AN: Thanks to Juliet Knighly, Krisdaughter of Athena and our anonymous Guest for their reviews! You know what they say, one review a day keeps the writer's block away :)

This chapter took longer than I thought, but on the bright side it's the longest so far! I hope you'll enjoy it.

There were many ways to exit sleep mode, and he had experienced quite a lot of them through his boisterous existence. Waking up to the stern face of the Traitor himself was definitely not among the most enjoyable ones, in Hopper's informed opinion.

"Rise and shine, program! We'll sleep in when Clu's overthrown."

Why am I even here? When the mechanics had sided with the Renegade, Hopper had joined them quite instinctively. First, he didn't like Pavel. The gridbug had tried to frame him, a loyal auxiliary to the Occupation, as the mysterious white-suited rebel! Had the real one not saved him just in time, he'd have been derezzed on Tesler's orders in quite a gruesome manner. Hence why turning against the commander had felt so natural. There was also the fact that Hopper knew a losing side when he saw one. Six heavy sentries and a coward against twenty determined people, led by an infamous fighter who later appeared to be Tron himself? It didn't take a strategic simulation to guess the odds.

So he had joined the Uprising. And he was already starting to regret it. Impervious, or more probably indifferent, to his recruit's inner trouble, their host had finished to wake everyone else up.

"See you in the simulation room in five minutes."

The blue-haired female mechanic got ready in no time and hurried out. What a crawler... Zed wasn't far behind her, as always, and the other programs followed them soon after. Only Bartik was left, waiting for him. Hopper walked to his tall black friend.

"What have we gotten ourselves into?

- Come on, we're late already.

- We... what?"

But Bartik had already turned away, leaving a wide-eyed Hopper behind. What in Clu's name is he... oh, I see. Playing the long con? Whatever we end up deciding to do, better not alienating the big boss... maybe we could even gain his trust, that would make things easier. They knew a lot more about fighting than the mechanics did, it wouldn't be hard to make a good impression on their instructor. Hopper silently cursed himself. And I had to lag behind to piss him off... well done, Hopper. Bartik was more discreet than him but he had always been the smartest one. I'm lucky to have him! He patted the tall program's shoulder right before the elevator's doors opened. Fourteen pairs of eyes followed them as they entered the simulation room... one of them was quite unnerving. Hopper gulped. There was something special with the old monitor's icy stare. The program had once been responsible of the whole Grid's security, after all. Being well-behaved suddenly started to seem like a good survival tip more than a clever, long-term scheme.

Not even a cycle in, and they're already acting smug! Mara wasn't surprised. Those two had probably joined them because they were bored at the time, or because they thought they would get to break things and create chaos. That's how they had fun. They weren't interested in fighting for a good cause, freeing Argon from the Occupation or ending Clu's reign over the Grid. They were just little troublemakers.

But Tron didn't say anything. He stared at them for a few seconds. When they got close enough, he simply started to explain the training program for the cycle.

"Let's begin by assessing your individual level. Scatter around the room."

What does he have in mind? Some kind of free for all? Mara didn't reach for her disk yet, but she warrily eyed the programs around her, wondering which one she should strike first. Her calculations were short-lived, however. Tron taped something on a datapad he had apparently just summoned from thin air, and thirteen heavy sentries appeared, each facing one recruit. For less than a second, nobody moved. Then orange light staves and blue disks came crashing together. Mara immediately forgot about the other programs and focused on her opponent. She knew the sentry wasn't real, of course, but he sure did look like he was! And he seemed quite intent on derezzing her. Somehow, she managed to dodge and parry the first hits. Tron's laconic voice commented on the performance of those who didn't.

"Derezzed. Derezzed too. You lost your arm. Derezzed."

Mara had been a Merry Prankster. She had defied the Occupation several times. She wasn't about to get derezzed by a single heavy sentry! She feinted right, then left, her disk found her opponent's torso and suddenly she was fighting a crumbling pile of voxels. Wow, I actually did it!

"Well done, Mara!"

That was Zed, and from the impressed look on his face, Mara could tell his fight had come to a different end. She looked around the room. All the other programs looked shocked or disappointed... except for Bartik. He briefly caught her eyes before Tron spoke up.

"Don't be too hard on yourselves, heavy sentries might not be quick or very bright, but they're efficient. Derezzing programs is what they've been designed for. But they're far from invincible, as demonstrated by Mara and...

- Bartik, sir.

- By Mara and Bartik. Well done, you two. Why don't you explain us what you did? Mara?

- Well, I, uh... dodged the staff?

- That you did. What else, Bartik?

- I took the offensive.

- That's what I wanted to hear. See, sentries are strong and stubborn. And most of the time, you'll be fighting several at the same time."

That drew some gasps from the other recruits. Mara contained herself better, but the idea did worry her. I managed to dodge one staff... what about two or three?

"Don't worry, I'm not letting any of you leave this mountain until you're able to survive such an encounter. My point is, you don't want the fight to last. Dodging and parrying only buy you time, the goal is to end the fight. You can only do that by running away or disabling your opponent. And since running away is not always an option, attacking is the way to go. Questions?"

There were none.

"Great. Let's start over, then."

Once again, Tron seemingly drew his datapad out of nowhere, and thirteen heavy sentries faced thirteen determined programs.

Beck's cycle didn't involve as many heavy sentries but was just as exhausting. Even if Clu and Dyson had taken most of their forces with them when they had left, Tesler's garrison had been heavily reinforced. A lot of vehicles needed to be checked for operations. Don't they have maintenance crews in those big ships of theirs? But it did make sense: Clu's army was formed of repurposed security units, from a time when you needed elite squads to track viruses and intruders, not tank battalions to put siege on whole cities.

Those historical considerations didn't help the fact that Beck had too much work and not enough mechanics to do it. They were already working double shifts and it was barely enough. The garage was going to need a lot of recruits. But where to hire them? Argon wasn't precisely an attractive destination since Tesler's arrival. Programs tended to leave for other cities, not to come from them. Maybe that wouldn't last, considering the size of the orange armada of doom which had been last seen flying over the highway toward Gallium...

But those geopolitical considerations didn't help either. For now, Beck could only try to motivate his team, hire anyone who pretended to be a mechanic, and silently curse Tron. The old monitor took his friends away and was having fun with them in the Outlands, while he was slaving under Paige's watchful eyes! He still hadn't told her about their date. Which was technically a meeting with the Renegade, but Beck was going to enjoy it however it was called.

Several hours, four hirings and two inspiring speeches later, he managed to approach the commander.

"End of the cycle, on the docks, where you fell from a container and almost got ridden over by a pack of bikers. He said you'd remember."

Judging by the look on her face, she did remember. Beck had to bit a laugh back and Paige squinted her eyes at him.

"Anything funny, mechanic?

- About you falling from a container and almost getting ridden over by a pack of bikers? Not at all, commander.

- Good. Don't you have work to do?

- Of course. And you're welcome."

He briefly thought his gentle reproach had brought a flicker of regret in her eyes, but her mask fell back on and she didn't reply. It did hamper Beck's joyful mood. She seemed determined not to treat him as anything more than a mechanic, or a messenger when need arised. She wasn't ignoring him anymore, but was it really better? Deep down, he had to admit that her guessing about his participation to the Uprising had probably not done much for lightening things up between them, but still. Beck only hoped that she'd give the Renegade a better treatment. She had always seemed to like his rebel persona...

Paige was standing on top of a container, near the place where the Renegade and his sidekick had managed to escape her. Almost ridden over by a pack of bikers... and whose fault was that, I wonder? He worded it like I was some kind of incompetent, now Beck probably thinks I can't even keep myself safe! But she wasn't supposed to care about what Beck think or didn't think, especially about her. So she decided to be angry at the Renegade instead, remembering all the times he had put her in danger. Nevermind that she was the one trying to derezz him most of the time, or that he had also saved her in the Coliseum. Paige consciously ignored those facts. By the time she heard someone reach the top of the container behind her, she had put herself in quite a mood. She turned to face the Renegade. Her Renegade, she knew it immediately. Or rather, the one the intended to meet. She asked in her coldest tone:

"Black is the new white, Renegade?

- It's a more discreet color.

- Of course. Nothing to do with the fact that Tron took his suit back."

His body froze. Paige, one, Renegade, zero. She pressed her advantage.

"Yes, I know about Tron. I know you're not him. And I know you prevented him from derezzing me. Why?

- I... it seemed like the right thing to do. That's who I am. Who the Renegade is.

- Of course. The very same Renegade who left me to drown with the island? Who pretended to save me from the Coliseum just so that he could try to get me to join his little rebellion?

- I thought you knew me better, I did nothing of the sort. Here..."

He reached for his disk and Paige instantly drew hers, but he simply browsed through his files until he found what he was looking for. He motioned her closer.

"Watch this."

She reluctantly got closer to get a look at the small display. It was his memories from the island. She saw him trying to catch her, running for their raft and rushing back to the cliff. Diving into the sea to get her. Watching the chopper taking her away. Shame threatened to take over her, but she pushed it back.

"Could be a false memory.

- Why would I have a false memory of that? You were the one to ask for this meeting, I didn't know it was going to be a trial."

He put his disk back on its dock and this time, Paige managed not to react. Her disk was still in her hand anyway, she could activate it faster than him. And if she was completely honest with herself, she had to admit that she perfectly knew he wasn't going to harm her. But he doesn't have to know that.

"Alright, maybe you didn't try to derezz me... on the island, at least. I can think of several other occasions.

- You know it's not true. But let me ask you more clearly: did you want to see me to launch accusations at my face? I took a risk by accepting to meet you here, settling score could have waited for our next fight...

- A risk? You set the time and the place.

- You could have come with some friends. Like that time on the highway, when I thought I was helping the victims of an accident..."

A smile almost found its way to her lips. She was still quite proud of that one! Had not he been in possession of the upgrade disk, she would have ended his career. And he wouldn't have got her almost derezzed in the crash of her chopper! A chopper you were using to shoot at him, but still.

"Fair enough. But as you can see, Renegade, we're alone. I had two reasons for this meeting. The first one... no. The first one is complicated, let's start with simple things."

He simply nodded and waited for her to continue. Paige took a big breath.

"I want you to leave Beck alone.

- Excuse me?

- You've heard me. He's a good program. A great program. He wants to do the right thing, to protect his friends, but he's naive and reckless. He doesn't realize how this little rebellion of yours is going to end. Keep playing hero if you have a death wish... but leave him out of this. If you don't, when you get caught, I'll make sure to be the one facing you in the games. With the upgrade disk. It will be slow and painful. Got it?"

For the first time since she'd met the Renegade, he was speechless. The black helmet was slightly cocked to the side and she thought that his mouth was probably gaping under it. So he can actually shut up? Well done, Paige!

As always, critics welcome !