Chapter 10- Reconvene

The sun can barely be seen through the dark clouds, and Quorra tries to focus only on it through the broad windows of this compound. She and Sam had driven up in tense silence as the sky got darker and darker the further north they went. The whole time, she hadn't let go of the Renegade's profile but refused to open it again.

How could he be alive? Her frown grows as she finds her mind wandering from the sight through the compound windows. I saw his execution with my own eyes…

In her mind's eye, she watches the warrior's gaze glaring defiantly at the camera, barely hiding his fear, before one of the familiar red discs resting at his shoulder cuts across his neck-

"Quorra." She jumps and has to stop herself from instinctively punching (again) as she turns to the hand that shook her shoulder. Sam is watching her carefully, and his hand slowly moves down to gently take her hand in his own. "They're ready. You okay?"

She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes, before nodding. He smiles encouragingly and squeezes her hand before letting go. She stands and follows Sam and the guards into the conference room.

The past few days of traveling and staying at the hotel while Sam met with the Avengers allowed her to learn each name and become familiar with their faces. Immediately she can recognize Captain America (who watches her with a furrowed brow), Falcon (who is examining her with the eyes of a soldier, just like the captain), Black Widow (who is tracking her every movement), Scarlet Witch (who is clutching a mug of tea), and Tony Stark (who seems unimpressed over the rim of his coffee). A man with an eyepatch (Fury, if she remembers from their first meeting) sits at the opposite end of the table, and three men she doesn't recognize watch her.

"Hello." She manages, awkwardly standing. Fury gestures to the empty chair, and she slips into it.

"So Mr. Flynn says you have vital intel concerning these...programs." He begins.

"I do." She nods, setting the Renegade's file down on the table, before fiddling with the sleeve of her jacket. "I know the identities of both programs, and a couple of theories on how they know each other, along with ways to find them."

"Oh!" Stark says skeptically, and Fury shoots him a glare. "Then, by all means, don't leave out a single detail!"

"Tony-" The Captain starts.

"I don't plan to." Quorra interrupts, ignoring the sarcasm. She steels herself, before unzipping her jacket. She hears some of them start and perhaps draw weapons, but she ignores them as she sheds her jacket, leaving her in a tank top as her circuits shine. She looks up as the Black Widow and one of the men wielding a bow and arrow (Hawkeye, she dimly realizes) slowly sit and sheath their weapons, and the others relax.

"I will tell you everything I know about the Grid." She folds her hands on the table, looking at each of them in the eye. "As you can tell, I am a program as well, and I have spent most of my life with Sam's father, Flynn, who taught me everything he knew." She takes a deep breath. "Let's start from the beginning."

Beck wanders about the shelves of books surrounding the hub of computers. Each spine he examines is the jumble of symbols he has yet to decipher.

"Beck." He jumps at his name and turns back to Tron, who barely glances up from the computer to wave him over. Beck quietly returns to Tron's side to stare at the screen.

"What is it?"

"According to the lady at the front desk, we are somewhere called New York City. I looked up where Center City, California was and…" He points to the computer screen, and Beck's brow furrows as he tries to understand what he's seeing. The symbols mean nothing to him, but it seems…

"How far away is that? They're on the two opposite sides…"

Tron scrolls down. "It says it's almost three days to get there."

"Well, how are we going to do that?"

Tron hums in thought as he scrolls down, before clicking on a link. "There's a bus that runs from here to a city called Los Angeles, California. It's not Center City, but if it can take us that far, then we can manage the rest of the way on our own."

"That's great!" Beck says too eagerly and is shushed by someone who pokes their head around the bookshelves. He bows his head as his cheeks burn, before returning to Tron in a soft voice. "Then let's go."

Tron nods, and stands. He grabs a bundle of brochures off the desk and stuffs them in his bag. "Nearest station isn't far from here. Let's get moving."

"Any questions?"

The Avengers gawk at the program and everything she revealed to them. Sam stands behind her, hands folded behind his back as he remains stiff.

"Wait," Banner says finally (Quorra finally learned the names of the other two men), "you're a program, but also not…?"

"The term is ISO or Isomorphic Algorithms." Quorra clarifies. "We are programs, but we aren't created like other programs, who have Users. The ISOs were created by the Grid." She looks away. "I'm the only one left."

"...I'm sorry to hear that."

"So this Rinzler guy is also known as Tron?" Tony asks next, brow furrowed. "As in the video game Tron? And he was the savior of the Grid?" He scoffs. "I don't buy it."

"Oh, it's real," Sam speaks up. "My father based the game off the program himself. Alan created him back in the 80s, and Flynn moved him to the Grid after his first encounter in the computer."

"Bradley created him?"

"He's not incompetent!" Sam snaps back. "He's a programmer and a damn good one! He raised me when my dad disappeared for twenty years and tried to run Encom on his own. In that way, he's done more than you."

Tony opens his mouth to snap back, but Fury cuts over him. "Has he ever been to the Grid? Does he know what happened to Tron?"

"He does know now," Sam admits, looking down. "And I know his son...well there are rumors that in the early 2000s, both Alan and his son Jett made it inside the Encom server, but not by choice. Alan won't tell me if that's true or not, and I haven't been able to get a hold of Jett for years. Only person he talks to anymore is Alan."

"We'll need to get a hold of both of them, figure out what they know." Fury decides.

"I have a question for Quorra." Thor raises his hand, looks to her, and starts talking. "So this second program...he was a revolutionary?"

Quorra's eyes grow sad. "Yes." She takes a deep breath. "I had already been living with Flynn for quite some time when the revolution happened. It started in an outer city called Argon, where a program posing as Tron waged a one-man war against the Occupation forces stationed there. No one really knows if he actually knew Tron, but his main mission was to convince everyone Tron was alive and that they could be free."

Steve is watching her expression carefully. "Something tells me he wasn't successful."

"He was." Quorra then looks away. "He gained quite a following through the Grid. I had even tried to convince Flynn that we should help, but he said it would be dangerous for me to go. And then...Clu had enough and went to Argon himself. This was the first time Rinzler was introduced to the Grid. Even from our hideout, Flynn and I could see the smoke as the city caught fire. I heard that they all fought valiantly, but a bunch of untrained programs are no match against Rinzler and Clu's soldiers. It waged for days, and I begged Flynn to go to them, to help them." Her expression falls, and her breath catches. "He said that we shouldn't intervene. That it was meant to be and was simply a cost of war that we shouldn't be a part of anyway." She holds herself close. "I wish I hadn't listened. Maybe they would have had a fighting chance if I had helped."

Sam put a hand on her shoulder and gently squeezes as he kneels next to her. "It's not your fault." He says softly. "No one blames you. They knew what was at stake, and fought anyway."

"But they still died!" Quorra presses. "All of them! Even innocents! The Occupation killed any program in sight and burned the city to the ground. The only prisoner they took was the Renegade, and they took him back to the capital city."

"What happened then?" Thor asked softly, and Steve exchanges a look with him from where he has a hand on Scarlet Witch's back. He can feel her trembling; he knows it's too familiar and he is aware that Thor also seems to know the feeling.

Quorra takes a deep breath. "I...I had snuck into the capital one cycle. The Occupation was having this...announcement, and I had to know what happened in Argon. They announced to the crowds of programs that the 'terrorists' of Argon had been defeated like they weren't basic programs simply trying to survive. They paraded the Renegade in front of the whole city, if not the whole Grid, as the disgraced revolutionary. They broke his mask...you could see everything…."

She no longer remembers speaking, finding her jaw dropped as she stares up at the screen. The glass of the Renegade's mask lay in fragments at his feet. Clu sets his hand on the top of the mask and wrenches it off. Programs around her gasp, but she can't help but stare. The Renegade wasn't Tron, but some program she's never seen before...he seems younger than her.

"This is the one who claims to be TRON!" Clu roars above the cheers of his coliseum audience, while the city sits in fragile silence. He grabs the program by the hair and yanks their head back, exposing the pained glare of the program to the Grid. "His lies are exposed! He will haunt your cycles no more! Perfection has won out, just as it always will!" He shoves the Renegade down. With their hands cuffed behind their back, all they can do is a grunt as they slam into the floor. The camera shifts to the Renegade's defiant gaze as the crowd roars and jeers. Clu holds his hands out and they quiet.

"However," He continues, turning his nose up at the Renegade's prone form, "we cannot tolerate actions such as this. Such lies, such...imperfection is despicable. An example must be made, for those who wish to follow the Renegade's footsteps."

Quorra can't help her gasp and hurries to stifle it before anyone notices. Nobody glances at her, mesmerized by the announcement. On the screen, the Renegade has gone stiff, and Clu grins.

"Only one such punishment fits this deviant! It's only fitting that chaos is squashed by order. Order is to be protected, enforced, and so this honor belongs to the Grid's enforcer: Rinzler!"

The crowd roars, chanting 'Rin-zler' on repeat as the masked program stalks out from the shadows to stand at Clu's side. The ruler of the Grid's grin grows as he crosses in front of the Renegade, who glares up at him.

"Well," The crowd goes silent again at Clu's words. "Any last words? Any regrets?"

When the Renegade doesn't answer, Clu laughs. "This is your last chance, Renegade. Tell me, do you have any remorse for what you've done?"

The Renegade grits his teeth, and grunts as Rinzler pulls him into his knees by his disc. He looks up to Clu. "No. I won't allow the death of Argon to be for nothing. Even if I die, the spirit of my fight will never die, and it will never bow to you! Down with the Occupation! Down with Clu!" Then he spits at Clu's feet, causing the program to scramble back on instinct and the crowd to gasp. Then, the Renegade growls. "That's for Argon."

Clu's grin disappears instantly, and the Renegade grunts as the backhand knock his head to the side. Clu stalks away, behind Rinzler. "Kill him."

Instantly, Rinzler approaches with a low growl as the Renegade is catching his breath. It hitches unwillingly as Rinzler jerks him, resting one disc in front of his neck. The Renegade looks directly into the camera. Surely, Quorra is imagining that gaze...he tries so hard to seem tough and strong, but the facade is so thin, the young program terrified to die is seen just beneath the surface….

He blinks and it fades as he raises his head high. Rinzler pulls his disc sharply across the Renegade's neck. Voxels begin to spill from the slice and in moments, all that's left of the Renegade is his blues cubes and white disc. Rinzler picks up the disc, and holds it high, eliciting an ear-deafening cheer from the crowd. Quorra has to cover her mouth as pressure grows behind her eyes. "No…"

"He was so young." That's the first thing Quorra recognizes she says as she pulls herself out of the memory. On her lap, her hand is shaking, so she clenches her hand into a fist, and dares to look up to the others. Wanda can't look at her, holding herself close. Tony can't seem to meet her gaze either.

"And Rinzler killed him?" Sam (the Falcon) asks, and Quorra nods. He takes a deep breath. "Jesus."

"Wait," Hawkeye looks up at that, brow furrowed. "Then how is he alive?"

"I don't know," Quorra admits. "Programs can't come back to life after they've been killed; it's impossible."

"Well, it apparently is," Fury speaks up, before getting to his feet. "This means that we have two possibilities here. Either Tron has returned to his senses, actually knew the Renegade, and is trying to reconnect with him. Or…" He looks around the room, "or he sees this as his new objective to kill the Renegade. We need to find them now, so we don't have to find out." He looks to Sam Flynn. "Where's Mr. Bradley?"

"Last I heard, he's gone to pick his wife up from the airport in California. He told her about her laser in the basement of the arcade, and she's coming back from DC to help the investigation."

"Good, but he's going to need to be involved as well since Rinzler is technically his program. There's a possibility he knows something we don't. Can you get a hold of Jet?"

"I'll have to find him." He admits, "But that should be do-able."

Fury nods, before turning to Quorra. "Quorra?"

She looks up to Fury. "Hm?"

"Your knowledge of the Grid and these two programs is the best we have. Do you have any fighting or tracking experience?"

She nods. "I do. I did have to track Sam down before, and I've always had a knack for fighting."

"We could use your help," Steve says, slowly standing beside Wanda. When Quorra merely stares at him with wide eyes, he approaches, hand held out. "My name is Steve, and I lead the Avengers initiative."

"Co-lead." Tony coughs, the first thing he's said in a solid fifteen minutes. Steve ignores him.

"I mean that we could use your help. You could help us find these programs faster than we ever could on our own. Are you in?"

"Wait." Sam Flynn steps in at that. "We usually try not to get involved with government affairs, and for good reason-"

"A little late for that!" Tony calls.

"Sam," He looks down at Quorra's hand to see she's looking up at him. There are dried tears on her face, but she's no longer upset. "It's okay. I want to do this. I can help this time."

She looks back at Steve and Fury. "I'm in."

"Good news." Beck looks up from the brochure as Tron approaches, holding two tickets. "I was able to get us two tickets for the 4 pm departure. We only have to wait for about forty-five minutes."

"Great." Beck nods as Tron sits down next to him. The two programs watch the bustling terminal in silence, Users passing them by without a second glance.

"What's that?" Tron glances down to the brochure. Beck follows his gaze and folds it slightly.

"I was just trying to get a hang of these User symbols. I want to know what they're saying."

Tron watches him for a long moment, a small smile growing despite how much he squashes down the warm, proud feeling in his chest. Beck was so eager…

"I can help you."

Beck looks up at that. "Really?"

Tron nods and opens the brochure for Beck. He points to the first word on the page. "Let's start here. I'll sound it out, and you repeat, okay?"

Beck doesn't answer, and when Tron looks up, the younger program is staring at him.

"...What?"

Beck blinks and shakes his head, trying to get rid of the red circuits, and the fiery night out of his head. When he opens his eyes again, Tron is looking at him with thinly veiled concern.

"Nothing," Beck says quickly. Surely, that was nothing. "Let's get started."