Tron Sacrifice Script

Episode Eighteen: Parted

"ZED, WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"What? I didn't do that." Zed said defensively, his face alight in flashing red. "If it helps my case, they're headed that way," he pointed through the wall, which receding footsteps were echoed away, "and Tron is missing."

"Damn it!" Paige whispered harshly. "Didn't I assign one of you to watch him?"

Zed crossed his arms and Mara scoffed at her.

"Okay," Paige said quickly, "change of plans."

A Few Micros Earlier

Tron leapt. His powerful legs launching his body over deep chasm-like lift shaft. He ran down the tunnel, the light flashing below his feet. He heard them before he saw the guards and stopped quickly hardly making a sound. They were coming. He bent his knees and pushed off the floor with all his might, flying to the railing of the upper level.

The programs below him walked nonchalantly, unaware Tron was watching them. They walked down the hallway, and Tron moved like a spider to right himself to walk on the catwalk.

"Hello, Tron."

Tron stopped, recognizing the voice instantly.

He turned his head, "Hello, Clu."

Tron dashed away like lightning.

"Sound the alarm! All units to the brig!"


She simply breathed. In and out, without a single concern. She did not wonder why she was suspended in a glass tube, and did not even bother to acknowledge a program in a similar tube.

Beck stared at her as her light lines appeared almost as instantly as she breathed in for the first time. It was orange, red, and yellow stretching down her arms, around her waist, and down her legs. The red flashing lit her white hair eerily.

Then suddenly, she punched through the glass with her fist. Beck's widened his eyes as she stretched forth her hand, her yellow-tipped fingers curling, reaching up to touch the air. Her elbow bent and her fingers stretched on the glass, which cracked. She pulled her arm back inside the tube and tapped the glass. It shattered and tumbled down on her and spilled onto the floor. She sat up, her body easily resisting the pull from suspension. She turned her head, silently observing the room, until her eyes came to rest on Beck. She cocked her head at him, considering him, then she swung her legs around like she was on an examination table, and stepped out of the field of suspension. She slowly walked over to him, her heels clicking on the floor and crunching the shards of glass.

This close, Beck could see the color of her eyes: Purple, which stared intensely at him. His knees were shaking, but he stood his ground, standing inside the tube tall and strong.

"Please state your designation." She asked, computer-like.

Beck said nothing, and she studied him.

"Running facial recognition."

His insides leapt.


"Tron?" Ruby said in disbelief.

"Ruby," Tron said as he ran passed and skidded to a stop to double back.

"No, you fool!" Ruby waved at him. "Keep running."

Tron ran between the rows and rows of cells filled with prisoners, all whispering at the sight of him and Clu's guards not far behind. Tron's eyes zipped across his plane of vision, finally spotting what he needed. He took out his disc, jumped to an energetic hum, and threw it down the way.

It flew almost in slow motion as Tron smashed into a guard coming from around a corner of cells, his eyes watching as his disc flew closer and closer to target, and SMASH!

The place went dark.

The hum of electricity powering down halted the soldiers and Tron stood up in a ready fighting stance, a hand poised to catch his disc as it obediently came back to him. The soldiers advanced.

Ruby stepped out of her cell and pounded down the hall toward the mass of orange. She caught hold of a guard's staff and shouted a battle cry. The startled guard lost his grip on the staff and Ruby ran it pointblank into his chest. She stepped down on his cubes and adopted a stance with a sneer, her scar stretched and light in the glow of light suits.

"Hello," she said. "Who will be next?"

Around them, the programs joined Ruby and Tron, and Clu watched with blank face. He turned away as his programs screams filled the space between them.

"Get the weapon and the Renegade." Clu ordered Cyrus. "We're leaving. Now."


"Facial recognition complete." She said. "Designation, Beck; occupation, mechanic-"

Cyrus barged into the room. "Vyruz, subdue him."

Her hand shot through the glass, connecting with his jaw. Beck's head smashed against the tube. The shards scattered across the floor, as Beck lost his balance in the tube, barely hanging on to consciousness. Vyruz advanced on him, kicking her heeled foot through the glass, shattering the tube completely. Beck fell to the floor, the glass piercing him as he scrambled to stand his ground.

Beck threw a punch. Vyruz caught his fist and squeezed his hand. Beck cried out in pain as his hand cracked, and sank to his knees, before she finally kicked his face. Beck fell back, cracking his head on the trashed floor, and knew no more.


"Did you really call me a fool?"

Ruby smiled, "Great to see you again, Tron."

"I see you haven't lost you sense of humor." Tron looked at the faces around him. "Where is Miranda?"

"Clu took her. I don't know where she is." Ruby said.

"Come on. We'll find her." Tron said, starting to lead them out of the brig. "I have some friends here. We need to regroup."

"I'll say," an angry voice joined in.

Tron turned a dark corner, walking straight into Paige's fist. Ruby launched herself at Paige with a yell and smashed her face into the wall. Zed and Mara pulled Ruby off of Paige and Tron held her back.

"Now's not a good time for this," Mara said, tightening her grip on Ruby as the program once again tried to attack Paige.

"I take it these are your friends?" Ruby grunted at Tron.

"You were supposed to stick to the plan: Go in, grab Beck, and step out." Paige started at Tron. "But what do you do? You leave and go off to have a reunion!"

"We need Ruby and Miranda, Paige." Tron let go of Paige. "And we are going to find Beck and Miranda."

"We need to leave now." Mara interrupted. "Since the alarm is triggered, Beck may already have been moved. We could lose him if we don't get it together right now."

The floor shook beneath their feet.

"What the hell was that?" Zed asked.

"We have to leave." Tron took off at a run, Paige and Ruby close behind him with Mara and Zed herding Clu's prisoners to follow them. They ran through the exit and spot lights found them. Tron and Paige shielded their faces with their arms while Ruby stared up.

"Miranda!"

"Hello, Tron." Clu's voice was magnified, as he looked down from one of his Throne Ship surrounded by fleets of Recognizers. "You know how much I want to see you again, so I have a parting gift for you."

Clu shoved Miranda over the edge of the ship, and waved at her as the blind program screamed and fell.

"Miranda!"

Ruby rushed forward, pushing Paige aside, as Tron threw his disc up at Clu, but it was useless. Clu had already disappeared into the ship and the disc bounced off the ships surface, barely nicking it. Ruby watched Miranda's body as it hurtled downward. Ruby lunged forward, pushing off the ground with all her strength. Miranda yelled as Ruby made impact and they rolled for a few meters.

The Recognizers began to veer off to their new destination, and Clu smiled. He activated a microphone.

"You may have noticed it isn't who you thought it was, but keeping your friend, the Renegade, insures me some closure. He intrigues me, to say the very least. He will make a very impressive assassin when I am through with him." Clu shutdown communications. "Set a course for Tron City, full speed. I have a friend to entertain."

Ruby looked at the crumpled program in her arms. Miranda was unconscious.

Tron was at Ruby's side and helped move their friend to a safer location. Paige, Zed, and Mara secured the perimeter.

"Well," Zed began, "Clu's gone, what is left of Tesler we just found; we won Argon back."

Paige looked around for Tron.

"This is ridiculous!" She said angrily.

Mara put a comforting hand on Paige's arm, not sure what to say and settled with, "We'll find Beck."

Paige shrugged Mara off and stepped off alone into the darkness.

Mara sighed. "She is just like him."

"What? Beck?" Zed asked.

"No. Well—yeah, a little bit. But she is more like Tron." Mara said. "We saw what Tron did today. He set his mind to something that made him go ruin this operation. Paige is capable of it too. We need to watch her. She could easily get herself killed if she does something like that. Clu has a kill-on-sight charge on her.

"Zed, we have to keep this from falling apart." Mara turned to face him, and took his hand. "This is our team, and if Clu ruins it, it is up to us to finish this fight, even if we have to kill Clu ourselves."

"Wow, uh, Mara-"

"I'm serious, Zed." Mara assured him. "Look what Clu's done."

"I know what his done, and trust me, I am angry. We just need to take this one step at a time."

"How can we when we're behind so many?"

"Mara! Zed!" Tron ran up beside them. "Where did Paige go? Miranda is hurt bad and we have to leave."

Mara looked around the direction Paige stormed off. She was nowhere in sight.


Cyrus turned Beck's head and installed a device right behind Beck's ear. Cyrus then held the piece in place and used a long thin instrument to adjust its inner workings. Clu stood to watch.

"Repurposing him would be so much easier." Cyrus said.

"True," Clu replied. "However, I have plans that Repurposing would totally ruin. I thought you would enjoy this?"

"I do, sir." Cyrus said. "But for the attempts that Tron gets closer and closer."

"He will not come to Tron City just yet."

"You are certain?"

"He has his hands full of Miranda and Ruby." Clu said. "And most likely, Ruby will certainly cause an uproar. I am hoping she kills the ex-commander. I was tempted to do it myself when I threw Miranda down to Tron."

"Vyruz needs the experience." Cyrus said as he finished his work. "Let her do it."

"I'll consider it, but I want to keep her close by." Clu said, smiling down on Beck. "Dyson is still AWOL, and I think I know what is going on."

"Dyson has supported you for so long. Surely, Tron wouldn't trust him."

"Either way, he should have been back before we left Argon if he was still loyal to me. I'll derezz him myself if he reveals himself."

"It's ready." Cyrus said.

"Then let us begin." Clu responded, sounding almost happy.

They watched as Cyrus sent a signal to start the device behind Beck's ear. It took a few moments, but suddenly Beck snapped awake, breathing hard. This was the fifth time Beck had been in an induced sleep.

"Renegade," Clu said. "You are really disappointing me, though I must say I am astonished. I never figured you to be so resilient to this, but of course we are in the process of testing." Clu walked over to Cyrus who was observing the results. "What seems to be the problem?"

"I've narrowed the possibilities to the ISO functions meshed in his programing. Though they are not pure, they seem to be blocking the impulse signals from the probe to generate the simulations. I have miss calculated."

Clu considered something for a moment.

"Test these functions. Find the weak spots." Clu said. "I want to know what he can do. If there is no way around them, we may have to let Vyruz have her way with him to get that experience that you seem to think she needs."

"Yes, sir."

Clu smiled at Beck and turned on his heel. Once Clu'd left, Cyrus laughed.

"Well, Becky," he said patting Beck's cheek, "I have the whole day planned out. We're going to have some fun."


Paige rode out of Argon on her cycle, her face determined as she followed the Throne Ship. But she was getting left behind. She gave the switch that Zed installed a flick from her finger, and the light cycle mod added features as she drove. Then she gained altitude. It was perfect. Her headset activated and she accelerated, hanging behind the ship's massive squad of flight crafts.

She scanned the Throne Ship for an entrance, deciding her best chance was an overhead break into one of the ventilation shafts. But how to get there unnoticed... she admitted to herself, as much as she would like to take on the ship mid-flight, she knew she wouldn't make it to touch the hull.

She hung further back in the air, the orange haze a beacon for her to follow.


"Where's Paige?" Tron asked.

Together, he and Ruby managed to repair Miranda's injuries.

"We couldn't...find her." Zed said.

Mara leaned up against the wall and crossed her arms and Tron noticed.

"She went after Clu." Tron said. "Didn't she?"

Mara looked at Tron, "You would do the same, wouldn't you?"

"Be ready to move out by the beginning of the next cycle." Tron said turning. "Zed, tune up the cycles. I have to talk to someone before we go. Alone."

The lift closed, Ruby's stricken face very vivid in Tron's eye. The lift took him to the brig that the mechanics helped build. There were more cells than Tron cared to count, but only one was occupied.

Tron stepped in front of the glass. Dyson looked up at the movement.

"Hello, old friend." Dyson smiled, his voice a little muffled. "I was wondering when you'd be down here to visit again."

"We need to talk." Tron said simply, and smiled for no other reason than to see the fear in Dyson's eyes.