Quorra had mostly given up looking for Flynns everywhere she went on the island. People had assured her that they might show up, even if they had been killed in the fight at the End of Line, so she still hoped, but after all these months she didn't really expect either of them around every corner anymore.
Until she turned the corner of the compound and there one was.
"Sam Flynn?" she asked, partly afraid it wasn't really him, only a clone giving her false hope.
As if this couldn't get any stranger. There was, of course, a certain kind of sense in Quorra being there - she'd been in the portal with him, after all, though Sam wasn't one hundred percent certain how that would manifest, a program leaving a world in the computer - but that was back at the arcade. He knew neither where he was nor how he'd gotten here, and somehow, for them both to be there made it seem all the more inexplicable.
Maybe he was hallucinating (because that, of course, would be the perfect end to all of this). It seemed unlikely, though. He hoped he wasn't, anyway. He was pretty sure going crazy just after deciding that he wanted to take back his father's company would not have been the best start, and the ENCOM board members were going to have trouble enough with this as it was.
"Hey, Quorra," he said slowly, visibly confused, brows furrowing with it. "That hard to recognize me already?"
"It's been a longer time than you might think, Sam Flynn."
She supposed she should be glad he was able to recognize her at all, in the un-lit clothing favored by the island natives which was, though boring in her opinion, definitely more comfortable in the heat.
She reached out a hand to make sure he wasn't some kind of a hologram or illusion, and was relieved to feel that his arm, at least, was solid when she poked it.
"Not the last time I checked," Sam said dryly, head tilting to the side as if to acknowledge the possibility that he may have been. It did seem incredibly unlikely, but standing in the middle of a pretty obviously tropical climate, he wasn't about to rule anything out. This wasn't any place he'd seen before, that much was certain, and here she was, standing there so casually, looking not like a program but rather someone who'd been human all along.
It was kind of nice.
Glancing down at where she'd poked his arm, one corner of his mouth quirking up slightly, he then looked at her curiously, as if studying her could provide any clarity to this. Things had been weird for a while now, non-stop since he'd made it to the Grid, but this was something else entirely. "Quorra, where are we?" he asked. "And why would I be dead?"
"I was pretty sure I was dead when I woke up here, but now I'm equally sure I'm not. This place is full of Users, and none of them know how they got here and none of them have the power a User should have in the Grid. So we're not there anymore. The people here call it Tabula Rasa. It's an island."
Mostly, she had come to believe that was a good thing, with no CLU derezzing anyone for his own amusement, but it was still a weird thing.
"The last thing that happened to me before I was here was a fight in the End of Line Club. I lost my arm, but I had it back when I woke up, so I assumed Kevin Flynn had at least made it out of there in order to fix me, but I didn't know about you."
In a surprising (even to herself) burst of emotion, Quorra flung her arms around him in a very User-like way.
"Hey, hey," Sam said quickly, a vague attempt at being comforting, though it came out more surprised than anything else. All of this was making less sense instead of more, both her explanation - ages ago, it felt like, though it had all been in the space of a night - and the embrace, but one of his arms found its way around her anyway, hand just above the small of her back.
Weird as this was, he'd been on her side of this equation before. He could wait a few minutes more.
"I'm glad I didn't die, too. That was a while back, though - do you really not remember?" While he may not have known exactly what to expect in going through the portal, it wasn't this, a Quorra who didn't even know what had happened, but if this was how it was going to be, then he was going to have a lot to catch her up on.
Quorra had spent many cycles with Kevin Flynn, learning about the ways of the people on this side of the grid, and still more time on this island observing them in what she assumed was their natural habitat. She couldn't make much sense of a lot of it, but it seemed to be the natural progression for her to give Sam a slightly awkward pat on the back before letting him go.
"I really don't remember. I'm sorry I wasn't able to protect you better. I shouldn't even have sent you there in the first place."
"It worked out," Sam assured her, shaking his head to dismiss any concern. What happened at the End of Line club had been the last thing on his mind up to now, everything that had happened since taking precedence. In a way, it had been a blessing in disguise, getting his father out of hiding and the three of them on their way, though it was hard to say quite how he felt about all of that. They'd gotten out - his father had wanted it that way - but he still had yet to fully process the events of what was only a few minutes before. "My dad fixed your arm, and... We made it to the portal."
"And then the Flynns went home to change the world?"
Quorra wasn't sure she'd been intended to go with them, or if she even could go through the portal at all, but getting Sam and Kevin back in the land of the Users had been the most logical plan. She would have missed them, if she'd stayed in the grid alone, but they didn't really belong in the same places.
In the years since his father's disappearance, Sam hadn't let himself spend a lot of time wishing that he would come back, or that things had been different. Now, though, if only for a split second, he did. His father was gone now, really and truly, and while there was relief in the closure he'd managed to get, it was hardly the ideal outcome. He swallowed, head ducking for a moment before he looked up at Quorra again, corners of his mouth lowering slightly.
"We went to change the world," he said, just a little quieter. He may not have known how that all had worked, what would have become of Quorra at all, but it was the simplest way of putting it with her standing in front of him now. "CLU met us there. My dad stayed so we could get out, and reintegrated him."
"No!" Quorra gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. She understood, intellectually, what Kevin must have done, sacrificing himself for his son and, apparently, for her. She just couldn't imagine him not existing in any world at all.
"He must have had a good reason to let that happen," she said after taking a moment to allow her brain to process this new data. "I don't understand, but I wasn't there. Maybe it would make more sense if I had been."
"To stop CLU from getting out with us," Sam confirmed, nodding, expression as even as he could make it. Therein lay the real difference, between this and his childhood. There was a good reason, one that he was aware of, had gotten to see firsthand as the decision was made, rather than his father just riding off into the night and never returning. This was a hell of a lot more permanent, a concept that still struck him as oddly surreal, and not much easier for it, but better, in that sense.
"So... how does that work, anyway?" he asked, not so much to change the subject as it was because he couldn't put it off any longer, curiosity impossible to keep at bay. "You not being there."
"I haven't really found an acceptably thorough explanation for that yet," Quorra admitted. "I've asked a lot of people, some who have been here for a long time, and none of them really know for sure. Somehow, I was there with you at the same time I was here without you."
She knew her explanation was incomplete, but it was the best she had.
"It's really weird here. When I got here, there was snow. It's been sunny for months now, though. Nobody measures time in cycles, either, and nobody has an identity disc."
Quorra still carried hers in an easily accessible shoulder bag, unwilling to give up that part of her even if it didn't work.
"And where is here?" Sam asked, eyebrows raising. Parts of that, he could make sense of - the sun, time not being measured in cycles, lack of identity discs - but for the most part, it was still just as confusing as when he'd stepped outside the arcade door to find himself somewhere he wasn't supposed to be. "No, no, how did I get here? Because this isn't anything close to where I was supposed to be."
Where she was probably supposed to be, too, but trying to reconcile that with her standing here now was proving too much when he had so much else on his mind. Best to start with the big things, the broad things.
"I don't really know for sure. It's not my world at all, and it's not very much like any place I've ever read about. The island part makes sense, but the fact that nobody can leave on purpose seems strange."
Quorra was still reeling a bit from the knowledge of what had happened to the elder Flynn. She wondered if maybe she could have stopped it, saved him, if she had been there, even though from what Sam said she had been there, even though she didn't remember it at all.
No wonder so many people who lived here made so little sense when they tried to explain the place.
"Yeah," Sam said, "I know." He wasn't surprised by that much, either. In a way, it made everything fit together: what Quorra had told him about his father teaching her about the art of the selfless, what he had said about giving up wants and hopes. Even here and now, with everything so surreal, it gave a strange weight to it all. He wants this, Quorra - the other Quorra, he guessed, if that made sense at all - had said, and now, he believed it. It wasn't like being left behind, not really. If he was honest, the most difficult part was reconciling it with the last twenty years.
That, and everything else she was telling him. First, though, he kept to what he knew to be true, the explanation that he, in turn, owed her. "He told me. Well, you told me, but I found out about you being an Iso first, when he fixed your arm
( ... )
Until she turned the corner of the compound and there one was.
"Sam Flynn?" she asked, partly afraid it wasn't really him, only a clone giving her false hope.
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Maybe he was hallucinating (because that, of course, would be the perfect end to all of this). It seemed unlikely, though. He hoped he wasn't, anyway. He was pretty sure going crazy just after deciding that he wanted to take back his father's company would not have been the best start, and the ENCOM board members were going to have trouble enough with this as it was.
"Hey, Quorra," he said slowly, visibly confused, brows furrowing with it. "That hard to recognize me already?"
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She supposed she should be glad he was able to recognize her at all, in the un-lit clothing favored by the island natives which was, though boring in her opinion, definitely more comfortable in the heat.
She reached out a hand to make sure he wasn't some kind of a hologram or illusion, and was relieved to feel that his arm, at least, was solid when she poked it.
"You're not dead?"
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It was kind of nice.
Glancing down at where she'd poked his arm, one corner of his mouth quirking up slightly, he then looked at her curiously, as if studying her could provide any clarity to this. Things had been weird for a while now, non-stop since he'd made it to the Grid, but this was something else entirely. "Quorra, where are we?" he asked. "And why would I be dead?"
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Mostly, she had come to believe that was a good thing, with no CLU derezzing anyone for his own amusement, but it was still a weird thing.
"The last thing that happened to me before I was here was a fight in the End of Line Club. I lost my arm, but I had it back when I woke up, so I assumed Kevin Flynn had at least made it out of there in order to fix me, but I didn't know about you."
In a surprising (even to herself) burst of emotion, Quorra flung her arms around him in a very User-like way.
"I'm glad you didn't die, Sam Flynn."
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Weird as this was, he'd been on her side of this equation before. He could wait a few minutes more.
"I'm glad I didn't die, too. That was a while back, though - do you really not remember?" While he may not have known exactly what to expect in going through the portal, it wasn't this, a Quorra who didn't even know what had happened, but if this was how it was going to be, then he was going to have a lot to catch her up on.
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"I really don't remember. I'm sorry I wasn't able to protect you better. I shouldn't even have sent you there in the first place."
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Quorra wasn't sure she'd been intended to go with them, or if she even could go through the portal at all, but getting Sam and Kevin back in the land of the Users had been the most logical plan. She would have missed them, if she'd stayed in the grid alone, but they didn't really belong in the same places.
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"We went to change the world," he said, just a little quieter. He may not have known how that all had worked, what would have become of Quorra at all, but it was the simplest way of putting it with her standing in front of him now. "CLU met us there. My dad stayed so we could get out, and reintegrated him."
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"He must have had a good reason to let that happen," she said after taking a moment to allow her brain to process this new data. "I don't understand, but I wasn't there. Maybe it would make more sense if I had been."
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"So... how does that work, anyway?" he asked, not so much to change the subject as it was because he couldn't put it off any longer, curiosity impossible to keep at bay. "You not being there."
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She knew her explanation was incomplete, but it was the best she had.
"It's really weird here. When I got here, there was snow. It's been sunny for months now, though. Nobody measures time in cycles, either, and nobody has an identity disc."
Quorra still carried hers in an easily accessible shoulder bag, unwilling to give up that part of her even if it didn't work.
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Where she was probably supposed to be, too, but trying to reconcile that with her standing here now was proving too much when he had so much else on his mind. Best to start with the big things, the broad things.
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Quorra was still reeling a bit from the knowledge of what had happened to the elder Flynn. She wondered if maybe she could have stopped it, saved him, if she had been there, even though from what Sam said she had been there, even though she didn't remember it at all.
No wonder so many people who lived here made so little sense when they tried to explain the place.
"I owe him my life twice, you know."
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That, and everything else she was telling him. First, though, he kept to what he knew to be true, the explanation that he, in turn, owed her. "He told me. Well, you told me, but I found out about you being an Iso first, when he fixed your arm ( ... )
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