So as most writers probably know, this month is NaNoWriMo and so I've taken it upon myself to working a little bit harder to get a lot of content out to you for this story. Do look forward to it throughout the month and do feel free to leave any feedback or ways to improve my interaction with you, the readers. Also hype for D23 Expo. Trailer comes out tomorrow so we'll see what's added. No new worlds though :(
Chapter 51
I/O
In this world there was no such thing as a moon. Luna pondered this as they made their way out of the city. It was the first time she had even looked up into the sky since coming here, she realized. Even the first time coming here, she had been more preoccupied with running from Clu and Abraxas to have even noticed the little things. Above her was a cold night sky reflective of the ground itself. The clouds in the sky seemed still like a painting and a moonlit glow show down through whatever cracks were in these clouds, but there was no moon. It was artificial, much like the ground she walked on, the buildings she was running past, even the program she was running with. At the end of the day, they were all ones and zeroes.
Even though that were the case, even though she knew that she was in a digital world, her mind did not see it that way. In fact, in her eyes this world was just as real, just as natural, as any other world. It didn't matter how it came about, why it came about or who was even responsible for it. She could ask just the same question for about any of the worlds out there. This one was no different and so the artificial moonlight was real, the frozen clouds were real, the buildings and ground were all real, Tron was real.
"We're almost out of the city," Tron said, stopping just short of the city limits. Up ahead were a range of mountains in the distance, dark and ominous yet probably much more appealing and calming to the tense atmosphere of the abandoned city. Tron knelt down on a knee and with a hiss, broke his Identity disk away from his back. He smoothly moved his finger around the outer blue light of the disk causing a hologram of city and its surrounding mountains from a bird's eye view.
In the meantime, another thing had come to Luna's mind that she felt would make Sora happy, though he seemed to be keeping up his spirits quite well already. She turned to him and put her interlocked hands behind her while swaying from side to side.
"Sora, I was thinking… we need a vacation away from all this. So I was thinking that after we help Tron, maybe you, me, Riku, Kairi, everyone, we can all go to the beach. You said you island had a beach, right? And since Alexander came back, I'm sure your islands came back too. Let's all go there. I'd like to meet your parents."
"Oh hoh, no you wouldn't," Sora said with a little chuckle.
"Oh come on, I bet they're great."
"They're embarrassing… well, mom is at least. I think the two of you'd get along well pretty well though. Listen, I appreciate everything you're doing for me but… right now I just want to forget about it. All that's on my mind now is helping Tron and then afterwards, we'll think about what comes next," Sora said.
"You're right. Just keep it in the back of your mind for now," Luna said before asking. "What do your parents do for a living?"
"My mom's a tennis instructor for the local club."
"Ooh, now I know where you get your powerful backhand from," Luna joked. "And your dad?"
"My old man owns a boat shop. It's pretty profitable since all the kids will usually want to head to the other island at one point or another," Sora answered.
"Well look at Mr. Popular! You must be pretty well known around town, huh?"
"Not really. You could attribute that description to Kairi or Riku. Kairi since her adoptive parents run the town and Riku because, well, he's Riku, that and what happened to his mom a long time ago," Sora said. He opened his mouth as if about to say something more but shook his head and closed it before looking at Tron with an absent expression on his face.
"It seems that nearest terminal is to the north east. If we can contact the user's world, we might be able to have them hack into the system and tell us where this MCP of ours is hiding," Tron said, making the hologram disappear and attaching the disc back into its slot.
"And then we flush him out! Good plan," Luna said.
Tron nodded. "We could also potentially just get captured, though I don't much like the idea of leaving our chances to a low statistical probability of survival."
Luna took a look at the last few buildings ahead. Once they crossed them, they would be officially out of the city. This was all child's play compared to the task that lay ahead of them. They needed to find the exact spot from Tron's dream, and they weren't even sure that spot was or if it had been real in the first place. When it came to it, Tron was probably the only one who would be able to spot it.
"Tron, did you think you could escape my hold?" A pitch-altered deep voice reverberated in the air like the vibration of acoustics, sending a chill down all their spines.
"You can hear us?" Tron asked looking up into the sky.
"Of course. I am always watching, Tron. Always listening. I just hoped you would be a bit less selfish given my holding of the town hostage and turn yourself in. Still, it was amusing watching you and your friends scurry all over the place, like rats. But like all rats, give them a sense of hope and they'll be sure to fall for it. I let you get this far Tron, but only to tell you how futile your actions are in the end. I have control over all terminals on the Grid. If you attempt to access them, a security measure will lock onto your location and the viruses that I have deployed within the system will be onto you in seconds."
"That's enough. Who do you think you are? You can't be the MCP, we destroyed it!" Sora yelled.
"And so we come to the heart of the matter, don't we, Sora?"
"You- you know my name?" Sora asked. He supposed he could have just been listening in when they had met up with Tron but the way the MCP had paused before saying his name had seemed deliberate, like he had known well beforehand, but that couldn't be.
"You're not the only one I know about. Hello Luna, or perhaps… Chimera, would be a more fitting name?"
Luna looked on in astonishment. She eventually opened her mouth to speak but no words would come out. She reflected on her first memory experiencing this sensation, which had been a rather recent one. The innocent, more inexperienced Luna who had been wandering through Traverse Town for the first time still trying to figure out the bits and pieces that were left of her memory, had come across Megumi Kitaniji who had inducted her into the Reapers' Game. That same stiffened feeling, the paralysis and fear of the unknown all came crashing in on her once again. What had she learned on this journey if she still could be so easily staggered by things like this?
"How do you know that? I'll give you knowing our names. That'd be easy to find out, but that one detail? You can't have known that unless someone told you," Sora said.
"Or is it that someone has data records of you and your friends stored on the system?" The MCP proposed.
"No… you couldn't be…" Briefs images of the database that he and Bob Parr had found on Nomanisan Island flashed briefly in Sora's mind. "KRONOS? Were you made by them?"
"Irrelevant question," the MCP quickly dismissed. Sora frowned and took a step forward.
"How is that an irrelevant question? It's a simple yes or no. You're building up this entire mystery as to who you are and you won't even answer me?" Sora asked. "That's even more suspicious."
There was a brief pause, not too long but one that made Sora question whether the MCP was even still there or not. A few seconds later however, his voice returned with his answer.
"Believe what you like. I was not created to appease a user such as yourself, though I imagine you will eventually find out who I am, if you and Tron choose to surrender that is."
"That won't happen," Sora muttered darkly, his fists clenched. "If you really are KRONOS' creation. If KRONOS really did resurrect you… then that gives me all the more reason to destroy you. If you've taken control of all the terminals then you've trapped us in here, right? We can't get out. A shame… for you. You've just trapped yourself in with me, your worst nightmare. I've had enough of people playing games with me, so I won't need your invite. We'll find you first and we'll destroy you just like we did the first time."
Another brief pause. Sora counted the seconds with a frozen breath before the response finally came. "I look forward to it. Tron, let us take this game of ours to the next evolution."
Another silence followed, and this time the MCP really was gone. Tron let out a wry smile before slamming his fist against the building in a surprise move that caused Sora to jump.
"I apologize, that was unbecoming of me, but I just don't understand what's happening at the moment. First this dream that I've had and now the return of the MCP? Nothing seems real, well, as real as this world can be."
"Tron, angry? That's a new one, but I can understand what you mean. We need to keep moving though. I don't like the idea of being constantly watched and as long as we avoid the terminals, they won't be able to find us," Sora said.
"But you won't be able to get back to the real world. If something were to happen I'd at least like to secure you an escape so you two don't have to stay here. Luna, are you alright?" Tron asked, having noticed that Luna had been completely quiet and motionless for a while.
Luna snapped out of her confusion and looked up from the ground. "Huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."
"Luna, you're not one of them," Sora said. "It's just trying to get into your head. If this thing really is a part of KRONOS then this is just a test for what's to come. We need to steel ourselves for things like this."
"I know. I just didn't expect it," Luna said. Sensing a familiar pattern, Sora gently placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
"Hey, remember back on the Gummi Ship you said you'd be the one to look after me. I'm still counting on you," he reminded. He gave her a lopsided smile, one that held wisdom beyond even his age for that short moment. This smile, as well as her promise, renewed the confidence that had been taken away from her only a few minutes ago. There was no way she could afford to let him down or what had her promise been for otherwise? She also knew of Sora's reluctance to make promises. He had heavily blamed himself from promising Yeul that he would take her to see other worlds and that hadn't exactly come to fruition. More than anything, Sora wanted to believe in the power of making promises once again. He wanted to be proven wrong, or at least that's what Luna chose to believe.
Feeling a sense of pride to be recognized as Sora's temporary carer, Luna relaxed her body and shot them an inquisitive smile.
"You're right. I won't let you down, boss. Soooo who exactly is this MCP anyway?"
Luna's passion for adventure could not be more infectious. That was what Tron and Sora, the latter who had been traveling with her for about a year now, soon found out. Tron had described her as an excitable little puppy when she had engaged him in bullet after bullet of quick questions about the digital world. Her whimsical and curious disposition seemed to be too much for even the program to process. In contrast an unusually silent Sora gave a light chuckle that very soon turned into a laugh once he had found himself phased into the conversation.
There were far away from the city now though not far enough to not see its vivid neon blue glow. More importantly, they were also away from the watchful eyes of the MCP, at least for now. Sora knew that they would have to encounter it eventually if he and Luna wanted to get out of the Grid. When that time came he wouldn't hold back but that was the least of Sora's worries at the moment. Right now his priority was helping Tron and they were already struggling with that.
Strange yet beautiful and unique basalt columns were what encapsulated the city and the sea of simulation extended for what seemed to be hundreds of miles in either direction past them. More than once, Sora and Luna had to stop in order to admire beauty in its full splendor.
"The unknown can be fascinating," Sora remarked to Luna after Tron announced they could take a break after walking for about an hour. "Scary, but fascinating."
"Yeah," Luna agreed, bending down to trace the edge of one of the columns with her finger. "We have mountains in Alexander, but not rocks like these. They're so strange, like a town. See? Each one of them is like its own individual building. Nature would be boring if it were just symmetrical."
"The same could be said of users," Tron interjected having returned just in the nick of time from scouting the area to hear her say it. "I think the most interesting thing about you users is that that no single one of you is the same. You're asymmetrical and it's what keeps you alive. I compare this to my own situation. The programs both here in the Grid and in its older model were designated roles to complete since birth. During the MCP's reign, there was no need for emotion, no need for uniqueness. Our code was symmetrical, our life expectancy only as proportional as to how effectively we were able to carry out our functions."
"But you freed them all, didn't you? You, Sora, Donald and Goofy," Luna said.
"So we assumed, but apparently not. We did gain identities, personalities. After you left Sora, there was still work that needed to be done. There were remnants of the MCP's code that he had left throughout the system, bits and pieces that I couldn't find myself and whilst they remained the programs could never be truly free. I realized that the only one who could eliminate that code was my creator so I left in search of him."
"Ansem? You still tried to search for him, even after you mentioned that he was your enemy?" Sora asked.
"I suppose… I wanted to meet him, if not at least once to ask why he made me the way I am. Like him or not, he was my father in a way. He was the father of all programs here in general. I didn't tell you this but in the records I dug up about your town's true nature, I noticed a discrepancy between some of data. After a certain point, the encryption method used to hide the files had changed. It was as if two different people had left two completely different digital signatures in the system."
"Ansem the Wise and the Xehanort calling himself Ansem," Sora clarified.
"Then there were two. Either way, before I could encrypt the majority of the second person's files, someone rewrote the majority of the system's code, or should I say, replaced it with the original code manufactured by ENCOM, I believe I mentioned it to you when you when first came here but for Luna, it's the corporation that made the original system and from that OS came a copy of which was taken by Ansem the Wise to further pursue his research. The change was so drastic that it was no longer compatible with the OS security system used in Radiant Garden. That's not all. Not only did the world change to the one you see now, but the memories of the original Tron blended into my own. Suddenly I had two memories. I could remember everything the Tron made by Kevin Flynn did. He had assimilated himself into my own coding."
"Two different Trons? That's crazy! That's like something out of a- a parallel world or something," came Sora's doubting response.
"It is something like that, isn't it? The most interesting part I found was that both I and the other Tron defeated the MCP and Sark, but whereas I had you, Donald and Goofy for help, the other Tron had the help of Kevin Flynn and another program. My priorities changed. I figured that instead of seeking Ansem the Wise out, I would seek my original creator, Kevin Flynn. When I found him, I wasted no time in explaining to him my predicament. What I found, or at least what both I and Flynn thought at the time, was that the other Tron didn't exist. My own presence had rewritten that Tron's code and placed me in his place. But I don't quite think that's it now. I think it would be more accurate to say that I am both myself and the other Tron at the same time, or at least that's what it feels like. That there was some form of harmonization within myself.
"But after I found Flynn, I thought I could try to at least connect both Grids in Radiant Garden and the one in his world through a network. Flynn shared the same goal and he created a Codified Likeness Utility or CLU, a type of hacker program who, like his maker, sought to create perfection. This came in the form of Isomorphic Algorithms, perfect creations that were not created by users like I and many other programs, but were an evolution that sprung seemingly from nowhere. Flynn and I were baffled when we found them. I wish you guys could have been there to see them because they weren't to last, not if CLU had anything to say about it. In short, he purged them from the mainframe and you know the rest. He corrupted my code and turned me into Rinzler and took over the system."
"The one who rewrote the code by the way was Abraxas. Even now I'm still not really sure what he was playing at," Sora told him.
"I suppose it doesn't matter now. We live in the world we live in. I've done much since turning back into myself to weave the Radiant Garden OS back into the current mainframe but it looks like evil never rests. When it's not the MCP, it's CLU and when it's not CLU the MCP rears its ugly head once again, or someone pretending to be it at least." Tron looked out into the bluish hue that was the landscape in front of him, his eyes stuck on nothing in particular.
"Yeah. It's what Luna and I are facing now too," Sora answered softly. "First it was Xehanort, then it was Abraxas who was just another form of Xehanort, and now KRONOS who are carrying on Abraxas' work with the Chimeras and possibly even Moira's Crescent… I don't know what to think anymore. I just need things like this. Distractions, to keep my mind off what's going on around me."
"Distractions can help, but I find them only to be a temporary remedy. After the distraction is gone, it's gone. You can't run from your problems forever," Tron said. "That comes from my own observation of users, you particularly. When we fought the MCP together, you showed me what it was to have strength. I couldn't ever imagine you having any problems."
"I wish…" I wish I could still say that I'm that person, Sora finished in his head. Instead he turned towards Tron and said, "We better keep moving before the MCP finds us."
The terrain was becoming a lot narrower now and soon enough the trio had to stay behind each other in order to proceed onward. Sora, or anyone sane of that matter, tried not to look down below but if they did they would see waves upon waves of water crashing into each other. They were that close to the edge and Sora was starting to get a little lightheaded trying to keep his eyes focused on the horizon in front of him.
Soon enough they came across even ground where they could all stand side by side. A relieved sigh escaped Sora's mouth and he flashed a quick grin at the just as relieved Luna. There was always an exception however and in this case it was Tron. He had shown no fear or hesitation in plunging in head first and this had remained fixed even after emerging from the narrow incline. Sora was about to make a joke asking how he could possibly obtain this steadfast approach when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a strange object floating near them.
Asking what it was and point at it to Tron, the program slowly opened his mouth to talk. "We all need to stay absolutely still. It's a motion sensor, one that's used for checking foreign intrusions in the system such as viruses. The MCP must have taken over its utility functions. Do not move an inch."
What followed was one of the most painful and excruciating moments of Sora's sixteen year old life. Most people who had ever met Sora knew that he wasn't usually the type to keep still about something. It also just so happened that one of his legs were in front of the other in a mid-walk at the time of noticing the sensor, so it was incredibly difficult for him to resist the urge to at least put the foot in line with the other one.
The sensor whizzed left and right in jerky motions, using a red light to scan a particular area before moving to the next square inch of interest. The sensor soon stopped in between Luna and Sora and began scanning from right to left. Sora tensed himself even more than he already had been and closed his eyes, waiting for the painstaking process to be over.
He heard the sound of a blast incredibly close by.
Sora's eyes shot open and he turned his head left without thinking. Luna hadn't been harmed. She had one eye closed and the other opened, also checking to make sure Sora hadn't been the victim of the sound. But then where had it come from? Sora found his answer on a rock that was nearby. Lying flat on its back and completely lifeless was a lizard. Sora immediately froze in place once again as the red light went past him, settling just to his right before the sensor gave up and moved to a different location.
To be sure that the sensor had completely gone, they had to wait two more minutes. Tron, who had been facing Sora and Luna, was in the better position to observe its actions, and announced when it had finally disappeared.
"Yeah, I'm not cut out for this. Man, that was intense," Sora said with a laugh that had clearly been held in for way too long.
"Oh dear, I don't think that was good for my heart," Luna agreed, joining in on the laughter. "If any more of those things show up, I don't know how long I'll be able to hold my breath."
"I only said to stay still. You can still breathe," Tron said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"It was a figure of speech but… yeah, anyways I also agree with Sora that I don't want to stick around to find out if it comes back," Luna said before looking at the rock on the ground. "Still, poor Mr. lizard. I hope you find peace."
"Lizard?" Tron repeated. He followed her gaze to the dead lizard and cocked his head slightly to the right. "That's strange. I've never seen these here before."
Closer examination by Tron soon proved beneficial. Sora watched as Tron disappeared around the corner and soon returned with a huge smile on his face.
"Sora, Luna, the place in my dream—we've found it!"
