fic: We Are Pilots [4/13]
Title: We Are Pilots [4/13]
Fandom: TRON & Legacy
Characters/Pairing: Sam Flynn/Tron; Quorra, OCs
Rating: T
Word Count: 2871
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Summary: There is no one right way to change the world. When Sam and Quorra run into a dead end she suggests returning to the Grid to find the answers. With her monitoring from the outside Sam goes in not knowing what he’ll find or if he’ll succeed. What he discovers is a Grid that needs his help to rebuild…and Tron, who needs his help to be himself again.
Author’s Note: Written for the prompt “Sam/Tron. Post movie. Something dealing with Tron's inevitable guilt. Sam trying to make him see that he can't hold himself responsible for anything he did under the influence of all that corrupted code.” at tronkinkmeme.
FYI - you might want to read the updates as I go; the edits are pretty extensive and I changed a lot of minor details to cover up plot holes and make for a smoother story. You’ve been warned.
Somewhere between the lightcycle ride under TRON City and standing at the entrance to Crystal's club exhaustion hits Sam like it was on a time delay. The ground rocks violently under his feet and he stumbles into the side of the building; he leans against it and rubs his face while Tron approaches.
"What is it?"
Sam sighs and slides his hand off his face. He tilts his head towards the program and gestured emptily, waving it away. "Just tired. Had a long day. First ENCOM, then coming here, then that crazy shit we just did..." He lets his hand drop. "After this is over I'm going to bed and sleeping for a month."
Tron just gives him a bemused look and waits for him to push off the wall and start walking. Sam's pretty sure though that the program smiles as he turns away.
The air in the club pulsates with the MP3s' heavy beat. Sam feels like he's going deaf and his lungs are about to pop at any second. He looks for the MP3s and spots them at the loft over the dance floor, nodding their helmeted heads in time with the music. Almost as soon as his eyes fall on them they look up; one of them gives him a wave while the other MP3 takes his hands off the equipment to make a more lewd gesture.
Sam raises an eyebrow. "What?"
Tron just pushes him through the crowd towards the bar, where Crystal is busy talking with three other programs. As Sam slides onto a barstool and buries his face in the crook of his elbow the Siren excuses herself and moves over to them. Before she can say anything Tron sets Zuse's cane on the counter.
At the slow, knowing smile on her face Sam says, "Tell me you can get us a light runner or I swear…"
She slides her hand along the cane's length. "You fulfilled your half of the bargain. Give me a little time to fulfill my half." She leans on the counter and looks down at Sam. Her face is starting to blur around the edges. "You look tired. Why don't you go to the room in the back and rest? No one's going to hurt you while you're here." Her pupils flicker white. “I’ll make sure of it.”
The offer is just too good to pass up. The need to sleep is becoming relentless, dragging his limbs down while numbing his senses to the point that he has to really concentrate on what he's doing getting off the stool is a difficult enough task, never mind following Crystal to the room in the back. He manages to bump into Tron, unfamiliar programs, and the wall; after that Tron places his hand at Sam’s elbow and guides him after the Siren.
The large low bed in the corner is the most welcoming thing Sam has never seen and he makes a beeline for it immediately.
"Oh man," he says as he first sits down and then lies back. He stares up at the stark white ceiling while a rhythmic beat bounces off the transparent barrier between the room and the club. He then covers his eyes with his forearm and takes a deep, deep breath.
"How long?" he hears Tron ask.
"Not forever I hope," Crystal replies. "Now rest. It'll do you some good for once if you'd stop trying to redeem yourself."
After he hears the door close Sam asks, "What is she talking about?"
As usual Tron doesn't answer. Sam cracks an eye open and tilts his head; the program is staring out at the club scene, mouth a grim line. He almost looks like Alan back when Sam was an angry, rebellious teenager.
"Seriously. You can't keep this act up forever you know."
Tron looks at him. "You should rest. The Outlands is not easy to cross."
"What about you?"
The program shrugs and looks away. "I'll manage."
Apparently he won't be talked into sitting down and stop acting like a security program for once. Sam rolls his eyes and then shuts them, sighs while listening to the MP3's latest track and Tron's footsteps as he paces around the room.
Sam has no idea why he's a spy working undercover at a campus bookstore that looks suspiciously like the one at CalTech. It can't even be called a "campus bookstore" since this looks like a street in a city that's definitely not L.A. It might be France, possibly Paris.
And there's no way he can explain why Quorra walks into the bookstore dressed up as a clown. And since when did the bookstore suddenly become a cafe that sells pizza?
Who Sam ends up talking to is Gem, who's lounging about at a small wrought iron table in front of the cafe, wearing a fashionable trench coat and staring across the street at the roundabout.
"Did you get it?" she asks as soon as he walks up to her.
He doesn't know what he says in reply but she smiles and says, "Good. I'll see you back at the hotel in two hours."
"What hotel?"
Instead of answering Gem stands up and walks away to join Crystal, who's leaning against a scooter parked by a meter. He raises an eyebrow as she climbs on behind the other Siren and wraps her arms around Crystal's waist.
Someone is standing on the sidewalk on the other side of the street, staring at Sam. The Sirens ride out of his line of sight but the scooter's loud rumbling persists while Sam narrows his eyes, trying to sharpen the blurry figure.
The scooter's engine keeps growling in his ear while he climbs over the wrought iron fence that wasn't there before and tries to cross the street to figure out the person's identity. Except he can't cross the street for some reason and is stuck on the sidewalk on this side of the asphalt.
The rumbling keeps getting louder and louder. Sam frowns and looks up and down the street but there are no vehicles in sight. It doesn't even really sound like an engine; in fact it sounds like a very loud electronic purr, and Sam blinks at the ceiling. It's not the ceiling of his bedroom back at the apartment and the muffled music isn't the kind his sometimes obnoxious neighbors blast at night.
In a second the rest of his brain catches up with his sudden wakefulness and Sam becomes aware of several things. One, in the time between falling asleep and waking up he somehow moved himself up on the bed. Two, there is something heavy and warm wrapped around him on his left side. Three, that something is rumbling-purring, like a really loud cat.
Like Rinzler.
Oh shit-
He stops himself from shoving Rinzler away and scrambling off the bed. The smart idea isn't to provoke the program especially since Sam isn't in the mood for another fight. Instead he holds himself still and slowly turns his head to his left...and has no idea what to think about the security program curled up next to him, arm and leg wrapped around him like a possessive octopus. His circuits are dark except for the four blue blinking squares on his chest, like a computer on standby.
The weirdest thing, Sam ends up thinking as he stares at the strange and peaceful look on Tron's face, is the purring. Tron is purring like Rinzler, and he finds that a little freakier than the fact that he's lying in a bed with a program who's taking fighting for the Users a little too far. And yet Sam can't bring himself to slide out and put a little distance between them. In a way the rumbling warm presence next to him tell him that there's someone here he can trust, someone who he knows will protect him until the very end.
Maybe that's the freakiest thing and Sam has no idea what to do about it.
While his thoughts fragment as he drifts off he decides that the purring is actually kind of nice.
When he wakes up again it's to the same ceiling, a mellower beat on the other side of the barrier, the same rumbling and weight wrapped around him, and the feeling that there's someone else in the room. Sam slowly pushes himself up, careful not to disturb Tron. He might as well shove the program aside since it’s obvious how completely out of it he is. His arm curves around Sam's waist and he keeps rumbling while pressing his forehead against Sam's side. Sam’s fingers twitch, wanting to run through the program's dark hair like he's a cat and not, well, a person-shaped program.
A shifting sound has him looking up and seeing Crystal sitting in her white bubble chair, legs crossed and chin resting on her propped arm, her other hand holding a tall thin glass of green energy. She’s entranced by the MP3s working the crowd and doesn't seem to notice him, but Sam flushes anyway and slides his hand away from the back of Tron's head.
The brief flick of her eyes tells him she knows he's awake.
"Uh...this isn't what it looks like."
She tilts her head towards him and arches an eyebrow. "I don't doubt that."
She spins the chair around and stops it with her foot so that she's facing him. She sits back, tapping the bottom of the glass against the chair. "Your light runner is at the edge of the sector. I’ll give you its location when you’re ready to leave. You can reach the Outlands from there."
He nods and she turns her head to watch her club. Sam looks down at Tron and finds himself a little reluctant to wake the program out of rest; there's something striking about the serene look on his face and Sam doesn't want to disturb it.
"What are you going to do," Crystal suddenly says, and Sam jerks his head up, feels his face flush again while his circuits flicker, "once you have what you came for?"
He knows what she's asking. He's been thinking about it ever since he came back to the Grid and found Tron waiting for him. This place isn't so much a living memory as it is a thriving world - if one could call the chaotic and lawless Grid "thriving" - and the longer he's here the more he realizes how badly it needs a User’s guidance. The Grid calls to him, asking for his help; he’s the one here brimming with power and potential, the one who can rebuild it and make it even better.
There’s something alluring about a world that he can create with a few lines of code, something about a place full of light and technological magic that the real world can only dream of in movies and games. In a way he finally understands why his father would have liked to stay here all the time, building and perfecting with Tron and Clu by his side.
Tron. Sam looks down at the program again, thinking back on all the stories Flynn told about the hero of the Grid and imagining how hellish things must've been for him between the Reintegration and Sam's return.
“User.”
Zuse's words creep into his mind about the state of TRON City. All those sectors they ran through, all the attacks, the necessity of using shortcuts to cross sectors instead of the streets and highways he’s seen...
"Sam?" the Siren asks.
He stares at the white lines of his bodysuit while thinking about the answer, about what it'll mean for him and the future of the Grid.
"Guess Dad's company isn't the only thing I'm taking over," he says slowly. "Besides, I helped create this mess. The least I can do is help clean it up."
He mirrors the smile on Crystal's face. She then turns her chair around so that she faces the transparent barrier and the club scene. "After the Reintegration a lot of programs gave up hope. I didn't. Several programs and I established this sector as a neutral zone while we waited."
"For what?"
"You. With you on the Grid TRON City has a chance. With you the city the Creator built can come back."
There's a slight tremor in her normally cool and controlled voice, the smallest hint of enthusiasm and hope that makes Sam nervous.
"I can't undo all the damage Clu did to the Grid," he says carefully. "I can't do what Dad did."
"But you can do something. You're a User. A Creator. It's all that matters." She turns her head and looks him in the eye. "You can save us all."
Her eyes flick downwards to Tron and Sam realizes he’s brushing the program’s hair with his hand, stills it and pulls it back.
"Every program on the Grid has a function here, a purpose, but Tron was designed to function independent of the system. It's why Clu repurposed him at the very beginning, turned him into his weapon. He's the Grid's greatest warrior and he'll die protecting the city, but all they'll ever see is Rinzler."
She stands up and glances down at Tron again. Sam follows her line of sight and notices that the four squares on the security program's chest are blinking rapidly while the other lines on his body start to glow blue. The purring fades as Tron starts booting up.
"The only reason why he survived this long is because he still believes in the Users," Crystal says as she turns and walks to the door. "He still believes in you."
* * *
Sam does a double take at the program leaning against the light runner.
"You again."
Enyo gives him a little wave as she pushes off the vehicle and saunters over to him and Tron. "Me again. By the way, I saw what happened back there. Very impressive. Inspiring, even; the city can't stop talking about it. Rumors abound that a User is walking amongst us, promising order and freedom from chaos."
She sets her arms on her hips and tilts her head up at him, raises an eyebrow and grins cheekily at him. Sam takes an involuntary step back, says, "I think you're getting way ahead of yourself."
"Don't look at me. It's what I heard." She then tilts her head to Tron and the knowing smile on her face softens. "It's always nice seeing a program with a purpose again, especially after everything you've been through."
Tron looks taken back, not expecting those words from her mouth. His expression becomes more troubled even as Enyo reaches out and rests her hand on his arm in a comforting manner.
"Be patient. They'll forgive you. Just keep doing whatever you're doing."
It feels like Enyo's passing judgment on them, which is really weird since as far as Sam can tell she's just a random search program who overheard them talking about light runners in a sector on the other side of the city. A helpful program, but not someone he thought he'd meet again, let alone here with the light runner Crystal promised them.
Enyo gives Tron's arm a reassuring squeeze and steps back. She looks up at Sam and then nods to the light runner. "I hope you find what you came here for, Sam Flynn. Good luck, and try not to crash the light runner. They're hard to come by."
"Can't promise you that," he mutters and she laughs.
She turns to leave and Tron suddenly takes a half-step forward, says, "Who are you?"
"I thought we went over this." She smiles and Sam is suddenly reminded of Crystal and Gem. "I'm Enyo, a search program, nice to meet you. Crystal and I established this sector as a neutral zone many cycles ago. Well, we were a neutral zone, but now that we're harboring a User..."
Enyo shrugs and practically bounces away, leaving them with a yellow-lit light runner and a short road that ends at the wild Outlands. Sam frowns after her as she rounds the corner and disappears, wondering what she's so giddy about, while Tron goes to the light runner and opens the hatch; under his hand the vehicle's circuitry flickers and changes to blue.
"Sam," the security program calls out. "Get in."
As he climbs into the passenger’s seat he says, "Had the light runner all along. Could've given it to us at any time."
The hatch lowers down over their heads, sealing them in. Tron starts fiddling the controls and they light up; the light runner shifts, adjusting its suspension while studs form on the massive tires.
"Probably," Tron says as he steers the light runner around to face the Outlands, "but they needed a reason."
Everyone needs a reason, Sam thinks as the light runner picks up speed. "I didn't tell them anything. Just said I needed to get to the Outlands."
He's not sure what to make of Tron's small smile as the light runner hits rough terrain and rapidly puts distance between them and TRON City.
"That's not the reason they're looking for."
3 || 5
Fandom: TRON & Legacy
Characters/Pairing: Sam Flynn/Tron; Quorra, OCs
Rating: T
Word Count: 2871
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Summary: There is no one right way to change the world. When Sam and Quorra run into a dead end she suggests returning to the Grid to find the answers. With her monitoring from the outside Sam goes in not knowing what he’ll find or if he’ll succeed. What he discovers is a Grid that needs his help to rebuild…and Tron, who needs his help to be himself again.
Author’s Note: Written for the prompt “Sam/Tron. Post movie. Something dealing with Tron's inevitable guilt. Sam trying to make him see that he can't hold himself responsible for anything he did under the influence of all that corrupted code.” at tronkinkmeme.
FYI - you might want to read the updates as I go; the edits are pretty extensive and I changed a lot of minor details to cover up plot holes and make for a smoother story. You’ve been warned.
Somewhere between the lightcycle ride under TRON City and standing at the entrance to Crystal's club exhaustion hits Sam like it was on a time delay. The ground rocks violently under his feet and he stumbles into the side of the building; he leans against it and rubs his face while Tron approaches.
"What is it?"
Sam sighs and slides his hand off his face. He tilts his head towards the program and gestured emptily, waving it away. "Just tired. Had a long day. First ENCOM, then coming here, then that crazy shit we just did..." He lets his hand drop. "After this is over I'm going to bed and sleeping for a month."
Tron just gives him a bemused look and waits for him to push off the wall and start walking. Sam's pretty sure though that the program smiles as he turns away.
The air in the club pulsates with the MP3s' heavy beat. Sam feels like he's going deaf and his lungs are about to pop at any second. He looks for the MP3s and spots them at the loft over the dance floor, nodding their helmeted heads in time with the music. Almost as soon as his eyes fall on them they look up; one of them gives him a wave while the other MP3 takes his hands off the equipment to make a more lewd gesture.
Sam raises an eyebrow. "What?"
Tron just pushes him through the crowd towards the bar, where Crystal is busy talking with three other programs. As Sam slides onto a barstool and buries his face in the crook of his elbow the Siren excuses herself and moves over to them. Before she can say anything Tron sets Zuse's cane on the counter.
At the slow, knowing smile on her face Sam says, "Tell me you can get us a light runner or I swear…"
She slides her hand along the cane's length. "You fulfilled your half of the bargain. Give me a little time to fulfill my half." She leans on the counter and looks down at Sam. Her face is starting to blur around the edges. "You look tired. Why don't you go to the room in the back and rest? No one's going to hurt you while you're here." Her pupils flicker white. “I’ll make sure of it.”
The offer is just too good to pass up. The need to sleep is becoming relentless, dragging his limbs down while numbing his senses to the point that he has to really concentrate on what he's doing getting off the stool is a difficult enough task, never mind following Crystal to the room in the back. He manages to bump into Tron, unfamiliar programs, and the wall; after that Tron places his hand at Sam’s elbow and guides him after the Siren.
The large low bed in the corner is the most welcoming thing Sam has never seen and he makes a beeline for it immediately.
"Oh man," he says as he first sits down and then lies back. He stares up at the stark white ceiling while a rhythmic beat bounces off the transparent barrier between the room and the club. He then covers his eyes with his forearm and takes a deep, deep breath.
"How long?" he hears Tron ask.
"Not forever I hope," Crystal replies. "Now rest. It'll do you some good for once if you'd stop trying to redeem yourself."
After he hears the door close Sam asks, "What is she talking about?"
As usual Tron doesn't answer. Sam cracks an eye open and tilts his head; the program is staring out at the club scene, mouth a grim line. He almost looks like Alan back when Sam was an angry, rebellious teenager.
"Seriously. You can't keep this act up forever you know."
Tron looks at him. "You should rest. The Outlands is not easy to cross."
"What about you?"
The program shrugs and looks away. "I'll manage."
Apparently he won't be talked into sitting down and stop acting like a security program for once. Sam rolls his eyes and then shuts them, sighs while listening to the MP3's latest track and Tron's footsteps as he paces around the room.
Sam has no idea why he's a spy working undercover at a campus bookstore that looks suspiciously like the one at CalTech. It can't even be called a "campus bookstore" since this looks like a street in a city that's definitely not L.A. It might be France, possibly Paris.
And there's no way he can explain why Quorra walks into the bookstore dressed up as a clown. And since when did the bookstore suddenly become a cafe that sells pizza?
Who Sam ends up talking to is Gem, who's lounging about at a small wrought iron table in front of the cafe, wearing a fashionable trench coat and staring across the street at the roundabout.
"Did you get it?" she asks as soon as he walks up to her.
He doesn't know what he says in reply but she smiles and says, "Good. I'll see you back at the hotel in two hours."
"What hotel?"
Instead of answering Gem stands up and walks away to join Crystal, who's leaning against a scooter parked by a meter. He raises an eyebrow as she climbs on behind the other Siren and wraps her arms around Crystal's waist.
Someone is standing on the sidewalk on the other side of the street, staring at Sam. The Sirens ride out of his line of sight but the scooter's loud rumbling persists while Sam narrows his eyes, trying to sharpen the blurry figure.
The scooter's engine keeps growling in his ear while he climbs over the wrought iron fence that wasn't there before and tries to cross the street to figure out the person's identity. Except he can't cross the street for some reason and is stuck on the sidewalk on this side of the asphalt.
The rumbling keeps getting louder and louder. Sam frowns and looks up and down the street but there are no vehicles in sight. It doesn't even really sound like an engine; in fact it sounds like a very loud electronic purr, and Sam blinks at the ceiling. It's not the ceiling of his bedroom back at the apartment and the muffled music isn't the kind his sometimes obnoxious neighbors blast at night.
In a second the rest of his brain catches up with his sudden wakefulness and Sam becomes aware of several things. One, in the time between falling asleep and waking up he somehow moved himself up on the bed. Two, there is something heavy and warm wrapped around him on his left side. Three, that something is rumbling-purring, like a really loud cat.
Like Rinzler.
Oh shit-
He stops himself from shoving Rinzler away and scrambling off the bed. The smart idea isn't to provoke the program especially since Sam isn't in the mood for another fight. Instead he holds himself still and slowly turns his head to his left...and has no idea what to think about the security program curled up next to him, arm and leg wrapped around him like a possessive octopus. His circuits are dark except for the four blue blinking squares on his chest, like a computer on standby.
The weirdest thing, Sam ends up thinking as he stares at the strange and peaceful look on Tron's face, is the purring. Tron is purring like Rinzler, and he finds that a little freakier than the fact that he's lying in a bed with a program who's taking fighting for the Users a little too far. And yet Sam can't bring himself to slide out and put a little distance between them. In a way the rumbling warm presence next to him tell him that there's someone here he can trust, someone who he knows will protect him until the very end.
Maybe that's the freakiest thing and Sam has no idea what to do about it.
While his thoughts fragment as he drifts off he decides that the purring is actually kind of nice.
When he wakes up again it's to the same ceiling, a mellower beat on the other side of the barrier, the same rumbling and weight wrapped around him, and the feeling that there's someone else in the room. Sam slowly pushes himself up, careful not to disturb Tron. He might as well shove the program aside since it’s obvious how completely out of it he is. His arm curves around Sam's waist and he keeps rumbling while pressing his forehead against Sam's side. Sam’s fingers twitch, wanting to run through the program's dark hair like he's a cat and not, well, a person-shaped program.
A shifting sound has him looking up and seeing Crystal sitting in her white bubble chair, legs crossed and chin resting on her propped arm, her other hand holding a tall thin glass of green energy. She’s entranced by the MP3s working the crowd and doesn't seem to notice him, but Sam flushes anyway and slides his hand away from the back of Tron's head.
The brief flick of her eyes tells him she knows he's awake.
"Uh...this isn't what it looks like."
She tilts her head towards him and arches an eyebrow. "I don't doubt that."
She spins the chair around and stops it with her foot so that she's facing him. She sits back, tapping the bottom of the glass against the chair. "Your light runner is at the edge of the sector. I’ll give you its location when you’re ready to leave. You can reach the Outlands from there."
He nods and she turns her head to watch her club. Sam looks down at Tron and finds himself a little reluctant to wake the program out of rest; there's something striking about the serene look on his face and Sam doesn't want to disturb it.
"What are you going to do," Crystal suddenly says, and Sam jerks his head up, feels his face flush again while his circuits flicker, "once you have what you came for?"
He knows what she's asking. He's been thinking about it ever since he came back to the Grid and found Tron waiting for him. This place isn't so much a living memory as it is a thriving world - if one could call the chaotic and lawless Grid "thriving" - and the longer he's here the more he realizes how badly it needs a User’s guidance. The Grid calls to him, asking for his help; he’s the one here brimming with power and potential, the one who can rebuild it and make it even better.
There’s something alluring about a world that he can create with a few lines of code, something about a place full of light and technological magic that the real world can only dream of in movies and games. In a way he finally understands why his father would have liked to stay here all the time, building and perfecting with Tron and Clu by his side.
Tron. Sam looks down at the program again, thinking back on all the stories Flynn told about the hero of the Grid and imagining how hellish things must've been for him between the Reintegration and Sam's return.
“User.”
Zuse's words creep into his mind about the state of TRON City. All those sectors they ran through, all the attacks, the necessity of using shortcuts to cross sectors instead of the streets and highways he’s seen...
"Sam?" the Siren asks.
He stares at the white lines of his bodysuit while thinking about the answer, about what it'll mean for him and the future of the Grid.
"Guess Dad's company isn't the only thing I'm taking over," he says slowly. "Besides, I helped create this mess. The least I can do is help clean it up."
He mirrors the smile on Crystal's face. She then turns her chair around so that she faces the transparent barrier and the club scene. "After the Reintegration a lot of programs gave up hope. I didn't. Several programs and I established this sector as a neutral zone while we waited."
"For what?"
"You. With you on the Grid TRON City has a chance. With you the city the Creator built can come back."
There's a slight tremor in her normally cool and controlled voice, the smallest hint of enthusiasm and hope that makes Sam nervous.
"I can't undo all the damage Clu did to the Grid," he says carefully. "I can't do what Dad did."
"But you can do something. You're a User. A Creator. It's all that matters." She turns her head and looks him in the eye. "You can save us all."
Her eyes flick downwards to Tron and Sam realizes he’s brushing the program’s hair with his hand, stills it and pulls it back.
"Every program on the Grid has a function here, a purpose, but Tron was designed to function independent of the system. It's why Clu repurposed him at the very beginning, turned him into his weapon. He's the Grid's greatest warrior and he'll die protecting the city, but all they'll ever see is Rinzler."
She stands up and glances down at Tron again. Sam follows her line of sight and notices that the four squares on the security program's chest are blinking rapidly while the other lines on his body start to glow blue. The purring fades as Tron starts booting up.
"The only reason why he survived this long is because he still believes in the Users," Crystal says as she turns and walks to the door. "He still believes in you."
* * *
Sam does a double take at the program leaning against the light runner.
"You again."
Enyo gives him a little wave as she pushes off the vehicle and saunters over to him and Tron. "Me again. By the way, I saw what happened back there. Very impressive. Inspiring, even; the city can't stop talking about it. Rumors abound that a User is walking amongst us, promising order and freedom from chaos."
She sets her arms on her hips and tilts her head up at him, raises an eyebrow and grins cheekily at him. Sam takes an involuntary step back, says, "I think you're getting way ahead of yourself."
"Don't look at me. It's what I heard." She then tilts her head to Tron and the knowing smile on her face softens. "It's always nice seeing a program with a purpose again, especially after everything you've been through."
Tron looks taken back, not expecting those words from her mouth. His expression becomes more troubled even as Enyo reaches out and rests her hand on his arm in a comforting manner.
"Be patient. They'll forgive you. Just keep doing whatever you're doing."
It feels like Enyo's passing judgment on them, which is really weird since as far as Sam can tell she's just a random search program who overheard them talking about light runners in a sector on the other side of the city. A helpful program, but not someone he thought he'd meet again, let alone here with the light runner Crystal promised them.
Enyo gives Tron's arm a reassuring squeeze and steps back. She looks up at Sam and then nods to the light runner. "I hope you find what you came here for, Sam Flynn. Good luck, and try not to crash the light runner. They're hard to come by."
"Can't promise you that," he mutters and she laughs.
She turns to leave and Tron suddenly takes a half-step forward, says, "Who are you?"
"I thought we went over this." She smiles and Sam is suddenly reminded of Crystal and Gem. "I'm Enyo, a search program, nice to meet you. Crystal and I established this sector as a neutral zone many cycles ago. Well, we were a neutral zone, but now that we're harboring a User..."
Enyo shrugs and practically bounces away, leaving them with a yellow-lit light runner and a short road that ends at the wild Outlands. Sam frowns after her as she rounds the corner and disappears, wondering what she's so giddy about, while Tron goes to the light runner and opens the hatch; under his hand the vehicle's circuitry flickers and changes to blue.
"Sam," the security program calls out. "Get in."
As he climbs into the passenger’s seat he says, "Had the light runner all along. Could've given it to us at any time."
The hatch lowers down over their heads, sealing them in. Tron starts fiddling the controls and they light up; the light runner shifts, adjusting its suspension while studs form on the massive tires.
"Probably," Tron says as he steers the light runner around to face the Outlands, "but they needed a reason."
Everyone needs a reason, Sam thinks as the light runner picks up speed. "I didn't tell them anything. Just said I needed to get to the Outlands."
He's not sure what to make of Tron's small smile as the light runner hits rough terrain and rapidly puts distance between them and TRON City.
"That's not the reason they're looking for."
3 || 5