CLU is injured. Feral wants to know why Rinzler reacts the way he does.
A/N-I was told that it would be more helpful if the song list was at the top of the chapter, rather than at the end. So, here you are (you know who you are)...
Song list for this chapter: Running Up This Hill by Placebo
It was a form of chaos, and CLU utterly despised it.
Something had finally failed in the sector's coding, some small coding flaw that had slowly accumulated and gained mass, and now entire blocks of Chi sector were destabilizing. The potential damage to the Grid would be severe enough that CLU had immediately headed to Chi sector himself to avert it, ordering Rinzler to accompany him.
It hadn't taken CLU long to decide on a course of action.
"Rinzler!" he snapped. "Take Feral with you and oversee the full evacuation of all programs from this sector. Data save and retrieval is secondary priority." He turned towards the security program that was already moving. "Get this sector cleared!"
Rinzler had already signaled the nearest of the security programs tasked with this sector even before CLU finished speaking. The safety of the Grid's programs was always one of Rinzler's top priorities, and now he was operating with CLU's full approval and authority behind him.
Mere nanocycles later, the evacuation alarms were sounding as programs came running out of buildings, heading for stable code. CLU stood on the edge of the sector, programs parting around him like water around a stone in a stream as they ran or drove past; some on foot, others driving or riding lightrunners and lightcycles. Many programs were carrying what they had deemed to be their most important pieces of data; others with their hands empty, trusting data saved onto their discs to be enough.
Even as the programs move past him to reach safety, CLU was kneeling and attempting to gain sysadmin access to the sector; trying to find some way to stabilize and save it, ordering more sentries to cut all other Grid connections to the sector as he did so.
The administrator reached deep into the coding; feeling frustrated that he was barely able to brush the surface of code that a User would have been able to immerse themselves in. Yet one more thing that the Grids' original User had failed to deal with; one more betrayal that CLU had been left with. If he had been given more access, or if the flaw had been located and dealt with properly….
CLU routed those thoughts to his lowest priority sub-routine. This…this was the priority now; and if he couldn't find a way to stabilize the sector enough—and soon—it would collapse and possibly take more of the Grid with it when it did so. He couldn't—wouldn't—allow that to happen.
The last of the programs ran by him to the crowd of programs waiting far enough away from the sectors edge to be secure. He could hear them behind him, murmuring in nervous voices, afraid to come any closer to the unstable code.
CLU could almost feel the flaw in the coding now, a tiny little error that had slowly—ever so slowly—built up over the course of over a thousand cycles. The Leader halted the error; routing processes past it to avoid it building up more momentum. He couldn't feel if it was in time to save the sector; Chi's entire sector could still collapse if he could not find a way to deal with the error.
It would have to be removed. At least two of the blocks of coding that made up Chi sector were destabilized beyond repair. An entire folder would need to be deleted.
The administrator program looked around franticly. Rinzler had to be nearby; the last of the programs read as having been moved to safer areas of the sector. The security program was the only one he could count on to have the ability to quarantine away the damaged areas of the sector, leaving only a small connection where CLU knelt in the roadway. A nanocycle later, he spotted the distinctive red-orange glow of Rinzler's circuits. Even more telling was the expanding circle of space surrounding Rinzler as the other programs moved away from him, even as Rinzler handed over the injured program he had been carrying to a team of medics.
CLU sent an alert to Rinzler, signaling his need to the security program. He watched as the sharp planes of the system monitor's helmet turned towards him, Rinzler's attention seeming to focus on him before Rinzler dipped his head in acknowledgement of the order. Immediately, the tall, black-clad form moved to an area that would allow him to raise a quarantine field around the damaged sector coding; sealing it away from curious or unwary programs save for the small area that CLU knelt on to access the sector's code.
A moment later, the sysadmin could sense the quarantine field being raised nearby. With the knowledge that the system was protected from additional damage being done by the sudden removal of the folders that made up this part of the Grid, CLU turned his full attention to the damaged code before him. Using his administrator privileges, he gritted his teeth and reached for the code strands that—when pulled—would cause the folder's coding to unravel, making it possible for it to be deleted completely.
CLU could feel his system access snag on the required code lines, teasing them out of the programming code that made up this portion of Chi sector. As soon as the last tag line read as free, he grabbed them with his coding…and PULLED, deleting the damaged blocks of coding completely. The sudden drain on his resources was immense; drawing a loud, inarticulate cry from CLU as he forced the now deleted folder into a recycle bin while the system began to request an immediate defrag cycle. Alarms began to shrill within CLU's head as his coding signaled the potential for compromised integrity if system administrator privileges continued to be accessed at such high rates without immediate energy uptake.
Rinzler reached out and caught Feral's arm, pulling her back from the sheer edge that dropped off like a cliff where there had previously been a coded roadway. She stumbled forward with a sharp intake of air.
Glancing back over her shoulder, Feral looked at the gaping expanse behind her.
'What…where did it go?' she signed.
'Deleted,' Rinzler signed back. 'Sacrificed to prevent the damage from spreading.'
'But what if there were still programs in there? Would they have been moved to a safe place?'
Rinzler shook his head. 'Everything in that area has been deleted. There is no way to move the folder in that amount of time without moving programs or data contained within it as well. Be careful,' he signed the warning to her, 'until it is completely sealed off or replaced, anything or anyone who falls into that area will be derezzed. There is no coding to support anything there, now.'
Feral stared fascinatedly down at the empty space that had just recently been a thriving portion of the Grid.
'How?' she asked, looking back up at her partner and signing the question. 'How is it CLU can delete something this…big?'
'Administrative privileges,' Rinzler replied, his attention going to the yellow-circuited figure still kneeling on the edge of the now absent sector section. 'He's the only program on the system that can do so…'
'I can't even begin to guess how much power it takes to—' she stopped signing, realizing that Rinzler was not looking at her at the moment. "Is something wrong?" she asked, frowning a little.
'CLU.'
Feral looked over at the figure that was starting to struggle to his feet.
The sysadmin program was visibly weakened by his efforts, swaying as he tried and failed to stand. CLU had fallen to his hands and knees, one foot sliding over the edge of the emptiness that waited to swallow anything foolish or unlucky enough to tumble in.
Rinzler started forward, only to stop at the grip on his arm. Looking down, he could see Feral's hand gripping his arm just above the elbow.
"Wait," she said her voice so low Rinzler could barely hear her. "He's not being attacked, hasn't given you an order…just wait. We could be free of him—'
With a low growl, Rinzler shook his arm free of her hand and moved away, heading towards the administrator program that was even now trying to stand on his feet again.
Feral watched—her face still—as Rinzler reached CLU just as the sysadmin slipped; pulling CLU to safety before easing the exhausted program to the ground. Rinzler crouched, a dark, dimly lit shape next to the brighter, thick golden circuits of the Leader. She could see Rinzler handing a small vial of what was almost certainly energy to CLU; a suspicion that was confirmed when the dimmed glow of CLU's circuits brightened soon after. A nanocycle later, Rinzler straightened up to stand, guarding the administrator.
From where she waited, Feral could see the small circuits on her partner's helmet moving, showing that Rinzler had turned to look at her.
Feral continued to stand there; a cold, hard look on her face as she watched her friend and partner guarding the program that had hurt them both.
"Why did you so that? You could have just let him fall, and all this would be over... Why did you save him?"
'I had to…' Rinzler signed.
'NO, you didn't. You chose to do so. Why?' Feral signed the question, her fingers flashing with her agitation.
'Can you function as the system's administrator? Because I cannot do so…'
"You know that I can't." Feral's frustration was easy to hear in her voice. "I don't know enough about programming or how to handle code...that still doesn't explain WHY, though…"
'Because the system NEEDS an administrator to be safe; and I protect the system,' he signed to her.
'It's more than just that…you CARE for him.'
Rinzler looked away, the ebon gloss of his helmet revealing nothing. She looked at him for a long moment before saying softly, "You do more than care for him. You love him, don't you? Even with all he's done to the system, done to us, all he's done to YOU; and you love him. He's—what? Family? The problem brother?"
The sharp planes of Rinzler's helmet snapped back to focus on Feral, his growl rumbling low and quiet; a faint threat that would have frightened any other program from asking more questions.
Finally, he spoke.
"He's a program that belongs to this system. No matter what he's done, he's still one of this system's programs. And I care for this system's programs; I love them in a fashion. I love them—ALL. Even him…."
A/N-I know this chapter is a little short. The next one will be longer, and the wait between updates will not be as long...I promise.