/Revolution/

He watched his comrades attentively.
After they had received an anonymous tip that their storehouse, their dwelling, would probably get ransacked by CLU's troops soon, they now tried to bring off all goods and databases, which could hint at individuals of the resistance. They hurried, since 'soon' was a very vague indication and they wanted to avoid an encounter with their opponents by all means. They were good at fighting, indeed, but CLU had enhanced his force levels the last hundreds of cycles because of the increasing number of revolutionaries. The Black Guards had become the most dangerous and feared unit on the Grid since takeover of the leadership of Rinzler many cycles ago. The members of this resistance here knew that they would have no chance against them.
Therefore, there were no hassles now, no 'Who said YOU were the boss here?!' when Bartik, who had a better overview of the resources and virtual information through his compiler nature than any other here, had told the others what to do. Quite the contrary, they had been glad that someone had assumed control so quickly, since this tip had frightened and rattled them all terribly. So it was too good that there was someone who was able to keep a cool head.
Now Bartik was sitting there, checking with his concentrated gazes if everyone did the right thing.
There he heard something crash. He turned his head quickly and spotted a program, hastily picking up the discs that had been in the box it had dropped. Bartik came over to help the nervous program.
"Stay calm.", he said in a soft but resolute tone.
"I try... but not all of us can stay as relaxed as you..."
Bartik sighed, while putting some of the discs in the box. "Believe me, noone here is relaxed. We must not let the fear control us, but also not suppress it. It should serve as incentive, in order to protect our live and those of all others..."
The program stared at him in amazement. "Wow... That was... really good! Maybe you ARE the born leader."
"No, no!", he laughed. "This saying isn't mine."
"Whose is it then?"
He paused shortly. "It's... Susan's."
The program looked at the ground sadly. "Oh yeah, I forgot that you fought in her resistance once..."
"Yes, I did..."
Bartik remembered exactly. He had been present at the founding of one of the first resistance groups that had not been headed by Susan, SUSAN herself, officially but she was still treated as a leader, since she had trained the members and coordinated their first 'missions'. At that time she had been known as Arris. Nobody would have guessed who, or better WHAT, she really was. But ever since his first little mission for the resistance, Bartik had known that she was different, the born leader...

Bartik walked along beside two others in excitement.
He and an other program of their organisation called Kyto had been chosen by Arris, the champion of the games, to sabotage the monitoring system of two watchtowers, so that their spies would have an easier job. At first he had felt honoured to undertake such a task, since he wanted to prove himself, now, though, he trembled in every limb. What if something went wrong? What if other programs would get derezzed due to him? What if HE would get derezzed?
They reached crossroads and stopped there.
Arris looked at both of them. "So, you know what you have to do?"
The two nodded.
"Alright. I don't want to detain you any longer. I'm sure you'll get the job done perfectly!"
Kyto smiled and turned around to proceed to business. Bartik, though, stood still, taking a deep breath. Then as he wanted to follow his comrade, Arris held on to his arm.
"Kyto, please prepare you light cycle in the meantime, yeah?", she said in a friendly tone.
He followed her instruction instantly.
She looked into Bartik's dark eyes. "At the training I had the feeling you were full of vigor and confidence... What's wrong now? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine...", he lied and could hear how weird he sounded himself.
But Arris didn't reproach him, as expected. She smiled at him in a kind way and lowered her voice, so that only he could hear, what she was saying. "Listen. Fear is the most natural feeling there is. It isn't bad to be scared at all, it is totally normal. One should just know how to deal with it. Y'know, we must not let the fear control us, nor suppress it. Fear should serve as incentive, in order to protect our live and those of all others. As long as it's a welcome guest to you, but doesn't gain the upper hand, everything is in balance. Okay?"
He gave her a fascinated look. "O-Okay."
Her smile became brighter. "Great. I'm sure you'll make it. Just heed what I told you. I trust you two." She looked over to Kyto, who had just checked his bike again. "Ready to rumble, Kyto?"
He held up his thumb with a wide grin.
"Well, then.." She looked into Bartik's eyes again and before she left, she said: "Good luck, guys!"
Kyto came to a stand next to Bartik, who looked after her.
Before that he had never known, what he was supposed to think ahout her, but now he saw why the others wanted her to help the resistance so desperately.
"I'm happy that she's with us...", he said.
"Yeah." Kyto took a deep breath, while staring at the smaller becoming figure as Bartik did. "She's special..." Then he turned away from her and strolled over to his light cycle. "C'mon, let's go."

"Man, it would be so much easier with her... If Susan was here, we probably would have hunted CLU down 500 cycles ago...", the program that lifted the now filled box up again interrupted his thoughts.
"Yeah, maybe..."
Suddenly a scream sounded, which ended with an electronic noise.
There the next screamed: "THEY ARE HE-*KRCHHH*!"
Frightened he spotted two Black Guards at the back of the hall that hurled their discs into his direction.
"WATCH OUT!", he shouted, as he threw himself and the other program to the ground. When he looked up again, he screamed: "ALARM! EVERYONE OUT OF HERE!"
Then he bobbed up, grabbing the arm of the other and ran as fast as he could. Again he heard the buzzing of a disc and suddenly the arm he had held was gone. While running he looked over his shoulder, seeing how the program he had talked to earlier became a heap of cubes.
He had to get out of here. But first...
Bartik turned left sharply into a narrow impasse, where a console stood in. Hastily he put his disc into the input of the console and frantically tipped on it.
"Download started", a soft voice of a woman announced now and a little beam on the screen in front of him slowly filled with light.
Once more a scream sounded and Bartik saw some of his collegues running past the impasse.
"C'mon, c'mon, COME ON!", he hissed anxiously.
A *BLUM* signalised him that the download completed. He grabbed his disc and again ran for his life. As he looked back, he recognised that the Black Guards and other sentries didn't follow him and the other two survivors.
They just walked over to one of the consoles in the Hall.
Jarvis, who had stood at the back the whole time, only viewing the spectacle instead of taking part, opened a screen and immediately found the wanted data.

/SOLAR SAILER DETOUR - CODE 4

He held his hand up to his war, activating the communication line to CLU thereby. "We have it."

"Ah, Zuse! To what do I owe the honor?", CLU asked in an amused tone, when he saw the furious program marching in.
"You erased them all!", he shouted, coming to a stand before CLU now.
"Oh, not all of them. I think three survived."
"Is that supposed to be your justification?!"
CLU's smile fell. "Why should I have to justify myself?", he said darkly. Then his mood lifted again and he grinned maliciously. "Besides, why do you get so upset anyway? YOU have been the one who led me to them!"
"I thought you would arrest them like the last ones, not butcher them in a massacre!"
Zuse desperately tried to control himself. He wanted to go for CLU's throat, wanted to let him feel the pain of his victims, if there wasn't his bodyguard Rinzler standing next to him, even slowly going into fighting position now.
"Since when are you so sensitive, man?", CLU laughed. "Are you relenting? Do you want to void our alliance after almost 800 cycles?" He took a short break, before adding threateningly: "... putting your club and your own life at risk?"
Zuse glared at CLU, who was standing on a small platform in the orange room. "I am not afraid of you.", he hissed.
"Of course not! Why would you be? I'm absolutely pleased with your work."
CLU eyed the program in white, which was now clenching its fists. It amused him to see how Zuse tried to act morally, but failing miserably in doing so, since he just always thought of himself first. He was an egoist, who made a profit from any information he received. Not like him, who was always putting the concerns of the citizens of the Grid before his own.
"They were members of a resistance, Zuse. Such programs have only of terror on their mind. Their death was essential for the development of the perfect system. They are dispensable. So, stay cool, man."
"The system is already taken to its maximum potential...", Zuse countered, forcing himself to calm down.
CLU smiled. "Not all parts of it. But we'll carry that off soon...
Zuse snorted and looked away. There he spotted a screen in front of one of the here working programs, showing something interesting. His anger flew away in a split second and yielded to his relentless curiosity.
"Is this what I assume it to be?", he asked, pointing at the screen with his glass cane.
"What do you me-?" CLU's smile faded. "That's none of your business! And now go and take care of your club!"
Zuse grinned and turned to got, but stopped after a moment, turning to CLU once again. "I might be of help."
"No, thanks. Just. Go."
"As you wish... But you ought to know that I already heard a lot about the Masterkey. I believe, I could procure it way faster than..." He gave Jarvis, who had been standing next to CLU the whole time, an amused look. "... your inept dogsbodies."
Jarvis wanted to protest, but CLU hushed him with a quick gesture of his hand. He looked at Zuse through narrow eyes. "I'm searching for that since Flynn's disappearance. Why should YOU of all programs provide the means to bring me the Masterkey?"
"Well, I did not devote myself to this topic directly. I thought the rumours about it were just absurd gossip, though, I see now that even you are looking for it..." Zuse stepped up to CLU, positioning himself right next to him. "How about a deal?"
CLU looked Zuse over. "Go on."
"In case I enter into possession of Flynn's disc before you, I'll give it to you and you give me... something... equally valuable."
"And what would that be?"
He licked his lips in excitement. "How about control of the city?"
CLU laughed out loud. "You really think I would gamble for Tron City, the capital of the Grid?! Forget it!"
Zuse's grin became wider. "Are you relenting, CLU?" He stepped off the platform, turning to go, while speaking: "Interesting how sure the 'liberator' is of his ground. Does not want to risk anything, although he has an advantage of hundreds of cycles..."
Shortly before he reached the exit, he heard CLU call behind him: "Wait!"
Zuse smiled widely and turned around.
CLU walked over to him and came to a stand in front of the program in white. He paused for a moment, then held out his hand. "Deal. But I tell you... you don't have a ghost of a chance."
"We'll see..."

"And?", Zuse perceived Gem's voice, after he stepped out of the central office. "How was it?"
Zuse grinned triumphantly. "Marvellous, my dear."
She linked arms with him and together they strolled to the End Of Line Club.
Zuse looked at Gem from the side with a light smile. He liked it how she dealt with his business. She didn't care for details, didn't quiz him, so that he had to think about it unwantedly. The only thing she always wanted to know was if it had worked well or not. At the latter she was always there to comfort him.
Shortly after he had sent Susan to Argon, Gem had come to him and he had been so glad about it. She had asked him, how Susan and especially he was doing, since she had seen him, Shaddix and the DJs carrying her, whose state had been extremely critical, out of the arena. Zuse had been sceptical at first, but since she wasn't asking for details, just wanted to know if he was fine, he had been honest to her. She had also noticed, though, that he had felt quite gloomy, because of the thing with CLU and immediately had tried to cheer him up.
No questions. Just pleasure. Exactly, what Zuse had needed back them and still needed now. He was very grateful that she kept company with him so frequently, since he had been devasted the last 798 cycles enough times, because of Susan's death or betraying those resistance groups. Although... It was just some kind of superficial morality, actually, that made him believe, that the death of revolutionaries would be something bad. Internally, he hated them anyway. For disturbing the peace, for causing trouble and especially for treating the Users like gods.
Since the Purge Zuse's attitude towards Users had changed. He had stopped admiring them and, most importantly, he had stopped trusting them. He felt betrayed by them. Why hadn't the Users done anything against the extermination of the ISOs? How could they allow that all of his friends had gotten executed on the streets, without a trial, without mercy? And now... If Susan hadn't been so blinded by her belief in Users, CLU wouldn't have wanted to kill her, she wouldn't have had to flee to Argon and probably wouldn't have... died.
The Users have never done anything for him. Even his own activation he held against them sometimes. If Flynn didn't mess things up, everything would be like in the old times. The User only had caused him much suffering... and therefore Zuse hated them.
The resistance... These programs believed in Users.
CLU had been right in one point: They were dispensable.

Bartik passed the last bottle of energy.
The three survivors of the massacre had escaped to the lowest of levels, where they still feared for their lives, since they were running out of supplies, but couldn't come out of their hideout. Sentries patrolled constantly.
They only had one hope: An outdated console they had found and Bartik's ability to send signals to other resistance groups around the Grid. Even though the various groupings weren't fond of eachother, they desperately needed their help now.
So, Bartik had sent a message to all of them: "To all resistance groups of the Grid. There had been a massacre in our organisation, a group of revolutionaries in the fourth level of Tron City. We are the last three survivors. And we're stuck in the lowest level. We urgently need help, we're running out of energy... I repeat: We're going to DIE if noone comes to rescue us! Please help us!"
They already waited 2 millicycles, without receiving an answer.
'Of course they don't want to help...', Bartik thought.
The resistance groups were scattered, although they only differ in a few points. If they just would ignore that and unified... Only then they could stop CLU. But that won't happen. Not without Tron. Not without Susan. Unfortunately, both were dead.
"I'm so tired...", the female among the survivors sighed.
"Rest for a little bit. We will make sure that you don't derezz in your sleeping cycle.", Bartik answered.
The woman smiled and closed her eyes.
But also Bartik fought with himself. He could barely keep his eyes open, just as the other of the three, whose head repeatedly fell forward, just to jolt up immediately afterwards.
Bartik looked at the two programs next to him.
Why are they doing this? Why did someone risk his life just to take a stand against CLU? For the sake of being a revolutionary? No, that couldn't be it. It was the Users, who motivated them. They had created them. They gave them strength. Flynn had done so mich for them, had dedicated his life to them and CLU just destroyed everything. The resistance members fought for freedom, wherefore there was no space in CLU's 'perfect' system. They fought for the friends they had lost. And for all, who had disappeared in the last centuries.
Yes, they were doing the right thing. That they could die here, was a risk they were willing to take, even at their first day as revolutionary.
Suddenly a high beep rang out, letting Bartik shoot up. He hadn't even noticed that he had closed his eyes, but now he was wide awake again, just as the others.
"What was that?", the woman asked nevrously.
The other looked at Bartik, frowning, and hurried to the old console then. He sighted the screen, raising his brows.
"We have a response from... a solar sailer." The program looked at his friends with an amazed expression. "Help is on the way."