A/N: Not much time to update over this weekend, but I'll do my best! Here's The Grid! Enjoy~

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Shadow & Kurai.

Kingdom Hearts 3D, Shadow's Story

Chapter 4

In a flash, Sora and I were in the next world, which was very familiar to us. Digital stripes lined the edges of the landscape as we looked ourselves over. Sora was clad in a digital outfit while I bore my own digital pattern on my black armor.

"What? This outfit…Hey, I know where we are!" Sora exclaimed excitedly.

At last, some familiarity, I thought to myself. Looking up, we spotted a giant flying machine, its core pulsing off some intense form of energy and bright light.

"Whoa! What is that?" Sora gasped in awe. The two of us ran off, following it through the city. Eventually, it landed, and Sora paused, panting a bit. Its passenger bay lowered, and some guards stepped out. Warily, I tensed up, watching as they approached us. "Whoa! Oh man!" the brunette said, and the guards stopped in front of us.

"Identify. State your handles, programs," they ordered.

"We, uh…don't have any handles, but the name's are Sora and Shadow!" my partner told them.

"Verifying handle 'Sora and Shadow'…Handle not found. Stray programs recognized," the guard said, and two of them grabbed us. I struggled furiously, as did Sora. "Isolating for quarantine."

"Whoa there! That is so unfriendly!" Sora yelped, and I struggled enough to break free before they could trap me, and Sora yanked out of their grip. We immediately fled back to the city. Along a bridge, however, we came upon an armored opponent. He reached for the identity disk on his back and split it into two disks, holding one in each hand as weapons. Sora readied his Keyblade as I bared my fangs in response.

Suddenly, the program touched his helmet as if listening to a command. Sora lowered his guard, but I tensed up, thinking it might be a trick. The brunette's guard shot back up, however, when the program jumped and flipped over us, escaping.

"What was that about?" I wondered aloud. Sora shrugged, jostling me slightly.

"Hey, that weapon. Can I see it?" a girl's voice asked curiously, and we turned to see two men, one older than the other, and a young woman approaching us. Sora glanced at his Keyblade for a moment before holding it out. Bending down, she examined it with wonder in her eyes. "This is just incredible. What a program—the weapon and the wielder." I rolled my eyes at her ignorance of my presence.

"Program? Not us!" Sora shook his head. "This is called a Keyblade, and I'm Sora. This is Shadow."

"I'm Sam," the younger man introduced himself.

"So this is, like, Tron's world, right?" Sora guessed as I shuffled my wings a bit.

"You know Tron?" the older man questioned, surprised.

"I, uh…yeah, we've met him…and stuff," the brunette mumbled quickly.

"Listen, that program you two just fought was Tron," he told us.

"What? That was Tron?" I yelped.

"Tron used to be a good friend," the man explained. "Together, we created this place, the Grid. It was something, man…but then CLU staged a coup. I was exiled, and…Tron wound up getting de-rezzed. Or so I thought. CLU made him into a new program called Rinzler. That's the thing about programs. Mess with the code just a little, and their whole nature and memory can change."

"But that's…horrible!" Sora exclaimed. "Hmm…most of this is over my head, but both Tron and this world do seem pretty different. Still, if that's really the Tron we know, we should change him back."

"Bingo. And now you're both up to speed," the man nodded, and opened his arms in a zen-like motion. "If we're lucky, CLU kept a back-up of Tron's source code. He's a program, after all. He'd be methodical like that." He chuckled.

"So, if we get Tron's 'source code' back from CLU, we can put him back together, right?" I assumed.

"That's the idea," the man confirmed.

"Great! Thanks, mister," Sora thanked him, and we turned to leave. I even jumped off of Sora's shoulder to run for myself for once.

"Where are you going?" he asked before we could bolt.

"We're going after CLU," I replied. "What does it look like?"

"Do you even know where he is?" the man questioned.

"Nope, no idea," Sora shrugged.

"What strange Users," the girl remarked. "Neither of you are like Flynn or Sam. Come on, Sora and Shadow. I'll show you the way."

"Huh?" Sam uttered, puzzled, as she walked over to us.

"Quorra, we have to keep moving," the older man, obviously Flynn, told her.

"Yeah. What are you gonna do if Rinzler attacks again?" Sam pointed out. I rolled my eyes; she obviously wasn't helpless, or else she wouldn't be here.

"If we're in a hurry, we have to take care of Rinzler first," she retorted. Sora and I nodded.

"The three of us can handle him," I agreed with a smile. Flynn considered it carefully before answering.

"All right. Do what you can. Maybe you, Sora, and Shadow can help Tron," he said.

"Dad, no," Sam protested.

"Relax, Sam," Flynn assured his son. "I have a feeling Sora and Shadow are people we can trust. Now you and me need to press on."

"Okay," Sam sighed. As he passed Quorra, he told her, "Be careful."

"You too," she replied, and the father and son left. "All right, it's you two and me. You ready, Sora and Shadow?"

"Yeah. Let's do this, Quorra," Sora nodded.

"CLU should be at the helm of his battleship, the Rectifier," she told us. "We can get there with a Solar Sailer from the underground docks." From the bridge, we made our way to the underground docks like Quorra had said, and rode a Solar Sailer out to the battleship. When we arrived, I glanced about, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"You sure we'll find Tron's source code here?" I questioned. Quorra searched the room, but didn't find anything.

"It's not here," she murmured. "Maybe CLU has it with him. Sora. Shadow. Let's look elsewhere."

"All right," Sora agreed, but suddenly, the door opened to reveal Rinzler. Quorra whipped out her identity disk, preparing to fight, but Sora grabbed her arm to stop her. "Wait, Quorra! Let us talk to Rinzler. A little heart-to-heart might jog his memory."

"He's a program, Sora," she pointed out. "Programs don't have hearts."

"That's not true," I argued. "The Tron we remember, he had something." We turned to Rinzler, and Sora spoke up.

"Hey, you used to be called 'Tron,' right?" Sora said. "CLU did something to you to mess with your memory. You're a little confused, but that's okay. C'mon, remember, Tron!" Instead of saying or pausing, however, Rinzler readied his weapons and struck at us, spinning in the air and sending his disks flying at Sora and me. The brunette gasped as I tensed, and Quorra jumped in front of us to take the blow, but we were still all three hit. Quorra jumped back and flung her disk at Rinzler, who smoothly dodged it. Sora got to his feet and I crouched into a defensive stance as she caught her disk again.

"I don't think Rinzler…is quite the friend you remember," Quorra murmured. She rushed him again as Sora rubbed his arm and lowered his gaze to the floor.

"He just needs time, that's all," the brunette mumbled. We happened to look up in time to see Rinzler kick Quorra squarely in the face, and she crumpled to the ground.

"Quorra!" I shrieked. We rushed over as Rinzler moved to finish her off.

"Tron, don't!" Sora begged. Rushing towards them, we barely reached the pair before Rinzler escaped with Quorra. "Tron…why?"

"That's what we do. Put the most precious memories in the back of our mind where they're safe," a voice said, and we looked to see the same young man in the black coat as before. "Or in your cases, the most precious…hearts?"

"Not you again!" I growled angrily.

"The memory and the heart are tightly linked," Xemnas's voice said, and Sora gasped, me bristling furiously on his shoulder, as the Nobody stepped out to join the younger silver haired man.

"Xemnas!" Sora yelped.

"Rub a few memories together, and you get a spark of emotion, a feeling," Xemnas began. "But in a digital world, memory does not work like that. Nothing is ever felt. You can hold a thousand, a million times the information, but there is still no heart with which to parse it. Once, my master, Ansem, found an old system and made a copy of its Master Control Program…and used it to serve his own ends. This is the original data of that system. Here, data can be copied." Suddenly, we saw a duplicate of ourselves. "Memory can be changed and easily manipulated." Several more copies appeared. "Tron is a digital entity, so why would he be any different? He obeys the rules of this world. Sora, Shadow—what about you?"

"Us?" I questioned.

"Your hearts, memories, your data, and your dreams," he said. "The bits and bytes that have made up your lives so far—can you say for sure they are not just copies of someone else's?" Sora and I looked at each other, and saw the answer in the other's eyes. The brunette shook his head.

"Yes! Our memories and feelings belong to us," he answered.

"You had better check," Xemnas retorted. Turning away, he added, "Make certain the box's contents match what's on the label…since you have been chosen." The silver-haired man returned to the dark corridor and vanished.

"Chosen for what?" I demanded, baring my teeth.

"You think this is the realm of dreams, but there, you are mistaken. Data does not dream, cannot dream," the younger man said. Suddenly, the doors opened, and Sora and I felt the wind from the digital sea whip around us, making us struggle to keep our ground. "This world is real. You haven't the slightest idea where you are—that you've already wandered off the path."

"What do you mean?" Sora yelled. I snarled furiously from my partner's shoulder. The man gave a small laugh and vanished through another corridor before we could get an answer, though. Suddenly, the brunette and I found ourselves on the Game Grid.

"What in the world?" I said, bewildered.

"Combatants 13 and 13.5 versus Rinzler," an announcer's voice said. We looked around and saw Rinzler and another man enter through a platform in the floor. The man resembled a younger version of Flynn.

"Greetings, Sora and Shadow," he said. "I've been waiting."

"Who are you?" Sora demanded.

"I am CLU," he answered.

"So it was you! You're the guy that turned Tron into Rinzler!" I growled.

"Correct. I had to repurpose his code," CLU said simply.

"Well, un-repurpose it!" Sora ordered, and I nearly face-palmed at his wording. How could he sound so…stupid? Whatever…

"Yes. Under the right parameters, I might."

"Huh?" I uttered.

"You have a couple little items called the Keyblade and light," CLU began. "They can open any lock, right? Hand them over, and I'll change Rinzler back into Tron." Sora summoned his Keyblade, causing my claws to glow as Rinzler took a step forward.

"The Keyblade and light? We…can't," the two of us mumbled. "This is what lights the darkness. A chance to make everyone happy!"

"Ha! Flawed reasoning," CLU scoffed. "I'll have to take them by force."

He descended down on the same platform he entered on, and Rinzler rushed at us and readied his disks. Spinning in the air, he flung both disks flying at us. I blocked one with my tail while Sora blocked the other with his Keyblade. The disks flew back to Rinzler and he readied them for another strike.

"Tron, why can't we get through to you?" Sora wondered worriedly. I noticed Quorra watching us from above, and looked up at her.

"Fight, Sora and Shadow!" she yelled to us.

"Quorra!" Sora gasped when he heard her. I blocked the next few strikes from Rinzler with my tail and wings, growling from the effort. Damn, he was stronger than I remembered… "You're okay! I can't believe it!"

"Yes. I think Tron heard you both," she told us. "Long enough for me to escape. You can do it. You both can get through to him!" Suddenly, the Rectifier started to move for takeoff, and Quorra braced herself so she wouldn't fall while Sora and I continued to block. "Sora, Shadow, you have to fight him!"

"But Quorra! How can we—" I started to say, but she cut me off.

"You have that key and light. They will bring him to his senses," she insisted. Rinzler leapt into the air and struck, his disks creating sparks as they ground against the Keyblade and my diamond armor.

"We'll try!" the brunette and I called back determinedly, and forced Rinzler back. Our old friend landed in a swift stance.

"Let's go, Tron!" I growled, and Sora and I charged at him.

We fought a grueling battle filled with acrobatics and ceiling matches, and eventually, I could tell something deep within Rinzler had reacted during our fight. Sora and I leapt into the air, and a holographic sensor appeared over Rinzler's chest. We pushed it, sending the program into a low power state. Rinzler hovered for a second before sinking to the floor. Sora walked over while I trotted alongside him to check our old friend over, but then CLU ascended to the stage again and chucked his identity disk at us. Out of nowhere, however, Rinzler shot up and took the hit, deflecting CLU's disk with his own. Rinzler sank to his knees again as the disk hit the wall, then the ceiling, and then crashed down on the piece of the floor beneath him, shattering it.

"Tron!" we cried out desperately. We reach out to try and grasp Rinzler's hand and he tried to reach back, but it was too late. He plummeted down, and CLU watched his descent.

"I'll deal with you later. I have to retrieve Rinzler," CLU growled, and left via the platform. Quorra made her way over to us as we stared at the hole in the floor that Rinzler—no, Tron—had fallen through. I whimpered softly.

"He reached for my hand," Sora murmured. Quorra cast us a sympathetic expression.

"Tron is still in there," I stated reassuringly.

"Both of you, and that key and light have a special power," she told us.

"So do you—power to make us see it," Sora smiled at her.

"So, does that mean we're friends?" Quorra asked.

"Of course," I grinned, and we all three chuckled. Later on, Sora and I stood alone on the Game Grid.

"What if our memories aren't our own?" Sora wondered aloud, doubt evident in his tone. He shook his head, clearing it of such thoughts.

"No, we gotta be like Tron," I told him, and he nodded. "Maybe we're walking the wrong path, but our hearts will lead us back to the truth."

The Keyhole appeared, and Sora and I sealed it before preparing to leave for the next world.

A/N: Sorry about the delay, I had work and a date with my boyfriend this past weekend, and am pretty busy getting ready for a road trip. Trust me, I'll still write on the road trip, seeing as I'm bringing my laptop, but I won't be able to update as often. R&R, peeps!