To anyone who reads this: Hey, I'm still writing. Took me 7 months, but here it is. The sheer fact that I'm still receiving reviews makes me happy, so thanks to all of you who took the time to read my fic and double thanks to those who reviewed. ^^ So here is the full third chapter. I hope it's worth the 7 months of waiting.
Wearily, she leaned on the wall, feeling as if her body could disintegrate any moment. The events of the last milicycle had left her devastated, mentally even more so than physically, and that was saying something, since she had nearly gotten derezzed. Yet Paige had no time to think about that now, nor did she want to. Her fingers grabbed her disc and detached it from her back. She started to scroll through the most recent memories - her escape from Tesler's ship. The holograms showed nothing aside from the black form of the light jet (how ironic, Paige thought). She had deactivated the lights of the vehicle as well as her suit in order to avoid detection, but the Renegade's white-clad body, slumped on the jet between her and the jet's yoke, wasn't helping. At least the blue glow of Argon should have concealed her somewhat. She had flown high and dived almost straight down once she reached her destination, barely managing to secure the rebel's body so he wouldn't plummet down into the streets of Purgos. The girl ended watching the memory video and sighed in relief. No occupation jets or choppers were visible on the recording, behind or in front of her. It seemed Pavel's grunts had been way too busy to clean up the lower levels of the district.
A chuckle escaped Paige's lips. What better place to hide than under the very nose of her obnoxious former coworker. And her flat had the nice feature of including a small balcony, perfect for landing from a jet by jumping. Well, her wounded leg had protested, but she had made it into one piece. The ex-commander looked about. The apartment was really a nice place, small but cozy, and she had been able to purchase it for a far better cost than expected. Of course, this being Purgos, she had learned after asking around that it had belonged to some siren who had recently been derezzed. Yet the voxels were not on her hands, so it had been a bargain. Pavel had not been appointed district governor when she had moved in, but regardless, he would never think to look for her here, in a siren's apartment. Still, one more precaution was never unnecessary, especially with the Renegade in the house. She tapped a button on the wall and the broad windows turned opaque black, becoming solid walls and isolating her from Purgos and Purgos from her.
Paige crouched down beside the bed, where she had left the Renegade, lifted him off the berth, detached his disc and and started inspecting his wounds. She was of two minds about whether or not to save him, but soon decided that if she didn't to anything now, her choice would already be made. On the other hand, she could always reconsider and derez him while he was still weak. The damage wrought by Tesler's gauntlets was extensive, resulting in a deep gash in the Renegade's chest where the voxels weren't glowing blue, but white-hot, and she had noticed that some of them had chipped off and fallen during the flight. What bare skin was visible was still lined with that blue grid, the kind a program usually got nanocycles before deresolution. It made her shudder. He could be conscious beneath his stupid mask and feel the agony. Better if he was not. Paige sighed, produced a portable microscope from her clothing and started to inspect the wound for microviruses.
Healing his wound on that island had been easy business, not comparable to the challenge she was up to now. Paige traced the main glitches, barely managing to block their effects and prevent further physical data deletion. After that was done, she started a mental data diagnostics check. As the holograms started to flicker before her eyes, the girl was severely tempted to access the rebel's memory bank, but then decided that with the one belonging to Tesler she'd had more than enough dreadful revelations for one milicycle. Besides, she would find out what she needed anyway. Grimly, Paige proceeded with her work. Her inner soldier was clashing with her nature as a medic. When it came to an enemy, both had the habit of asking questions after action, but while the primary response of the warrior in her was to derez, the medic would rush to heal. Yet, she was unsure if the soldier part of her was still functional. Tesler had been manipulating her during all this time, and now that her loyalty to him was destroyed, she could see how far his actions were from the utopian rhetoric he used to describe his rule. Clu seemed no different, his arrival marked with administering punishments and asserting domination, a far cry from the benevolent image he tried to project. So she could hardly find in herself the motivation to fight for tyrants and murderers, and as the military commander in her was losing purpose, the medic remained. Maybe it was her true programming after all. Saving someone's life is still important to me, she had told Beck, and it was true. Few things on the Grid felt as good as that.
When the check was over, Paige gasped. Whole chunks of The Renegade's mind were not just deleted, but corrupted - luckily only motor control functions, for now. That was still reversible, if slowly. She didn't know whether to curse Pavel or Tesler for that. Regardless, she had to act quick, otherwise he would be locked into a body that had a demented mind of its own, and that was a nightmare she didn't wish to anyone. Well, perhaps except for her greasy-haired former coworker. Her own leg reminded her that it, too, needed medical attention, but she ignored it. The clumsy excuse for treatment she had managed back at the ship would have to do for now.
Her mind was a mess and the pain, fatigue and the storm of emotions didn't let her concentrate. Twice she almost deleted important code pathways while erasing corrupted data. She needed to relax. With a sigh, Paige outstretched her left hand to the nearby table and tapped a button on her trusty monome player. Tranquil music filled the room, music she herself had composed while she had been a simple medic back at Gallium. Precisely what she needed to become again now. A medic helping a program to survive. The ghost of a smile appeared on her lips as she deleted bit after bit of reddening, corrupted data. No matter how vicious a criminal he was, the Renegade had saved her, and she owed him.
How many times had it been, actually? As much as Paige didn't want to let the question scratch inside her system files, it still did. So she started counting. First there was the explosion in the tunnels. Granted, that one was his own fault, but if he was such a vile crook, he would just have left her there. Then the sinking island. Despite what she had so ardently insisted before Beck, the girl wasn't certain that the white-clad vigilante had so readily abandoned her to her doom. After that came her duel with Pavel, where she had insisted before herself that she must not feel grateful toward the rebel. But the concern the Renegade had shown for her safety now, not a whole milicycle ago when they were fighting Tesler, almost reminded her of Beck. She had felt a tinge of that back on the ship, when he had, against all reasoning, insisted to get her out.
Beck as the Renegade. It was just impossible to imagine, laughable even. The laid-back, carefree mechanic wearing the white suit, brandishing a disc and slicing black guards to cubes. Come to think of it, had she ever seen the Renegade derez anyone? He always kicked them around until he could break free, and then disappeared. She had seen the footage of his recent acts of terror as encoded in the memories of several witnesses, but after the incident with Gorn, Paige was none too keen on trusting memory files. But then the memories poured inside her mind, uninvited. How the Renegade never actually pointed a weapon at her and only blocked her blows. How he was mysteriously gone while she was out with Beck. Users, even touching him felt similar to Beck. Where did a mechanic gain such a muscled and lean physique, anyway? Not to mention the ability to climb on and jump off trains? Paige's hand trembled involuntarily and the scalpel made a nasty scratch on the Renegade's skin.
"Scratch. Loss of turn."
Why was she reminiscing of her and Beck's date now? She tried to push the thought away like a picture on a touch screen, but it remained there. Why had the normally calm and collected Beck panicked so, enough to scratch the pool table? From a simple remark that he didn't have to wear a mask all the time, like her. Paige's gaze fell on the Renegade's black, opaque visor. No. She was just projecting her doubts. It was ridiculous. Was it, a tiny voice inside her head retorted immediately. How could he skydive so well if he had never done it before? She thought back to the first encounter with the Renegade, when he had busted her chopper's engines and taken a skydive. When she had asked Beck whether that was his first time, he hadn't said yes.
Suddenly, it all started to click into place. The "fresh opposite perspective" he had offered her. The talk about programming and that she wasn't truly meant to be an Occupation soldier. The way Beck had twirled the wrench in his hand, just like the Renegade in the crashing chopper a milicycle prior. She should have listened to her instincts then, should have put him in shackles and driven him to his execution. Instead she had, for some unknown reason, flirted with him and let him go. Then there were their interactions on the train. Thinking of that, Paige felt sick. It had all been a fraud. The blasted Renegade had only been trying to smuggle Keller from the train and that's why he had romanced her. She had been such a fool, to fall into his trap.
Wasn't this the second time this milicycle that she had berated herself for being foolish? Paige took a deep breath and tried to relax. Maybe she was just overanalyzing. Maybe the Renegade was not Beck, but someone else entirely. Either way, she wouldn't find out if his code deteriorated and disappeared right in front of her while she was blaming herself for being so gullible. Biting her lower lip out of anxiety, she continued scraping the bad data until the only color of the vigilante's pixel glow was bluish white. She applied some regeneration plugins on his wounds and bandaged them. It was time for her to tend to herself.
Tesler's tricks had wrought serious damage to her body too. She had managed to rebuild the core structure of her leg, but the voxels around it were a transparent mess, flickering in an angry orange. The rest of her wounds - on the shoulders, chest, face and back - were still having a voxel or two chipping off every other microcycle. Bug it, she thought. Despite being a former army commander, Paige had not forgotten about her feminine side. She really liked her sleek curves, especially those of her long legs every male, and probably some female programs always traced up when they met her, and to have her figure so gruesomely deformed wounded not only her body, but her pride as well. Slowly, the transparent code solidified as she scripted command after command into her disc, until finally she was whole again, with restored limbs, beauty and self-esteem. Her energy, however, was depleted, and Paige fell asleep on the armchair without even realizing it.
She woke up to the clattering sound of her tools being knocked down to the floor. Her eyes fluttered open and she jolted from the chair. The Renegade was trying his best to escape without making noise. Paige's first impulse was to stop him, but then she remained where she was, barely containing a laugh. Good thing she had furnished the apartment in a spartan way, without much decoration and fancy embellishments. The rebel's movements were still too jerky and uncontrolled and he stumbled about with the grace of a tank. It would take some time before he regained full control of his motor activity.
"Save your strength", she said quietly. "And don't try to escape."
He either didn't hear or outright ignored her, somehow made it to the door and smashed in it in the most ungraceful way. After he banged his shoulder into the solid surface for the third time, she rushed to him, caught him by the arm and pulled him back into the living room.
"I said don't. Try. To escape", she punctuated, annoyance creeping into her voice. "You're safer here than anywhere outside right now."
The Renegade grunted, wresting himself away from her grip.
"Some safety", he grumbled, activating his disc. "Last thing I remember is you trying to safely derez me."
Paige paused for a moment, barely avoiding his clumsy attack. Never before had she heard him sound so jaded. It hit her now that he had always talked to her in a pleading, almost friendly tone, like someone who would rather avoid a fight. Now his voice reminded the medic of her own self after Tesler had found her in the Gallium hospital. Wary, bitter and hostile. Betrayed. As she effortlessly dodged another blind swing, she realized. The Renegade had, for some reason, trusted her, though she had always antagonized him. You're not like them, he had told her at the Argon Bridge when he had tried to recruit her. She had refused to believe it then, convinced that he was an agent of chaos and Clu and Tesler were paragons of order and perfection. And now, just as he had proven right about her not belonging with them, Paige had broken his trust. She had tried to kill him when he had saved her.
The girl tackled the white-clad program and pinned him to the wall, much like she had done with Beck aboard the train to Bismuth. The sensation was actually too similar. But she left her suspicions about the Renegade's identity aside and focused on disarming him. With him far from fully healed, it wasn't very difficult and after a few nanocycles his disc rolled on the floor, while Paige continued to hold him pinned to the wall.
"If you're going to derez me, just get on with it already", he snarled.
"I'm not going to, so stop and relax", Paige answered, gentler than intended. "Good, now behave", she added before releasing him.
"Why didn't you finish me back at the ship?", he asked, angrily shaking himself free from her grip. "You certainly seemed eager to do it."
Paige sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. He wasn't going to believe this.
"I was hallucinating." It was half-true. In her wounded state, her mind had mixed her perceived enemy with the actual one. She had still been angry with the Renegade, though. "I was still seeing Tesler before me instead of you. It's a glitch that happens after a very stressful experience, and you can agree I had just gone through one."
"Funny", he sneered, wobbling on his feet, "I didn't see Tesler swinging his disc at me after my near-deresolution experience. Or if I did, he was very feminine."
He had to make stupid jokes even after a near-death experience, didn't he. Paige took a deep breath and pointed to the chair. A new idea popped up in her head. Perhaps she could trick him into showing his face.
"You'd better sit down. I don't intend to derez you, torture you or turn you in to Clu. I'm already a wanted fugitive myself. So have a seat and regain some of your strength. I'll make you something."
"That's some change in the attitude", the Renegade sneered again, "from attempted deresolution to offering drinks. Almost like you're hitting on me. Or is it the guilt talking?"
So much for unmasking him. Paige growled. No energizing drinks. Awake for just a few micros and he was already pissing her off.
"Yes", she started, irritated, "it is the guilt talking. Are you happy now?"
To her own surprise, her voice was shaking and a tear ran down her cheek. The Renegade didn't fail to notice and relaxed his posture, looking almost apologetic now. That only angered the ex-commander further and she wiped the glistening tear from her face. Outlaw or not, she was still a soldier and couldn't afford to show any more weakness.
"Only now I had time to think over my past encounters with you", the girl continued in a calmer tone, seating herself on the berth across him. "As someone...", she paused, searching for a word to call Beck without giving away his relationship with him, which wasn't even clear to her right now, "as someone close to me said, I looked to things from a fresh perspective. You saved my life more than once, though each time you did have ulterior motives. But now on the ship you just didn't seem to have one. You could have left me to turn to cubes, but you risked being vaporized by Tesler's cannon to make sure I got my disc, even when it wasn't your best move. You didn't flee when he was kicking the life out of me, even though you had the chance. And after I snapped out of my hallucinations, I had no choice but do the same for you. You confuse me, Renegade, and I want to put a stop to this."
She didn't say it quite like she had intended. Her words had sounded far too soft, almost naïve, and he caught the change as well, leaning in to listen. But then she let herself speak freely, appearing more trusting than she was, saying her more innocent thoughts aloud, but hiding her doubts and suspicions. Maybe that was a better way to get some answers without needing to ask the questions.
"So you patched me up", Paige could swear the Renegade was raising an eyebrow beneath his mask, "after I was nearly derezzed? Don't you need to be a fully trained medic to do something like that? I doubt soldiers have that much time to learn about medical care."
He was hinting at the island episode, citing her word for word. Thinking he was sneaky. Well, if he really was Beck, he wasn't being too subtle about it.
"I don't see why not to tell you", she sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "I was a medic once."
"How's your leg?", he inquired after a short but awkward silence. "I've seen programs with half-derezzed limbs which remain that way for a very long time."
"Half-rerezzed in my case", she chuckled darkly, "and how very encouraging of you. No, it's getting better, but I still can't kick you in the face with it. Just in the abdomen."
What was that? Paige scowled. She was getting carried away with this friendly chat. Flirting wasn't part of her plan. She decided to change the direction.
"I guess you still haven't given up on recruiting me."
The Renegade shrugged, but could not fool her. He was still hoping.
"You do realize I can't join you if I don't know who you are and what you're fighting for", she demanded. "Why did you start all of this? And don't tell me you're Tron. I'd know if you were."
He tried to retain an air of confidence, but evidently failed.
"What makes you think I'm not Tron?"
"You know", Paige began, "when I was younger, in my early beta stage, back in my home city, I'd often go at martial arts demonstrations."
"And?"
"Usually among the programs who performed the most advanced techniques, there was one from the old system - Yori, Tron's spouse." She studied the Renegade, who was sitting motionless, neither his pose nor his mask betraying any emotion. A tough program to crack. Paige let the memories engulf her, allowing herself a small smile. "She could knock down a squadron of guards like nobody's business. She was my idol back then."
The self-proclaimed 'Tron' continued to sit like a statue.
"If you were Tron, I'd never be able to beat you in a fight. He was her only equal."
His head made a quizzical tilt to the right.
"Don't feel offended", Paige smirked, "I can't say you're a slouch either. Just not on par with what the real Tron would be like. You've made a habit of being quite a nuisance for me when I'm sent to deal with you."
Did she just make a backhanded compliment to the Renegade? Then again, it wouldn't be the first time. Now she just had to hold her composure and not blame him of being Beck right to his face.
"Don't forget you owe your life to that nuisance."
"I do", she agreed, "and this time, as you see, I'm expressing my gratitude without attacking you, but that still doesn't make you Tron. If you were, you would have obliterated Tesler all on your own. You're my equal in skill, I acknowledge that. But I'm no Yori and you're no Tron."
"Okay, you got me", Paige saw the surrender in his posture and smirked. "No point in pretending further, I am not Tron. But that still doesn't make him dead."
"I had you from the beginning", she chuckled, "and now that we've established that you're not Tron, why don't you tell me who you are and why you are doing this?"
Pavel ran his fingers through his greasy hair, snarling. He was spending a second milicycle in a row without leaving his quarters. Tesler's orders to subdue the rebelling mechanics had been interrupted by Clu himself. At least he had been able to watch the geezer's execution. Tesler had started to seriously grate on Pavel's code pathways as of late. Giving him the harder assignments, tasking him with overseeing Purgos, confiscating his weapon, berating him in front of Paige... That his own disc had ended up embedded in his chest had been a much satisfying view for Pavel. Not so much for the oh-so-perfect Paige, though. But that had only increased the entertainment value of the experience.
Paige. Once Pavel had thought quite highly of her. He had fancied her, and how could he not. A program with such looks was a rare thing, especially in the army. Most women preferred to be distressed damsels or obedient servants, but not her, oh no. She was a capable warrior, no doubt about that, and when she had been enlisted in his unit, at first he had admired her skills. How a paltry medic had managed to obtain such agility and grace, Pavel would never know. He despised medics as a whole. A truly independent program would relish every chance to trample the competition in the dust, not waste their energy to heal and serve the others. Pavel had learned this lesson well as a young program during his time in the backstreets of Tron city. He had been a laughing stock of all the thugs from the neighborhood, much like that one-bit-minded mechanic, Zed. But he, Pavel, had not been soft like Zed. He had learned to be tough, and cunning, and vicious. To fight, scheme, bribe and racket his way to a higher position, and it had paid off. And if that glitch, Paige, had had a properly working set of system files, she would have flocked to him when he had first unveiled his sympathies to her. Together, they could have overthrown Tesler and ruled - General Pavel and his gorgeous mistress, her cold beauty a token of his power and status, for only a powerful program could afford to have such a woman.
But Paige's good looks and her combat skills had obviously turned out to be all there was to her. She had rebuked his advances, had turned down his offers to sacrifice her intimacy for the power he could have given her. And she had been an unprofitable investment as well. Pavel had showered her with gifts while she was serving under him, gifts she had no lawful right to refuse, and yet she had - cosmetic add-ons, all kinds of glittering textures for her light suit, various upgrades, even vehicles, however unfeminine that kind of gifts was. He had then switched his tactics and tried a more straightforward, physical approach - a commoner was perhaps suited to rougher forms of courtship. It was, after all, her moral obligation, as he had previously defended her from several of the privates from his unit - to give herself to him, her savior. Instead of appreciating his chivalry and rewarding him as he deserved, she had had the audacity to retaliate and then filed a complaint straight to Tesler, disregarding her direct superior. And things had changed drastically then. Pavel, who had up to this point been the general's right-hand program, was discarded in favor of that wretch. He personally suspected - no, he was certain - that Paige had offered to the general what she had denied to him. How else could one explain her sudden promotion from private to battalion commander? She had even started to dress absolutely frivolously, strutting on high heels and showing off her body to her soldiers to keep them hypnotized in line and to Tesler to gain favors from him. Alas, that had made her no less attractive to Pavel, quite the opposite even, but now next to the desire a hatred burned in him and ever since then he had been planning her downfall. Oh how sweet it would be to have her at his mercy once again, and this time he would not be soft and kind.
His dreams of retribution were interrupted by two sentries knocking on the door.
"What?", he shrieked at the soldiers. "Out with it!"
"You are to report to the throne room immediately, sir."
"Excuse me, soldier", Pavel asked in a deceptively quiet voice, "could you repeat that with the respectful tone that your commander deserves?"
"Clu's personal order, Commander", the one sentry muttered, "he demanded that we cite it to the letter and return unscathed with you."
No punching bags, how nice. Pavel balled his hands into fists and, seething with fury, marched along the corridor with the sentries.
Clu lounged on Tesler's throne, seemingly undisturbed by the appalling view Pavel arrived to. Spread across the hall, twenty or so workers were trying to repair the damage, and it was indeed extensive. The throne room looked as if a battle had raged in it: remnants of a column were rolling on the floor together with broken control panels, the throne itself was chipped, and one half of the walls was littered with program-sized holes blasted in it. Pavel knew the work of the weapon he personally had devised for Tesler. He suspected that the general was right now in the state of a voxel pile which stood a bit to the right of himself.
"You have summoned me, Your Excellency", he groveled as he fell to one knee.
"Mhm", Clu mused, sipping from the energy cocktail he was holding. "Pavel, is it, do you know that you're in command of this vessel?"
"Sir?"
The ruler of the Grid narrowed his eyes.
"You clearly have an imperfect understanding", Pavel froze at the sound of the blasphemous word, "of the events on this ship during the past milicycle. Now, should we leave that unremedied?"
Pavel bulged his eyes, unable to say a word.
"No, man, of course not", Clu continued his monologue, "but as you can see, this hall is like a metaphor for the entire city you now have under your control", he made a grand gesture, encompassing the ruined throne room, "imperfection upon imperfection."
"Allow me to ask, Your Excellency, what has become of Commander Paige?"
Clu wrinkled his nose, as if he had sensed a very unpleasant smell.
"The program Paige is now an outlaw. But why hear the story from me, not in perfect detail, when you can witness it?" Never ceasing to smile, he gestured toward the large pile of voxels, among which an identity disc could be seen. "Disc!"
Dyson, who was standing nearby, took the disc and tossed it to Pavel. The commander activated the holoprojector and played the last video, barely containing himself not to laugh with glee to the suffering of Paige, the Renegade and finally Tesler.
"So you see, dear Pavel", Clu drawled, "we have a quite unpleasant situation. A devastated throne room, a derezzed general and a runaway commander. Which leaves you in charge."
Pavel gulped, afraid to show any reaction, be it complaint about his new responsibilities or joy for his new position.
"Dyson here tells me that a sentry has seen a jet black... hm, light jet fly away in direction of Purgos. That was your district, Commander, if I recall correctly?"
The greasy-haired commander nodded hastily.
"Now", the System Administrator continued in his fatherly tone, "we could make this perfect. You know, for both of us. If you bring me the Renegade, I'll make you General of Argon. And if you capture Paige...", his smirk extended and he winked, "well, some programs are their own reward, man, aren't they?"
A greedy flame flashed in Pavel's eyes, but he hurried to cover it with an expression of the utmost eagerness to please and bowed to the floor.
"Right away, Your Magnificence."
Clu waited for him to stand up, rose from his seat, walked up to him, clapped him on the shoulder and shook him with a look that could be either reassuring or threatening. Or perhaps both, or neither. Pavel didn't presume to read into Clu's expressions.
"Good", the ruler smiled again, "now go and prepare your jet squadron."
Not five micros later, commander Pavel was soaring in the skies above Purgos, swiping at his arm-mounted holopad. He was almost certain now that Paige lived in Purgos, if she had headed there while heavily wounded and with an unconscious passenger. Paige. The last time he had seen her outside the ship, she had been on a date with that piece-of-malware mechanic with the cocky attitude and the spiky hair, Deck or Geck or whatever. He had taken special pleasure in ruining their pretty little date. Well, last cycle their date, next cycle their lives. He reminded himself that he hated mechanics too, just as much as he did medics.
He scrolled and scrolled and scrolled through all kinds of registers, until he stumbled upon the list of immobile property purchases. Among the last ones there was an apartment of a siren, Lux, recently derezzed, which was sold to a program named Paige. A ceiling apartment, quaint, with a balcony. He could even see it from here and blast it to smithereens with his missile launcher, but alas, he needed them both alive. But if all else failed...
Pavel cackled and dove straight down.
"So", Paige sighed, "I ask you for the last time, 'Not-Tron', how do you expect me to trust you if I don't even know who you are?"
"Did you ask Tesler who he was before you trusted him?"
Beck knew he was hitting a code pathway, but he still asked her. The girl's gaze fell.
"I was just waking up and the first thing I learned was that my friends were murdered along with all medical staff except for me", she protested. "Do you think straight in such a moment?"
He barely restrained himself from putting his hand on hers.
"I had to."
She frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"I had to remind myself to not give in to emotions when they derezzed a friend of mine, otherwise me and my other friends were sure to follow", he said, remembering Bodhi's death again. "That's the first thing the Occupation did when they came into Argon. It's why I started the rebellion."
He detached his disc and showed her the memory of Bodhi's deresolution, stopping just before his own voice entered the recording.
Paige's gaze softened.
"I'm sorry for your loss. But because of it you just decided that it's a good idea to make programs believe Tron's alive?"
"Yeah, I did. And then I met him."
The girl raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
"You mean to tell me..."
"It's true, Paige. The words 'Tron lives' are not just some mantra I like to write on the walls."
"Suppose that's true, what's Tron's role in this? Why doesn't he fight by himself?"
"He couldn't until recently. He was incapacitated, that's why he had to train me."
"Did he train you how to murder innocent programs as well?" The question struck Beck like it was Dyson's light whip.
"Answer the question."
He tensed. That talk again. After nearly meeting his end at the hands of Tesler, he really didn't feel like talking about Cyrus.
"This was not my doing", he finally muttered.
"And whose doing was it then? Did the programs derez themselves? Or do you mean to tell me there's another white-clad, Tron-emblazoned program that goes on a rampage through the city?" Paige's voice was raising with every word, until she was towering above him, disc in hand, and seized him by the throat. "I don't care how many times you've saved my life, if I find out you've really done this, I will derez you, Clu's orders or not."
"Answer, Renegade!", she yelled, bringing the disc to his throat. "Who killed them?"
"The original Renegade."
"You mean the one in the black suit who blew up Clu's statue?" Paige's brow furrowed. "I wonder what happened to him. Now that I think of it, fighting him did feel different. He was less experienced."
Oh, come on now. She had switched the tactic, agreeing to his every word to try and goad him into revealing himself.
"No", Beck laughed lightly, however inappropriate that was, "that was me. But there was one Tron had trained before me."
Paige loosened her grip.
"I'm listening."
He paused, thinking of a way to explain without giving himself away. Too bad he still had to keep his disguise. He wanted to just take off his mask and show her all of his memories so that she could no longer doubt him. But would she accept it? Would she distrust a disc recording because of her frame-up? Would she lash out at him, frustrated that he too had been lying to her? He didn't know. So he gave her the short version:
"This first Renegade went mad at some point. Later he broke free and sought revenge against Tron and me."
The woman pursed her lips, processing the information.
"It's strange, but I do want to believe you. It's not something I'd expect you to do, given all I've seen from you... And you have been framed before."
Not something she'd expect him to do. Beck smirked under the mask. So his normal self's words had rubbed off on her, deny it as she might. That was still something.
"What are you talking about? Hopper's incident?"
She sucked in a breath. Time for her to go through bad memories, apparently.
"No. That time I was thrown into the games... Pavel had implanted a false memory of betrayal inside my head."
Beck shrugged, not understanding the connection.
"That's you being framed, not me. And I do remember it."
"Shut up and listen", she huffed. "He later blamed it on you. He showed me a memory of the program that implanted the fake memory in me, and in it you were ordering him to make me suffer and gloating about how you'd enjoy this..."
Well, that was new.
"What program? I never said that."
"Yeah, even I'm not that blind." She waved her hand dismissively. "The memory just screamed 'faked by Pavel', with his tone and spitting my name and all. You were trying to persuade me to join you just micros before that. And if you did want me to suffer, you've had plenty of possibilities to make it happen. So I guess you're being framed again with those murders. Obviously, the mechanics in Able's garage support you despite one of the victims being their boss, and now I'd trust them more than I would Clu."
The mechanics in Able's garage, huh. Beck half expected his name to be dropped next. So Paige wasn't a lost cause after all. But he still had to keep his hopes in check. He remembered the time on the bridge, when against all logic she had still rejected him.
"Weren't you fighting for order and perfection? For Clu?"
The woman regarded him warily. Oops. She had said that on their date, not to his Renegade self.
"I never told you that I fight for Clu, but yes, until one milicycle ago, I used to. Now I'm not so sure at all."
"Because of Tesler?"
She shuddered.
"Not only. You see, I expected Clu to just come and restore order to the city, to solve its problems... Instead he jammed Tesler's disc into his chest, told me to have a look at it and left him for me to finish off... And everything about him just felt so... wrong. Fear and tyranny and order, yes, but not the order I dream of."
"What do you dream of?"
"I'm not on a date, Renegade", she snapped, "so I won't talk about dreams and ideals. I'll make a gamble and I'll come with you to see whether Tron really lives and if he does, what he is up to. If it's more than sabotaging Clu's operations and causing chaos, maybe this revolution of yours could win me over. But you can't have that without telling me who you are."
She was nothing if not persistent, Beck had to hand it to her. But so was he.
"And what will you do when you know my identity?"
Paige gave a frustrated sigh through clenched teeth.
"Look, you know I can't just go back to Clu and turn you in. And like I said, it's not like I even want to any more."
"So will you join me?"
"I'm still not entirely convinced you're innocent", she raised her voice, visibly exhausted by the need to repeat. Beck was certain she was mentally disintegrating him right now. "If you prove guilty of murder, I still will derez you. But If Tron lives and what you say is true, I'll consider joining you."
"If it's true, you'll consider?" Not nearly what he had aimed for. He had to assume his commanding persona. "That's pretty vague. I need a definite answer. Don't waste my time with half-hearted promises."
That did it. Just as he expected, Paige didn't take well to being cornered.
"Look", her patience was wearing off. "if you're innocent, you risk nothing. I, on the other hand, risk everything by trusting you."
Then suddenly her expression darkened:
"Actually, what's this 'everything' I'm so afraid of losing?", she pondered bitterly. "I have no one left who I care about or who cares about me, so it won't matter to anyone if you turn out to be a liar and I get derezzed. Fine, I've made my decision. Prove your words and I'll switch sides to you."
Mission half accomplished. Beck congratulated himself, but then it hit him. No one she cared about? That was harsh. Beck stood for several nanocycles like he was blasted by Tesler's cannon. In that moment she looked so broken and alone. And did she really forget him that fast?
"You said you have no one. I find that hard to believe", he cajoled. "Come one, don't you have someone that matters to you?"
She shook her head.
"As I told you, my friends were both derezzed. Then in the army I didn't waste time to try and make new ones. Well, I...", she looked at him hesitantly and when she continued, her voice was heavy with sadness. "I was seeing someone recently, but I drove him away because I was too blind to see Tesler's atrocities and he was trying to open my eyes. So I doubt he'll want to be with me again."
He sure does, Beck thought. More than ever.
"I think it's time I take off my mask-" He saw her eyes fix on him and she studied him intensely, as if in expectation. It was like the look she had thrown him back at the ship, when he had declared not to leave her to her death, only now he thought he saw hope in it. Was she finally connecting the dots?
All of a sudden, someone knocked on the door. Several times.
"This is Commander Pavel! Open up!"
Paige and Beck gasped and bolted to their feet.
"Wonderful", she grumbled, "the malware has figured out where I live."
She started fidgeting around the room, collecting vehicle and weapon batons and tucking them into her boots and armbands.
"Hey", she said, "Feeling better already? You'll have to cover for me while I pack my stuff."
"Not at the top of my game", Beck said, "but I'll manage."
Beck checked to see if Zed's baton was in his boot. Miraculously, it was. He looked at Paige, only to see her collapsing a photo and a strange box with many buttons into a small box and put them into a shoulder-mounted satchel. Strange choice of items for abandoning ship.
"What are you looking at?", she glowered at him.
"Nothing", Beck decided that was the safest answer.
"Catch", the girl said and threw him a jet baton, "I'll trust you to do the flying. Careful, I only have one. Here's staff, too", she added and tossed him a staff baton.
"I'd much rather go by light cyc-" Beck couldn't finish, as he saw a shower of sparks coming from the door. An instant later, Pavel and his black guards poured into the apartment. Eight of them, wearing heavy armor. That was some relief. At least they would be slow in close quarters.
"Paige, Renegade! What a delightful surprise to see the two of you! In the name of Clu", the commander yelled at the top of his lungs, "you are both under arrest. Seize them!"
Pavel's lips stretched in a smirk. Finally, it had come. The moment to wipe the floor with the loathsome Paige and teach her respect. And the Renegade was his ticket to the seat of an army general, an additional prize.
"Hiding from me in Purgos, my own district?", he laughed. "How very clever of you, Paige. Now I will finally award you the punishment you deserve for the vile program you are - a traitor and an enemy of the state!"
She looked panicked, pulling her disc and baring his teeth. No witty retorts this time, eh. The Renegade drew his disc as well.
"Seize the Renegade", Pavel barked at his henchmen, "the traitor's mine".
Something was telling him that was a wrong move, but Pavel ignored it. If he let the Renegade slip, he would, at the very least, lose the position of general, and with it, the chance to get his hands on the upgrade disc again. But the temptation was too great - he had lonhed to see Paige in shackles since long before they came to Argon, and now he had his golden opportunity. The Renegade was weak anyway.
Disc in hand, he strode toward his former colleague, taking in her frightened expression. With the corner of his eye he saw the eight guards prodding at the Renegade with their staves, which he desperately tried to evade. He was resilient, Pavel had to admit. But that was of little consequence now. His true prize awaited him. Pavel swung, she parried, then went on the offensive, unleashing a barrage of hits on him. Pavel blocked them all, studying her. Something was different. Too busy protecting himself, he couldn't pick up what, but the sensation scratched inside his head. A possible key to victory. But for now he didn't know what it was. It was annoying him and that was a rather unwelcome distraction, so he tried to shut the thought out and concentrate on defeating Paige.
Meanwhile, the Renegade grabbed a chair and smashed it into another guard, toppling him. As another two kept the white-clad rebel occupied, the fallen soldier tried to get up, only to be met head first by Pavel's disc.
"Halfwits", the commander slurred. "If you want something done right, don't leave it to guards."
Picking up the guard's weapon, he charged against Paige. Even without the upgrade disc, he felt fierce and strong as he swung the staff. Paige blocked his blow, and the next, and the one after that, but each parry was lower and weaker than the one before and she had stepped a few paces back, gritting her teeth. Her left leg was quivering and after a few blows it started to flicker whenever she parried, becoming more and more translucent. But of course, that was what he had noticed. She wasn't kicking. She was still weak from the fight with Tesler. A perfect opportunity.
"Get back where you crawled out of, Pavel, I have no time for you", she managed to spit between the blows, panting. Not quite as cocky as usual.
Confidence surged through Pavel's circuits at the realization. He didn't need an upgrade to wipe the floor with her. With a savage cry, he deflected her attack and brought his staff down. The woman tried to dodge, but the weapon collided with her head. She screamed and tried to hit him, but Pavel was faster. With strength that amazed even him, he swept the staff under her injured leg, knocking her to the floor. He gripped the weapon like a spear and a predatory grin as he pointed the staff to her chest.
"I do admit you are quite attractive, Paige", he leered, "but you'll look even better as a pile of cubes."
"Lame pickup line as always, Pavel", she said dryly, glaring at him.
He wasn't quite sure whether he wanted to kill or capture her at the moment. But let her cower in fear. It was so delightful.
"Or I could take you back with me", he mused aloud, tracing her curves as he had done so many times. "Show you your rightful place in the hierarchy!"
His former co-worker kicked the staff away. Her lip curled.
"Just don't drool over me, it'd make me commit suicide", she snorted while trying to get up. He just clobbered her with the staff again and she plopped to the ground. That glitch. He had forgotten how infuriating she could be. Another whack that met her leg and left a glowing bruise, then one more. For the next micro or so Pavel relished every damaged voxel appearing on Paige's body as she ever so helplessly tried to evade his blows. She was giving in to exhaustion. Such a sweet picture.
"I am so going to enjoy this", he giggled. Oh, it was so fun. "Slowly beating you down. Where is your Renegade now, dear Paige?"
"Right here", a low, even voice said moments before Pavel felt something hit the back of his head. "So you wanna have some fun?"
Pavel simmered in anger. Seven of those idiots in full armor and that stupid white clown was still alive and kicking. Well, they would not be, not for long.
"I'm not interested, Renegade, I prefer my current dancing par-"
"No, no, I insist", the rebel said icily as he grabbed the commander by the neck and shoved him into the wall. "That's no way to treat a lady, don't you know?"
Pavel glowered at him. With a great effort he pulled himself free from the Renegade's hold and kicked at him, then scrambled for his staff. With the corner of his eye he noticed some of the guards regaining consciousness.
"Get up, imbeciles", he barked. "The white knight here wants to give us a lesson in chivalry! We won't make this easy for him and his damsel in distress, shall we?"
To their credit, the guards obeyed, standing up as quickly as they could and assuming a formation that blocked Beck from Paige, trapping him in a corridor of guards with their commander t the end. Meanwhile, the damsel in question had regained some of her strength and tried to get up, only to be seized by two of the soldiers, screaming and helplessly thrashing around. One quick thump at her disc dock, drawing sparks, and she slumped in a heap on the floor. Now it just remained to capture the Renegade...
It seemed the rebel was all but reading his thoughts, as he suddenly lost his calm posture and charged toward him with a roar, knocking the first two guards down before they could react, then took both of their weapons and started to twist them in his hands like helicopter blades as he advanced forward. The soldiers tried to block the attacks, but the Renegade was faster. One guard's visor cracked as the staff hit him, and he fell on the floor, screaming. Another guard charged and his heavy boot trampled his fallen comrade's already distorted face, smashing it into voxels. He was met with the body of the first guard that the Renegade had flung at him, and the two lost their balance and tumbled onto Paige's table, breaking it. The two foremost guards had gotten up and tried to tackle the Renegade, but he turned on his heel, grabbed one by the arm and slammed him head-first into the running sixth guard, then did the same with the first and seventh. The vigilante wasted no time, ran up to them and kicked them with all his strength, sending them right in the direction of Pavel. The commander screamed in anger and indignation as the pile of armor, limbs and staves crumbled on top of him. After a short struggle he managed to pull himself from under them.
"Apologies, sir", one of the guards muttered, but Pavel just stabbed him while he was still down, then the other. They were undeserving of life, those cretins. He proceeded to execute the third with a throw of his disc, but saw something white zoom past him toward Paige.
"Not so fast", Pavel almost sung as he grabbed hold of the Renegade and tugged him to the center of the room. "You defeated my minions, now you'll have a boss fight!"
"I'm sick of you", was the short answer, followed by a staff swing, then a punch, then a kick, and Pavel almost let himself get overwhelmed. Blasted rebellious scum, how dared he. Pavel angrily swiped at the ground where his enemy stood, but the other staff met his again, then twisted it and pinned his hand to the wall. With one quick swing the Renegade severed Pavel's weapon, rendering it useless, then proceeded to punch him. The commander grabbed one of the criminal's hands and tried to throw him, but just then a fist made him cough out all his air. He kicked blindly to the left, where he saw white, and managed to repel the Renegade to a safe distance. Pavel leaned on a cupboard to catch his breath. Such humiliation.
"Paige!" not wasting any time, the Renegade had knelt beside the female program, trying to get her to open her eyes. Paige only mumbled a single syllable and collapsed to the floor again. The white-clad menace looked devastated.
"I will turn you to raw data for this", he snarled, letting go of Paige and advancing toward Pavel.
Not good. Not good at all. Pavel overclocked his system core, trying to find a solution. Another beating from the Renegade and he would surely not be in a state to return to the base. There had to be counter. A workaround to get him out of this situation. Of course. Exploitation of the emotions, that always worked.
"What", he croaked, straightening himself and trying to give himself the appearance of an understanding, knowing friend, "you think she'll come for your help? I know what you're thinking, but she does not care for you, Renegade! She's such a shareware, always sucking up to someone she considers powerful... "
He watched the Renegade freeze, hit by his words. Didn't expect that, did he? They were both so repulsively naïve, Paige and him, so clueless and undeserving of life.
"You are not worth her, Renegade! Do not think she will give herself to you just because you saved her life!", he continued his tirade, pressing his advantage and pouring all his disdain in it. "She is an ingrate, she'll stab you in the back the first chance she gets. And then she'll run back to some worthless program, like that hunk of a mechanic, oh, what was his name..."
He slammed the Renegade's fist aside.
"Oh, yes, I remember his name. Beck!"
Beck stumbled backwards as Pavel's words rung in his head. Suddenly, his mind was a blur. Pavel's image flickered and jittered, moving in and out of focus and a second image soared over it - one of a black-clad, masked program.
"Beck!", echoed Pavel's scream.
"Beck!", the masked program said at the same time.
Everything was blurred. Where was he? What was happening? Who was this Beck they were talking about?
"Who's Beck?", he asked, frightened.
The black program reached toward him. Pavel did too, leering, disc buzzing in his hand.
"Who are you?", his voice came out of his mouth uninvited, panicked and trembling. "Why are you hiding your face?"
The black program paused, then the image faded, but Pavel stood there, cackling.
"Oh Renegade, are you going mad now? I know you're infatuated with that traitorous scum, but she's not re-"
His litany of jealousy was interrupted by the heel spike of a flickering leg clashing with his temple.
"Renegade!", Paige's voice pulled him out of the haze. "What are you doing? Come to your senses, we have to go!"
Everything shifted into focus. He was Beck, the Renegade, and he was fighting Pavel and his goons alongside Paige. He drew his disc, parried the commander's blow and punched him in the face, leaving him coughing again. Paige grabbed his upper arm, tugging him toward the now open window.
"Come on already", she urged, "jump! I'll keep him away."
He leaped off the balcony into the colorful neon lights of Purgos and rezzed the jet. A few nanos later Paige thumped on the hull and caught him around the midsection, breathing heavily. Back at the apartment Pavel was screaming for reinforcements. Beck ignored it and steered the jet in the direction of the Outlands.
"You had a hallucination", Paige observed. "Sounded like a residual effect of an identity glitch."
"I don't know what you're talking about", he shrugged. It was much too early to reveal himself.
Paige took a breath and obviously prepared to answer him, possibly rant about her medical expertise and not being fooled that easily, but then a low hum filled the sky behind them. They turned and noticed five orange spots hovering high above the city and drawing near. As if on signal, all billboards flickered and changed to Paige's face, with the words "WANTED: PAIGE. ASSASSIN, DEFECTOR, TRAITOR, ENEMY OF THE STATE."
"Great", she snorted, "I'm famous again."
"Get used to it", was the Renegade's only answer.
The buzzing of the enemy jets was getting louder.
"Come on", Beck complained, "that's your best jet? Only two programs on board and it's already that slow."
Paige groaned.
"It's not my fault Pavel and his cronies upgraded theirs", she stated. "I prefer choppers, if you haven't noticed."
"Hasn't worked out very well for you now, has it", he couldn't restrain himself from saying, but that only earned him a punch in the side. Not really with malice, though. He grinned and activated the jet's light wall. He tried to block the way of the guards, but Purgos was a tricky environment and soon Beck and Paige were steered toward a billboard on which Paige was depicted in all her glory. It took him a good half micro to realize that the image was flipped.
"Maybe I should try wearing my hair over my right eye, for once. Either way I make the city beautiful, that you can't deny." He hadn't imagined Paige, of all programs, to crack a joke about her appearance, in front of him. Was she trying to woo him now? Damn that woman.
The five jets spewed a rain of bullets their way, pinning them to the billboard. Beck turned the machine abruptly up and climbed almost vertically, avoiding collision by milimeters. The volley of machine gun fire followed them, slicing the billboard in two just as the picture was switching from Paige to his own masked face. The bisected board now had Beck's mask on one half and Paige's face on the other. It read "WANTED: RENE-PAIGE". The accusations were almost the same, only instead of defector and traitor he was proclaimed a criminal and a saboteur. Beck laughed silently. Renepaige. Maybe he would suggest it as an alias for her once she joined the Uprising. She would probably be mad.
"Hmph, Renepaige", she murmured, obviously not mad. "Sounds like a name for me if I ever get out of this whole."
As much as he wanted, Beck didn't have the time for jokes. The pilots on each flank forced their engines and shot forward, then crossed paths, blocking the pair's way and their left and right with a giant X made of their light walls. Beck shot right through it, but just as the walls became transparent, the other two pilots made a second, narrower X that barred the way up and down. He turned back to see Pavel gleefully pumping his fist in the air. Then the jets descended toward them from all sides – up, down, right and left, and Beck had to do his best to dodge.
"Hey", Paige said, "I've got an idea. Turn back and fly straight to Pavel!"
Had Tesler damaged her systems permanently after all?
"Are you crazy?!", he almost screamed.
"Just do it!", she grumbled and took out her disc. "And don't get hit."
Seeing no bright future ahead of him aside from a knot of light walls, Beck complied and turned the jet around, zigzagging under a rain of eraser code bullets. The guards were hovering in place beside their commander now, evidently puzzled just as much as he was, and as Beck and Paige drew near, the fire was coming more and more from the sides. Just as the streams of bullets entered Beck's peripheral vision, something slammed him hard on the back and the jet spiraled downwards, out of control. Some nanos later he managed to turn the vehicle upside and with the corner of his eye he saw another X-shaped cross. His vision was unfocused and everything was moving slowly.
"That felt good", he heard Paige's voice. Good, was it? Did she try to derez him or what?
"What was that for?", he hollered at her, but then all was muffled by thundering sounds of explosions as the ends of the fiery cross blew up.
"Four down, Pavel to go."
What amazed Beck this time was the coldness of her voice. She had caused the four jet pilots to get caught into each other's fire lanes and fried to cubes.
"You just derezzed four programs, Paige."
She gave a groan, as if to tell him to stop being so naïve.
"All of Pavel's goons are malware. He handpicks them."
Meanwhile, Beck noticed that Pavel had shaken himself from the shock and swooped toward them, screaming and firing blindly. The rebel turned his jet to the right, trying to escape in the jungle of neon signs, but Pavel was surprisingly competent at chasing. He forced them down small back alleys and under bridges and rails, always obliterating whatever obstacles found themselves in the way. Beck was growing tired. Despite his intense training at the hands of Tron, a prolonged aerial battle after barely recuperating from being derezzed by Tesler was getting the better of him. He suspected that Paige was feeling no different, tightly clinging onto his back. His maneuvers were becoming clumsier and Pavel's gatling gun blasts weren't missing so terribly any more.
He felt Paige stir and turned to see what was going on. Another blast came from Pavel's jet and Beck steered the heaved upwards to have more space for dogfighting.
"I'll handle this", Paige declared and, before Beck could say or do anything, she jumped from the jet, with her disc in her hand.
"Paige!"
Beck's desperate cry mixed with Pavel's croak. The defected commander had her arms and legs spread while she fell.
On a collision course with Pavel's jet.
Beck dove, but didn't dare to fire or fly too close. Paige slammed into Pavel's incoming jet. Beck remembered the move from his fight with Cutler's soldiers. The girl's left arm caught her former colleague's throat in a choke hold. He tried to get her off of himself, but she stomped on the vehicle, digging her heel spike in its hull. Beck saw a flash as she activated her disc.
"I'm going to derez you now for everything you did to me, you filthy virus!", she roared with no less hatred than she had had for Tesler.
"Oh, getting dangerous, are we, Paige?", Pavel spat. "Die!"
Paige dodged the staff, but it slammed right into the jet's control panel with enough force to melt it into voxels. The vehicle was all but derezzed by the impact, with the only remaining part of it being the left thruster and the part where Paige had jammed her heel. It too fell into cubes and Pavel and Paige were left in free fall, pulling, kicking and screaming at each other. All was over in half a microcycle, when the girl sent Pavel plummeting on a rooftop with her signature kick to the face and Beck was finally able to swoop in and catch her.
"That was a little excessive", he chided while trying to ignore the sight of Paige's long legs as she hooked one of them behind him and around the jet and used her heel to pull herself to the backseat. Now that was some complex mid-flight acrobatics. He almost jammed into a wall whilst admiring her. "I've saved you how many times this milicycle?"
The girl snaked her hands around his waist. Interesting. He was already getting used to that.
"Equal to the reverse", she said smugly.
The moment of pleasure was short lived as a searing hot ball of plasma swooshed past the jet and blew up a construction site nearby. Beck turned left and saw Pavel standing on a rooftop, aiming at them with his missile launcher. How nice. Didn't the slimy program have a limit to his weapons?
Pavel's mad cackling was piercing the air and a second missile flew. Beck felt the heat even through his mask. The edges of Paige's hair were fried.
"Can't this thing go any faster?, she asked, panicked. "He's gaining on us!"
A third fireball crashed in a sign somewhere behind them and Beck felt small debris hitting his back. He could already hear the sound of Pavel launching the fourth missile. It almost reached them when Beck swung right behind a massive lamp post.
Next thing he knew, they were caught by the blast wave and hurled forward together with the jet which was now glowing blue. Its code was severely damaged. Through the explosion Beck heard Pavel laughing triumphantly, but didn't care.
"Paige?", he asked, afraid to look back.
"I'm fine, don't worry", she answered his unasked question, "but I can't say the same about the jet."
The vehicle let out an angry chittering electronic noise as it flickered between solid and wireframe form. Just like on the island.
"You repaired a lifeboat on the island", Paige cried in his ear as if she was reading his mind, "can't you do something?"
Beck bit back a laugh. They had been almost blasted to raw code and she still had the nerve to remind him of that episode. Not that he minded. On the contrary, it made him like her even more.
"I don't think I could do something impossible like that", he continued the allusion, "even if I were an engineer."
He was half-convinced that Paige had figured out his identity already. No matter. He would reveal himself if they survived this. Now they just needed to lose Pavel. Knowing him, all they needed was to blow up the good-for-nothing jet somewhere behind a corner. He turned the fading machine just in time to avoid a large bar sign that said "2.3+ DRINKS" and steered it above a highway.
Wait. Identity. This seemed familiar. This was where he had nearly lost it. The bar where they had caught Galt, and this highway, and the way it ended, and... He had been here before. He had done that. And he knew what to do now. With one hand, he pulled the light cycle baton out of his boot, then held it with two fingers while still not letting go of the jet's yoke. His left hand clutched Paige's. He noticed her eyes widen in horror as the facade of the building before them grew closer and closer.
"What are you doing, we're going to crash!", her panicked scream barely reached his ears, eaten away by the wind. He dove just a little. Right, sixteenth floor...
"Don't catch the pattern, do you? Switch off your colors."
"You can't dodge a wall with a derezzing jet, Renegade!"
"Hold tight to my hand and mask yourself", he ordered. "And when I say so, hop on my back again."
"What?" She gaped, but followed his command.
"My turn to be crazy", he said moments before he pushed the jet down.
The rumble of the vehicle's explosion, which hopefully didn't kill anyone, mixed with the noise of broken glass as the two crashed into the building's windows. Not letting go of Paige's hand, Beck ran through the hall of what seemed to be a business center. He just knocked aside the confused programs that stood in the way, staring at the Renegade and a masked female program running hand in hand through the foyer, and left them to rub their eyes and shake their heads, mouths agape in disbelief.
"Will you tell me wh-" He hadn't heard her voice with distortion before. It sounded strange. He just ran ahead and, yelling mock-cheerful apologies to the programs around, then approached the window, slowing down a little.
"On my back, now", he said. To his surprise, Paige didn't object, but leaped and threw her hands around his neck, hanging behind him like a cloak. Beck used the force of the impact to regain his speed and burst through the glass. His left hand found the right and he cracked the baton in two, watching the code pour from it and the blue wireframe of the light cycle rez beneath them as if in slow motion. Not two nanocycles later, the vehicle thumped on the road, speeding away from the broken building. Beck reminded to thank Zed for making it so durable.
Behind him, Paige burst into giggles. For a moment the stern military commander was gone and the girl from the pool club was back, not holding a disc to the back of his head like in the tunnels, not demanding him to stop and surrender, but just clinging onto him and laughing in joy that she was alive. She reminded him of Mara after he had rescued her and Zed from execution. Maybe it had to do with avoiding Pavel's rockets.
"I must say that was pretty impressive", the girl finally said as they exited Purgos and she removed her mask. "And Pavel's probably off to report his glorious victory."
Beck snorted. He didn't want to discuss the sleazy commander right now. Paige's comment was a way more interesting topic.
"Last time I heard the word 'impressive' from you it was followed by a kick or something."
She kicked him lightly in the shin.
"One, right now that's a bit hard for me to do" she said wistfully, "and two, it's not always. It's how I asked my boyfriend out the first time."
Curious. She didn't confirm that the last time she had called him impressive was during their first fight. Beck smiled behind the black visor. She was trying to goad him into admitting his identity. But first he wanted to see what she thought about him.
"That boyfriend of yours." Beck really liked the sound of the word from Paige's lips. He must be something to catch your attention."
"Oh, he's quite an impressive mechanic, for one", she stressed the word this time, obviously teasing him, "I bet he could've repaired that light jet instead of crashing into a window and jumping with a light cycle from the sixteenth floor."
"Really", Beck did his best to conceal his amusement. "And I bet he's nothing but a coward if he hasn't even gone looking for you after you were thrown into the games. I dislike him already."
"Actually I think you'd like him. Now I never thought of this before, but you actually remind me of him in more ways than one."
"What, are you comparing him to me now? What could this mechanic boyfriend of yours have in common with good old white masked rebellious me?"
She definitely wasn't buying his efforts to sound annoyed.
"Well, he's strong and brave and handsome, he stands up for those around him, he's clever, funny and resourceful, he doesn't hesitate to risk his life to save others and he's really kind. He's the kind of program that gives others hope when theirs has faded", Paige's dreamy voice caused Beck to blush harder with every word and he was thankful he had his all-concealing mask on, "but I wish he would show me who he truly is without me having to make him admit it."
"You really seem to like him, but that's no comparison", Beck observed dryly, while inwardly giddy. He had just been rained with superlatives from the girl he liked. Even when she almost certainly knew he was the Renegade. But did she mean all that or had she just said it to appease him? Time to act jealous. "I ask again, what does that have to do with me?"
"I could say all those things about you and I'd be right. I never thought I would say this, but I kinda like you when we're not fighting."
Beck's joy was suddenly drowned in a thick shadow of doubt. He heard Pavel's voice in his head. Sucking up to the strongest program around, he had said. And that foul epithet he had called her. Shareware. Was she, really? Beck couldn't, didn't want to believe it. Yet here she was, praising him, while riding cozily on one bike with the Renegade, almost laying on his back. Come on, it wasn't possible. Was he getting jealous of himself? Beck mentally scolded himself for his insecurity. Of course she wasn't that kind of program, he had to know that and Pavel was lying. But still the question tormented him. One way to find out...
"I'm flattered", he said coldly and felt the medic stiffen as she caught the change in his tone, "but I don't think this boyfriend would be glad if he knew you're flirting with the Renegade behind his back."
"You're partly right", He couldn't see Paige's face, but knew by the warmth of her voice that she was smiling, "I am flirting with the Renegade and right now I am standing behind my boyfriend's back. But I do think he'd be glad. Drop it already, Beck. I know it's you."
The helmet collapsed immediately and Beck had never been so happy to take it off. He turned halfway toward her and grinned.
"About time", Paige's grin was mirroring his own.
"Wait", he tried really hard to frown, but that only made Paige smirk, "no 'It's really you'? Aren't you at least a bit surprised? What if it wasn't me?"
She hugged him tighter, buried her face in his hair and giggled against him.
"No chance. You completely gave yourself away when you started fishing for compliments."
"Huh", he did his best to fake disappointment, "You don't mean them, then?"
"Oh, Beck", she leaned in closer and pecked him on the cheek, "you know I do."
Beck was so startled that he dropped the light cycle's handlebars and it swayed dangerously off-road.
"Hey, hey", Paige chided behind him, "that was sweet, but watch where you're going."
"You're not helping", the mechanic mused. "Anyway, I knew I wouldn't be able to do this for long."
"You only did so far because I was blinded by my dogmatic views and because I saw you as a lawful citizen and the Renegade as a destroyer of order. Flynn, you don't even change the highlights on your helmet!"
"So you trust me now? You don't think I'm going to trick you?"
"No, not anymore", she agreed, "I did have my doubts and fears that I'll just be deceived again, but they went away."
"Oh?", Beck raised an eyebrow jokingly. "And what killed them? The flashback?"
The medic shifted uncomfortably. Beck knew her steady beliefs about him had not been shaken until his glitch had resurfaced. But like she would ever admit to being so headstrong.
"It was a... nudge in the right direction", she was definitely feeling awkward, trying to convince him of her trust. "I have been thinking about it as I healed you and then while we were speaking. I mean, my interactions with your Renegade self have always felt all too similar to-"
"Right, right", he laughed, "I was already going to tell you anyway."
They drove in silence for a while. Beck gazed at the road rezzing ahead of them and the sharp crag in the distance that was their destination. He smiled to himself. All he had done, all the fights with her, had been worth it. He had finally won her over. And they could be together.
"So what now, Beck?", the girl's tired voice pulled him from his thoughts. "You just introduce me to Tron and I take my place among the ranks? I doubt it."
"Well", he shrugged, "that's the idea."
She sighed.
"And how's that gonna play out? They'll have their discs at my throat the nanocycle they see me, and they'll be right not to trust me."
Beck wanted so badly to take her into his arms in this moment, to look into her eyes and promise her it was going to be alright, and it vexed him that he only couldn't do that because he was driving.
"No, Paige, they won't trust you right away", he admitted, "but I do. And I'll always be there."
A/N: I know some parts look rather hurried, but I thought it'd become too bloated if I expanded on them, too. Anyway, it's been a month since I started writing this update, and it's 6 AM, so good night and I hope you don't hate me. ^^