Greetings Programs! Obviously, I haven't updated for several weeks after I specifically announced that there'd be weekly updates. Unfortunately, school is getting in the way of my writing time and I've had less and less of opportunities to write. (Plus some things happened to my computer that I had to fix. While I was at it, I spent some time messing around with the colors and wallpapers. Now my internet pages and Microsoft Word Documents look TRON-Themed. It's so cool!) My dearest apologies for the inconveniences and late updates, though. Nonetheless, please enjoy this chapter. (I have a little twist that comes in to play)
Chapter 11 Not Your Average Cycle
Ally's POV
Ally was still asleep when Beck woke up. He unwrapped his arms from around her and poked her shoulder. "Ally? Ally, we gotta get up now. We've got a whole new cycle ahead of us."
Ally moans and rolls over, going back to sleep. Beck sighed and stood up, placing a hand on his hip. "What am I gonna do with you?" He asked, mostly to himself instead of Ally. He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced out the window.
Something big caught his eye. The sea? He looked back at Ally's figure, curled up on the bed. Beck's blank expression turned into a devious smirk. He knew exactly how to wake her up.
Beck walked back over to the bed and picked Ally up in his arms. She shifted silently. "Beeeck? What are you doing?" She asked, her words slurring.
Beck couldn't help but chuckle as he left his room and stepped into the elevator. "It's a surprise. Don't peek." Beck insists.
Ally sighs and closes her eyes again, obviously still tired. Beck walks out of the Garage and stands by the shoreline.
"Ready?" Beck asks, grinning.
Ally yawns. "Could I possibly get five more micros?" She asks.
Beck rolls his eyes with a smile. "Nope!" Beck says, tossing her into the sea.
Ally lets out a startled cry before splashing into the chilly water. A few nanos later, she resurfaces, definitely wide awake now. She spluttered around and gasped. Then her eyes focused on Beck. "Now that…" She said. "Was uncalled for!" She smirked and splashed Beck with water.
"Ah!" Beck yelled as the water soaked him. "It's cold!"
Ally nodded and grinned. "Uh huh! That's what you abruptly dumped me into!"
Beck bit his lip, unable to stop smiling. "Well I had to find some way to wake you up." He said as he held out a hand and helped her climb out of the water.
Ally sighed and patted his shoulder with her now cold, clammy hands. "Well…congrats! Because you managed to fulfill your goal." Ally wrung out some of the water in her hair and shook her head wildly to get more droplets out. "You know, Beck," She started. "If you really wanted to go swimming this cycle, you could've just let me know."
Beck chuckled. "But I had a sneaky suspicion that you'd just say 'later'."
Ally nodded. "You're probably right." She said, turning and walking back into the garage. She walks by Zed and Mara, who seem to be bright and happy this cycle.
"Hi, Ally!" Mara said, grinning. Then she looks at Ally up and down. "You're soaking wet!"
Ally smirks at Mara and Zed. "I've got an intelligent boyfriend who knows what wakes me up." Mara looks at Beck with an odd expression.
"Really, Beck?" Zed asks.
Beck shrugs. "Why not? She likes swimming."
Mara rolls her eyes. "Smooth move, Beck!"
Ally laughs. "It's no big deal! In fact, I feel refreshed." She rests her arm on Beck's shoulder and leans against him. "Besides, I'm very crafty and I have my ways of getting revenge."
Beck's eyes widen slightly. "Oh? Like what? You plan on splashing water on me when I least expect it?"
Ally suddenly becomes interested in the ceiling. "Maybe…or I could do something more extreme, possibly." Ally winks at Beck and digs into her satchel, pulling out a pair of sunglasses. She puts them on and flips her hair dramatically. "I'll come up with something."
Beck chuckles and kneels down to work on a lightcycle. "I'm sure you will, darling." Ally giggles and turns to go outside again. Beck keeps focusing on his work. He really needed to catch up on his shifts. He was still behind.
"Hey Beck, I'm gonna go out and see if I can get a job at the Club or something. You know, to keep me busy."
Beck pauses and nods slowly before going back to fixing the bike. "Okay, just be careful, honey."
Ally grins. "Of course! When am I not careful, darling?" She turns and literally skips out of the garage. Ally rezzed her bike and drove off to the club to find a way to keep her busy.
On the way, she decided to check out Argon Square to see what was going on. She momentarily gets lost in her thoughts about how strange things have been lately. She sees Zoe for the first time in many cycles. She unexpectedly bumps into Beck in Argon City. And it seems that every program around her is itching for rebellion and eventually…freedom. She's come a long way from that shy, sweet, innocent program that she used to be back before the ISO War.
Ally comes back to reality and slams on her brakes and turns her bike off the road to avoid hitting a light trail of another bike that swerved directly in front of her. She looks at the bike that made the aggressive move and glares at the rider as he keeps going down the road.
"What's wrong with you, man?!" She shouts at the program who wouldn't hear her. "You could've killed somebody, not just me either!" She derezzed her bike back into a baton and walked toward the train station. "Stupid head!" She mumbled under her breath.
She walked through the narrow street that also led to Argon Square. It wasn't exactly a shortcut, but all in all, it does lead to the square. And she didn't feel like taking her chances on the road with that reckless driver. As Ally walked down the road, she twirled her lightcycle baton in her fingers. "What was that program thinking?" Ally asked herself. "He's a worse driver than the Renegade!"
The lights in the alleyway started flickering a little. Ally stopped dead in her tracks and clipped her lightcycle to her hip. There was no use for it at the moment. She narrowed her eyes and looked around carefully. Something was obviously wrong.
She turned around abruptly, but saw nothing. Ally felt her code inside of her shake. Every sense she had screamed danger. She quickly grabbed her disk and spun around yet again to see nothing. Ally furrowed her eyebrows and lowered her disk in confusion. She felt a sense of dread inside of her. A sense that didn't feel good.
She frowned and reconnected her disk. Then she turned on her heels and continued her walk to the club.
When she exited the alley, she grabbed her baton and rezzed her bike again, hoping that she wouldn't run into trouble. Truthfully, she wasn't very skilled on a lightbike. If she ever ran into trouble, she'd consider fighting her obstacle hand to hand.
As she drove off, she just couldn't shake the feeling that there was something bad going on. But every time she looked around, she didn't see anything or anyone that could possibly be a problem.
Maybe I'm just being paranoid… Ally thought. But she wasn't entirely convincing herself. She's never been paranoid; she's always been right about something.
A realization hit her. Ally gasped, not believing how she didn't think of it sooner. That bad feeling in the pit of her stomach isn't usually something she felt when she was being followed around.
True, she noticed some shadows in the alleyways, but she never had that feeling of dread. There was another time when she felt that sensation though. She got that feeling of dread whenever an ISO was killed…
Ally exited the tunnel and stopped her bike, turning it back into a baton. She was in Argon Square. Surprisingly, there weren't a lot of programs around here right now. "What's going on…?" Ally whispered to herself, feeling twisted inside from worry. She hoped that everything was okay.
The place was nearly empty. Ally looked at the screen and narrowed her eyes. Oh, that's why… The graffiti, revolution symbols and slogans were all gone. In their place were yellow colored screens that said: 'Perfection is Freedom' and 'Long Live Clu'.
She clenched her fists. The sight of the screens sickened her and she couldn't express how annoyed she was. Ally stared at the screens long and hard, internally fighting herself whether she should do something about it or not.
She eventually turned and kept walking until she got to the club. She felt terrible for not doing anything, but if she did, she would've likely been caught. And that wouldn't help her egos at all.
She entered the club and looked for the boss. "Can I help you?" A voice asked kindly behind her. Ally whirled around to face a program who she assumed was in charge.
"Uh, yes actually." Ally smiled sweetly. "I don't suppose I could get a job here?"
…
Sky's POV
"So what do we do now, Sir?" Sky asks Clu. He knew that it was my top priority to hunt down Alpha, but the problem is that they lost track of her. It's like she totally vanished.
Clu turned to Sky, then he glanced at Dyson. He didn't have the amused, calm expression anymore. He looked very upset. "Why are you asking me? You're the one who lost her in the first place." He says bluntly to Sky. "And you," He turns to Dyson. "You got involved with something that wasn't part of your duty, distracting Lieutenant Skipper."
Dyson keeps his eyes steady on the floor. "Yes sir, I understand, sir."
Clu eyes me and focuses back on Dyson. "Really? Are you sure?" He asks. Dyson wasn't sure how to answer. Clu glares at his right-hand man and punches him in the gut. Dyson doubles over in pain. Clu literally kicks him across the room, sending him flying straight into the wall and crumpling to the floor.
Sky flinches from what he sees. He never noticed this dark side to Clu before. He was usually so calm and mellow. And honestly, Clu was absolutely terrifying Sky. He's never seen Clu like this before.
"I can't believe that you stooped down so low to deal with something that was none of your business!" Clu shouted, striding over to Dyson to strike again.
Sky didn't like Dyson fondly. In fact, he hated him; but watching what was happening was making him feel rather uncomfortable. Nonetheless, he stood by and just watched with a blank expression, hiding his emotions.
When it was finally over, Dyson was unconscious and Clu turned to Sky. "You're dismissed." He said bluntly. "Just…do whatever you have to do to get me Alpha." He sounded like he was struggling just to stay calm.
Sky bowed respectfully before quickly leaving the room. He walked down the maze of hallways before stopping at his bedroom door. It was the start of a new cycle and he had no rest.
But he wasn't coming here to rest. The doors opened up and welcomed him inside. As he marched across the small, almost cramped area, he couldn't help but eye the bed in temptation. He shook his head to get back on topic.
He opened up a drawer and pulled out a small device. It had had an odd shape to it, and had several buttons on it. Sky put it in his pocket and closed the drawer. Now, all he had to do was find a way to flush Alpha out, which will hopefully be easy enough. Hopefully…
Sky's mind started wandering and he couldn't get Clu's violent acts out of his head. He thought about what Alpha told him in the past about Clu. All the bad acts he committed. Sky frowned. Alpha was right about some of them. Clu isn't really who I thought he was. He shook his head. "No, Clu is the good guy in this conflict. Perfection is Freedom. Perfection is Freedom. Perfection is Freedom."
He kept repeating the phrase, but each time, seemed less and less convinced. Sky sighed and left his room. He needed to think. Just for a little bit. He grabbed his baton off the top of the dresser and turned to leave the room.
He exited the base and made his way to the club. Having a shot of energy was proven to be very helpful when a program was thinking hard.
When he got to his destination point, he walked right inside to find a place to sit. He'd already changed into his citizen disguise so he'd blend in with the public a little better.
As he walked around, he bumped into a girl who clearly wasn't paying attention to where she was going. "Sorry," she mumbled, not meeting his eyes. He saw something about her that caught his eyes and he quickly grabbed her wrist.
She froze in surprise and locked eyes with him this time. She didn't really look well. Her face was very pale and seemed to have been drained of all color. He saw a flicker of recognition in her dark blue eyes before she quickly hid it from him.
Sky glanced at her arm that he gripped tightly and noticed the faded circuits on them. He narrowed his eyes. He could be mistaken, but he thought he saw neon green. It was just hard to tell because they were so dull, barely there.
He looked back at her face and noted her frightened and confused look. "Um, is something wrong?" She asked, trying to pull her arm away.
He played an 'embarrassed' look on his face and rubbed the back of his neck, letting go of her. "Oh, uh…sorry about that." He said casually, adding a nervous chuckle. "I thought you were someone else."
She stared right into his eyes for a few nanos, viewing him. She eventually looked away and continued walking out of the club. "Uh, it's okay." She replied shakily. "Sometimes programs make mistakes." She added more coolly.
Sky watched her carefully as she walks out of the club. He shook his head. She's just an ordinary citizen. I'm probably just feeling the effects from lacking energy.
He sits down at the bar and orders a drink. He takes slow, calm sips while he ponders over the recent events between Dyson and Clu. Honestly, he didn't see that coming from a program like Clu.
What surprised him even more about that shocking event was how Clu didn't hesitate to attack his highest ranking soldier. His own right hand man!
While sitting at the bar, Sky couldn't help but overhear another conversation between two programs.
"Geez, when will it be enough for Clu?! What does he think he'll accomplish from dominating the entire Grid?" A program asks another.
His friend shrugs. "Obviously, his delusional quest for perfection."
The first program stifles an obnoxious laugh. "Since when is misery and dictatorship considered to be perfection?" He asks.
The second program leans against the bar counter. "Don't know, probably since Clu became a crazy, corrupted program."
"Pfft! Yeah, probably." The first guy said. "I just wish that Flynn and Tron would've seen it coming. Maybe then we truly would've been free and happy."
The second program smiles faintly. "Hey, at least we have the Renegade. There's a rumor going around that he really is Tron." The second program said.
The first one nodded in agreement. "Yeah, and to top it off, Alpha's fighting too."
The second program scratched his head. "Isn't she a perfectionist like Clu? You'd think she'd be fighting alongside that kook."
The first program shrugged. "Well, I think she realizes that there's no such thing as perfection and she's trying to make an example of it by comparing her beliefs to Clu, showing that perfection is different in everyone's perspective."
The second program took a moment to consider it. "Honestly, I'd be willing to join them in the fight for freedom. I truly believe that Clu needs to be taken down and relieved of duty and life."
Sky frowned while listening. It's truly shocking to hear a citizen's true thoughts about what's going on. It seems as though the only support Clu gets is from his repurposed soldiers, the rest of the living programs think negatively about him.
Truthfully, Sky didn't know if Dyson was repurposed or a program that joined him willingly. Sky was the latter. Somehow, Clu's inspirational words spoken to him in a way that didn't reach all programs. He truly believed in Clu's cause.
But now, after seeing Clu's true attitude and colors, hearing other program's thoughts about what's going on, Sky's really beginning to rethink his thoughts and duty.
But there were some problems. Clu valued Sky for his knowledge of Specials and his capability of hunting them down and apprehending them. If he quit, Clu would surely have him found and brought back for repurposing, or order his soldiers to derez him on sight.
Now thinking about the consequences showed even more depth to Clu's strict rules and expectations. He didn't like this at all.
He stood up and walked out of the club, no longer listening to the two programs that were talking. He needed some peace and quiet to carefully think this over and weigh his options. If he did consider leaving, he had to consider the scenarios of what could happen to him afterwards.
And most of them were not pleasant to think about.
…
Evelyn's POV
Evelyn sat at a desk in the archives room, once again, sorting through the files that kept getting scrambled up by the messengers that were constantly taking them out and putting them back in the wrong place. It wasn't entirely annoying, at least she had something to keep her busy.
She paused and rubbed her tired eyes with her forefinger and thumb. She sighed. "I didn't realize Alpha would just give herself up to the Occupation like that." She mumbled. "If she manages to get out, I'm gonna make sure to talk to her about the worry she's causing me. Not to mention asking of me to take care of a stranger that I don't even know."
She looked up at the sound of soft footprints coming closer. The program lightly knocked on the door before entering. It was Cassie. She looked worried.
Evelyn stood up. "Are you alright?" She asked cautiously.
Cassie shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. "No…"
Evelyn quickly walks over. "What happened?"
Cassie gritted her teeth. "Katie's cover was somehow blown. Clu discovered that she was an ISO. She was derezzed on the spot!"
Evelyn's face pales. "Oh no…"
Cassie starts crying. "I saw the whole thing, but didn't do anything about it. I should've done something that could have changed her fate!"
Evelyn shook her head and gripped Cassie's shoulder. "No, no. I'm sure Katie would've preferred if no one else was caught or found. Trying to help her the way you wanted to would've been far too risky and could compromise the whole operation."
Cassie stops crying and sniffles. Evelyn looked at Cassie sympathetically. "I know you and Katie were best friends, but she had an undying commitment that needs to be carried on by those closest to her."
Cassie looked at Evelyn, who smiled lightly. "You can carry it on for her." Evelyn's soft expression turns hard and she looks away. "Because sooner or later, justice will be served to Clu for all that he's done to everyone."
Cassie looks down at the floor. "Right."
Right then, Chad walks into the room and immediately stops from the sight of them. "Sorry," he apologizes, backing up. "I should come back later."
Evelyn stops him. "No, it's okay." Chad turns around and strides over to the two ISOs. Evelyn puts her hand on Cassie's shoulder again. "This is Cassie, she's one the messengers here."
Cassie smiles lightly at Chad and shakes his hand. "Hello, Cassie." He greets.
Evelyn looked at Chad carefully. "So, you got to know a little about me last cycle, could you tell me a little about yourself? I already know that you're a…friend of Alpha."
Cassie looked at Chad in surprise. "How is Alpha doing?"
Chad sighed. "Last time I saw her, she sacrificed herself to make sure I got out okay. I'm pretty sure Clu has her now."
Cassie smiled confidently. "Don't worry, Alpha always makes it out of situations okay. Even in circumstances like that, I know she can handle herself on her own. After all, she managed to pull it off before, right Evelyn?"
Evelyn nodded slowly. "Yes, she has; but just because she's managed it single-handedly before, doesn't mean she could pull it off again. Remember, Clu is a very flexible program who always learns from his mistakes."
"There are some mistakes he'll never learn from though." Cassie mutters bitterly. Evelyn gives her a look that tells her to say no more, but she doesn't pay any attention. "I mean, he didn't learn from the ISO War. Now look at us! Look at how we're living!" Cassie shouts.
Evelyn facepalms, not happy that Cassie dropped hints on Chat that they were ISOs. He probably figured it out by now.
Chad nodded casually as if he was completely oblivious to what Cassie had said. "Yeah, I know. Clu uprooted a lot of innocent lives. I'm fighting against him so things can go back to normal, or as relatively close to normal as possible; the way things used to be."
Cassie's face softens. "Agreed…" She leans back, staring at the ceiling. "So, Evelyn,"
"Hmm?" The Librarian softly hums in response when she gets back to reorganizing the files.
Cassie grins. "You know where Valor is?"
Evelyn rolls her eyes. "I think he's in the main hall." She answers.
Cassie then stands up and skips out of the room. "See ya later!" She calls out the two programs in the room.
Evelyn sighs. "I think she and Valor have secretly been together."
Chad blinks at her in surprise. "What?"
Evelyn turned to face him. "Valor was the program you spoke with when you were looking for me."
Chad nodded slowly. "Oh," There was an awkward silence between them before Chad broke the silence again. "So…do you have a love interest?"
Evelyn visibly tenses up and turns back to her work. "No, I've never experience such distractions." Her hard expression gradually softens. "I just…never found the right one for me."
Chad smiles at her. "Ah, don't worry about it. I'm sure you'll find someone who'd accept you for who you are."
Evelyn smirked and whirled around quickly. "HA!" She laughs at his assumption like it was the funniest joke she'd ever heard. She definitely considered it as one. "As if anyone with their head screwed on straight would ever be interested in a girl like me!"
Chad shrugs and walks to a wall, examining the archives cluttered on the shelves. "You never know…there's always a perfect match for everyone on the Grid."
Evelyn's shoulders slump. "Some may not have a match at all."
Chad pauses and takes out an archive that was misplaced and put it where it belonged on the shelves. "That's not entirely true. Everyone has a chance to find someone that would care for them and accept them for who or what they were."
Evelyn remains silent to his response. He was starting to make her feel conflicted. "Excuse me." She says, turning and leaving the room to think.
Evelyn shook her head consistently as she walked up and down the hallways. Ever since Chad arrived, things were starting to get a little out of whack. Not to mention that Alpha's supposedly in trouble.
AND…the fact that yet another ISO died.
She needed to talk to Alpha as soon as possible about all this and to get this basic program out of her life. She really didn't like the minor, unreasonable arguments that she'd been having with him lately.
"Hopefully, this won't last long. And it'll all be over." She assured herself before turning and going back into the library and return to her 'duty'.
…
Beck's POV
Beck pushed the component back into place before sighing with a smile. He was done. His pride was short-lived, as he felt an unpleasant feeling wash over his whole body.
He hated that feeling. It happened to him a lot during the ISO War. It rarely ever happened now. It felt like a bad sense of dread that not mentally but physically made him not feel good.
Able passed by and looked at Beck with concern. "Are you alright, Beck? You don't seem well."
Beck waved off his worries. "Nah, it's nothing. Everything's fine." He smiled at his boss for assurance that didn't quite work.
Nonetheless, Able shrugged and kept walking, glancing at Beck one last time before disappearing from sight. Beck shakes his head a little bit to clear away the fuzziness that set in when he felt the sense of dread.
He turned and saw Ally walking his way, not looking so good either. Yet she plastered a pleasant smile on her face and waved to Beck. "Hi Beck," Her smile faded a bit when she got closer. "You alright?" She asked, looking more scared and shocked than concerned.
Beck folded his arms and frowned. "I was going to ask you the same thing. You've lost all color and look like you're dead." Ally grabbed Beck's upper arm and pulled him with her to an empty room. She shut the door behind her and turned to Beck.
"I'm serious, Beck." She said in an almost sinister tone. "If you felt an unpleasant feeling in your gut less than a cycle ago, you need to tell me."
Beck frowns. "Why?"
Ally pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Just trust my word, Beck. I don't want Clu coming after you just because of what you are."
Beck tensed up. Does she know that I'm the Renegade or something?... He looked Ally in the eye. "How exactly is this important?" He asks.
Ally sat down and avoided eye-contact with Beck for a while. "It's a very long, complicated story. A history lesson that I don't have time to explain." She merely said.
Beck sat down and slowly nodded. "Yes, I felt shivers and discomfort run through my code earlier this cycle."
"Did it happen often during the ISO War?" Ally asked.
Beck was taken aback. "Uh, yes; actually it did."
She nodded and looked at Beck in the eyes. "Would you let me open up your main, soul coding to confirm my theory?"
Beck shifted uncomfortably. "You've been acting different lately."
Ally faintly smirks and looks away from Beck again. "So have you…" There were a few nanos of silence before she continued. "It seems as though we've both been keeping deep, dark secrets from each other."
Beck tensed up. Ally was speaking as if she was completely aware of all the secrets he's been keeping for so long. "Yeah," he agreed.
"'Yeah' what?" She gently asks.
Beck sighs. "I agree, we've been keeping some secrets from each other and we shouldn't do that as much as we already do." He slowly draws his disk and handed it to her. "You can also take a look at it."
Ally slowly reached out, but took her time to take it, giving Beck the chance to change his mind, which he didn't do. But he was really nervous to have Ally look into his disk like that after a fruitless conversation.
At the moment, there was something unsettling about Ally that set Beck on edge as she looked at his code. She looked to be serious, but scared and panicked at the same time. He heard her mumble something under her breath. "I hope I'm wrong…I hope I'm wrong…" He thought he heard her say.
After spending a few micros looking through his coding, she pressed something and an unfamiliar image on Beck's disk was displayed. Beck scooted closer to Ally on the bench to get a better look.
Ally's eyes widened in shock. "No…" She whispered, staring at the image with an expression that Beck guessed related to hopelessness.
Beck narrowed his eyes at the image which he's never seen before. It looked like a double helix, but not quite. Of course, a double helix was like a twisted ladder, like two poles with rungs. But this was something like three poles with rungs going every which way and direction, twisted up in a…triple helix?
(A/N: I'm gonna just call Special DNA a triple helix or something like that)
Beck quickly turned to Ally. "This is my main coding?!" He asks.
Ally's shoulders sag forward and she closes up his disk, handing it back to him. Beck looked at his disk as if he didn't trust it before he finally accepted that he had to dock it or he'd lose his memories again.
The couple remained silent for a while…until Beck broke the silence with a question. "Um, what exactly is the problem?" He carefully asks.
Ally's lower lip trembles a little bit and she closes her eyes tightly. "It's what you are that's the issue." She says. Beck was taken aback by her answer. Ally looks at Beck with a calculated expression. "Clu can't know." She says.
Beck narrowed his eyes. "Can't know about what?" He asks, unsure of what she's talking about. Ally's face turns blank, still pale from the unpleasant experience this cycle. Beck had a feeling he looked the same too.
"You…don't know?" She asks, looking like she can't believe her ears. Beck slowly shook his head. Ally sighed and looked away. "It's a very long story. And involves some deep history to Alpha's part in the ISO War."
Beck got comfortable on the bench. "Well, I've got time. I'm done with my shift and I'm not currently busy with anything."
Ally smiled a little bit from Beck's eagerness to hear. "Okay, but it's not a pleasant story to tell. Many programs that were close to me either died or disappeared."
Beck's face softens in sympathy. Ally straitens up and beams at him. "But let's not live in the past! May Flynn watch over them and keep them safe. I don't really know where they are, but I hope they're okay." She sat closer to Beck and cleared her throat. "This is just gonna be a history lesson from the Specials' point of view."
Beck looked puzzled. "Specials?..."
Ally slowly exhaled through her nose. "I'll start explaining from there. Let's go to the beginning of this little story. The very beginning…"
…
Ally's POV
Beck didn't seem to know anything about this history. Ally wondered if Zed or Mara knew. What about Able? She wondered.
Beck seemed to be thinking very hard about what she told him. "So…Specials are a whole new species. Different from ISOs, Basics, and Users but somewhat a combination of them all?" He clarified.
Ally nodded patiently. "Both you and me are Specials; and if we're not careful, and our cover is blown, Clu will be sure to send out soldiers for us." Ally made Beck think Clu was looking for her only because of what she was. She hadn't yet told him about the double life she was currently living.
"So, how do you know all of this? It's so vivid, as if you really were in the action." Beck raised a quizzical eyebrow.
Ally sighed and avoided eye-contact. "That's because I was involved. I was on the front lines." Beck's jaw dropped. "I fought for the ISOs as best as I could, but Clu was well prepared for a fight. The rest of us were caught off guard. In fact, he almost caught me once or twice. At least they never managed to identify me when they did though, otherwise, I would've been locked away for all eternity."
Ally paused. "…I was eventually forced to flee, run away from the fight. No one stood a chance. I went into hiding in Neon and tried to live normal, but…there were some issues with that." She looks up at Beck and smiles. "Then you found me."
Beck smiled back, but shuddered inside from the disturbing history lesson that Ally gave him. It was terrible and horrifying to hear the exact details of what happened.
All in all though, Beck was a little relieved to know that the simple mystery of what he was and how he was made was fascinating and good to know.
"You don't even need to be a masked, vigilante to be pursued by Clu if you're a Special. He wants as many as possible on his side. Any of them who aren't with him are a serious threat." Ally said.
Beck tensed up. Ally could tell that Beck was thinking hard, so she decided to put it at rest for now. "So, I got a job at the Club this cycle." Ally cheerfully informed Beck, smiling like they never discussed any serious or dark conversations.
Beck was caught off-guard by her sudden surprising actions but eventually understood why she was doing that. She was done talking about it and was jumping back to the present.
Beck smiled warmly back at her, standing up and walking to the door with her. "Oh really? Are you excited?" He asked casually as they stepped out of the room.
Ally faced forward and did a double take when she realized just who else was in the garage. She and Beck found themselves face to face with one of the last programs they would want to see. Sky was in his citizen uniform and was standing directly in front of them.
Ally almost screamed from the shock but forced it back down. She didn't know yet why Sky was here, but she hoped that he wasn't suspicious of her. If he was, then it meant he'd followed her back here all the way from the club, which was a little creepy.
Sky smiled pleasantly at the couple. Ally smiled back, fighting back the urge to attack him. That would definitely blow her cover. She just decided to stand and wait, find out why he's here. Who knows? Maybe he's just here under unimportant circumstances of a sort that don't involve her…or Beck.
Hopefully…
"Greetings, Programs." He said casually.
Beck, oblivious to who this program was, politely responded. "Hello, how may I help you?"
Sky's smile grew a little bigger.
"…I'd like to get my bike looked at, please."
There you have it, Sky's not really repurposed and for the first time, Clu scares the living daylights out of him. :O
Sky: I wasn't scared! :(
I...was just surprised.
Me: Yeah, sure. Keep telling yourself that. :P
Ally: He thinks he's got problems? He needs to get ahold of reality! Others are suffering!
Evelyn: Meh meh meh, :P
No one has to worry about the ISOs. We're having a tough time, but we don't need help. We're self-sufficient.
Chad: Not everyone on the Grid is like that though.
Evelyn: DON'T ARGUE WITH ME! +_+
Me: Okay, everyone calm down. We don't need to have conflict.
Ally: :P
Well it's all your fault.
Me: MINE? Excuse me, but it's called making things interesting.
Everyone except me: O_O
Get her!
Me: *Runs away* I'm sorry, please review and leave a comment. I'll start working on the next chapter as soon as possible. TRON LIVES! Toodles.