She stared at the closed door after the two programs left. Anger and frustration bubbled within her like a pot of boiling water. She wanted to scream and throw things.

No, what she REALLY wanted was to tackle CLU to the ground and BEAT that smug smile off of his face. The visual she had at that thought was immensely satisfying.

His pet!? He wanted her to be his freakin' pet?! Not a chance. CLU may have been able to turn Rinzler into some kind of trained attack dog; but there was no way she would ever be his 'kitten'. Exhausted, she lay down and tried to take a nap. There was a way out somehow. There had to be. At least, a way out of CLU's reach. She just had to find it.

When she woke, she could see the Grid dark outside the window. CLU and Rinzler were nowhere to be seen. She got off of the bed and went over to the window. Looking down, she could see a few programs moving around. More seemed to be congregating near an area that was brightly lit a little further away from the building that she was currently in. She started thinking. How could she get out of here? If she could get out of the building and into the crowd, she might be able to disappear. Maybe start a new life out of CLU's reach. Who knew? In time maybe Rinzler could get away, too. They could meet up and leave this area of the Grid. This could be her best chance; after all, no one seemed to be planning to prevent an escape attempt. IF she could manage to get out of the building.

Okay, she thought, the first step is to get out of the room. How? She took a closer look at the window, checking for ledges. There was a small ledge to walk or stand on outside the window; but it jutted straight out into the air. There was nothing that she could jump or climb to. A straight drop down was all that could be seen of what might be below it.

Alright then, the window was out. It would have to be the door. She walked over to the door to the room-which was on the opposite wall as the window—and stared at it in frustration. How was she supposed to manage to open a locked door on the Grid?

She continued to stand looking at the door for several minutes, her fingers drumming on the door frame as she thought. In the back of her mind she realized that she was drumming her fingers in time to the music that she heard playing…'All Along The Watchtower'. "There must be some way out of here…" Bob Dylan was singing. Her mouth twisted up in a wry smile. Well, Dylan was right; there must be some way out…but what was it?

The idea hit her like a shock. Instinctive. CLU had said that she was accessing the Grid somehow; maybe instinctively. Could it work…?

Closing her eyes, she placed her hand on the door frame. Trying to get the thoughts as clear as she could in her mind; she focused on the idea of the door's code appearing on the frame. Please, let it have worked, she thought desperately. She took a deep breath, let it out, and opened her eyes. Under her finger tips was what looked like a touch screen. On it was what she recognized as line of code. Years of having programmers as friends meant that—while she couldn't program—at least she could recognize coding when she saw it now.

"Thank you," she murmured under her breath. She closed her eyes again to concentrate and thought of the display changing to a picture of a lock with a key in it. She slowly opened her eyes…and let out a shaky laugh. There it was; a lock with a key!

She placed her fingertips on the 'key' display, and turned it. The visual display of the lock opened on the screen.

"Yes!" she said triumphantly. "Got you!" She realized that the music had changed, and was now playing the 'Mission: Impossible" theme song. Out loud she said, "Look, I really don't mind having my life come with a personalized sound track; but I can't afford to get caught because someone hears music. So, please…no music while I'm sneaking around. Please? I don't know how this works…but I need to now have any extra sound for a while; okay?" I am talking to the air, she thought, and I think that somehow the Grid or whatever is paying attention.

Abruptly the music stopped. She let out the breath that she had been holding; and—satisfied with the silence—turned her attention back to the door. Alrighty, she thought, that's the lock dealt with. Now for opening the door itself.

Placing her fingertips back on the screen, she visualized the door itself. What looked like a line drawing of the door appeared on the screen. Mentally, she told the door to slide open; the way it had for CLU and Rinzler earlier. The door slid open with a near-silent hiss, revealing the empty hallway beyond.

This was it. Live up to the motto not giving up; or go sit down and wait for someone else to decide her life. CLU would no doubt come for her or send someone in his place. Letting out a long, shaky breath, she leaned her head out of the doorway and looked up and down the corridor outside.

The stark emptiness of the hallway seemed like one of the most beautiful things that she had ever seen. Slipping out into the hall, she turned to the left and started walking quickly down the corridor. She tried to keep to the left side of the hallway so as to be able to see anyone approaching before she attracted their attention. At the end of the long hallway, the hall branched off in both directions. Choosing to go to the left again, she soon found herself looking at a door that was opening. She could hear voices through the door as it opened. Ducking into a doorway, she tried to stay calm. They might not even come this way, she told herself. There was no need to panic yet. She let out a silent sigh of relief as the programs that came through the door turned and went down another hallway. Slipping back out of the doorway that she had ducked into, she looked at the still open door. It was an elevator.

"Somebody likes me," she whispered to herself, giving a little smile as she did. She stepped inside the elevator and accessed its controls in the same way that she had with the door for Rinzler's room. A schematic of the elevator in relation to the building it was in came up on the screen. Touching the small pixel of light that appeared to be the elevator—she drew her finger down, sliding the elevator until it reached the base of the building schematic. The door slid closed, and she felt a surge of defiant pleasure at the thought of how close she was to escaping. She could feel the slight vibration through the soles of her feet as the elevator started to descend. A few moments later, the sense of movement stopped. The door to the elevator slid open. She started down the hall that lay empty and waiting before her. The thought that all she had to do was to find the door that led out threatened to overwhelm her. So close… If she didn't find the door going this direction, all she would need to do would be turn around and go the opposite way. She turned the corner in the hall, and her heart skipped a beat—then started racing. Oh no, no, no, no, no…."she thought.

At the end of the hallway stood the door that she had been searching for. And CLU and Rinzler had just walked through it; followed by a small group of black-clad guards. CLU was not looking in her direction; but seemed to be giving orders to another program holding what looked like a clip board.

"Back up!" her brain screamed at her. "Back up and turn around!" Almost without noticing that she was doing it; she began to step backwards, trying to watch the approaching group at the same time. Turning, she started to run back the way she had just come from. If she outran them, she might be able to circle the building back to the door and escape that way.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw CLU's head snap up and realized that he had seen her. As she ran she could hear CLU's shouted voice echo down the hall as he ordered the guards to go after her. Maybe she could get in the elevator, she thought, putting on a burst of speed as she ran. She could hide from them if she could get to the elevator in time. She turned the corner and ran to the elevator, only to find that its door was closed. She slapped her hand against it in frustration.

'Where to now?' she thought franticly. She looked around wildly and spotted another corridor. Bolting down the new corridor she tried to get far enough ahead that she could find a place to hide from the guards. The sound of pounding feet was growing louder as the guards drew closer told her that would not work as a plan. She put on a final burst of speed; pushing herself to run faster and further than she had thought possible, and turned the next corner.

It was a dead end. Desperately she tried to access the doors along the walls. The shouts of 'halt' from the guards told her that she had run out of time. She whirled to face the guards and reached back to grab her disc.

The guards slowed as they came closer to her, cautious of the spinning disc in her hand. Two of the guards held what looked like police batons—or nightsticks—in each hand, while the other three were carrying some sort of staff each. They looked at her as she waited, standing at the end of the hall like an animal brought to bay. The guards then looked at each other, and without saying a single word, the three guards with the staffs moved in closer.

She shot her gaze from one guard to another as she stood there with her disc spinning in her hand. She didn't know if she could take three guards at once in hand-to-hand combat. Actually, she thought that she probably couldn't'; however, she didn't dare to throw her disc. If one of the guards got a hold of it and gave it to CLU, the administrator would learn about her beginning a friendship with Rinzler. No matter what CLU would want to do to her, she knew that he would find an uglier punishment for Rinzler.

Well, she would just have to give it everything that she had. With luck, she would still get out of here. She leapt forward and to the side, attacking not the nearest guard, but the one behind him. Slashing at him with her disc, she ducked to blow that she anticipated from the first guard. The guard that she had attacked was caught unawares; bringing his staff up too late to block the slicing blow across his chest. She tried to ignore him as he collapsed into a cascade of pixels and turned her attention to the first guard, who was now behind her. Bringing her forearm up, she managed to block a blow from his staff. She was trying to get further back when the third staff-wielding guard—whom she had almost forgotten about—moved in from the side. She blocked a blow from him with her disc. Unfortunately for her, this left her side open to attack from the first guard. He jabbed the end of his staff into her side.

She dropped to her knees as an electric shock ran through her, feeling like a puppet with some of its strings cut. Clutching at her disc with suddenly weak fingers, she tried to slice at the legs of the guard nearest to her. She received another jabbing blow—this time to her shoulder—for making the attempt. Her disc fell to the floor, dropped by a hand that was no longer under her control. Her fingers spasmed as she tried to keep herself from falling flat on her face on the floor. She saw a hand reaching towards her. Growling like an animal, she tried to knock it away with a hand that was strangely clumsy.

At her move, the two guards with batons in their hands moved in closer. As soon as she was within their reach, they began raining blows on her back and shoulders. She screamed at them in pain and anger as their strikes beat her still unsteady body to the floor. When she could no longer attempt to rise or block their blows, they grabbed her by the arms and pulled her to her knees.

One of the remaining guards with a staff derezzed his helmet and bent closer to her head. Curious as to why there was so much trouble and bother over this program, he tried to lift her face to get a better look at her.

When her face was raised enough for her to see his eyes, she slammed her head forward; head-butting him. She felt a slight sense of satisfaction at the thin glowing crack across his nose and the trickle of pixels now leaking from it.

"Stupid glitch," the guard said in an almost snarl, his voice thick. He raised his staff to jab her again when the other staff-wielding guard put out a hand to restrain him.

"Do not strike her again," he warned, "you might burn out some of her circuits. CLU's orders said no permanent damage."

Grumbling under his breath, the guard lowered his staff and motioned to the guards holding her. "Let's get her back to the Leader," he snapped. "If she cannot walk, drag her."

The two guards holding her arms lifted her slightly give her the chance to regain her feet. She tried to stand, and almost fell; stumbling when they began marching briskly down the corridor, back the way she had run earlier. She managed to keep her feet under her for the first few steps. Then her strength gave out and she tripped and fell. They dragged her the rest of the way, never slowing enough for her to try to stand or walk again. When they finally stopped, she hung limply between them, exhausted. A guard came up behind her and replaced her disc—which the guard had been carrying—on her back. Panting, she hung there gazing at the floor. A pair of black boot with thick yellow-gold circuits walked into her view. A moment later, a hand reached out and grasped her chin; lifting it until her eyes met those CLU's blue ones.

"I think that you will regret this little attempt to leave without my permission, program," he told her.

She tried to grin at him, tasting blood in her mouth from one of the blows she received earlier as she did so. "No, I don't think I will," she said. "Failing, maybe. But the attempt itself? Not a chance. Why don't you make it easier on yourself and turn me loose?"

CLU sighed. "Obviously you will need a more tangible reminder of why you should do as I tell you. Rinzler…follow." Looking at the guards holding her, he told them, "Bring her along." CLU turned and strode to the elevator.

A few minutes later she found herself being dragged down the same hallway that she had originally started from. CLU led the small group to a door that opened at their approach. Beyond it lay what looked like the arena she had first fought in, only smaller. CLU motioned for the guards to bring her inside. "Leave her," he told them, "and go back to your duties." The guards released her arms, causing her to drop none-too-gently to the floor. They then turned and left, leaving her alone with CLU and Rinzler.

CLU walked casually around her, his black and yellow-gold cloak bright against the gray walls and floor of the small room. Finally, he stopped in front of her and crouched down to face her as she raised herself to her hands and knees. CLU sighed again and spoke.

"I had hoped that you would be more reasonable. I should have known better than to expect that from a program like you. You are—without a doubt—a very stubborn program. I am afraid that you will require a more physical method of persuasion to get you to follow orders."

She glared back at him. "We both know that I'm not a program, CLU. That hasn't changed just because you say so."

He smiled at her. "Oh, but it has, program. It has. You seem to require some more convincing of that fact, however. Rinzler…" he called over his shoulder to the tall security program standing behind him. "I want you to show our newest program here just what happens to programs that do not follow orders. Oh, and Rinzler…" he added, "Do not permanently disable or injure her. I want her to be useful in the future. And it would be a shame to mar that face more than it has been already." With that said CLU went to the side of the room and leaned casually against the wall. He looked on as Rinzler stalked towards her from where he had been standing at attention.

"Remember, no disc," CLU called from where he lounged. "And you can disarm her at any time…."

She struggled to her feet from where she had fallen earlier. She pulled her disc from her back. "Don't think that I'm just going to stand here while he beats on me," she said, warningly. "Not going to make things that easy, CLU."

"I am counting on that," came the smug voice of CLU in reply. "I would not find it entertaining if you did."

And then, all she could see was the dark form of Rinzler before her.

His growl was louder than she had ever heard from him before.

Rinzler walked back to where the User lay, crumpled on her side on the floor of CLU's private training arena. He would need to check her injuries this time, no doubt. From the condition the guards had brought her back to CLU in, she had most likely received more injuries that the ones he had just inflicted.

As soon as he was within her reach, her hand reached out and clutched at his leg. He stopped and looked down; puzzled as to why she had done so.

"Take my disc off," he heard her say. She continued, "Before you growl or snarl or whatever it is you do instead of talking…take my disc off. Please. I would, but I can't reach it right now." Her face looked up at his, pleading for him to understand…what?"

Feeling confused, Rinzler knelt down next to her and gently removed her disc. Setting it to the side, he turned back to where she was trying to push herself up off of the floor. "Why remove the disc?" he asked her. She continued to try to get up on her own. "Stay put until I can examine your injuries," he said, putting out his hand to stop her. "Why did you want your disc off?"

She glanced in his direction. "Memories of what you do are only saved if you are in contact with your disc, am I right?" she asked him.

"Yes," he replied, still confused by her actions. "Unless you are syncing up with a new disc. Then it will download all memory onto your disc at that time."

"Then…if I'm not touching it, it can't record what we talk about. Or even that we are talking. We can be friends without me worrying about CLU accessing my memories and finding out."

"Clever," he said thoughtfully. "And a program would not want to lose contact with their disc, because they could not access memories afterwards if they went into stand-by_, sleep_, or shut-down_modes. Good plan."

"Thanks," she said, exhausted. "Glad to know you like it. Told you I fight dirty…."

Trying to ignore the strange saying that she used, Rinzler concentrated on the issue at hand. "I need to check you for injuries," he told her again. "Do you feel pain anywhere?"

"Um, everywhere?" she ventured.

"I am serious," Rinzler said, exasperated. "I may have seriously damaged you, not to mention what the guards did."

"I'm serious, too," she replied. "I hurt pretty much everywhere. Look, I'm not bleeding, I don't think I have any broken bones…I'm probably okay."

"Probably? Can you not run a self-diagnostic and KNOW?" he asked.

She looked up at him in frustration from where she still lay on the floor. "Look, I've done the closest thing to that I can do while lying here fully clothed. And I don't think that this suit comes off."

"It does," Rinzler said. "It is the same as changing the shape of your suit."

"Ya'know…I didn't get an instruction manual when I got here. How about you just assume that if you haven't told me or showed me about it…I don't know it," she said sounding frustrated. "You'll be right every time. Okay? Now, when can I get up? This floor isn't comfortable, and I hurt."

Feeling more concerned after hearing her say that she was hurting, Rinzler tried to concentrate once more on making sure that she would be alright. Holding her disc in front of her, he showed her how to access her suit settings and what would change them. "This causes more coverage, including grid armor. This reduces suit coverage. A little takes away grid armor; all of it will cause your suit to derezz. You need to reduce the coverage enough for me to get a good look at you," he said handing her disc back to her.

She took the disc in hand. "Okay, then this should do it…" she said, changing the suit setting.

Rinzler watched as her suit derezzed in some areas; leaving her arms, legs, and most of her back and midriff bare. But that was not what caused him to draw back from her.

"What?" she demanded, frowning. "What's wrong?"

"You don't have any circuits," he said incredulously.

She looked at him, puzzled. "Of course I do. You saw them on my suit just a few seconds ago, remember?"

He shook his head. "No, under your suit. You don't have any circuits showing. The circuits on a program's suit match up with the circuits on their bodies. Is this normal for Users?"

"Well, yeah. We've got nerves, which are sort of like circuits—I guess—but they don't match up with what we are wearing," she told him. "So, check me out if you're going to do it. I want to get off of this floor."

Rinzler nodded and began examining her. She had bruises forming all over her body to go with the ones that were now fading to yellow and brown—they must have been inflicted during the Games, he thought—and two burn marks from a discharged staff. The skin had broken open over a few of the bruises over her upper back and shoulders. She lay on her stomach, where he had helped her to turn so he could check her back. Running his fingers lightly over them, he heard her draw her breath in a hiss of discomfort.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Guards with some sort of baton thingies—like a police nightstick. I wasn't co-operating at the time," she told him in a tight voice.

Rinzler let out a small grunt of agreement. "I am beginning to think that you do not EVER co-operate," he told her.

"Not with them, anyhow," she said, agreeing with him.

He ran his hands lower down her back, checking for more cuts or bruises. His fingers brushed across her lower back, just above what was left of her suit. He stopped in surprise. "I didn't know User circuits looked like this…" he said, surprise evident in his voice.

"What are you talking abo—aahhh—" her breath caught as her back arched involuntarily as his fingers ran over the back of her hips.

Rinzler looked down in surprise at the 'circuits' that were now glowing bright white against her skin.

"What did you just do?" she asked him in an odd, strained-sounding voice.

"I just touched your circuits; and now they are glowing," he said, bewildered. "Do all User circuits do that?"

"Let me see," she said, making a small, muffled sound of pain as she twisted to look back over her shoulder. "Hey, awesome! I wouldn't have thought that they would glow here…" She seemed pleased for some reason.

"Is that normal? For your circuits to not glow—and then just start glowing?" he asked.

"Those aren't circuits," she said. "They're my tattoos. It's a permanent mark that some Users choose to have applied to them. Usually they have different meanings for different people."

Rinzler nodded his head. "But why did they not glow, and then start glowing?" he asked her, still confused.

"I have no idea. They're only supposed to glow under UV light. I don't know if UV light even exists here."

She looked up at him from over her shoulder. "Were they glowing when you first saw them?" she asked.

He shook his head. "No, they looked like an ISO's white circuit lines except they weren't glowing. They started to glow after I touched them," he answered.

"Then I have no idea why they started glowing. I guess it's a Grid thing. Umm, they seem to be a little…sensitive. Maybe you shouldn't touch them right now?" she ventured, trying not to blush at the thought of just HOW sensitive they had been. It had been a while since she had felt that way at the touch of someone's hand. Rinzler merely nodded his agreement as he moved farther down her; checking her legs and leg joints for injuries. He was examining her ankle when she heard him say in his gravelly voice, "I am sorry for this…."

She looked down at her ankle. It was swollen and looked bruised in his large, gloved hands. He had kicked her leg out from under her earlier in the fight, twisting her ankle as he did so. Understanding dawned on her. He wasn't just saying he was sorry about her ankle.

"It's okay," she told him. "I learned before this that I can take a hit. I'll heal."

"It is not 'okay', as you put it." Rinzler reached out and cupped her cheek, brushing his thumb just under the still healing cut across her face. "I did this. I did all of this to you," he said. "Now how much do you want to be friends, knowing that this is likely to happen over and over again?"

She reached up and caught his hand. She pulled it away from her face and held it. Looking at where she thought his eyes where behind the visor, she spoke. "You also took care of me, didn't kill me when anyone else here would have done so, and are my friend. Do you not want to be my friend because I fought back? I may have given you one or two bruises when I hit your fist and feet with the rest of me.…"

Rinzler pulled his hand away. "That is not funny. And it is not the same," he said. "You were fighting to protect yourself. You did not have a choice."

"And you did? You were fighting because you have been programmed to follow CLU's orders. Not because it was your choice. So, can I get up now?"

"Yes, you can get up," he told her. "You have no serious injuries…for a program. I think that you will be okay."

She grunted slightly. "Told you, I'll heal."

"I still need to clean those burns. Hold still," he warned. "This will not be pleasant."

"Never is," she muttered under her breath.

Rinzler was almost finished cleaning the angry, reddened energy-discharge burns a few minutes later when she asked him a question. "Rinzler, does the Grid have a visual language?"

"We have binary," he replied, trying to finish cleaning the last burn.

"No, not something that can be written or printed," she said. "I mean more along the concept of a language made up of gestures. Like you would make with your hands."

"There is nothing like that on the Grid," he told her, wondering why she was asking.

"So, CLU would not have any frame of reference to relate to if he saw someone using a language like that? He wouldn't be able to figure out what they were saying?" she asked, starting to sound excited.

"No, I do not believe that anyone here on the Grid could do that," he told her.

"Well, I know one," she said. "And I can teach it to you. If we have things we need to say around CLU, he would not know that we are communicating, or what we were saying. I can teach you sign language…if you want."

"This 'sign language'; this would be the gestures that you spoke of?" he asked.

"Well, yes. We don't have a lot of time; however, I can teach you the signs for 'yes', 'no', 'true', and 'false' now," she offered. "I mean, if you want to learn it."

"Show me these signs," he told her.

She sat up with his help and began demonstrating the signs; naming each sign as she did so. "It's not much now," she told him, "but at least you will be able to ask me if something I say or do is the truth or not."

"It is a start," he said gravely. "You will show me more of these 'signs' later. Unfortunately, I have to take you to CLU's quarters now. I would recommend re-rezzing the rest of your suit."

"You have the right idea there, I think," she said. She sighed and rerezzed most of her suit, leaving off the grid armor for the moment. Rinzler offered her a hand getting up.

"Can you walk?" he asked her.

"Go slowly and I can limp along," she replied.

He nodded and passed her a vial of energy. She didn't see where he had produced it from. "Here," he told her. "I was planning on giving you this the next time I saw you. I just did not expect you to be running down the corridor at the time," he added wryly.

"Thanks," she said, gratefully taking the vial. She opened it up and quickly drank the contents.

"Why does CLU keep calling me a program?" she asked Rinzler as he led her towards the door.

"When CLU changed your circuit color, he also changed the way you relate with other programs. Everything but the Grid now responds to you the way it would to a program." His blank helmet turned towards her as he looked at her. "You should be careful. Even knowing that you are a User, I relate to you like I would with another program. It means that I am not as safe for you to be near as I was before."

She gave him a small smile and turned her head to get a better look at him. "Not to be unkind; but you never seemed that safe for me to be near earlier, Rinzler."

The two of them fell silent as the door opened. Taking her arm, Rinzler appeared to lead her down the hallway. In reality, she was grateful for the secret support he offered as she limped along beside him. In a short time, they were in front of CLU's quarters.

This chapter's songs: 'Mission: Impossible' theme song

'All Along The Watchtower' by Bob Dylan