The past is so familiar

[solarnaut]

Who: New Yori and whoever comes along
When: Now
Where: Just underneath/in the End of Line
What: Another Yori rezzes into the system . . . this time, one who didn't survive Clu's reign.
Warnings: None so far.

Comments

[stillpurring]

Rinz could hardly remember the last time he'd visited the club. He had no love for Castor or for the place itself, perhaps merely because of the memories it invoked, but it was the best place in the Grid for something stronger than the typical energy.

He'd avoided the other programs mostly, finding himself a spot in the corner of the room and holing up with a drink or two. The club was quieter than usual as it was a typical downcycle period for most programs. He sat in his corner, sulking and thinking, musing over his drink and rubbing occasionally at his scar. It was aching today, for reasons he couldn't quite comprehend.

All his calculations slowed to a shuddering halt as a new program entered, dark eyes swiveling immediately from his drink to take her in.

She was new.

Was there a chance that she...

[solarnaut]

The End of Line was busier than she'd remembered it being in many cycles. Perhaps that was why Yori, no closer to her answers, was three-quarters of the way through her drink before she spotted Rinzler

[stillpurring]

Glitch.

He'd been worried that he might startle her, but such a reaction was more than he was expecting. Somewhere Rinz had been hoping that his helmetless-ness would have encouraged her, but apparently not.

He didn't want to frighten her, but nor did he want to lose this chance to talk to her. Abandoning his drink, he immediately got up to follow her.

She was lost and confused. And he was sure that it was probably a typical reaction for any Yori to be frightened of a Rinzler. But after his discussion with the other Yori about her, he just couldn't take the chance of factoring his Yori out.

"Yorrrrri," he called quietly. Hopefully he sounded more like Tron. Either way, Rinzler didn't usually speak, so...maybe it would help a bit?

[solarnaut]

At the sound of her name, Yori stopped, an arm's length from the elevator doors. This freezing thing was getting to be a bad habit.

He knows my name. How . . . does he even remember? He spoke? He almost never speaks. And he wasn't wearing a helmet. What's going on?

Thoughts churning, hoping that she wasn't about to make the biggest mistake of her runtime, Yori turned around. The tension thrumming through her was visible in her awkward movements, but she still raised her head to look up at him.

"Rinzler."

[OOC: *headdesk* Just went back and saw that the EoL was quiet from Rinz's perspective. I'll blame it on posting when I hadn't woken up and say that while it's quiet by Rinz's standards, the last time Yori was in there it was mostly empty.]

[stillpurring]

He shook his head quietly. "Not anymorrre," he replied in a low purr. He glanced around the club, quietly wary of the curious programs that were watching.

"I'll explain outside," he continued quietly. While it was instinct to catch her by the arm and just bring her along with him, he didn't want to risk frightening her.

"I'll let you hold my discs in the elevatorrrr if you let me talk."

[solarnaut]

Not . . . anymore? What did that mean?

No, it was clear. Despite the orange in his circuits, he wasn't acting anything like Clu's Enforcer. In fact . . . he was closer to the Tron she'd known. But that bit about her holding his discs . . . that implied that he understood why she'd be wary of him. Which, again, argued for a higher level of understanding than Clu had probably allowed him.

Not that he couldn't snatch back his discs at any time, but still, she appreciated the gesture.

She didn't want to think that this was a trap. Because if Clu had overwritten him this thoroughly, then she'd truly lost Tron forever. And that was unbearable. Sharply, she nodded. "All right," she said, still wondering if her logic tree was glitched, but unable to not take this chance.

Reaching out, she slapped the control that would open the doors to the elevator, and gestured to the small chamber beyond. "After you."

[stillpurring]

If Yori paid enough attention, she might note that his circuits weren't quite as orange as they were typically. Rather, they were considerably paler. And no longer did he walk with the horrible slouch that Rinzler tended towards.

He stepped into the small container and unhooked his discs, offering them to Yori in their conjoined form. If he was uncomfortable in close spaces, he couldn't imagine how it would be for her to be in the same space with him. The best comfort he could offer was to give her his discs, at least for a short time, even if being without them made him uncomfortable and slightly twitchy.

[solarnaut]

Somewhere in her background processes, Yori had noticed both those things. She'd also noticed the scar, and was wondering how and where he'd managed to get it.

As the doors hissed closed, Yori reached out to take the discs. Her hand closed over them, the familiar/unfamiliar weight of them in her hand . . .

. . . and just for a moment, while they were both in contact, Rinz's discs recognized her. The core circuit brightened faintly, and she felt the tug of familiar coding. Altered, yes, no longer Tron's, but with enough of Tron in there for her to still know him.

Startled, not moving to either take or release the twinned discs, Yori looked up once more into heartbreakingly familar eyes.

[stillpurring]

The nano she touched his discs, he knew.

It was her.

His breath caught painfully and he stared back at her. Oh User. She was alive. She'd come back. A shudder rocked his frame and he relinquished his grip on the discs, backing up several paces.

What could he possibly say to her? What could he do? How could she ever forgive him for all the things he'd done, yet he so desperately needed her to. Of all the programs he'd wronged, she was the one that had suffered the most.

[solarnaut]

For the sixteenth time that day, it seemed, Yori's thoughts were coming too fast for her to make coherent sense of.

. . . these are the discs he struck me with . . .

. . . I think I derezzed . . .

. . . how am I here? . . .

. . . why did he back away . . .

. . . how can he be halfway free of Clu?

For she knew, somehow, that Clu no longer controlled him. Whoever he was, now. Not the program she'd fallen in love with; not Clu's rectified hunter. Something new, different, with elements of both.

"T . . ." No, that wasn't right, he wasn't Tron. "What do I call you, now?"

[stillpurring]

He didn't answer her for a moment, backed up enough that he could feel the cool surface of the elevator wall through the back of his suit. Because oddly enough...he was scared. He didn't know how to react to her, what to say, what to think. He'd never felt this awkward around Yori before, but now...he didn't even deserve to look at her. To talk to her. He remembered her derezzing, her once-beautiful form crumbling into a thousand pixels, and shuddered violently once more.

His eyes finally met hers, only to dart away again, so full of pain and sorrow that he could barely stand it.

"They call me Rrrrinz," he murmured, his voice nothing more than a low, grating purr. "But I...you can call me...that...if you want to."

[solarnaut]

Yori finally recognized the look in his eyes. Fear, crossed with guilt. The guilt was familiar, the fear almost unheard of. Was he scared of her? The near-uncomputable idea helped ease the apprehension, soothed a little of the caution that had been hundreds of cycles in the making. Everything he did proved over and over that this wasn't the Rinzler who (killed me) had belonged to Clu.

Holding his discs loosely by her side, she stepped closer and laid her hand on his undamaged cheek. "But what do you want me to call you?" she murmured. "It's your name. You can choose what you want to be called."

[stillpurring]

His eyes closed at her gentle touch, another slight shiver running through him, but this time for different reasons. His hand moved to cover hers, and after a long moment his eyes opened again, remarkably calmer than before.

"I'm not Trrron, not rrreally. And I'm not Rrrrinzlerrr eitherrr." He sighed quietly, watching her. "I'm somewherrre in between. Closerrr to Trrrron, perrrhaps, than I have been in a long time, but therrrre's still glitches and rrreminderrrs. So many of my memorrrry files have been corrrrrupted or deleted..."

He closed his eyes again. "I'll answerrr to whateverrr you choose to call me. Afterrr everrrything, I'm still yourrs." He hesitated, once again opening his eyes to look at her. "If you'll have me."

[solarnaut]

Rinz's hand over hers was warm, familiar, and something she'd missed ever since she'd first erroneously believed that Tron was dead. And while that belief had hurt, she'd carried on, because she wanted to make his death mean something. Finding out about Rinzler had been worse - the shock had made her nonresponsive for a full millicycle.

"Oh, Rinz," she said softly. "After what was done to you . . . I'm just glad that there's enough of you left to remember me." She sighed, leaning her forehead on his shoulder briefly before looking back up. "You may not be the program I fell in love with. We're going to have to learn each other all over again. But even after everything . . . I still love you. I'm still yours."

Even after hundreds of cycles, that was one thing that had never changed.

[stillpurring]

He was silent for a nano, just watching her with some surprise in his dark eyes, before finally he nodded. A tiny smile tugged at the corners of his lips and he squeezed her hand gently, bringing it down to his side and entwining his fingers hesitantly with hers.

"I'm sorrrrry," he murmured, almost inaudibly. "It wasn't me. I didn't want to.."

[solarnaut]

"I know," she whispered back, squeezing his hand in return. "I know you better than any other program. You would never have chosen to do what Rinzler did. It's not your fault. It was Clu's fault, all of it. Don't try to tell me you didn't fight, because I know you did."

Wrapping her free arm around him, his discs still in her hand, she hugged him. It was so good to be back with him after all this time. They had a thousand cycles of hugs to catch up on, and Yori was going to start now.