Title: I Know....

Spoilers: Tron 2.0 Video Game

Author's Notes: For many fans of TRON, the video game TRON 2.0 was a worthy sequel. So, this story takes place just as Jet finds the TRON Legacy Code in the old mainframe and then immediately after the end of the game. Again, once I finished the game, I had the idea for this fic when I felt bad for the old program that decided to stay instead of trying to escape to the new system since it knew it would be obsolete in it.

I've tried several times to get FF.net to add a 'TRON' category, but so far nothing's happened. So, I can only add the story in the MISC section.

Jet stared at the glowing disk, hovering only feet from his head. Beside him, the old program, I-NO, was also staring at it – almost reverentially.

That's the TRON Legacy Code? Jet asked, nodding to the artifact.

"It sure is, stranger," replied his companion. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

Jet looked doubtful. "Why isn't it moving? Isn't it alive?"

I-NO chuckled. "The code is not compiled." Jet mentally kicked himself as he remembered all the hours of game programming he did for ENCOM. His reverie was cut short by the sudden lurching of the platform they were standing on. He grimaced when he realized that the mainframe was breaking down due to his over-clocking the system processor. I-NO stumbled a bit and Jet grabbed to steady him as a look of sadness came and went across the face of the old program.

Ma3a, unaffected by the quakes, floated over. "Jet, grab the Legacy Code! The system is becoming increasingly unstable!"

Jet nodded and reached up to grab the disk. As soon as his fingers clasped the artifact, he could instantly sense something – familiar about it.

Yeah, this definitely has my dad's handwriting all over it!

Another, more violent, tremor shook the directory complex that housed the code. Jet couldn't tell if it was his imagination or not, but he swore that the surrounding walls were starting to lose their consistency as well as fade in color.

All three of them made a run for the Data Port. They emerged just in time as the directory started to collapse in on itself. Off in the distance, Jet could see whole sectors of the system begin to derezz. He looked behind him and there, just a ways off, was the Exit Port out of the system.

"C'mon!" he yelled to his companions. All three made a break for it, but just as they neared, the port began to flicker dangerously. "Great!" Jet muttered furiously.

"Power is being lost due to the instability of the area! I'll see if I can reroute!" Ma3a floated over to the control buffer of the port and began to interface with it.

The voice of the OS could be heard above the din of the destruction: "Warning! Processor Stress Levels exceeding limits!"

Jet looked nervously around him, wondering if they'd make it out in time.

"Don't fret, stranger," said the old program. "The system may be old, but she'll hold; Long enough for you and that marvelously complex creature to leave."

Jet started at that last statement and looked at his companion.

"Come with us, I-NO," he offered. But the old program sadly shook his head. "I can't, stranger. I'd be swallowed up and derezzed before I could spit out my first routine."

A sudden explosion in the distance caught his attention and he could make out the main processor beginning to tear itself apart from the stresses of the over-clocking.

"This place," Jet began, tearing his gaze away, "there's not much time!"

The wise program shrugged ruefully. "Yes, but it's my home – a place that I know," he said with a tired smile.

Jet was sorely tempted to deck the old program and drag him to the port for his own good, but he knew the old program wouldn't last long in the newer system. He shuddered to think what the Kernel would do to someone like I-No and doubted the venerable program could handle being a fugitive.

The Exit Port suddenly flared back to life as Ma3a floated over. "It's the best I could do, but it won't last long!"

"All right," Jet said with a sigh and turned back to I-No. "Thanks for everything you've done. I won't forget you." He shook the others' hand.

"See that you don't!" I-No said with a grin.

"Jet, we must leave now!" Ma3a warned. Jet nodded one last time to the program and then he and the AI dived into the port.

I-No looked on as the Port sputtered and collapsed onto itself. All around him, debris and sparks reigned down as the EN12-82 mainframe breathed its last gasp.

Then everything flashed to white, then went black.

And I-No knew no more.

***

[Back in the Real World several days later]

Jet smiled as he settled back in his chair, having read the company email. Several days had passed since his incredible experience in the computer world and it still seemed so unreal to him. Real or not, it had its consequences: fCon had suddenly stopped all efforts to buy out the company. With their Mobile Server, Data Wraiths and even Thorne out of commission, the company had no way to gain access to ENCOM's digitizing technology. Not to mention, his dad still had the fCon team in a lab somewhere where it would take a good amount of time to separate those three people. Jet shuddered a bit, remembering his having to fight the…creature those three had become due to his dad's taking away the Correction Algorithms from fCon's servers. He looked back at the email. With the takeover now a bust, it seemed that the board of trustees were in need of someone to head the company, and from the looks of it, they found someone.

Would wonders never cease?

Jet frowned as he took off his glasses to polish them. It was too bad the digitization process couldn't have kept his corrected vision fixed in the real world. He put them on and focused a little on a movie poster with a character wearing a black trench coat and carrying a gun in each hand with a caption reading, 'I know kung-fu!'.

A soft knock made him turn in his chair and smile at his dad stood just outside his cubicle.

"Bad time?"

"Nah, c'mon in." Alan Bradley came and leaned on Jet's desk as his son gestured to the screen. "So, it's true?"

"You mean about Flynn coming back? Well, the board was able to officially hold off on the fCon takeover, but now they need to appoint someone, so I made a suggestion."

Jet leaned forward to look closely at his father. "Think he'll accept?"

His father shrugged. "Last I heard, he wasn't enjoying retirement too much. Plus, once I tell him about whom fCon's CEO is, I think he'll be more than eager to jump back on."

Jet frowned a little at the memory of the coldly British voice coming from the camera looking down on them once they'd materialized in the fCon labs. "Who was that guy, dad? You sound like you know him."

Alan frowned a bit. "I hope I'm wrong, but if it is who I think it is, then we haven't heard the last of fCon. I really don't want to say more until we talk with Flynn tonight."

"Waddya mean 'we', old program," Jet said with a grin.

"Wiseass," Alan said with roll of his eyes. "Anyway, he not only wants to talk to us tonight at his place about fCon, but also about our – experience out there." He gestured vaguely all around him, indicating the network.

"Cool," Jet replied. Ever since he was old enough to remember his godfather talking about his adventures in the system, he always thought the stories were a little – off. Now? Now, he could definitely relate, and from the expression he saw in his dad's face, he was thinking the same thing.

"So, I'll stop by the end of today and we'll head to Flynn's place," his father said. Jet smiled at that since it'd been a while since he'd stop by his godfather's Arcade/LAN Party Rental/Internet Café.

"Oh, one more thing! I almost forgot," his father said as he was looking into the pockets of his lab coat and pulled out a floppy disk. He handed it to Jet, who took it almost solemnly. "Not sure why you asked me for that. It's only an old directory program we used back when we were still using the mainframe; even before you were born." Jet said nothing but still looked at the disk.

His father crossed his arms and went on, "The funny thing is: I tried to find the original in our old mainframe but found out the system had burned itself out! So that," he pointed at the disk, "I was lucky enough to find from one of our old backups that hadn't been thrown out or erased." He stopped and looked shrewdly at his son. "I don't suppose you'd have any idea why an old system like that would've burned out?"

Jet looked back at his dad and merely shrugged with a lop-sided grin. His father merely sighed and mumbled something about hacking too many systems. With a shake of his head he left.

Jet stared a moment or two at the spot where his dad stood and then turned back to his workstation. With a smile, he popped the floppy into its drive.

Hey, if my dad could have his own AI like Ma3a, why can't I? Besides, I gave a promise.

He then cracked his knuckles and started to work on I-No 2.0.

~FIN~