A/N: Ok, here's the last chapter besides the Epilogue, although I do have an idea for a sequel of sorts. It will be a cross-over with the recent Marvel movies, specifically Ironman. I'm not sure when (or even if, considering my attention-span) it will get written, but the Tron cross-over section contains the category "Marvel", so check for it there. If I don't start it within the next week, I probably won't start it at all.
There was no way they were going to tackle a job as big and complex as this without some sleep. So Alan called Lora to let her know he was staying at Encom (although he didn't tell her why - yet - because he didn't want to get her hopes up), and then he and Roy crashed for a couple of hours on the couches in their respective offices.
On the Grid, Tron had given the information that Alan had given to him to a search program called Buth, who interfaced with a recovery program called Knopp. He and Sam had then gone back to Tron's apartment, where Sam had crashed (or, at least, gotten some downtime) on the couch that Alan had spent so long on while rewriting Tron's code.
Quorra had gone back to Sam's apartment to see to Marv, and to get some sleep herself.
Just over four hours after Roy and Alan had cleared the Sea of Simulation of Clu's virus, the four men stood on the shores of the Sea of Simulation surrounded by a dozen small containers of code. Buth and Knopp were dollying the last container to the shoreline.
"Ok, so how are we going to do this?" Sam asked for the fourth (or was it the tenth?) time. Alan sighed at his impatience - although he could certainly understand it - and was finally ready to give at least a partial answer.
"Well, we have what is, as far as we can tell, all of your father's code. We're pretty sure we managed to exclude any of Clu's simply because we excluded him in the search parameters. Now, it would probably take forever to put all the code in the right order, so we're going to do something drastic here. Something you probably won't believe simply because you don't believe. Fortunately, Roy and I do."
"Wait, what?" Sam said, thoroughly confused.
"Well, first we're going to dump all the code in the Sea of Simulation." Alan explained. "Then we're going to go in with it, and literally put it all together using our faith and belief. Or, at least, our User powers."
Sam raised both eyebrows. "We're gonna do what?" He said disbelievingly. Alan smiled fondly, tolerantly, at the younger man.
"Sam, Roy and I always kept the faith that Kevin was still alive and out there somewhere. After even you gave up, we never did. And now we are going to use that faith to bring him back." Alan told Sam, with the rock-solid faith of his convictions. The same faith that had never wavered that Kevin was out there somewhere, and was why he had financed the Flynn Lives Organization. The same conviction that had finally convinced Sam to go to the arcade and start this whole thing in the first place.
"And, of course, we'll also be using your disk to help reconstruct the code." Roy put in. "I wish we could get ahold of Kevin's disk, but since those things don't get digitized into the Outer World, who knows what the computer did with it." He shrugged. "The point is, we don't have it, so your disk it is."
Sam sighed in skeptical acquiescence, grabbed the first container of code, and dumped it into the water. Interestingly, it didn't scatter or sink, but simply floated nearby in a clump. "Huh." Sam made an interested noise, and went for the next container.
The three Users and three programs - Buth and Knopp stayed to help mostly because they were interested in the results, too - upended the boxes into the water. Then the three Users went into the water and stood, in a rough triangle surrounding the loose clumps of floating code.
Alan, going completely on instinct because things worked so differently here and he had so little experience to go on, and hoping this worked, instructed,
"Sam, take off your disk and put it in the water. Roy, I want all three of us to touch Sam's disk, and visualize Kevin as Sam described him - older, hair longer and grayed, with a beard and wearing robes. Visualize as strongly as possible. Like when you wrote the code for the End of Line club or when you saw what you needed to do to write the new Power Control Module." Roy nodded as Sam, shaking his head in disbelief, took off his disk and laid it on the water amidst the code that was once his father. Roy and Alan both put their hands on it, and Sam logged in and called up his own genetic code. The hologram floated just above the water.
All three men closed their eyes, and visualized Kevin Flynn.
Alan saw the carefree programmer he'd once known, whose infectious smile had once made him so jealous because it had brought a smile to Lora's face, lighting her whole being. After Lora had married Alan, and Kevin had married Jordan, that jealousy had slowly faded, leaving only the friendship that had lasted a lifetime - or, in Kevin's case, even more. Slowly, Alan's perception of Kevin changed as Alan added years and the burden of loss to the man in his mind's eye. Once he had that image, he held to it with his friendship and his sheer faith, strengthened by the knowledge that he had been right all along.
Sam saw, in his mind's eye, his father, once enthusiastic, then bowed by the loss of his beloved wife, Sam's mother, and finally, as Sam had last seen him, standing on the bridge near the portal, aged but not weakened, hope renewed by the knowledge that he could defeat Clu for the sake of his son and the ISO he had protected for so long. Sam realized for the first time that now, he had hope, too, and held to that for the sake of the father he might yet return the favor for, and save him in return.
Roy, in the privacy of his own mind and heart, set free the love and devotion he held for Kevin. For so long he had also held faith for the sake of love, but a different love than the ones Alan and Sam held; for the one was the love of a friend, for the other was the love of a son for his father. For Roy, however, the love was unrequited and held close in a secret place in his heart, but no less strong for all that. Roy deliberately ignored the memory of the accusation Kevin had made shortly after Jordan's death that led to Kevin cutting off their friendship, the only relationship Roy knew he could ever have with Kevin. But Roy had forgiven him, knowing that Kevin was only lashing out in his grief and loss. Kevin had never exactly apologized, but he had not kept Roy at such a distance in the months before his disappearance. And Roy held to the hope that, after they brought Kevin back, they might still be friends again. That had been enough for Roy then. It would be again. And so, Roy visualized the older Kevin intermingled with the younger Kevin of the easy smile and vibrant life that he had fallen in love with so long ago. And he held that visualization in his mind and in his heart.
Tron stood watching on shore as the water slowly moved; a simple ripple at first, intensifying to a bubbling roil, then to a frothy churning as Kevin's code moved and rearranged itself in the miraculous Simulation program that had once birthed the ISO's.
The churning increased, gaining height, like an artesian spring whose pressure was great enough to geyser into the air to the height of a man. After a few moments, the churning became less intense and not so tall. It continued to lose height and intensity, slowly calming back to rolling boil, then to ripples that smoothed out once again. In their place was left, not three men standing in the water, but four. The fourth man's hair was grayed with age, his robes, limned with light, floating on the water so that he looked like Poseidon, God of the Sea. And, in a way, he was exactly that, for the fourth man was Kevin Flynn, God of the Grid.
Kevin Flynn opened his eyes. The last thing he remembered was standing on the bridge in front of the portal, watching as Clu was drawn back to him, watching his now-grown son Sam and Quorra, the last ISO, standing in the light of the portal.
He looked around him now. He was in the Sea of Simulation, not far from shore. Sam stood before him. Had his last sacrifice failed? Had Sam been trapped here after all? Kevin started to sag in defeat, but then another hand touched his shoulder from behind. He turned, to find a white-haired man standing behind him, tears running freely down his face, but grinning widely. It took a moment, but then he finally recognized,
"Alan?" He breathed. He didn't understand. "What are you doing here? What's going on?"
"Clu is gone." Alan explained as briefly as he could. "You succeeded, but then Sam brought me and Roy Kleinberg here, we found and reassembled your code, and...and...here you are..." Finally, his voice broke, and Alan's hand on Kevin's shoulder tightened, and then brought him into a heartfelt and so-long-delayed hug. Finally, Kevin broke the hug and turned to Sam, hugged his son hard, then turned to the third man, who stood uncertainly nearby. Roy knew Kevin might still not want his friendship, sullied as it was by his perversion, and so tried to keep a bit of mental as well as physical distance.
But Kevin was having none of it. A thousand cycles is a long time to contemplate one's mistakes and regrets.
"I'm sorry." He told Roy. "I'm so very sorry. Can you forgive me?" Roy tried to maintain his composure, but failed utterly, and tears rolled down his cheeks, tears of pain at the wasted years as well as happiness.
"I forgave you a long time ago." Roy's voice broke, as Kevin pulled him into his arms, hugging the other man as he wept.
On the shore of the Sea of Simulation, three programs dropped to their knees, two in awe, one in happiness, watching the four Users' reunion, as the light from the portal shined on them all.
Ok, the epilogue will answer the remaining couple of questions (especially about Roy). And then I'm done! Whew!
One last note: Although I have no objections to slash, this story, and any sequels I write, will have NO, I repeat NO slash! Even if I do write a slash version, I will post it separately with proper ratings & warnings, but don't hold your breath.
