HADES
Tron and Sam entered the old system through the crack in the silver door. As Sam passed through, he noticed silver particles shimmering in the green glow of the grid. As he went through it, his suit changed from black with blue circuits to grey with red lines. Tron had also changed. He was wearing something that looked like a hockey helmet and what Sam couldn't help thinking looked like a leotard with colored lines painted on it.
"Come on," Tron motioned for them to move on. He seemed anxious. There was a sickly yellow smoke that rolled in and out of the streets like a fog. It was glowing. The path continued downward towards some hidden place that neither of them could see yet. The walls formed a spiral down to the center of the crater. Below them was the old system. Tron stopped and closed his eyes. He was listening for something.
"Not yet," he said to himself. "I can't quite make it out." Sam thought he might be listening for the sound of old programs. Ghosts from the old system. They both ran down the sloping sides of the cave which spiraled downward around a central open core. They reached points at which they needed to climb or freerun across walls. Sam was able to keep up, and Tron eventually stopped worrying about him. Neither of them spoke until they reached the bottom.
"My user!" They were in the heart of the old city. Tron looked around and saw the dead or dying shells of hundreds of programs. Corpses had piled up all through the streets. Firewalls had collapsed leaving rubble and shards of broken code behind. There was hardly anything left but rubble and yellow smoke. Tron remembered what this place had been. He remembered the shining beams of the I/O towers, the flowing rivers of energy and the gridlines of the gaming grid. But now it was gone.
"Why haven't these programs derezzed?" Sam's question brought Tron back into the present. They were walking around in a graveyard, but somehow the programs remained trapped in the grid.
"They're still here because of me." A hooded program sat with its back against a crumbled firewall. It was hunched over, knees pulled into its voice was female, worn with the passing of many cycles. Tron recognized it almost immediately.
"Yori." She pulled down her hood.
"Tron. It's been a long time. How many cycles has it been. Ten, fifteen, maybe even a hundred?" Tron's breath caught in his throat. You never notice your breathing until it stops, he thought. He could sense the cold betrayal in her voice, the pain of being left behind.
"I always meant to come back for you," he said trying to comfort her, trying to make her see that she shouldn't be so mad at him. But even as he said it he knew it wasn't exactly true. Even if he had tried to return, Flynn never would have let Yori come back to the new system.
"Liar." He knew it was true. She tried to bring herself to a standing position, but her legs wouldn't hold her. She collapsed to the ground. Tron rushed over to hold her.
"Stay away from me!" She yelled. Tron stopped. Then he stepped away. "It's too late. You abandoned me. You abandoned all of us. It's too late now!" She had tears in her eyes, and the anger threatened to overwhelm her circuits and drain away any energy she had left. She sat back down against the wall. She curled her head down towards her knees. Tron realized she was sobbing.
Sam took a step out from where he was standing. "Yori, that's your name isn't it." She looked up to see the program talking to her.
"Yes. Who are you?"
"My name is Sam Flynn. You knew my father, Kevin. He told me about you." Anger flashed through her eyes and then disappeared. Sam realized that it was his father she was most angry at. He was the one who had truly abandoned her in the old system. "I'm sure he would have saved you if he could have," Sam suggested, though he wasn't sure if it was true or not. She put her head down again, trying to muster up the energy to talk to Sam. Or maybe just to be angry at him.
Instead she took something out of an invisible pocket and reached out her hand. It shook with the effort. "This is for you then." It was one of the keys. Sam took it and felt the flash of memory come to him.
He felt the thrill of riding a lightcycle only this time it was a retro model. The old gridlines , the old game grid flashing beneath his wheels. He felt the adrenaline rush as he took the other rider into the maze. A series of quick flashes and he was out again.
Riding to the I/O tower on the solar sailer. Meeting Yori for the first time. How she clung to him in the blue glow of the grid. How she had kissed him.
He remembered her. And the feeling of flight, how his user powers made it possible for them to jump the tracks.
This was what he wanted to tell Sam about. Users had great power in the grid. A user can do so much. Create worlds.
The memory flashes ahead and Flynn is sitting on his son's bed. It is the night of his disappearance. Sam was playing with his action figures, sitting comfortably under covers that he would never see again. The warmth of the room he would never see again. But he didn't know that then. Right there sitting with his son, all he felt was promise and happiness.
And then one day, I got in! Sam. It was amazing. And one day you'll see it too.
The memory was gone and Sam felt a poignant loss. The other memories hadn't hit him quite as hard. Seeing himself through his father's eyes, through his father's memory, reopened the wound. He was gone. Sam would never see him again.
He turned back to Yori. "Thank you," he said.
"He would have wanted you to have it." A tear rolled down her cheek. "You know I miss him. I miss him most of all. He was good to this place." She turned away from Tron.
"You still haven't told us why these programs haven't derezzed." She looked back at him.
"It was my invention. Dumont and I created a power shield to protect programs from the virus. The Metalurgica virus."
There was a virus, the size of a bear, rampaging through the streets, throwing programs left and right. It flashed yellow. It was slobbering and had claws that tore through the delicate walls of the grid.
The monk programs prayed to the users to save them. But they were never answered.
"Once it was installed, the program was immune from the effects of the virus. What we didn't learn, until it was too late, was that it takes tremendous amounts of energy to keep the shields active. The programs here aren't dead, but they're not able to keep up their other functions.
Programs collapsed in the streets, their eyes glazed over, only able to complete the most primitive of functions. Some shivered with the effort it took to stay alive. A mother cried over her dead child.
"They're only able to survive and that's the end of it." She doubled over with a heavy cough. Tron came close but didn't touch her. He could tell she was sick. "Yori. Do you have it. The virus? Are you sick?"
She didn't have to answer. She coughed and looked up with a weak smile. "Tron, everyone here is sick. Everyone except Dumont." At the mention of the old program's name Tron tilted his head.
"He's still alive? I thought he had been derezzed."
"He can never leave. This system is too much a part of him. He's still at the old I/O tower." A flash of red passed quickly through Yori's eyes. Tron blinked thinking he had just imagined it.
"Tron, now that you're here you can help me. I just need a little bit of your energy. Then I can get out of here. You could take me with you." Her voice was strained but Sam could hear the desperation there. He was standing behind Tron. He realized this had to be a moment between the two of them.
"Yori, I..."
"Just a little bit. Enough to let me break free. Once I can turn off the shield I'll be free. I can return with you."
Tron hesitated, but he reached out his hand for hers. She took it and the energy began to flow from Tron's body into hers. She arched back, feeling the power surge through her circuits.
"Aaaah, it feels so good. l need more. Just a little bit more." As the energy left him, Tron began feeling weak. Yori was taking too much. But she couldn't stop. And she wouldn't let go of his hand. He tried pulling away, but she tightened her grip.
"Yori, stop! That's enough." He slouched down. He couldn't keep up with her need. She needed too much. It was draining his entire being. And yet, somehow he felt he deserved it, deserved to die so she could be saved. He had a choice to make. He would die for her.
Tron heard the sound of a disc flashing through the air. It slashed through the air. Tron tried to block the disc, but he couldn't move his hand. And then it was too late. Yori fell forward. Her hand fell away and she collapsed into Tron's waiting arms. It had all happened in a heartbeat. Sam stood and picked up his disc. "I had to do it. I'm sorry." Her body flashed red and she was gone without a word.
"Sam!" Tron turned on his friend and took out his own disc. His hands shook with anger. "Why? Why did you do it? She didn't deserve to die."
"And you did? I need you, Tron. It was a pretty simple choice." He put his disc back in it's slot on the back of his uniform. It felt strange. Not the way it slid in perfectly in the grid.
"Sam, it's not like that." Tron turned away. He couldn't look Sam in the eye. He had lost the chance to make his decision. Of course he shouldn't have died. Yori wasn't in the right, but it wasn't enough. He felt guilty for what he hadn't been able to do.
"It's ok Tron," Sam put his hand on the program's shoulder. "It was either you or her. You have to survive. Now let's get to that I/0 tower. I think I've figured out what's been sapping the energy from the new system." Tron lowered his head. As Sam ran away, Tron paused. Then he followed. He had nowhere else to go.
