AN : Here's the fourth chapter! You guys should thank BetaReject, her review on the third chapter was extra motivating and got me all pumped up.
Barium is a made-up city, Seto is a random name I picked for the male medic friend of Paige. The female one is Rox according to the Wiki, but the poor guy got so few screen time they didn't even bother to name him.
Have a nice read !
"Tron lives. And he's the Renegade."
My, my! Isn't that an unexpected development ? Among other things, it meant that discrediting Tesler in Clu's eyes would be even harder than it had already been. One could hardly blame the general for failing to capture a program who escaped the Liberator himself! On the bright side, the said general, for the same reason, would probably not be quite as intransigent with his subordinates as he used to. Pavel quickly glanced at his dear colleague to see if she had reached the same conclusion. But Paige didn't look thoughtful. Nor as dumbfounded as she ought to be, come to think of it. She seemed almost... relieved?
Clu wasn't finished, though.
"You'll keep this information to yourselves, of course. We don't know yet why he decided to stay in Argon instead of trying to spread the rebellion to the neighbouring... unpoliced cities. I'm not going to let him a chance to fix this mistake, however. The bulk of my forces and I are going to secure Barium, Bismuth and Gallium."
Paige flinched. Interesting. Another topic to investigate.
"Dyson will take care of Purgos -"
Now it was his turn to flinch. Purgos had been his district. He hadn't even had the time to properly set his grip on the city before Tesler stripped him of it!
"And come back here to find a way to deal with the Renegade. He's not to be derezzed. I want him in one piece. Is that clear?
- Yes, Sir."
Pavel could have given his superior a few lessons about dissimulation. The general had tried to keep a neutral tone, but what he thought of the new situation was painfully obvious. He didn't like it at all. Because you realize there's no way you're going to pull this off, maybe? Tesler wasn't a schemer. His efficiency lay in his brutality. He had almost managed to derezz the Renegade a few times... capturing him was a whole other matter.
If Clu was aware of his general's limitations, he didn't show it. He simply nodded and turned back to his ship, motioning Dyson to follow him. The head of Argon's Occupation was effectively dismissed. Pavel effortlessly hid his smile when his superior's gauntlets started to gleam an ominous orange light. Tesler wasn't simply angry... he was afraid. To his credit, he didn't show it when he turned to face his two commanders.
"Pass the word around, Pavel. The Renegade is not to be engaged until further notice. His appearances must be reported to me, however. Every single one of them.
- Right away, Your Sagaciousness."
He left the general with Paige and quickly found a Black guard to dispatch the new orders in his place. More important matters required his time and attention.
Once he was secluded in his private quarters, Pavel sat on his favorite chair and started thinking. Tron was an opportunity for him. If he played his cards right, he could ignore Tesler and favorably impress Dyson and, more importantly, Clu. It would only be a matter of time before he was promoted back to general. There was, however, the slight problem of his dear colleague. Paige was almost as smart as himself, as much as it pained him to admit it. And she was loyal to Tesler. Something had to be done about that. Maybe framing her was too ambitious. I should have had her derezzed... But the Renegade didn't derezz programs back then. It was just his luck that the evasive rebel had switched to more direct methods a few cycles too late for Pavel to use him as a scapegoat!
What was done was done, however. He had to find something else. Maybe... maybe authentic proof would succeed where fabricated evidence had not? The ex-general of Purgos thought of Paige's reaction upon hearing the Renegade's true identity. And then of the way she flinched when Clu told them where he was going. Something was off. But what ? There was no point in confronting her, she would contemptuously laugh him off and confidently walk away, like she always did. For now, this trail was a dead end. Pavel let out a frustrated growl.
He had, fortunately, another line of attack. Her loyalty toward Tesler. It was beyond the classic relationship between a commanding officer and his subordinate. It probably had its roots in their common past. A past that Pavel was about to explore! A satisfied smile slowly growing on his face, he walked to his desk and took his datapad. How naive of you to trust me with your upgrades, Sir...
Thanks to Gorn's assistance, Pavel had made good use of his regular access to Tesler's disk. Session after session, he had slowly copied his superior's files. He was now in possession of a pretty accurate duplicate of his memories. Whatever happened between Paige and the general, he was going to find out.
Paige watched Pavel closely as he walked away. She'd had the impression, during Clu's speech, that the two-faced gridbug had checked on her a few times. Had she betrayed anything when Gallium had been mentioned ? It had been a long time since she heard that name... Once the Purge had been over, Tesler had headed back to Tron City with his troops, bringing her with him. Paige never went back. She wasn't sure how she felt about the Occupation establishing itself in her old city. Don't be silly. Had it been there from the start, Quorra and Ada could have been stopped. Rox, Seto and the others would still be there. And I wouldn't be... she stopped her thoughts from taking that road. Fortunately, Tesler chose this moment to speak.
"Paige, I have a mission for you.
- Yes Sir?
- We may not be allowed to derezz the Renegade... but I'm not going to let him wreck havoc in my city either. We have to prevent him and his new recruits from starting any trouble. There's a sensitive place I'd like you to watch over.
- Of course Sir. Where would that be?
- The garage."
Great. That's just great. Working with Beck, or even near him, was the last thing Paige wanted. Did Tesler think he was making her a favor?
"You don't trust Beck?
- I do trust him. As much as you can trust a civilian, that is... he's quite upset at the Renegade for almost derezzing you, he has no reason to sympathize with his cause. Several of his colleagues, however, are now part of the rebellion. They know how much we rely on the garage for the maintenance of our forces. They're familiar with the place, it would make sense for them to strike there. And since you know the new manager..."
Was that a smile on the general's lips? It was gone before Paige could decide. She reluctantly nodded and tried to keep a neutral face.
"I'll do as you wish, Sir. Nothing will happen to this garage on my watch.
- I certainly hope so, Paige. For both of us."
That didn't call for a reply and she gave none. Tesler walked past her, visibly heading for his throne room. Paige supposed that he needed some time alone. As she did. There was something she wanted to check before leaving for the garage. She took a lift to the upper bridges, where her quarters were located. Once she got into her room, she locked the door behind her and reached for her disk.
When the false Renegade - whom she now suspected to be Tron - had severed her arm, her system had shut itself down in order to prevent the propagation of the damaged code. That was quite usual in case of serious injury. This security measure didn't necessarily impact every process, however. Sometimes, auxiliary functions kept running. Paige opened her memory bank. As a former medic, she had a pretty good idea of what she was looking for. It would be a lone file in an isolated folder. Her fingers danced among the repertories for several minutes... and there it was. She repressed a surge of excitation and slowly extracted the bright icon. The timestamp matched her short period of unconsciousness. It was an audio file. She launched it.
Paige heard the characteristic whirling sound of an activated disk. It was right after her shutdown. The black program was probably standing above her body and she could hear the voxels of her arm scattering on the ground. That was not a pleasant sound. Then, someone cried :
"TRON! DON'T!"
So she'd been right about her opponent's identity. And at least another program knew who was hiding behind the suit. I mean, he's not really hiding. There's this bright symbol on his torso. Which made her realize that it was actually the Renegade who impersonated Tron and not the other way around. The recording already raised more questions than it answered. Tron didn't reply to the plea and the unknown voice repeated :
"Please don't.
- She's one of them."
So that's how the mighty Tron sounds... both programs had their helmets on and their voices weren't recognizable, but it was still something to hear the infamous Traitor. Especially when he was arguing about the necessity to derezz her.
"But she's not like them."
Why, thank you I guess!
"Yet she didn't join you when you gave her the chance."
Paige stopped the playback by reflex. Join him when he gave her the chance? Was Tron talking to the Renegade and, more importantly, was the Renegade - or had he been, anyway - the one trying to save her from the very program he claimed to emulate? She cautiously resumed the playback.
"She was going to, eventually! But now, thanks to your mad ex apprentice, she thinks I blow innocent programs for fun. And you just derezzed a whole squad... that's not what we do, what's wrong with you?"
His mad apprentice ? There was a third program pretending to be the program who pretended to be Tron ? And they knew each other but didn't work together ? Worse, at least two of them were actually opposing each other? What a mess, Clu has no idea what's really going on...
"What's wrong with me? Look at the sea, will you?"
Tron sounded angry. Paige was glad she wasn't the one he was talking to. On the other hand, it might have been less uncomfortable than an amputation. The other program had probably looked at the sea by this point, and whatever there was to see - Clu's fleet! - had shocked him into silence. Tron continued where he had left off.
"That's what's wrong with me. Clu's here and he brought a few friends. We're no longer fighting a small Occupation force led by an incompetent. I don't like it either, but the game has changed. Good intentions won't cut it, not anymore. We have to do what needs to be done. Remember the Coliseum? Derezz or be derezzed.
- I didn't... I want to help programs, that's not what I signed for.
- You think DAMAGED CODE SPREADING DETECTED. SHUTDOWN OF AUXILIARY FUNCTIONS."
Paige stared at her disk for a few seconds before realization hit her.
"No! You stupid glitch of a file, you can't stop now! Come on, I need the rest! For Clu's sake!"
If she managed to hurt the file's feelings, it didn't show. It certainly didn't work either, since the playback didn't resume. It was over. You're greedy, Paige. You've already learned a lot. Tron was indeed alive but he wasn't the Renegade. At least not until very recently. The Renegade, her Renegade, wasn't Tron. He didn't agree with the Traitor on the way to lead their revolution and even prevented him from derezzing her. Is it just me or does he spend more time saving me than fighting Tesler? There was also this third mysterious program, who was apparently behind the recent bombings... she had to sort this out.
Another question remained unanswered. The Renegade saved her once again, fine. But it was Beck who brought her to the hospital... did it mean what she thought it meant? She frowned. Suddenly, Paige was glad Tesler had tasked her with watching over the garage. She stormed out of her room. You're in for it, mechanic.
Beck has no idea what's coming for him... please review to let me know what you thought of this chapter and what you're looking forward to in the next ones :)