OH MY LOVELY BUBBLES I AM SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE

But I was still getting alerts that people were still liking this story! And thanks to a lovely person I finally got off my lazy butt to write you the next chapter. I'm sorry to tell you guys thought that updates, even though they will be coming, will be erratic to say the least cause I'm taking summer courses and they're demanding to say the least.


"Is she going to make it?" Sam asked, he could not make of anything that was occurring in Kevin's hands. Kevin had removed Quorra's identity disc and had handed it to Sam to hold up horizontally. Then with a touch of a few hidden buttons, a fluorescent blue globe of data appeared before them.

"I don't know…I've got to identify the damaged code," Kevin answered as he shuffled through the data, "The sequencing is just enormously complex."

Sam quirked an eyebrow as he turned away from Quorra and Tori to stare at his dad.

"But didn't you write it?"

"Some of it. But the rest is just…"


Victoria teetered on the edge of nausea, with Quorra's head in her lap and her back against the cool railing of the platform, she barely held on. Fortunately for her, Kevin had confirmed her hunch that concussion was not the diagnosis. However, she very much felt like it and almost wished she was in shock. At least then, she would not feel much of anything.

From just under her lashes she could see Kevin and Sam clearly but the bright lights reflecting against the darkness brought another wave of queasiness.

Holding back a moan, Victoria pulled herself up the railing slightly to ease her aching back.

"She's an Iso…" Sam's breathless tone cut in.

"Yeah, the last Iso," Pride brimmed Kevin's voice.

Victoria closed her eyes, tuning out the conversation. Her last thought rotating around Quorra's true identity and the hum of Sam's voice.


"They risked their lives for me." Sam stated grimly as he watched Victoria close her eyes and nod off.

"Some things are worth the risk," Kevin assured as he took in his son and his expression to heart. And the dull ache that plagued him for years on end reared its head, though it lessened with each passing moment. His son was safe and alive.

Gently they leaned over and turned Quorra over the slightest, watching carefully as her head rolled limply in Victoria's lap. Kevin reached down and slipped the disc back into it's slot on the suit and turned it to secure it's placement. And almost like a reset button, the lights lit up. And just as they returned her on her back, digital cubes began cascading down from Quorra's left stump. And piece by piece it formed into the arm that she had lost, gloves, lights, and all.

"Look at that…Now that is impressive, if I do say so myself. Huh?" Kevin chuckled joyously as he leaned back at his accomplishment. Sam smirked in relief, his eyes following the reforming arm.

"Come on, it's going to take a while for her system to reboot. And Victoria looks like she needs some quiet time to rest," Kevin suggested as he hauled himself up off the ground.

A sense of pride slithered in as he noticed his son hesitate to follow.

He paused observing his son's eyes on the young Asian woman. He held back an amused chuckle and settled to grin instead. He wondered how much his son knew his actions reflected on his feelings.

Probably not that much.

"She'll be fine Sam, from what I've seen so far. She isn't going to go down without a fight – a bump in the head isn't even on her list of ways to quit," He humored, his statement being the key to pull Sam off the floor to join him on the ramp.

"Now it's time for you to tell me a story."


"Icecaps are melting in the East, war in the Middle East. Lakers, Celtics are back at it," Sam muttered half-heartedly as he listed off the current events, unsure on what to tell his dad of the outside world," I don't know…Rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer. Cellphones, online-dating, Wi-Fi-"
"What's wi-fi?" Kevin cut in curiously with a perplexed expression.

"Wireless interlinking," Sam replied remembering that those terms didn't exist back in his dad's time.

"Of digital devices?" Kevin guessed.

"Yeah," Sam looked at his father with a slight smile.

"Ha, I thought of that in '85," He said with a matter-of-fact tone as he turned away smugly.

Sam looked at Kevin with a strange look before bursting out with laughter.

Then a quiet air settled around them.

"Mom and Dad are…" Kevin paused, uncomfortable with structuring the question," I assume that…"

The younger man looked down for a moment and saved his father from the question and to push back the emotions.
"Yeah. Mac when I was 12…and Gram five years later."

Kevin closed his eyes for a moment in silent prayer for his parent's deaths. It was predictable but hearing it out loud hurt more than he expected.

"You remember that night, when you didn't come home?"

And then the conversation slowly turned downhill, the tension between them growing.

Sam clenched onto the railing as they delved deeper into CLU's creation and cause. Until Kevin admitted to the mistake he had created. But Sam did not see what his dad saw, the perfection his father had worked so hard to create was incredible.

"Look what you've accomplished, it's incredible," Sam commented but was cut off as a heavy hand landed on his shoulder.

"Sam," Kevin waited for his son to look at him, "I'd have given it all up for one more day with you."

There weren't tears in either man's eyes as they stared at each other with lost looks.

Kevin turned away with a thick sigh as Sam looked away unsure on what to say. He felt shocked, amazed, and at peace. He knew his dad loved him more than he sometimes seemed to forget – but to admit that Kevin would give everything he had dreamed to create and succeeded in making for just one more day with him was…love.

He quickly thought of another topic to ease the moment.

"…Remember your old Ducati?"


A smile ran its way across her face.

Victoria had woken soon enough to hear the last of their conversation. If her body wasn't so occupied with being sore and tired, she was sure she would have shed a tear at the amount of emotion from Kevin's words alone.

Cue the eye-rolling from the Sam in her head. She could almost hear him now, complaining on how much she was such a girl. All those nights spent watching movies together, almost every time she shed a tear despite whatever genre they were watching. But from those memories what she remembered the most was the warmth and comforting feeling of rolling up together under the blankets. The same feeling only stronger that she had gotten only moments ago in their room-

'Oh goodness, I'm getting mushy,' Victoria let out a quiet giggle from under her breath to stop the blush from forming. At this movement, a sharp poke to her brain reminded her of her position.

She was just glad she had only hit her head lightly than anything greater, like a limb from the bomb.

She should really knock on some wood, but alas, wood did not exist in the Grid.

Thankfully, a set of footsteps heading their way shocked her out from her thoughts. Pulling her eyes open she watched with adjusting eyes as Sam made his way back to the two girls with something in hand.

"You're awake, thank God," Sam whispered, kneeling down next to Victoria to look into her eyes. He examined her pupils until he was assured that she was able to focus on him without waning.

"Of course, no thanks to your a-" She was stopped from her sarcasm as cool lips pressed down on her own. It was with a bit more force than before, but still heart-stopping. Closing her eyes Victoria responded immediately after with a smile.

"I'm. So. Sorry" Each word accompanied with a kiss. Dazed, but in a good way this time, Victoria only nodded and pulled Sam in for a longer kiss in forgiveness.


Kevin had not rushed to go "knocking in the sky" as Sam had thought. He watched as his only son fuss over the woman that he had just met. In reality, he had just met his son as well. But watching them together was surreal and heart-warming in body and spirit.

It still hurt that he had missed so much in his family's life on the other side but to have spent the few hours that they did was something he would never give up for anything.

He could only watch his son and Victoria kiss for so long before he turned away to grant them privacy.

'Though I'm sure Quorra would eagerly observe from her position if she were awake,' Kevin thought with a chuckle as he settled down on his knees.

He missed his wife.

And he would always cherish the time he had with her.

He wished his son to feel every bit of paradise he had with a life partner and only hoped that their time together wouldn't be as short as his was.

Time to go knocking on the sky.


When waking up, Quorra did not expect to wake up at all. And if she were to ever go to the real world, she was sure she almost felt what it would be like to wake up there. To think she had died thinking that she would never be able to escape the dangerous world she lived in but then to be proven wrong and to wake up perfectly fine and intact was…frightening and amazing.

But not everything to seem to be in place.

She felt insecurity creep in as Sam voiced his knowledge of her origin. Quorra knew that Sam and Victoria sympathized for the Isos but to have been treated so wrongly by CLU and the citizens of the Grid, there was still a wall.

"It was during the Purge, CLU was relentless the Black Guard were executing ISOs on the streets," the memories poured in on Quorra, "Everyone I knew disappeared…then they came for me. So I ran."

Quorra felt Victoria beside her shift in her seat, and was touched when the female User reached out to hold her hand.

"A sympathetic program smuggled me out of the city, But soon they had me surrounded. I prepared for the end. And just as everything was going dark – I felt a hand on my shoulder and when I opened my eyes…" Quorra looked down at their joining hands and reveled on how much their hands looked identical. Though their structures were vastly different, they were still the same in complexity and function. She looked to her side as Sam settled beside her on the other side, "standing above me was the Creator. Your father."

Quorra and Victoria could see the pride in Sam's eyes as she said this.

"He saved me. I guess you could say I'm a rescue," Quorra repeated the phrase from dinner with a smile. It successfully pulled chuckles from the grim couple.

Then a sudden thought came to head.

She wondered why the two were blushing and so happy when she had wakened abruptly from her stasis. She had unconsciously sat up but did not think it was shocking enough to make them so red. And why were they so happy…hm.


Describing the sun was definitely a first for Sam and Victoria. Since they had lived in a world where everyone lived under the sun and collectively knew what it looked like and felt, it was almost like having to describe air to a unless-I-see-it-it-doesn't-exist person.

And it made him realize how much they took the common things for granted.

To see what was in front of them all along.

His gaze not before long found its way to the animated black haired, blue eyed woman describing the sun to the actively listening Quorra. To always see and touch someone but never feeling her – or at least consciously loving her.

'But now, it's different,' Sam thought as he leaned back on his arms to stare at the amazing lights of the portal, 'and I'll never let her go.'

But of course, things never stayed calm for long.

"GET BLOW! MOVE!" The alarm in Kevin's posture and voice had all three of them jumping at their feet to follow his command.

"This isn't supposed to be here…"

Fear sparked its way into everyone, where there was trouble there would most definitely be CLU.