Finally we reach the end of Tron's world and the start of the second half of worlds to visit, that is after one last chapter in Radiant Garden. Then we're off to see Namine, Roxas, Xion, Axel, Terra, Ven and Aqua in Twilight Town.


Chapter 54

An Imperfect World

Luna's squinted open briefly to see three faces hovering above her while talking to each other.

"She looks like a baby when she sleeps." She could hear the voice belonging to a female on the left saying.

"Careful about that, if you say that when she wakes up she'll probably scratch your eyes out." The near distinguishable of that boy with the spiky brown hair spoke out in the middle.

"Like a cat? Mew…" The girl imitated a cat clawing at the brunette.

"Yeah… don't do that again…" The man to the right of him spoke this time in an unsettled and soft spoken voice. Luna chose this moment to sit upright causing the others to jump and say her name out loud. Kevin, who was in the front, turned around and smiled before looking back at whatever he had been doing.

"Hope I didn't miss the parade." Luna smiled allowing Sora to help her up off the floor.

"Just in time actually. I'm glad you're alright. Where did Abraxas go?" Sora asked but with the beam she had on her face at the question he knew he didn't have to pursue further, "Wait, you don't mean to say-"

"I took care of him Sora. Somehow, I did it," She smiled at her accomplishment before continuing, "You don't have to worry any more about him Sora. It's just a memory now."

Sora didn't know how many hugs he had given or received just in this system alone, but he held Luna tightly, for comfort and even more importantly, for his own worries, afraid that he would lose her again. Quorra and Sam shared a look with each other but their moment was interrupted when the place they were in started to rock about heavily.

"What was that? Where are we for that matter?" Luna parted from Sora to ask.

"After you fell unconscious Sora and Quorra brought you here. This is a Light Jet and we're currently heading for the portal. It looks however like Clu doesn't want us going there and I can't say that's a surprise." Kevin informed her as Quorra went up to replace him in the pilot seat.

"Clu? So you mean Tron… he didn't succeed?" Sora was disappointed by the news and looked to the ground as if trying to figure something out.

"You have to believe in him Sora, I'm sure he's out there somewhere." Luna said but she was sure that even if Sora chose to nod, it did not necessarily mean he believed her words.

"We need one person to take control of the Light Guns in the rear. You think either of you can handle it?" Kevin asked Sora and Luna.

Sora perked up almost instantly, "Light Guns you say eh? Sounds like turrets." He looked over to Luna who looked back thinking the exact same thing as him.

"Now that… I can handle." Luna grinned before running and jumping into the rear seat which manned the left and right turrets in the back. This left Sora and Sam in charge of the front Light Guns. Quickly she checked her dress to examine the wound on her waist. Sora must have used a cure spell on her because while the wound was still there, it was sealed tightly almost as if the cut hadn't been fresh a few hours ago.

I've really got to get to work on curative spells. They'll definitely be useful for the future. Her own magic were limited to a measly cure spell which was not nearly as effective as Sora's. Still, she knew that improvement came with time and dedication and she was willing to put in the work especially with the help of all of her friends.

It did not take long before a group of similar Light Jets with the difference of a color change to red appeared in front of her window. After experimenting with the controls, she found them to be more or so the same as that of the Gummi ships turrets. She was limited in what she could use in comparison, but she easily made the best of what she had.

Lights of blue flashed over the screen as the Light Jets battled for domination of the sky. The targeting reticule assisted in taking out a few of the Light Jets however some of them where slightly more persistent than others to the point of being annoying. Quorra pulled up sending the Jet on a course upwards higher and higher into the skies and eventually past the clouds themselves. Her plan had worked successfully. The other jets had followed this action.

Sora felt his head press back against the seat as he watched Quorra confidently work the controls of the ship as if she were some kind of expert. Unlike Sam and Luna, he had never seen her drive the Light Runner so he didn't know what to expect, but he was definitely impressed so far. He could also tell that Luna was having the time of her life judging by the sound of beams of lighting smacking against one another from both sides.

And with gravity, what comes up must come down and the Light Jet could gain no further altitude so it twisted backwards and plunged back into the sea of clouds below. The jets that were in front of them had no time to react before they were blown apart by the front turrets used by Sora and Sam. As for the ones behind them, some of them on their way down collided into each other creating exploding debris falling from the sky. This left only one more light jet, a yellow one which tailed them closely.

Clu. Luna recognised the particular brand of yellow and unloaded on him giving it her all. Clu's Light Jet was manoeuvrable and evaded all of the shots easily. Two shots for him were another to penetrate past their jet's defences and jam the console from which Luna was firing on. The jet rocked violently and smoke poured from the engine obscuring Luna's view. She banged on the console hard though to expect that to have fixed it was silly on her part she admitted. Clu's tactic would be to stay behind them and shoot them out of the sky and they wouldn't be able to do a thing about it.

That was when another jet entered the scene. It was a flash of black and blue like their own and it seemed to be heading straight for Clu as well.

Sora's instinct called out only one name, the only person who could be there, "It's Tron! He made it!"

"I fight for the users." Tron's words rang out before he rammed into the yellow Light Jet causing both to explode into blue particles. Tron was still alive, with his baton in hand and heading towards the group's ship, but Clu was alive too and gliding straight for Tron.

"Tron, watch out!" Sora wanted to yell but he knew that Tron would be unable to hear him regardless. Clu finally reached Tron and the two ensued a fight as the fell, Clu struggling for the baton and Tron wanting to defend himself. In the end, they both fell into the darkness below. No one could see who had emerged the victor or if either of them had survived for that matter.

"Tron's sacrifice won't be in vain. We need to get to that portal on the double." Kevin reminded them of their current mission. He was right, Sora knew that, and he had never told anyone then but deep down he felt that Tron had made it, call it optimism or just pure faith in his friend but he knew that Tron wouldn't give up so easily when he had a mission of his own to fulfil.

Luna and the seat she was in popped out from under the tube which had connected to the now fried control panel and she spun around.

"So when we reach the portal, we each go back to the respective area we entered from right?" She asked in worry.

"That's right," Kevin answered, "Also, I'm sorry about Ansem. He was a good man and I'm sure he knew what he was doing when he… you know."

"To be honest with you, I'm not so sure about that. He thought I was going to give the disc over. Now that I've been through that I would say that I wouldn't hand it over but in the heat of the moment… that's completely different. But there was no reason to do what he did," In Sora's mind he had felt that the wise elder had taken the cowardly way out. After all they had discussed in that club, Ansem had run away once again. And now he had watched two people sacrifice themselves for him when it had not been needed, Auron and Ansem. It wasn't fair. He turned his attention to other things instead, "What about Quorra?"

"I would assume that if she holds whoever's hand she's holding at the time, she'll stick with them. Whether that's Sam's or yours is up to her." Kevin told them.

Suddenly no one wanted to look at Quorra's back for fear of pressuring her. It was clear that she had heard every single word but as to how she had reacted, she didn't seem fazed, more neutral as if she had known she would have to make such a choice before.

The jet soon landed on a strip of a metallic platform. Sora's eyes drifted around slowly, he was beginning to feel tired and he didn't feel he was in any position to fight so if it came to it he was afraid he may not have the strength to help. Still, he pushed himself on down the long bridge and through the gates of what could easily pass as a giant medieval tower before arriving at a longer bridge. The portal was just up ahead. They had made it.

"Looks like we made it in time." Sam expressed with a sigh.

"So, I guess this is goodbye for now huh?" Luna held out her hand and shook with Sam, "I'm sure we'll meet again in the near future. Maybe in that future I won't have to ride on your lap."

Sam laughed, "I'm looking forward to it. Maybe I'll program a Light Runner with more than two seats when I get back."

Quorra pursed her lips tight before walking over to Sora, "I've made up my mind. I think I want… to go with Sam."

Though he was slightly saddened, Sora's bright smile shone through, "Of course that's absolutely fine by us. May I ask why though?"

"I'm not sure what it is, but when I talk to Sam, things feel… weird. Like it's inside of me, something stirring. I'm not quite sure what it is. Have you felt that way before?" Quorra asked.

It took a while for Sora to answer, "More or less."

Luna was quick to put two and two together, forming a theory in her mind and becoming suspicious. Why hadn't she seen it before? The time before with Kevin had asked Quorra to choose between Sam and them and now here where Quorra had mentioned sticking with Sam. It was almost as if Kevin Flynn had removed himself from the equation after having not been mentioned twice. Had he decided not to go along with them? That would also explain why Quorra was going along with Sam. He had asked her to protect his son at some point.

"What about you? We've talked about all of us but you haven't mentioned anything about yourself," She pointed out to Kevin, "And Quorra never mentioned you. You're planning on staying here aren't you?"

Sam looked up at his father, "What? Is this true? After all this time don't you want to see the outside world?"

Before Kevin could reply. Sora alerted them to a presence in the direction they had just come from. In entered Clu, he stumbled about like a drunken wreck who had just been told his life had been rendered meaningless just a few seconds ago.

"I did everything… Everything you ever asked!" Clu shouted through the wind. The wind lapped against his face sending waves across his hair.

"I know you did." Kevin nodded in understanding. He started walking down the bridge towards his counterpart. Not once did he ever set his eyes away from him. Ansem had inadvertently given him the courage to face his fears rather than running away from them.

The old man's still helping me from beyond the grave. Who am I to call him an old man? Kevin mused to himself as he walked.

"I executed the plan!" Clu seemed to be at the point of breaking down but he held his ground. One would almost get the impression that aside from that anger and hatred he so obviously stored was also something else entirely different. He was afraid.

"As you saw it." Kevin nodded. The two were now at arm's length apart and facing each other like rivals.

"You! You promised that we would change the world… together. You broke your promise!"

Kevin nodded once again, "I know, you wanted to create the perfect system. As did I. The thing about perfection though is that it's unknowable. It's impossible, but it's also right in front of us, all the time," He looked back at Sam before turning to Clu, "You wouldn't know that because I didn't when I created you. I'm sorry Clu… I am sorry."

Clu's eyes widened, his mouth wrinkled into the most audible of smiles. Then he kicked Kevin to the ground.

"No!" Sam was about to run to his father but Luna held him back. Her reasoning was soon apparent when a group of giant blocks appeared out of thin air. The blocks sailed through the air almost like a snake. The emblem on the underside of the third block revealed it to be a Heartless.

"It's heading for the portal!" Sora said as it cut through the wind above their heads and eventually coiled itself around the portal. It extended its neck and craned it sideways showing its sharp pincers and antennae like antlers.

"I won't let you get away so easily." Clu looked at them before giving Kevin Flynn another good kick which resulted in him rolling over.

Sora and Luna summoned their Keyblades while Sam and Quorra prepared their discs. Quorra started things off throwing her disc at the Heartless and while it had hit, the Heartless didn't seem to show any sign of pain. Instead it released an electrical discharge which scattered around the bridge in its efforts to get to the four. They each felt it, a jolt of electricity run through their body and they fell to the ground in shock and pain.

"Well it knows lightning attacks," Luna confirmed, "So let's not use that then."

"Right." Sora clutched at his arm as he helped himself up. It felt almost like sleep paralysis, where if one were accidently fall asleep on their hand they would wake up to find the most unpleasant feeling, as if the hand that they had fallen asleep under were not their own. He could tell the others were feeling the same thing too from the way they stared at their hand, or at least all of them except for Quorra. She didn't seem too affected by it at all for some reason. Maybe it wasn't the same for programs as it was for real humans.

Sora ran in, his Keyblade engulfing itself in flame before he jumped and struck at the block Heartless.

"What?" Sora could feel it, which was to say the hardened shell of the block he had hit. His Keyblade had hit with a clang and the metal had vibrated reaching Sora's hands before it dissipated. Sora jumped back as another electric charge came flying his way, the charge just hitting the ground where he had stood before, "That Heartless is something else. It has a really hard shell. I'm not sure if we can pierce it."

"We have to try," Luna figured the best thing to do at the moment was to wait things out and so she told the others to remain stationary. They waited… and waited… but nothing happened. The monster didn't attack meaning there was something special about this one. Luna nodded at them before walking over to the Heartless. She eventually reached its side and looked straight into its eyes. It remained motionless, even when placed face to face with the person right in front of it, "This thing… it might only be able to counterattack. I think it's for defence and protecting the portal. It won't harm us if we don't harm it."

"That's weird, a Heartless which doesn't harm people unless it's hurt first. Still, it has to go, the portal will close in a few minutes, and we don't have enough time." Sora turned to see Clu snatching the disc on Kevin's back away from him. His face was red and sweaty and he was clutching onto the disc tightly. He flashed the others a quick look before a hologram appeared on the disc.

At first Clu was confused, then confusion began to turn into anger once again as he threw the disc to the side. The disc of course had not belonged to Kevin but rather it had been a red herring planted by him and Quorra when in fact the real disc was on her back. It had always been on her back since she had retrieved from Clu before Sora had fought Tron.

He ran towards her but Kevin was quickly on his feet and holding back Clu with some sort of magnetic field which was drawing the program back to him. Luna covered her ears as she heard a roar of pain echo beside her.

"Magnets!" She exclaimed wildly looking backward and forward between Kevin's outstretched hands and the shrieking blocks. She ran back and told Sora her theory. Maybe magnet was what they needed to make the block lower its metallic casing.

"Okay, don't worry then. When I tell you guys to attack, that's your chance." With that Sora made his run to the Heartless again and this time jumped into the air to execute a magnet spiral. He glowed brightly for a second drawing in the each of the blocks. Each block disconnected from the other as they surrounded themselves around Sora. Soon, he unleashed his attack, a devastating single spin attack which resulted in each block crumbling to the ground, "Now!"

The trio worked together to take out all the blocks in a quick and timely manner. Luna took extra precautions in making sure the blocks would not float back up and join together again by casting gravity several times, Quorra and Sam attacked quickly by throwing their discs and taking out each block. Meanwhile, Sora was too drained to help and took deep breaths to recover. Eventually the Heartless threat was soon extinguished and the only thing left to do was watch Clu trying to struggle free from the magnetic field Kevin had made. As he came closer towards Kevin Flynn, segments of the bridge beneath his feet started to disappear separating the group of four from the two men.

"Dad!" Sam yelled. He wanted his father to jump across and join them, but he knew that it was too late at this point.

"Quorra, you know what to do!" Kevin yelled from afar and Quorra gave an affirmative nod. He then looked over to Sora and Luna, "I hope your world is as good as Ansem described. I have a feeling it was more than a coincidence that we met," Finally his eyes fell upon Sam. His Sam, "I'm sorry that I wasn't there to watch you grow up Sam. But I can tell you didn't need this old man to help ya anyway. Goodbye, son." A tear fell down his face and then he gathered the rest of his strength to pull Clu in closer. Just a little more. Move Quorra, move.

Quorra grabbed hold of Sam's hand and dragged him but he protested saying that he could not leave his father behind again. It didn't matter what he said. He knew it was too late to help him now.

Sora and Luna were the first into the portal. Luna was also tearing up a little but told herself mentally that she could hold it together, at least for the time being. Quorra, who already had the disc out and in her hands, and Sam soon followed. The four looked at each other, afraid to say goodbye, perhaps Quorra even looked the most disappointed as if an interesting page had just been torn away from her favourite book. Sam took the disc out of Quorra's hands and held it up. It was nostalgic for Sora to see that, because if he had known any better he would have easily shouted out Tron's name then and there. The disc glowed and eventually floated up into the dataspace.

"Till we meet again." Luna said with her eyes on both of them. They both smiled and soon they were gone like a flash of light. Instead of them she was looking at a very familiar computer.

"We're back!" Sora grinned running over to the computer and pressing a few keys.

"Uh, do you even know what you're doing?" Luna asked sitting on top of the computer desk.

"I'm trying to see if Tron's back," Sora pressed the return key taking him into the directory. Everything looked like complete nonsense to him but he persisted on in hopes of finding Tron. He even pressed random keys quickly in order to get him to come out and say his usual line about tickling but nothing ever came up, "No… you've gotta be kidding me." He fell to his knees and hit his head against the desk in frustration.

"What about Kevin? What do you think happened to him?" As much as she was willing to listen to Sora talk about Tron she couldn't help but place the creator of the grid as the priority in her mind.

"I'm not sure. The portal closed so… I wonder…" Sora stood up and mashed a few buttons before sighing, "I can't get back in. I'm not sure we'll be able to enter again. If he's there, he's stuck."

Luna nodded while staring absent-mindedly at the floor, "I assumed that would be the case. Listen Sora, about Tron and Ansem… I just want to let you know that it's not your fault for what happened," When she heard no reply her eyes averted from the floor and she walked in front of Sora, "You remember what you promised me back at the Coliseum? That we would sit down sometime and just let our feelings out? Don't you think now is the perfect time instead of just keeping things from… from all of us?"

Sora yawned, "And I also said I was pretty tired so I'm off to bed early. Don't worry we'll talk about whatever you want tomorrow." He walked out of the room, his mind not really deciding on one particular place but he just wanted to take in the variety in colors in contrast to the digital world. It was good to be back.

"And where have you been?" Sora's reaction time kicked in and he ducked instantly in surprise. A toaster sailed over his head and landed some ways behind him.

"What was that for?" Sora gave a questioning glance at Cid who seemed completely angry at the moment. Hearing the noise, Luna came to investigate and ended up having to duck as well as something else was thrown at them. Looking back she found it to be a rather thick book. If it had belonged to Merlin, then the old wizard certainly would not be pleased that the tech wizards had thrown some of his things.

"Calm down Cid," Tifa spoke from across the room. She was nearby the diagram of the DTD and along with her was Ienzo and Even, "Radiant Garden was attacked while you were away."

"The Heartless?" Sora and Luna asked quickly in unison.

Tifa nodded and closed her eyes, "And it was a big one, right near the Great Maw and heading for the town but we took care of it with everyone helping out."

"That is everyone except for you two." Cid eyed them with a cold stare.

Sora put his hands out in defence, "Hey don't blame us!" He continued on to explain about how the beam had sucked both him and Luna into the Grid and how they had met up with Ansem, Abraxas and Tron.

"Well at least that's one problem solved," Cid said in reference to Abraxas, "but the old codger as well? And living inside of the computer no less all this time."

"Well there's the possibility that at some point the worlds melded into one another. But we can't access the system anymore and Tron… well." Luna couldn't finish of her sentence for the sake of having to watch Sora break down. Sora looked quite determined though, more than her for some reason.

"Cid, if there's anyone that can do it and know it's you. Do you think you could bring Tron and the system back up and running?" Sora asked clenching his fists tightly.

The burly man fiddled with the toothpick in his mouth for a second while analysing Sora. He eventually rubbed his nose, "Well, that data might not be completely gone. There may still be little bits and pieces left so I don't see any reason why it can't be done. I'll get on it right away."

A grin appeared on Sora's face though he quickly added before getting too excited, "Uh, just for the record how long has it been since we were gone?"

"Well, the Heartless appeared less than three hours ago so…" Tifa told them. Sora and Luna exchanged looks of discomfort, Luna especially more so since she could feel the hard stare of Even boring into her temples.

"Well we might as well see how the others are doing then." Sora gave a glum smile at Tifa.

"That might be wise. We also enabled the town's defence mechanism while you were gone so I'm sure you'll be seeing that a lot." Ienzo spoke out. Luna had discerned by now that the boy was not much of a talker judging by their previous meeting but he still found his uses while working with Even. He wasn't as creepy as the older man but he seemed interested in little else other than his work, in other words, he seemed to be a rather introverted person.

"Well we'll be off now." She said quickly wanting to be away from Even as quickly as possible. Maybe he couldn't help that he looked creepy all the time what with probably being taught to analyse and evaluate things since childhood but it still was creepy. She grabbed Sora's arm and dragged him away and out of the room before closing it behind her. "And now I know what you mean when you say he's extremely creepy. It was like he was undressing me or something." Luna shivered as they walked down the corridor turning corners and going up the stairs to reach the higher level. Sora almost coughed and choked on thin air.

He quickly recovered and said, "Yeah, try not to say that again or you might make me laugh. Don't worry, the most he can do is experiment on you and if he tries it then I'll put him in his place. Or I might just stick Stephanie on him; I hear that he hates kids."

"Well, the way you say experiment isn't helping things. And I doubt he really does hate kids, maybe dislikes them. It seems like Ienzo and him have a father-son thing going on and Ienzo doesn't really look any older than twenty. Also weren't they still around together before Radiant Garden was attacked?" Luna felt the cogs in her brain going into full gear as she pointed out the problem with the rumour.

"Well Ansem might've just stuck Ienzo on him and ordered him to look after the poor guy. I feel kinda sorry for him, having to be around a creepy nutcase like that for most of his life." Sora folded his arms and shook his head in sympathy.

"Well I have the feeling he somehow likes being by creepy dude's side. Whatever works for him I guess…?" Luna shrugged.

"Well let's see what this world has in store for us… tomorrow. I really need my sleep." Sora yawned playfully and leaned over the side railing of the castle postern. The two just stood there admiring the view and the beautiful sunset which accompanied it. It felt great to be in its warmth again, perfect even.


I wonder if Cid will actually be able to rebuild Tron. He could I suppose assuming he has the code for him. I want to thank you all once again for reading and any comments would be appreciated. See you next time.