/Impact/
Millions of thoughts rushed through her mind.
CLU surely had found her with the help of one of his spies. If she just had been more careful... What would happen now? Why did CLU want to talk to her? Would he recognise her? Had he already recognised her? Should she try to flee now?
She couldn't really concentrate, as she walked with these 3 programs to a platform, where a single airship obviously waited for them.
Susan looked around. She spotted several escape routes, but should she really run away now? No, she would stay, listen to what CLU had to tell her and leave again. And if someone tried to block her, she would simply clear the way. She wasn't champion of disc fighting for nothing.
At the entrance of the airship stood 2 sentry programs that Susan and the program named Jarvis passed now, without any of the sentries moving. They reached a door.
Suddenly the floor vibrated and a loud buzzing arose. The airship took off. She had not expected that. But it changed nothing. They hadn't divested her of anything, neither her disc, nor her light baton, which could form into a light jet if necessary. So, there was no barrier she couldn't brake down in case of an escape, which calmed her down a bit.
They waited in front of this door until they had reached a certain level of height. As soon as the airship only flew straightforward, the door opened with a hiss.
At the front was a big bay, a window, through which one had a wonderful view over the Grid. In front of this window stood a tall figure, with the back to them, brown hair, clothed in black with dark yellow circuitry colour.
"Sir, as I was told I brought you the fighter.", Jarvis said overhumbly.
'Bumlicker.', Susan thought, though couldn't even put up a weary smile considering the circumstances.
Her heart was racing.
There he stood, not far away from herself. The man who had so many programs on his conscience. The man who she was hiding from for so many cycles. The man... she would like to kill.
He turned around. Her heart skipped a beat.
Seeing his smiling face now evoked mixed feelings. Loathing and fury on the one hand, on the other hand a certain warm familiarity, since they had been friends for such a long time and because he looked like Flynn.
"Arris." His voice was totally calm. If Susan wouldn't know him, she could consider his smile as affectionate. Still, she knew better. He was just concealing something behind it. Like he did many cycles ago, every time he had been smiling at Ophelia.
"The champion of the games. Good to see you." Since no reply came from her, he eyed her up for a moment, then looked at Jarvis and ordered: "Leave us alone."
He bowed low and stepped out of the door that closed behind him.
CLU strolled around her. "You're so silent. What's wrong?"
She looked into his eyes shortly and averted her gaze then.
Thereupon he just laughed. "Still stubborn, eh? I always admired that, Susan, I still do today."
She looked at him again.
"And you didn't lose any of your strength. Quite the contrary, you are way better than in former times. Simply unbelievable what you deliver in the arena. The born fighter."
"I wasn't written for your entertainment, CLU.", she said with a dark voice.
"Of course not." He now stood in front of her, still smiling. "I've been searching for you a long time, you know? And when you suddenly turned up at the games... Well, I was really happy to see you, Sue."
Inside, Susan was seething.
He was so close... She could just leap at him, breaking his neck in nanocycles... No, the time hadn't come yet. The inhabitants of the Grid would mourn and fight for him. She had to hold back.
Slowly and with a grim expression on her face, she shook her head. "What do you want from me? Why did you release me?"
He looked at her with a grin. "I wouldn't let old friends die in an unfair game, would I?"
She laughed bitterly. "And Tron?"
"I wasn't friends wth him really, at least never the way we were." He took a flick of her hair into his hand. "Black fits you."
She slapped his hand aside, looking angrily into his eyes. "Do you really think I would forgive you? You killed my friends, killed the ISOs and you wanted to kill me too, but you didn't make it. And now, after 150 cycles almost, you get me here and think everything would be like it was before you betrayed us all?!"
"I got you here to make a proposal." Again, he walked around Susan, coming to a stand behind her. Nearly whispering he submitted his offer. "You will reign over the Grid. On my side. As partner. Everything here will be ours and maybe more after a bit of time. The programs will love you, Susan, the queen of the Grid..."
Susan clenched her fists. "If you think I'm a traitor like you, you're so damn mistaken.", she hissed.
He laughed quietly and put his hands onto her hips. "I just wanted to put it into nice words. If I told you not sugar-coated, it would probably sound more like that..." Suddenly he grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. "If you don't agree with becoming my partner, I will derezz all your remaining friends, starting with this pathetic resistance group, whereat I will especially take care of slaughtering this Kyto. Eventually there would be your favourite, your darling, Castor, of course. And if you still refuse to come to my side, I will just reprogram you. Then you will follow all my instructions voluntarily and I can do whatever I want with you!"
Susan let her leg flick back at full tilt, kicked him hard thereby, grabbed his hand and slung him against the wall. Quickly, she took her disc from her back, holding it up threateningly as she pressed her forearm under his chin. She spoke with such an angry voice, that even her own hackles raised. "If you only lay one finger on Castor, I swear... I will kill you!"
She tried to calm down, but only succeeded with much effort. She let go of CLU and took some steps away from him, as she put her disc on her back again. It had been a mistake to do that, an awful mistake, but she hadn't been able to control herself.
Against her expectations, CLU laughed. It was a laughter that made a cold shiver run down her back. "You... You think you are the big heroine, but you are a nobody. You and your little User-believing friends will soon get to know the true meaning of power. You think I wouldn't harm you just because the respect of the citizens for you is too high, Arris, champion of the games? We will find that out soon! And then we will also see, if Flynn or any other User goes to your rescue when you're brokenly lying on the ground! Noone, especially not you, will keep me from creating the perfect system!"
"This is what it's all about?! Perfection?! We already had perfection on the Grid! You destroyed it! The ISOs were-"
"DEFECTIVE!"
"THEY WERE A MIRACLE!" Susan panted. "Why, CLU? Why have you done all of this? Only to take a system to its maximum potential, you killed your own creator, the creator of all of you? And you make him appear as tyrant, just because he possessed the power to create? And now you even let everyone who wants to believe in him get derezzed? Why?!"
"He must not gather strength."
She shook her head in disbelief. "Do you hear yourself talking?! Flynn can never be a threat to you again!"
He darkly looked at her for a moment. Then he shortly typed something into the communication console on his wrist, and a moment later Jarvis walked in.
"Yes, sir?"
"Take Arris to the preparing room. She has to rest before her next fight in the arena."
Jarvis nodded and grabbed Susan's arm. She immediately cast off his hand and turned to CLU again. "Whatever you plan to do... I cope with any opponent you send after me."
"I'll keep that in mind, man.", he said with a smile and went back to the big window.
"Castor!"
Kyto just couldn't get past the bouncers, no matter how hard he tried. He even had explained them that he desperately had to talk to Castor, though, they rejected him. Understandable actually, after Kyto had argued loudly with the man he now wanted to speak with earlier.
"Please, it's important!"
But also the bouncers struggled with bring Kyto into the elevator again. He really resisted with all his strength and since the training with Arris he had become far stronger.
"CASTOR!", he shouted as loud as he was able to, while the two men tried to drag him out. The twisted him around, so that he now had the elevator in sight. He wouldn't make it any longer, he knew that. They soon had him out of the club.
Suddenly there came the familiar voice behind him. "What in Grid's name is going on here?"
Kyto looked behind, spotting Zuse approaching them with an angry face.
"Castor! I really have to-"
"Oh, you.", Zuse said coldly as he recognised him, not making any effort to hide his resentment. "Didn't I forbid you to ever set foot into these premises again? And you." He angrily looked at the bouncers. "What am I paying you for, if you are not even able to throw such a programme out of my club?"
"Castor, please, listen to me!", Kyto shouted desperately.
Zuse simply gave him a look full of disgust and turned to go then.
"Castor, please, I...!" The bouncers dragged him to the elevator again, this time even harder. "SUSAN NEEDS YOU!"
At once, Zuse stopped and turned around. "Let go of him.", he told the visibly confused bouncers.
Kyto panted of exertion. Zuse positioned in front of him and sternly looked into his eyes. "I do not shy away from letting you get derezzed in front of all my guests. So, if this is a joke..."
"It's true...", he brought out. "She... she is in deep trouble..."
"Alright...", Zuse murmured in a bitter tone and indicated with a nod that Kyto should follow him.
Zuse nervously paced up and down. "Why didn't you keep them from taking her with them?!"
"It looked like she WANTED to go with them!", Kyto defended himself.
He sat on a bench in Zuse's private Lounge. He had told him what had happened, hoping that this man had a good plan to help Susan. It was strange, though, since he had always Imagined Zuse to be completely different than that... More like Tron. This guy had fought for the ISOs? Had saved many programs? He couldn't believe it. But if Arris... Susan... said so...
"That is bad...", Zuse murmured, while going behind the little bar, taking out a bottle. "That is extremely bad..." He didn't even bother pouring the liquid into a glass, just drank directly out of the bottle. Then he began to pace up and down the room again.
"Do you... have a plan?", Kyto asked, wherefore he got punished with a look that said 'Are you serious?'.
"Of course! I always have a plan!"
"Ah, yes...", Kyto whispered. "Zuse always has a plan."
Zuse stopped and looked at him for a moment. "Wonderful.", he sighed. "Oh, Susan, why didn't you keep your mouth shut..."
Kyto stood up. "If she'd done that, I wouldn't have come to YOU!"
"Shush! I'm thinking!" Zuse took a deep breath. After a moment of silence, he said: "Okay, I know what we have to do. We should-"
A sudden *BEEP* from the wall behind the little bar interrupted him. Zuse walked over to it and tipped on it, so that it Lit up.
"Castor?", a female voice was to hear.
"Yes, Gem?"
"I don't know if you already heard of it, but appearently the games got antedated. The next one is announced to take place in half a millicycle. Your friend Arris takes part.", she said amused.
Zuse and Kyto exchanged confused looks.
"Oh, I did not know that. Thank you for informing me, dearest."
"You are welcome, Castor. I got to prepare for the games now. Bye!"
"Bye, beautiful..."
They remained silent for a some moments. The Kyto spoke up: "So, CLU only had her taken to him to tell her the change of plan?"
Zuse shook his head. "Certainly not."
"Why not?"
"You... have no idea...", he sighed and leant with his forehead against the wall. These news let his concern about Susan become even bigger. What was CLU up to? There was something shady about the whole thing.
"All right..." He took his glass cane, that stood next to the bar, grabbed Kyto's arm and hastened down to the club entrance.
"Where are we going?"
"I will go to the arena and try to find Susan before she has to fight. She surely has much to tell about the conversation with CLU. And YOU... you will inform your resistance-friends. I have the feeling they should know that one of their members is in trouble..."
Just as Zuse wanted to get into his light roadster, Kyto said: "Hey... that I insulted you up there... I'm really sorry for that."
Zuse thought for a moment. Them he looked at him with a smirk. "I am not."
Susan stood in the middle of a tiny room and tried to collect herself.
Preparing room? Pah! This was a prison cell. But she didn't care, really. It was sufficient. She would only have to wait here, mentally preparing for the imminent combat. She also moved her limbs, loosened them. CLU surely had some surprises for her, she had to be ready for everything. He could send 10 sentries into the arena! Irrelevant. She would win, she knew that. She was the best fighter and she would show it to him.
Suddenly she heard a sentry say: "She's over there. You have 10 microcycles."
She looked to the cell entrance, which was an orange gleaming, transparent wall, and spotted Zuse standing next to a sentry who pointed at her cell.
"What are you doing here?", she said with a lowered voice when Zuse came to a stood directly in front of this curtain of orange light.
"I paid the sentry. And I just wanted to ask you the same question." He eyed her and let loose a relieved sigh. "Thank the Grid, you are not hurt. What happened? Kyto told me that CLU wanted to speak with you."
She glanced at the sentry, but he stood quite far away and with the back to them. "Okay... So, CLU... made me an unethical offer. He wanted me to become his partner, reigning over the Grid together with him. He is such a megalomeniac..."
"And after you refused this offer, he send you here?"
"Not quite... If I refused, he threatened..." In her voice anger and concern sounded. "... he threatened to harm you and Kyto..."
Zuse's soft laugh cheered her up a bit. "I can take care of myself, sweetheart. And I am absolutely sure that Kyto can do that, too. So do not worry about us. You should rather worry about yourself now..."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, organising a game shortly after your refusal... Doesn't sound good."
"I'll manage.", she answered defiantly.
"I know, but CLU surely has an ace up his sleeve. You know how devious he is. He plans something..."
Susan thought for a moment. "Whatever it is...", she eventually said. "I will fight."
"Promise?"
She gave him a questioning look.
"Do you promise me to fight against any programme CLU puts in your way? Even if they are User-believers? I mean, you pored over this topic a lot since your last combat..."
She sighed. "Yes, that's true."
He looked into her eyes. "Promise me. Please."
She nodded lightly. "I promise. I will proceed against everyone in the same merciless way."
"I didn't request that.", he breathed. "I just want that... that you will not let them derezz you."
She smiled at him.
Suddenly the sentry came over to them. "You have to go now. The games begin soon."
"Of course.", Zuse answered. When he left, he turned around again. "Think of your promise in there!"
