Chapter Nine

By now, Beck was getting used to creeping along the extensive network of underground tunnels. Users, how many tunnels did one general need? The question that left Beck shaking his head in annoyance would never be answered. So he avoided any soldiers blocking the way and took different twists and turns.

That was pretty much how he spent the next few pectrocycles. Just wandering aimlessly through the halls trying to find where Dyson was hiding. It was a boring job. But he needed to keep up his work if he wanted to get anywhere. He had been lucky that none of the other soldiers or guards wandering through the same halls hadn't stopped to question him. A few looked at him as if he was a newcomer, giving out random directions every now and then. Otherwise, it was relatively empty and strangely lonely.

What he wouldn't give to have someone to chat with. At least when Mira was with him, she'd always have something to say. Now that he was alone, he realized just how much he missed her. And not just because she had kept him company during missions.

He paused when he reached what looked like a dead end. The tunnel was winding towards the left. It made him wonder if these tunnels were all connected to the three bases that Dyson had kept in operation. If that was the case, then finding Dyson would be easier than he'd originally thought.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps echoing caught his attention. Beck reached for his disk, growing tired of knocking out soldier after soldier. The sound was getting closer as he got further down the tunnel. Without warning, he threw his disk, only to have it blocked by a light sword. In a matter of nanocycles, the enemy had him pinned to the floor, sword aimed for his neck as he struggled to free himself. His mask receded when he recognized his attacker.

"Natasha?" The red-head suddenly released her grip on the light sword, looking more amused than anything else. "How did you…" He cut himself off, already knowing the answer.

"These tunnels are all connected," she replied.

It explained how the black guards were able to get around without anyone tracking them down. It also explained how no one was able to detect Dyson without him showing his sorry face. Annoyance swept through him as he thought of the many times they'd found programs that went missing throughout the last few cycles. Dyson's plan had been successful, and he would have continued getting away with it had he not taken his plan a step too far.

"Wait, how many times have you been through here?"

He was surprised when she helped him up. Considering how aggressive she could be at times, he was half-expecting her to leave him and continue on her way. Not for the first time, Beck found himself realizing just how similar Natasha and Mira were behavior-wise. Neither of them were willing to admit it out loud, though, and he couldn't necessarily blame them for that.

"Enough times to know that Dyson is here, waiting for us," she explained. "He has guards posted in one central room. Clint and Tron are closer to it than they realize."

Okay, that was pretty impressive. He always kept forgetting how much more experienced Natasha was with these situations. He was suddenly grateful that they'd run into each other, otherwise he would have been crawling around the base longer than he would have liked.

"So, we take out the guards, and then, Dyson," he suggested as they started making their way through the tunnels once more.

"I'm afraid it won't be that easy," Natasha pointed out. "From what I've gathered, those soldiers are there to give Dyson an alarm. If anyone manages to reach that room, he will know, if he doesn't already."

Beck pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. So much for this being simple. If what she said was true, then Dyson probably had some sort of backup plan. He was determined to make Clu's dream of a 'perfect system' come true. And that thought alone sent a shiver of worry through him. He knew once they put an end to Dyson's plans, they would need to be on the lookout for other contingency plans. He had no doubt that Clu had more scattered throughout the Grid.

So, the two of them made their way carefully towards the room Natasha had mentioned. Only to find that the soldiers had already been taken down. Beck raised an eyebrow curiously when he saw that the door to the room was already opened.

Natasha was the first to venture forward, boldly making her way into the room where Dyson was hiding. Or as Beck would soon find out, simply seated at what looked like a throne with the soldier from Purgos standing beside him. He couldn't help but glance at the soldier warily as he noticed something oddly familiar about their stance.

"The Renegade and infamous Black Widow… I was wondering when you two would show up, seeing as your friends have already tried taking me down."

The grin Dyson wore made Beck wish he could tackle the corrupted program off that throne. But, seeing as they were evenly matched, he knew better. He already had a feeling that Dyson had outsmarted them once again.

"Wait, what do you mean—" Dyson cut him off with a wave of his hand.

"Your wonderful mentor, Tron, was easy to take down. As for the other User that was with him, well, you can see how that ended," Dyson replied with another low chuckle.

Before he had a chance to say anything else, Natasha lunged forward. She moved faster than Beck could think, pinning Dyson against the chair with the light sword Tron had given pressed at his neck. He almost winced at the sudden impact of her attack. Even Dyson didn't have the quick reflexes the master assassin had.

"Where is Mira?"

Beck's eyes widened at the question. He hadn't even thought of asking that, and suddenly that familiar pain in his chest returned. Dyson's grin only grew wider, to the point of creeping Beck out. How much worse could this nutcase get?

"Right beside you, actually," he replied with a wide grin. Faster than either of them could react, the light sword was suddenly kicked out of her grasp. Beck's eyes widened with horror as the soldier suddenly grabbed hold of Natasha's wrists and twisted them behind her back, slamming her hard against the wall. "I can see why Clu took so much interest in her. The enhancements he gave her have served me well."

For a moment, Beck couldn't think properly when he realized that Clu had done more than just use her for target practice. That familiar pain in his chest suddenly came back at full force. Mira suddenly slammed a fist right at a pressure point behind Natasha's neck, causing her to lurch forward from the impact. Dyson smirked in amusement at the sight.

"What have you done to her?"

Natasha threw her legs forward, landing on her feet moments before Mira easily caught up with her, this time kicking her in the thigh. Beck was already aware of what this nutcase had done. Dyson's smirk only grew wider, to the point where Beck wished he could punch it off his face.

"Clu had developed a rather… interesting form of repurposing," he explained in a sneer. "It took xilacycles for him to figure it out. But when he did, he had the perfect opportunity to test it on a User. But of course, things didn't go as plans when that ISO interfered."

This time Beck struck out, anger getting the better of him. Now, he understood why Tron was intent on derezzing this lunatic. Dyson had hurt Mira in more ways than he would ever realize. If she ever recovered, she would never be the same. She had already suffered enough as it was on the Grid, and this attack would only prove what the Users thought of it. He desperately wanted to find a way of freeing her from Dyson's grasp; the sooner they were able to free her, the better off everyone would be.

Beck swung a fist into Dyson's face, colliding with his nose. The general didn't even flinch as he heard something snap. Relentlessly Beck kept throwing a fist at Dyson, ignoring the fact that he was tiring out. The final fist he threw was aimed at the stomach, only to be stopped with a simple flick of the wrist.

"Why don't we end this, shall we?" It didn't take long for Beck to register what that meant. He was about to say something when a sharp pain stabbed at his side. Almost at once black spots clouded his vision, until he was struggling to stand. "As I said before, I'm here to finish what I started."

…

Cold walls surrounded Beck as he finally woke up. The pain he felt from earlier returned, making him wince as he struggled to sit up. He was lying in a small room, a prison from what it looked like. And around him were faces he had become familiar with over the past few cycles.

"Beck, I'm glad to see you're awake," Tron said once Beck registered what was going on.

"What happened?" He was still groggy, and the pounding in the back of his head wasn't helping.

Then his eyes widened as memories of the fight against Dyson returned. That was why his head was pounding. Mira… somehow Dyson had gotten his hands on her.

"If I ever get out of this damned place I'll personally cut his head off!" Beck winced again at the curses Clint was shouting. The cuffs binding his wrists together made it more difficult to get comfortable, though Beck doubted he could ever feel that way here.

"Clint, calm down. At this rate we'll lose our hearing," Natasha muttered with a roll of her eyes.

"How can you stay calm? That son of bitch brainwashed our daughter!" This time Natasha pursed her lips and glared at Clint, eyes cold as ice.

"Of course I can't stay calm, but letting my anger out isn't going to get us anywhere," she snapped.

"Are you two done, yet?" Tron's voice rose above the shouting, making Beck suddenly wish that he had earplugs. The silence that followed was almost deafening. "Beck, do you still have that decoder?"

His only response was a nod, followed by confused looks from Natasha and Clint. The cuffs weren't tight enough that he couldn't wriggle around his wrists. Like the time Tron had caught him in the Outlands, this situation was somewhat similar to that.

The tool was small enough that he kept it on him at all times. And not for the last time he was grateful Bodhi had designed it. Carefully he typed in the code once it was latched onto the cuffs. In nanocycles that cuffs were undone. Once his hands were available he helped free the others.

Beck wasted no time in breaking the door open. Finding the right code for that was easy. It was a good thing Dyson hadn't thought this through.

"Finding Dyson won't be so difficult," Natasha announced as they passed the now empty throne room.

It was likely that Dyson had left long before any of them recovered from being knocked out.

"You put a tracer on him, didn't you?" Once the throbbing went away, Beck was more determined than ever to stop Dyson, and save Mira.

"Obviously," she replied. "He isn't far from here."

The four of them headed down yet another extensive hallway. Beck was getting tired of seeing these endless tunnels. Once this was over he might actually consider staying in the User world for a few cycles. Getting some fresh air would be nice.

Sure enough, Natasha was right about Dyson. Beck's eyes narrowed with outrage when he spotted Mira standing beside the general. If he could he would derezz Dyson right then and there. Unfortunately, it was never that easy.

"I was wondering how long it would take for you to find me," Dyson sneered.

He moved to the side as Clint fired an arrow (how many of those things had he gone through already?), dodging it with ease. Just as he did so Mira sent the arrow flying towards them. Beck jumped out of the way once the arrow exploded, the others doing the same.

"Dyson, enough of this! It's over!" Tron threw his disk at Dyson, who blocked it with his own disk.

Glancing back at Natasha and Clint, Beck noticed that they were holding their own against Mira. He was torn between who he should join. He knew that Tron would more than likely derezz Dyson if he had the chance. And he also knew that if what the general had said about Mira was true, then she would find some way of stopping Natasha and Clint.

"It's not over until I say it is!" Dyson snapped. He twisted around and threw his disk, knocking Tron's out of his hand. "I want to see the looks on your faces when she takes you down with her own hands!"

With a shake of his head, Beck joined in on the fight. Dyson threw out a leg and he flipped back, landing on his hand before throwing his own leg to sweep Dyson off his feet. Dyson cursed under his breath as Beck flipped back again, this time throwing a fist into his chin. Dyson was thrown off guard, reeling back in pain.

Tron suddenly grabbed Dyson by the wrist as he prepared to throw another punch. The program's eyes widened in disbelief as Tron flipped Dyson onto his back, pinning him to the floor. Wariness suddenly washed over Beck. He knew that he was ready for what would happen next. He had been telling himself that this was the right thing. But still something held him back.

"Time to end this." With a disk raised and activated, Tron threw it down.

Beck braced himself for the scream of agony that would follow.

"You derezz me now, and the User you care about so much will never be free."

This time, Tron paused in his attack, only to give Dyson enough time to kick him in the chest, knocking him aside.

There are more ways to break repurposing, Beck thought. If they had more time, Cutler would have broken free of Clu's grasp. Beck had already seen it happen. The old warrior had been fighting it the whole time. And if what Zena had said back in the Archives was true, then they did have a way of saving Mira from Dyson's hold.

By now, Mira had already taken down Clint. Natasha was still holding her own in battle, flipping back to avoid getting kicked or punched while striking out. Beck saw the chance to join in and stopped Mira from delivering a blow to Natasha in the chest.

"Mira, this isn't you!" he shouted while blocking a swift punch in the face. "The User I know wouldn't let anyone control her, especially someone like him!"

A swing to the thigh caused him to lurch in pain. But this time he wasn't holding back.

"You think you can break the repurposing?" Dyson sneered. "Users are weak and easily manipulated. This just proves my theory!"

This time, a scream of agony did follow his words. Clint had fired an arrow straight at Dyson. The moment it landed electricity surged through him. Beck tried not to flinch as pixels scattered across the floor. Dyson was derezzed. And now all that was left was freeing Mira from whatever repurposing he had done to her.

Mira was a lot faster than Beck remembered. And stronger. Twice already, she had thrown in blows that would have left another painful reminder of the fact that she was repurposed. She was about to strike out again when someone grabbed her by the wrists. Beck had to blink a few times in disbelief when he realized Tron was holding her down. The moment he had hold of her wrists was when he pinned her to the floor. The disk she was holding suddenly fell out of her hands.

"Mira, you're stronger than this," Tron suddenly told her as Natasha pulled Clint back to his feet after he was knocked down by Mira. "Both physically and mentally. Fight it off!"

For a moment, it looked as if his efforts were in vein. Beck's heart twisted with pity when he realized she was still struggling under Tron's firm grip. Whatever hold Dyson had over her was strong. Then, he noticed a change. It wasn't much of a change, but the circuits along her suit began to flicker from a sickening orange to their primary colors. By now, she had stopped struggling.

Beck hadn't missed the wary looks Clint and Natasha were giving Tron, almost as if they were expecting him to hurt her. It felt as if time had slowed down when her struggles finally ended. Tron finally released his grip on her and stood up.

"What just… happened?" Clint asked warily, dropping his weapon after realizing it was over.

"Her system fought the repurposing," Tron explained. "When you derezzed Dyson, whatever hold he had on her was gone."

But at what cost? Beck wondered, his eyes suddenly narrowing at the thought. Mira would never be the same when she recovered from this. He couldn't shake off the feeling that things weren't about to get any better, despite what Tron had tried reassuring him, Natasha and Clint. Whatever the outcome, Beck knew that she would need all of the support she could get once this was over.