A/N: Revised Chapter 5 is up! The story will start to diverge slightly more from the original material in the later revised chapters, but for now it's still pretty similar.

The mystery woman led Tron back into the Outlands, heading north along the outside perimeter of the city. She walked several feet ahead of him, seemingly focused on what lay ahead, but he couldn't help but think that she was constantly aware of exactly where he was even though she never actually looked back to check if he was still behind her.

"Why were you out here in the first place?" Tron asked after they had walked in silence for some time. "I think you could tell me that at least."

He didn't really expect her to answer, but after a brief pause she said, "I was on my way back from visiting one of the outer cities. Business. Wanted to avoid the main road, safer to risk crossing the Outlands these days."

After about twenty minutes, the city disappeared from sight as they crossed into a ravine with high walls on both sides. At the end of the ravine was the opening to a small cave. The girl turned to him and said, "We're here. The tunnel entrance is further inside. It's masked by a firewall, so only programs who have access permissions can see it or even get inside."

"Clever."

"Alright, give me your hand," she said, reaching out towards him.

"Why?" he asked suspiciously.

"I just told you, without any access permissions, you can't even go through the entrance," she said. "I need to give you temporary authorization."

Reluctantly, Tron held out his hand and she grasped it firmly. Her yellow eyes flashed briefly blue as the transfer of data was completed. "Done."

The cave was small and appeared to be only a few meters in depth, but his guide strode inward purposefully towards the back of the cave. Just as it appeared she was about to walk right into the far wall, a doorway suddenly materialized in front of her, and she stepped through unharmed. Tron had to admire the work that had gone into disguising it. He could have searched this cave for a thousand cycles and never known it was there. Tron followed close behind her, crossing the threshold into a spacious tunnel lined with glowing gridlines of light.

The tunnel very quickly turned into a steady decline, taking them under the wide chasm that separated Tron City from the rest of the Grid.

"Stay close," the girl warned him. "The Reds might not venture into the tunnels anymore, but some of the guards from those lost patrols are still wandering around down here even now. They're from the early days of the Purge, before Clu perfected his repurposing, so the cycles have not been kind to them. They've deteriorated to the point where all that's left is a basic directive to kill. They will attack any programs they see."

They continued on, traversing deeper into the maze of intersecting tunnels underneath the city for a little over an hour. Tron tried to keep track of each turn they took, but he began to realize that the tunnels were actually twisting and warping around them; or at least, that was how it appeared to his perception. His companion did not appear to even notice it as she forged ahead.

"This place is incredible," he said at last. "The design is far too complex for it to have been built by a basic constructor program. Only a User or an advanced architectural program could have built something on this scale."

"Mhm."

"The spatial warping, is that…?"

"A secondary security measure in addition to the firewalls. Also, my life insurance," she added with a smirk. "You can't find your way out of here without me."

"As you've said," Tron said dryly. "So…I'm going to hazard a guess that you weren't a supporter of Clu's coup. Does that mean you…?"

"…sympathized with the ISOs?" she finished. "Is that what you want to know?"

"Hm."

"Not that it matters now, but back before the Purge I was ambivalent towards them," she said. "I didn't understand the fear other Basics had of them, and I certainly didn't hate them, but I also didn't care."

"And after?"

She laughed, but it was a dark and angry sound, "You remember how bad it was back then? Even before Clu openly rebelled, tensions were already sky high between ISOs and Basics. There was a lot of distrust and suspicion on both sides. Then the viral attack happened, and suddenly Clu was declaring all ISOs to be security risks and isolating them in quarantine zones. Most Basics were so panicked that when he started bombing ISO cities, to 'eradicate the corruption', and telling everyone that Flynn had betrayed and abandoned us, they believed every lie he fed them. Anybody who was identified as an ISO sympathizer was either immediately executed, repurposed, or taken to the Games. So, was I an ISO sympathizer? Not so'd anybody would notice."

Despite her warning about vicious repurposed programs, their journey proceeded without incident. Even so, Tron was relieved when at last their path began to rise towards the surface again. "We're close to the exit," the girl said quietly. "It opens into the Solar Sailer bay beneath the central city tower. With the Sailer gone, it should be clear of any prying eyes."

"How do you know whether the Sailer is gone?" Tron asked. "You said earlier you've been away." He knew the Sailer was still parked at the depot on the edge of the Sea of Simulation, and had been for the last two rotations, but she shouldn't be aware of that.

"The Sailer has made regular scheduled departures every four day rotations for the last cycle," she replied. "If it has kept to that schedule, it shouldn't be back for at least another three hours, which means the hangar bay should be empty."

They walked for only a few more minutes before they reached the tunnel exit. True to the girl's prediction, the hangar bay was completely deserted. Tron glanced back over his shoulder once they stepped through the opening and saw only a smooth, metallic wall with softly glowing gridlines. With some curiosity, he reached out towards where the opening had been but his fingers brushed against a solid surface; the passage was now closed to him.

"I guess this is where our temporary alliance ends," Tron said. After the forced camaraderie between them for the last couple hours, he could now sense the tension rising in his erstwhile companion.

"You'd be right," she said, her expression inscrutable as she looked at him.

He began to walk past her towards the elevator platform, but she suddenly called out, "Wait."

He paused and turned slightly to face her. "What?"

"I've held up my end of the bargain. It's time for you to return the favor," the girl said with a disarming smile. She stepped closer, stopping when her face was mere inches from the glossy black surface of his helmet.

Tron leaned back, uncomfortable with the close proximity and wary of her change in behavior. "What favor do you want from me?" he asked cautiously.

"I want you to do…nothing."

The girl brought her hand to her lips and kissed the tips of her fingers, then lightly brushed them against the side of his neck. Her eyes flashed blue, and the gentle touch suddenly sent an electrical surge through his system. Tron couldn't hold back a cry of startled pain, and he staggered backwards and sank to his knees, shocked and disoriented. His equilibrium was disrupted, he couldn't stand. Panic began to settle in his gut when he realized that his arms and legs were growing numb and unresponsive. "What did you just do?" he gasped out.

"Stay calm, you'll be alright. I just slipped a small subroutine into your system," the girl said quietly. She sat down next to him. "In just a few moments you'll be completely unable to move or speak. A few seconds after that, you'll temporarily enter rest mode, and any and all memories you have of me, everything you saw after we met, will be replaced with different memories."

Tron couldn't even lift his arms; they hung limp and useless at his sides. The numbness was crawling up his throat, soon he wouldn't be able to speak.

"I'm sorry," she said, a sincere note of apology in her voice, "but this is necessary."

"I…should've killed you when I–" He fell abruptly silent as the paralysis fully took hold. His look of rage was frozen on his face.

The girl sighed. "Please understand, I'm not betraying you to the Occupation, so you don't need to worry about waking up in a holding cell, or not waking up at all. I merely need to ensure that you won't reveal what you've seen to anyone else. A promise is only as strong as the level of trust between us, and unfortunately, I don't trust you."

Tron's thoughts became slow and incoherent as he began to lose consciousness. His vision dimmed, everything becoming blurry and out of focus until all he could see was the fuzzy outline of a dark figure in front of him that glowed with yellow lines of circuitry.

Who…?

A woman's voice echoed in his ears, speaking words that he knew should make sense, but they sounded so muffled and far away, he couldn't understand them.

"When the process finishes and you wake up, you won't remember me or how you really got here. I realize, of course, there's little point in telling you this since you'll forget it all very soon, but I feel you at least deserve to hear the truth once. Many lives depend on these tunnels remaining hidden from the Occupation, and I cannot afford to take any risks…So, this is goodbye."