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Chapter 18: A_Save_to_Continue.(sav)

"Turbo…?"

My voice was a whisper in a sea of voices, drowning out and drifting away as if ocean tides had smothered them. Even as my hand, as if having a mind of its own, attempted to reach for him, I felt like my reach was pushing against an invisible force that separated us.

He was standing right next to me, and yet I felt like we were worlds apart. It was a feeling of helplessness, but now a kind of helplessness that I had not known quite yet. It wasn't my abilities of strength or intelligence that was at a test here… more rather it was a uselessness to take his pain away. I had only seen his face for less than a split second, and yet I could see the world he once knew flash before his eyes. There was so much pain, so much regret, and so much anger…

His expression didn't change much, but as his bushy grey eyebrows curved upward, and his agape mouth closed to form a grimace, his eyes would close shut, and he would turn away.

"Turbo!" I cried his name again, this time managing to make my voice appear briefly among the chatter and clamber, but again, it seemed to disappear in the mass of words and voices from Flynn's residents around me. Steven, Felix, and Dannen had become far too busy making way around the game characters to answer questions, leaving me the only one who had seen Turbo walk away. Despite that it would have probably been wise to join them in their discussion with the other Programs, I found I simply couldn't. My heart was pulling me the opposite way—in those moments, the only thing that mattered was him.

My hesitancy was broken the moment Turbo disappeared back into the Tron game; I suddenly found that my legs had joined my arms, and I was suddenly running after him. It was an unexplainable reaction—one where you just gave in, and didn't think of the reason why.

I had ventured into the Tron entrance, and rushed down the hall, and when I reached the other side, I saw him standing there with his back facing me. As I saw him in the blank world, I couldn't help but feel how strangely vain all of it was… how vain it was that I thought I could ever hope to help him, and yet I perused anyway.

"Turbo?" I muttered.

"Don't call me that…" His voice, although soft in his response, was filled with emotion.

"What do you mean?" I asked then, taking a single step forward. "You're Turbo…that's your name."

"I'm nothing like him," Turbo said. "That's not me. That can never be me."

I was quiet for the longest time. I knew what he was thinking now; I just didn't want to believe it. More rather, I just didn't know how to believe it.

"I'm not even King Candy," Turbo said then, his voice joining a sudden and far away series of thunder sequences in the dark clouds in the blank and dark game world—a game without a code; a game that had died a very long time ago. "You're brother had th'said it him'th'self. I'm not a king either."

I bit my lip, hesitating to say his name now in fear of causing him further harm. "But… I know you…" was all I could say.

"How can you th'say that!?" Turbo's voice blasted suddenly as he turned around to face me. His eyes glistened ever so slightly, as if he had been holding back tears, however, his grimace seemed to replace his sadness with rage as he spoke to me. "You can't possibly know me! I don't even know me anymore!" His hands suddenly reached up to touch his face, putting pressure on his cheeks and causing them to become smashed as he rolled his palms over them. "I don't even know if I've always had this th's'upid li'th'sp! I had changed my code so much to fit into Sugar Rush that I became a completely different person! I changed even more when that Cy-bug ate me during my last race against that brat!"

"Listen to me…" I said, placing my hands in front of me as if to gesture gently that I was trying to help. Despite this, he continued to yell.

"You act like I was never a monster! Like I never attacked you, and locked you away! Forced you to watch me actually kill people, even! I am now, and never will be Turbo again, and it's because I made those choices! You act like everything is going to be fine and I have done nothing wrong!"

"Nothing is fine!" I yelled back. I found that my own eyes had been filling with tears at that point, and my face had gotten red from frustration. "Of course nothing is fine! Everyone can pretend that things will go back to the way it all was… I do it, too! I act like things will be like nothing ever happened, but guess what, it never will! It's all a façade, you asshole! You think that I actually don't remember what you've done? What has happened to my world? What's happened to me?"

His own anger had finally brought out my own, but it wasn't just that. It was a frustration that I still couldn't fix everything. It was an irritation with myself that here, even now when things were looking up, I would keep having to pretend to be strong. As if actually contemplating suicide wasn't obvious enough, but I suppose only Aaron had seen that dark part of me.

"There were plenty of times I felt like giving up," I said. "You have no idea what I think either, I guess. All I've done was to try and help you. I've pushed back my own feelings just so I could feel yours."

After I had spoken my last utterance, we had both become quiet. Turbo's stance had slightly softened, but only by a notch. I could see his eyes shifting around at the ground as if he were caught in thought.

"You don't want to feel what I feel," Turbo replied.

"You can… tell me anything." My voice cracked briefly before I managed to regain composure, but I'm sure my cheeks were still red, because I felt like I had a fever at that point. "King Candybug isn't here anymore. You can still continue to make choices—the right choices… but this time you won't be alone when you do it." I paused to wipe my eyes down with the back of my gloved hands. "You may not be the Turbo in that station, but you can become another. You can become your own Turbo… a Turbo who is still himself, and different from all the others, and unique in every way."

Turbo scoffed.

In my dazed series of emotion, I felt a sense of déjà vu. I soon found our conversation was a familiar one. During his time as a Cy-brid, I learned to be kind to him because I saw who he truly was underneath it all: a lost Program deprived of the love of his creators. I told him again and again, from that point forward, and in subtle ways, how I saw the potential in him. I tried so hard to help him along without realizing that I was only meeting him half way. What Turbo needed was to see all I felt about him for himself.

If only he knew, I thought. If only he could see… how much I want to get to know him. My heart that was at a risk of shattering soon quelled itself as I thought about him… how I felt for him—how I wanted so badly for him to wake up from whatever nightmare he had been in for so many years. I briefly had a mental flashback of seeing Steven and Chell sitting on the porch of Aaron's old house, smiling and laughing softly in those last setting hours, and how her heroism had saved Steven. I even thought about Calhoun and Felix, and how lovingly they consoled and adored each other—their bond so strong that any brokenness that the soldier woman had harbored was mended because she knew she was loved.

I pondered for what seemed like an eternity, but in my search to help Turbo, I suppressed these feelings to exchange them for words of encouragement. I found soon that I couldn't help but let off a soft chuckle as I came up with a personal metaphor, and began to explain it to him.

"For example, there are a million of other brown-haired and brown-eyed girls in the world, ya know?" I said. "But look at me… I'm my own."

"How do you even th'start over when th'so much has happened?" he asked immediately. "How do you even build your'th'self up beyond your past?"

"One code at a time, I guess." I looked up into the sky, and out into the dark grid, gesturing to the world around us. After my gaze made their rounds upon the darkness, I looked back down at him, managing a smile. "And one game at a time," I finished.

Looking back at that moment, perhaps I could have said more... But what was pain without company?

"Kailey, what's going on?" My brother's voice appeared from behind me. I found myself blinking a few times before I decided to turn around, attempting to reduce what shine I had in my eyes to hide what had happened. Turning around, I saw him standing there, behind him a crowd of game characters, and Steven and Felix helping them through the doorway and into Tron. They must've decided to begin leading an exodus of all of Flynn's Arcade's game characters out of the portal and into the real world.

I took in a sigh, and then said flatly, "Nothing."

Even as the mass of characters began to follow Steven and Felix out of the hall, Dannen would hesitate as he looked between Turbo and me. An obvious realization that something had indeed happened dawned on his face, but for the time he said not a word.

I knew it was time to begin to execute our plans, so I shifted gears once more and returned to the task at hand. With the Programs leaving the arcade, we'd soon get to work on what we were to do with the Shiva Laser.

As if it were a routine thing, we began to follow the crowd through the dark grid, and towards the open portal. Steven and Felix would exit first, then behind them, and one at a time, I watched as one Program after another ventured through, disappearing into the light as if they had just faded away. Little by little, like a chip-axe carving a stone, the crowd significantly diminished in size until there was none left. After they had finally been evacuated from the digital grid, was when Dannen, Turbo and I would follow after them, joining them in reality.

I instantly felt the difference in my surroundings when I transitioned from the game world and back to mine. Being greeted by the dusty old cellar with all of Flynn's old equipment, I could already see the last of the Programs venture back up the stairs and into the arcade to meet with Calhoun, Ralph, and Vanellope. It seemed everything had gone fine on their end, but of course, I cautioned myself that it was only a matter of time before we'd see Cy-bugs again. It was the nature of chaos to cause confusion, and put ones guard down.

"Steven?" I'd call out upon climbing the steep staircase, meeting the upward floor of Flynn's establishment. Some Programs crowded the inside of the arcade as they looked down at their consoles, filled with amazement like the others had done before as they came to terms with parting with their games.

I saw Steven towards the front, having directed some of the other Programs outside to make room, and approached him. Knowing that we were short on time, I got straight to business. "We need to figure out how much time we have left before we're greeted by the swarms," I reiterated.

"I know," he acknowledged, "I already managed to catch the Wi-Fi signal from a restaurant down the street. I got a connection to the local news stream waiting for us when we're ready. Maybe they are informing the populous about the Cy-bug's progression, and what the military is up to."

I saw that all the Programs had been situated by then, some outside the arcade and some waiting inside with us. With the exodus completed, my team and I gathered around Steven as he pulled up the news feed on his Omni-Tool. The hologram began to play the news for us, and we listened to the reporter carefully as she discussed what was happening.

"The military has received aid from actual Programs in fighting off the Cy-bug invasion," she said, in which at that moment the camera that was pointed at her cut off, showing amateur footage of someone hiding behind a building, and revealing a fight between what looked like Starkiller and Master Chief from the Goliath battle, the Pikachu and Sonic I had seen briefly at the facilty, and a handful of other game characters I had yet to meet using their abilities to aid alongside the human military as they shot at and held back Cy-bugs. The oddest thing was, looking at it like I was now, it seemed that the game Hero's Duty had literally become the reality of the real world, only with human guns it was difficult to even kill them. The only reason, based on watching this footage, that anybody was able to hold this off was because of the game character's help. Yes, not all game characters could kill Cy-bugs; after all, it was only specific Program attacks that could destroy them, such as a Hero's Duty gun (specifically made for killing Cy-bugs) and Ralph's wrecking abilities, as his programming literally enabled him to destroy things. Other characters, while seemingly able to kill Cy-bugs, had to put more effort for the sole reasoning that their Programming was not meant to create an instant kill upon contact. For example, as I watched the footage, I took notice of Pikachu's attacks. Although powerful, it still needed to maneuver its thunder strikes to strip a Cy-bug from the air, and then Starkiller would come up to the downed virus and impale it with his twin lightsabers, shattering it.

Deep in my heart, however, I knew this couldn't last for long. I'm sure many humans had since been killed, military or civilian, and thus wasn't surprised when the news shifted again sometime after, showing a weather radar, only now modified to reveal the progression of the Cy-bugs.

"As you can see, the Cy-bugs are staying in swarms. They travel in mass clusters at a time, staying together as they spread westward across the United States." The lady's voice met the visual depiction on the hologram stream as she explained, on this map of the US creating a blotch of red that would manifest on the radar to show Cy-bug activity and progression. By the looks of it, they would be literally at our doorstep within the next twelve hours. I had already seen them multiply before, so I'm sure it had gotten to the point where the forces against them could no longer hold them all back.

"Please tell me you can get that portal reversed by then?" I asked out loud, looking directly over at Steven and my brother.

Dannen had his arms crossed over his torso, a look of worry filling his face, but regardless of this he began to explain all the possibilities of our plan. "The portal can very much be reversed," he said, "but we're not entirely sure how it will react with power as a factor."

"What he means is this: the portal requires a significant amount of energy to stay open, especially so in our world. With my idea, I could theoretically make the portal stay open for a longer duration, perhaps up to a few hours, tops. However, if I'm hypothesizing this correctly, we need to time our shot when Cy-bugs are closest enough, and all of them collectively can see the portal."

"What happens if we don't catch em' all? Can't we just turn the portal back on again?" Felix asked, although despite the scary situation I laughed a little at the pun he unknowingly referenced to Pokemon.

"Heh…see that's the thing," Steven said sheepishly. "Once the portal stays open for that long, it will shut off afterwards when all the energy in the city has been depleted. This would be only temporary, as I'm sure the cities power grids will regain composure, but this could be hours…an entire day even to recover from."

"It's like timing a shot, then," Calhoun chimed in. "The nerd has a huge point here. That means we will need to corral the Cy-bug cluster somehow, and closely enough to the city to get that shot, but also not close enough to where the cities civilians will be in danger. Once those Cy-bugs see a bunch of people running around, they'll eat everything and everybody faster than an eagle swooping down to pick up a pin of fluffy bunnies."

"Easier said than done," Ralph said. "We only have one car that could possibly be fast enough to do that without getting caught!"

Literally at that second, the sound of an engine turned on. Everyone in the group looked at each other and stiffened like a bunch of petrified opossums when we all realized it was the sound of Car number 2 revving up.

"You—don't think—" I stuttered, thinking it could have been one of the Programs acting astray. However, that's when I noticed that Turbo was no longer standing next to us.

"Oh shit!" Dannen exhaled. We all collectively rushed out of the arcade and to the entrance. Standing there was a bunch of Programs watching in confusion as Turbo—my Turbo—was sitting in the car, revving its engine. The second we stopped in our tracks to see this was the moment he sped off, the car creating a smoke to puff up behind him, and the smell of burnt rubber to fill the air.

"Turbo!" I yelled, and pushed my body forward as if I was about to run after him, but I felt a few of my friends put their hands on my shoulders to stop me.

"There's no use in dealing with that mess anymore," Vanellope said irritably. "Typical of him to run off at a time like this. Not like it matters if those Cy-bugs eat him again anyway… they'll all go into the portal."

I felt like I wanted to say something but I couldn't. I felt like someone had stolen my voice, and I couldn't speak words anymore.

I couldn't believe Turbo had left us.

A few hours had gone by when Steven had begun to make some progress on manipulating the Shiva Laser's coding down in the basement. Dannen had been sitting with him the entire time, spilling honest opinions on the effects of what would happen once this all occurred. They'd argue for a minute or two, deciding on what action to take, and what thing needed to be fixed, before they'd add commands to the programming sequences.

"This is going to create a time-space rift," Dannen would say. "Seeing Flynn's notes for myself, it's starting to make sense…" He began to scribble a series of pictures on a blank page of notebook paper, creating a diagram that resembled all of the grid concepts that Flynn had referenced to plenty of times among the other documents. Here on Dannen's depiction, however, he delivered a concept I saw mostly shown in artistic renderings that somebody like NASA would produce.

"Okay, so we all know how one would depict gravity; a planet would hypothetically weigh down on space-time as you can see here," he said, scribbling some more, drawing a circle to refer to planet Earth, and creating a weight underneath it like a pebble pressing down on a paper towel. He then started drawing another 'grid' underneath that. "The Shiva Laser, on the other hand, doesn't just cut this rift…it's almost like it melds it together. The portal itself is just the focal point that physical matter and information can directly pass through, like Programs and human beings."

"That would explain the manner of Program distribution into the real world," Steven mused, sitting back in the chair for a moment to contemplate. "All higher dimensions, including our own you could argue, exist all at once. It's our perception that isn't able to see it all, like you would see… say, the progression of time in a linear way, or a 4D, or 5D object in our 3D world that's comprehensible."

"Yeah, right… so this melding together brings all dimensions on a same linear platform or as Kevin Flynn would probably say, a grid."

"Sounds a lot like multiverse or string theory."

"It pretty much is."

"And all dimensions coming together like this have made it all equal—makes them all known, and present. So do you think more game characters could have survived?"

"I wouldn't doubt it at this point. The portal opening back at Litwak's may have gotten destroyed, but it happened when the portal was on."

"Okay, so what do you think happened to Tron, then?"

"The code was erased, obviously."

"Yeah, but would that effect its nature of distribution, too? Like… good God, thinking about it now is blowing my mind. The system was erased of any living Program."

"You just said it… Flynn's Tron was erased after that admin logout—but not Litwak's. For example, does code disappear after you log off? Smash a computer maybe?"

"Eh…theoretically? But not really?"

"Exactly, my dude. The difference between Tron and Litwak's Arcade was that Tron's code was deleted, while Litwak's games were just physically destroyed. Considering the nature of distribution of the portal, that means we have a lot to unload."

"Not to get metaphysical on you, Dannen, but do you think that explains… I don't know… life after death?"

"In my studies I read about a physicist who thinks he actually discovered that reality's physical blueprints are kept safe, per say, in a quantum realm of some kind—they call the phenomenon Orchestrated Objective Reduction. So if my sister saw that the grid expressed not only her 'code' all in her humanity, and physically was able to manipulate Turbo's, then we very well could be onto something here."

"Okay so don't get me started on whatever Flynn was talking about with isomorphic algorithms."

"Would you nerds just work on the portal for Code's sake!?" Vanellope blasted suddenly, causing Dannen and Steven to jump slightly in their seats. "I feel like my ears are going to melt off from hearing you guys talk like a bunch of weirdos."

"I admit… their ideas are interesting," Calhoun said. "Vanellope's got a point, though. Move on boys, we don't have a whole lot of time." She had been standing the entire time, leaned against the door of the basement entrance. Outside, and up the staircase into the arcade, we could hear some soft chatter of Flynn's residents talking amongst themselves still as the voices of Felix and Ralph popped up occasionally among the conversations in attempt to answer questions, and keep the other Programs updated.

I, on the other hand, had been sitting to the side of Flynn's desk. My ears had caught everything my brother and Steven had said, with their strange explanations of reality and hinting at different scientific theories and all, but at the same time my mind had been elsewhere. Here I was, in the midst of greatness, and leaps in both human technology and thought, but in the end, I could only think about him…

I could only think about Turbo.

Everybody was so busy and invested in our current events, so it was easy to understand why I had slipped under their radar, and had been left alone. Just thinking about all these weird concepts of life, death, and code just made my withheld feelings create dread that increased tenfold.

Had I said something wrong? What was it that made Turbo decide to leave? I couldn't help but look inward on whether or not this was my fault. On top of it, Turbo leaving had created another division in any possible reformation he could have had with the others. Car number 2 was the only vehicle we had to travel together with on top of it all, and now that we were left stranded I was wondering what would happen next.

Steven had steered his focus the second Calhoun had hinted at urgency, and continued to tap his fingers quickly over the touchscreen, and delete, add, and manipulate codes to reshape the nature of the Shiva Laser. From what I could tell simply by looking, a significant amount of progress had already been made, and looking at the screen from my perspective there were now so many added sequence commands and modifications that the system was no longer the system of Kevin Flynn, the creator, but had become our own.

A few more taps of added code, and suddenly I saw the Shiva Laser's gun tip upward at the ceiling, although it stopped the second it reached a clean straight angle.

"All right, it should be ready…" Steven said.

"Shouldn't ya test it?" Vanellope walked up beside Steven, and began peering at the touchscreen as best as she could, her small height only allowing the top of her nose to look over the desk.

"I wouldn't advise it." Steven scooted back in his seat a little, looking over towards the Shiva Laser that had moved upon his newly added additions to the system. "The portal opening under here may very well harm the structure of the building…and if not that, then it will definitely eat up all the power in the city in a short time. We have to wait until the Cy-bugs are here to expand our net."

"You are positive that the portal will work as a beacon, then?" Calhoun asked.

"Positive. The only problems are what you heard me and Dannen discussing a few minutes ago. When the Cy-bugs go in, we can't just destroy the portal or the arcade. We have to go in and either unplug the Tron system, severing them from ever getting out again, or delete their code. Whatever is easiest. The firewall is reestablished beyond the Tron system, so it's impossible for them to leave the game itself and into the other arcade games."

"I see…" Calhoun put a hand in her hair, and swept her blonde bangs back, which only caused the strands to tumble back forward, and softly land back on the side of her face and forehead after she did so. "So we all know you two will need to be here to shut off or delete the Cy-bugs once they are all trapped inside the digital grid. But how do you suppose we'll corral all those things here in the first place? Do you want to split up?"

"That's not a great idea at this point," Dannen began to explain. "There are millions of people in this city, and on top of it you have yourselves to look out for. I'd imagine a lot of these Programs are more than capable of fighting, but if we don't have to, I don't want to."

"After what happened to Chell…" Steven's voice came out almost in a whisper as he tried to withhold painful memories. "I don't want anyone else getting shattered. All Programs, whether you like it or not, are unstable outside of your games. We can use the help to keep stray Cy-bugs at bay, but my goal at this moment is to get all Cy-bugs preoccupied and attracted to the beacon."

"Okay, then who does what, genius?" Vanellope put a hand on her hip, while her opposite hand took one of the pink strings on her hoodie and twiddled it in her fingers.

"Well, see… that's the problem," Steven began to admit, chuckling nervously. "If we had Car number 2…"

"That good for nothing, slimy nutbar!" Vanellope scoffed. "See! I knew all along we shouldn't have trusted King Candy! When we needed something the most, he goes and takes off with it."

After her fuss, nobody seemed to disagree with her. There was quietness in the room as we all looked to the floor to avoid each other's gaze.

"No use in crying about it," Calhoun said, sighing irritably. "We just got to think of another way to get someone out there to act as a lure to get the Cy-bugs in range."

I heard her, but my eyes were still adrift, staring at the floor and its many unique marks and blemishes. My mind fell immediately on the Light Cycle that had been sitting in my boot for God knows how long, and of course the lightsaber that hung at my belt. I thought around to other alternatives first, my mind drifting to other possibilities of using a human civilian's car, but always came back to the Light Cycle. The game item would be the best and fastest thing to use to get the Cy-bug's attention and lead them to the outskirts of the city so they could see the beacon.

"Rachel always did tell me to keep a Light Cycle in my boot," I said, a smile crossing my lips for a second.

I felt Dannen look up at me. "You still have that thing?!" he exclaimed. "Then that settles it… I'll go and get the attention of the Cy-bugs."

"Whoa there, bro, Calhoun literally just said you and Steven need to be here to work fast enough to lock in the Cy-bugs. Calhoun, Ralph, Felix, and Vanellope will work best here to protect civilians, the building itself, and the Programs outside that might not be able to fight."

"Oh, so you're going to do it then?" Dannen responded in a joking, non-serious manner, but when I didn't answer, his tone changed quite instantly. "Wait, Kailey, please don't! You couldn't possibly—"

"—I've literally done worse, Dannen," I cut him off irritably, taking a stand from my seated position next to Flynn's desk, and walked over towards him, standing behind Steven's chair. "You know this is the only way. I've survived plenty so far, and I'm not going to stop until this shit is over with."

Steven turned his head, which caused him to spin his entire chair around to face me. Concern seemed to fill his blue eyes, from behind his black-rimmed glasses a shimmer creating a diversion of light that seeped from the computer monitor beside, and around him. "Kailey…something's wrong," he said. "You don't sound like yourself."

"What are you expecting me to say? Oh, we'll find another way? I don't have to do it?"

"Dannen told me before about seeing you and Turbo in Tron before we logged out of the system." Steven's next sentence caught me off guard. I hadn't realized that my brother had shared that with him. While he hadn't been my friend before all this started, I could tell he was starting to care about the lot of us, including me. "What did he say to you?"

"Nothing." I shrugged, but I'm sure it came off as irritable still. "He told me nothing."

Dannen took a look at both Vanellope and Calhoun, who had been standing sternly in the room with us and had been listening. My brother took a moment to straighten himself up before he said, "Ladies, would you mind if we had a word with my sister? Alone?"

Vanellope looked over at the tall soldier, their eyes glancing at each other in a silent agreement when the two began walking with each other up the staircase, and out to the arcade with the others. After the sound of their footsteps ceased to echo in the stairwell, Dannen gently shut the door, and then turned to look at me, Steven remaining in his seat and doing the same.

"I hoped that would help…" Dannen said. "They don't particularly like Turbo, so maybe it'll be easier to talk this way."

"You think?" I scoffed. "You don't either, obviously."

"Yeah, of course I don't," Dannen replied. "He locked me in a cage, for Christ's sake! He kidnaped you and pretended you were like…his pet or something!"

"That's not the real Turbo," I stated flatly. "It never was."

Steven sat forward in his seat, allowing his elbows to rest on his knees as he spoke up next, saying, "You've obviously had more time to talk to him. I've seen the way he looks at you. How he latches onto you… While you were asleep in Car number 2 before we got here, I hadn't seen him look so determined to help us before." He paused, taking in a deep breath of air, and then exhaled it gently. "But I still don't understand why he'd leave us, either."

Steven's sympathy was starting to calm me down. I felt my irritation start to fall from my shoulders as I removed my arms that had been wrapped around my body, and let them slip to settle my palms on my hips. "I don't either…" I muttered. "He had seen something in the game central station, but I thought…maybe…"

"What did he see?" Steven asked.

"There's another TurboTime in here." I paused as my mind wrapped around the concept. "He saw himself. He saw what he was… before he made a series of bad choices."

"Kailey." Dannen placed a hand on my shoulder, sympathy flowing from his expression as he looked at me. "I know all of this is startling, to say the least. I see why you feel the way you do. When I first figured all this out during my time in that cage, I realized how horrible a concept like this is, and how many other game characters have almost lost themselves to our ignorance. But when it comes down to it, you don't have to be his hero. You don't have to run after him all the time, and you certainly never had to volunteer to be his supervisor to keep the others happy."

"Imagine how it must've been." I turned my head to Dannen, looking over his face. He was my little brother; my best friend. I felt I could tell him anything and he'd be able to understand me. "Imagine being created, and having your one purpose in life taken from you. Video game characters, whether we like it or not, are made to be loved. When we forget… when we step away, and entertain ourselves with a new game, or toy or whatever, we abandon them. Don't you see that?"

The guys were quiet as they contemplated my statement. My brother, already drenching with sympathy, began to show further concern on his face. Steven sat up then, watching the both of us as we stood there.

"When we turn on the beacon, we will be fighting for all of them," Steven said. "The world has gone through a shift. What was unknown will be known, and our worlds will heal each other." His words came off more as a declaration than it did a statement. "Kailey, we have your back. Please know that. But don't risk your life to save him. If you go out there to lure those Cy-bugs, you need to do it with the big picture in mind. What we're doing today is going to save millions of people and Programs. He made his choice already… you need to let it go."

"I know," I said. I felt my eyes sting briefly as if I was going to start crying again, but I held them back. "I still want to do this. I have to do this."

My brother took me into a big, tight hug. Steven, who had already been standing up, ventured over towards us as well, and wrapped his arms around both me and my brother. For the time, I would clear my mind and live in the moment. I had been around people who had cared for me, and supported me. Sometimes I felt alone in all of this, but realizing I had a player 2 and 3 at my side, it made all the difference.

Yet, deep in the back of my mind, after knowing what I had to do, Turbo's last expression lingered in my mind, leaving an imprint of a moment lost to me. I wasn't sure what choices he was going to make now, but I had to put faith that everything would work out for the better.

"Testing, testing—Kailey can you hear me?" Steven's voice filtered from the Hero's Duty radar and com-link I had been carrying with me. Steven was able to connect the Omni-Tool to the device, which would allow him to be my spotter, of the sorts, when I ventured out to face the Cy-bugs.

"Yeah, it works," I replied, an amused grin forcing itself across my lips. I thought it was funny that Steven had the ability to be so serious and deep, but at the same time become a nerd on command.

We were standing outside on the street in front of Flynn's Arcade. Around us were quite a few Programs watching on the sidewalks as Steven and I stood in the middle of the road, preparing for the moment we had been planning for. In my right hand, I held the Light Cycle in its dormant stick-like state, and on my belt, in addition to the lightsaber game item, we had managed to create a buckle to hold the Hero's Duty radar in place on my person as well. It was kinda funny when Steven handed me a Hero's Duty pistol on top of it all.

"Do you think that's a little much?" I asked, allowing him to plop the weapon into my free palm. "Any more items and I'll be over-encumbered." I found myself laughing slightly from my joke.

"Hey, Hero's Duty weapons kill Cy-bugs. It might come in handy." Steven paused for a moment after justifying himself, and then began referring back to his Omni-Tool to check out the progression of the Cy-bugs. "By the looks of it, the swarms will be here shortly. I suggest you head to the east-side of the city, where the open freeways will give you better room to be spotted."

"Yeah, I know. I'm not dumb."

"I'm sorry," Steven said, "I just worry is all."

"Hey, I promise I'm not going to die on you," I chuckled, hiding my nervousness of course, but in a way that attempted to divert Steven's negative feelings. "There will be plenty of time to get to know each other after all this is over."

"Yeah, you're right." Steven sighed. "Just, be careful, please."

In some ways I wished there was something else I could have said to him. 'Careful' was such a simple term, but carried so many connotations within it. Is a loved one really careful on their drive to work every morning? Is a child careful not to get caught up with bullies, or a beetle careful to not get eaten by a crow?

"I'll try," I said. I felt like those words, as they slipped between my teeth, began to unveil lies. I didn't know what was going to happen, let alone be able to control the bad when it did come for me. I could only hope that being a User… being a person fighting for the right thing was enough.

"Go then." Steven reached out to me one last time, and took me into a hug once again. For a moment I sat in his embrace, although only able to focus on its end, as if my mind was preparing itself for the moment I was let go, and sent off to do what I had promised. Once that moment did come to pass, and I was left alone on the street to begin my journey to face the Cy-bugs, did I come to accept that feeling of physical and mental separation.

For the first time in weeks, I would truly be facing these monsters alone, but it was a burden I was proud to bear. To me, as I stood alone on the road, looking over to see my friends, and the many Programs we had freed from the arcade, I felt like I could do anything. To think I had been living my life in normalcy for so long without realizing what I was capable of; so much untapped potential that I, and even the entirety of humanity possessed. To call myself a User, as the Programs would refer to us humans as, was an honor.

I took my time looking upon Flynn's building and the Program's, my brother, and friends among them. Ralph and Vanellope waved lightly at me, uncomfortable for my task, but kind much in the same a friend would do when wishing you luck goodbye. Calhoun stood there in a way that would suggest sternness and an expression of unfazed apathy, but I saw how she held tightly onto Felix's hands, an embrace giving away the worry that she perhaps carried within herself. Even Steven and Dannen, with their game-items at a ready for the task, looked at me with a mixture of determination and caution. This was it. This was the moment we had all been waiting for—the finishing line to our race—the save point into our future.

My eyes skipped over the crowd, taking notice of Pauline, and other notable characters we had spoken to in the arcade. Standing there as well, I even saw Flynn's Turbo and the blue racing twins, distracted among themselves like average spectators. This Turbo, who still looked the way he was supposed to, and had not become King Candy, was forever blissfully unaware of the shortcomings of his twin that had lost his way.

A Turbo I'd never know, I thought. It was a brief thought, but being reminded of him—my Turbo— for a moment pulled me out of reality, with it a mixture of emotions of anger, sorrow… and something else pulling at my chest that it would take then great effort to wake myself up, and pull me back into the task at hand. Leaving that feeling was like leaving water and rising up to take a breath of air as if I had been holding it. I sighed deeply, closing my eyes then to focus on myself and what I felt around me: the touch of a soft wind on my face, the hug of the thick and sturdy racing suit around my body, and the smell of a distant storm lingering and preparing itself somewhere in the atmosphere grounded me into the moment.

I lifted both arms upward and straight forward in front of me, grasping the Light Cycle in both hands. I began to imagine the world that was at first, but then what it could be—a world, perhaps, when this was all over, where Programs and Users could help each other, heal, and bring out the best in each other. Even as I looked upward at the cloudy skies, my internal vision did not mirror the clouded world before me.

I began to run, picking up pace quickly as I ran across the road before Flynn's Arcade, and like magic, the Light Cycle began to form beneath me, blinking to life with its bright white light as the rumble of its engine purred upon its awakening. It then carried me away so quickly that it forced my focus to return from my mind, and on the road in front of me. Even in its speedy state, I maneuvered the empty streets like I was playing some of my most beloved video games growing up. The twist of my wrist as I steered, and the tightening muscles in my body were so natural to me as I navigated that I almost forgot to even feel the wind on my face.

Navigating eastward, I passed the many homes, buildings, and gardens I had seen on my way in, but this time they simply became part of the background. Like I had left behind my friends, I needed but only to keep the image of the real world in the back of my mind to push me forward. I even imagined Turbo, wherever he was, as a force to keep me going.

Soon the silver glow of the city would become part of my background too as I found myself arriving on the open highways, where beyond me the land on either side of the road continued far and wide with a flat surface of both green brush, and brown rocky sands. I had reached a certain point there, out in the open, when I began to slow the Light Cycle down and come to a stop to stabilize myself, looking upward toward the eastern skies. I could hear the soft rumble of thunder as my only greeting as I sat there, waiting for the moment when the Cy-bugs arrived.

I looked down at my radar, where initially I would see nothing. The Hero's Duty radar obviously wasn't picking any activity up just yet, due to its reach, but I wasn't going to get comfortable.

Initially, static overcame the com-link as my connection with Steven was established. After a few moments, the signal would clear, and Steven's voice suddenly accompanied me. "Kailey, I see you are at the far eastward side of the city limits," he said. "That should be a good spot to wait for them to see you. Are you ready for this?"

"I am." My response came out calmly, despite how my heart was racing.

"If I'm not mistaken, you can utilize the Light Cycle's abilities here in the real world. You can trigger a light sequence to trail behind you, which would be a perfect way to attract the Cy-bugs to see and follow you as you move. Once you get close enough to the city, I'll trigger the portal to open to show into the real world."

"Almost forgot about that one," I mused. "That'll be interesting to see."

"Kailey!" Steven didn't respond to me; instead his voice exclaimed in urgency. "I'm picking up a signal from the swarm. Do you see them? They're coming!"

I looked up into the skies. I narrowed my eyes to peer harder into the horizon, not quite noticing them yet, but soon, like the trickle of rain, they began to appear. All but black, distant dots to begin as they revealed themselves, I slowly began to hear their distant hums of their collective wings beating behind their backs. A soft glow began to overtake the bottom of the clouds as they came, rendering what yellow light that peered from the sunlight blocked above, and replacing it with an eerie emerald glow to cast itself under the storm clouds.

My teeth grit together as I watched them approach. All the suffering they had caused—all the setbacks they had forced of me and my friends—it was all going to end soon. I felt like my fear paled in comparison to my fury.

I was patient as they approached, unmoving, and filled with a stubborn bravery that I had not known I possessed. Even as their hums got louder and louder, the sounds of their dread replacing the world around me with their artificial tyranny, like they viruses they were, I reached for the lightsaber on my belt, lifted it high above me, and ignited its blue blade.

As the blue light of the lightsaber and the white light of the Light Cycle beneath me shed its rays around me, blocking the green hue from seemingly touching myself and the road directly beneath me, I could see it then—the many green eyes of the Cy-bugs, all shifted in unison to my presence.

I sheathed the lightsaber, and hung it back on my belt, and revved the Light Cycle before I sped back towards the city. There was a switch I had not used before that I hit then, generating the white light lines like in the game to travel behind my Light Cycle, remaining and lingering on for at least a good few yards behind me as I traveled.

The Cy-bugs were quick then. I could hear them approaching fast like a wave behind a ship, but with every pace they caught up to me, I revved the Light Cycle to travel faster down the open and straight highway, leaving them lacking and still two paces behind. I could hear some of them attempt to attack the Light Cycle's light beam that it trailed behind itself, breaking almost like glass as they ate at the solid light like a beast gnawing on ice. From behind me, I could hear their coding trigger a series of transformations as they ate the light beam material, however, when one slipped to the side of my gaze, I saw it was merely a cosmetic change, and their dark, metallic-like forms had shifted to a white exterior, and their eyes began to become overcome with white as well to snuff out the green.

I was going fast at that point, seemingly out racing the Cy-bugs behind me. However, I had not foreseen their cunning in this moment, when one of the Cy-bugs flanked me then.

I saw it appear quickly to my right, as if it had made a specific tactic to fly from the north instead of collectively from the east like the others. I felt my arm's muscles tighten as I tried to control my steering, at that moment having no choice but to let off the gas in order to regain my composure. However, being flanked at that moment wasn't the only thing that had taken me by surprise. As the Cy-bug passed me and made a large turnaround to my left, I could see it—I couldn't believe it.

It was Dell.

I recognized that black and silver color pattern anywhere. Dell was the Cy-bug that had been on my tail for the longest time, and I saw that it was still keeping up that role quite nicely. Even as it passed in front of me again, as if it was a taunt to get me to lose control, I could for a split second see the 'Dell' insignia on its forehead catch the light of my Light Cycle, and shine in my eyes.

At that time, I was so close to the point where Steven would start up the portal, but still too far to make that happen. The city was like a distant sign of hope, just out of reach, when it happened…

Dell returned again, flanking me once more on my right, and snagged the front wheel of the Light Cycle, causing me to lose control.

The collision happened so quickly. I felt like I was lucky to have survived due to my one off choice of slowing down just enough to prevent the wreckage from proving fatal. On top of it, the racing suit I had been wearing since arriving at Turbo's castle, helmet and all, protected me when I skid and rolled on the road, and then into the dirt off the highway.

My vision became dizzy and distorted as I fought off the pain my body suddenly expressed as I landed motionless on the ground. Despite this, I could still but only helplessly watch as my Light Cycle tumbled forward, flying past me even after I had fallen off, exploding and shattering then into millions of tiny pixilated glass-like fragments and cluttering the highway in its blue colors.

After that came the Cy-bugs.

I watched them from a distance as some of them swarmed the pile of pixilated material like a bunch of savage dogs surrounding a dead animal. To the other side of where I had crashed, and the opposite way of the highway, what Cy-bugs managed to latch onto the remains of the Light Cycle's light beam began to consume what remained stabilized and expressed in the real world, one after another, a handful more shifting in color to match the change that the added coding declared within themselves.

I felt dread filling my heart as I laid their motionless, unable so suddenly, to do what I set out to do.

I had hoped that Steven would turn on the portal then, but as moments passed it never happened. Instead, I heard his voice filter through the com-link at my belt.

"Kailey?!" Steven exclaimed. "What's wrong?! I see you've stopped driving! What's going on!?"

I could barely lift my finger to touch the com-link at my belt, let alone grab it and bring it to my mouth to speak into. As the moments ticked by in agony, I honest to God hoped he would just turn on the portal. I didn't know if I had taken the Cy-bug swarms close enough or not, but it was definitely not the prime location I had wanted to be in to trigger our plans.

"S—shit…" I stuttered softly. Was this really it? Was all my hope, and faith in our plans, and in myself for nothing? Did I seriously just screw up this bad?

I could see Dell then, flying high in the sky as the Cy-bugs began to swarm around, now not having a direct point of light to follow and keep them preoccupied. As I watched Dell fly around, making his turn from high up and then back down towards me, I found that what strength I had went into pulling my hands into fists as I expressed anger of the situation—anger of that stupid virus.

"We should've killed you when we had the chance." My body shivered as I felt that anger I held in my fists evaporate into my entire body. How ironic that it was that I had gotten this far and yet tripped at the finish line. Yet, I wouldn't go out fading away so easily. If I was going to go out, it would be loud and fighting.

It's the end of the line for me, I thought. I felt what adrenaline already pumping through me become more intense, filling my body with energy—an energy powerful enough, despite my pain, to sit up and grab the Hero's Duty gun Steven had given me, and lift it upward towards the skies.

Dell flew ever closer from above and downward towards me— I wouldn't falter my feelings of focus and hatred for them. If I was going to die, I wasn't going to die a coward. I thought back to all the times I had felt like giving up to these monsters, and the times they had killed people around me. I remembered Chell, Kohut, Aaron… the ones taken too soon, and unnecessarily.

Yes. Such unnecessary violence, I thought.

My senses were starting to find its equilibrium at that moment as I finally began to hear and see just how much and how truly it was so that I was in the midst of my enemies. Dell was making a comeback at me now, diving down towards the ground where I sat with its jaws wide open, and unleashing a loud screech as it fell closer and closer. My aim was steady as adrenaline kept me focused on him, fear all but being replaced by the desire to fight.

I pulled the trigger, hitting the Cy-bugs mouth.

And again…and again…

The Cy-bug got nearer.

With every hit I placed in its mouth, I imagined its life gauge declining. The Hero's Duty pistol wasn't as powerful as its riffle counterpart, but I knew it was working. Dell's excruciating screams were getting loud now as it got closer, with every blink its form arriving towards me at breakneck speeds from its once high ground.

So close, that its screams scraped my eardrums like a thousand tiny insects eating at my hearing.

Boom! One. Boom! Two.

Sparks erupted in the Cy-bugs mouth then, and suddenly it shattered. Right before me, like a firework had gone off, it's shattered remains scattered in front of me, and passed over and around me, dispersing onto the tan and rocky sands around and becoming partially buried as an instant gust of wind swept over the world. After the explosion and resolution of Dell's death, the sound of the other Cy-bugs around me returned to my senses as my point of focus was taken away.

I was now faced with the reality that there was absolutely no possibility I was going to make it out alone now.

"Steven." My finger had hit the com-link then. It would only be a matter of time before one of the Cy-bugs decided to attack me. "Trigger the portal."

"Kailey, what's happening!?" Steven said.

I thought of what I was going to tell him. In those instant moments of uncertainty, my mind raced through so many different words that it would be impossible to describe my train of thought. One for sure fact, though… that one truth I was prepared to say, was that I had lost.

A Cy-bug would land harshly in front of me then, seemingly shaking the ground with a thud as its many insect-like legs struck the rocky terrain.

"I'm not—" I was going to tell him, but found I was suddenly cut off. Listening to the Cy-bugs' wings pound around me, and even from the one in front of me, a different hum began to mix in with theirs. Even as a bright yellow light began to peer from the other side of the highway, clashing with the many green, and white glowing eyes from the Cy-bugs, I felt a sense of disassociation as if it was too good to be true.

Steven and the others wouldn't be coming after me, would they?

I felt horrified that they'd go out of their way to help me when they were needed at the arcade with the portal.

I saw it then, though, that the hum of this alternative rumble appeared to grow louder as the lights met the sound in equal orchestrated unison. So quickly, as if merely blinking would have made me miss its approach, I saw Car number 2 ram violently into the Cy-bug that had landed in front of me, causing the virus to flail to the side and plummet across the ground. The car, stopping in front of me, forced my focus to land on its sides—the teams name 'The Game Enders' became my focal point that I latched onto in those moments of uncertainty.

I looked to the driver's door, just as it swung open, revealing the driver within.

"Kailey!" I heard him gasp as he rushed out of the car, and to my side to lift my upper body off the ground and towards him. It was like I was in a dream, not so much due to the wreck and fight I had just endured, but because of who it was.

"It's you," I mustered softly. Strength was barely my ally at that moment as the rush of adrenaline left me, but still, just looking at him I felt like my ability to go on was as sure as the sun's presence behind the rain clouds above me.

"Turbo."

"Yeah… th'that's my name," Turbo said, his tone soft to meet mine. I could see a shine in his eyes—a confidence that I had not yet known of him to revel in.