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

[yorisearching]

Acknowledging the name with a wry smile, Yori tilted her head toward the quieter alleys. "It's a long story, and some of it is even good news. But the club has a lot of ears." Castor was risky by himself, and any version of Clu likely to try something would know enough to begin gathering information there as well. Not to mention the risk of running into someone before things were properly explained.

The surprise at seeing a duplicate marked the other as new to Portal confusion. There was too much wariness in her stance to date from before Clu's betrayal; not enough desperation to have survived the whole. But Yori didn't know any of the recognition codes that might ease her other self's suspicion, quite by design. Didn't know anything at all about her own probable time with the Resistance, whatever similarities or differences there might be.

She waited for the other Yori to choose a path, instead, as the simplest method of assurance that there was no planned ambush...and hoped her newest sister wouldn't ask for more than she wanted to know.

[solarnaut]

Yori nodded wryly when her twin mentioned that the club had many ears. It was part of the reason why she'd stayed away for decacycles before this. If she hadn't been so depleted now, she'd have tried going elsewhere.

Yori eyed the local alleys, selecting one that was too wide for a single program to block and that was open at both ends. She gestured, slightly shakily, for the other Yori to precede her, the caution ingrained from heptocycles of working with the Resistance. "Right now, a lack of bad news would be good news."

[yorisearching]

After current events, Yori couldn't claim there was any lack of bad news, but it was so thoroughly mixed with impossible good that she shrugged. "You can judge that for yourself." She walked into the alley first, automatically glancing up to check the roof-lines. This would not be a convenient time to find a Rinzler.

Carefully slow, she pulled a small emergency packet from its usual place in her armor. Yori tried never to be without one or five, what with all the programs dropping in unexpectedly. "Here. You look a bit drained." She held it out, uncertain whether the other Yori would be willing to take it, what level of sheer paranoia she'd yet reached. (Because things can always, always be worse.)

"If you update your system clock, you'll notice that you're missing a lot of time," she began the very long explanation. "I don't know what you remember before arriving here." It was too soon to ask, if any new arrival didn't volunteer the information, no matter how curious Yori was. "But first and best news, Clu isn't in control anymore."

[solarnaut]

Paranoia had only gone to mid-level stages so far, and Yori accepted the energy packet with a nod. "Thank you." Having another version of her as a Trojan would be too subtle for what she'd observed of Clu's reign this far. As the other Yori spoke, she drank slowly, feeling the clean energy soak into her system. By the time her twin got to that last, welcome piece of news, she'd finished it.

She took a moment to update her time clock, and blinked at the result. She'd missed hundreds of cycles? What in the name of the Users had happened to her? But there was a more pressing question, first. Personal confusion could wait, for now.

"What happened to him?" she asked neutrally. It was obvious that something major had to have shifted on the Grid in order for the balance of power to have changed, and it was unlikely that the factions of the Resistance had finally united to overthrow the Grid's dictator/saviour (delete as appropriate).

[yorisearching]

"Sam Flynn came looking for his father." Easy enough to report the facts, dry as numbers. "Clu pursued them both to the Portal itself, and Flynn triggered reintegration to protect the User world. Clu had an army by then."

Nothing was ever going to make speaking of Tron easy. Especially when she couldn't be quite sure what Yori knew. "After that things got really interesting," Yori said dryly. "Apparently instead of destroying the Grid as Flynn feared, the combination of reintegration and the Portal are dragging different versions of the Grid into one. And dragging Users in, too, from different versions of their world."

She lifted her hands slightly, presenting herself as evidence. "I am Yori, but chances are things happened differently to you than in my version." Since this Yori had, on arrival, been both coherent and properly fashionable in blue.

[solarnaut]

Sam Flynn? Yori calculated the time difference and cross-referenced what little Flynn had told her. Yes, he would be fully grown by now.

She listened as the other Yori gave her the information the way she preferred it, facts and supporting evidence. Then again, given that they were the same program, that shouldn't be a surprise.

"Circuit patterns and color confirm," she agreed, just as dryly as the other. "I'll admit, I wouldn't have seen that coming." Everything she'd been told added up so far, so she was going to go with that being a working theory so far. Also, she hadn't seen any orange programs or heard any patrolling Recognizers, and she was still free and alive.

"It's a little strange to meet myself . . . but I think I like it," she added.

There was a great deal of information left to learn. Including why Yori didn't trust Castor, while she herself saw him as a tentative ally.

[yorisearching]

"I'm certainly glad to see you." Yori grinned, and hoped the strain in it wasn't too visible. "It's amazing how many worlds Flynn seems to have left us at Encom. It'll be good to have someone sensible around here in the Free Grid." And someone less damaged than she was herself.

She looked down, the momentary humor slipping from her grasp. Of all the things she would have wanted and needed to know as a new arrival, no other was more urgent than Tron. And unfortunately, none more complicated or painful. "But what happened to Tron--what Clu did, that...has been terribly consistent. Though some are recovering." Yori held out a hand, for whatever comfort she could offer. "I don't know if you had found out yet?"

[solarnaut]

Yori laughed. "Flynn nearly did leave me in the Encom server. I had to insist that he took me along, and he finally threw up his hands and said I was just like my User. I took it as a compliment."

Yori's next news struck her like a disc blow. "Recovering?" she repeated, wide-eyed, curling her fingers around those of her twin. "That's . . . that's wonderful! I . . . when I found out about what had really happened to Tron, I crashed. Took me a full millicycle to recover."

Looking at the other woman's face, she recognized that expression all too well. "Your Tron hasn't come back yet, has he?" she asked softly.

[yorisearching]

Whatever had first made her realize what Clu had done to Tron, Yori didn't remember it. The shock of the knowledge had shattered her all over again in the moments after deleting nearly all the rest of her memories since the coup. And then Rinzler face to face--

She gripped the other hand, tried hard to smile. "Yours may have. There are a dozen different versions here now, and half of them began to crack Clu's reprogramming before the end. The others...we have hope."

Seeing her own face hurt too much. Yori shut her eyes. "But--no, none of them match what I remember. Not yet."

[solarnaut]

"Oh, Yori." It didn't sound strange to her, saying her own name, and she pulled the other woman into a hug. She couldn't think of anything to say - she knew herself too well. There was a reason why they broke the rules, snatched happiness when they could.

Hope, a difficult emotion for both of them, was starting to burn in Yori for the first time since she'd learned Tron's fate. Maybe, some cycle, she'd find her own Tron again. But right now, her other self needed a hug.

[yorisearching]

Conflicting reactions--Yori froze, then relaxed, shivering, into her twin's hold, lifting her arms to hug back. No threat here, she ordered herself to believe. It nearly worked.

Besides, the new Yori was straight from the fight and clearly in need of comfort.

Yori let her head rest on her sister's shoulder, with a trembling sigh. "Another good thing: Lora's here," she said quietly, free-associating one hug with the last. "One Lora anyway. I'm not quite sure if it matters which, as long ago as we last knew her. But she's--" What use were descriptions? "She hasn't forgotten us." Miracle enough.

[solarnaut]

"She still remembers us?" Yori's tone was half joy, half disbelief. After all those hectocycles of thinking that the Users had abandoned them, her eyes brightened. "She really remembers us."

Yori hugged her sister once more and then released her, looking quizzically into identical eyes. "Yori . . . why didn't you want me to go see Castor? Is he not an ally, on your Grid?"

[yorisearching]

From Lora to Castor, Yori's smile vanished fast.

"He may have been an ally," she acknowledged, noncommittal. She couldn't remember that period herself and didn't know what cause she might have to be grateful--or not. "He isn't likely to try siding with Clu now. But Castor would be just as manipulative if he thought he could get away with it, and I don't trust him either to recognize a bad idea or to want the best for anyone but himself."

She frowned, trying to phrase her misgivings without being unfair to versions of Castor or Zuse she'd never met. "My...sources...said pretty consistently that he called Clu to the End of Line when Sam Flynn was there. Without warning Resistance members who were also present." Yori shrugged. "The deal ended with the whole tower collapsing, so it can't have gone well." Not for Zuse, anyway.

"I'm just not willing to hand Castor any weapons he might use against us later. Or Tron. Any of them. Castor's got enough leverage already from his own network."

[solarnaut]

Yori nodded, eyes going a little harder. "Castor's always been that way, even before. He's safe enough if it's more worth his while to help you than betray you. I guess Sam didn't have anything to use as his own leverage." In her mind, she cursed Castor for that bit of short-sighted thinking. Clu would betray anyone and everyone if it furthered his goals, and that glitch of a program would tell himself that it was all okay in the pursuit of his directive. It sounded as if that was exactly what had happened.

Now that Clu was gone, Yori’s own leverage was both null and void and, hopefully, no longer necessary.

"We had people on the inside of that network, on the Grid I come from. I didn’t run it, but I knew about it. And yes. Nothing that might give him an advantage over Tron or the Resistance."

[yorisearching]

"Now that Tron is in charge, and what used to be the Resistance is more or less Security, they're more of a target for opportunists." Yori grimaced. "Or so I worry. It would be interesting to know if your sources were still, or again, in Castor's network."

Castor's ambitions hadn't been quite so damaging as Clu's, but that might just be lack of opportunity. Here they were in a system full of opportunity. And any stray Clu would certainly be more than pleased to take advantage of gathered information, too.

But she didn't especially want to talk about Castor, still less possibilities of Clu. "Other things you should know. The Portal's also rerezzing Isos--not in great numbers yet, but pretty regularly. One version of Radia is here--I was delighted to see her. There hasn't been much problem with the Basics so far. Guilty consciences help with that, I suspect."