One of the longer chapters for sure. Honestly, I thought this was going to be too long. But, I managed to get it where I wanted to end it. Anyway, here's 14.

Chapter 14

Catching Up

Flynn let go of his son and took in every inch of the once young boy.

"You're big," he started, unable to believe his eyes.

"You're…" Sam Flynn broke off awkwardly.

"Old?" Flynn asked with a slight, wry grin.

Sam Flynn gave a helpless laugh.

"How did you get in?" Flynn murmured.

"Alan came over,"

"Bradley…" Flynn muttered with a touch of disbelief.

"He got your page," Sam continued, "I found your office…under the arcade,"

"Page…" Flynn frowned, "Oh…the page…of course."

Quorra came up, smiling and turned to Flynn.

"Clu had him on the lightcycle grid. I intervened," she beamed proudly.

"Oh," Flynn murmured before looking up at his son, "Dinner soon…we'll talk then,"

The older User turned around and walked towards the window, much to Quorra's confusion. The ISO turned to Flynn's son, who let out a shuddering sigh of relief.

"He never thought he'd see you again," she told him.

Sam gave a sad nod, "Yeah,"

He took a steadying breath and turned around, facing Flynn's old lightcycle. The boy looked intrigued and Quorra walked up to the bike.

"Vintage," she explained, "Flynn built it many cycles ago for the games. It doesn't get out as much as it used to but…it's still the fastest thing on the Grid. He even built a few for his elite security team…no one knows what happened to them,"

She gently touched Sam's arm and guided him over to the board game Flynn had called Go!

"Do you know it?" she asked, to which Sam nodded and Quorra crossed her arms, "His patience usually beats out my more…aggressive strategy,"

Sam gave a laugh and Quorra looked up, icy eyes curious. She hadn't heard him laugh before. It was a nice laugh…but why was he laughing?

She didn't get the chance to ask as he walked over to the bookshelf and gently touched the spines.

"Flynn shared them with me," she explained, stroking the spines with reverence and familiarity, "I've read them all…"

"Oh, light reading," Sam deadpanned, "Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, I-Ching, Journey Without Goal…must have a killer ending,"

Quorra ignored his jibe at the book and picked up her favorite, bringing it lovingly to her chest and hugging it before turning back to Sam.

"Flynn is teaching me about the art of the selfless, about…removing oneself from the equation," she shot a look to where she'd last seen Flynn and turned conspiratorially back to Sam, "But, between you and me…Jules Verne is my favorite,"

She held up her book and Sam gave a wicked grin and a soft laugh.

"Do you know Jules Verne?" she asked hopefully.

"Sure," Sam shrugged, turning around.

Really!? That was the best news she'd heard all cycle!

"What's he like?" Quorra asked, excitedly.

Sam just kind of froze. He turned back around, rubbing the back of his head…just like Flynn did when he was flustered…

Which made no sense to Quorra. If he knew Jules Verne then it would be a simple thing to describe what he was like!

"Quorra," came Flynn's voice, "Why don't you come help me with dinner, give Sam some time to take it all in, alright?"

Quorra gave a nod and then looked back at Sam.

They'd continue this conversation later.

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"How in the world did you manage to get a pig in here," Sam asked incredulously as they sat down to dinner.

"It's just energy," Flynn shrugged, "It looks like a pig but it's really just the stuff in the glasses here. You see those apples over there?"

"Yeah?"

"First attempt at coding solid food," Flynn grinned, "the liquid stuff is fine…but every once and a while you begin to want something solid,"

Quorra watched the whole exchange with a smile. She'd had conversations with Flynn like this before…but now it was something else, just seeing father and son react with one another warmed her core and made it ache at the same time.

She used to have conversations like that with her father too…

"Don't think about that," she mentally berated herself, "He's derezzed and gone and you can't afford to break down in front of the Users. They'll start prying and then you'll really have a system crash…"

So she kept her silence until the two lapsed in with her. Quorra turned to Sam.

"How old are you now, Sam?" she asked.

"You should be twenty seven," Flynn answered.

"Yes, twenty seven," Sam nodded.

"Do you attend a college?" Quorra continued.

She was going to get to know Sam just as well as she knew Flynn…she was bound determined to.

Sam gave her a mildly surprised look, like he wasn't expecting her to know what college was. But he gave a slight smile.

"Caltech," he answered.

"Caltech…" Flynn smiled, "My alma mater,"

"Yeah," Sam replied, "'Til I dropped out,"

Quorra laughed, dropping out…that was funny! And then she saw Flynn and Sam both looking at her strangely. She stopped, cheeks flaring faint red as she stabbed her fork at the food and continued eating.

It wasn't funny…and now she'd made a fool of herself. She knew they didn't blame her, but still…she'd spent all these cycles with Flynn, learning about the User world…she should have known.

At least, that's what was going through her mind.

"Work?" Flynn asked, "Job? Encom?"

Sam gave him a slightly smug look.

"Are you…"

"No," Sam shook his head but threw in a roguish smile, "I check in once a year,"

There was something behind that smile, Quorra didn't know what…but she could tell it was something reckless. Something that both Jalen and Anon would have approved of while Tron and Radia wouldn't have been amused.

"Wife? Girlfriend?" Flynn continued.

"Dog," Sam cut him off, "Marvin. A rescue,"

"Oh…" Flynn blinked, "Dogs are…dogs are cool…"

They broke off into awkward silence until Flynn decided to break it again.

"I'm sure you must have a few questions of your own, Sam," he muttered.

"Actually, just one," Sam replied, looking pointedly at his father.

Flynn closed his eyes and nodded.

"Why I never came home," he concluded with a sigh, "Those nights when I went to the office, I'm sure you've figured it out by now I was coming here. Human form into digital space…heavy stuff,"

He took a drink and set the glass down again.

"But," he continued, "I also had you, I had Encom, I couldn't be in here all the time. I needed partners to help out,"

"Tron and Clu," Sam said.

"That's right," Flynn said with a sad smile, "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 create a perfect world,"

He gave a soft laugh and shook his head.

"Ah, we were jamming, man," he sighed, "building utopia. Hours in here were just minutes back home. Just when I thought it couldn't get any more profound, something unexpected happened,"

"The Miracle,"

Flynn gave an incredulous laugh.

"The Miracle…you remember!" he smiled, "ISOs. Isomorphic Algorithms. A whole new life form,"

"And you created them?" Sam asked.

Flynn gave a bark of laughter, shooting a look at Quorra, who shook her head in amusement.

"No. No," he chuckled, "They manifested, like a flame. They really weren't from anywhere. The conditions were right and the came into being from the Sea. The Grid created them…not me. For centuries we've dreamed of gods, spirits, aliens…an intelligence beyond our own. I found them in here, like flowers in a wasteland. Profoundly naïve, unimaginably wise. They were spectacular,"

He gave a sad smile.

"I took two of them in, basically adopted them and taught them about our world, Sam. An ISO man and an ISO woman. He called himself Jalen, she called herself Ophelia and then renamed herself later into Radia,"

Quorra bowed her head sadly, fighting back the tears that wanted to come so very badly. Flynn got up and walked to the fireplace, picking up two deactivated Bits as Sam and Quorra both followed him, Sam sitting in the chair and Quorra stretching out on the couch.

"Everything I'd hoped to find in the system: control, order, perfection…none of it meant a thing. I've been living in a hall of mirrors…the ISOs shattered it. The possibilities of their root code, their digital DNA," he corrected, "Disease? History! Science, Philosophy, every idea man has ever had up for grabs…The ISOS…they were going to be my gift to the world,"

"So what happened?" Sam asked.

Flynn closed his eyes, jaw clenched as he set the Bits back down on the fireplace and took off his Disk, activating what he had seen that horrible moment.

"Clu," Flynn growled, "Clu happened,"

The hologram flickered to life, showing Flynn and Tron walking into a square, Clu coming up to them and calling out to Flynn, showing as Tron told Flynn to go and fought against Clu and his lackeys.

Quorra turned away, trying to not relieve that moment…but Tron's scream still echoed in her ears, even after all these cycles.

"Tron…he fought for me," Flynn murmured, replacing his Disk, "I never saw him again,"

"So why didn't you fight?" Sam asked.

"He did," Quorra said, remembering Anon under Flynn's orders coming to save her.

"Clu fed on my resistance," Flynn replied bitterly, "The more I fought, the more powerful he became. Every Program I sent at him never came back…all being turned into one of his minions. It was impressive, really,"

He shook his head and sighed.

"And my Miracle…" he whispered softly, "Clu saw the ISOs as an imperfection…so he destroyed them,"

Quorra shuddered, still hearing the screams and shrieks of her people as the Regulator blasted their cities to pieces, as Black Guards dragged them out of their dwellings and murdered them in the streets.

"The Purge," she murmured.

"He killed them all?" Sam asked, incredulous.

"It was genocide," Flynn replied, not answering the question and making Quorra look at him.

Even from his own son…Flynn was protecting the last of his Miracle.

"I tried to get back," Flynn explained, "But I couldn't get back to the Portal. It uses massive power and can't stay open forever. And like a safe…it can only be opened from the outside. It closed on me, Sam…that's why I never came home,"

Sam got up and walked to the window, looking at the star-like Portal.

"So the Portal…it activated when I came in. So it's open now," he stated.

"Not for long," Flynn told him, both he and Quorra getting up and walking to the window and onto the balcony, "Only one millicycle, about eight hours,"

"So we go now, go home. We make a run for it! We get you outta here!"

"Stop, don't rush," Flynn said.

"What do you mean 'don't rush'?" Sam demanded, "The Portal's gonna close!"

Flynn said nothing and Sam turned to Quorra.

"What?" he asked, "What is it?"

"The moment Flynn is on the Grid, Clu will stop at nothing to obtain his Disk," she answered, gesturing at her mentor and Sam's father.

"My Disk is everything, Sam," Flynn told him, "It's the master key, the golden ticket, the way out. And not just for me,"

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"Our worlds are more connected than anyone knows," Flynn replied, "Clu figures that if I can be in…"

"He can be out?" Sam guessed.

"With my Disk its possible," Flynn sighed.

"And then what?"

"Game over," Flynn deadpanned, "The guy doesn't dig imperfection…what's more imperfect than our world? I can't let that happen. I won't,"

"So what do we do?" Sam asked, "Nothing?"

"It's amazing how productive doing nothing can be," Flynn argued, "Clu's planning something. We've known that for a while,"

"According to Yori," Quorra thought, tracing the stones by the pool of water as Flynn explained everything, "Where would he be taking those Programs? Not the games…the Arena's not big enough,"

She snapped out of her thinking when Flynn's voice was raised and he was basically shouting at Sam.

"With you he got more than he could ever dreamed!" Flynn snapped, "This is precisely what he wants! Us together, heading for the Portal! It's his game now! The only way to win is not to play!"

Sam replied something so soft that Quorra couldn't hear but Flynn did.

"But it is a way!" he corrected.

"We can go home," Sam said gently, coming to his father, "Don't you want that?"

Flynn turned his tired gaze to his son.

"Sometimes life has a way of moving you past things like wants and hopes,"

"That's great Dad," Sam growled, "You keep telling yourself that,"

Flynn kept silent and walked past Quorra into the house.

"Goodnight, Sam,"

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Quorra showed Sam to his room, but the younger User pulled her aside.

"How can he be so afraid of his own creation?" he asked, "I mean he built Clu, why doesn't he just end him?"

"He could but it would require Re-Integration," Quorra murmured softly.

"Yeah, so?"

Quorra stared at him incredulously.

"Flynn would never survive the event," she hissed, "It would mean the end of them both!"

"If he refuses to save himself then I will," Sam said firmly.

"How?" Quorra asked.

"I'm going to the Portal," Sam told her, "Clu wants Flynn's Disk not mine. I'm gonna find Alan and we'll figure this thing out from the other side. This may be Clu's game here but in my world he's gone in one keystroke. But I can't do anything unless I get to the Portal. And my guts tell me that you don't want to be stuck in this place for eternity either,"

Quorra looked at Sam.

"I really think you should consider your father's wisdom," she stated, turning on her heel and walking to her room.

Once she got there, she looked at Sam through the window, watching as he sat down and put his head in his hands.

She closed her eyes and shook her head, immediately being taken back to a memory.

"I can't hide anymore! Clu has to be held accountable! For Radia, for everyone! Either help me or step aside!"

She reopened her eyes and walked to the dresser, pulling out her beloved Jules Verne collection and flipping to her bookmark, a silver plate emblazoned with a sector symbol. She looked up at her reflection…seeing herself. Her father's eyes, her mother's facial structure, Anon's blue-tinged circuits.

All dead because of Clu.

She gripped the plate and walked out the door, striding to Sam's room quietly and opening the door, facing the User.

"There's someone I once knew," she told him, "A Program named Zuse who fought alongside the ISOs, they say he can get anyone…anywhere,"

"How do I find him?" Sam asked.

She handed him the plate.

"This is his sector. Make it there alive, and he'll find you,"

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Flynn woke up to screams. The older User went over to Quorra's room quickly and found the young ISO crying in her sleep.

"NO! Mother! Father! NO!" Quorra shrieked.

Flynn came closer to the girl's side and held her gently.

"It's ok, it's ok," he soothed as Quorra's screams abated, transforming into heart-wrenching sobs, "You're safe,"

"Gone, all gone…" Quorra sobbed, leaning into Flynn's shoulder, "I could have saved them…I could have…"

"You're alright," Flynn told her, stroking her hair gently, "It's just a bad dream, Quorra. They're gone yes, but you're still here. You're alive,"

He held her gently until she stopped crying.

"Better?" he asked.

"I would have thought they would have gone away by now," she muttered bitterly.

"You seen things even most Users don't," he told her, "I'd be surprised if you didn't have those nightmares,"

He looked up, seeing Sam's light on.

"I think you woke Sam up. I'll go check on him," Flynn told her, getting up and walking out.

Quorra sat on her bed, shaking as the remnants of her nightmare replayed and faded. Her mother being stabbed in the chest, her father's scream of pain as Anon's Disk knifed into his side…

Eventually, she stopped shaking and got up off the bed, walking out into the main room…just to see Flynn standing on the balcony, looking at the Portal.

"Quorra," he started, not looking at her, "Prepare the lightrunner, we're going down town,"

He turned to her, a smile on his face.

"Thank you for bringing my son to me,"

"Flynn, you don't need to go," she told him, "I've sent him to someone we can trust!"

"Quorra, there is no choice," he said, "I won't lose him again. Chaos, good news,"

And he turned around, walking towards the elevator.

"You sent him to Zuse…didn't you?" he asked as he got into the lightrunner and she followed.

"Maybe," Quorra murmured, "Why? What's wrong?"

"I have a feeling that something isn't right,"

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He wasn't wrong. The trip to the Club wasn't that bad, nor was the elevator ride to it…it was when the doors opened that the trouble began. Four Black Guards versus one Sam Flynn.

"Stay here," Quorra ordered, leaping out into the fray, over Sam and unsheathing her blade at the same time.

Two Guards charged forwards but Quorra blocked them both with her Disk and her blade. She looked up to see Zuse's familiar form…right as his face twisted into a sneer and he gave a laugh. Quorra grit her teeth and whirled around, ducking underneath the Guards before engaging.

Her katana flickered out as she used her Disk as a shield, blocking a hit from one Guard before shoving off and standing protectively in front of Sam.

"I met your friend," Sam deadpanned, "he's fantastic,"

Quorra rolled her eyes and danced away.

"Behold!" Zuse yelled, shining a spotlight on Sam, making the User shield his eyes for a second, "The son of our maker!"

Quorra dodged a staff, ducking under the blow before rising up with a blow of her own, her Disk blade skating off the Guard's staff.

She followed the momentum and flipped backwards, landing on her feet and twitching her sword blade in challenge. Two of the Guards attacked her and Sam, sending them both circling around the floor as they blocked and struck, trying to keep from getting themselves killed. One of the Guards kicked her in the face, knocking the wind out of her before backhanding her and nearly sending her to the floor.

She felt her arm getting grabbed and just had time to look at the helmet of the Guard as the other sliced through her arm.

Pain arched through her system, so great and intense that she felt herself falling…

And it all went dark.

The pig...honestly, who wasn't thinking that at some point? My boyfriend even thought that when he saw the movie the first time. "Where did they get a pig in the Grid?!" "I don't know...maybe it's just energy made to look like it?" At least...that's what I've always thought. Furthering my idea about that is a story done by Pirateweasel called Following User Protocols. It's hysterically funny in some places and its set Pre-Coup so we have Clu and Tron basically getting along. I'd recommend checking it out!

Anyway, hope you liked it. If you did, please R&R! :)

Qui vállë tóquetë, ván tecë (If no review comes from y'all; no story comes from me)

Máriessë ar mára tecië

Farewell and fair writing

Elhini Prime signing off.