AN: Tron is my favourite movie and I've always wanted to write something for it. While rewatching it the other day I was really struck by Ram's death scene (one of the most poignant and yet overlooked scenes in the movie) and just how that must have felt to him, and then this came to me. Second person drabble from Ram's POV, talking about his feelings and faith in the Users.
Disclaimer: I don't own it to my greatest misfortune. I do own a DVD copy of 2.0 that has been watched so many times it's ready to fall apart. Close enough.
Affirmative
You've always believed. Ever since you were a basic program, you knew that the Users were real. It was logic. You had to have come from somewhere. Existence didn't form from nothing. Somebody had to have created you, given you a purpose. The Users. You accepted the logic.
So you don't understand when the Master Control Program starts telling everyone that your logic is flawed. He says that the Users do not exist. Anyone who says otherwise is a heretic and will be taken into custody.
Some programs are outspoken. They renounce the Master Control Program in public domains. They light the boards with their support for the Users. It doesn't take long before they are taken away, sentenced to spend the rest of their cycles on the Game Grid.
You aren't one of these active conscripts. You are docile by nature and only choose action when necessary. It keeps you safe for a while, until they start questioning every conscript. Programs that you know start disappearing from the systems. When Commander Sark asks you, you tell him without shame that you believe. Your User created you and you feel you owe him your loyalty. If you are loyal then he will protect you.
And that's how you wind up on the Grid. You have a fast processor and it's what keeps you alive for so long. You see other conscripts come and go. It's inevitable that all will fail at some point. The only query is if you will fail with or without your belief. The mathematical logic is sound.
All except for Tron.
He fights for the Users. Bravely. Unwaveringly. Never once does he give up faith in the Users. There are times when you come close to losing your belief. He doesn't. He is not afraid to tell any conscripts who will listen about how he believes his User, which he calls Alan1, will help him to defeat the MCP. He is unlike any program you have ever known. He becomes a symbol; an unchanging protocol in these dark systems.
You are drawn to him, like a polaric charge. His faith and drive make you believe again. Remember what you fight for. Together you plan for the day when you will escape and continue your fight against the MCP.
Salvation comes in the form of a conscript called Flynn. He is strange. All programs are unsteady out of transit, but he appears to be entirely lost. Like his hard drives have been wiped completely.
But by the Users can he game. His efficiency matches Tron's. Behind the controls of a light cycle he functions at a level you have never seen. His processors observe multiple functions at once, speed and rationality beyond what they should. You do not know who this Flynn program is, but when he leads an escape you follow without hesitation.
All of your cycles you have believed in the Users. Your faith, although sometimes weakened, did not fail. When the time came you fought for them. You do not know that they exist but you accept the possibility. What is a system with paradox? Cycles of fighting and faith have led you to this moment.
You and Flynn have been separated from Tron. You do not know of his condition but you hope that he is well. However you are not. Your codes were damaged in the attack and you can feel your processors failing. It will not be long until you de-rez.
None of that matters to you now though. Because you have seen Flynn do things that no other program, not even the MCP, can accomplish. Flynn has powers and functions so much more advanced than a program should. He possesses the skill to create new protocols. And suddenly the conclusion is calculated for you.
Flynn is a User.
All of your cycles you have fought for Users whose existence you could not prove, and now you have fought beside one. Communicated, shared power sources, and travelled with a real, functioning User.
In that single moment everything that you have ever tasked for is validated. The Users are a truth. And now you may go and be at peace with that knowledge. You are not afraid anymore.
The Users are watching over you.