Tron: Sacrifice

Episode Eleven: Memory

"WHERE ARE WE?" BECK asked.

"The subconscious, I believe." Ada said looking around her.

"Then," Beck asked bemused, "how are we here together?"

"I don't really know." Ada said quietly, yet a little cheerfully. "All I can figure is that my disc has been reactivated. I was dead, you know."

"No," Beck said, "I didn't know.

"Your disc is activated," Beck recapped aloud, "Then we're in your mind?"

"I don't believe so." Ada said looking around the darkness. "It's too dark."

Beck was bemused.

"'Too dark?'"

"Yes," Ada gestured around her. "I was around for a quite a long time. This mind is young; an aged mind would be brighter and more defined with all sort of other elements to describe it..." She paced around thinking. "Perhaps this is your subconscious?"

"I am young." Beck admitted.

"That would mean we share my disc." Ada said. "Hmmmm...Interesting."

"What?"

"I was derezzed." Ada said. "My disc must have been saved. And your disc?"

"They told me it was destroyed. It was badly damaged." Beck explained.

"Then your programming is in main operation." Ada said.

"How?"

"I don't know." Ada said as the light on them grew larger.

"Aha," Ada said looking up. "They're calling you back."

"Wha-"

Tron watched Kassandra closely as she began to wake Beck from his regenerated sleep. His eyes opened slowly, and Kassandra entered the command codes to open the pod. And Beck sat up as he pushed the lid up.

He sat there, confused.

"Beck?" Tron asked stepping forward. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Beck rubbed his temples. "I just feel like I should remember something important."

Tron looked to Kassandra, then back at Beck, "You're the Renegade."

"I remember that, it's something else."

Tron looked at Kassandra, silently demanding an explanation with his eyes.

"Since I could not retrieve all of the ISO's programming," Kassandra guessed, "he may be experiencing some confusion due to the new Identity Disc. The memories may have mixed with his own."

"Whose disc does he have?" Tron asked.

"An ISO named Ada."

"Ada?" Beck whispered. He knew that name, but he couldn't remember where it came from. "Ada."

"Don't think too hard on it." Tron told Beck, seeing the trouble the whole thing seemed to be causing him. "Zed wanted you to try out the bike/jet combo he made."

"Right." Beck said, looking up as the sliding doors to the Lab opened to allow Quorra inside. "Quorra!"

Quorra stood back for a moment, amazed he seemed to know her.

"Beck?" Tron said, uneasy.

"Huh?" Beck looked at Tron, still glancing at Quorra.

"How did you know Quorra?"

"I-I don't know." Beck said finally.

"Ada knew Quorra very well." Kassandra said. "Beck is remembering her through Ada's memories."

"Then he'd know how she died." Quorra said quietly, suddenly melancholy.

Beck looked at Quorra.

"I don't remember a death." Beck said softly.

Quorra swallowed hard.

"I thought you were there." Kassandra said jerking her head to the side to push her colorful hair out of her vision.

"No, I wasn't." Quorra clenched her fists. "She said she'd cover for our escape. She wouldn't let me stay with her."

Kassandra moved to her side and patted her shoulder to comfort her.

"What happened?" Beck asked politely.

"We were in Tron City." Quorra began. "We went on a trail of rumors saying there were other ISOs hiding there. We found three others, but we were ambushed."

Tron and Kassandra bowed their heads. Beck stared at Quorra.

"Clu found you?"

"His soldiers did." Quorra said looking Beck in the eye. "Ada told us to go on, that she'd catch up with us later, but she never came. I went back alone, and all I found was her disc and cubes in a garbage container nearby."

Beck froze with sadness. Ada was killed protecting four of her comrades.

"I'm sorry." Beck said, barely audible.

"She would be happy to know her disc is in good use." Quorra said smiling a little, pushing on.

"Anyway," she said, "the tall one of your friends, with a bike obsession, is wondering what is taking you so long."

"Zed." Beck laughed. "That's him alright."

"You just flip the switch here, and the transformation does the work itself."

"Are you sure about this, Zed?"

"It's okay, Beck." Mara put in. "It works I already tried it!"

"It is safe?"

"Why does everyone always ask that?" Zed said aloud. "Of course, it is!"

"Okay, Zed." Beck said humorously. "It's just, I've been through a lot of complications I the past Myla. You can't blame me for being cautious."

"Oh, haha. Just try it out." Zed put Beck's baton in his hand. "Go on!"

"This is my jet."

"I know." Zed said. "Tron had me improve all batons. So if you needed to escape from a jet attack, go into the city and flip the converter switch, and so on.

"Plus," Zed said looking over the edge of the railing. "We're about one hundred levels up."

"Thanks for that, Zed," Mara said.

"Are you sure about this?'

"Beck!"

"I mean, is it cleared with the ISOs that we start flying off the top of their quarter units?"

"I'm sure it will be fine." Zed shoved Beck toward the railing. "They wouldn't let us out."

"Okay, Zed, but I'm blaming you if I get in trouble." Beck pointed a finger at his friend jokingly.

"When have I ever gotten you into trouble?" Zed asked, bemused. "I seem to remember you getting me out of trouble!"

Beck stepped on to the railing, breathing deeply, holding the baton tightly in his hand as he balanced, then let his body swing off the rail and hurtled down. It happened in slow motion for Beck, his body seemed to have to be dragged off the black metal rail. He took the baton in both hands and was about to activate the jet, when the objects around him changed.

The street half consumed by darkness, and he stood there surrounded by soldiers, his disc active and humming.

Then the crowd of soldiers divided to allow a program with bright yellow circuitry through to stand in front of Beck.

"You ISOs fight bravely," Clu said in a cheerful voice, "but your strength holds not. Surrender yourself and your friends and I may hold you in good favor."

"Good favor to finally finish the last of the ISOs?" Beck changed his stance with a fury of movement knocking aside Clu and shoving him to the ground. "I will never surrender. I will never betray my kind."

"Then," Clu said, suddenly jerking his hand upward into Beck's abdomen, "you shall die alone."

Beck gasped as Clu ripped his disc from Beck's body, and looked down at his own cubes of blue rapidly dropping from his body.

Clu shoved Beck away and stood up as Beck lay on his back with a gaping hole in his stomach, gasping as he watched Clu wipe away any trace of his cubes as if they were filth.

"Tron will stop you." Beck said with venom in his voice. "He will come and destroy you as you have done my fellow people."

"Empty threat." Clu wave his hand impatiently. "Tron is in no condition to destroy anything."

Clu turned to his commander.

"Search the area. Find them."

Beck laughed serenely, "You won't be able to. We know things about the Grid you cannot imagine! The Grid's Secret Keepers, the ISOs are, and always will be."

Clu's soldiers all left them on his orders, and Clu smiled, knowing he could do his worst to the ISO before him without being seen or over heard.

"You will tell me where they are," Clu said, silently marveled how this ISO could last so long with such a wound, "or we can hear exactly how loud you can scream."

"BECK!"

Beck eyes widened as the floor seemed to rush up at him, his hands fumbling on the baton to activate it. Suddenly, the jet jumped to life under him and he scrapped the floor for twenty seconds before being able to flip the converter switch. The bike surged forward and Beck lost his grip on the bike. He flew off and rolled as the bike speed off, spinning, and crashed nearby, showering Beck with sparks and ruined bits of parts.

"Beck!"

Beck looked up at Tron.

"What were you doing?" Tron half shouted at him.

"Guess I'm a little rusty." Beck stood up shaking.

Tron moved to steady him as Beck's feet slipped out from under him. Quorra took his other side and slipped his arm over her shoulders.

"The Lab." Tron ordered.

"No." Beck said. "I'm fine, really. I'm just a little shaky, that's all."

"Kassandra should put you back into stasis to calm your systems, then." Tron said, heaving Beck to the lift. "Your new disc can't handle such activity on its own!"

"No. I'm f-"

"You're going back to rest up, Beck!" Tron ordered. "Your disc doesn't need a test!"

"I sorry!" Beck sputtered. "I just lost control of the baton!"

"I saw it happen, Beck. I know what happened." Tron pushed him to the Lab and held him down in the Regeneration Pod as Kassandra scampered about to start a new sequence. "You were falling through the air without a single look of awareness around you! Zed and Mara were shouting at you the whole time! You fell one hundred feet, Beck. You're lucky you survived!"

"Tron, I-"

"Shut up, don't move from this pod, and let Kassandra do her job."

Without another word, Tron angrily marched from the Lab, and beck laid down in the pod.

"I almost died."

"Tron was being protective." Ada assured Beck. "He was frightened."

"I saw what happened." Beck said suddenly. "Your memory right before you were murdered. Clu tortured you. I saw him strike you, and I saw it like I am seeing you now. I was in your eyes seeing it all happen like you did."

"You saw me die?"

"And that is why I almost died." Beck said. "I couldn't see what I was supposed to be doing! I became you, and I thought I was fighting Clu."

Ada remained silent as Beck monologued.

Then Beck stopped as sudden realization hit him.

"I can't tell them." He said looking up at the light. "If Tron knew I see your memories as if they were the present, the Renegade won't be anything anymore. Tron won't let me fight for the revolution."

"I'm sorry, Beck." Ada said. "But you should tell them you see me."

"No!" Beck retorted. "They already think I am going nuts. If I tell them you're here. In my subconscious, I will become an experiment!"

"But you will be safe!"

"I don't want to stay here safe and sound, Ada." Beck said. "I need to fight. For Bodhi. For Able. I need to keep Tron and Mara, Zed, Paige safe. If I do not take back the role of the Renegade, Argon will lose faith and fall to Clu. I cannot let it happen."

"What happened?" Tron said for the seventh time.

"He was going to try out the jet/bike combo." Zed reported. "That was all."

"He was fine before he jumped." Mara backed up.

Paige looked stricken at Beck. She had been searching the Hall of Discs as the incident happened, and discovered Ada's disc was missing from its slot. Kassandra confirmed to her Ada's disc was being used, which made Paige wonder why that ISOs disc.

"No more jets or bikes." Tron ordered. "No baton should be put in his hand until he has a grip on himself."

There was a whirling sound as the lights flickered and went out.

Kassandra rushed to the pod and manually request energy to the Lab.

"Power surge." Quorra reported confidently. "Our supplier came through early though."

The lights and systems came back on with a mechanical whirl and Quorra looked down at her security screen.

"More energy than we need. No wonder the systems failed temporarily." Quorra read more when she was interrupted by a video message. She opened it.

The screen she was holding jumped up on the wall, being projected for all of them to see.

A program with aqua circuits was panting as if exerted.

"Clu is coming." She said. "For me. He must of gotten a tip from someone on the inside. I am currently deleting everything I have from you. I will be terminating the signal to assure your safety and sending you the last of my energy reserves. A bit of it is raw. I still have time to run to have you removed from my disc. I know the risks, but your safety is more important.

"If all goes well," she said her brow furrowed and eyes at her many screens apparently working her computers overtime to delete the ISOs signals, "I will contact you at the place we disgusted. If not, Clu will have me, but you will be safe."

She saluted, "Find Tron."

The message ended.

Ruby was returned to her cell that she shared with Miranda.

"Ruby?" Miranda called, worried. "Are you alright?"

"Of course," Ruby said, kneeling to her companion's side. "Dyson has nothing on me. In fact, I almost killed him."

"Almost?"

"The round ended." Ruby said, biting down a bitter comment. Miranda didn't need to hear it.

"How are you?" Ruby asked.

"My arm is rebooted, but a little stiff."

Then Miranda gestured down at her leg, "That is another story."

Miranda was lying on the cell bench, her leg completely unresponsive.

"If only your disc wasn't locked," Ruby said. "I could heal you in no time."

"I'll be fine, Ruby." Miranda said.

"You could lose the leg."

"You're fighting for my treatment. I have complete faith that you'll heal me by kicking Dyson into the next Hecto."

Ruby smiled, and stared at Miranda's blank, blind eyes.

"He will be if he keeps fighting the way Clu taught him."

"So he still is for Clu?" Miranda said. "I believe he can be persuaded to come back."

"I'm not going to try." Ruby spat. "I wouldn't want him back even if he came back on his hands and knees, half derezzed."

"Harsh." Miranda stated.

"You said so yourself, Miranda," Ruby said, whispering as tripod of guards marched past with a new prisoner, "Dyson can be a swing program. But I see this differently; if Dyson can be persuaded, he can swing to and fro Clu's Occupation from Tron's rebel forces and visa verse."

The prisoner was shoved roughly into an adjacent cell, her disc locked, and holding an injured arm.

Ruby looked at her with a narrowed eye.

"What is it?" Miranda asked.

"Do you think Clu would go as low to place a traitorous spy to observe us?"

Miranda considered for a moment, a curious expression crept over her usually blank face.

"There is no way of knowing how low Clu would stoup to intimidate us for information."

"I'm going to keep an eye on that one." Ruby said darkly as the prisoner gave her escorts a very rude hand gesture before settling in a corner.