This chapter picks up from where the last one ended, and I have a few words to describe it: sad beginning, funnier end.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Please enjoy and review!

Tron POV

It was just past the time Enyo should have returned when I started to get worried. The User didn't seem the kind to run late, meaning that she got into trouble downtown. I finished the training exercise, checking the time again before heading directly to a rack full of batons from which I grabbed one for a Lightjet. I climbed up to the top of the facility, breaking into a run to make the jump and rezzed the vehicle.

I made it to the city and went on the familiar network of streets, searching for the User when I heard a familiar scream and sprinted to its source.

Enyo was in a square, fighting four Black Guards trying to protect a female Program who lay on the ground, code spilling from a deep gash on her chest. I hurried to her, rolling her to face me and I found myself gazing in horror upon Yori's face.

"Tron," she whispered.

All I could do was nod, my hands ghosting over her wounds. The edges were already derezzing and I knew that even if Enyo would try to heal her, she wouldn't make it. Yori smiled feebly, raising a hand to touch my cheek, and I knew her last words would forever haunt me.

"It's too late, my love," she murmured. "There's nothing you could have done. At least I get to see you... one last time..."

Her eyes closed and her body disintegrated to bright blue pixels in my arms as she derezzed, and I felt a part of me derezz too.

Enyo POV

"NOOOOOOOO!"

Tron's wail of anguish echoed on the streets, and I froze for a second - I was so caught in the battle I hadn't noticed his arrival - watching as he kneeled in front of Yori's remains. The guards used my hesitation and one of them managed to slash my right shoulder. Red drops fell to the ground , shining like rubies.

"User," one of the Guards growled, before knocking me down.

I watched the reddish glow of his Disk inching towards me for what felt like an eternity before twin Disks derezzed him.

Tron was ferocious, slashing with deadly precision until there was nobody left alive. He derezzed the last guard with one swift movement before heading to Yori's side where he collapsed again, tears streaming on his face.

Tron POV

DEAD! She was dead, and it was all my fault! Yori Anon Flynn Beck. All derezzed. My fault. Why? Why? Not good enough. Not Tron, Rinzler. How many had I derezzed? How many lives ended on the edge of my Disks?

"Why, Users, why?!," I cried to the heavens.

My vision blurred to a fog of grief and rage, and all I could see was Yori's pale face, all I could hear were her last words. She was gone. She was gone, and it was just like I had derezzed her myself.

"Tron..."

I ignored the voice calling my name. All that mattered for me in my whole existence was lost now.

"Tron..." the familiar voice called again cautiously as someone kneeled beside me.

I turned to face Enyo, her sapphire gaze sad but determined.

"We have to go," she spoke softly.

I shook my head, looking again to Yori's remains as she set a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"She wouldn't want you to derezz because of her," the User insisted. "We have to go, Tron. We have to. Please."

The urgency in Enyo's tone finally got to me and I stood up, helping her too.

"Goodbye, my love," I whispered, running away from the square.

A while after I noticed that Enyo was falling behind. She caught my unspoken question, shrugging.

"It's nothing, just a sprained ankle," she dismissed but I could notice her limp.

"I must have got it during the skirmish."

I grinded to a halt, forcing the User to stop too so I could check her ankle.

"It's okay, really," she protested when I laid her down in the empty alleyway. "No need to go all mother hen about it."

"Mother what? Users, you really have weird expressions where you come from," I muttered under my breath, moving her ankle to test its stability. "It's an easy injury, Beck got lots of those in training..."

... before I derezzed him.

"The Renegade of Argon City?"

"The same," I nodded, getting up. "You shouldn't put too much stress on it and using the Lightcycle is out of question, so we should find some means of transport."

Enyo cocked her head as if she was listening before pointing down the alley.

"There's a garage about two streets down, and I could bet they have a Lightrunner," she said as she grabbed my extended arm and got to her feet. We went to the door she indicated and inside we indeed found a Lightrunner.

"How did you do that?," I asked while I drove to the hideout.

"Do what?"

"How did you find the Lightrunner?"

Enyo shrugged.

"A simple query, and the code pointed me to what I needed," she explained. "Flynn made the Grid User-friendly: if you know how to encode, it's fairly easy to get what you want."

She took her Disk, turning on the holographic memory files that showed her in front of a computer screen typing furiously.

"I'm a hacker back home, and the last system I broke into was ENCOM," she continued. "That's how I discovered the Grid, by finding a note on your data files that said "transferred to Grid.""

I didn't continue the discussion, thinking about what happened back in town.

'I'll miss you so much, Yori...'

Enyo POV

We got to the hideout and Tron went directly to his quarters without a word and I let him mourn Yori in peace. After all, he had no Grid to escape to in order to forget his loss, and I knew how he felt: after all, three milicycles ago I was the same.

I fussed around the living room, trying to find a way to help him, but there was only one I could think about and it was so out of the ordinary I didn't even know if it would work.

When I thought that the floorboards would get thinned if I paced any more I went and knocked on Tron's door before opening it.

"Can I come in?"

I found Tron sitting on the edge of his bed with his head in his hands. He looked up when I came in and I could see that his steel blue eyes were swollen and tears ran freely on his cheeks.

"I'm sorry," I said quietly. "When I found her she was already down and all I could do was try and get those guys away."

The sadness in those steel blue eyes froze my words on their way, making me flinch uncomfortably. I felt like he was probing all the way deep down my soul.

"It wasn't your fault," he finally spoke, looking down. "You couldn't have done anything more than you already did."

"That's not what I came to tell you. I have to go back to my world and make some arrangements."

I paused, sitting next to him.

"Will you be okay? While I'm gone, I mean."

"Eventually, yes."

"I know how it feels," I reassured.

The Monitor glanced at me.

"Do you?"

"My dad passed away when I was 8, and mum died in front of my eyes about an hour before I came to the Grid tonight." I sighed, getting to the door. "The only reason I'm not curled up in a corner crying my eyes out right now is that you needed my help, and I couldn't let you get yourself derezzed when I could do something about it."

"You did more than I deserved, Enyo."

"Emily," I corrected as I stepped out. "My User name is Emily."

When I de-digitized back into our world I saw that the papers on my desk were moved from their usual place as if someone had rummaged through them, looking for something. I caught a movement to my left and lunged, grabbing the intruder and tossed him on the ground, pinning him in a tight grip.

"Mike, you idiot, what the hell are you doing here?!" I yelled.

"Damn it, girl, you could have killed me!," he shrieked.

I pulled him up and he wavered on his feet, looking at me like I had transformed into an alien.

"Yes, I could have, dumbass," I hissed. "I thought I told you not to come down here!"

"I just wanted to check on you, and you had just vanished!"

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. This wasn't going to end well.

"I didn't mean to tell you like this," I started, "but I have no choice now. You have seen the laser there?"

Mike nodded confusedly.

"Well, that's hooked up to the computers, allowing me to physically enter a computer network called the Grid. That's where I went. It's an entire world in there, inhabited by Programs like the one I rescued tonight."

Mike burst into nervous laughter after a moment, like all of it was a weird joke.

"It's one of your pranks, isn't it? You just hid somewhere and tried to scare me. You can't possibly..."

I shot him a death glare that could give Tron a run for his money before I went to the keyboard and inserted the launching sequence for the laser.

"Okay, if you don't believe me watch this."

I hit the start key and the laser activated.

"Em," Mike warned right when we got shot into the computer.

Moments later we were in the garage area and the floor lit up under my feet. Mike looked around in awe at the white walls and the racks adorning them, looking like someone had hit him and gasping for breath.

"You weren't kidding," he blurted. "Are we really in a computer program?"

"Yup, we are," I chimed.

"This is awesome! Did you make all of these? And I don't know what the hell you're wearing, but it looks kick-ass."

I nodded smugly before I heard footsteps from the hallway and Tron ran inside in all his System Monitor glory, Disks blazing in his hands and ready to fight. His steel blue eyes assessed us and he finally relaxed, which couldn't be said about Mike who cowered and almost hid behind my back. I had to admit that he was right: Tron looked every inch like the formidable warrior he was, scars and all, and I couldn't help but imagine Mike's face if he had met him as the Rinzler. If the Monitor was imposing, Rinzler had been downright scary, and I stifled a laugh.

"You were faster than I thought, En... sorry, Emily," Tron rumbled, lowering his Disks, "and I see you brought guests."

"Unexpected complications," I explained, pointing to Mike.

My friend was still scared shitless, glaring at the Monitor from behind my back and Tron let out a warm laugh.

"I must have scared your friend," he chuckled. "Come on, I don't bite."

"But you can kick both our asses with one hand while blindfolded," I snorted, earning a death glare from Mike and a lopsided smile from Tron. So he has a sense of humor, after all.

"You're probably right with that," he admitted.

"Probably?! Two words: Game. Arena."

"You held up pretty well for a rookie," the Monitor grinned, "I'll give you that, but you still have much to learn."

"Yeah, sure," I muttered, "now he gives me the Zen master stuff."

"I heard that, and you'd better remember that I've been fighting since before you were born, User. So in my view you're still the blockheaded apprentice who first cuts himself and runs crying to its mama."

"No I'm not!"

"You still haven't introduced us," Tron pointed

During our exchange, Mike finally relaxed and came out of his hideout carefully and I pushed him forward.

"This is Mike, my childhood friend. Mike, you've already met Tron, the guy told you about."

The Monitor shook Mike's trembling hand with a reassuring smile.

"It's an honor to meet you, User," he said. "Your kind is rare around the Grid."

"What do you mean? Aren't there more of these... Users around?"

The Monitor went serious again, and I bowed my head too.

"There used to be some," I explained, "but at the moment I'm the only one who comes here. One of them was Kevin Flynn."

"Wasn't he the CEO of ENCOM?"

"And our Creator," Tron completed. "But he's derezzed - well, dead, in your words."

The Monitor shuddered, probably remembering his time spent under CLU's control, and I quickly changed the subject.

"Well, we must be off," I said. "Don't expect me back for a User day or so. Please, don't get yourself derezzed, Tron."

"Do I look like I have a death wish?," he retorted.

I barked a laugh and initiated the launch sequence, transporting Mike and I back home.

"Whoa," my best friend gasped, "that was weird but awesome."

"Yeah, it was. It's unbelievable, really, it's like nothing I've ever experienced before. We Users can do incredible things in there, it's like being a god."

"Is that where you learned how to kick arse like that?"

I chuckled darkly, cracking my knuckles.

"Yup," I chimed.

"Isn't it, I don't know, peaceful?"

"Did Tron look peaceful to you?"

Mike shook his head and I grinned.

"I had to defend myself, more so after I had a nasty run with a repurposed Tron the first time I went in. He almost killed me in the Games, so I had to learn how to fight. I'm not as good as he is, though I knocked him flat once when he wasn't paying attention."

Mike looked at me for a moment as if he assessed me before opening the door.

"You've changed a lot, Em," he said before going out, "and in a good way."