AN: Sorry it took me longer than usual to get this chapter posted. Welcome Home was harder to write up, I didn't see it very often XD But aside from that, have you heard the song Oh My Dear from Tenth Avenue North? If not than I highly recommend it, beautiful tear jerker. Thanks to 2theSky, CMR Rosa, PrincessKai377 and Sunofaia for reviewing!

Chapter Twenty Eight

The soft nuzzling of whiskers woke Mira from her sleep. Her eyes snapped open to see Rinzler sleeping beside her. His nose was twitching as he slept, and she realized that he was dreaming. She laughed and gently brushed Rinzler's head before standing up.

Then she remembered what had happened the cycle before and frowned.

Did that all really happen? she wondered. She sighed as she pushed away the memories. Maybe we both said too much, she thought as she looked down at the floor.

She smiled when Rinzler jumped down from the bed. His ears were twitching from side to side, and he wandered towards the stairs. Mira knew that Beck or Tron were down there. Rinzler had only shown interest in the lower part of the safehouse when they were around. She followed Rinzler down the stairs to see that Tron was out of the healing chamber. But this time he wasn't looking at the screen like he usually did. Instead he was gazing out into the Outlands, and it looked as though he was deep in thought.

Rinzler jumped into Mira's arms when she was about to fold them. She looked down at the kitten in surprise before grinning.

"Anything wrong?" she asked when Tron remained eerily silent.

"Tesler has found a new target," Tron announced when he finally turned to face her. Mira raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You remember that scientist, Keller." He looked at her as if he expected her to say 'no'.

"Yeah, she hated Pavel enough to knock him out." She smiled at the memory - at least she knew that Keller didn't want anything to do with the occupation. "So Tesler wants Keller derezzed, that's nothing new. He wants every program against the occupation derezzed." She shrugged and looked away.

"That's not the point," Tron snapped. "Keller is a scientist, if we rescue her she could become an important ally to the uprising."

Mira looked at Tron doubtfully. She couldn't imagine that a scientist of all programs would want to help fight back. Keller didn't seem like the type of program who could put up a fight. That was likely how she had been caught in the first place. But Mira didn't bother arguing with Tron. She knew that he was right; Keller would make an important ally if she joined them.

It didn't take long for Beck to come back. Since he'd taken off for two cycles he was able to come and go as he pleased from the garage. Mira was surprised that Mara and Zed didn't try doing the same. But than Mara might still be angry, and knowing Zed he was still recovering from his last adventure.

Rinzler jumped out of her arms and rushed over to Beck as soon as the door opened. Mira smirked when Beck let out a startled gasp after Rinzler jumped into his arms.

"Hello to you too," he muttered after Rinzler climbed onto his shoulders. "What are we doing this time?" He looked back at Tron, whose expression refused to waver.

"Rescue mission," Mira replied.

Beck looked at her in surprise, but Tron had already returned to the screen. After typing in several codes, an image of Keller appeared on the screen. Mira bit her lip when she realized that Keller was in disguise when Tron pulled up another image.

"Keller is boarding a train to Bismuth," Tron explained. "You two will be taking a ride there." Mira tilted her head to one side when Tron pulled out a pair of tickets. "Just be careful, the guards will often ask for your disk." He looked at Beck warily, and Mira rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"We'll be careful," she promised. Rinzler jumped out of Beck's arms and ran towards her. "You stay here and keep Tron company," she told him. Rinzler looked up at her with his red eyes, and she wondered if he understood a word she had said. Tron certainly didn't look convinced, if anything he looked more annoyed that he'd be spending alone time with their new companion. "Try not to derezz him while we're gone," she muttered when she looked back at Tron.

She didn't miss the amusement in Beck's eyes as they left. She grabbed her upgraded light cycle baton and followed Beck towards the station. They didn't need to go back to the garage - Beck had grabbed the other half of his disk before reaching the safehouse.

"So exactly how are we going to find Keller in a crowd like this one?" Mira asked when they reached the terminal. Beck leaned forward and sighed in frustration when he realized that she was right. There were too many programs for them to pick apart. And too many guards. Mira groaned when noticed that several guards were boarding the train to Bismuth.

They must know that's where Keller is hiding, she thought.

"Come on." Beck got off of his light cycle and turned it back into a baton. Mira looked over her shoulder before doing the same. Images of Keller's face were plastered on screens around the station. Mira noticed how a few guards had cornered one program in particular after he made a run for it. "If we're going to find her we need to follow those guards. Play it cool." Beck looked back at her as if he expected her to argue. Mira simply shook her head and followed as he led the way to the train.

Again there were countless programs in the passenger cars. Mira realized that the guards were splitting up, each going into a different cat to question programs. And one of the guards boarding the train was Paige.

"Well this just got more interesting," she whispered.

If Beck heard he gave no sign of interest. Mira rolled her eyes before pushing through the crowd of programs. He was headed for the car Paige had just left. Mira wondered whether she should pull him aside or just give themselves away at that point, until she saw who Beck was after. Her fists clenched in surprise when she realized that the program was sitting in a lounge car. The program was holding a strange device after they checked to make sure they were alone.

The program sighed in relief and sank into his seat after piercing his skin with the device. Mira winced and wondered how any program could stand using such an object. Then she realized that this must be Keller, the only program who would need a disguise other than the renegades.

"Hello Keller, going somewhere?" Mira said after walking towards the booth. Beck stood beside her and grinned when Keller jumped in surprise. "Don't make a scene."

"Who are you?" Keller demanded.

"Let's just say that I'm part of a growing resistance in Argon," Mira replied after looking around warily. Beck was keeping an eye out for any soldiers that might wander into the car. Mira's eyes widened in alarm when a door swung open.

Paige had wandered into the car, and Beck looked back in surprise when he realized who had wandered int the car.

"Don't." Keller started looking back when Mira stopped her. The program's eyes widened in panic when her disguise began wearing off. "Your disguise..." She broke off when Paige questioned a group of programs that were sitting beside the door. "There's no time, get to the stairs," Mira ordered when Keller fumbled with her device. She had dropped it in surprise before Mira pushed her towards the stairs.

"Paige, what are you doing here?" Beck was distracting Paige as she tried getting past. Mira rolled her eyes and stood up to join him.

"Do I know you?" Paige demanded.

"We met before," Beck replied. He was grinning sheepishly. Mira knew that it was a ploy to win Paige over - but she was a soldier from Tesler's army. She doubted the program would be willing to join them.

"I've met a lot of programs before," Paige muttered crossly.

"But we had something." Beck was persistent. Paige managed to get past and glared when Beck stopped her. "We met at the games, I smiled, said 'My cuffs are too tight'." Paige rolled her eyes when Mira stepped in.

"Maybe this will jog your memory, 'One goes free, one goes free!'" She grinned when Paige's eyes widened in recognition.

"Oh, now I remember you two. Your disk skills were... adequate, for an amateur." Mira smothered a laugh when Beck frowned in annoyance. "But don't worry, I'm sure that you excel at your job. Don't you find waste disposal fascinating?" By now Mira was struggling for air as she held back her laughter. Paige was really going all out with the insults.

"For your information I have a job," Beck snapped defensively. He glanced at Mira and rolled his eyes when he noticed that she was catching her breath. "I'm an... architect."

Mira raised an eyebrow in surprise. Paige must have seen him at the garage before. But it seemed as though Paige believed him as she relaxed her posture.

"And what exactly are you programmed for?" she looked at Mira, who bit her lip in alarm.

Before she could answer blaring red lights gleamed into the car. Mira held back a sigh of relief and fear when she realized that a light copter was flying beside them. And as usual the program on board to cause any problems was Pavel.

"Great," she muttered with a roll of her eyes. Paige had gotten away as Beck looked around in surprise. "An architect, really?" She looked at Beck in annoyance when they were alone.

"I was improvising," he replied with a shrug. "Come on, we need to stop Pavel before he finds Keller."

Mira nodded in agreement before following him. She knew that Pavel would likely cause more trouble than they needed. One commander was bad enough, but two would just be dangerous. Especially with Pavel around. He didn't care what happened to the programs around him. Paige on the other hand... Mira wasn't sure what to make of her.

They followed Paige into the top of the train, where wind buffeted against them. Mira looked up just in time to see Pavel and Paige arguing.

"I don't need your help, get out of here now!" Paige shouted above the roar of the light copter.

"Unfortunately our gracious leader believes otherwise," Pavel sneered.

"I can find Keller on my own," Paige snapped.

"Apparently you can't, because I just flushed her out!" Mira groaned when she turned to see Keller peering through another opening in a different car. Beck pulled her down just in time as the light copter began shooting at them. Without warning Mira threw her disk into one of the blades on the light copter. It swerved away from the train and aimed it's shots towards Keller, who dropped the chute she'd grabbed in surprise.

Mira gasped when the train jolted forward. She looked back to where Paige and Pavel were standing to see that an explosion had wracked the train's throttle. It was moving at an impossible speed, and Mira hung on for dear life when she realized that something had gone wrong with the engine.

"Are you happy now?"

"I'm ecstatic!" Pavel was sneering again as the light copter hovered nearby, just close enough for him to jump on.

"Thanks to you and your trigger happy pilot hundreds of innocent programs are going to die!" Paige sounded furious as she stood up to Pavel.

Wish that was me, Mira thought with a slight chagrin. Paige had guts to stand up to Pavel.

"What I did you ungrateful ingrate, was stop a program from escaping, and I've sent her to her early demise." Pavel's eyes narrowed as he glared at Paige. "Now come on, and maybe I'll let you stay and watch the fireworks."

"I'm not leaving this train until I have Keller."

"Oh Paige, how predictable you are, even to the bitter end!" Pavel shouted before he jumped on.

Mira looked down to see that Beck was climbing back in. She followed him down the latter and through the panicking crowd of programs. Her eyes narrowed when she saw Keller moving towards an unguarded door. She pushed her way through the crowd until she reached the room Keller had disappeared into.

"Keller don't." Beck stopped her before Mira could by pulling her out of the window. "Risking your life isn't going to get you anywhere," he added when she turned to glare at him.

"And neither is joining some ragtag revolution," Keller shot back. "At least if I go to Bismuth, I can start over." She looked like she was about to say something else when the cars shook once more. Mira jumped back when they were both thrown out of the room and into the car. "Then again, maybe that isn't an option either," Keller said when Paige walked into the car.

"Don't say that. Whether you join the revolution or not, we're getting you to Bismuth alive," Mira said when she pushed Keller aside. The program eyed her cautiously before nodding.

"Paige, how's it going?" Beck stopped Paige before she could get any closer.

"Are you trying to get yourself derezzed?" Paige demanded when she pushed her way past. When Beck blocked her way again she threw him against the wall. Mira stood up, concerned that he pushed Paige too far.

"Look, I just wanted to help," he admitted.

"How can you help? You're just an architect."

"I lied actually... I'm really a mechanic." Beck dropped his gaze when Paige glared. Mira sighed in annoyance when she realized that Paige was having trouble believing him.

"Why would you lie to me?" Paige's voice was cold, but Mira could sense the curiosity in it.

"I was trying to impress you. It seemed like a good idea at the time." Now it was Beck's turn to sound embarrassed when Paige's grip lessened. Suddenly the doors and walls around the train had begun to close, and the programs inside started panicking. Mira looked around to hear that an alarm stated the code in the train was trying to resolve the issues that had started.

"Fine, you wanna impress me, than fix that!" Paige ordered after releasing her grip. "Are you sure you can fix it? For all I know you could've lied about being a mechanic too."

Mira rolled her eyes as she followed them. Paige was shoving Beck towards the source of the problem, and she didn't seem to notice that Mira was following them. Beck pulled out the tool that Bodhi had given him. Paige leaned forward when a screen of codes appeared. They were broken apart in places where the engine was trying to fix.

"Are you sure you can fix it? For all I know you could've lied about being a mechanic too." Paige sounded bored when she glared down at Beck.

"It wasn't a lie." Beck smirked when the code was fixed. The windows and doors opened, revealing the black sky of the Grid.

"Okay, let's see if we can get the throttle fixed," Paige muttered with a roll of her eyes.

Paige led the way towards the sight that had received the most damage. Mira's eyes widened when she saw a gaping hole in the middle, with bits of codes torn apart. Even with Bodhi's tool Beck would have a difficult time fixing it.

"There's not enough code for me to fix this," Beck announced when he saw the extent of the damage. "There's nothing we can do." He looked at Mira hopefully, but she simply shrugged. There was only so much she knew about codes, and this was too much for her.

"I'm not about to let these programs die!" Paige snapped. "There has to be something we can do."

"Since when does the occupation care about the lives of others?" Mira demanded.

Paige turned to glare at her, and for a moment Mira thought she might kick her off the train. Fortunately Paige only shook her head in frustration.

"You don't know anything about me," she shouted back.

"Fair enough." Beck folded his arms before Paige led the way back into the main engine. "Tell everyone to move to the rear of the car, if I uncouple the train before it derails than it should stop," he added when they reached the com. "You stay with Paige, she'll keep you safe for now." He looked at Mira pleadingly, but she simply shook her head.

"The last thing I'm gonna do is trust a commander," she muttered. "Besides, I can help."

Paige didn't seem to hear them as she told everyone through the com to move to the rear of the train. Mira followed Beck as they reached the second car. She looked back to see that the rest of the cars were empty, and she suddenly wondered if Keller was among those programs.

Doubtful, Keller is jumpy and desperate, she thought with a sigh of frustration. She'll do anything to get away from Paige.

"We need to break this before the train derails," Beck explained when they looked down at the couple. He grabbed his disk and began working on the chain, and Mira did the same.

"Do you two have this?" Paige asked when she reached them.

"Wait, where are you going?" Mira demanded when she began heading towards the passenger cars. Paige turned to glare, but Mira tried to relax, despite how annoyed she was getting with the commander. "We may need your help," she added in a calmer voice.

"Has anyone ever told you that you worry too much?" Paige muttered as she leaned against the doorway.

"We're not the only ones who should worry," Beck said under his breath. Mira raised an eyebrow when Paige leaned forward.

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"He means that you didn't just come aboard for a casual trip to Bismuth," Mira replied.

"I'm looking for someone," Paige sighed as she looked up. Mira followed her gaze to see that Keller had jumped across the car to the other side. Her fists clenched when Paige suddenly jumped. "You two are on your own now!" she shouted when she reached the top.

"Great," Beck sighed in frustration when the train uncoupled. Mira jumped onto the other side to join him.

"Now what?" she demanded.

Beck looked around in panic before he reached for the ladder. Mira followed him and climbed to the top to see that the half they had uncoupled was beginning to slow down. The engine car was still speeding ahead, leaving them a wide gap to jump over.

Another train was flying beside them on the light rail. Mira flinched when she saw an escape pod crash onto the other train. She wondered if Keller had been inside, and if this was a pointless mission after all.

"Come on," Beck called when he rezzed his light cycle. Mira looked over her shoulder before rezzing her own light cycle. She was thankful she had grabbed a spare baton. Mira held her breath when she turned towards the engine half of the train. She suddenly pulled forward until her light cycle was in the air. Before she could reach the other side her light cycle suddenly turned back into a baton, and she caught the ledge of the car.

Beck wasted no time in following after she pulled herself up. He made a clumsy landing and she had to help him up.

"Let's go." Mira ran down to the engine car to see Paige wandering through the hall. She spotted Keller hiding in the upper level and breathed a sigh of relief. At least Keller wasn't in the escape pod when it crashed.

"You shouldn't have followed me." Mira resisted a flinch when Paige shoved her into Beck.

"Look, I just wanted to see if there's anything we can do to help," Beck insisted after Mira stood up.

Mira's eyes widened in alarm when she looked at the map on the car's doorway. A blinking light showed that a bridge was left unfinished, and the train was moving too fast to stop. They would all crash if they didn't start working together.

"I don't need your help, now stop worrying and got off before you both get killed," Paige snapped.

She turned and ran before Beck could stop her. He noticed the map too and turned to face Mira.

"Is there a way for you to work out the codes?" His expression was helpless, and Mira sighed in frustration once more.

"I'm not sure," she admitted. Suddenly she thought of the breaks on their light cycles, and an idea came to her mind. "We need to get Paige and Keller out of that engine car," she added after looking over her shoulder. Beck nodded in agreement before pushing his way to the other car.

"You're not going to save anyone's life if you don't get out of here now!" Beck shouted when he reached Paige. Keller peered from her hiding place when Paige turned to glare at him. "We're going to see if we can stop this train before it reaches the bridge," he explained when Paige asked how they would make it out alive.

"And if you can't stop it?" Paige asked coldly.

"Then it won't matter if you're impressed with me," Beck replied. Mira rolled her eyes as she followed Beck towards the top of the car. Her eyes widened in panic when she saw that the bridge was approaching them quickly. "So what did you have in mind?" he asked when they stood in front of the engine.

"Use the breaks from our light cycles," she explained. "The code should be enough to slow it down."

"Should?" Beck asked the question warily.

Mira only shook her head and began rezzing the spare light cycle she had borrowed from Tron. She would have kicked herself if she used the light cycle Mara and Zed upgraded. To her relief the code was being pulled into the light rail, and into the train's engine. Beck saw what was happening and did the same with his light cycle baton.

After what felt like cycles the train began screeching to a stop. Mira's teeth ground together when the train hovered dangerously over the ledge of the bridge. Without warning Beck grabbed her by the wrist and they ran before it could fall. Mira gasped when they rolled across the ground just as the engine fell into the Sea Of Simulation.

"We made it!" she exclaimed after recovering from the shock. Beck looked at her thankfully before looking back at where Paige and Keller had walked over to. A light copter had landed near the crash sight, and Mira sighed in frustration once again. Keller's suit had changed from blue to red, signifying that she had joined the occupation once more.

"So much for that mission," Beck muttered as he tossed what looked like a piece of metal into the sea.

"At least she's alive," Mira couldn't help pointing that out. Paige had kept Keller alive for the most part. Maybe she wasn't so bad of a program after all.

"I thought for sure you two were derezzed," Paige admitted when she approached them.

"Yeah, so did I," Beck replied after throwing another piece of metal into the sea.

"I'll admit, you are impressive mechanics." Paige glanced at Mira cautiously, and Mira stepped back warily. Even if they were on good terms she didn't trust the commander.

"That's good, because we're terrible architects," Mira laughed sheepishly. Beck grinned back at her before dropping the third piece of metal he had picked up. Even Paige laughed when she saw Beck's expression.

"It feels good, saving lives, doesn't it?" Paige asked. Mira eyed her curiously as Paige looked away. "Most of the soldiers in my command don't know this, but I used to be a medic before joining the occupation. Saving someone's life is still important to me."

"You know, that's pretty impressive too," Beck replied after looking at her in surprise.

That explains why she saved his arm, Mira realized.

"Hey, here's an idea, why don't you look me up the next time you're in Argon," Paige suggested after a moment of silence followed. "We could... hang out sometime."

"I'd like that." Mira watched as Paige returned to the light copter.

For the first time since Tron had found her, Mira couldn't help but feel confused. Paige showed signs of compassion to other programs, even to the point of risking her life. How could a program like her wind up fighting for someone like Clu? It didn't make any sense.

Maybe spending more time with the commander would help ease any questions Mira had. Clearly there was more to Paige than meets the eye, and maybe Paige would even join the revolution if she knew that Tron was alive. If it was possible, than the uprising would have an excellent recruit.

AN: And once again Mira is oblivious to Beck's flirting with Paige XP But than again he was just trying to win her over. Who knows, maybe in the second season they would actually get together. Anyways, I know I kind of skipped a couple of lines, and I apologize for that. Edits will likely come when the story is finished.

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