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:
Rectifier
As an imported program and one of the few in The Grid not created by Flynn, Tron had some unique codes and command lines within him that enabled him to bypass the newer system that he had been brought to. It was very useful for his duties as a security program and right now, he used it to dig deep into the archived files that Clu had kept in his headquarters in Central Control.
However, he was not in Central Control, but rather in one of the armory rooms in the Arena. He had cordoned off the room he was in; sending out a vague command line that testing was being done on the conduits in that room so no one would bother him. Using his access codes and abilities he then routed the voluminous traffic of Sigma Sector and the Arena to mask his search query through Clu's headquarters and was able to find a backdoor into the archived files with little problem.
As long as he kept sending out false signals to the systems, Clu would never know that someone was discreetly looking into the files. He spooled off a dedicated process to make sure the signal was consistent and continued his search deeper into the files.
Lines of code ran through his vision as he stopped at one and opened it up. This was rather interesting…
"Why are you looking at the plans for Sark's carrier?" he muttered mostly to himself as he projected the image with his left hand so he could look at the file and notes in it in a bigger setting than just within his eyes. His right hand was still held against the conduit column he had used to gain his backdoor access.
Tron manipulated the image that was projected with his fingers, and pressed his lips into a thin line, recognizing Sark's carrier from the grainy images that were clearly from what Flynn had given to Clu during his creation. He had been nearly derezzed when the carrier had plowed straight into the solar sailer him, Yori, and Flynn were on. It was only through his reflexes and cycles in the games that he had managed to survive and hitch a ride to the heart of the MCP.
After a few more spins of the image, Tron put the file back in its spot and continued his search. His next few picks came up negative. He wasn't looking for anything overtly named, knowing that Clu was probably a lot more subtle than that, so picked at innocently named files. Flipping open another one Tron was about to put it back when he noticed that something was off with it.
One of the tags seemed innocuous enough, but why then was there a random encryption on it? He stared closer at the file and ran it through his decryption processes. After what seemed like a long time, the file finally opened and Tron brought it up with his left hand.
It looked like a list of Isos, not all of the Isos, but definitely a list of Isos. He recognized both Ophelia and Giles' name on it along with some of the others to whom he had met their acquaintance along the way. A few were highlighted and he saw that there was something next to the names, a pattern he vaguely recognized.
In fact…he remembered seeing this kind of pattern the day that he had finally scanned the gridbug code and flushed out one of Clu's spies. It was the same exact pattern.
He copied the pattern and placed a tracer of his own on the file before closing it and re-encrypting it. He knew that this was the best lead he had gotten and to pursue it would enable him to get all of the answers he needed. But would the answer point to Clu or to another force, perhaps the gridbugs themselves that were ordering the Guards?
His proximity alert suddenly sounded and Tron immediately pulled out of the whole system, making sure to cover his tracks as he pulled his hand off the conduit column and hastily donned an identity subroutine that massed his unique signature. Only one program could trip his proximity alarms and dismantle the command line he had built around the room.
Just as he felt the last of his signatures placed under the subroutine, the doors to the armory room opened and Clu walked in, dressed in his armor followed by several of the Guards, two of them carrying what looked like an semi-conscious program. No one paid any attention to where he stood against the conduit column, the electrical discharge the column gave off reinforcing his masking subroutine. It made him seemingly invisible to the others in the room, but Tron dared not move in case it gave him away.
He knew that even Clu could not penetrate this subroutine, having been created in the idleness of time spent in the old system whenever Sark did not have him playing in the games. Not even Flynn knew about it nor did he really have a chance to test it in their escape. The only time he had used a part of it was when he was making his way through Sark's carrier and even then he had not used it fully.
"You've been a very bad program," Clu stopped and turned to the program being held by the Guards.
"Go derezz yourself," Tron's eyes widened as he recognized the voice. It was Cesta's.
What had his rival done to make Clu say those words? He knew that the rules had been changed back so that none of the defeated programs were derezzed. He would have definitely known if Clu had once again tampered with them. So what had Cesta done?
"Cesta, what are we going to do with you?" Clu circled around the program, held fast by the two Guards. The other Guards in the room were silent, but their postures said that they were enjoying the little show Clu was putting on.
Tron nearly deactivated his subroutine, wanting nothing more than to free Cesta and demand what was happening before Clu produced a small diskette, similar to the one he carried within his armor from Alan-One. The image shown was shaky, but it was unmistakably Giles, shouting wordlessly to the camera before tossing what looked like a fiery cocktail towards one of the Guard towers near the edges of Sector 105. The footage whirled around showing more Isos and even some local programs getting into the act, when it suddenly froze and zoomed in on one particular program, Cesta, in the middle of tossing his disc at the Guard tower.
Tron held off on deactivating his subroutine, shocked at what he saw.
"Well, what do you have to say for yourself?" Clu asked, his tone simple and friendly, his expression anything but.
"You're corrupting the system," Cesta spat out, "you're like a virus that we don't need."
"Virus? A virus?" Clu sounded shocked, but Tron frowned as he recognized the mocking tone the program had, "really, a virus was the best insult you could come up with? And what makes you think I am a virus?"
"This was supposed to be a free system! You were tasked-"
"I was tasked to make it the perfect system. And in that perfection, there can be no room for riots or rebel programs such as yourself," Clu replied, "I stand to unite the Isos and create the perfect system, yet here you are, trying to destroy it. I believe that you have been corrupted, Cesta."
Tron watched silently as Clu stepped forward and unhooked his disc from its holster. Activating it with a sinister buzz, he reached up-
"Stop!" Tron deactivated all of his subroutines and stepped forward, one hand on the back where his disc was, his other one held out, ready to defend himself if necessary.
Everyone in the room froze and stared at him as he advanced forward and unhooked his own disc. However, he did not activate it and instead, faced Clu who had a blank expression on his face.
"Tron, what an unexpected pleasure-"
"Shut up," he glared at Clu, "just what the hell do you think you were doing?"
"Rectifying him," Clu narrowed his eyes, drawing himself up, "Cesta has obviously overstepped his bounds as a program and has gone rogue. Those command lines need to be purged and reprogrammed."
"Not like that," Tron shot back, his grip on his disc tight with anger, "Flynn will be the judge-"
"Kevin Flynn," Clu hissed angrily, "is not here! He is never here! I have to serve in his stead! Make the decisions that he won't make!"
"Because that's not the right decision! And it isn't yours to make!" Tron swiped his free arm down angrily, "you were given your powers to rectify only in an emergency!"
"This is an emergency!" Clu shouted, "cannot you not see that the Isos are conducting terrorist attacks? That I have lost at least four contingents of Guards to this attack that he participated in?" The senior program stabbed a finger towards Cesta.
"Put him in quarantine until Flynn can-"
"Flynn, Flynn, Flynn! Always Flynn! He is not here!" Clu's eyes blazed with fury, "and if you think otherwise, then you're not doing your duty."
"I know what my duties are," Tron replied dangerously, "do you?"
"To make the perfect grid," Clu replied equally quiet, "and I will rectify this program and you won't stop me."
"Really," Tron suppressed the command line to activate his disc and attack Clu for what he was doing. He knew could easily take out all of the Guards and free Cesta, yet he also knew that without an administrator to oversee The Grid, what he and Flynn had worked so hard to build would crumple in less than a cycle. Even he could not maintain the integrity of The Grid. Only Clu could in the stead of Flynn.
His revulsion and realization must have shown on his face as Clu gave him a small smile of victory before slamming his disc down against Cesta's chest. The program screamed, but instead of derezzing, he just shook and twitched against the Guards who held him. Tron forced himself to watch the whole process, all the while silently apologizing to Cesta for not being able to do what he wanted to do.
It was soon over as Clu lifted the disc away from Cesta's chest, his armor healing itself before the Guards released the program and he stood up, his expression blank.
"I am Cesta 234.981, assigned to the energy distribution center in Zeta Sector. I was created in Cycle 1,254 by Kevin Flynn. Shall I report to my station now?" the monotone voice horrified Tron as he stared at what was left of his rival. He scanned the program and saw what had been a series of complex learning modules that Cesta had garnered over the cycles in the Arena had been wiped clean and his friend seemed to be reset to his original operational state.
"You may report to your station, Cesta," Clu seemed pleased and gestured to the Guards to escort the program away. Tron watched as they walked out of the armory, bitterness welling up in him.
"Tron," he turned back to face Clu who had placed his disc away and walked over to him, "you know this is for the best. If the Isos have corrupted any of the local programs here, then they are the problem. I clearly did not expect them to react this way because of the Sea of Simulation, but if this is how unpredictable they are, then they will become a serious threat to The Grid itself."
He could not deny that perhaps Cesta had been corrupted into attacking the Guards and perhaps Clu was right. But he still thought that there could be a peaceful medium between the Isos and the rest of The Grid.
"Think about it, Tron," the familiar words that sounded so like Flynn were so foreign coming from Clu as he clapped him on the arm before walking away.
Tron heard the door to the armory open, but did not shut and turned slightly to see Clu with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"I wonder, though. Are your loyalties to the Isos?"
"What?"
"Well, some of my Guards reported that you were seen many times with Ophelia, the leader of the Isos. I'm just wondering-"
"That is none of your business," Tron cut him off.
"Hmm," Clu hummed to himself before waving a jaunty goodbye at him, "might want to recheck your loyalties, Tron. The game is changing." With that the door hissed shut behind him, leaving Tron alone in the armory still clutching his disc.
Outside, as Clu walked away from the armory his smile grew wider when he heard a muffled inarticulate roar from the armory followed by the sound of a disc hitting the wall. He opened a secure command line and sent a series of instructions before closing the line. The game was definitely changing.
Author's Notes:
The last bit breaks POV and it will be the only time it breaks POV, but I had to include that little spot to set up for next chapter's action. We are getting close to the Legacy point! And poor Tron, damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.