Author's Note: SUUUUSAN GIFFORD IS IN THA HOUSE AGAIN O_O Yeah, she's back and I hope you like this quite long chap of her return. Hope you like the touch of romance in it ;) Thanks again to Pirateweasel ^^ Reviews make my day :)

And now ENJOY, PROGRAMS, AND PLS REVIIIIEW!

END OF LINE

/Digital Jazz/

It was impossible.
It had to be a dream.
Zuse just stood there, staring at the woman he had believed dead for 798 cycles and who walked over to the little bar in his lounge now. Outside the music of the clubs' DJs was dinning. He didn't even notice that.
"It's no bother for you if I mix the drinks for us this time, is it, darl?" She spoke without looking at him and took two glasses out. "The bartender in ElecTRONica showed me how to do that. A few hundred cycles ago. Didn't try it for a long time, but I guess I still bring it."
She looked different. Her hair was white and she had a fringe that ended at her eyes were surrounded by dark make-up. She was scantily dressed, only a broad stripe of black fabric covered her chest and merged at her back with the tight leather trousers and the hood, so that her disc had enough space there. On her skin several luminous lines branched out like fluorescent tattoos. But all that didn't change anything. Her face was the same. Her way of walking was the same. Her voice was the same.
Thousands of questions bustled about Zuse's head and all of them desperatley required an answer. Everything began to spin around, so Zuse put his cane down to support himself on it.
"Where do you have those little umbrellas I like so much?", Susan asked casually, rummaging around in the utensils in the shelf next to the bar. When no answer by Zuse came, she looked up, eyeing him with furrowed brow. Then she smirked again and strolled over to him. "Before this ends up as a sentimental reunion, I would rather talk about business first. You know, business before..." She came to a stand close in front of him, looking into his eyes deeply. "... pleasure."
She took his arm, leading him to one of the couches in the private lounge. She put her Hand onto his chest, lightly pushing to signalise him that he should sit down. And he did.
Zuse watched her. Repeatedly, he tried to say something, but he couldn't find the strength to.
Susan... she was here... Unbelievable...
"So...", she continued in a cheerful tone. "The revolutionaries here are more unorganized than I thought. But it's no surprise actually. Tron City is about 10 times bigger than Argon. It's no wonder that they get, how would Robert Plant call it, dazed and confused." Susan took the prepared drinks and strode around the counter over to Zuse. "As you know already, one of the smaller groups just got erased almost entirely. Fortunately, the survivors were smart enough to send a coded message, an emergency signal, around the Grid and I picked it up. My troops in Argon and those who had settled in the former Bostrum colonies, were like cats on hot bricks anyway, finally wanted a more important, a graver operation than those before, and so a cry for help from Tron City, THE city of cities, came just in time. We had to expand anyway. Change things here too. And changing things in Tron City means to change the Grid, which is the goal of all revolutionaries." She held out the drink to Zuse. Totally dizzy he accepted it. "But these revolutionaries here confine themselves to only a few, unnecessary aspects, don't see what they could accomplish of they were united. And it's very hard to bring programmes together. I realized that in Argon. It was the same thing there at the beginning and it took about a hundred cycles for me to combine them to one big unit. Now they are inseperable, disciplined and only think about the well-being of the majority instead of their own. They would die for the cause. The perfect resistance, isn't it? But it's no use if every town here leads their own resistance. We have to think in greater dimensions. We can only move against CLU when we're all holding together. But like I said, combining the resistance groups here could get incredibly hard for me solely. And here..." She sat down next to Zuse. "... YOU come into play, honey."
He stared down at the drink she had handed to him. Green. Like the one Shaddix had prepared for them at their first encounter. Did she remember that and had mixed the drink like that for this reason? Or remembered Zuse their mutual memories way better possibly, since he had watched them so many times?
He still felt paralysed, couldn't move, couldn't speak, could barely breath. Everything seemed so real... but so surreal. Dream or truth... He had no sense of what was real and what not anymore.
Then he felt her hands on his shoulders. The smooth touch sent shivers down his spine, let a pleasant twinge run through his circuits. Zuse closed his eyes. No, this feeling was real. It wasn't a dream.
"Zuse has so much influence..." She came closer, whispering next to him with a smile: "I always admired that. Everyone respects him and if they have severe problems, they turn to him immediately. They look up to Zuse. He is a living legend..."
Zuse lifted his lids abruptly, as he noticed that Susan's left wandered down from his shoulder. He saw how the hand slowly worked its way forward, over his chest, down his side and eventually it stroked over his inner thigh.
Zuse's heart began to race.
"... You have so much power, Zuse...", she breathed into his ear.
He gasped for air and bit his bottom lip. Feeling her, even if it was just a harmless touch on the shoulder, had already been extremely demanding for him emotionally, but now... she put his whole system on the alert.
"... And you must use this power to help us..." She laughed quietly. "... to help ME."
She leant forward even more and softly ran her lips over his neck.
Zuse closed his eyes. He felt his whole body shiver lightly with excitement, almost cracked the glass in his hand. Every bit inside him was vibrating, whereby so much energy emerged that his circuitry colour began to shine brighter than usual and he immediately got hotter.
Suddenly she let up on him, didn't touch him anymore, neither for her hands nor her lips.
Breathing heavily, he looked up.
"But I understand if all of that catches you off-guard.", she said, while standing up. "You don't have to react to my concern at once. We can take care of that..." She took the drink out of his hand and put it down on the side table next to her. "... later on." Susan looked at him with a seductive smile. "That was business." She placed one knee to Zuse's right and the other to his left, so that he sat between her thighs. With widened eyes he looked up.
"Now the pleasure...", she breathed, let her hands slide down his chest once again, leant forward and began to kiss his neck.
Zuse was completely dumbfounded and didn't move. When Susan noticed that, she looked at him in confusion. Then a grin spread over her face again and she whispered: "Oh, gotcha..."
She reached for her back, taking a transparent wafer out of her disc, whereupon her hair became shorter and black, her revealing outfit transformed into a fighting suit and the tattoos vanished. From one second to the other she looked like she used to in the past and looked down on him with a smile he had only been able to adore through the projections of his disc-memories.
"Better?", she asked, raising a brow with a smirk.
"Susan...", he brought forth finally.
She eyed him for a moment and wanted to carry on where she stopped, though, Zuse suddenly grabbed her hips and shoved her to the side abruptly, so that she lay with her back on the couch and he on top of her, holding her wrists tightly.
"Oh, okay...", she laughed. "YOU wanna take the helm..."
But there he hissed: "ARE YOU CRAZY?!"
Shocked, she looked into his pale eyes.
Zuse breathed rapidly, but not out of excitement anymore, but of fury and despair. "798 cycles, Susan! 798 cycles I thought you were dead! And now you believe I could just forget all of that instantly if I slept with you?! I am sorry to disappoint you, but a sentimental reunion is inevitable! DAMMIT! YOU. WERE. DEAD!"
Quivering with emotions, he hadn't noticed that his eyes had filled with tears while talking. He quickly stood up and sat down on the couch, further afar from her, laying his face in his hands.
Susan just stared at him.
She had expected it to get quite emotional, indeed, but that Zuse would cry... she would've never counted with that. She had never seen him cry before. Neither during the Purge, nor at their parting, when she had to flee to Argon City. That she of all programs caused such feelings inside him, winged her in a way, but it also aggrieved her. He had changed. In front of her did not sit the buoyant Zuse she had known, who had been as cool as possible with everything, but a broken man. And it was her fault.
As she felt extreme sorrow filling her heart, tears flooded her eyes too.
Timidly, Susan crawled over to him. "Zuse... Don't you think I didn't bear the brunt of the almost 800 cycles too. There have been moments, when I was so desperate that I just wanted to beg for deresolution. The knowledge that you're fine and save comforted me at least and that we will meet again some time. So I... I can't imagine... nowhere near enough... how you must have felt..."
He looked up, spotting the tears on her cheeks.
She spoke up again with a shivery voice: "To be honest, I had no idea how to behave earlier. I mean... damn, 798 cycles! When I first saw you when I entered the club, I just wanted to fall round your neck, hug and squeeze you until my arms fall off. But I chose this option, this seductive-like shit, because I thought you could deal with that best, since you have done that likewise, when we met again after the Purge. I am sorry, I didn't want you to get upset, by no means! I... I am so... so sorry..." Her voice failed her, but Susan took a sharp breath, forcing herself to continue speaking: "And I am really so sorry that I created this entry in the database of honor. It was a protection against CLU! If he thought that I was still alive, he would have let his sentries patrol through Argon all the time and I would have never had the chance to build a real resistance. I didn't want to hurt you so mich, I had to do it, though, I am so sorry..." There she couldn't go in definitely, sobbing uncontrollably.
"YOU created this...?", Zuse wanted to ask, but before he could bring his line of thoughts to an end, he noticed how unimportant it was for him at this moment. How incredibly unnecessary the tears were that he had provoked. It was totally irrelevant how they got together again, the main point is THAT IT HAPPENED.
"Susan...", he breathed, lifting her chin, so that they could look at eachother again. 'I am so happy that you are alive..." He smiled at er.
She smiled back.
Then they hugged tightly, laughing and crying at the same time. As they moved apart a bit after an eternity, they put their foreheads together with closed eyes.
"I missed you so much...", Susan whispered.
Zuse pushed her away lightly to have a look at her, at her lips, at her hair, at her eyes. She had the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen, even though they were as tearstained as now.
He stroked over her cheek.
The tender touch made Susan deliriously happy.
Noone of the End Of Line Club's guests or staff were aware that two programmes, which hadn't seen eachother for almost eight centuries, finally kissed again. The most beautiful kiss of their lives.

Zuse lay on the couch, totally relaxed.
The club had closed already and it was the first time since its opening that it really didn't matter to him that he hadn't been the one who had closed it. Instead, he had carried out his favourite activity with his favourite program. Everything had become meaningless. There had only been him and Susan.
She had just stood up with still quite shaky legs to get herself something to drink from the bar down in the club, since Zuse didn't have the flavour she was looking for in his lounge.
He himself just lay there with closed eyes, enjoying the silence.
He took a deep breath.
It had been the most eventful night of centuries. And the most beautiful. Zuse could hardly believe his luck. All those cycles he had tried to bring himself to terms, to accept Susan's death and now it came to light that this tiny little spark of hope had been right all the time. He felt so good, probably better than ever before, although the elation that Susan's return had unleashed within him slowly faded already. In lieu, it made way for an ease he could just long for for hundreds of cycles.
He opened his eyes, spotting the drink Susan had mixed earlier on the side table next to him. The green liquid still glowed a bit. It had lost most of its energy, since they hadn't drunk it immediately, but Zuse decided that he should give it a chance. Slowly, he reached over, taking the glass into his hand and observed it for a moment, before sipping on it. Surprisingly, it tasted good, even though it had lost intensity. Zuse leant back again, emptying the glass in a few gulps. There he heard Susan coming up the stairs.
"I just tried your drink, dear.", he said, eyeing the glass in his hand with a slight grin.
"And? How do you like it?", it came back, while she walked past him, hopped onto the little bar and drank out of a bottle there, gleefully.
"It's great! Well done, sweetheart."
She laughed. "You sound surprised!"
"I am."
"Why? You think, you're the only one who can do that?"
"No." He smirked. "Shaddix mixes fabulous drinks, too."
She just raised a brow. "I've learnt a lot in Argon."
"I noticed that...", he answered, grinning. "Apropos... How did you do that earlier? I have never met a program, wether man or woman, who knows such a move. Did you have to study that or did it take a lot of... practice?"
"Is the point of that question to find out more than I probably prefer?"
"Possibly..."
She eyed him up. "Hm... I believe, we are mature enough to admit that both of us have been... active in the meantime, right?"
He just replied with a wide smile.
She laughed and looked around.
Everything was as it used to be. Even though she had spent the longest time of her life in Argon City, this was her home. The End Of Line Club had always been and will always be her favourite place on the Grid, probably in the entire world too, not least because of its owner.
Then something struck her eye, reminding her of something.
"May I use your communication console briefly?"
"Of course, darling, mi casa es su casa, you know that...", he said with a supine gesture and closed his eyes in relaxation.
She put the bottle on the counter, skidded down of it and stepped to the console next to the bar. By tipping on it once, she activated it.
"Password?", Susan asked Zuse.
"Back to the Future."
"Huh?" She gave him a confused look.
"What? Noone, apart from you, would come up with that. Besides, even if I have seen it this one time only, when you showed it to me hundreds of cycles ago, I have strong memories of it. I liked it. Especially... Maaarty."
"Ooh, rawr...", she laughed and entered the password, whereupon the screen lit up in green and she tipped something in to reach the wanted address. A repeated beep signalised that a connection just got established.
Then suddenly a voice rang out of the communication console. "Hallo?"
Zuse opened his eyes promptly and sat up. Susan gave him an apologising look. "Hey, Eckert."
"Susan! So you made it to the city?"
"Sure."
"I thought you wanted to contact me as soon as you arrive. I got awfully worried, Sue!"
"I'm sorry, I was... occupied. We picked the programs up that sent us this distress signal and helped them. They ought to be at the arranged base now."
"Where are you now?"
"I...uh..." She looked at Zuse again, but he showed no reaction. "That's... uh... That's unimportant. Main thing is that you send the others in little groups to Tron City."
"I will."
"Good. I gotta go now. There's something I have to attend to."
"Okay. Will you contact me when the first of them land there?"
"Yeah."
"Allright. Well then, bye for now!"
"Bye." She turned the console off, letting her head sink. "I am sorry, I should have told you-"
"It's okay, Susan.", Zuse interrupted her. "It was just... odd to hear this voice, nothing else..."
"You're not mad at me?"
Zuse smiled at her tenderly and beckoned her over. As she approached him, he said: "Of course not. How could I?" She sat down on his lap, putting her arms around his neck and looking at him with a smile. "We have not seen eachother for so long, I am just happy that you are here with me. Negative feelings would be... unproductive."
He kissed her passionately, before she slipped from his lap on the couch. For a few moments of pleasant silence, they just looked at each other.
Hesitantly, Susan spoke up again: "At our first encounter, Eckert told me about your relationship..."
"He did, yes?" Zuse grinned bitterly, looking away. "I am not surprised by that, not in the least..."
"He also told me about your argument... He is really, really sorry, Zuse.", she murmured.
"Could we please change the subject?"
"Sure...", she replied meekly. "Uhm... What do you want to talk about?"
"Well..." Zuse laughed overly excited. "For instance, that you still keep me on tenterhooks! Tell me what you experienced all those cycles! Go, go, go!"
She giggled. "I already wondered why the most curious program I know doesn't pump me."
"Well, I tried to hide it, but I am nearly bursting with curiosity!"
She told him about the arrival in Argon, how surprised she had been as she met Eckert and got to know about his fighting skills. At first the training with him had been her preoccupation, so that she got even better, but when she realised how the programs in Argon were feeling about CLU's regime, how it suppressed them, she decided to do something. She had been more cautious than she had been in Tron City, hadn't told the members who she really was, whereby it took much more time, but she managed to build the best organised resistance Argon has ever seen. Later, when she had already obtained their confidence, Susan revealed her true identity to her allies.
"They had great respect for me even before I took over the leadership of the resistance, due to this... well, how is it called... 'Her Fall'?"
"Yes, 'Her Fall'..."
Zuse looked to the ground, as Susan continued speaking with a soft voice: "I told all the resistance members about Kyto."
He looked up, smiling lightly. "You... did?"
"Yeah. I told them about his bravery, his altruism and calm nature. They admire him for that."
"He would surely be proud..."
"I hope so... Anyway, I expanded to Bostrum and it worked out there just as well as in Argon. And... well, I just waited for the best opportunity to return to Tron City." She poked Zuse with her index finger. "Now you, honey."
"Oh, well, there haven't been as exciting experiences as yours. There were some causes of terror where a few wealthy programmes got derezzed by poorer ones, but that happened a long time ago, about 700 cycles ago. The rest had been... party, more or less."
They fell silent for a moment.
Then Zuse quietly said: "I often dreamt of you..."
"I dreamt of you too." Susan laughed shortly. "Sometimes it was silly stuff!" In thoughts, she looked away. "For example, you once had... a hat. Like, a..." Frowning, she lifted her arms, forming a circle around her head with her hands. "...very...big one... Oh, dreams... They're weird. But it really was a... damn huge hat..." She looked at Zuse with a serious face, seeming to think about something. He narrowed his eyes to slits. After a few moments of silence, Susan added: "Never wear hats. Something bad will happen."
With furrowed brow they looked eachother into the eyes.
Suddenly both snorted with laughter. Entirely uncontrollably they laughed so hard that the sound filled the whole club. None of them could remember when they had last laughed this way, from the bottom of their hearts.
There a short beep rang out, making Zuse hush instantly.
"What's the matter?", Susan asked, as she saw Zuse's expression.
"Uhm, it's... Gem. She frequently comes here after the closing of the club. I totally forgot about that..."
"Gem?"
"I believe you met her before. This siren I was 'dating'?"
"Ah, I think, I remember... White bun?"
Zuse nodded.
Susan raised an eyebrow. "Why does she visit you that often?"
"I presume you are mature enough to... well... make sense of it..." By a certain tone in his voice she noticed that he felt quite unpleasant with this situation.
"I just laughed about hats. Are you really sure of my maturity?"
Zuse stood up. "Could you please wait here for a nanocycle, while I fob Gem off?" He left her alone, disappearing downstairs. There Gem's seductive voice already resounded.
Susan pursed her lips. Zuse Änderungen Gem... somehow she didn't like that. Perhaps it was down to the fact that Gem looked extremely attracitve...
But then she began to smirk. Maybe she should greet Gem too. After all she was one of the sirens, who'd equipped Susan for her first fight in the arena, even the leader of them she guessed. Yes, she deserved a Susan-like greeting.
So she stood up, peeking down. Zuse and Gem stood next to the bar. Appearently, he just tried to explain to the slightly annoyed looking siren that it was quite inconvenient now. Susan took a run-up, jumped into the club, landed right beside Zuse and boxed the shocked Gem playfully against her arm. "GEEEEM, MA OLD GURL! WHAZZUUUP?!"
The siren looked at her with her mouth agape, rolled her eyes and then fell to the ground like a wet rag.
Susan nodded triumphantly.
Zuse sighed. "Was that really necessary?"
She licked over her teeth, clicked her tongue and replied: "Yep." He gave her an 'Are you serious?'-look and Susan shrugged. "Hey, noone's immune against a system crash, buddy!"
"If you think... Would you please help me carry her up to the lounge?"
Susan puckered her lips, folding her arms. "Nope."
Zuse smirked, squatted down to Gem and laboriously lifted her up. "Your behaviour is outrageous, young lady."
"Young lady... Pff! In the User-world I'd be like... 53 years old! I'd be terrible looking."
While dragging Gem up the stairs, he said: "I don't think you could ever be ugly, pretty miss. Besides, I read about the ageing process of Users and it does not sound bad at all."
He just reached the middle step, as Susan answered: "But... but... Old people look like raisins!"
Zuse exploded with laughter, dropping Gem unintendedly, who now slid down the stairs and landed on the ground with a bang. He gasped for air, clapping his hand to the mouth. "Holy sh..."
Susan just stood there with her mouth agape, pointing at Zuse stiff like a statue.
When he noticed that, he called: "What?!"
"You dropped her!"
"Because of YOU!"
"No, no, no! Don't pin that on others, honey!"
Zuse shook his head, laughing. "You see, only now do I have the feeling that Susan Gifford is back!"

Susan had helped Zuse with Gem, but she had to go before her reboot, because of her appointment with the resistance members. It hadn't been a great farewell, just a long kiss, since she had promised faithfully to come back after a recovering sleeping cycle.
Now she was walking through the streets of Tron City, with her disguise, the white hair and the revealing outfit, donned. Even 798 cycles couldn't harm her memory. Determined, she strolled down the alleys, knew exactly where to go to, although she hadn't been here for such a long time. It felt good to have a walk through her home city on the Grid, eyeing the buildings she had climbed up sometimes, seeing the wide streets with their hexagonal paving she had driven over with her lightcycle often. Yes, this was her home and she didn't want to leave it for a long, long time.
Susan took a deep breath, smiling lightly.
Zuse. It'd been so incredibly good to see him again. In her exile she had to think of ihm so many time, had watched their moments through her disc-memory, which had made her happier but also aroused her longing for him everytime anew. Even after such a long time, he was still her best friend, her closest confidant. Therefore, she felt really sorry for him now that she had to lie concerning the meantime in Argon. For Eckert's sake she had kept the time a secret, when also he had considered her dead but hadn't had the heart to tell Zuse about it. And Susan was glad he hadn't. After all, she hadn't only promised Eckert to not say a word about it to anyone. About what happened in the Outlands.

Slowly, Susan lifted her lids, but closed them immediatly after. It was far too bright in here. But what was 'here'?
She put her right hand over her eyes, protecting them from the torrent of white until they got used to it, while sitting up. She noticed that she was lying on a soft surface. Finally, she managed to open her eyes completely and looked around, frowning.
It was an entirely white room with pretty, noble furniture. On her left was a dresser with a big mirror above, on her right a window, behind which luminous water gurgled in a small pool. The bed she was lying on was also white, only the rims consisted of silver shining flourishes.
Where the hell was she?
Was that heaven? Susan didn't believe in such actually, but this here just occured so absurd to her. Besides, she remembered that she collapsed in the Outlands. Did she also die there?
Slowly, she slid to the edge of the bed, breathing heavily.
2 reboots within 3 days weren't to be recommended for any program. Susan felt really lousy. It reminded her of those mornings after nights she had spent in collage, drinking, smoking and just having fun with her friends. Her head was spinning and she had to cling to the white blanket beneath her.
Suddenly a short rumble sounded.
Alarmed, Susan looked to the door opposite the bed. Until now the question if she was allone hadn't even crossed her mind, but now...
With her gaze fixed on the door, she stood up, totteringly approaching it. There she also noticed a little vial with a label on the dresser next to the bed. Frowning, she took it into her hand and read: "Drink me'
"Do I look like fucking Alice, or what?", she murmured and almost had to laugh at the thought: 'Susan in Grid-Land'
She observed the liquid inside the vial and realised that she had seen something like that just a few millicycles ago. "Pure energy..."
'One should always drink it after a reboot.', Zuse's words resounded hin her head. So she opened the little phial and emptied it in one gulp, not being able to suppress a cough.
Susan looked up.
The dizziness had faded, but gave way now to great sceptisism.
Warily, she took her disc from her back as she stepped towards the door. Very slowly she pushed it open and peeked out. A long dark corridor with a few doors on its left side opened in front of her. She perceived quiet music, but by its minor volume she wasn't able to judge the direction it came from.
With her disc in her hand she sneaked down the corridor, trying to locate where the rumble had come from.
There. Again quiet cracking. It had come from a door further afar.
Susan stopped in front of one of them and squeezed her ear against it. Nothing. She sneaked to the next. Again nothing.
With each step the music became a bit louder. Somehow it seemed familar to her.
As she reached the last door in the corridor, a cracking sound resonated directly behind it.
Susan went into fighting position, putting her free hand on the handle. The pounding of her own heart was the loudest noise around her.
Mentally, she counted: 'One... Two... Three!'
She pushed the door open and... froze.
Kevin Flynn, who was sitting on the ground barefooted next to a knocked down lightcycle, looked at her in confusion. After half an eternity he said: "Knocking is luxury, huh?"
There fell a deep silence again. The loud music was the only thing that was to hear: "Big in Japaaan, alright, pay then I'll sleep by your side..."
Susan let her tensed arms sink. The disc slipped out of her weak hand and dropped to the ground, clattering.
Tears ran over Susan's cheeks and she fell down on her knees.
Only her loud sobbing interrupted Flynn's thoughts. He quickly stood up, turned the volume of the music down and squatted down to his bitterly crying friend, putting his hand on her back. "Hey, hey, everything's alright, girl..."
She looked up and flung her arms around his neck in an instant. "KEVIN!", blubbered out.
He smiled, giving her a squeeze. "I'm here, Susie Q, everything's fine..."
Her heart was racing, as she was close to hyperventilating.
Kevin Flynn, the creator and one of her best of all time, hugged her!
She looked at him, taking his face into her hands. Between her sobbing she brought forth: "You're alive! And you're living in the Outlands! And you saved me! And-and-and... SHIT, IS THAT ALPHAVILLE?"
He laughed. "Hell YES to all, man!"
She leant her cheek against his shoulder again. They poised like this a long time. Then Susan took a deep breath to Calw down.
"You alright?", Flynn asked.
"Yeah...", she murmured, wiping the tears off. "I just... can't believe it... How long has it been?"
"About 150 cycles, I guess."
She laughed. "And you still look like you used to!"
"Well, actually only 3 years have passed, kiddo..."
"Not for me!"
He helped her up and guided her into a big room with a fireplace and a dining table and much more. One side was just a huge hole, wherefrom one could even detect the highest tower of Tron City in the distance. The End Of Line Club, which was on top of it, shined like a star.
Flynn and Susan sat down on an old-fashioned but stylish looking white couch. "Now, tell me what happened in the meantime.", he said with a happy smile. "I caught you fought in the arena."
"Where die you hear that from? Haven't you been here all the time?"
He laughed. "Hey, I'm the creator! I have my possibilities. I let Quorra go to Argon spmetimes. After all, I gotta stay up-to-date."
Susan's eyes widened. "WHAT?!"
He gave her a confused look, sighed then and closed his eyes. "Oh, yeah, right... I guess, I should begin..."
So he told her how CLU had stopped him and Tron, who had been on their way to the portal, and sicced his sentries on them. Tron had sacrificied himself, so that he could escape. After that he had tried to cut his way through to the central office to reprogram all sentries on the Grid, but it'd been unapproachable. At the futile attempt to help some ISOs out of the city, his leg got badly injured and he had been forced to flee to the Outlands, wherefrom he had had to witness the demise of the ISOs. The miracle he had worked for so long and taken into his heart... Gone. Though, as he had been searching for a shelter in the Outlands, he had found Quorra, whom he had built the Safe House with.
"She's been wiped out too, but not half as much as you were. It was pure luck that I found you. Just wanted to try out if my old lightcycle still works and there I came across you. Lying on the ground, half-dead, your circuitry lights barely on... Why the heck have you been here, Sue?"
She told him her own story, ending with: "I was so distressed... I desperately wanted to find you. And I did..."
They smiled at eachother.
Südens a familiar voice behind Susan rang out. "Hey, is she awake already?"
Susan turned around lightning-fast.
Quorra just strolled into the room and when she spotted her, she stopped abruptly.
"SUSAN!"
"QUORRA!"
The two of the literally precipitated into a tight embracement. Susan squeezed Quorra as hard as she could, until she pushed her away lightly. "Oh man..." She grinned from ear to ear. "I can't believe you're alive! That an ISO is alive! And then of all ISOs it's YOU!"
Flynn laughed. "It hasn't been that loud here for a long time! Typically females..."
Susan beckoned him over. "Come here, you macho-creator, I want a fucking GROUP HUG!"
He consorted with them. "It's great to have you back, Sue..."

"Boss!"
Susan looked up, spotting a program from her resistance that had come to Zuse with her and Bartik, standing at a small opening in a wall of a building.
She smiled, approaching him. "Did you enjoy yourselves in the EOLC?"
"A bit. It was a pleasant change. And you?"
She grinned and went past him into the entrance of the resistance base.
Inside, she proudly looked down at the hall, which her own allies had programmed and now eagerly worked out in in hundreds.
"Have you been able to persuade Zuse to help us?"
She smiled lightly. "I'm not sure yet. But one thing is for certain..." She stepped down the stairs and the programs lined up in rank and files. Susan gave them a determined look. "... CLU should brace himself for a storm..."