In a quiet sector of the Grid, relatively isolated from the surrounding chaos of rebels and the remains of the Black Guard by its low population and lack of rebel cells, a program dragged a companion with one arm over his shoulder. He swept his hooded head warily from side to side as he looked for trouble, but the street was fairly deserted. A few other programs, wary as he was, hurried along, heads low, but no Black Guards stopped him for identification. Slipping into a silent building whose very faint lights made it seem more like a shadow than a structure, Kaps vanished into the darkness.

Sighing in relief at both the idea of some energy and at having returned unmolested from his first successful search in cycles, he collapsed onto an old couch with damaged code fraying around the edges. He eyed the other program irritably. Rinzler had felt a lot heavier than he looked starting about a quarter of the way back from the Sea, and Kaps wished for the billionth time that megacycle that he still had his beloved light runner.

CLU had confiscated all of the off-Grid vehicles quickly after rising to power, reason ninety-five that Kaps did not like his supposed liberator. Far too many programs had been quick to believe CLU really was some sort of savior- Flynn may have been in blind love with those isomorphic creatures, but he wasn't cruel, and no programs had ever derezzed in the Games, now a death row block for 'unnecessary' functions that were easier to get rid of than to Rectify. Kap's usefulness and avoidance of any affiliation with User loyalists, ISO sympathizers or other troublesome programs was probably the only reason that he had spared been from Rectification this long.

His moment of relaxation over, the search engine called to his employer, who had chosen so far to remain somewhere within the decrepit building.

"I found something today! Bring in a few vials of concentrated energy!"

"Please! I'm not giving you anything, you scrounging Trojan worm, until I see for myself what you found." An irked female voice snapped though the poor lighting in reply. Kaps noted with some concern that Rinzler really was deteriorating, and he was in no mood for the other program's attitude right now, with his only possible source of information slipping away before his eyes.

It's not for me, you idiot! We're going to lose my only lead if you don't GET IN HERE!" Running low on energy made Kaps a little touchy, and he had had enough of uncooperative programs today.. Finally the blond program made an appearance clutching three vials of brightly glowing energy. Her eyes fixed instantly on the still-robed Rinzler, who was lying face down on the floor were Kaps had dumped him. Dragging CLU's enforcer down the street would have caused nothing short of a major riot, so Kaps had traded the remains of his last payment of energy for a typical hooded robe at the first chance he'd gotten.

"Who…?" In one swift motion, Kaps tilted Rinzler's limp head up and yanked back the hood to let the irritating Siren's face reflect in the black digital glass.

With a startled yelp, she lurched away, dropping one of the precious vials, which Kaps caught in a heroic lunge across the floor, barely saving it from shattering in a shower of fragile code and energy that no program could afford to waste.

"Jesus Christ!" He swore, knowing full well how valuable this energy was and how close he had come to losing it. He had no idea what a Jesus Christ was, some nonsensical User swear he'd picked up a very long time ago. His employer, was still staring at the derezzing Rinzler with a frightening mixture of hate and fear that he had never seen in all his cycles working for her.

Charging her disk, she raised it above Rinzler, but he roughly shoved her back, and she went so far as to graze him with the energy blade, smoldering hate in her large eyes. Her white suit seemed to crackle with furious energy, visible in bright flashes beneath the concealing cloak she wore, like most smart programs these days. Kaps had no idea this mysterious Siren hated Rinzler so much.

"Do you want answers or not!" He cried, challenging her to destroy the information she sought. Still seething, she clipped her disk back to her back and shoved the vials into his hands.

"I won't finish the glitch this instant, but you can be responsible for saving him." Grumbling, Kaps realized that was the best he was going to get out of the livid feminine, whose demure elegance had evaporated, leaving a hard edged blade of cold fury and vengeful desires. If things weren't so desperate, I'd ditch this low-res crap and go find some good work without some weird Siren acting like she owned me, he thought even as he tried to figure out how to administer the desperately needed energy to Rinzler with the heinous helmet in the way. Even as he scrabbled for some catch to fold back the helmet, clueless as to what to do, a few more pixels of data fell from the enforcer's chest.

"Users!" He swore under his breath. Soon Rinzler's memory files would begin to disintegrate, and the program would be just another dead end.

With a sigh, his employer knelt beside Kaps and the monitor program, finding a tiny trigger at the base of his neck, causing just enough of his helmet to retract just enough to expose his mouth and a flash of pallid skin. Duly impressed, Kaps nudged the vial between his slack lips and poured the energy down his throat. How on the Grid did she know that was there? It wasn't enough to bring him out of shutdown, but it stopped him from further deresolution.

"And now," said Kaps with a theatric flair, "we take the most dangerous program left on the Grid out of shutdown." Without hesitation he gave Rinzler the second vial of energy, and crouched back, ready to spring and pin the enforcer. The Siren took several steps back, charging her disk, but Kaps motioned for her to put it away.

"He'll target you as a threat and you really don't want that." Irritated at Kaps' didactic tone, she clipped the weapon to her back with an audible click. Rinzler's few circuits flickered on, helmet unfolded back to its usual state, and Kaps tensed as the program sat up, obviously extremely disoriented and feeling the damage done during whatever it was that happened out there.

11001010001110

Rebooting… startup sequence commencing… Oh, Users, what happened? A cloaked program swam into his vision though a haze of diagnostics and error messages. Instinctively he went for his disks, and to his deep horror, his disk port was empty- CLU has them- no no no not again, I can't let him- error. Rinzler program serves CLU. RINZLER-HK-307020 security pro- ERROR. TRON-JA-307020 security program- prime directive: fight for the Users- defend the system-ERROR. Corruption detected. Panic shot through Tron as he staggered to his feet, pain racing through his circuits. He had no idea who this program was, but in his vulnerable state- disks missing- badly corrupted- Tron CLU Rinzler Flynn Yori Fight for the Users error error error- but he had always considered programs hostile until proven otherwise. Even Ram- wait, who's Ram-

Confused lines of codes tangled in his head, twisting his source code into pure pain. He was still moving, mostly running on the buzz of the concentrated energy, and he lunged for the program, who had an eighty-nine percent chance of possessing his disks, or so he managed to calculate, pinning the program. Instead of resisting, the unknown program went limp. In better functioning condition, Tron would have noticed the quick flash of the program's hand to his back, but he didn't notice the sleight until the program, who he had flattened face up on the ground, arms pinned, crouched and poised on the other's chest. The unknown conscript simply smiled smugly at him, as if disappointed in his preformance, and confusion shot through the security monitor. Why?- then his enemy's disk, held awkwardly between his unrestrained feet, crashed into Tron's back.

A garbled snarl rumbled low in his chest as he leapt from the program, clutching his back. That could have easily been a fatal blow, but the mysterious cloaked program had not charged the outer blade of his disk, so it had left a new cut, but done far less damage. CLU had similarly kept a blow from destroying him, saving him instead to create in him perfection- ERROR Corruption detected- how on the Grid was he supposed to fight when he could barely process memories? Turning his full attention back to his opponent, his hands again twitched, craving the intense energy vibrating from his distinct weapons. He'd already confirmed he lost his light katanas in the crash. There was a low growl rumbling from him, louder now than usual with his agitation. This was very bad. This was very, very bad.

Without calculating the inestimably unfavorable odds, he sprang at the program again, feinting to get him to lash out with his disk on impulse, and ducking low under the attack, sweeping the program's legs out from under him and pinning him within seconds. To his surprise, his blows met concealed Disk Wars armor concealed beneath that cloak. Snatching his disk and raising above him in the same ceremonial gesture that had always been the end of the Games matches- until… until… Rinzler! Rinzler! De-rezz! The crowd bayed for deresolution, and Rinzler would sate their hunger, the disk slammed down in an explosion of deresolutionizing data- The single curved blade of the blue-green disk wavered in his hand and in that second a white blur kicked it out of his hand and a second smashed into his head. Dazed, he was kicked off of his adversary. The second, white-clad program finished her job by binding his hands and feet and leaving him helpless on the ground.

Dangling his disks, still locked together, in front of his helmet, the Siren gave him a mocking smile.

"Looking for something?" She asked with a voice sweet as arsenic. Hatred burned in her beautiful eyes. Now he knew he was really malfunctioning… this couldn't be… she had been derezzed along with Zuse…

Gem?

AN: Whew! Some action! That was one of my first ever hand to hand combat sequences, so advice is welcome on how to improve the choreography. And yes, Kaps' employer is not an OC, and Tron's not glitched (at least in this respect XD)

I tried to keep her identity concealed up until now to surprise Tron and the reader at the same time- it was a bit difficult, trying to write all that without using her name once…

Thanks to Xire, Cyberbutterfly, Lady Geuna, and ScribeofRED for reviewing and advice!