Ok, I got a nice review that said to continue, so here I am uploading the next chapter. I'm assuming that there is still some interest in me finishing this story. This chapter is a bit short, but fear not – more to come shortly. Would some more reviews letting me know whether you still like it be too much to ask? I hope you enjoy reading :) Dray xx

Quorra was the first to recover. She opened her eyes and took in the surroundings. She crawled over to Sam and put her arms around his shoulders. Kevin was lying on the floor beside his son, apparently younger and stronger. In the corner where CLU had stood lay Zuse next to Xia and a gleaming explosion of diamond-pixels.

She left Sam and went to Zuse. She stroked his arm until he stirred. As he sat up, she put her hand on his shoulder. He looked at her, frowning as if trying to work out who she was. Then he caught sight of Xia and remembered.

"No."

Quorra was shaken by his voice. Where there had been a cheeky, playful tone with a dangerous edge there was... Nothing. It was as if he was as lifeless as the ISO he mourned. He touched the glassy shards gently. Quorra could do nothing but squeeze his shoulder in an attempt to console him.

Sam had awoken and came over to them.

"I'm sorry, Zuse."

His name and the softness with which it was uttered made the program look up. Sam held out his hand. Zuse took it and Sam helped him up. When he was standing, Sam stepped forwards and hugged him quickly. Zuse was surprised by the contact, but reciprocated tentatively, gratefully.

Finally, Kevin started to wake. The old man groaned and Sam left Zuse to go and help his father up. Once Kevin was standing, the effects were immediately evident. He was taller and more muscular, with no beard and darker hair. He was the age he should have been had he remained in the human world.

"Sam, Quorra, I'm glad you're ok. Where's..." he saw Zuse still standing by Xia's remains. The program's hands were curling into fists and his eyes had turned dark grey.

"Zuse... Zuse!"

"She's gone. She loved me and she's gone!"

"Zuse, listen to me."

The white program turned to him with pure fury written on his face.

"I have her disk." Kevin said, pulling out the the white disk.

"Not even I can bring someone back once they've derezzed."

"She's not completely derezzed. And you're not the most important thing in this world, Zuse. That would be me." Kevin grinned and sat on the ground cross-legged with Xia's disk in front of him. Bringing up her 3D schematics, he started to rearrange the coding. It took a long time, but finally Kevin looked up. He handed Zuse the disk.

"Put it back, it should rebuild the damaged coding.

Zuse took it and did as Kevin said. They stood over her to watch as the coding rebuilt itself from scratch until Xia was whole again, lying on the ground in front of them.

"You did it." Zuse said in awe.

"Yep. Still got it." Kevin smiled.

"Thank you, Kevin. Hardly seems enough, but thank you."

"My reward is seeing you happy. You'll get your club back too, if you still want it."

"Of course." Zuse said indignantly.

Kevin chuckled. "You'll need to leave her to rest for a while. I expect it'll take ages for the internal circuitry to sort itself out again. And give her this." he handed a small vial to Zuse.

"Alright."

"Take her back to the hideout, I need to reprogram everything. It's gonna take a long time for everything to return to the way it should be. I'll call you when I need you."

He threw a communicator at Zuse, who caught it and nodded.

"Good luck." the white haired program said to his creator as he disappeared into the darkness outside with Sam and Quorra.

Zuse turned to Xia.

"Let's get out of here, shall we?"

He picked her up and carried her out to the bike. He returned to the small base and once he had placed her in one of the rooms, he found a tablet and set about accessing the grid.