CHAPTER 9

Beck sat on the stairs next to Tron and put his hand on his shoulder. "When I first met Tron, he told me that he wanted me to be the next Tron; he couldn't fight the Occupation himself because of his scars back then," he explained to his friends. "Originally, I didn't think I could be Tron's successor. But when I saw all you guys being thrown into the Games, I knew then that I had to fight." Beck removed his disc again and pulled up another memory video. This one showed Beck in his black Renegade suit freeing all the programs, including Zed and Mara. In the video, Beck was assisted by a soldier from the Occupation. "That soldier helped me free you guys. He changed sides because when I was fighting him earlier on top of the light rail, I had a chance to derezz him. But I spared his life. He said that helping me was the least he could do to repay me. I wish he was still alive; he could have joined the Uprising. But he was derezzed by Tesler."

Beck replaced his disc on his back and stood up. "After I freed you guys that night, I came back here to Tron," he continued. "I told his that I changed my mind, I wanted to be his successor. Tron then gave me his disc for the first time. That's why my Renegade suit was black before: because I didn't have Tron's disc yet. Before, I had modified my own disc using the recoding tool Bodhi gave me to resemble Tron's suit."

Tron stood up as well. "After I gave my disc to Beck, I pulled him out here every other cycle or so," he explained. "I'm sure you all got suspicious about Beck's whereabouts back then."

"So the reason I had to cover your shifts at the garage was because you were here as the Renegade?" Zed asked. "What were you doing?"

Beck sighed. "I didn't want to keep on sneaking out of the city without telling you guys what I was doing," he responded. "I wanted to tell you guys the truth about me being the Renegade. But Tron wouldn't let me. He said that telling you the truth would drag you into my fights with the Occupation, and you'd get caught in the crosshairs and possibly get derezzed."

Tron nodded. "Beck's right," he agreed. "I kept telling him that the fight was about you guys, about all the programs living in Argon. I wanted Beck to work on fighting for the freedom of Argon City, not risking innocent programs' lives in the process. That was Cyrus's beliefs, not mine or Beck's."

Beck sat down on the stairs again. "It's been tough for both me and Tron to fight Tesler and the Occupation by ourselves," he recalled. "I wanted to find recruits to help us. Occasionally, I did find programs who were committed to the Uprising, but none of them lasted long-term."

Mara let out a low gasp. Except for Beck, no one noticed.

"I already told you guys about Cutler," he continued. "He was the first program I met who was committed. He left Argon City after I saved him from being derezzed, promising to spread the word that Tron lives, and to recruit more programs throughout The Grid. But since he was repurposed, we'll never know if he got the word around."

Beck stole a quick look at Mara. "A few cycles before Cyrus returned to Argon, I found another group of three programs who appeared to be committed to the Uprising. They called themselves the 'Jolly Tricksters.'

So not the reasons why Beck became the Renegade are out, as well as what Beck did in the begging as the Renegade. But what about that secret I mentioned before? Here's a hint: The last two words in this chapter.