AN: many thanks to Strawberry's n cream, Tiptip, Juliet Knighly, Krisdaughter of Athena and BetaReject for their reviews! I originally planned to write the third chapter this weekend, but you guys were so nice that I somehow finished it before I realized I had started it. Have a nice read!

It didn't make any sense. Beck loathed the Occupation and did a very poor job hiding it... but now he was standing in Tesler's throne room, right after he apparently denounced his friends for joining a rebellion he should have supported? And he was also the one who brought her to the hospital, saving her from some psycho who pretended to be the Renegade? You're full of surprises, mechanic. Her obvious astonishment seemed to amuse Tesler.

"Are you going to keep staring at him or do you think you'll thank him?

- I... thank you, Beck.

- You're welcome, commander."

Commander, uh? Someone had not forgiven her for dumping him. To his credit, he was perfectly composed when he turned to the general.

"Sir, if you want the garage to be operational, I should probably...

- You're right, program. You've got some hiring to do. You can go."

Beck bowed a little to him, then nodded to Paige and left the room. She couldn't help but let a slight sigh escape her lips, which Tesler noticed. The face he turned to her was almost... concerned? It was quite an unusual sight.

"Paige, weren't you two... seeing each other, at some point?"

Users. Her superior was many things to her but at this exact moment, there was nothing she wanted less than to have this kind of discussion with him. She tried to brush if off.

"It's complicated."

No, it's not. You left him. And now you feel guilty because he apparently saved you from derezzolution. But not quite guilty enough to forgive him the way he just treated you. Maybe it was actually complicated, after all. Fortunately, Tesler seemed to accept this explanation and switched back to the role they were probably both more comfortable with.

"We have more pressing matters to deal with anyway. Clu is going to board the ship in a few minutes and we have to welcome him in the main hangar. He'll want a full report, obviously, but... since we have the garage back under control, I don't think he needs to know about the rebelling mechanics. They're gone and if they're smart, they'll never be back. Doesn't it mean that the Renegade is our only problem?

- I... I guess it does, Sir.

- Good!"

He put a hands on her shoulder.

"I know you'd understand, Paige. There's no need to pester the Liberator with annoying details. Let's go, now, we really don't want to have him waiting for us."

On the short journey to the main hangar, she tried to process everything. There was a new Renegade in Argon, way more dangerous than the first one. Somehow, she had been saved by a program she tried to cut out of her life a few cycles ago. The very same program, barely hiding his support to the rebellion until recently, was now working for the Occupation. Tesler, the program who'd been trusted by Clu himself with the Occupation of Argon, was now asking her to hide crucial information from the Liberator. Something was happening and she couldn't quite put her finger on it yet. When she'd have some time to herself, there was something she wanted to try with her disk memory...

"Everything is ready, Sir!

- Good, commander."

Commander? Paige shook herself out of her thoughts... and realized that Tesler was talking to Pavel. The garage wasn't the only thing he lost, apparently. And yet he was still showing the same obsequiousness to the general, like nothing happened. She wondered how Tesler could be so oblivious so his subordinate's true character. Pavel was probably plotting his revenge already and Paige promised herself to watch him closely.

An elegant ship passed through the hatch of the hangar. Tesler motionned his commanders to follow him and approached a cleared space right next to where Clu's personal cruiser was deploying his landing gear. A few moments later, the Liberator set foot on the flagship, followed by Dyson and a squad of Black guards. Tesler dropped to one knee, imitated by his two commanders.

"Welcome aboard, Sir.

- Rise, general. I won't be staying for long.

- Sir?"

Clu didn't explain himself immediately. His personal guards had deployed themselves and were making sure that no one could hear what he was apparently about to tell them. Great, the cycle was short of secrets so far.

"The Renegade is still on the loose, isn't he?

- Sir, I assure you we're doing everything we can to–

- I know, general. Don't you wonder why I haven't derezzed you yet?"

Paige couldn't see Tesler's face but she could tell, from the way his shoulders suddenly tensed, that the possibility of his... early retirement had indeed crossed his mind.

"I... I do, Sir.

- It's quite simple, really. Had you failed for so many cycles to arrest a simple rogue program, there would be nothing but voxels left of you by now. There's no room in the perfect system for such incompetence. Luckily for you... and for your immediate subordinates, the Renegade isn't a simple rogue program."

She felt a surge of excitation. She knew there was something strange !

"He's far more dangerous than that. He's honest however, we have to give him that much. He told us the truth from the beginning, and while we had excellent reasons to believe he was lying, Dyson has since managed to obtain conclusive evidence of the contrary. Tron lives. And he's the Renegade."

Tron did live and was currently angry at himself. Pacing the northern side of Argon's Square, he was waiting for the mechanics who were supposed to arrive shortly. Much to his irritation, it let him some time to think about the way he handled things with Beck, and "poorly" was the first word that came to his mind. The young program didn't know Clu. He could not imagine what the Traitor was capable of. To him, Tesler and his Occupation were the enemy and the Games were the height of cruelty. The Coup was a historical event and the Purge targeted a mysterious kind of programs he'd never met. So why didn't you take the time to explain him?

Because he hadn't even thought of it. His fight against the Black guards had sent him back in time, to the terrible cycle when trusted allies turned against him and their Creator. The old monitor had reacted in the same way he had reacted then : by derezzing the threat. That's what he was programmed for. And this time, without Dyson and Clu to finish the work of the Black guards, he had been victorious. Nine programs had ceased to be so that he could keep fighting for the Grid. When Beck had questioned his methods, Tron had felt annoyance, not remorse.

Luckily, the young program had agreed to stay part of the Uprising. His new position wouldn't expose him to this kind of situation and the security program fully intended to spare him as much of the dirty work as he'd be able to. Beck deserved some rest. And needed some time to reflect on his feelings toward the Occupation commander! Kids these days... look elsewhere for a few cycles and suddenly they're dating the enemy. And even when they're not dating them anymore, they're still trying to save their life. Maybe his apprentice was right. Maybe this Paige wasn't like the rest of the Occupation. But it didn't matter, not anymore. Not with Clu's army in Argon.

A hooded program interrupted his thoughts.

"Renegade?"

Flynn help me. His white disk was back to its place, attached under his normal one, but he obviously wasn't wearing his white suit. Not even his black usual one : sporting a bright T wasn't the best way to start an exfiltration. Tron went for his stealth suit and had his helmet on, so he supposed it kind of made sense for the female program not to be sure who she was addressing. But still.

"Yes. What if I hadn't been the Renegade, though?

- Not many civilian programs switch their circuits off."

Point taken. Maybe she wasn't that reckless, finally. When he saw her blue hair under the hood, he understood that she had to be Mara, who had tried to join the revolution when Beck caught her messing with the Occupation. A promising recruit...

"Renegade, about what you said earlier..."

What he said earlier? He almost asked her what she meant, since they were meeting for the first time, but he remembered just in time that she had no way to know that. The point of the white suit he had lent to Beck was precisely to conceal his identity, and it had done just that. The only problem was that Tron had no idea what Beck had said or done as the Renegade while he was himself dealing with the crew of the Super Recognizer. When the mechanic gave him his disk back, he had only explained that his colleagues would wait for him in Argon Square. Then he set off to the hospital on his lightcycle, with Paige's unconscious body cradled in his arms. Quite a romantic view, if you ask me!

Another program approached them, fortunately ending the conversation before Tron had to make a wild guess about Beck's previous declarations. Then another one. A few minutes and several programs later, Mara confidently stated:

"We're all here. I mean, everybody who stood up to the Occupation. What's going to happen to our colleagues?

- Don't worry about them, they did nothing wrong and Clu's army is going to need all the mechanics it can find. The sentries have probably heard of your little feat by now, so we won't try to reach the train station or the highway. We're going to use the tunnels to get to the Outlands..."

He was only answered by a collective gasp and didn't even try to suppress his smile under his visor.

"It's not as bad as you imagine. Follow me, and try not to look guilty."

Thank you for reading! Please let me know what you think. I really want to stay true to the characters, do not hesitate to bring any inconsistency to my attention.