Chapter 29: Endgame, Pt. 5

Tron gripped the side of the elevator shaft, a long hip belt securing him to the rest of Aftermath Squadron, learning from their earlier mistakes. Magnetics sealing them to the shaft required great strength to lift and reposition, and at this point, the team was exhausted despite being in top physical position.

"How... much... farther?" Moog panted, gripping his magnetics tightly and trying not to look down. Though there wasn't much to look down at this point. It was just a black, square abyss, filled with the mindless clatter of turbolifts and Sentries doing their duty: looking for Tron and his team.

"Not too far now," Tron groaned, pulling his magnetics up again, and breathing heavily, "The generator room should be about two meters above us, and down at the end of the main corridor." The entire team groaned, as Flad stated, "Any chance we can stop in the break lounge? This is hard work, even for us."

"I think our freedom'll be reward enough." Sivet pulled his magnetics and sighed. "It's a done deal at this point." Tron reached up, grabbed the ledge, but his fingers loosened their grip as his palm was crushed under the full weight of a Sentry, followed by two more. Trained to repress his voice in missions, Tron's jaw dropped, but no sound spilled out.

"Halt, program!" the lead Sentry shouted, pointing his staff at Tron's nose, "You are not authorized to enter this area..." Tron looked downward as a small hint of light closed in, it's diameter expanding by the MicroCycle. The elevator was closing in on them. Tron used his left hand to disable the Sentry on top of him, then motioned for the team to let go of their magnetics. Their feet landed softly on the metal elevator floor as the Sentries' heads were decapitated by the passing lift.

"That could've ended better," Tron hissed, rubbing his bruised hand, "Remind me to see Paige later." Anon nodded, tapping his disk to make a note. "We should be nearing the top of the conning spire. If these tactical imprints are correct-" Tron pulled open a holographic display of Vengeance's inner workings, with Moog and Rasket acting like children to get a better look. "-then we should head up the conning spire and make our way down the emergency stair-well. The Occupation leaves an alarm system to alert usage of the stairwell, so we need to disable the alarm before we open the door. Any ideas?"

"Riot and Sivet could act as Black Guards, and casually patrol while I hack into the mainframe. If you didn't understand my name before now, ta-daa..." Hax shrugged, wiggling his fingers in mockery of a magic trick, to no extent of humor. "I'll also need Sivet to cover the security camera, and if that doesn't work, I need Beck as a sniper to douse the lights." Moog and Rasket looked at each other, then turned back to Beck in a way that reminded him of the days he first teamed up with them. "So what do the new guys do?"

"Them?" Beck shrugged, then pointed to the batons of free code clipped to their thighs. "They're graffiti artists, aren't they?" The Jolly Tricksters nodded innocently. "We could use their free code from the elevator shaft and spread it in random areas. That way, all the patrol units will be distracted and we'll have every contingency covered in case something goes wrong." All of the others nodded, and jumped into the corridor as the lift shot downwards.

Three Sentries, presumably on their way to their post, noticed the eleven enemy programs in their hallway and shouted. "Halt! By the order of CLU, stand down, pro-" The lead Sentry's sentence was cut short as Tron snuck between them, using his legs to knock all three out in one graceful movement. Beck grabbed an emergency coil of cable and tied the three Occupation soldiers together.

"They'll get suspicious when they don't show up for their shift. We need to hurry." Anon turned and gestured towards the Light Guard. "Hax, how long do you think it'll take to disable the alarm?"

"Don't know. Could range from a few Nanos to a PectroCycle. Depends on how deep the software is into the mainframe."

"Sentries are rarely, if not never late for active duty." Tron said this remembering his time as Rinzler. "Once their shift starts and they aren't present, they'll be crawling the ship looking for them or the programs they deem responsible."

"Almost there.." Hax muttered, pulling strands of code, and assembling them back in different order. "And.. done!" A green light reappeared over the door, replacing what used to be bright orange. Tron nodded and the team proceeded.


"Sir," a Sentry from the Security Division notified Pavel, who stood by the Sentry's side within seconds, disk in his hand. "The small group of programs from earlier are causing major errors around the ship. Three Sentries have gone missing en route to their post. The situation has caused massive schedule changes ship-wide and a security system on Deck 58 has been disabled, along with a camera feed." Pavel sat there, motionless, and the Sentry sighed as he believed he had avoided his own deresolution. The statue of Pavel barely moved as his disk sunk into the Sentry's chest, allowing him to fall onto the floor in pieces.

"Send a security squadron to every valuable area of the ship, and send a group of Sentries to deal with- no, strike that. Sentries are useless, especially on the battle-field. Send only Heavy Sentries and Scout Sentries." Pavel turned to his personal comm channel and opened a link to his three personal Black Guard.

"Black Guard Three-Oh-One."

"Yes, sir."

"Assemble a team of Heavy and Scout Sentries-as many as we have available- and meet up with me in the Generator room, level 2. I'll give you the exact coordinates as soon as I arrive." The Black Guard responded with an invisible nod and a 'yes, sir', and Pavel then turned to another two channels, and spoke to them in unison.

"Black Guards Three-Oh-Two and Three-Oh-Three."

"Sir."

"We are currently tracking eleven programs, nine bearing Coalition Mask Badges. Trap them in an intersecting corridor, on floor 28. They are to be considered hostile and very dangerous. Use any force necessary to disarm and capture them."

"Sir, permission to speak freely? Sir?" BG-302 spoke foolishly against his General's orders. In normal circumstances, when there were no intruders aboard the vessel, it would be a death wish. But for now..

"Permission granted." Besides, Pavel held his Black Guard in high regard. They were the first of the third batch of Black Guard, and never failed an assigned task. 302 spoke. "If they are dangerous enough that you consider them so, perhaps an execution on-spot would be recommended." Pavel shook his head, stating, "No. The two non-Coalition programs are ones I have a score to settle with. As for the Coalition programs..."

Pavel's right hand slipped down to his belt, several pouches attached to it. No one but Pavel knew what was in the pouches, but nobody really would want to know their contents: the remains of the programs he had derezzed in cold blood over the Cycles.

"The Coalition's leaders are here. I will execute them personally."


"Doesn't seem like there's much here." Delta's helmet pivoted, looking around the abandoned stairwell. "I'm surprised that nobody's caught us yet. Even if we're the best officers in the stealth and spec ops divisions."

"It's too easy." Tron seemed to agree with him, staring at the Sentries just strolling by them and not noticing them. "It's a set-up. They want us to think they've let their guard down." Tron slowly clasped the handle of the door, gripping it tightly enough that he could control the speed of it's turning.

"I don't know what could go wrong." Pyro remained stone-calm, holding his loose attitude. "What's the worst they could throw at us? A Black Guard? Nothing worse than that. A few Heavy or Scout Sentries? No problem."

"Hey, guys!" A voice croaked, turning the groups attention to Sam's Flynn's face and rusty hair, sticking out from the wall post. Sam rushed over, his jacket devoid of it's single, lengthy circuit, instead being replaced by multiple, miniature white circuits. Sam's helmet clicked over, allowing his identity to be shunned from the Occupation troops.

"Simple," Anon said, rezzing in a Light Staff. "Again, they're trying to trick us." As if on cue, the hallway intersection filled with Heavy Sentries. Scout Sentries slid over the walls, landing with coup de grace on the floor a few feet away from their heavily-armed colleagues.

Four sides of the hallway were crowded by insurrection-control Sentries, accompanied by two Black Guard, one of Grenade and one of Light Staff variants.

"Halt, program." The Black Guard of Light Staff variant held up his hand and extended an index finger, making a failed attempt at intimidation. Sam shrugged, holding his hands and shrugging.

"I'm sorry," Tron said, patting the Black Guard on the shoulder and walking back to the surrounded Aftermath Squadron. "We're late for our shift in the Generator Shafts. Now if you'll excuse me and my group..." Tron yelped as he avoided the disk intended for him as it crashed into the face of a Scout Sentry. Tron looked back, raised his eyebrow from behind his mask, and shrugged. "Okay. If you want to do this the hard way... Everybody! NOW!" Three of the Light Guard threw their hands downwards, releasing two smoke bombs from each of their grips. The Occupation soldiers around them coughed up a storm, the art show completed by the Jolly Tricksters' free code. "Tron Lives" littered the building, smaller versions grouping and forming giant mosaics of the two words.

"See ya, folks!" Beck flipped over the heads of the countless Sentries ahead of him, sprinting down the hallway, followed by the less-agile Sam and the Jolly Tricksters. Tron, Anon, Pyro and Sivet jumped through another corridor, splitting again with the remaining Light Guard. They knew this procedure: the programs in one one team would be split into three sub-groups, and if anything failed on a stealth mission, the groups would split up and at least one group would get the civilians programs to safety. In this case, Beck had to act unlike himself, taking off while leaving his friends to die, but for the good of his people.

Tron scraped his sword against the floor, balancing himself from slipping across the polished surface. Anon, Pyro and Sivet raced along down the corridor, only to cornered again by both of the Black Guard.

"Remember when you said there was nothing worse than a Black Guard?" Tron asked, watching the group squeezing them in. Pyro replied with a "Yeah, why?" Tron gulped and stuttered, "I think we just found a counter-argument."


Pavel held the disks of the eight captured Light Guard, Tron and Anon. That pest Delta had managed to slip away with his intended targets and a User, but to derezz the leaders of the Coalition; Pavel believed he had made a fair trade.

"These are rare trophies, indeed; the weapons of the Coalition leaders. Even Tron is at my mercy. I look forward to adding them to my collection." Tron, Anon and the Light Guard looked at him, not a single face of fear or disturbance for their current dilemma. Finally, a few words escaped Tron's lips.

"Well, sorry to break the good news, but that plan will never happen. I am in control here." Pavel stalked forward, eyes in sync with Tron's and never breaking contact. Tron saw death in the cold yellow stare through the skull-mask's eyeholes, but it meant nothing to him. Because death was a User quality, and he was not a User.

Pavel stood on his toes, attempting to tower over Tron; the System Monitor only raised an eyebrow at how much shorter Pavel was than himself. "You're very confident, Monitor."

"Not confident, just calm." Tron shrugged, the shackles holding his arms making it very difficult. "I am willing to accept your surrender. All you have to do is come quietly."

"Does this nonsensical 'I-will-accept-your-surrender' line of yours actually work?" Pavel ground his teeth, the cracks in his back teeth exposing themselves like Tron 2.0's scars.

"Well, yeah," Tron said, shrugging again. "Sometimes, at least. And when it doesn't, programs get hurt. And when I say programs, you should probably understand in this case it means you."

"I understand," Pavel ground out, activating Tron's ID Disk and sliding it inches from Tron's neck, "That I will derezz right here, right now. With your own Identity Disk." Before the disk could make contact with Tron's throat, only centimeters away, Pavel heard shouting from the hallway. It sounded like Black Guard 301. "Halt! You are not legible to ente-" A loud, distorted scream filled the hallways adjacent to Generator Room 3B, and an explosion tore through the walls around it, along with a good section of floor. Several screams from on-duty Sentries joined Black Guard 301, some of whom were alive enough to scream in agony from tripping over the safety rail and into the active Generator.

A silhouette joined the crowd, flipping over the safety railing and swinging backward with an expert flip. Into Pavel's face. Code streamed down Pavel's nose as Tron's disk slipped from his grip and ran through Tron's handcuffs. As Delta cleaved through Anon's cuffs, Tron slid his fist into Pavel's battle-ready face, causing even more code to stream from it. Pavel's eyes rolled back into his head, unconscious from the brutal punishment he took. Tron knew from experience, however, that Pavel had a regenerative healing factor, and would be conscious in a matter of MicroCycles. Of course, he was already this time, however, Beck's disk had freed everybody from their restraints. Pavel looked forward, to see Sentries closing in on his ex-prisoners.

"Pavel, my offer is still open." Tron raised his disk, to which Pavel backed away and summoned his Black Guard forward. "You don't have to die. All you to do is answer yes."

"This is my answer!" Pavel's arms, upgraded with Tesler's specifications, gripped a console and buckled it's wiring. The Sentry's hand shot back as the console flew out of the floor, and at the Coalition leaders, who effortlessly dodged Pavel's strike.

"Open FIRE!" Pavel shouted, noting to the Guards, Sentries and Black Guard in the room. "KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL!"

One second was the rezzing in of Light Staffs and Swords, the activation of disks, and the leveling of semi-automatics from the Occupation programs within the room.

One second after that, the Generator Room exploded into a firestorm.


Pavel hung back, crouching behind the panel as his Black Guard twirled their Light Staffs into the storm of laser-fire and slashing disks, with orange cubes splayed across the transparent metal floor.

Pavel had faced against the Renegade multiple times, but almost never won, only winning if the Renegade began a tactical withdrawal for another win. But it was always like fighting the Renegade once was the same as the last battle.

Tron, on the other hand...

Pavel was frightened by how fast Tron had taken control of the situation. More frightening was the fact that of the nine Coalition leaders, a third were the most aggressive and deadly warriors in the entire Coalition ranking board. Even their Light Guard could fight better: while Tron, Anon and Delta cleared the floor of the obnoxious numbers of Sentries, two of the Light Guard brawled against his own remaining Black Guard. They certainly had more tricks up their sleeve, and fought fair: One, presumably codenamed Japter, had an post-repurposing grapple hook, and would use it to trip his opponent's feet up, and knock the Light Staff from the hands of another. The other, titled Riot, relied on a Light Staff of his own, swinging on it when it was jammed in the ground, and using it to kick his foe in the head.

At this point in time, Pavel was thinking less about winning this particular encounter than actually surviving it.

Anon's Light Sword moved from his most recent Sentry kill to assist Riot in derezzing the Black Guard Pavel had sent after him, swinging his Katana at the Light Staff. 302 lost control and fell over, while Anon was slammed into the console nearest him by Black Guard 303. Anon's sword gleamed against his face, pushing back until the blade dug halfway through his helmet barrier. He may have died there and then, had a Sentry carelessly tossed his disk, with Delta derezzing him and tossing the disk to Anon. Anon grasped the weapon and dug it into the Black Guard's neck, who derezzed howling miserably.

Meanwhile, Tron effortlessly slashed a gaping wound through 302's knees, believing that would stop him without deresolution. However, 302 swung his body, using the stumps of what used to be his legs to send Tron skidding. Japter's cable grasped the legless Black Guard and tossed the body into a group of incoming Sentries.

Delta glared at the fallen Sentries, and then at the derezzed Black Guard remains. 'On the other hand,' he thought, 'we may win this one after all.' Beck activated a voice-mimicking program, then spoke into the ship's bridge comm channel. "Lieutenant."

"Yes, sir."

"Is the main engine system operational again?"

"Affirmative." Beck smiled, as another Sentry fell to his disk. "Good. Now, listen carefully. I want you to demagnetize the ship in every area. Then plot a course towards the Outland Canyons about twenty kilometers from here." The Sentry, who wasn't this positive about launching a useless kamikaze strike, stuttered "A-are you s-sure, General?" Beck silently giggled, and gave the answer, "As sure as ever. Now I want you to abandon every remaining troop and launch all the escape pods. That way the Coalition will not be able to escape." The Sentry replied with a "Yes, sir", and Beck focused his efforts on the Sentries before him.

Delta wasn't quick enough, however, to dodge the glowing fist of Pavel, glowing white-hot from upgrades. "You think you're so tough, Delta!" Pavel shouted, using his new legs to spring above him. "Well, I can play three games! Derezz, assist and escape!"

"So can I!" Delta shot back, gripping Pavel's glowing fist with the palm of his hand, "I can derezz you, help my teammates, and escape Vengeance before it crashes into the Outland canyon! You've lost, Pavel! Give up so I don't have to kill you!" Pavel's response was a fist to Beck's chest, to which Delta collapsed from exhaustion.

Before Delta could be finished off, Pavel's fist was launching when an intercom went off, shouting, "Warning! Remote Demagnetizing initiated. Further system damage has made this command irreversable. Please use individual magnetizers at this time." Pavel growled, watching the escape pods jettison into the Coalition's new territory: Tron City.

"If you will excuse me," Pavel growled, snatching the Light Staff baton from 302's remains and activating it, "I have an appointment with an escape pod. And you-" Pavel glanced at the Coalition leaders leaping inhumanly at him, as he hurled the Light Staff. But not at them.

The overcharged Light Staff, one end filled with disruptive electricity, jammed itself into the already-cracked window.

"You have an appointment with death." The unstable window tore open, allowing Pavel to flow out and launch a grappling hook at the escape pod zone. Delta, not fearing the void of the atmosphere around him, leaped through the building, and grabbed Pavel, tackling him through and broke the General free of the cable. Pavel grunted, activating his arms and punching Beck past the metal airlock, into the escape pod bay.

Beck retracted his helmet, the smashed area where his viewfinder was wouldn't help his HUD any more than not having one at all. Pavel's maniacal grin spread across his face, his eyes a fiery red from the effects of the Upgrade Prototype. Pavel's arms gripped the surface of Vengeance, and slammed into Beck, moving in until their noses were inches from the other's.

"I'm going to enjoy this, Renegade." Beck ground his teeth as Pavel reminisced of his former identity. Beck grinned, still clenching his breath as he muttered, "Not nearly as much as I am." Beck's fist connected with Pavel's jaw, it's owner slumping to the ground, and Beck answered the comlink message from Anon. "Beck! You've gotta get outta there! The ship is demagnetizing! We just destroyed the last of the aft support cells. Your current position is going to deorbit and burn!" Delta nodded and jumped out of the torn airlock.

But not before Pavel's hand gripped his wing chute and tore it off his body, ripping the two programs, blue and orange, into the void of the Grid's sky.

Beck grimaced, plummeting free-fall with no chute to back him up. He reached for his Light Jet baton, as Pavel swatted it away into the sky as well. The baton cracked on a piece of metal, severing it a quarter from the end. Beck's grimace transitioned into a raging tiger, tackling Pavel and trading blows with his worst enemy. Eventually, Pavel grabbed his disk and attempted to derezz Beck, instead allowing Delta to dodge and have Pavel strike himself. Pavel gasped in pain, as Delta watched him slip into an unconscious form.

Beck grabbed the comatose Pavel, spotting a Recognizer losing altitude from a damaged engine. Delta swung his body and had his arm grip the Recognizer leg before it hit the ground. Chunks of code splashed into the eyesight of Beck's helmet. Beck closed his eyes tight and gripped the leg of the Recognizer as it landed. The final thing Beck saw was Vengeance's generator room streaking towards him, the Recognizer guarding him from the onslaught of wires and code, and all went black, just as he found himself crowded by wires and smoke.


A/N: Okay, before any of you think that I killed Beck, he's ALIVE. Alive. As in not derezzed. I would not do that to you guys. He won't be in the best condition ever, but certainly not the worst. As of now, the EndGame arc is over, and I'll be posting the final chapter, Epilogue: End of Line sometime next week. Maybe monday... I don't know. But the epilogue is half done, and tomorrow I intend to read Superior Spider-Man #17, because tomorrow is the release date of that issue. I've started writing the first chapter/ prologue of Tron: Unlimited, so if you PM me the code Unlimted-Quil-9679, a few lucky winners will see the first chapter.

You'll also see that I made some references to the other Tron continuity. See if you can find them all. Reviews, Favorites and Follows are loved (Got a lot of 'em already), and I hope you'll stick around 'till the Epilogue. Where Beck is not dead.

Next: Epilogue (What, isn't that the fifth time I've said it already?)