Clu's nearest recoding facility was a three hour drive by lightcycle from Tron's base and there was only one vehicle, so Sammy rode behind him and tried not think about how close he was due to the fact that she had to hold onto him unless she wanted to fall off. However, the more she attempted to keep thoughts of him from her head, she'd notice things like how he handled the vehicle as she felt his muscles compensate for every turn or gear shift effortlessly and then her mind would be full of nothing but him. When they finally arrived, she felt glad she wasn't a man otherwise it would be obvious she'd enjoyed the ride more than she would have liked to admit. She followed him to the roof and they slipped inside with a retractable rope hookup on their belts. Silently, they took out the guards in one of the booths and Tron stepped onto the platform. His gaze met hers across the room as she pressed a button on the console and realized he trusted her with his life in more than the metaphorical sense. That thought flattered and terrified her because she knew even if she stopped the machine on time, the risk of corruption was still very strong. The coding in the panel told her once "re-purposed" by Clu's machine, there was no way to return the program to it's original format without the master disk, which was in her father's possession and not even Tron knew where he'd disappeared to.

"I believe in you, Tron." She whispered as she pressed another button that shut down the procedure just before the recoding phase and held her breath.

Tron looked like his old self as he walked over to her. "This feels too easy."

She nodded with a frown. "A bit yeah, let's get out of here."

They slipped out the way they'd come in, only to be nearly blinded by the search light of one of Clu's ships. Tron grabbed her and jumped off the building before they were fired on. They ran to the lightcycle and she held on for dear life as Tron drove like she'd never seen him before outside of her dreams. The ship might have been almost as fast in the air, but it wasn't nearly as manuverable and was no match for Tron's evasion skills and lost visual on them in the mountains.

"Do you trust me?" He called over the wind as they approached a giant crevasse no vehicle should ever be able to clear.

"Of course!"

He flicked a switch on the lightcycle and readied his climbing cable. "Then hold on tight, we're going to jump!"

She realized he meant off the bike instead of with it and gripped him tighter. She held her breath as they leaped off at the same time the vehicle launched across the ravine. He hooked the cable onto a rock nearby to catch their fall. Overhead, she heard the lightcycle explode on impact when it landed on the other side. Adrenaline rushed through her and her heart pounded so loudly against her chest she was sure he could hear it. "Sorry about your bike."

"It was no longer of use to me with a tracking beacon attached." He tugged firmly on the cable twice when they were safely on the ground, which made it unhook from the rock high above them. "With no time to remove it, annihilation was the only only option to keep it out of Clu's hands. Besides, our lives are more important than a machine."

"What a very human thing to say."

He smiled at her faintly surprised expression. "Your father always said I was more like a human than a program. I always assumed it was in the metaphorical sense till we talked one evening and I learned I have gained the same values from my experiences as normal people do. I asked if that made me like a child and your father laughed and said that the biggest kept secret in the universe was everyone is like a child in a way."

She felt herself smile back. "Sounds like something he'd say. He was always telling me as long as I was child like and not childish that was fine."

"What is the difference between the two?"

"Child-like usually refers to characteristics such as humility, giving and kindness. Childish means you're selfish, stubborn and will throw fits or act out for attention."

Tron nodded thoughtfully as he led the way through the canyon. "Makes sense. Clu is very much the latter these days, though when first created he was more like the first. His idea of perfection caused mass genocide and regular programs fear of being unique from everyone else. I know his ideas are based on concepts he misunderstood after his creation, but he let himself become corrupted instead of listening to reason."

"Plenty of humans are like that too. World wars have started because of people who thought themselves superior to everyone else. The countries they took over were forced to comply or perish, all while the rulers told themselves it would last forever. Clu at least doesn't have thousands of years of records to remind him that people eventually rise up against tyranny, though if there were he'd ignore it just like all the others who got into power."

"Most likely. He wants the master disk to be able to open the portal to the outside world because this one is already his."

Sammy suppressed a shudder as she imagined Clu terrorizing humans with weapons easily rebuilt in seconds if shattered and the stationary fields installed in all his aircraft that froze everything it touched in place. "It's a good thing my dad went into hiding. Humans wouldn't stand a chance against Clu and his ideas of perfection, not without the same gear. I'm not even sure guns would have any affect on your physical forms."

Tron hmmmed. "It would be better for both worlds if we never find out. Watch your step, this path has large boulders."

She nodded as he helped her around one as tall as her hip. "What is this place anyway?"

"Your father wanted to turn this into a racing area for off-road vehicles both in the air and on the ground, much like the lightcycle competition in the Games back when it didn't mean death to anyone who lost. He said he was going to put in creatures, rock slides and other things to make it challenging, but he never got around to it. It comes in handy for evading soldiers though, since they don't bother to come out here beyond the Grid very often. That will change now that we've used it as an escape route, just like we can't return to my closer base as it was compromised the moment they put a tracking device onto my vehicle."

"I'm causing you nothing but trouble, aren't I?" She looked down in guilt.

He smiled gently as he brushed some hair out of her face and tilted her chin up so her eyes met his. "Nothing I wouldn't do on my own. Thanks to you I can finally start my campaign against Clu again and if we work together, not even he can stand against us."

Her heart hammered against her rib cage as she took a deep breath. "Then let's get to work."

"I thought you would say that." He pressed an obscure looking niche on the side of the mountain and the stone rolled away to reveal a massive cavern with unmarked vehicles and weapons and detailed maps of the Grid. "Welcome to the storage and office your father set up for the competition. I've been using it as a secondary base and a place to get lightcycles since I can't go shopping for one like a normal program."

"Looks like I'll have to do that too since they saw my face...or there's the potential they did, anyway."

He nodded solemnly. "I agree, it's not worth the risk. There's a bedroom in the back where you can sleep."

"What about you?" She sighed when he shrugged. "I know you need rest too sometimes, Tron. At least promise me you'll sleep in the bed and not somewhere uncomfortable."

"Even if you're in it?"

"Yes, it's just a bed. Not like I plan on taking over the whole thing."

He appreciated how she treated him like he was human too and knew she was right, so he nodded after he'd studied her face for a moment. "Very well. I promise when I need to rest, I will use the bed."

"Thank you." She sighed in relief and left to see about a shower.