"Will Lora tell us which age he'll find out?"

"Yes, if it comes to his twenty-first birthday and he isn't ready she'll tell me"

"Then I guess all we can do is wait and see what happens at those two time periods, though I'm worried about communication with the user world from here in Tron City considering Clu watches things like that closely"

"We still have ways of making sure that things remain secure Cutler, it's not as easy as it was in Argon, but it's doable"

"Very well, we do it your way, for now"

"We'll figure it out Cutler, I promise"

Eventually Alan did manage to figure out secure communication with Lora and found out that Sam would be finding out about Alan and Kevin once it had been twenty years since Kevin's disappearance because he just simply wasn't ready to take over the company or act in any capacity as an employee at age twenty-one

"So, what now?"

"Now we continue to wait, and in the meantime I think it's time I did a risky move"

"Tron, whatever you're thinking about doing, don't, I need you here right now because I think I have a plan that might work to our advantage, but it will only work with you here"

"Very well Alan, I'll wait for now, but you need to enact your plan soon because my risky move is also important"

"I'm thinking of regaining this entire sector of the City, freeing it from Clu's control by revealing that you're alive, very, very publicaly and flashy, I know it puts a target on your back but I also think it's time that Clu is aware of the fact that there's a resistance that's against him in the capital city and won't just continue standing by and hiding"

"Then my mission actually has to come first Alan, because my mission involves trying to figure out who Rinzler is"

"No Tron, we can't risk losing you before the Grid knows, well and truly knows, that you're alive, plus Rinzler is getting worse every time and I honestly don't want to lose any of you to Rinzler if it can be helped, and you and I both know that Clu will keep Rinzler close by if he's so important and you're not ready to face Clu again and you know it"

"But Alan..."

"No Tron, we potentially have a long time to wait still until Sam makes his move, we need to play a long game and you're too big of an inspiration to risk, you're still considered dead by most, even if it's not Clu, you're a trump card in the fight for a sector of the city being free after so long"

"But I..."

"Sorry Tron, but this is an order"

The entire group could see that Tron wasn't happy and was struggling to accept the order, but accept it he ultimately did since it had been Alan that had given the order. Alan then goes over to Tron and puts both hands on Tron's shoulders

"I'm sorry for doing this to you Tron, but I have my reasons for giving you this order, reasons that might not make sense now but hopefully will later, now then we have plans that need to be made but at the same time we all need rest. Plus I need to make contact with Lora soon, we're reaching a point where she's going to inform Roy about this project due to the contact that was lost after Argon's fall"

"When did those orders come into play?"

Tron was asking because over the cycles that Alan had been stuck in the Grid he'd told the resistance stories of the people he'd worked with, including Roy Klienburg, the person who had programmed Ram in the Encom system. That's when Alan learned what had happened to Ram because Tron explained what Kevin had told Tron during Kevin's adventure against the MCP and when Alan heard that he had only said one thing about it

In Argon

"Roy always wondered what had happened to his program, Kevin never spoke about it even when Roy asked upfront one day, now I know why he was avoiding that conversation, it must have been too painful for him to think about, much less talk about. I guess I'm the one who's going to have to explain eventually, if I ever get out of here that is"

"It's time after all"

In Tron City

"They came into play the day before Argon fell, it was my backup plan that I didn't think would ever be needed but might just come in handy after all"

"Then we need to secure communication with the user world and soon, that has to be the priority"

Fortunately one of Cutler's men remembers an area that could be used to establish secure communication with the user world

"Clu never checks that location because he doesn't know about it"

"How come?, and how come you know about it?"

"The Creator, Kevin Flynn, he programmed that information into me and then hid it deep in my memories so that if Clu captured me he couldn't find out about the place no matter what he did to me, it was only to be triggered under very specific circumstances and your circumstances is one of them"

"Good thing, let's do it"

And so Kevin makes contact with Lora and finds out that due to medical reasons Sam wouldn't find out about Alan or the Grid until it had been twenty years since Kevin's disappearance. After that the group works to free the sector of the City that they were living in and revealing that Tron was alive, and Alan went into the field more often too, with Tron by his side every time. Then one day Tron and Alan had to fight against Rinzler and Alan was the one who had to protect them both because Tron was incapable of fighting within moments of going up against Rinzler, and while Alan ultimately forced Rinzler to retreat it was a close call and Tron was severely injured and Alan wasn't in much better shape, but he managed to get the two of them back to base where Cutler was shocked at the state the two of them were in, especially Tron

"What happened?"

"Rinzler, we came across him, but...something's wrong, Tron...Tron simply stopped as if in shock, and he hasn't moved except by force ever since, I had to be the fighter for both of us this time around, we need rest first though before more explanations are forthcoming"

"Then rest, we'll hold off on any further actions until you're both awake and able to explain what happened today"

"Thanks, though actually we're running low on supplies again Cutler, that needs done no matter what state we're currently in right now"

"Don't worry I already know about the supply situation and sent others out while you and Tron were on your own mission, they should be back soon enough"

"Good, if I'm not up when they return wake me"

"Understood"

Alan goes to sleep and is woken up way too soon in everyone's mind, but it was desperately needed

"Alan...Alan!"

"Hm...wha...what's wrong...Mara?"

"It's Tron, Cutler reports he's still in the same position that you left him in, he's not recharging or anything, we need you to do a force shutdown of his systems so that he gets downtime, sorry, I know you hate doing that to him, and he hates it being done but..."

"But it's our only option right now?"

"Yeah"

"Very well, I'll also initiated a healing program while at it if Tron hasn't done it and if you guys also haven't done it"

Mara shakes her head though

"Paige already healed him, as much as she could with what supplies she had anyways, she did it about twenty minutes after you went to sleep and he was still just...sitting there not doing anything about his wounds and was at risk of derezzing"

"Understood, then I'll simply force him to shut down and get some rest"

"Thanks"

And so Alan goes over to Tron to see him in the exact same position that he'd left Tron in and forces Tron to shut down

"Hopefully he'll be in a mood to answer questions when he wakes up, but be aware that he's not going to be very happy initially"

"We know, we've seen this a few times already Alan"

"Yeah, sorry forgot for a moment due to still needing sleep"

"Yeah, get back to bed Alan, we'll let you wake up on your own next time"

"But the supplies..."

"The people returned while you were doing the force shut down, we have our supplies and everyone's okay and unharmed, except for one person and Paige could handle that injury without any user help needed afterwards"

"Got it, see you when I wake up again, if Tron wakes up before me try and get him to talk about whatever it was that froze him like that, if it can be prevented then that's what I want to happen"

"Got it"

As it turned out Tron would wake up after Alan and refused to talk to anyone but his user in private first

"What's going on Tron?, why did you freeze up to the point that both of us were almost killed?"

"I...I know Rinzler, now that I fought him, I know him and...and telling people will be hard, especially informing three specific people, possibly four"

"Why Tron? I need to know why you froze and why telling others will be hard to do"

"I...it's Beck, Rinzler is Beck, we thought he was derezzed by Tesler years ago by user world standards"

"Beck, that's..."

"My original successor after the failure that was Cyrus, the one who took up my name after his friend's death"

"No wonder you froze, and this is going to hit Mara, Zed, and definitely Paige hard, Cutler is a maybe too now that I think about it"

"Exactly, I trained Beck and know his moves cold, out of the other three only Paige would possibly recognize him but since she's never out in the field..."

"She never had the chance to realize it, and she would have only known him as the Renegade"

"Exactly"

"Then we have a decision to make, a couple actually now that I think about it"

"Do we tell the three that will be affected for sure the most?, and do we erase my memories about fighting Rinzler and simply hoping I never see him fighting or have to fight him again?"

"Yeah, that's the decisions we're going to have to make right now, especially because I can't have you freezing up every time you see Rinzler fight, or have to fight against him in the future, it's too dangerous"

"How about a compromise, you block the name associated with Rinzler, make it so that I never remember that Beck is him and then all we can do is wait and see if the block actually works. As for the three that are affected the most, that decision is still needed, plus figuring out if we're also telling Cutler"

"Okay then, that should hopefully work, but we'll have to do the block after we tell the other three and also tell them that they can never reveal this fact in front of you as a precaution if we go with your plan"

"Do you have a better idea Alan?"

"Yes actually, you'll remember that Beck is Rinzler, it's not going to be easy to fight him, but I can program a subroutine that let's you remember that Beck doesn't remember you right now and that to fight him is a necessity until we can figure out how to undo the repurposing and turn him back into Beck"

"That is the better option actually, you do know you'll have to do that to Mara, Zed and Paige as well, plus probably Cutler too since while Paige doesn't generally go into the field it's getting closer to the day when she needs to and Cutler regularly goes into the field these days too"

"Yeah, disc Tron, need to make sure I can actually do that idea first and will only do that with you for reasons you're well aware of by now"

"Right"

And so Alan takes a look at the code and finds that he could indeed create a subroutine that would allow Tron to know that he was fighting Beck whenever he was fighting Rinzler, but would also know that there was no other choice in the matter and would put his feelings aside about fighting Rinzler until after the fight. And once the disc was synced back to Tron he said that he could feel the subroutine working

"Then shall we tell the other four what's going on?"

"Yes, we need to do it now actually, before we back off from doing so"

"I'll get them then"

Alan goes to the common room and no one thinks anything of it considering that it was getting close to time for Alan to eat, but he would instead surprise them

"Zed, Mara, Paige, Cutler, we need to meet, now"

"Is Tron okay?"

"It's...he's better now but we both need to talk to you about why he went into such severe shock on our mission"

As soon as they enter the room Tron was in they relaxed at seeing him awake and aware

"Hey Tron, good to see you actually awake, sorry about what we had to have Alan do to you"

"It was needed, but now we need to talk about Rinzler"

"Rinzler?, is he the one who put you in that state?"

"Yes, but not entirely intentionally, and quite frankly if he remembers after we free him I'm going to have to have a long hard talk with him about not blaming him for his actions against me"

"Why Tron?, and why do you sound like you want to free Rinzler? I mean...he follows Clu willingly doesn't he?"

"No Zed, Rinzler is no more free than I am, even with my status as being alive is revealed ever so slowly into the population"

"Tron, you're acting strange, and you've called...you've called everyone who ever met Beck in Argon, Beck...it's Beck...he's alive and now is Clu's right hand man as Rinzler"

"Tron?"

"Mara's spoken the truth Zed, Beck is now Rinzler, he's been repurposed and hopefully we free him but..."

"That's why you're the way you are, and why you froze according to Alan, you...you were fighting him, shall we explain to Paige and Cutler Tron?, or do you want to?"

"No, I will, Paige, you of course know Beck after meeting him a few times, Cutler you met in the games and managed to survive"

"Thanks to Tron"

"No Cutler, you were saved by Beck, Beck was my chosen successor after Clu's betrayal injured me to the point that I couldn't really fight, Paige, you knew Beck as the Renegade"

"I...I was fighting Beck this whole time?"

"Yes, from the start you were fighting Beck"

"Wait, the Renegade, then...then Beck was the one..."

"Yes Cutler, Beck was the one who saved you and made the suggestion that's allowed us to make what progress we have here in Tron City"

"And you've thought him dead all this time, and now..."

"Now we've found out he was alive this entire time"

"Yes, and now I need to ask all four of you an important question, I've created a subroutine that will allow Tron to fight against Beck in the future while Beck is Rinzler, do you wish for the same subroutine to be given to you so that you don't get yourselves killed and have Beck blaming himself for your deaths if we free him from Clu's control?"

All four agree to the subroutine, knowing that it might be important in the future, and once they were given the subroutine they instinctively knew that only those in the room could know about Beck being Rinzler, that all anyone else could know was that Alan thought that rectification could be reversed and he wanted to try it on Rinzler if at all possible since it was suspected that only a rectified program could have such loyalty to Clu

"Alan, maybe...maybe we can find the Creator now, have him join us even if he can't actively fight against his creation"

The person who spoke up was one of the programs who knew about Kevin creating Clu, and even knew that eventually Alan wanted to finally find Kevin, but they were not aware of things that only Alan and Tron talked about when making plans, nor were they aware of the fact that they were deliberately waiting until Sam was twenty-seven and had entered the Grid himself

"No, we have to wait a while longer, there's a signal that Tron and I know about that we're waiting for, an important signal for Kevin, though I am beginning to wonder if we should inform him that you're alive Tron"

"What makes you say that Alan?"

"Simple, you told me that the last time he saw you, you were fighting off Clu after his betrayal, and that he most likely heard you screaming in pain before silence. I'm willing to bet that he thinks you're dead because of that, even with our guarantee in regards to him coming back into action more than likely he'll probably be hesitant in a way, blaming himself for your "death" at the beginning of this whole mess"

"That's...I get where you're coming from Alan, and I get why you're thinking of doing this now but...I don't think we should make contact, it's too dangerous because of Clu"

"I'll defer to your decision Tron, though I hope we can tell Kevin the truth soon enough"

"Same here, same here"

"In the meantime though, we still have a sector to free and you need to reveal yourself more publicly"

"Right"

Time continued to pass and then one day the portal opened up again and Alan knew that it was Sam, this is because contact had been established once again and recently Lora said that Sam was twenty-seven and it was almost time for the twenty year anniversary of Kevin's disappearance, she also mentioned that while Sam wasn't the CEO of the company that was purely by his choice since he had decided after graduating from school that he would work in all the departments first before taking over the company, and stated he would spend no less than six months in a department, and if needed he would stay a year or more to learn the department inside and out to understand said department's needs

"Zed, Mara get to the arena, he might be forced into the Games and ultimately have to fight against Rinzler"

"Right, should we try and capture Rinzler while we're at it?"

"Yes, it's time"

"Right"

This was something else that had changed over the user years that Alan and co had been waiting for Sam to turn twenty-seven, they had initially tried to capture Rinzler and turn him back into Beck, but after three attempts which all ended in failure they decided that they would wait until Sam came into the Grid and fought against Beck in his Rinzler form. And part of the plan was to keep Tron out of the public eye if at all possible so that the truth could be revealed with Tron's second chosen successor by his side instead of the two of them having to fight each other first, something Tron never looked forward to and neither did Zed, Mara, Paige, who had started going into the field more often about a user month after she'd learned the truth about Beck but still wasn't in the field too often since she was basically the only medic in the resistance and they couldn't risk losing her, Cutler also never looked forward to fighting Rinzler but he did it if needed, though his teams if they weren't those in the know were always wondering why he was never happy about those fights

"Also, if you can, let me know if you overhear any of Clu's plans, I still have yet to give him a good punch for what he did to Tron"

"I thought you infiltrated his headquarters that one time specifically to punch him"

"Things happened and my original plans got put aside, so no I haven't gotten to punch him yet, or derezz him"

"Which again, might be hard since he looks exactly like Kevin did the last time you saw him"

"True, but I'm mad enough to give it a shot so long as we know for certain it's Clu I'm hitting and killing"

"Right, well we'd best get going"

"See you soon"

A short time later Zed and Mara were back, with Rinzler in tow but no Sam

"Where's Sam?"

"Someone else got him first, and Tron...I think...I think the person who rescued him was an Iso, even though they're all supposed to be gone"

"An Iso? I...I thought..."

Everyone could tell that Tron had become very, very emotional and it was understandable since they all knew that Tron thought he'd failed to save any of them after Clu's coup and him being captured and injured in that fight against Clu, though he'd fought to save them after he'd been freed, his injuries really didn't allow him to truly be active in any fight

"Tron, I think it's time we contacted Kevin and get together to fight against Clu, if the person who rescued Sam really is an Iso, then most likely they're with Kevin or will be soon"

Tron shakes his head though

"Not yet, not until we know for sure if you can free Rinzler from Clu's control, get him back to who he used to be"

"Okay, hopefully it won't take very long, though even if the portal does close on us Lora is aware of the situation and will reopen it for us when I tell her to"

As it turned out though Alan quickly found that he could fix the rectification easily after having seen the attempt in Mara all that time ago, but he also found that Beck would have his memories of the entire time he had been Rinzler and that there was nothing he could do about that without completely wiping his memories to the point that Beck wouldn't even remember his own name. When he made that discovery he knew that he couldn't make the decision alone and thus called the other five that would be affected about modifying his memories and explained the entire situation to them

"Due to the rectification process he can't make this decision himself, so I'm asking you five to make the decision for him, either way we should undo the rectification, but if I don't wipe his memories of Rinzler he's going to remember everything, he's ever done during that time period, including fighting and trying to kill his friends and mentor"

"And if you do wipe his memories then he won't remember anything, not even his name"

"Exactly, only Able would have more right to have a say but..."

"But he's dead, killed by Clu after that one infiltration mission, at least that's our hope, if Beck was the one who did the actual deed..."

"Then we'll simply have to help him work through it when we have the time, for now though we have to decide if Alan is going to wipe Beck's memories or not"

Ultimately they all decided that Beck would keep all his memories as his time as Rinzler, and that they would help him deal with the guilt of that time whenever possible and whenever it was safe to do so, because of what needed to be done as soon as Alan undid the rectification Beck went into reboot mode. While Beck was rebooting Tron activated a long unused communication line

"Flynn, it's Tron, I know that you most likely have thought me dead all this time but I'm not, I'm alive and with Alan-One right now who has been on the Grid for a while now but hasn't dared risk contacting you for reasons that I'm sure you're aware of. Your son Sam is on his way to you now I'm sure, I would like to meet with you so that we can end Clu's reign once and for all, I await your answer to this call"

The line was silent after Tron finished his say, but everyone knew that all they could do was wait and see if Kevin would believe the communication that had happened and would agree to a meeting. A few hours later though and Kevin agreed to a meeting, stating that he didn't believe that it was actually Tron that he was communicating with, but since the program had told the truth about Sam he was willing to give the program a chance at a peaceful meeting, and a chance to work together whether or not they actually were Tron

"So, did he give a time and coordinates for the meeting?"

"Yes, it's after tomorrow, hopefully Beck will be awake by the time we're supposed to meet Flynn, I...I don't know how I'll react Alan, it's..."

"It's been a long time since you last saw him, and while you're glad he's safe, the fact that he hasn't done anything against Clu hurts in a way"

"Yes, while in a way I understand why he hasn't acted, in another I resent him for his inaction"

"Maybe he can give us answers when we meet, how's Beck anyways?"

"Still in reboot, I..."

Suddenly conversation is stopped because they hear a scream, and Alan and Tron knew it was Beck because they had never heard that voice before, much less in a scream. When they got to the room they saw Zed trying to calm Beck down and failing, plus Beck was in fighting mode. Because of that Alan was forced to put Beck into sleep mode once more, but that mode didn't last long and Beck woke up again, but this time more aware of his surroundings, though it helped that Tron was there by his side when he woke up

"Tron...I..."

"It's going to be okay Beck, I promise, it wasn't your fault"

"Do Zed and Mara know the truth about me?"

"Yes, Beck...Able's dead"

"I know, Clu derezzed him personally as an example to programs that were close to rebelling against him, and an example to me since I very, very briefly broke through the Rinzler programming"

"I see, I think Zed and Mara will be relieved that you don't have to deal with that memory at least, oh Paige is with the resistance and both she and Cutler know the truth about you"

"I see, well it will be nice to work with Paige instead of against her, and it will also be nice to fight alongside Cutler"

"I'm sure it will be"

"Tron...I...I almost derezzed you our first fight against each other as Tron and Rinzler, I'm...I'm glad you're alive but...I'm sorry about what I almost did"

"It's not your fault Beck, yes, Alan and I were seriously hurt, but you weren't in control of yourself, and in all honesty it's partially my own fault, I should have considered even slightly about you possibly being alive and Rinzler despite the evidence of your death via an explosion"

"I...I know you don't blame me, but I blame myself for everything I ever did as Rinzler"

"We know, and we're going to help you work through that guilt Beck, but...unfortunately we don't exactly have time right now"

"Why not?"

"We're going to go meet up with Flynn, the Creator of the Grid, he doesn't believe I'm alive, but has agreed to meet with us since I told him the truth about the fact that his son Sam is on the Grid"

"I want to come with if at all possible, I...I know I won't be very welcomed by anyone, not even the Creator and anyone with him, but maybe...maybe this is my start to redemption"

"If Alan says yes then you can go, if he says no then you're stuck here understood?"

"Um...who is Alan anyways? I mean...besides someone I've fought before"

"He's...he's my user, the one who created me"

"Oh...oh wow, I'm glad I didn't succeed in killing him"

Suddenly Beck noticed something else, something that had been noticed in his Rinzler memories but not fully realized as Beck until just that moment

"Wait...he healed you, it's why you're able to fight again in the field, you no longer have scars"

"Exactly"

"Wow"

"Come on, get checked by Alan first and we'll go from there"

Alan would ultimately clear Beck for the meeting with Kevin, but he was under some pretty strict orders regarding his health, Beck had also discovered that he would never be rectified again with some minor modifications to his programming and he immediately agreed to it. At the meeting Kevin was shocked to see Tron alive and well, and also seeing Alan on the Grid. Over the next several hours Kevin was given the full story behind Tron fighting and surviving against Clu and how Alan came to be on the Grid. In return Kevin explained that he actually had fought back against Clu originally, but after several programs and a few Iso's had been killed in order for him to escape alive he stopped fighting against Clu, not wanting any other program to die because of his actions

"I guess it makes sense then that you stopped fighting, but now that we're all together we have a chance at defeating Clu from the outside"

"Yes, we do"

"By the way, before we defeat Clu I'm punching him"

"Let me guess, it's for what he did to Tron?"

"Yep, I decided that I'll be satisfied with a good punch if I can't actually kill him, got close to my goal once but failed for reasons that I will explain to you in private later Kevin"

And so the group planned to end Clu and eventually would succeed, without Kevin having to reintegrate and kill himself to end Clu once and for all. Alan would give Lora the signal that she could open the portal to the real world, and that there was no more danger since they had killed Clu, with Tron delivering the final blow after Kevin apologized to Clu for giving him bad directives from the beginning, which was only given after Alan punched him. It wasn't easy for Kevin to readjust to the real world after being gone for twenty years but he managed, and in the meantime he, Alan, Sam, Lora and Roy all worked to improve the Grid and make sure that what had happened to Kevin would never happen to anyone else. Over the years Tron would occasionally come to the user world while Quorra would return to the Grid and see new Iso's rise from the sea. Eventually Sam would become the leader of the Grid with the death of his father and that role became hereditary with his eldest daughter chosing to take up the role after Sam was no longer capable of going to the Grid after an accident that had paralyzed him and destroyed his health to the point that it was too dangerous to make any more trips to the Grid. As for Tron, Beck and the others, in time Beck forgave himself and learned to heal from the memories of his actions as Rinzler, and would, in time, become Tron once more with Tron giving Beck his name after a fight against an attack that severely damaged Tron to the point that not even Alan's great-granddaughter could heal him completely, despite her best effort to heal him while she was actually inside the Grid. Due to that damage Tron slowly but surely became weaker and would eventually die with Beck, Zed, Mara and Paige by his side, Paige being his medic during his final hours. Cutler had been derezzed long before then fighting against a gridbug attack shortly after the Grid had been connected to the internet about three years after Kevin had returned to the user world, but he was never forgotten by the group who honored and remembered him every anniversary of his death. As for the rest of the group, in time they too would die, but they were remembered by the other programs, and Beck's story would be told in full as a reminder that sometimes you couldn't choose to follow an evil regime and that forgiveness and redemption was possible with time and effort