((A/N: Just a quick note, you guys get a longer chapter than usual with this one. I was going to split it into two, but then it felt too short, and I had nothing better to do because my internet's been cut for a week, and I didn't really want to upload two mini-me chapters at once. So instead you get one longer chapter. hurray! also, just to clear things up, yes, Yori is in charge here. more on that in later chapters.))

Yori sifted through the crowd of programs, searching for the familiar circuitry. It was amazing how fast this place had grown. Much of the Grid had been destroyed in the explosion that had turned their lives upside down, and soon after that people had flocked to Aridja City searching for a place to call home. Times now were almost harder than they had been under Clu's tyranny. At least back then programs had known what to expect and where they belonged. Now, though, people weren't sure what to do or where to go. Most of them had come to Aridja searching for a sense of purpose.

Either way, the home of the ISOs was being rebuilt. It wouldn't be as beautiful or grand as it had been back in its hayday, but it was what these programs needed. After a thousand cycles of neglect, the magnificent culture of the ISOs was being remembered. Yori smiled faintly. Just the way Flynn would have wanted it.

Right now, however, she was trying to find Tron. He'd insisted on her giving him some time on his own, which she'd reluctantly agreed to, but it had been too long, and she was starting to get anxious. The facts were that this Tron had gone through some serious trauma, and he simply wasn't the strong, confident program she remembered. He refused to talk about anything regarding Rinzler or even how he had come to find the real Tron, and that almost made her worry more.

"Have you seen Tron?" she asked a pair of programs.

They shook their heads, and one of them rolled his eyes. "Honestly, Yori, User knows he's been through hell. If he wants to be alone for a while, then let him."

Yori folded her arms across her chest. "That's exactly why I can't let him be alone for too long, Byte. He thinks too much, and whatever he went through was probably a major strain on his systems. It's not good for him to be on his own. What if his systems freeze up or glitch?"

"You worry too much," Meg commented, watching Yori with a sort of detached interest. "Especially about him. He was one of the enemy, remember?"

"And if you remember, he was one of us before you were even programmed!" Yori snapped. "If it weren't for him and his loyalty to a free system and the Users, this one would never have existed! You would never have existed!"

Her circuits flashed in irritation and she glared at the now subdued pair. "Now. Have you seen him?"

Byte muttered something under his breath.

"What was that?"

Meg pointed out of the city, her hand shaking slightly. "We thought we saw him going out of the city."

"Hard to tell, though," Byte put in, not meeting Yori's eyes. "He sort of disappears into the shadows."

The blonde program nodded, pushing a wayward strand of hair out of her eyes. "Thank you," she said a little huffily, stalking off in the indicated direction.

Even after a thousand cycles, Meg and Byte still managed to display their extraordinary qualities of irritating every other program they met. They had been excellent at performing their functions back in the day, the best, but Yori supposed that spending cycle after cycle of packing away memory in its proper place could get tiresome. Or perhaps they had just been sultry programs from the beginning.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a shout that made her systems stall.

"ISO! He's an ISO!"

Impossible...all the ISOs were dead. There had been rumors of one that had lived under Flynn's care, but she'd never been found, and User knew where she would be now if she had even existed.

Yori jogged onwards with an easy grace, heading towards a steadily growing knot of programs just outside the city boundaries. They were all yelling and shouting in excitement, a few bouncing up and down, the one prevailing sound above it all was the constant repetition of "ISO, ISO, ISO".

"All right, that's enough!" Yori shouted, pushing her way past the globule of excited programs. "Calm down, Yori coming through, move please."

The crowd parted at her demands, the people backing away in respect for their leader. She caught a few eyes and nodded to them, intent on her destination at the center of all this chaos. There had to be a mistake. The ISOs were gone, weren't they? And the system was definitely not perfected as it had been when they had first manifested. Someone was just confused.

Yori was relieved to find Tron at the center of all the mess. "Tron, there you are. Obviously someone's made a mista-"

She froze suddenly, taking in his irregular attire. Tron had never worn his arms bare before. He smiled at her in a strange, un-Tron-like way, and turned slightly, showing off the glowing mark that now adorned his arm.

She crossed the distance between them in one step as the crowd fell silent, watching her with some apprehension. Yori inhaled sharply and traced the mark lightly with a finger before looking up at him.

"I-I don't-" she stuttered, at a loss for words.

The newly made ISO nodded. "Nor do I," he replied quietly.

For a long moment the two just gazed at each other, communicating all the emotions that they couldn't put into words.

"You'll stay?" Yori asked softly, anxiety potent in her eyes.

Tron nodded silently, another odd smile crossing his lips. "Always," he replied, and kissed her.