Hey guys, sorry that I haven't been updating lately! Finals week is closing up on me quickly and I haven't had time open between my social life and school life. But I am definitely still going to update my stories. So please don't give up on me!
By now, Victoria Turner had stopped trying to understand how anything worked in the digital world she had been forced into.
For example, she wasn't quite sure how she, Sam, and Kevin Flynn were able to have a meal made out of numbers and pixels and be able to taste it. It baffled her, yet she did not think into it knowing that she would go insane if she did.
On the other hand…
'the amount of awkwardness in this room is a no brainer,' Tori thought as she ate trying to make as little sounds as possible, 'and it's killing me!'
She had just survived a motorcycle chase with Sam, a disc battle with Rinzler, and a cycle to the death with CLU.
'And it's an inherent ineptness between father and son to communicate that's going to kill me,' Tori caught Quorra's eyes and nearly deadpanned at the excitement and curiosity in the program's eyes. Quorra was fascinated by this moment and didn't want to seem to miss anything as she shifted back and forth between Tori, Sam, and Kevin.
And it was nerving to say the least.
"How old are you and Sam now?"
Tori was tempted to kiss the girl for her bravery in trying to break the ice.
"I'm turning 26 soon," Tori answered wincing as her voice practically echoed in the room. She quickly took a drink from her luminescent drink. She didn't bother asking what it was either.
"Ah, you're so young! That's a great in your life to be in," Kevin tuned in with a genuine smile, "And if I'm not mistaken, you must be 27 now Sam."
There was a delay in Sam's response as the son of Flynn looked at his father.
"Yes, 27."
"Do you guys attend college?"
Quorra to the rescue once again.
"Caltech/USC"
Sam and Tori looked at each other with a smirk when they synched their answers together.
That notion wasn't lost to either surveyors.
Kevin placed his fork down and rested his elbows on the table. Weaving his fingers together, he smiled proudly at his son.
"Caltech, my alma mater."
"Yup."
'Wow, this conversation is getting no where,' Tori thought as she fought to roll her eyes since Kevin was looking at her now.
"USC, that's a wonderful school. Are you planning on entering the medical field?"
"Yes, my parents own a large medical supplying business,"
"Intech, am I right?"
The shock in her face must have been ridiculous considering Kevin broke into a small laugh.
"I recognized your name, but I wasn't too sure. How are your parents by the way?"
"Oh, my father is dead,"
Wow, if that wasn't a conversation killer, she didn't know what was.
"My mom is running now and she's great," Tori added smoothly.
"Ahh, I'm sorry for your loss..."
Tori smiled sadly.
"So how did you guys meet?" Quorra asked.
"Uhh, I met Sam at a café. We shared a table since it was really crowded," Tori followed the change in topic happily, "I helped him with his…his uh.."
Uh-oh.
She wasn't sure if she wanted to bring this topic up.
"With one of my best papers, my resignation paper. I dropped out," Sam came in with a challenging tone.
Quorra cracked up laughing and Tori let out a nervous chuckle.
Both girls were silenced by the parental disproval in Kevin's eyes.
The giant roasted pig at the middle of the table never seemed so interesting as now.
"Work?" Kevin asked expectedly.
Tori decided to stay out of the conversation.
"Job? Encom? Are you…"
"No," Sam cut in before Kevin could finish his question, "I check in once a year."
Tori could not hide her sputtering and the cup held to her face did nothing to muffle it.
Sam smirked openly.
Kevin Flynn stared at the blushing woman with a raised brow, now he was fully looking back and forth between the two.
Trying to figure out what exactly was going on.
"Wife? Girlfriend?"
Tori felt like crawling into a hole as all three occupants of the table looked at her blatantly.
"Dog," Victoria practically shouted out to reel the attention away from her.
"Marvin," Sam said with a happy smile, "he's a rescue."
Kevin Flynn was no fool.
"Oh, dogs…dogs are cool."
Tori was sure Quorra didn't know what to say now.
As the foggy emotions from the reunion faded away, Sam knew he was getting angry. Here he was, years later after his father's disappearance, eating food with his father on the Grid. And despite all that he had just gone through, there was still one question that he had.
"I'm sure you must have a few questions of your own," Kevin Flynn stated sadly as he stared at his son's cold eyes.
Sam took his time to wipe his mouth accordingly.
"Actually, just one."
Quorra glanced up quickly with wide eyes to look at Sam.
"Why I never came home."
The silence was his answer.
"Those nights when I went to the office, I'm sure you've figured it out by now. I've was coming here," Kevin reached for his drink, "Human form into digital space. Heavy stuff."
"But I also had you," Kevin said with a tone of affection, "I had ENCOM, I couldn't be in here all the time. I needed partners to help me out."
"Tron and CLU?" It was more a statement than a question.
"That's right, Tron was created by Alan for the old system. I brought him here to protect this one. CLU was my creation, a program designed to make a perfect world…We were jamming man, we were building a Utopia. Hours in here were just minutes back home. Just when I thought it wouldn't get anymore profround. Something unexpected happened," Kevin explained, his eyes glazing over in remembrance.
"The miracle."
Sam's voice seemed to snap his father out from his memories.
"The miracle. You remember! ISOs. Isomorphic algorithms. A whole new life form."
"Did you create them?" Tori asked eyebrows furrowed.
Kevin let out a joyous laugh.
"No. No. They manifested, like a flame. They weren't really from anywhere…"
As the conversation carried on, Victoria was entrapped in what Kevin was saying. The excitement was easily transferred into herself as she tried to imagine how everything happened.
However, she could not say the same for Sam.
Despite it all, Sam's question had yet to be answered and he was growing in contempt. Kevin described the ISOs with pride and amazement, almost as if Kevin were describing his child to a stranger.
'Is that what I am now Dad?' Sam thought somberly as he continued to listen, 'a stranger…'
"The ISOs, they were going to be my gift to the world," Kevin said from his place beside the fireplace.
"So, what happened?"
"CLU," A dark look crossed Kevin's face, "CLU happened."
"Tron, he fought for me. I never saw him again."
"So why didn't you fight?" Sam asked with a slight edge in his voice.
"Hmmm…"
"He did," Quorra defended from beside Tori on the couch.
"CLU fed on my resistance, the more I fought, the more powerful he became," the memories seem to wear Kevin down as he took a seat back in his chair with a heavy weight on his shoulders.
Tori let out a shaky gasp as Kevin divulged into CLU's betrayal. She covered her mouth in disbelief and felt sadness for the ISOs.
Cruelty didn't seem to have limits to where it started and who or what it came from.
"I tried to get back…but I couldn't get to the portal," Kevin could not face his son by now and looked towards the floor instead, "it uses massive power, and it can't stay open forever. And like a safe, it…it can only be opened from the outside."
Sam was speechless.
"It closed on me, Sam," Kevin stared into Sam's eyes urgently, "That's why I never came home."
Tori held back as she observed Sam insisting on making a break for the open portal before it closed on them. But Kevin was just as insistent on slowing Sam down. Quorra and Kevin emphasized the importance of Kevin's disc remaining safe away from the Grid and CLU.
"It's the master key, the golden ticket. The only way out," Kevin explained.
"What do you mean?" Sam asked in almost a whisper.
"Our worlds are more connected than anyone knows, CLU figures that if I can be in…"
"He can be out?"
Quorra joined the Flynn family out on to the patio leaving Tori the only one remaining indoors.
"With my disc, it's possible."
"And then what?"
"Game over. The guy doesn't dig imperfection…what's more imperfect than our world? I can't let that happen, I won't."
Then tension arose between the father and son once more.
Their ideals were beginning to clash.
"Tell me, what brought you here?"
Tori wasn't liking where the conversation as going.
"I told you, Alan got your page," Sam repeated exasperated.
"I didn't send any page."
Tori's jaw dropped the slightest in realization.
"It was CLU," Kevin stated grimly, "CLU sent that page, that's why you're here. This is all his design, he wanted a new piece on the board to change the game!"
Kevin pointed at Tori startling the girl, "With you two, he got exactly what he needs! This is precisely what he wants. Us heading toward the portal together! It's his game now. The only way to win is not to play."
Uncensored horror filled Victoria to the core. They were going to be trapped on the Grid, forever. And if they did anything, CLU would destroy them for sure and then make his way to the real world to destroy it as well. She would never be able to see her mother, Melvin, the imperfect world that she loved.
Tori pushed back the dark thoughts and followed after Sam with Quorra as he stomped his way back towards their room.
Just as they turned, Sam reached out and grabbed her elbow to pull her to a stop beside him. Sam looked at both females with an indignant look.
"How can he be afraid of his own creation? I mean he built CLU, so why doesn't he just end him?" Sam whispered furiously.
Quorra looked back down the hallway as if making sure Kevin wasn't there.
"He could, but it would require reintegration."
"Yeah, all right?"
Tori narrowed her eyes at Sam's rather disrespectful tone.
"Flynn would never survive the event. It would be the end of them both," Quorra calmly brushed Sam's anger to explain the situation.
"If he refuses to save himself, then I will."
"How?" Tori asked slowly.
Sam bore his gaze into Tori with frightening resolution.
"I'm going through the portal."
Sam quickly continued before Tori could rebuke, "CLU wants Flynn's disc, not mine. I'm going to find Alan, and we're going to figure this thing out from the outside. This may be CLU's game here but in my world, CLU is gone with one key stroke. But I can't do anything unless I get to the portal."
Quorra looked at Tori uneasily and could see the anxiety in her as well.
"And my guts tell me that you don't want to be stuck in this place for eternity either."
Victoria could tell Quorra was fighting herself to pick a side. But she wasn't quite sure what side the program would take. Kevin's side, the mentor who saved and raised her away from CLU. Or Sam's side, the one chance at saving Kevin's life and leaving the Grid.
"I really think you should consider your father's wisdom," Quorra whispered sadly.
"I have," Sam replied.
Quorra pursed her lips before choosing to walk away without a response.
Tori was at an crossroad and did not know which road to take. Shaking her head, she turned and walked toward the bedroom without looking at Sam.
Sam Flynn watched as both women walked away from him with disbelief.
Did no one believe that his plan would work?
"Tori," Sam called out as he followed her making sure to close the door behind him.
She sat on the bed with her face in her hands. She did not seem to be crying but her shoulders trembled the slightest.
Sam hesitated before sitting beside her and pulling his best friend into a tight hug. He tucked her head under his chin and pat her back in silence.
"Trust me," Sam whispered.
Tori slouched into Sam's embrace.
'I never stopped trusting you,' she thought staring into the hexagonal patterns of his under suit.
Sam placed a light kiss on the top of her head as if he had heard her thoughts.
A light knock had them separating.
The urgency in Quorra's entrance had the two focusing at the matter at hand.
"There's someone I once knew…" Quorra began.
