
"Why didn't you think I was myself?" he asked.
TRON looked him over. "Because you look like CLU."
Flynn was shocked, and he looked at his face in the reflected glass surface of the Solar Sailor and jumped a little bit. He looked like he did back when he had first entered The Grid.
"Must have been part of the process…" he said, more to himself than to TRON.
"Flynn… I'm sorry. About what I did," TRON sighed, his voice wavering a bit. Flynn looked at him and went to stand, but he shook violently and fell back down as his limbs were readjusting themselves after the shock.
"It - It's okay," he groaned, rubbing his back, "I know you didn't mean for it to happen. You couldn't help yourself." He realized he didn't just look younger. He WAS younger. His entire genetic makeup had been reformed to his first familiar age on The Grid. TRON looked at him and still couldn't believe he had survived that blast.
"No, I… Everything that I did. I knew… At least partially what I was doing," he said again, searching for the words that his mind didn't want him to say. He brushed his hair back put his hands on the back of his neck, "All those programs… and I, I derezzed them." Flynn could see his shoulders shaking slightly, and he reached out with his hand and patted him on the back.
"Hey, don't beat yourself up about it. What's done is done, and looking back at the past to relive your mistakes won't make it any better. Just… learn from it," he said, an TRON looked at him with wet eyes. His longtime friend.
"I tried to kill you, Flynn! You and your son! I could have!"
"But you didn't, and that's what I'm trying to point out, man!" Flynn said firmly as he looked TRON in the eyes, "you didn't do it, and that's what counts." TRON sighed heavily and closed his eyes, looking down at his feet. Flynn stared at him for a moment.
"I saw you fall. What happened?" he asked. TRON chuckled slightly as he wiped some stray tears from his eyes.
"Just my luck, I fell into the Sea of Simulation. It rebooted my systems and washed me up on shore. I had to hijack a recognizer just to get here," he laughed shortly.
"YOU hijacked a recognizer?" Flynn smirked, and TRON looked at him with a questioning gaze.
"Yeah? So, what?" he asked. Flynn chuckled.
"Nothing… I just never thought I would hear the day when the righteous, do-gooder TRON would ever hijack a recognizer," he said. TRON smirked and looked at him.
"Well, when faced with the question of how to get up here, I asked myself, 'How would Flynn do it?'" TRON teased and let his guard down. Then he looked at Flynn again.
"What happens now? We all but destroyed The Grid," he asked, looking towards the city and eyeing the destruction. Flynn also looked at it and gave a half-hearted smile.
"We've gotta rebuild it. Make another new system," he said, "just you and me. I'm not taking any more chances with CLU." Something inside of Flynn stirred angrily at that comment and Flynn took a deep breath. *He's still in there…*
TRON nodded. "Yeah, just like old times," he said, and held out a hand for Flynn to take. Flynn took the hand and let TRON help pull him up as he found the strength to lean of the railing of the Solar Sailor. Flynn nodded and smiled a little, putting an arm around TRON's shoulder.
"Just like old times."