Rezz stared at the glowing video feed of Tron's cell on the viewing screen, transfixed. That face, which no program could mistake, looked the same as it did a thousand cycles ago, except it was now lined with pain and battle scars. An ugly, jagged stripe of damaged code licked up his neck and over his left eye. Her hero, her greatest enemy, one and the same. She struggled to reconcile the seeming conflicting truth, and felt truly at a loss as to how to proceed.
"What did you do to me, back there at the station?" Tron asked from his prison. "Why am I myself?"
Gathering her scattered thoughts, Rezz answered, "When I planted the paralytic virus in your system, I also added a temporary personality suppressor, keyed to Rinzler's specific data signature. He can't resurface while the suppressor is still active. Doubtless…he'll figure a way around it before long."
Tron turned his face towards the floor, apparently processing this new information.
"Is there no way you can make it permanent?" he asked. Rezz thought she could hear a sort of desperate hope in his voice.
Rezz leaned back in her chair, taking exactly 12 microcycles to come up with an answer. "No."
Tron's shoulders slumped, and a weighted sigh forced itself out of his mouth. "Tell me why."
"If you want the full, technical explanation," Rezz began, feeling some of her rampant emotions calm down as she settled into a subject that she knew well, "I'll start with the repurposing process." At Tron's visible flinch, she pressed forward. "Repurposing draws out a program's core data, removes all code that allows free will and replaces it with code that engenders complete loyalty and dedication to Clu."
"I know," Tron answered, an edge to his voice.
"Normally, that sort of thing is impossible–only a User is supposed to have that sort of ability. However, being a digital copy of our User, Clu managed to work around the blocks. He did a clumsy hack job; most repurposed programs' intelligence is severely retarded by the process, unless they undergo the repurposing willingly."
"Like Dyson."
"…yes. Like him. Anyway, it was different with you, wasn't it."
"Yes. Flynn wasn't my User."
"Who was your original User?"
"Alan-1. Flynn used to just call him Alan, and talked about him all the time."
Rezz realized Tron was more reminiscing than trying to give her useful information. "Your programming is incredibly complex, not to mention it has two double helixes, a different one on each of your discs."
"How do you know that?"
"I have them. I've been studying them."
Rezz's lips twitched slightly as she watched Tron squirm, trying to look over his shoulder at his disc casing, in a vain attempt to see whether she was telling the truth.
"Clu couldn't process you the same way he did everyone else. You have the combined coding of two different Users, two separate chains of data. Clu couldn't touch your original programming, because that was the domain of a different User." She paused. "The only thing he could do was corrupt the upgraded coding Flynn gave you. I've studied the helix, and I'm sorry to say…the damage is extensive. A lot of it is overwritten with Clu's rogue code, and other sections are just…gone. Deleted."
"What are you trying to say?"
"I'm saying that in order to bend your will to his, Clu was forced to split your personality–separating the part he could manipulate from the part he couldn't touch. Thus two discs. Rinzler is not a separate mentality bootstrapped to your code––which is what happened to the others––he's…he's you. Rinzler is your aggressive nature, every bad emotion in you intensified, with complete loyalty to Clu as an added bonus."
"Just get to the point. Why can't you suppress him permanently?"
"I'm getting to that. First, I'm a hacker program, not a User, or a Codified Likeness Utility. My abilities are limited, and you are perhaps the most complex program ever to exist on the Grid, barring the ISO's or Clu himself. I can help programs compensate when they have no identity disc, I can repair physical damage done by discs, staffs, blades, and whips, even if the damage is near-fatal.
"But personality suppression is different. It's like…blocking a circuit. The energy builds and builds until the blockage is destroyed."
"…Wait. You said that I had two discs because my personality was split. What if you destroyed the disc that contains Rinzler's identity?"
"You shouldn't have to ask, Tron. You know what would happen."
"Even mental regression is better than being a monster."
Rezz closed her eyes. He meant those words; he believed them. She leaned back in her chair, suddenly feeling very old. Programs didn't show signs of their age, but she could feel the weight of over a thousand cycles bearing down on her shoulders, and she was just coming to realize how much more weight must lie upon Tron. He was far, far older than any other program existing on the Grid, and he'd suffered beyond Rezz's capacity to even imagine. To him, retardation or derezolution would be a relief from all that pain, and from the beast inside his head.
"I'll find another way," she decided aloud. "You hear me, Tron? We'll find a way to get rid of him, without harming you. I promise."