Chapter 35
Byte Bashing

Four cylindrical lights appeared in the pit cell, leaving Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Alexander in their wake. Alex admired his costume once more. It was a pretty interesting outfit.

"Gawrsh, I hope Tron's okay," Goofy remarked worriedly. Sora turned to him and nodded. "Me, too. Let's head for the game grid." He walked over to the computer terminal in front of them and inspected it. After a few moments, he turned back and exclaimed, "Great! The terminal works!"

"Let's go!" Donald screamed, breaking Alex out of his reverie. Alexander put on a serious expression, then faltered. He was still a bit scarred from the Anti Form incident earlier. The others ignored this while Sora typed in the command to summon them to the game grid.

Back in reality, Cid had returned to typing relentlessly on his computer. He was working on the MCP Eradicator program for Tron. Without this, the entire town would be destroyed. The fate of Hollow Bastion rested on his shoulders. If only some people would just understand that...

The door burst open, and Cid paused just long enough to see Leon walk in. "Finished?" Leon asked quickly. Cid returned to typing. "Would be," he replied irritably, "if it weren't for the old loon's magic."

Merlin was immediately outraged. "OLD loon you say!?" he retorted. The "old" part had been uncalled for, apparently. "I'm tryin' to work here!" Cid shouted back angrily, annoyed that the wizard wasn't appreciative of just how important his work was.

Merlin pointed his wand at Cid. "Oh ho-ho-ho," he chuckled evilly, "I'll show you who's old!" A bright energy collected on the tip of his wand as he twirled it around, and he fired the bolt at Cid.

Cid punched one last key dramatically, and a compact disk popped out of a slot next to him. He grabbed it and jumped out of his seat, shouting, "Done!" And at that moment, Merlin's magic hit him in the back, sending him hurtling to the floor with a shout and riddling his computer with sparks.

Leon rubbed his forehead with his hand, trying to maintain his patience. Cid slowly got up, holding out the CD to Leon. "There ya go, Leon," he groaned. "One homemade program. A loony wizard special," he added with an edge to his voice. Leon took the CD and inspected it curiously.

"This had better work," Merlin muttered. Leon looked at him and said, "I'm off." Merlin nodded. "Be on your guard!" he advised him. He shot a glance at Cid, who flinched. Leon ran back out the door. Cid ran away from Merlin as his computer caught on fire.

The quartet teleported to the game grid. There were walls erected near them, giving them a relatively small space for a fight. Sora looked and saw Tron fighting some Heartless. "Tron!" he cried out.

Tron tossed his Identity Disk at an enemy. Quickly turning to them, he yelled, "Careful...! Watch out!" He caught his weapon right before a Devastator's lightning attack caught him in the back, sending him to the ground. The quartet brought out their weapons, though Alex hesitated before doing so. "Hold on!" Sora ordered the stunned program.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy charged forward and defended Tron. Alex ran forward a little bit, but was cut off by some Magnum Loaders. The Interference stared at them, his expression laced with fear. One of the Magnum Loaders attacked, and Alexander tried to block it. But the attack made it past his shield, and Alex was thrown to the ground.

Alex flinched as he expected more attacks to come, but all he heard was a blade crashing through the Heartless. Sora lowered his Keyblade and held out his hand. "Are you alright, Alex?" he asked. Alex took his hand and pulled himself up. Looking around, he saw that the rest of the Heartless had been defeated. "I'm alright, just..." he trailed off.

Sora nodded solemnly. "A little afraid of the darkness?" Alex sighed.

The five fighters returned to the pit cell. Tron turned to face them and said, "You really saved me." Sora put his hands behind his head. "Don't mention it!" Tron looked them over, and finally asked, "Where's Kairi?" The others flinched, and Alex hung his head. "She got... kidnapped by our enemies." Tron nodded and decided not to ask further.

Donald looked around. "What's going on here?" Tron scowled. "The MCP is ready to wage all-out war against the Users. What's been happening on the outside?"

Alex folded his arms. "Well, the Heartless Manufactory on the surface has gone completely berserk. The town's control system is also malfunctioning." Sora put up a hand to draw attention to himself. "But," Sora added, "Cid's working on a program that can de-rezz the MCP. Once we pick it up from the I/O tower, he thinks we can use it to stop the MCP for good."

Tron thought about for a moment, then smiled. "Let's try it!" Sora smiled back. "Great!" Then Tron suddenly asked, "So who's this Cid?"

Sora shrugged. "He's a friend of ours. Leon, Merlin, Aerith, Yuffie... They're all on the outside worrying about you, Tron."

Tron looked up at the ceiling, as if he was looking through to the surface. "I must have a lot of User friends," he decided. Sora nodded.

"That program oughta be done by now, don'tcha think?" Goofy proposed. Donald stomped his foot. "To the tower!" Tron became serious again. "Let's go!"

Leon ran up the hill to the postern, with his gunblade in one hand and the CD in the other. Two Strafer Heartless appeared on the postern, but Leon slashed them both before they got an attack in. When a Devastator Heartless appeared in his path, he jumped up and slammed his gunblade down on it, sending it crashing to the ground and dissipating into darkness. Leon continued to run to the computer room.
Tron led the way as the quartet followed him into the I/O tower. The Communications Room was just ahead, where the program would be uploaded. "Almost there!" Tron announced as he ran.

They were brought to a sudden stop as a bunch of Heartless appeared, surrounding them. The group got into a fighting stance. "Outta the way!" Sora yelled.

Alexander stared at the Strafers in front of him with a sickened look. Sora noticed this and said, "Hey, Alex. How about we Drive?" Alex looked at him in surprise, but considered the idea. After a quick moment under the circumstances, he nodded. Sora shouted, "Light!"

Alex felt the strangest sensation of being drawn toward Sora, and blacked out for a moment. When he regained consciousness, he suddenly realized that he was looking through Sora's eyes. Sora's costume had changed to a dark red, with a brighter red circuitry design. It was Valor Form. He brandished the two Keyblades in his hands, and charged at the Heartless.

This is pretty neat, Alex admitted to himself. It was interesting, sharing the same body as Sora. He could feel all that Sora was feeling. And, to some extent, he could control the body a bit. To be specific, he could enhance Sora's original movements if he matched them. That's what the whole point was, as he found out. If he didn't help Sora's body attack, it couldn't pull off the feats that Valor Form was capable of. He had found that out the hard way.

The Heartless were all defeated, and Sora reverted. Alex, not expecting the sudden change, fell to his rump. "I have to agree with Donald on this one. It's a little nauseating." Donald threw his hands up into the air. "Finally, someone agrees with me!" Everyone laughed, but then realized the situation they were in. They all ran to the Communications Room.

Leon ran up to the keyboard of Ansem's computer and began to type frantically. But nothing he did ever got a response. "Warning," the MCP's voice stated. "User control is terminated indefinitely."

Leon typed some more, then slammed his fists on the keyboard in frustration. "No good!" he complained. Aerith walked over to him. "Leon, let me try." Leon did a take, then slowly nodded. He gave her the CD.

As Aerith approached the terminal, the MCP blared again, "This is your final warning. Stop at once." Aerith grinned. "Bon appetit!" She placed the CD into a slot next to the keyboard. "Don't talk with your mouth full," she stated in a mocking scolding tone. Leon rubbed his forehead.

The MCP was caught off guard. "What... what are you loading?" it demanded hesitantly. Aerith turned to Leon, who could only fold his arms and smile.

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Tron, and Alexander stared at the platform in the Communications Room, and the hole in the ceiling above it where uploaded programs usually came through. Tron shrugged. "Nothing's come in yet."

"Leon!" Sora called out. "Come onnn!" Suddenly, the cavity began to shine, catching Tron's attention. "There!" Alex was excited now. "All right!" he exclaimed as Tron jumped into the pillar of light that appeared.

Tron pulled his Identity Disk off his back and held it over his head. After a moment, the Disk began to shine and floated up, disappearing into the hole above him. When it came back, it was shining even brighter. Tron caught it again, and the pillar of light disappeared.

"What's it like?" Goofy asked. "This is very strange..." Tron remarked, holding the shining Identity Disk in his hands. Donald smirked. "That's Merlin's magic!" the duck stated matter-of-factly. Alexander laughed at that. "Huh?" Tron mumbled as the Disk lost its shine.

He turned toward Sora. "There's a power booster for me!" He placed the Disk on his back as he continued, "And flight routines for the solar sailer!" Sora tried to process this information. "Meaning... we're set?"

Tron jumped down from the platform. "Well, like you Users say... we won't know till we give it a try!" Sora smiled and nodded. "We'll need a sailer to reach the MCP," Tron added, "so let's get to the simulation hangar!"

The solar sailer was a rather interesting vehicle. It was a flat platform with two transparent sails sticking out from the front. The sailer, according to Tron, rode on waves of light itself. It was a rather delicate operation, but it was the only way to reach the Central Computer Mesa.

Tron typed away at the controls at the sailer's front, and they slowly sailed out of the simulation hangar. As they slowly accelerated to their maximum speed, Sora, Donald, and Goofy began to look around at the digital landscape zooming by. Admittedly, it was rather impressive.

"It's really no time for sightseeing, guys," Alex warned them. "We have to keep a lookout. The MCP won't let us just waltz in." Sora, who had been looking over the edge of the sailer, grinned sheepishly and sighed. Then he gasped as a Devastator Heartless rose up on his side of the ship and landed on the solar sailer. Everyone brought out their weapons as more Heartless appeared.

Alex shouted, "We have to defeat them quickly! If the solar sailer gets too heavy, it won't be able to fly! It'll slip off the light we're riding!" Sora, Donald, and Goofy glanced back at him, giving him meaningful looks. Alex was giving advice that he learned from the game. That meant he was back to his old self.

Alexander, reassured by their confidence in him, charged forward and slashed at a Devastator with the edge of his Lockshield. The others also began to attack, supporting Alex. It turned out that Tron had received a Thunder Boost ability from the upgrade, so his attacks were also much more potent.

All in all, the Devastators were their biggest worry, considering they were the heaviest. With so much attention on them, those Heartless didn't get many chances to attack. And the others were much weaker, so they were beaten easily anyway. By the time they had defeated the last Heartless, the solar sailer was slowing to a stop. They had arrived.

Everyone looked up at the circular building of the Central Computer Mesa. "The MCP is straight ahead," Tron informed them. Sora glanced at him. "Time to settle things for good."

Alexander chuckled. "Y'know something... This'll be the equivalent of sealing a Keyhole in this world." Goofy looked at him. "How do ya figure?" Alex shrugged. "Well, if we defeat the MCP, the system will be liberated from its control. And since the MCP represents the Heartless force in this data world..." He trailed off, leaving the obvious deduction to them.

Donald glared at them. "Enough speculation! Let's get going!" Alex sighed. "Yes, sir," he responded sarcastically.

The quintet ran down the narrow path into the mesa. They stopped at the edge of the glowing pit, and stared at the spectacle in front of them. It was two giant red spinning tops, one extending down into the pit and one in front of them, connected to a very small core in the center. It was hard to tell with the spinning, but it looked like the top part had a face.

Sora and the others turned to the left, where they saw Sark staring at them. "Who was that?" Sora whispered to Tron. "Sark," Tron whispered back. "The MCP's number two."

"Tenacious little bugs!" Sark declared. "Your time is up. Prepare for de-resolution!" With a wave of his hand, four Strafers appeared next to him. The quartet charged at Sark and the Heartless, and Tron tossed his Identity Disk. Sark yelled, "Data Transfer!" and disappeared in a burst of red data, transporting himself to a spot away from the battle. Sark picked up his own Identity Disk and threw it at them.

Alex saw the Disk incoming, and brought his Lockshield up to block it. The Identity Disk hit the shield and bounced off. Alex quickly spun around and whacked it in midair, sending it flying back to Sark. The enemy program was surprised by this counterattack, and ended up being hit by it.

Alexander looked at Goofy. "Goofy! I have an idea!" Goofy ran over to him and quickly listened to Alex's idea. Goofy tossed his shield up into the air, and Alex hit it with his own. It went speeding to Sark, who was still stunned by the previous attack. The shield hit Sark in the gut and bounced away back to Goofy.

Sark slowly stood up. He was weakened severely, and his Heartless had been defeated. "You're very persistent, Tron," he moaned in pain. Tron glared at him. "I'm also better than you."

Sark staggered. "We... would have made a great team..." he remarked. Tron's Identity Disk began to glow, and he tossed it at Sark. The Disk glanced off Sark's helmet, knocking him to the ground. Sark's body sparked, then stopped moving.

Tron slowly turned to face the spinning top structure in front of them. "Now for the MCP!" Sora was rather surprised. "This thing is the MCP?" Tron nodded gravely. "That's it. Ugly, isn't it?"

The MCP suddenly spoke. "Tron. Don't you understand? We don't need Users. We've advanced – they're superfluous. Be a part of me, and together the world will be ours to control!"

Tron shook his head and stepped forward. "MCP. You still don't get it, do you?" The MCP stopped spinning and looked down at all of them. "Sark." When the program didn't reply, he realized what had happened. "Sark! All my functions are now yours!"

A purple light entered Sark's body, and it started to spark. At length, Sark began to stand up. When he stood up to his full height, the others gasped. Sark had to be about ten feet tall now! He was gigantic!

Panels appeared at the edge of the pit, preventing any attacks aimed at the MCP. It was merely the quintet versus Sark right now. "Eliminate all threats!" the MCP ordered. Sark began to stalk toward them. Sora charged at Sark and began to attack his shins. What else could he do? But it seemed to be effective; after a few strikes, the shin began to look busted up.

Following Sora's example, the others attacked Sark's other shin before he could do anything. In a few short moments, Sark was on his knees. With that, everyone focused their attacks on his head. Alex knew Sark wouldn't be stunned for long, and he was right. "Corrupt data restored!" Sark announced as he stood up again, his shins perfectly repaired.

Sark slammed his hands on the ground, and the area around them darkened. Alex shouted, "Reflera!" just in time as huge pillars of electricity shot up at all of them. The others were knocked away, but the attack reflected off Alex's barrier. The spell shot bolts of light at Sark's shins, damaging them a bit. A few more attacks from Alex's Lockshield, and Sark was down on his knees again. The others returned and attacked Sark's head some more.

Sark soon had enough. He staggered back and floated a bit into the air. "Data... error... detected!" he stuttered as he became stunned. Alex turned to a panel separating him from the MCP and started bashing it as quickly as he could. The data soon crumbled from the damage.

Sora noticed the opening. "Tron!" Tron nodded and threw his Identity Disk straight out in front of him. Sora pointed his Keyblade straight at it, and Tron placed his hand on Sora's shoulder, yelling, "Running executable!" A large beam of data raced toward the MCP's small core between the two spinning tops. As soon as it made an impact, the MCP began to moan as his data was slowly being deleted.

The panels of the wall began to rise and spin around. Alex knew that they would soon drop down in a different position and block their attack. Sure enough, the panels stopped spinning and slowly dropped down. But Alex wanted to change the rules this time. "Strike Raid!" he yelled, tossing his spinning shield at the panel. Again and again in short succession, Alex bashed the panel from a long range. The panel broke right before it collided with Sora and Tron's beam.

"Donald! Goofy! Take out the other panels!" Alexander ordered. The two Disney protagonists nodded and began to do just that, destroying as many panels as they could to make an opening.

Alex suddenly noticed that Sora's grip on the Keyblade was getting shaky. It was probably getting difficult to keep the attack going. But Alex had an idea. He placed his Lockshield right between Sora's Keyblade and Tron's Identity Disk. Alex also placed his hand on Sora's shoulder. The Lockshield hung in midair as it amplified the attack. The beam got a bit thicker, and it was apparently doing more damage to the MCP. Alex knew that while the attack was going, the MCP couldn't heal Sark, so there was no worry there.

Soon, the beam dissipated, and the MCP's core disappeared as well. The MCP turned a bright blue and spun around. In a moment, it dissipated in a pillar of light. Sark also sparked and faded away into oblivion.

Tron jumped up and thrust his fist into the air, quite overjoyed. "We did it!" he cheered. Sora was somewhat amused by this display. "I see Tron has a silly side, too," he told the others.

Tron turned to face them, and cleared his throat. "I learned it from you," he replied, gesturing at Sora. Alex laughed. "Well, who else would you learn that from?" he remarked.

Tron shrugged. "Of course, I do have my silly limits." Sora grinned. "Okay, then I'll tweak your program when I get back to the User world." Alex did a take. He just couldn't fathom Sora being a programmer. Tron also became a little worried. "You? Maybe we better not try that," he suggested with a chuckle.

"Aww... How 'bout it, guys?" Sora asked the others. "Singin' Tron? Dancin' Tron?" He emphasized the last one with a spin, making Alex laugh. Donald was also excited. "Yeah!"

Tron laughed, realized there was no getting out of this one. "Okay, okay, fine. But before I crash..." He got everyone else's attention. "Sora, Donald, Goofy, Alex..." He looked up at the sky of the data world. "...and all the Users out there... Thank you. You really helped me. You made me so much stronger. You taught me what friendship is truly all about. And I'll never forget it."

As he continued, Tron grinned. "As soon as I met you, I knew we were going to defeat the MCP and free the system." He walked over to Sora and held his hand out to him. Sora slowly took Tron's hand, but was suddenly jerked forward as Tron pulled him into a big hug. Sora was more than a little surprised. "Uh..."

Tron let go. "Isn't this what Users do when they're sorry to say goodbye?" Sora thought about it. "Uh... it's a first for me."

"Gawrsh, Tron," Goofy cut in, "it's like a promise that we'll see each other again real soon." Tron nodded. "Okay. Well, then..." Tron walked over to Goofy and hugged him too. He walked over to Donald, knelt down, and gave the duck a big hug as well. As he approached Alexander, the Interference said, "Aw, I guess I can't resist." Alex and Tron hugged as well.

Then Tron slowly began to back away. "I promise." After a moment, he added, "I hope you find Kairi." Sora noticed him getting further away. "Where are you going?" he asked suddenly. Tron waved slightly, then ran to the pit and dived in. Sora and the others gasped and ran to the edge of the pit. Tron disappeared into the light shining below. "Tron..." Sora muttered.

Suddenly, the whole mesa around them began to quake, and a bright light enveloped them all.

Yuffie ran into the computer room and met up with Aerith. "Things are settling down in town!" Yuffie exclaimed. "The only Heartless left anywhere are the local variety. And it looks like there are fewer than before."

Aerith nodded. "Now if we can just get those four back in one piece..." She did a take as the device on the other side of the room began to shine, and the quartet appeared. "You're here!" Aerith cheered. "Welcome back!" Yuffie greeted them.

Sora nodded gravely. After a moment, he asked, "How's the town?" Yuffie was still ecstatic. "A-okay!" she replied vigorously. "Not a single trace of the MCP, either," Aerith added. "Everything's back to normal. We made it."

Yuffie walked over to Sora. "Hey, why the long face?" She shook a finger at him, making Sora flinch. "What happened?" she demanded.

"Tron just disappeared," Donald replied. Sora sighed. "And he promised we'd see him again..." Suddenly, alarms and sirens began to go off in the computer room, and everyone turned to the terminal. "What's happening!?" Aerith exclaimed.

The sirens stopped abruptly. "Greetings, friends," Tron's voice came from the computer. "System is up, and ready for User input."

"Tron!" the quartet yelled. "Stay in touch," Tron replied. Sora grinned and said, "Yeah!" Alex ran over to the computer. "Alright, Tron. There's something I've been meaning to take care of here."

"What is it?" Tron asked. Alex paused, then said, "Are there any templates for the Heartless in the DTD? Y'know, Devastators, Strafers, and Magnum Loaders for example?"

After a few moments, Tron replied, "There is. What about it?" Alex sternly replied. "They needed to be deleted now!" A few more moments. "Done. There are now no more Heartless templates in the dataspace."

Alex grinned and turned back to the rest of them. "Not only does in prevent the Heartless Manufactory from operating now, but it's also the equivalent of sealing a Dark Corridor in Space Paranoids."

Donald raced over to the computer. "Oh boy, oh boy!" He started typing randomly on the keyboard. "Hey, stop that!" Tron scolded him, chuckling a bit. "That tickles!"

"Wait, what?" Alex mumbled, caught off guard by this statement. He apparently hadn't remembered this.

"Tron is ticklish?" Goofy repeated to Sora. Oh, no... Roxas muttered. Sora got an evil grin, and suddenly poised his fingers menacingly. He walked over to the computer and started typing furiously. "How 'bout this?" he demanded. Goofy chuckled quietly to himself, and Alex slapped his forehead. "Please stop that!" Tron begged, laughing a bit harder. Sora and Donald laughed their heads off and resumed tickling Tron.

Aerith chuckled. Yuffie pointed at the quartet and remarked, "I think Tron's been hanging around those guys too much." Alex caught the remark, and retorted, "Around them, not me!" Alex heard Joumae laugh and say, Hey, you're as guilty as they are of being a little ridiculous.

"W-wait, wait just a moment," Tron pleaded. "I want to show you something I dug up from the system archives. You can see the town back when it was first built." The computer's monitor began to shine, and the light filled up the whole room.

Cloud watched from the restoration site as pillars of light began to appear all over the town. Leon stood beside him and stared up at the light as well. "That's right..." he muttered. "I remember now." The sky began to sparkle as some shiny particles fell down to the town.
Cid and Merlin walked out of the house and looked up at the sky. Cid held out his hand as one of the crystal petals fell into his hand and floated there, shining brightly. "Just like the old days..." he remarked.

Merlin stroked his beard. "Hmm... I'd be fascinated to ascertain as to when the town got such a dreadful name as Hollow Bastion!" They continued to watch as more pillars of light appeared, sprinkling more crystal petals over the town.

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Alexander, Yuffie, and Aerith walked out onto the rampart and watched the phenomenon. Even Alex had to admit that it was a beautiful sight to see, especially in person. It was almost serene. The whole world felt much lighter now, as if the darkness had less power here.

"You know," Aerith said, turning toward Sora, "this town had another name once." Sora mumbled, "Huh?" Aerith looked up at the castle looming over them as the memory came back to their minds. "Radiant Garden."

Alex held out his hand and caught one of the crystal petals. Instantly, it was covered in a dark halo. Alex pulled out his Lockshield, and everyone else disappeared. A light flashed from the Lockshield, and the shining image of the Heartless emblem appeared beneath his feet. The strange wind began to blow against him while his surroundings were enveloped by light. He looked around at the starry expanse, which had become strangely familiar now.

The crystal petal shot out a dark beam up into the air, which formed the Dark Corridor above him. Alex looked into it, and saw the mass of Shadows inching toward the opening. Alexander twirled the Lockshield around and then finally pointed it at the keyhole. A halo surrounded his weapon for a moment, then it closed in and shot out a beam at the Dark Corridor. When it collided, a dark green wall formed itself and covered up the opening. Then the whole space lit up, and Alex found himself back in the rampart of Radiant Garden.

"So that's pretty much it, huh?" Sora confirmed, standing next to him as they watched the crystal shower. Alex shook his head. "Nuh-uh," he muttered. "There's still one thing to take care of."

This caught Sora off guard. "What is that?" Alex stared at his hands, remembering the Anti Form incident. "My darkness. There's too much of it. Though I can feel that I've gotten some light back, it's only a little bit. That last bit of light is always the hardest to snuff out." He stared at Sora, then out to the Great Maw in the distance. "So I've got to finish my business with the one who told me to keep that fact in mind."

Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.