Authors Note: I don't own TRON or any affiliated merchandise, etc. Everything belongs to Disney and co.
Tron lived. Badly damaged and almost incoherent, but alive.
He didn't know how many millicycles had passed since he'd been betrayed, imprisoned, and tortured. His code had been so badly corroded that sometimes his memory slipped and he confused the present with some past event. Then, when his mind came back to the present, he would strike out in fear and confusion at the sight of a Red Guard standing over him. He always felt guilty when he finally remembered that Cyrus was no enemy.
The repurposed program had stayed by Tron's side ever since the guard had overcome his programming and rescued the badly injured security program from the Recognizer. Cyrus had even gone so far as to re-vitalize Tron with his own energy, in order to keep him alive. They had figured out when Tron nearly shut down that someone had tampered with his coding, beyond just destroying it, adding a new matrix that would cause Tron to derez if he ran completely out of energy.
But there was only so much one simple program could–Cyrus could not fix Tron's damaged code, only keep it from corroding further by giving him energy. It was a struggle for Tron to even continue functioning at minimal levels. He knew that they had to find a pure source of energy somewhere in this snowy wilderness, before Cyrus drained himself completely. And both of them knew it had to be soon.
"Cyrus," Tron said weakly, "Where are we?"
"In a cave about thirty parsecs from Argon."
"…Argon?"
"It's an outskirt city. Clu doesn't any presence there yet."
"I know," the security program replied a little laboriously. It wasn't that he hadn't known what Argon was, he was more just surprised how far he was from Tron City. But in many ways, he was relieved. He knew perfectly well that the only way for him to survive was to stay as far away from Clu's watching eye as possible. And there was something else…
"Cyrus, there's a…a base that Flynn had built out here that, I'm pretty sure, Clu doesn't know about. It's about twelve parsecs outside Argon. It has a healing unit that can sustain both of us."
"All right." Cyrus frowned as he calculated the distance, as well as how much energy he had left. "I can get you there."
Tron tried to sit up, but collapsed before he'd even lifted himself a few inches. Cyrus put a warning hand on Tron's undamaged shoulder and said, "You're in no condition to be moving on your own. Let me give you some more of my energy."
"No!" Tron grabbed Cyrus' arm and said as firmly as he could muster, "If you do that, you won't even make it ten parsecs. I'll be fine. I won't run out of energy for another couple millicycles."
Cyrus was hesitant, but acquiesced simply because it was Tron. "If you say so." He pulled out his baton and activated his lightcycle. "Come on."
Tron mustered as much strength as he could into his legs, so that he could limp his way over to the lightcycle, leaning on Cyrus the whole way. Once Tron was secured behind him, Cyrus activated the bike and sped off into the Grid outlands.
They hadn't gone more than eight parsecs before Tron collapsed, tumbling off the cycle and rolling several feet in the snow. Cyrus deactivated his bike and ran back to where the security program had fallen. Tron's circuits were flickering dangerously, and he was gasping for air.
"You lied to me," Cyrus said angrily, lifting Tron into his arms. "You knew you wouldn't last another millicycle without a recharge."
"Doesn't…matter. We won't make it anyway…if you don't conserve your energy."
"Darn it, Tron! You're the hope of the Grid, not me! You're the one who needs to survive this."
Unable to resist, Tron could only verbally protest as Cyrus placed both of his palms on Tron's chest, channeling his remaining energy into the program's deteriorating body. Tron could feel the strength returning to his weakened limbs, but at the same time he could sense Cyrus' energy was being drained to levels too low to sustain the program's system.
"Stop, Cyrus!" Tron pleaded. "You'll derez yourself if you don't!"
"I don't care," Cyrus answered, his breath coming in shallow gasps, the glow of his circuitry fading. "You have to live. The Grid has to know…Tron lives."
When he finally had the strength to move, Tron forced Cyrus' hands off of him and tried to give back some of the lost energy before the program derezzed.
"Tron…use my baton…with just one passenger, you'll get to that base…in no time."
"No, Cyrus. We'll go together."
Tron knew it was a lie the moment it left his lips. He could already see the glowing gridlines of Cyrus' data appearing on the dying program's chest. It was too late for an energy transfer; Cyrus wouldn't be able to handle the sudden surge of power. He would derez immediately.
"Yeah, sure." Cyrus smiled. "And we'll start the revolution." The smile on his face faltered as his body slowly began to crumble apart. "Tron?" Cyrus' voice was beginning to sound more scratchy as his functions shut down.
"Yeah?"
"You'll beat Clu, won't you?"
"Of course I will," Tron answered, trying show the despair he felt at this moment, as his only ally was derezzing.
"…good." The dying program shut his eyes, and waited for the end to come.
Only moments later Tron was alone, on his knees amidst a scatter of data cubes that had once been a brave program.
The security program tilted his head back and let out a bellow of rage that could in no way relieve the guilt that he felt.
He had been created to protect the Grid–that had been his sole purpose in existing. He had failed in that one duty, and had allowed Clu to take control of the Grid. And now, he had failed to protect just one program.