Timestamp: August 26, 2002

Location: U.S.A, California, Los Angeles, Encom Laser Bay 2

PLAY AUDIO FILE

"Dad, please. You said you saved the archives with Mercury, Ma3a, I-No and all the rest from the original Encom mainframe. What's the point of salvaging their code if we never recompile them again?"

"All programs need purpose. Ma3a and Mercury are practically brand new, but what about all the rest? What purpose will those programs have? I hate to say it, son, but even in comparison to the dated game grid you told me about, the original Encom programs would be extremely obsolete. We'd have to keep them on a technologically ancient server, if a functional one can even be found."

"So? We will find a functional one. Then, we take the time to upgrade the programs on there."

"All of them? Do you know how many there were on the original mainframe? Do you know how long it would take to give even one modern functionality while preserving their core coding? Not to mention the amount or cost of dated hardware and energy we would require to host them all-"

"Ok, at least some then. The ones that stayed loyal til the end, and none that surrendered to the MCP. Tron-"

"My Tron?"

"Your Tron is already somewhere on the Game Grid thanks to Uncle Flynn."

"Tron is still the best program I ever made, you know."

"I know, Dad."

"The Tron Legacy upgrade is almost finished, as you also know. If we could find him..."

"Yes! But I told you about Uncle Flynn's video diary I found down there, right? According to his last entries, it's a mess in that grid. You can't just summon him to an I/O tower anymore- it's too dangerous."

"Ah. And the alternative is to go in ourselves, I suppose? With the backup of the Encom programs? I am beginning to see."

"That's the idea, but we will need the kind of backup we know we can count on, and a lot of it. We need to bring back I-No, Ram and more. I-No and Sam will know who else."

"Sam is only a child."

"He is a teenager and he knows his father's stories by heart, better than you or I do. Not to mention, he was right, right about seeing his dad disappear into the arcade all those years ago."

"What I remember him describing does coincide with our recent experiences of personal digitization."

"Exactly! Will you do it, then?"

"Well… I guess I am not getting any younger, and if anyone has a chance with upgrading such older programs…"

"Right, it's you, Mr. Isolated Thinker. You, Mom, Gibbs and ZackAttack. And I will learn. So can Sam. The six of us together, we can do this."

"You sound so certain."

"I am! We beat FCon, their datawraiths, and saved Encom. We can beat this too. Bring back the loyal programs, Dad. They deserve to live, and with them at our backs, we can help Tron and save the Grid! We can save him. Flynn Lives."

"...Flynn Lives." Shaky laughter. "Using my own movement against me, Jethro? I don't know whether to berate or praise you for it. Either way, your determination makes me proud. Yes, Flynn Lives. Let's make sure of it."

NEWLINE

Girl-of-Action: This is it! The End of Line to this collection of oneshots, but every EoL is also a Newline. I would like to continue this with Clu 1 being the main POV, although there will be plenty of other main recurring characters. The idea of eventually pitting Clu 1 (the suave, boyish, loyal hacker genius) against CLU 2 (the tyrannical, uptight, manipulative administrative powerhouse) is just a lot of fun for me to brainstorm with.

This whole Newline series has become an unexpected passion project of mine. Even lacking the popularity of my other stories, something about it just really excites me. I've enjoyed orchestrating character development in this ficlet, and (in a possible sequel I've started working on) I've enjoyed world building. The general combination of fantasy & spiritual elements with science fiction is what led me to fall in love with Star Wars when I was little, and is leading me to do the same with Tron now. Have you noticed that even the heroic poses of Luke Skywalker and Tron from their respective original movie posters are pretty much identical? Just switch out a lightsaber for a disc.

Ok, enough rambling on my part. Thank you to everyone who's read this far! If you have any thoughts / ideas for what you would like to see in any potential sequels, please do let me know. I'll be sure to take it into serious consideration.

Last but not least, Happy (belated/early) Independence Day to my Canadian and American readers!