Chapter Fourteen

Pain stabbed in her back when Mira struggled to open her eyes. Her vision was still blurry as she tried taking in her surroundings. She wasn't expecting to find herself strapped in some chair, in a dark room. Or to find herself not alone. Almost at once, she tried struggling against the restraints holding her down. This felt like some horrible nightmare, just like all the others, where Clu would hold her down for good measure and torture her.

"Good, I'm glad to see you're awake." Cyrus. Mira's eyes narrowed with hate as he hovered in front of her. "You're a lot stronger than the Renegade… which surprises me. I wonder just what Clu did to you while you were his captive?"

"What exactly do you plan to do with us?" Mira demanded, her voice like chips of ice.

Yet, Cyrus's words hung in the back of her mind.

What exactly did Clu do to her while she was unconscious? She could hardly remember a thing back in the Coliseum before she was rescued by Beck and Tron. A shiver of unease swept through her at the thought. She knew that he was capable of doing many things that would make a program wish they had been derezzed. And often times, she suddenly wished that she could share the same fate as a program. Unfortunately, Clu was the least of her problems at the moment.

Cyrus didn't waver; he merely smirked in amusement and gestured to the chair she was strapped to. His cruel gaze didn't budge as he kept an eye on both herself and the other program strapped on the other side of the chair.

"You really haven't guessed it, have you?" he chuckled, sending chills through Mira. "I'm using your energy, along with the Renegade's, to create the ultimate bomb. What I failed to do before, I will succeed this time."

"You really are a lunatic," she hissed under her breath.

Once again, Cyrus only grinned. Mira really wished she could slap that smirk off his sorry face. The last thing she wanted was to be used as an energy source for a bomb. She wasn't even sure how that would work, given the fact that she was a User. Obviously, Cyrus had his ways. When he had been in his prison, he had likely done his research before Beck showed up. Beck's arrival had also likely been part of Cyrus' plans. She could only imagine how long it had taken for Cyrus to figure out what needed to be done.

It didn't take long for Beck to come to. Mira could hear him groaning in pain. Her mind was still trying to figure a way out of this mess when he started panicking, struggling against his restraints until Cyrus started talking to him. She rolled her eyes as she realized this was just Cyrus' way of getting some enjoyment in his life. He was just as bad as Pavel, if not worse, when it came to watching those around him suffer.

Mira tried to block out whatever Cyrus was saying to Beck. Anything he said was just another attempt at getting under their skins. She had to block him out. She had to find a way out of this mess. They couldn't suffer at the hands of Cyrus.

Her fists clenched as she tried pulling at the restraints. That wasn't doing much good, and the straps were digging into her wrists. The moment Cyrus stopped talking was when the pain started. She didn't have time to brace herself for it, or the amount of memories she would have to face again.

The first images that came through were that of her past on the Grid. Images of what she had gone through before she was captured by Clu came rushing by. Soon, those were replaced with images of what her life had been like when Clu captured her. Her teeth ground together as another surge of pain coursed through her, this time stronger than before. Mira's eyes widened in panic as she started remembering her life in the Real World.

Old memories that she would have rather kept hidden came rushing back at full force. She found herself at the orphanage where she was raised until a foster family took her in. Those first couple of years had been hectic, and they had been a desperate attempt at finding a real family. But the images began to fade away as she saw herself wandering around Flynn's Arcade, where everything went downhill after that. And other memories began surfacing after those. Her heart was racing by the time she realized that they were Beck's memories. Images of what his life had been like prior to arriving in Argon City suddenly began to resurface. Along with other images she would have rather forgotten.

"You have to fight it!"

Mira flinched at the sound of Beck's voice. Once again, her fists clenched as a fresh wave of determination swept over her. She wasn't going to let Cyrus use her as a bomb. She wasn't going to let him continue terrorizing everyone. He'd already caused so much trauma across the Grid. His presence was like a virus wherever he wandered. She knew that he wouldn't stop until everyone they cared about either got destroyed or suffered the same trauma they suffered from.

It took all of her strength to break free of the straps holding her down. By the time she did, the machine was staring to break apart behind her as the Renegade did the same. The machine had collapsed just as they both jumped out of the way, avoiding the explosion that followed. A shiver swept through her when she realized just how close they had been to meeting the same fate as the machine in question. Clouds of smoke were still fuming from where it crashed when she heard footsteps from behind.

"Oh, you idiots!" Mira scowled at the sound of Cyrus' voice. Sure enough, the program in question was standing directly behind them. She whirled around in time to see him charging straight for them, but the Renegade got in the way. "I'm going to take everything away from you, everything you've ever cared about!"

"Not this time, Cy," the Renegade snapped.

What happened next caught Mira off guard. A grenade was thrown in Cyrus' direction, the impact sending a jolt of electricity through him. For a moment, she wasn't sure how to react when she realized that someone had been looking out for them after all.

"Go, now!"

Mira looked up in time to see a familiar black-suited figure approaching them. Once again, she was thankful to have her mask on as the Renegade suddenly grabbed hold of her and started running. Despite the terror from earlier, Mira was not going to let the Renegade drag her around like she was some helpless program. Besides, he'd seen her memories if she was able to see his. He would know right from the moment their memories started who she was.

She wrenched her hand out of his and took the lead, running as fast as she could out of the building they were being kept in. She didn't even want to know how Tron found them, or what he was doing there in the first place. Cyrus was long behind them as they ran through a narrow tunnel until finding light ahead. Relief swept through her the moment she saw the light flooding through that tunnel.

It didn't take Mira long to recognize the streets of Argon once more. They emerged into an alleyway not far from their previous location. The building around them was starting to crumble apart, bits and data of code derezzing from the bomb Cyrus had tried using. Lightning streaked across the sky when she looked up, almost as if signaling the dark events that just happened.

Mira glanced over her shoulder one last time to make sure the Renegade was okay, before making a break for it. She should have known better than to go after Cyrus herself. But she was blinded with anger and grief. She'd allowed her emotions to get the better of her, exactly what Tron had trained them not to do. Whatever the reasons behind taking such risks, Mira wasn't going to forgive herself for putting not only her life in danger, but everyone else's as well. Either way, she wasn't in any hurry to face them again.

…

Beck hardly noticed the program slip away when he reached the city. A pang of worry and exhaustion clouded his thoughts as he slipped through the crowd of programs. They were oblivious to the trauma he and the other program had suffered just microcycles ago. To make things worse, he wasn't even sure if Tron had survived the fight either. He knew Tron would more than likely survive the fight in question, but that didn't stop him from worrying.

He was more than angry with himself for believing he could take on Cyrus on his own. He'd acted purely out of instinct when Cyrus threw his disk towards the female program. And it wasn't until the memories started flashing across his vision that he registered who that program in question was.

His thoughts churned with anxiety as he realized that Mira had suffered from far more than she let on. Seeing her when she was younger had been enough of a reminder how vulnerable Users really were. And to know that she had been punished for her very existence on both the Grid and the Real World left him feeling that much guiltier. She never did anything to deserve the treatment she was given while on the Grid. Programs treated Mira as if she was some kind of virus that needed to be wiped out.

No one deserves to be treated that way, he reminded himself silently.

He should have known that she would try and fight Cyrus on her own just like he had. Her sheer determination to take down the insane program had led to their ultimate fight. And Beck knew that Cyrus had taken advantage of their emotions just like Tron always would. His fists clenched at the thought. He of all programs should have known better than to allow his emotions to control his actions.

"Beck." He cringed at the familiar sound of Tron's disguised voice. He whirled around in time to see the security program leaning against the wall of a building, arms crossed and looking exhausted. "We need to talk, now."

Yeah, no kidding, Beck thought with a roll of his eyes. He'd replaced his Renegade suit with his normal one after reaching the city. It was better not to stand out at a time like this. Everyone was tense since the showdown with Clu a few cycles ago. He had a feeling that programs could feel the rumblings of that bomb as well. He was surprised that no one bothered running around to investigate what had led to the most recent tremors. Though, with everything that had happened, a few tremors were probably nothing.

He had a few questions of his own about whether or not Cyrus was really dead. Or if he would be back for round three. Either way, Beck needed to be prepared, and if they ever found her again, Mira had a right to know as well. Cyrus was bent on destroying the Grid, and everyone on it, including himself.

Once they reached their secret meeting place, Beck thought back to the way Mira had handled Cyrus once again. She acted just like any other program would, with cold precision. And she had managed to pin Cyrus down, even if it was only for a nanocycle. Maybe what Cyrus said about her was true: She was stronger than him, even if she didn't like to admit it. And that left Beck wondering just how many secrets she had been hiding from them when they first met. It was clear that Mira hadn't been entirely truthful when she mentioned being captured by Clu.

"What happened back there?" Tron asked the moment they were alone and on top of the building.

"Cyrus got the better of me," Beck sighed in exasperation. "I thought we had him, but—"

"We?" Tron repeated, and Beck held back a groan of annoyance.

Tron must have seen Mira with him, otherwise he wouldn't have been so quick to jump in and stop Cyrus. After the last encounter they had with Cyrus, Beck couldn't blame Tron for wanting to intervene. The insane program was one of the many reasons she left them in the first place. Though, Beck knew that a lot of it had also been his own behavior towards her. She felt more responsible for what had happened to him and his friends than ever during Cyrus' attack.

"He took advantage of us. I should've seen it coming, but… I failed, again," he finished.

Tron let out a sigh of frustration and pinched the bridge of his nose when his helmet collapsed. Beck knew that he messed up big, this time. He didn't want to think of what would happen if Cyrus was successful in using that bomb. Knowing that Cyrus managed to create another bomb similar to the one in his prison left Beck's mind reeling with anger and worry. The insane program would more than likely continue these attacks if he wasn't stopped.

"The good news is, you both made it out alive," Tron said after taking a deep breath and recollecting his thoughts. "The bad news, Cyrus got away, again."

Beck stared at Tron in alarm when he said that.

It really shouldn't have surprised him by this point that Cyrus had gotten away. Given the insane program's history, Cyrus was probably capable of slipping out of anyone's grasp. It gave Cyrus yet another attempt at ruining their lives, in more ways than one.

"How exactly are we supposed to stop Cyrus when everyone's already on high alert as it is?" Beck groaned as he looked out across the city.

He doubted there was any easy way out of this. Cyrus would do anything he could to make them miserable, or some other poor soul. Either way, he wasn't satisfied until everyone became his victim.

"If what you said about her is true, then I'm sure she's going to try tracking him down again," Tron said thoughtfully. Beck raised an eyebrow in surprise at that. "Which means we'll have to track him down faster." He paused to let this sink in, and Beck realized that this meant he'd be working even harder to make sure that she didn't find Cyrus first. "I'll keep an eye out, for the time being. Beck, you need a break."

Beck didn't miss the seriousness in his voice. Tron rarely gave him time off unless it was serious. He must have known that something was wrong. He decided to heed Tron's warning, this time. The last thing the Grid needed was for the Renegade to pass out from lack of energy, or from a fight against Cyrus.

He decided to spend his time off at the garage and work on whatever projects Able had in store for him. Working at the garage was one of his favorite distractions from his other job as the Renegade. Fixing light cycles had become more of a hobby than a job, though. As much as Beck hated to admit it, being the Renegade had pretty much taken over his life.

On very few occasions did he get the chance to spend time with his friends, if he could even call them that. Mara may have lightened up since Able's miraculous recovery, but that didn't mean she wasn't suspicious of his odd behavior. She often accused him of being lazy and incompetent as a coworker. Usually, it was done behind his back when she thought he wasn't listening. She wasn't the only one to do so either.

It was better not to think about it. None of them understood what it was like to live a double-life, or to risk their lives. Being the Renegade was kind of a thankless job. But it was worth it when he was able to rescue innocent programs from Clu's clutches. He would've never gotten to know Mira had he not taken on Tron's offer either. So, in a way, it was worth the risks.