Tron: Adagio
By: Shadow Chaser
Author's Notes:
This story covers the entire comic, Tron: Betrayal, and flashbacks from Tron: Legacy itself. The scenarios of the game Evolution are not mentioned in here as I did not play the game. All characters are not mine, they belong to Disney.
Story:
Fall
"Tron, you my new escort?" Flynn's jovial tone marked by a tinge of sarcasm was not lost on Tron as he entered the garage under Central Control tower. He could see the Creator tinkering with his lightcycle, but was apparently bored with it as it looked like he had run the same command lines over twenty times.
He hated bringing bad news to Flynn, especially since it concerned Clu. He knew Flynn had a slightly protective if patient streak with his created program, but hoped that his friend could see that his own creation was starting to get a little out of control. He knew that could reign in Clu if necessary, but did not want to overstep his bounds, especially since Clu was Flynn's creation. He felt that Flynn should at least be the one to talk some sense into his program.
"Flynn, I think Clu's guardsmen are the ones planting explosives in the Iso cities," his disturbing find on Clu's main interface had shaken him.
"On whose orders?"
"I don't know," Tron wanted to say that it was probably on Clu's orders, but he did not have enough proof or facts. It was like the Iso connection to the gridbugs. Not enough facts, but just little tantalizing hints that there could be a connection. "It could be a rogue element, but that seems highly unlikely. But that's not all. They have something planned for the Sea of Simulation."
That got Flynn's attention as he stood up and faced Tron, "We need to find them."
"I don't think that's a good idea to put you in harm's way," Tron was surprised to see the amount of anger in the User's eyes. He knew Flynn rarely got angry at anything, especially within The Grid, but it seemed like something had changed in the interim before Tron had found him working on his lightcycle. "Maybe I should…"
"Now, Tron," it seemed that Flynn wasn't buying his evasive answers and seemed to think that Flynn was planning something for the Sea, "I know Clu is frustrated, but he's still me. I know he'll do what's right."
He closed the diagnostic board and got onto his lightcycle, starting up the engine with a reverberating hum. "And I'm not going to lose this world, too."
With that he sped off and Tron hastily followed him on his own lightcycle, the two of them headed towards the Sea of Simulation. Their ride was in short silence, Tron sensing that Flynn had a lot to think about. He did not know what had happened, but hoped that Flynn and Clu had talked about the Isos and the new rules that Clu had implemented without his Creator's approval. Tensions were skyrocketing to the point where Tron hoped that Flynn would be able to reign in his creation.
His proximity sensors alerted him to at least two contingents of Guards doing something by the Sea. Without a second glance at Flynn, he sped past him, trusting his friend to stay behind him as he dealt with the traitorous Guards. He hit a small ramp and flew towards the Guards on his lightcycle. At the last second, Tron leapt off of the cycle as it smashed into two Guards, derezzing them immediately and snatched a baton that flew through the air while grabbing his other one and landed on the ground with a crouch, ducking the swipe of a Guard's staff overhead.
He pushed forward, launching himself up towards the Guard and smashed him across the face, derezzing him. Pivoting on his foot, he lashed out with his other baton, catching another guard straight in the chest, puncturing through armor as he fell backwards, dissolving into a pile of inactive data.
Tron grunted as he was hit from behind and barely avoided an overhead jab to his head. Shoving the Guard off of him, he lashed out, scything his legs through the Guard's, knocking him to the ground and batted him with two blows to his head and shoulder, instantly derezzing him.
Tron let some of the anger at what the Guards were doing bleed through as he gave a war cry and whipped his batons across their faces and chest, taking several out with critical hits. How could they even think of doing something to the Sea? He looked to move towards the other contingent of Guards all whom were charging at him when suddenly several discs came flying out of nowhere, derezzing them.
Tron instantly recognized the yellow disc amongst the Guards and looked beyond the falling data blocks to see Clu and several Guards headed towards them. "Clu! What are-"
"Wipe them out, men. Those maverick guardsmen cannot be allowed to continue," Clu's amplified voice echoed loudly in the stillness of the Sea.
Tron watched in horrified awe as the Guards behind Clu obeyed his orders and took out their very own. He stood up as soon as the last of the traitorous Guards were derezzed and holstered his batons.
"Clu," Flynn sounded shocked as he stumbled into the battlefield, having stayed out of most of it, "what have you done?"
Tron however, instantly recognized what Clu had been doing and stepped forward to confront him. His fury at how manipulative the program could be grew, "You think it's that easy? Set up your own men and wipe them out?" He glared at the other Guards, "This won't work out, Clu."
Clu only stared at him, his face impassive, "It already has, Tron."
"Look," they both barely heard Flynn's whisper as he wandered away from them. Tron was too focused on the smug look the bastard wore on his face. He opened his mouth to yell at the program when Clu shook his head.
"You are so shortsighted Tron. It has to be this way. The terrorists are defeated. Who could argue with that?" Clu laughed bitterly, "I have acted out of love. I have acted because I care. I have been tasked with protecting all citizens of The Grid, even the Isos."
"You don't even want to protect-"
"I am protecting us, and them, from themselves. I will protect them, but I won't let them tear The Grid apart," Clu overrode him easily and Tron felt his jaw drop.
Of all of the- some of the most vulgar User swears that he had heard from Flynn over the years ran through his processes. He had never understood why Flynn said those particular words and in context, did not get them, but at this moment, he finally understood why they were used in such a way.
He could not believe what he was hearing. "You haven't saved anyone," he shot back; "you've just created your own villains and wiped them out. That isn't a victory." He gestured to the Sea and to the fine grains of inactive data blocks that were once two contingents of Guards. "They could have taken care of themselves! All you've done is force the issue until something gave out. You pushed it until it broke…"
"Can you hear yourself?" Clu looked at him as if he was a simple program, "You sound like one of them, Tron. Is that what you want said about you when you're gone?"
Tron instantly felt his command lines reacting to the perceived threat, his self-preservation protocols coming into play. But he did nothing to suppress them and instead, made very well sure that Clu could see it in his eyes and in his posture. Even though Clu was created in Flynn's image, he was still a program and programs needed to know that he took every single threat against himself and against The Grid seriously. "Are you threatening me?" he asked in a quiet voice.
"ENOUGH!" Flynn's uncharacteristic anger silenced the two of them and Tron turned to see that his friend had waded into the shallower ends of the Sea.
"What's going on," he wondered what had gotten Flynn so upset.
"He can see it now," the quiet note of triumph in Clu's voice made Tron glare at the program, but the hint of a smile was still on Clu's lips, "he can see the truth."
Tron realized that Clu had planned it…planned everything. "What did they do?" he whispered, looking back and forth between Clu and Flynn who was staring at the Sea, his hands dipped into it.
"They're trying to destroy Seneca," Flynn murmured and while Tron did not understand who this Seneca was, he had a feeling that it was very important and very foreboding at the same time for the Sea of Simulation. "They want to kill the place where ideas are born," Flynn sounded so brokenhearted, "they didn't know any better, so they tried to kill it."
His next words sent chills down Tron's processes, "They did it before we arrived. They poisoned the Sea of Simulation." Flynn lifted his hands from the Sea and Tron saw that instead of the glittering clear waters that was the Sea, it was inky black and it looked sickened. "It's an isomorphic virus."
"Fight fire with fire, Tron," Clu whispered and Tron shot a dark look at him.
"Look, it's them," Flynn started walking out of the Sea, pointing beyond them and they both turned to see hundreds of Isos walking towards them. "They can feel it."
Tron looked away, unable to bear seeing the shocked expressions on the Isos' faces, on Ophelia's face as they approached the Sea. This was not the future path he had hoped to cross with hers. Not like this…
"Citizens of The Grid, this is indeed a dark day," Clu's booming voice nearly startled Tron as he looked up to see the program trying to rally the Isos, "a group of rogue terrorists poisoned the Sea of Simulation. Luckily, those terrorists were destroyed so they can harm no others."
Tron looked towards Flynn to see if he would stop this sickening farce, but it seemed that even Flynn's spirit was broken by this event. He curled his hands into fists, frustrated that he could not do anything. He could not do anything to shut Clu up without Flynn getting involved.
"One of our most precious resources has been attacked. This is a devastating blow, but I know we can work together to overcome it. Together, we can still create the perfect system," Clu finished, but to Tron's dark humor, it seemed that almost none of the Isos had even been paying attention to his little speech. Instead, they were still shocked and some were even leaning on others for support.
"Kevin Flynn," Ophelia's voice sounded tiny, desperate, broken as she reached over and grasped him, "What did they do? What's going to happen to our future brother and sisters?"
Tron turned away from the conversation. He did not want to see Ophelia like this, he wanted to see her as she was the day he had given her the parting kiss. He did not want to see what she was now. However, even as he turned away, his audio filters still picked up on Flynn's reply.
"I don't know, Ophelia, but we'll make this right somehow."
There was a slight hiccupping gasp before Ophelia replied, "It's not your fault, Flynn."
Flynn walked past him headed back to his lightcycle and Tron followed him, wanting nothing more than to put the saddening scene behind him. "I'll find a way to make it right."
Tron put a hand on his friend's shoulder and squeezed it in silent reassurance. The two of them would find a way to make things right. However, as they left the area, his sensitive audio filters picked up on Clu's mutterings behind them.
"He still cares more about them. We are the only future left, and still he doesn't care about the world he created."
Tron glanced back as he activated his lightcycle to see Clu glaring at Flynn's white lightcycle, already speeding away. He met the program's gaze with an equal one of his own before activating his own lightcycle and sped away. Clu was starting to become a major problem and one Tron knew he would have to eventually deal with.
If only Flynn could see that.
Author's Notes:
This whole scene is mostly word for word from the comic with a couple of extra lines sprinkled in for dramatic tension. The track, "Fall" is one of my favorite tension pieces in the movie, though the scene where it played was okay in my opinion (Flynn's antics in the club scene before that was much cooler; stopping an elevator from plunging, eh, not so much). The title itself is also a tribute to the beginning of the "fall" The Grid itself and to the comic where Flynn is thinking about the fall of Rome in comparison with The Grid.
This chapter also ends the comic portion of the story and I will be filling in the blanks all the way to Legacy's flashback scene.