Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1: Prologue

“Save some Vex for me my friend! I’m trapped not dead!” the Guardian heard through his comm system. As encouraging as it was to be cheer led by a legend, one who was thought to be dead, he knew that belief would soon become a harsh reality if he failed to stave off the copper-colored drones. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Agioktis, The Martyr Mind diverting its remaining arc energy into regenerating its armor behind an impenetrable barrier.

The fight between the two of them had been going on for some time, long enough for both of them to look as though they had gone twelve rounds in the corrosive lakes of Venus and it was beginning to take its toll, especially on the great Vex machine. Having been built with the sole purpose to trap and kill one guardian had been draining enough, but having to maintain the force field and simultaneously fight one of the most powerful Titans currently active in the Sol system had decidedly put Agioktis on the backs of its feet.

“Ghost, can you give me a readout on Martyr Mind’s health?” the Guardian asked with a hint of urgency in his voice after diving for cover behind the nearest hardened radiolarian structure. He wanted nothing more than to end this fight before that machine found a way to restore itself.

“Checking,” his Ghost replied, “Reading numerous system failures. Seems like you managed to damage its regeneration circuitry.” The guardian sighed; this was it. He was glad that the Vex were not more creative when designing their Minds, giving them many of the same weaknesses as their rank and file forces. Out of nowhere a large blast of void energy slammed into the pillar like structure above them, vaporizing the debris in a spectacular purple mist. Peering around the corner, the Guardian saw his key to finishing this once and for all. Standing on the adjacent tower was a massive Vex Minotaur, gun aimed at the lower half of Guardian’s pillar and charging up to fire another shot. Thinking quickly, the Guardian sprinted out of the way just as the bottom half of what was once his cover was engulfed in a purple flame.

“I hope you have some sort of plan for dealing with that,” Ghost chided nervously.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” the Guardian retorted, “besides, when do I ever not have a plan?”

“Head butting does not count!” If Ghost had eyes, he imaged them rolling in the most dramatic way possible.

“Really, well when this is all over you can go tell that to Saint, personally,” the Guardian chuckled, “I would love to hear how that conversation would go.” Another near miss by the Minotaur brought the conversation back to relevancy. “Do you have any ideas, Saint’s prison guard here is getting on my nerves more than that Mad Warden in the Prison of Elders!”

“A Vex that big must rely on some sort of extra-large power source to feed it--” Ghost replied before being cut off.

“And if that’s the case” the Guardian took a short pause, “it should have some sort of means of regulating and storing the energy, like a large capacitor!” Looking over his right shoulder he saw the Minotaur teleport up to a ledge overlooking the arena like battlefield. The added distance made the two’s inevitable encounter a bit trickier, at least with his currently equipped conventional weapons. Go Figure was a kinetic pulse rifle which while accurate and generally effective against the standard grunts he faced, it didn’t stand a chance at that range and against the Minotaur’s personal shields. His other options were Riskrunner and Hammerhead, the former being an SMG which was completely useless at that far of a range. Hammerhead could potentially be useful especially as its energy signature matched that of the Minotaur’s shields and could be used to take them down before shredding it to pieces. Looking back to the shield wall Agioktis was cowering behind. A grin appeared on the Guardian’s face.

“I can’t read your thoughts, but I sense a Titan plan coming.” Ghost sarcastically called out. The Guardian said nothing, instead charging in the direction of the Minotaur, quickly closing the distance. Channeling his light into his muscles, he jumped onto the nearest pillar, proceeding to parkour from that one to another, narrowly missing the seemingly desperate shots of the Minotaurs main weapon. Now facing his target, the Guardian pulled out Hammerhead quickly fired an array of shots at the cylindrical purple shield encompassing his Vex opponent. Within second a violet burst shattered the barrier knocking the Minotaur back a few feet and disorienting it. Now was his chance, the Guardian had only a matter of seconds before the Vex’s shields came back up and there was still around 70 feet to cover. Blue arc energy began to crackle around the Guardian, beginning at his fists and rapidly spreading over the rest of his armor morphing into a solid blue glow of electrical buildup. Within a second the Guardian exploded off the pillar he had been planted on, cracking it upon liftoff, and was flying through the air at an incredible speed.

Even Saint-14, still entangled in the Martyr Mind’s vex trap let out a whistle at the impressive display of light from the Guardian. It was not long before the show was over as the Guardian slammed into the Minotaur disintegrating its frame. However, an orb of super charged energy remained, presumably the capacitor, fell out and rolled to the foot of the Guardian. The orb was so densely packed with energy that it became solid albeit highly unstable. The Guardian picked it up and immediately winced in pain, feeling the effects of the runoff energy dissipating from the sphere. “Now where to put this?” he managed to choke out.

“Scanning,” Ghost replied, “there appears to be some sort of power conduit located to the far left Martyr Mind’s shield wall. I’ll mark it on your HUD.” Jumping down the wall, tanking a few shots along the way from half destroyed Vex Goblins that were running like headless chickens across the battlefield, the Guardian carefully made his way to the drop off zone, the power orb greatly affecting his running speed. The platform he was now on gently glowed as he approached as if drawn to the power in his hand.

“You want this?” He said under his breath to no one in particular, “Here it comes!” He then slammed the orb into the ground with as much force as he could muster where it shattered, the energy initially exploding outwards before be absorbed by the platform. Immediately, Agioktis’ wall dropped revealing the sparking and nearly completely deformed Vex mind.

Realizing it would probably fail its directive if this guardian was left free on the battlefield much longer, the Martyr Mind reasoned that trapping him the same way Saint was would give him a chance to change the outcome of the current course of events. While it couldn’t drain him of his light as it could Saint-14's, disabling him would temporarily give the Vex Mind a chance to take down both opponents. The only unknown variable is how fast a guardian could regain its connection to the light after being drained as the only thing keeping Saint-14 at bay was the specially designed prison. Opting to taker its chances, it slammed Mercury’s ground causing a white light to engulf the Guardian.

When the light cleared, the Guardian found himself floating in Saint-14's cage. While he still had his light, there wasn’t much he could do to break free. “This must be how Cayde felt during that time of Nessus,” the Guardian thought to himself. The cage’s power source was Mercury itself and he was not sure if a Guardian could even break free. Not that he was given time to figure it out. Quickly approaching was the massive frame of Agioktis, its damage appearing worse than before, although it showed no less determined to fulfill its programming. While shaking, the Mind slowly raised its gun at the now trapped Guardian.

“Well, this is it!” Ghost sighed. If he had a heart, he imagined that now would be the time that he would be experiencing that sinking feeling of sadness and disappointment.

Suddenly over the clanking and grinding of Martyr Mind’s destroyed and warped joints, a battle cry could be heard, “I can feel the light in my bones!”

The Guardian looked at the ledge directly behind the Vex Mind and saw Saint-14 climb up and activate his Sentinel Shield. “Martyr Mind! Time to die!” Saint-14 yelled as he long jumped off the ledge and slammed his shield into the back of the Vex, taking it down as it made a loud final groan.

The cage holding the Guardian then disappeared around him, dropping him to the dusty grounds of Mercury. He looked out over Mercury’s bleak horizon. It had been a long time since he had been to a simulation where the Vex managed to snuff out the sun, turning it from a fiery orange to a cool, lifeless blue. The sands covering Mercury reflecting the change in the sun’s color. The Guardian sighed, he was glad that this future was just a simulation in the Infinite Forest and that outside its’ gates the sun still burned strong. He turned around when he heard Saint-14's footsteps approaching from behind him.

“It's been a long time my friend. I’ve chased your memory for centuries,” Saint said. Brushing the dirt off his hands he continued, “You should go now. Those who could kill me are dead. You’ve made sure of that.”

“And what if the Vex take your light again?” Ghost asked curiously, not entirely convinced that the threat on Saint-14's life was over.

Shaking his head Saint responded, “Impossible. It cost them everything to build the Martyr Mind. When you crushed it, they were doomed.”

“You want us to leave you? You’ll be stuck here for years.” Ghost continued to query.

As he said that, Vex transmat signatures began to appear on the ridge behind Saint. “You’ve both done plenty,” he replied. “Just open the Infinite Forest gate for me. I’ll meet you the long way around, at the entrance.” Saint began to walk away as more Vex appeared in what was just a few moments earlier a completely deserted arena. With his back turned to the Guardian he shouted, “What’s a few more years of fighting Vex?”

With the nod the Guardian used Osiris’ artifact to reopen the gateway to the Corridors of Time. Stepping through and closing the gate behind him he was met with Corridor’s markedly white expanse say for the monochromatic path in front of him. While he was confident that Saint could handle the remaining Vex grunts on his end of the portal, there was still some anxiety clinging to the back of his mind about the situation. The Infinite Forest was massive, if not infinite, and it could have redundancies that even Osiris, who had spent years with his hundreds of echoes exploring it with great scrutiny may be unaware of. It wouldn’t be the first time that an old Vex Mind managed to find a way of reappearing and seizing control of the forest. The Root Mind, Dendron has been a consistent challenge, reappearing, again and again, to try to take over the power vacuum left by Panoptes’ destruction.

But that was the past, right now there were greater threats regarding the Infinite Forest and the Corridors of Time. While rescuing Saint-14 had become a primary objective for the Guardian, the actual reason for coming into the Corridors of Time remain. The Cabal discovered Osiris’ Sundial Prototype; the mechanism needed to get into the Vex time stream on Mercury. Ever since the Red War they had been trying to find ways of changing the course of events whether it had been to manipulate the Warmind on Mars, or go back into the past and destroy humanity before it encountered The Traveler.

The Guardian paused and looked around, he was so lost in thought he hadn’t even realized that he had exited the first corridor and had made into a large circular room with multiple pathways. The one marking the way out was currently lit up and he began to make his way towards it, this time with a little more haste in his step. Just as he reached the triangular doorway there was a loud rumbling that echoed through the normally static sounding corridors. It was followed by an odd high-pitched chant.

“You hear that?” The Guardian asked his Ghost.

“Cross-referencing with my known sound archive. That sounds like a Psion. Why would we be hearing a--” he cut himself off. “Run!”

The farthest most walls and floor of the room the Guardian was standing in began to disintegrate, increasing with speed as it approached his position. Instinctively, he turned and ran through the doorway into another corridor. Echoing throughout the white void another voice could be heard. This one was different. It was similar to the female AI voices at the tower.

“Simulation seed, G-9-R-5-I-4-D-3 selected. Applying to sundial matrix. Prepare for time stream reformatting. Full corridor Deresolution in...10...”

The corridor pathway behind the Guardian began to disappear, catching up to him even at full sprint.

“8...” The doorway was in sight. Was it the one needed to get out of the Sundial? Neither the Guardian nor his Ghost knew the answer to that, however, compared to what was happening behind them they were willing to take that risk.

“6...” Finally making it to the door, the Guardian ran through just as the pathway completely vanished behind him. Looking across the circular room he was now in, he saw another doorway light up. Still running, he began to make his way to it until he suddenly stopped watching it vanish alongside all the other doorways in that room.

“5...”

“Great,” he muttered to himself, “about to get deleted from all of time.

Standing in the center of the room as the floor continued to dissolve around him, he curiously peered over what remained. To his shock what he saw was not a white expanse, but a massive dark blue portal. Looking closer, being careful not to touch the edges of floor in case it erased him instantly, he saw what appeared to be city of some kind.

“3...” Realizing that he didn’t have much time left either way he made a decision.

“Ghost, I need you to transmat into my helmet.” He ordered. The Ghost trusting his Guardian’s judgement did as he was told.

“2..."

“And now!” The Guardian yelled as he sprinted towards the end of the floor, jumping just before he touched its edge. “Hang on!”

“Hang on with what? I think your forgetting I don’t have any hands.” Replied his Ghost, nervousness clearly embedded in his voice.

“Of course he has to make a snarky response during a time like this,” Guardian thought., suppressing the urge to roll his eyes.

“1...” As they fell, the Guardian looked once more at the portal, noting its much-decreased size from what it was. More importantly, a concern arose that they would not make it in time. He quickly turned over and straightened his body out, accelerating their fall towards it.

“Timeline deresolution complete,” the voice calmly said.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2: The Crash

Falling backside first towards the portal, The Guardian looked up just in time to see the last of the room he had been in vanish. Any thoughts of the consequences of what that meant were suddenly disrupted as his back slammed into the portal. Hard was not what he was expecting the opening to feel like. Pain shot through his body as he drifted in and out of consciousness while he fell through the dark blue sky. At one point while he was facing the ground he noticed, the ground, specifically its rapid approach. Using whatever light energy he could muster, the Titan tried to slow his decent in a futile attempt to minimize the damage from his impact, which at his current speed was all but inevitable. Seconds later he slammed into the ground back first. Staring up at the sky as he saw the portal finally close with little fanfare. His vision went black as he fell unconscious.

_______________________________________

Lying on top of her bed, Paige stared up at the ceiling. The past twenty cycles had begun to take a heavy toll on her, both physically and emotionally. The threat of an uprising in Argon had been quelled, CLU’s arrival had seen to that. The Renegade, the program who had given her so much trouble since Tesler’s arrival to the city had finally been apprehended by a unit of Black Guards and an unknown program in a completely blacked out suit save for a few orange edge-lights and a dominant T symbol marking the center chest. They had tracked him fleeing an Occupation refueling depot after sabotaging one of the tower’s regulation systems, causing it to explode. She remembered seeing almost visual excitement overcome CLU’s normally carefree demeanor when the program dragged The Renegade into throne room. However, his interest clearly did not lie with the unconscious body now crumpled on the floor, but with the unknown masked program who had entered with it. After taking a few moments too look over the mysterious program, CLU’s attention was finally brought back to the perpetrator of this whole mess.

It was then that his identity was finally revealed. It was Beck, the mechanic from the train to Bismuth, the one she had gone on several dates with. Upon this discovery she used all of her training’s discipline not to visibly show any anger or betrayal in the presence of her superior officers, or Pavel who she recalled was grinning upon this revelation, no doubt because he remembered seeing the two of them together when he came to arrest her during their snooker date. She grimaced to herself, although not sure if came from the regret that she grew attached to Beck who seemed to have no issues lying to her, or the feeling that Pavel would probably try to find a way of using this against her in the future.

She sat up and stared out of her window over Argon, taking in its skyline from the perch of the command ship. Paige squinted her eyes a bit to focus on the city, not to take in its beauty, but as if she were looking for something. She sighed, maybe The Renegade er, Beck had rubbed off onto her a bit. While her loyalty was still to the Occupation, CLU’s use of force took her by surprise, damaging the image she had held of his character irreparably. Where she saw Tesler as an honorable, albeit sometimes brutal leader, his character had been built from his time fighting the treacherous ISOs he had saved her from, she never thought of him as cruel.

“Pavel was cruel,” Paige thought to herself. She knew what he had done to those prisoners while experimenting with the upgrade disk that night. She felt herself suddenly scowl, the same night she and Beck had gone sky diving together.

Users! Why does everything have to be so interconnected?

She still felt betrayed. Had Beck just been using her the whole time, pretending to like her in case she let some vital information slip. Had he betrayed her when she had her memory altered simply so that he would have leverage to turn her against the Occupation? She shook her head in a vain attempt to get rid of those thoughts. After Beck had been revealed as the Renegade, CLU had also shown his true colors. He wasn’t the compassionate, peace seeking perfectionist that she imagined. After ordering the unknown program away, he had requested that Dyson prepare him for his public debut. A cycle later when she next saw him, he had been completely mutilated. Scars now ran across his entire body from the bottom of his calf through his left eye, glowing a soft teal glow as the occasional cube fell off. It was clear that this damage had been done by hand and not through struggle or combat. The scene made her medical program boil to the surface– Renegade or not, this was horrific and cruel.

Thinking back to that moment made her feel sick. Had Beck been right about the Occupation and its goals? She remembered defending CLU as she felt her values aligned with his perfectly, but now, that mirage had dissipated leaving only that memory in the forefront of her mind.

 Those traitorous questions did not matter now though. After being dragged to the center of Argon Square with his wounds visible for all to look at, the spark of the uprising dissipated quickly. The revolution’s symbol of hope had been defeated by CLU, and fear of a similar fate quelled any remaining stubborn followers from speaking up let alone gather citywide support. It was over. The last time she saw Beck, he was being escorted onto CLU’s command ship headed back to Tron City, probably to be thrown into the games where he would most certainly be derezzed.

Good riddance!

Her recollective thoughts were suddenly jarred away by an odd flash of light over the city followed by the appearance of an indescribable object. She couldn’t make out what it was exactly from her perspective, but it was triangular in shape and bright white. Moments later there was what looked like minor explosion directly beneath it followed by the triangular object’s immediate disappearance. “What in Flynn’s name was that?” Paige muttered quietly.    

Before she could even begin to come up with any blind guesses her quarter’s intercom system blared to life. “Commander Paige, report to the throne room!” Tesler bellowed, the grumbling in his voice still managing to make it through the small speaker. Knowing it was best to not keep her Commanding Officer waiting, she shot up from her bed and made her way to the door. Before leaving she stopped and briefly turned around to take one more look out over the city where the mysterious object had been sighted, but saw nothing.

“Maybe Tesler has some idea as to what that was,” she thought to herself before continuing the trek to the General’s location.

When she arrived, she saw Pavel was already standing beside Tesler looking out over Argon. She started towards the General’s left opposite of her colleague, but abruptly stopped when he put his hand up. Without turning away from the window, he spoke first. “As I’m sure you noticed, there has been a disturbance in sector 112,” he spoke with only a hint urgency in his voice. “I want you to investigate the area, gather whatever intelligence you can. If you are given the opportunity to find who caused this then so be it, but,” he paused, “keep this incident quiet using whatever means you can.”

Paige nodded. “Yes sir!” she said. He was hiding something. Of course, she didn’t know exactly what he was thinking, but Paige had known her mentor long enough to know when he was not being entirely truthful.

“Good!” his normal composure returning to his stature. “You’re dismissed!”

She turned and walked out, the doors of the throne room snapping shut behind her. This situation was beginning to put her on edge. There was an increasing number of unanswered questions, a number she figured wasn’t going to diminish anytime soon. Ever since she had arrived in Argon, there had been constant action, not that she minded. She certainly was not bored, however an uneventful cycle or two would not have hurt. She walked towards the ship’s exit ramp and pulled out her baton, cracking it open to rez her orange light cycle.

“Well,” she thought to herself, “here we go,” before racing down the ramp towards section 112.

_______________________________________

The Guardian’s eyes suddenly shot open. While jarring, it was not a feeling that was entirely unknown to him.

“Eyes up Guardian” his Ghost yelled as he flew back a few feet to give room for the light bearer to get up.

Through he was still a bit groggy, he took a brief glance around the crash site. Apart from the small crater he had just gotten up from, he was surprised to see how intact everything was. Turning towards his Ghost he asked, “How long was I down for?”

“Only a minute or two. I had to make sure the area was clear of any observers. I think it would be best if we limited any obvious use of the light for a while and try to lay low until we can figure out where we are, and how we got here.” his Ghost replied.

Hearing that last suggestion from his Ghost made the Guardian pause. Now that he finally had a clearer head he noticed more of the specific details in his surroundings. Everything was made of very flat textures, usually of a single consistent color, mostly black, with bright lines of light running along the edges. This design language was present not just on the streets, but the buildings as well. Looking back at the crater he had made during his fall, he noticed that there wasn’t so much a dent formed by the impact as there was a mess of cubes which must have been displaced from his landing area. He couldn’t help picking one of the cubes up out of curiosity. “Fascinating,” he muttered to himself, examining it.

Ghost, interrupting his train of thought interjected himself into the silence. “Hey, so as much as I want to stay and marvel over how impressive your landing was, this area is going to be a hotspot to whatever security forces this place has very soon.”

The Guardian rolled his eyes but was forced to agree. He could hear voices nearby, and the last thing he wanted was to get into a conversation with one the locals while having no intel on the area. He saw a nearby alleyway and began to make his way down it, making sure to stay in the shadows as much as possible. He stopped; voices could be heard up ahead. Sliding up against the wall, he slowly pushed forward to end of the alley. As he approached the end, he could begin to make out what the voices saying. Listening, he leaned closer, being careful not to slip into their field of view.

“How long are we supposed to guard this area?” one of them asked.

“General Tesler said that Commander Paige would be here shortly, I assume that is when we will be dismissed,” replied the other guard.

“What do you think it is? You saw it happen right, it looked like the sky just opened up,” the first guard said.

“Trust me, it’s probably best that you don’t know,” the Guardian thought to himself.

“Relax, it’s probably just one of The Renegade’s few remaining zealots trying to relive past glory,” he paused turning to his friend, “you don’t think it’s the actually the Renegade do you?”

“The Renegade is dead,” replied a new female voice, “he was captured and shipped off to Tron City.”

“Do you know what this is all about then?” one of the guards asked.

“That is above your pay grade sentry!” she snapped coldly. “You two are dismissed.”

“Yes Commander!” they both replied simultaneously.

Seeing as the two guards were about to pass by, the Guardian ducked into a corner. He watched quietly as they walked past, taking note of how well their uniforms matched the environment around them, an overall black suit with bright red accent lines running across their bodies like circuitry.

“She sounds like a bundle of fun. Who was that?” Ghost asked rhetorically.

“Trouble,” he frowned, “especially if we don’t clear the area soon.”

“Agreed,” was all Ghost quietly replied. He did a quick scan through the wall to see if the female soldier was still present. Internally he sighed after finding she had left to search elsewhere.

“Hey Ghost,” The Guardian whispered, “if our goal is to be more inconspicuous perhaps, we should also change our attire a bit to blend in more.” As he said that he gestured to his currently bright white colored armor courtesy of the Monochromatic shader which highlighted his chest piece’s flaming core.

“On it!” Ghost chirped, hovering for a moment while he scoured his data files in search for a suitable shader. “Alright, I think I’ve got something that fits the bill. What do you think?”

After a few moments Ghost responded, “I think I’ve got something that could work.” A render of the armor was thrown up onto the Guardian’s HUD. The clean white replaced by a light absorbing dull black.

“That’s much more discreet,” he looked down at his glowing Hallowfire Heart chest piece and frowned. “Is it possible to do anything about this?”

“Possibly,” Ghost replied, “give me a second.” Ghost scanned the armor section before turning back. “Alright, I think I’ve got it. It will activate once I apply the changes to your armor. However, these alterations aren’t exactly stable, so it is only a temporary fix. If you use your super, any super, it will reset the armor back to its default light channeling state and the flames will re-appear.”

“Are you implying that I should cut myself off from the light?” the Guardian asked, recalling how that felt during the red war.

“Not fully at least. As I said before, no supers or any other massive light discharges.”

“Ghost,” he said looking up at the floating ball, “if find myself in a position where I need to use a super at all, staying under cover probably isn’t a top priority.”

“Or until you get tired of not solving every problem with your fist” Ghost snarked.

The Guardian ignored the jab. “More importantly, does it affect my use of minor abilities or my capability to change subclasses since I’ll be using those more?”

“Changing light subclasses usually requires a complete discharge of the current energy type before the new one regenerates, so I would submit that you should avoid doing that. My armor modifications shouldn’t be affected by your minor abilities though, however, they might be a bit more,” Ghost paused, “unstable.”

“Unstable?” The Guardian raised an eyebrow.

 “You may not have control over how powerful the discharge of your abilities will be,” Ghost explained.

“I see, I’ll try to keep that in mind,” he frowned contemplating the problematic implications of such a limitation

“Guess I’ll be keeping to the basics for a while,” the Titan sighed.

“Well, let’s get this over with and see if we can find some sort of terminal so we can start getting some answers, preferably before that peevish lady gets back,” Ghost separated his shell into its separate pieces, rotating them around his central piece before pulling them together in a brief flash of light. The armor carried all black aesthetic displayed previously displayed on the HUD, only now it also had a persistent orange glow coating the entire body of the Guardian as well.

“Ghost!” the Guardian exclaimed when he noticed the unwanted changes.

“I told you this modification was delicate,” Ghost replied, “Don’t worry, I’ll fix—wait, I’m detecting movement behind us. We can deal with this later; we need to move, now!” The Guardian, and his now vanished ghost, quickly exited the alley, moving away from their possible pursuer and into the narrow streets of Argon.

_______________________________________

After sending the guards off, Paige now found herself alone to explore the scene. Thinking back to her interaction with the two programs, she was quite proud of the way she convinced them into thinking that she had more information about the incident. Users, she had almost convinced herself, even if she knew exactly as much as they did. She began to walk towards ground zero of the disturbance but decided that an outer perimeter scan would be a more prudent first step in case she could spot any suspicious activity nearby. Climbing up the nearest building she looked out. Despite the clear view of the streets her position gave her, she didn’t see a lot. In fact, the area around the crash site was void of activity, no light cycles, no open shops, no civilian programs out and about–nothing. She frowned, while this wasn’t a sector neighboring Argon Square, it was not much further. Danger warnings went off in the back of her mind. Something seemed off and her trek to the top of the building had failed to clear anything up. She grunted in annoyance before climbing back down the side of the building facing ground zero.

The first thing she noticed after entering the zone was a small crater near the center. The only voxels she saw were scattered around and matched those from the crater. Her inner medic side took a deep breath. At least there were no casualties caused directly from whatever caused this.

Puzzled, Paige began to walk around the small surrounding area hoping to find something to guide her but eventually found nothing. “Flynn!” she cursed under her breath in frustration. Other than some minor scorch marks on the voxels lining the area around the crater, there wasn’t anything else there that pointed to an explosion that she could go on. Even the walls of the surrounding building were completely free from damage.

“Ok, so searching for physical evidence is not getting us anywhere,” she thought to herself, “at least since I’m not a true security program. Let’s try a different approach. This crater is tiny and has too small of a blast range to have been caused by an explosion. Even one of the standard grenades that the Black Guard’s carried would have been bigger. Besides, what kind of explosive causes the clouds to render abnormally.”

She looked to the sky above her to see if there was anything she could see. Of course, there was nothing there, but it gave her an idea.

What if whatever happened up there wasn’t triggered by anything down here. Maybe--

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted as she was briefly blinded by an incredibly bright flash of light originating in the alley to her right, temporarily disabling her visual circuits. After taking a moment to recover she looked in the offending direction. “Got you!” she said with a smirk.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3: The Enemy

Paige sprinted down the alley to where the flash had originated only to find it completely empty. “Users!” she huffed as she caught her breath. Frustrated, she exited the alley near where the two sentries had been stationed earlier.

“If only she hadn’t dismissed them,” Paige gave an exasperated sigh.

She scanned the street, looking for something, anything that appeared out of place, besides the street being eerily quiet that is. She didn’t see anything at first, just the static cold-blue glow of the surrounding buildings. She was about to give up on coming up with a proper search strategy and just start wandering until she found something of interest when the reflection of a soft red-orange glow, not unlike that of an Occupation soldier dimly reflecting onto the sides of one of the buildings caught her eye before disappearing into another alley.

‘If she was lucky and this was indeed a lead, perhaps some of her questions might be answered.’ Paige thought to herself. ‘At worst, she would catch some Occupation soldier slacking on the job who would then be reassigned to the games for disciplinary action. No, that wasn’t the worst case, that would be her getting derezzed by this unknown she was chasing after.’

She shook to her head to rid herself of the thought. Her concerns were irrelevant, she had to get to the bottom of this. Tesler wanted this dealt with quickly and quietly and that was exactly what she was going to do. Quickly deciding that getting an aerial view of her prey might be beneficial before going in disk spinning, in addition to not getting spotted herself by this unknown, Paige sprinted as quickly as she could up a nearby building’s fire escape.

Crouching down, she peered over the ledge of the roof granting her a clear view of her target. She couldn’t identify who it was or what their designation as program was, but they were not like anything she had seen. Their foreign, bulky armor was completely black, and while it radiated an orange hue similar to her own colors, the thing that puzzled her the most was the complete lack of any visible circuits across their frame. Sure, she had seen programs with almost entirely blacked out armor before. In fact, the mysterious program that had captured Beck stood out as the closest example of that she had seen, but she had never seen armor that glowed the way that this did.

Paige shivered. There were rumors that circulated throughout Occupation ranks of dangerous enforcer programs that answered only to CLU. “Could this be one of them? If so, what are they doing in Argon? If not--” She bit her lip, not wanting to think about the answer to that. She sighed, gathering herself. She heard Tesler’s orders, which meant confronting this unknown program was going to be necessary.

_______________________________________

“Any luck finding an access terminal?” The Guardian asked exiting another back alley.

“I’ve located something a level below us, approximately 40 meters up ahead,” his Ghost replied. So far, they had not run into anyone. In fact, come to think of it, had they seen a single life form since the two guards walked away? “For some reason this feels like a trap,” Ghost commented, “I’m getting the feeling that we’re being watched.”

The Guardian eyed his HUD’s radar. “I don’t doubt it given that I am currently glowing Bright Orange!”

His Ghost didn’t reply immediately, but he knew by his reticence that there was a response being suppressed which was probably for the better. “I see the terminal just up ahead,” the little ball of light dodged the comment.

Approaching the access panel, Ghost reappeared although still doing his best to keep out of sight. “And done! This is fascinating!” Ghost said excitedly after disappearing again. “We are apparently in a digital world called The Grid that was created by a human named Kevin Flynn. The residents of this place aren’t organic life forms at all but are Programs who are all coded for different tasks necessary for the operation of this system’s society!”

“Incredible.” was all the Guardian replied. Not out of lack of interest. While he did truly find this development fascinating, and worrisome, he was becoming anxious about staying in one spot for too long, especially given his Ghosts previous insight. “If this is an entire world, then where exactly are we?”

Before his Ghost could reply, a grinding noise, like the sounds of the tools in Holliday’s workshop in the tower make sprang to life behind him. “Argon,” a voice said behind him, “welcome to Argon.”

_______________________________________

Paige pointed her activated disk out in front of her, keeping some distance between herself and her target but not so far away that she wouldn’t be able to disable the program if he made any threatening motions. She looked him over, taking in the appearance of the strangely glowing armor. It was not all black as she had initially examined from a distance. There was odd patterning moving across the black surface as if the armor itself was radiating some form of energy. The joints themselves of the various armor sections had intricate patterns etched into them that were unfamiliar to the standard design of the grid.

Another feature Paige noticed was the stature of the program. While not quite as tall as Tesler, his frame was just as broad giving the illusion of being larger than he was. Her processor instinctively sent out danger warnings about the figure in front of her, warnings she did her best to ignore. “Program, identify yourself!” she ordered. The program’s head cocked to one side for a brief moment as if considering his options. He then slowly turned around. Paige’s eyes moved to see a symbol of what looked to be two hammers crossing over one another imprinted onto the center of his chest piece.

Her eyes wandered up a bit to the face of the program’s helmet. Again, it was unlike anything she had seen before. “What a surprise,” she thought to herself. Even she was wearing her mask, she could feel a penetrating stare planted on her from this program.

“Last chance, who--” she cut herself off from repeating the question when she noticed this program did not have a disk. She lowered her disk, not deactivating it, but taking it out of the offensive posture she had been keeping it in.

A stray? Paige pondered to herself. That would explain why they didn’t know where they were and why they were talking to someone who isn’t there. They probably also had no idea who they were either which made everything more complicated. She frowned upon seeing the program turn away from her. Did he just decide that I am not a threat? Fine then, she changed tactics.

“Hey,” she tried to sound less threatening, “I need you to come with me. I can help you.” She cringed to herself when she said that. Sure, the program would be given a fresh identity disk, a clean slate, but that came along with a stint at the games which usually meant a quick deresolution for the newly reset programs. She fought past the thought.

No--strays pose a threat to the perfect system and need to be handled with proper protocol. “I’m giving you one final chance. Come with me now, or I will derez you right here.” Paige said sternly as she raised her disk.

This tactic drew a reaction from the program, but not the one Paige was hoping for. She saw the program take a more defensive position, as if he were gearing up for a fight. Ok, she had to hand it to this program. Delusional or not, fighting her without a disk was a pretty gutsy move.

“Don’t worry,” she mumbled to herself, “I’ll make this quick” as she lunged towards him. Despite his defensive posture, her speed must have caught him off guard as she landed a kick directly in his chest, knocking him to the ground. She brought her disk arm back, getting ready to plunge it through the center of his frame. As she brought it forward towards him, she felt all her momentum cease. Looking over she saw that his left arm had grabbed her wrist holding it in place in a firm grip. She only had a second to try and break free before she too got a kick in chest sending her flying back into a pillar.

“Where did that come from,” she wondered to herself. The strength she felt from that kick was only something she had experienced once before, in the arena with Pavel. But he had possessed the upgrade disk, something that this program almost certainly did not. Recovering from her landing she saw that her opponent had gotten up from her knock down but was not pursuing. She stood up disk in hand.

“Alright so close range, not a good move with this guy. Let’s see how he handles this,” she thought throwing her disk in a wide arc. She watched intently as she saw it looped around him before aiming directly for his back. Her concentration on the disk was interrupted when she saw him beginning to run towards her, or maybe he was running from the disk? Just as she thought it was going to contact the back of his neck he dropped down into a slide, the bright orange projectile missing the top of his head by a thread. Just as she retrieved her disk, he threw a sparkling blue orb right at her feet. Before she could react, Paige found herself instantly blown back against the pillar again, excess energy running through her circuits, taking out her systems. Crumbling to the ground she looked up to see him standing over her before she finally blacked out.

_______________________________________

“You held back during that fight. Why didn’t you finish her?” Ghost asked.

“Why would I do that? I can’t have her following me granted, but that’s not a death sentence,” the Guardian replied.

“If you say so, just don’t be surprised when she makes another appearance. I doubt we’ve seen the last of her,” Ghost snarked.

“Let me remind you we’re not at war with anyone on the Grid. We are here however, whether by intention or by chance and we need to--” he was cut off by the sounds of engines flying overhead. The Guardian quickly ducked into the nearest shadowy area to avoid being spotted. “That engine sound,” he said in a puzzled voice, “I recognize it.” Peeking out from cover the Guardian growled.

“Are you still sure we aren’t at war with anyone on The Grid?” Ghost asked knowingly as heard his Guardian growled in response.

_______________________________________

Paige’s eyes slowly drifted open, the program was gone. “Users!” she cursed to herself. For not having a disk, this guy was highly skilled and unpredictable. She would have to be careful to not underestimate him if they met again. Looking around, she quickly realized that this was not the same place she had been disabled.

Paige quickly jumped to her feet in an offensive stance, but quickly calmed down when she realized that she had only been moved around a corner out of the open.

“Well at least I know he doesn’t hold a grudge,” she thought to herself as she noted his thoughtful gesture. “But, if you think that is going to save you from being brought in, think again.”

Going back to where they fought, she looked for ways out. Other than the direction they had come from originally there was only one direct path in and out of the lower courtyard. Following the path led back to the open streets of Argon leaving her with the split choice on where to go. Considering the situation, she figured if the program she was tracking was responsible for the mess by the crater, they would probably be doing their best to get as far from it as possible. As going right just looped back to the crash site, Paige went left.

Unlike before, there were civilian programs present, going about their cyclical routines. Paige tried to make eye contact with a few of them leading to a few glares back at her. While the Renegade had been dealt with and his uprising squashed cycles ago, many of the programs still felt bitter towards the Occupations presence. She felt a tinge of guilt alongside some nervousness, unsure if these citizens would become potential threats, but she maintained outward composure. She heard an engine roar above her, but just assumed it was just a recognizer out on regular patrol she didn’t bother looking up

Then she stopped. She had forgotten to check how much time had passed since her fight with that program. What if that recognizer was on the lookout for her? She quickly pulled out her disk and checked the memory files, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw it had been only a matter of micros.

He could not have gotten far in that amount of time at least, plus he doesn’t know the city. She still had the advantage, and she intended to use it.

Hearing the engines pass overhead again made her processor pause in confusion. Recognizer patrol patterns were usually made up of one standard sweep. They usually don’t double back unless, “Unless, they found something!”

“Maybe they found that program!” Paige hopefully concluded as she began to run, following the sounds of the nearby engine. She eventually got to a darkened street, similar to the one she first fought the Renegade on. It wasn’t narrow like an alley; in fact, it was relatively wide with lots of crevices to hide.

“Great,” she muttered to herself, expecting to get ambushed by the program or one of Argon’s many streets. Slowly making her way down the path, the roar of the airship resonating in the background, she decided to try a different approach to draw them out.

“Hey!” she shouted. “Look, I know your scared. You are missing your disk, all your memories, your identity, but I can help. All you have to do is come with me peacefully.” Paige’s shouting had gotten the attention of someone, but that someone was not the program she was after. Due to a mixture of her yelling and with the almost concussive background noise, she couldn’t hear the approach of multiple contacts from her six. “You’ll be given a new disk, the chance to begin again and start fresh. I mean sure, you will have to participate in the games but that’s--” she stopped when she heard a grunting noise come from behind her.

Rapidly spinning around, she was met with a line of very large entities, much bigger and taller than even Tesler closing in on her. They, just like the program from earlier were dressed in unfamiliar armor to what she was aware of, but unlike the stranger none of them were glowing even remotely. Panicking, she began to walk backwards towards the street’s other exit only to hear the stomping of what was another one of these things. She stopped as she realized she'd become completely surrounded.

“What do we do with this one,” one of the creatures asked their Commander in Ulurant.

“Kill her,” the lead soldier growled, “she isn’t cleared to know of our existence yet.”

 Paige took a deep breath, closing her eyes in preparation for her derezolution. Their weapons being readied penetrated her auditory circuits before being overpowered by the sound of a loud crash followed by a moan behind her. Instinctively turning around, she saw the motionless body of one of the unfamiliar soldiers laying on the ground. Standing above it was that program, glowing the same fiery orange color that he had been during their fight. He began to approach her, but she just stood out of awe, but also from a mixture of confusion and terror.

She didn’t even notice that he was now standing next to her, or that some of the unknown opponents had begun to run away. It was only when he sternly said, “Move!” that she snapped back to reality. She watched him crouch for a brief nano and form a large wall between them and those that remained. It was just in time too as projectiles from their weapons slammed into the barrier right after it had fully formed. “We need to go,” he said in a much calmer tone than she expected as a light cycle like object rezzed out of nowhere. He mounted it as the engines in the back roared to life. “Get on!” he yelled as Paige quickly got on the back. With a massive jolt they peeled out of the alley and sped off through the streets of Argon.

Paige had ridden many light cycles with a vast array of different modifications that changed how they operated. She even rode one of Zed’s prototype creations when he agreed to help the Occupation catch the Renegade all those cycles ago. But nothing prepared her for this. The vehicle she was currently riding ripped through Argon faster than any bike she had ever seen during her time on the grid and was probably by her assessment only matched by an Encom 786, a bike that was twice as big. She was amazed that something this small had an engine capable of maintaining such a speed without tearing itself apart. Looking down, she gasped when she saw the bike hovering over the road like a recognizer.

“What is this thing?” she asked herself as she filed it in her memory under the ever increasing ‘Questions to Get Answers for Later’ folder.

Her thoughts were interrupted when a blast from behind them caused the bike to suddenly swerve. Tightening her grip on the programs back piece to stabilize herself she turned her head around to see a ship she didn’t recognize.

“So that’s what was making all of that noise back there,” she realized aloud.

The ship had a narrow main hull section that formed a T when then branched out into two massive engines. Another blast drew her attention to the bottom of the ship where she saw a large cannon that was attached with what looked to be a relatively thin mounting mechanism. Without hesitation she drew her disk, noticing the program stiffen when she did so, recognizing his vulnerability. “Don’t worry,” she yelled in reassurance, “this isn’t for you!” Twisting back to the pursuing aircraft she threw her disk which cut straight through the pole holding cannon, dislodging it.

Hearing commotion behind him, the Guardian turned around just in time to see bottom weapon get completely dislodged and fall onto the road before exploding. “Nice aim!” he acknowledged as he saw her disk return to her hand before turning his attention back to the road. Unfortunately, the ship was still stubbornly pursuing them.

“Any ideas?” Paige asked sensing he probably knew more about these ships than he was letting on. “I don’t think my disk can do any serious damage to that thing’s hull.” 

He waited a moment before speaking. “See those silver cylinders sticking out of the sides of the ship?”

“Yeah? What about them?” Paige responded anxiously, wishing he would get to the point.

“Those ships have terrible cooling systems, and those parts are the only thing keeping the engines from overheating themselves. A direct hit should cause the engine to shut down.” He replied.

“And if it doesn’t?”

“Then,” he paused considering his next words, “we will cross that bridge when we get there.”

“Huh,” Paige frowned in confusion at the odd phrase.

“Just throw,” he sighed.

“Hmm,” was her only response before throwing her disk with as much power as she could muster towards her target. Her disk slammed into the side of the port engine, blowing the desired part clean off. As she caught her disk, she saw the engine begin to sputter, clearly getting hotter as it began to glow red and not long after, white.

Within a matter of nanos, she saw that engine’s output go dark before exploding sending white hot shrapnel in every direction. Facing forwards again, she ducked her head down as low as it could go in her current position for protection as she heard pieces fall to the ground around them. After another micro or so she felt the vehicle come to a stop. She looked up and noticed they were at the docks near one of the cargo loading areas. The program got off the bike first with her following right after. Paige spun around quickly when she heard what she could only describe as a gentle noise go off behind her only to see the vehicle they were just on simply vanish.

Turning back, she found the Guardian looking out over the Sea of Simulation. Cautiously, she walked up next to him, not sure what to expect. He spoke first.

“I surrender,” he said quietly.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4: Interrogation

“What?” she asked again, unsure if her audio circuits were bugging up from the chaos of this cycle. For all she knew he had just asked for her surrender.

“I surrender,” he said again. During their chase, Ghost had been skimming through the information he had pulled from the access terminal and info dropping his findings on the busy Guardian. Now that the situation had de-escalated, the Titan, with his basic understanding of the Grid, decided to play along with her previous demands. He continued, “You said that if I do, I will be given a new disk--”

“And sentenced to the games,” Paige interrupted and added for emphasis.

“I don’t recall you using the word “sentenced” in your sales pitch,” he said in a way that made Paige guess that he was smiling under his helmet. She stared at him, unsure how to proceed. Despite their recent cooperation, she still sensed that he was dangerous, and recent events had done nothing to dissuade that assessment. On top of that he was still a stray, or borderline one at the very least, which meant it was only a matter of time before he would become a walking glitch. She sighed, that was a fate she didn’t wish on even the worst of CLU’s enemies let alone one, who, if she was being honest with herself, had just gotten her out of a tight spot.

“Unless it was his fault in the first place,” she pondered briefly before shaking the thought. For a moment she just stared at the side of his helmet, wondering who was under that mask before her processor came out of its stupor. Paige pulled out an emergency tracking beacon but hesitated before activating it.

Noticing this, the unknown program spoke again. “Look,” he said, “I promise I am being genuine in my taking up your offer. If you don’t trust me I completely get it, especially after what you’ve just been through, I too would be hesitant to trust a complete stranger who just a short while ago threw you into a wall.” He took a brief pause and offered both of his hands to her. “Here, if it makes you feel more comfortable you can cuff me.”

Paige shook her head in silent reply before activating a signal beacon. “No, I don’t think that will be necessary.”

She surprised herself when she said that. “What are you doing,” she scolded herself, “He is your prisoner and a leading suspect of the cause of both that crater and the anomaly that appeared in the sky!” Despite her better judgement, she did not change her mind. There was something odd about this program, not necessarily anything bad, but still something she couldn’t quite put her finger on nonetheless and that bothered her.

Paige watched intently as he turned back to sea after she denied his offer to be light-cuffed. For someone on the verge of becoming a stray, he was very calm and collected about his present situation.

Paige had heard of strays that had been picked up by patrols who found them causing public disturbances on innocent programs to some rambling about seeing Flynn himself. But she detected no excess anxiety, nor noticed any excessive emotional outbursts, noteworthy characteristics of guilty programs.

Other than their fight, which technically started when she threatened him, he had shown no sign of wanting to harm her– not even seemingly holding grudge from their encounter. ‘That could be because the memory loss has already begun...’  Paige’s medical programming kicked in, ‘no, he is way to stable both physically and cognitively.’

Her transmitter beeped in response to previous request for backup. “There is a recognizer on its way to pick you up. It’ll be here in approximately five micros,” she added. He slightly nodded before sitting on the nearest cargo crate. She walked over and sat down next to him.

“I’m sure you have some questions,” he said in a monotone voice. She cocked her head.

Well isn’t that the statement of the cycle

“I do,” she replied curtly.

“I promise to answer anything you ask between now and when your backup arrives,” he assured her.

Paige narrowed her eyes cautiously; He was being too helpful for her taste. “Identify yourself program!” she ordered. “What is your name and designation?”

“Interesting,” the Guardian mused. The default assumption here was that he is a program. “That means that they don’t get a lot of organic visitors here very often– for one reason or another.” He’d have to be careful.

“You may call me The Guardian,” he answered, “or Titan. The former is more specific; the second one works as well, but is more of a classification.”

Paige scoffed at the ridiculous name. “The Guardian?”

“You asked,” he countered, clearly amused by her reaction. He hated the name too, but he didn’t have a chance to come up with anything better before everyone at the tower began referring to him by that pretentious title-- so, it stuck.

“I want your actual name,” she tried again, patience wearing thinner.

“That is above your pay grade,” he teased by referencing her conversation earlier.

“Great, so he heard my what I said to those two sentries.” Paige wanted to rip that helmet off and knock that smirk she knew he had right off his face. “At least this proves that he was near the crash site.”

“What is your function program,” she continued her questioning coldly. 'Despite the orange glow, he was...different."

“Can I ask you a question,” he asked.

She frowned. He didn’t answer her question, but expects to get an answer to his own?  “What?” she snapped.

“Why are you wasting time asking me impersonal questions that could be asked by any trained soldier?” His sudden directness and change in the seriousness of his tone caught her off guard.

“This is standard protocol–” he raised his hand to cut her off. She shot him a glare of annoyance at his posturing.

“You just had an experience that no one here other than me can relate to,” he calmly guided her, “or possibly believe. You have questions; I have answers to those questions.”

Paige felt her outburst of anger quickly subside. While he may have been futilely attempting to keep his identity a secret for a bit longer, he was also being quite logical. The recognizer would arrive soon, and she may not get another chance to learn more about whatever attacked her if, no when this program was sent to the games.

While Paige personally wanted to know this program’s identity, the only practical use of getting the information before Pavel ripped it from this program by force would be to improve her standing in her General’s eyes. “The Guardian” was right though. There were other things that were troubling Paige from the recent events that she wanted answered, both out of genuine curiosity and concern. 

“Who were they?” she asked quietly. “Those programs back there in the alley--the one’s who I assume were also chasing us in that airship... who were they?” As stoic as she tried to make her voice sound, there was a hint of shakiness which made it through as she recalled herself being surrounded.

That uneasiness did not go unnoticed by the program whose posture changed from calm and casual to one that emanated understanding, “maybe even concern.” Paige would have been able to tell for sure had she been able to see his face, but the visible change in body language at least provided some indication. He took a moment, while he generated a proper response.

“They are Cabal, and they are not programs,” he said before pausing to watch her face travel through every emotion before landing on a mixture of shock and confusion. The fact that he carefully avoided finishing with “like you and me” was not entirely lost on her but was superseded by what he had just said. “Those that we encountered specifically belong to a faction called The Red Legion. While the Cabal are a species forged from war, The Red Legion had a very specific goal– one singular objective that they’ve stubbornly pursued since the day they overthrew their former government and usurped power.”

Paige felt her processor cycling at what felt like a trillion cycles a second as it sifted through everything that had just been dumped on her. Using whatever training she had to compose herself, she replied. “So, they’re Users?”

The Guardian took a moment to pause as he realized that must be what non-native life was referred to in this world, which if what Ghost had relayed to him back at the terminal was true made a lot of sense. “Yes, I guess technically they are. However, unlike users such as Flynn,” he began as he remembered the name of the person Ghost had said created this place, “who come from a planet called Earth, the Cabal are a species of user from another world in a distant solar system.”

“I see,” she asked. ‘For Flynn’s sake, so now the term user not only included humans such as the grid’s creator but now another, what was it he called them, a species.’ Assuming this program was a telling the truth, this situation was rapidly becoming a mess. “Do you know why they are here?”

“No, but that’s why I am here. I need to find that out and stop them before they do something... stupid,” he said emphasizing the last word.

“How do I know you didn’t just make all this up?” Paige asked. She wanted to test him, to put him on the backs of his feet just to confirm if her suspicions were correct.

“You don’t,” he agreed, “but regardless of whether you want to believe me, three facts remain: they exist, I knew their ship’s weakness, and we escaped them on a vehicle that you have never seen before. Take what you will from that.”

Once again, the Guardian came in with a sound point. Paige frowned realizing what the implications of that were.  She saw him look up as the sound of a recognizer came into ear range. His ability to form logical points and the calm demeanor without a disk, his strange appearance and seemingly deep knowledge of the Cabal and their origins all culminated to one truth.

“Hey!” she shouted over the engines grabbing his attention away from the aircraft. “You don’t actually need a disk, do you?” He stood up and started towards the Recognizer while hovered over its landing spot. After taking a couple of steps towards it, he did a quarter turn to look back at Paige who was still waiting for a reply. “Humor me?”

Did he just openly admit to me that he is what I think he is? There were only two groups that did not require disks to survive on the Grid, but her assessment of his “testimony,” if she could call it that, only left one option. Seeing the ramp of the recognizer lower to reveal a row of guards she decided that she would try one more time with her original interrogation protocol. “What is your name” she tried again, missing the eye roll under his helmet.

“That’s still above your paygrade.” While this lack of cooperation would normally infuriate her, she for some reason had to hold back a small smirk. While she was annoyed to be left in the dark, she found his banter oddly amusing, if only due to the embarrassment of the reference.

“Time to go, ISO,” she sneered putting on her solider persona as she led him to the entrance of the recognizer, completely missing his frown of confusion at her conclusion

“An ISO,” he pondered, “what in the Traveler’s name an ISO?” Here he was wondering if he had provided too much information regarding his identity as what they called here, a User, but the Commander seemingly was none the wiser.

_______________________________________

“What was I thinking?” She mumbled, kicking herself for not turning him in properly.

Paige knew The Guardian was not an ISO and was confident in her assessment of their identity as a User.

Despite having confidence in her choice to lie about her conclusions earlier, now that her processor had finally slowed down after the incident with the "Cabal", she couldn’t shake the feeling that she should immediately report her concerns directly to Tesler. Why had she even been trying to have a civil conversation with him, let alone give him cover as an ISO? He was an enemy of the state!

Having one User in hiding on the Grid, a piece of information shared to Argon’s top brass after the uprising was quelled, was one thing. Having another so openly present in the city was something else altogether. Either they were extremely arrogant and stupid, or they knew exactly what they were doing, and she had just given them a direct path to the heart of the Occupation’s control on the city, the Colosseum. Paige kicked herself for the thought of what the consequences would be for her actions– “Deresolution for sure,” she winced.

Paige slowed down as she entered a more heavily populated sector of Argon. As she shot quick glances at the programs around her, she had a brief flashback of her getting thrown into a wall by the User. “No,” she realized, stopping her light-cycle suddenly, “that isn’t his goal at all. If his objective were just to get to the Colosseum and cause chaos, he would have just bypassed me and any obstacles that got in his way.”

“Humor me?” she recalled him saying. Was it just mere curiosity? Somehow she doubted that it was just that.         

Yes, yes it was curiosity, but there was something else. He made little effort beyond some mild masking to hide his being a User. His armor allowed him to blend in color wise, but it didn’t match the surroundings in terms of design. He was open about his knowledge of the Cabal which she was inclined to believe. And when she finally asked if he really needed a disk, he confirmed her suspicions. “He was asking for my help!” she gasped out loud, gaining glares from passersby.

Ignoring them she restarted her light-cycle and sped towards the Colosseum. “And if what he said about those things we encountered in the ally are true, I’m going to need his.”

_______________________________________

Unlike he had been with the female program, the Guardian found himself immediately cuffed by one of the guards before being shoved into an energized cage.

‘Well they sure know how to make someone feel welcome,’ he thought to himself. He watched intently as the same guard who had locked him up walked over to a control panel near the window and pulled on one of the levers causing the ship to jolt.

“Hmm, so I’m on the bridge. That seems like a poor choice to hold a prisoner.” Except for his lack of knowledge on how to fly one of these things, they were making a possible escape attempt very easy. However, the Guardian held back those thoughts. He had every intention of letting this play out. ‘I promised that I would surrender and go to these “games” the female solider had mentioned earlier. I doubt they’ll be nearly as challenging as something like Gambit Prime.’

Continuing the dialogue in his head the guardian looked up, ‘Speaking of that program, where is she? I guess she had more important things to do than sit here and watch some random “program” be taken to--’

His thoughts were interrupted by an announcement being made over the intercom, the same voice he realized that he had heard in the Corridors of Time. “Recognizer on final approach to the Colosseum, “the voice said in a neutral tone.

“Hmm an arena-- well at least there will be an audience,” the Guardian muttered quietly to himself.

Other than another announcement about clearing the landing platform, the rest of the trip went by silently and quickly. Once the recognizer had landed, he was immediately boxed in by a group of four guards who promptly escorted down the ramp to what he presumed was where he would be given a new disk to, ‘oh how did she put it, “start fresh”.’

Not long after, the Guardian and the four guard programs were now walking through a large blue and grey corridor when his previously reticent Ghost broke the silence in his head. “I know you were thinking about her back there.”

“Huh,” the Guardian responded not realizing he had spoken out loud. Despite his Ghost having been with him since the Guardian’s first resurrection, he still sometimes forgot that the little ball was always there watching him and listening, even when he was quiet and invisible.

“Don’t think I don’t know what goes through your head; I can read your thoughts,” Ghost jokingly mocked.

“I know for a fact that you can’t do that, otherwise you would protest more while I come up with my plans rather than after I execute them.”

“Who are you talking to?” one of the Guards asked, a mixture of confusion and irritation in his voice.

Thinking quickly the Guardian responded. “Oh that, see I lost my disk,” he said pointing to his back where he figured programs typically put them, “although I can’t seem to recall when. Guess I’m becoming senile.”

The guard behind him clearly was becoming annoyed jabbed him the back with his staff. “No more talking!” he hissed. The Guardian just smirked under his mask. This program might even give Zavala a run for his money for being the grumpiest solider. Even he tolerated Cayde’s antics for a while, although if he really thought about it, it wasn’t like the Titan Commander had much of a choice with the two of them being stuck in the tower. No, never mind Zavala still retained that gold medal.

“Oops,” Ghost teased in the Guardian’s head before continuing their now one-sided conversation. “Fine, but I can read your emotions and it was pretty obvious you were at least curious as to where she went.” The Titan just shook his head.

This was going to be a long mission if Ghost kept this up.

They soon found themselves being led into wide open room. The guardian was brought to the dimly lit center and found himself immediately bound to the floor by some sort of locking mechanism that engaged around his feet. The guards then walked away leaving him to stand in silence.

He looked down at the braces holding him in place while he considered his next move. His time for decision making was cut short however when he saw the room suddenly light up, white lines flickering to life on the walls.

After adjusting to the slightly brighter room he noticed a white-haired program sleeping in some sort of containment pod. ‘Wait did programs sleep?’

The query was short lived when he saw the program’s eyes snap open and the pod doors move aside. She approached him with a rigid mechanical walk that was different from any of the military programs he had encountered so far during his so far short visit. He also noticed that her suit was different from the others as well. It was a clean white base layer with glowing white light lines for its accent indicators.

“Hello there?” The Guardians greeted curiously.

“I am here to prepare you for the games,” the program replied as if she hadn’t heard him.

‘Ok then, not fond of formalities I guess.’ Under his helmet, he stared at her with a puzzled expression as he thought of a way to proceed. “So, what exactly does that entail?”

“Your armor is unfamiliar and is therefore considered illegal in the games. It will have to be removed for your identity disk to be installed and to sync properly.”

The Guardian shook his head in defiance while laughing a bit. “No, this armor stays on.” Without any reply the white suited program’s finger engaged a miniature torch and began pressing it against what she must have thought were the seams of the chest plate.

“You’re going to have to do better than that if you want to get that off,” he said. He was tempted to let a small amount of arc energy run through him to shock her but he thought better of it when he noticed that she was starting to panic, clearly not used to something this durable. After taking a moment to think, the Guardian came up with a possible solution. “Look, if you give me the identity disk, I have the ability able to sync up with it without having to mount it.” She looked up at him skeptically before cocking her head to the side. She suddenly turned around and walked over to a station containing what appeared to be an identity disk.

“Hey Ghost, do you think that when she hands me the disk you could make it look like the sync was successful?” he whispered quietly.

“Maybe, but how would I even do that? I don’t even know what a proper sync looks like!”

“I don’t know, make it light up orange to match my glow or something. Everything else seems to light up around here when something important happens!” He stopped talking when she began approaching him again, this time with a disk in her hands. Upon reaching him, she offers it over. He takes it from her with both of his hands. Channeling a bit of his armor’s excess solar energy to generate a brighter orange aura around him he holds the disk over his head.

‘Come on Ghost, figure it out!’  he thought with anticipation. At first nothing happened, and he could hear the disappointment and annoyance radiating from the white suited program. However, seconds later the disk began to slowly light up orange as well, at first dimly but soon broke out into a radiant glow. After the event was finished playing out, the Guardian looked back to the program standing in front of him.

“Woah, I have never seen that done before,” her eyes widened at the glow.

“You’ve never seen someone like me before,” was all he responded.

“While that may be the case, your armor is still illegal for use in the games. I will have to--” She was interrupted by a figure in standing outside the rooms center oasis of light.

“Do not worry about the program’s armor Siren!” the sharp voice continued, “he is tonight’s star attraction.” A smile spread across his lips as he finished that sentence.

“Star attraction?” the white suited program asked puzzled.

“Yes, of course. I assume you noticed the lack of other programs present in your little hole this evening.” She nodded, “Then it should be obvious that he will be fighting, alone.” The new program placed an emphasis on that last word. Turning back to the white suited program he said in a chilling calm, “Siren, leave us. He and I have something to discuss before we send him up.” She bowed and walked back to her resting chamber where she quickly deactivated herself.

“Commander Paige’s report about you was quite underwhelming,” Pavel began once the room was clear. “Lucky for me, I’m not an incompetent like her and know how to get the information I want, and I plan on doing so—personally.”

‘Commander Paige eh-- so that’s her designation.'

“And what exactly would this information be?” The Guardian scowled under his helmet at the sleazy officer in front of him.

“Paige reported that you were a suspicious stray who happened to be in the area surrounding a major,” he paused looking for a word, “grid anomaly. I want to know what it is and how you triggered it? I want to know everything.”

The computerized voice suddenly spoke, “15 nanocycles until game start.”

“And you really think you can get that information out of me,” he said noting the programs proximity to where he was standing, “somehow doubt that.”

“Are you challenging me, program?” The sleazy program was clearly looking for an excuse to fight.

“Indeed,” the Guardian quoted his Vanguard leader before his left fist knocked the program square in the jaw causing him to land six feet back and into unconsciousness just as the lift into the games began to move upwards. “Just another power-hungry grunt with an ego,” he grumbled.

The game field was quite a bit higher up than he thought, but it was nice to have a moment of quiet to think before having to deal with threats.

He spun the disk in his hands. ‘This is going to be the weapon I’m going up against isn’t it.’  The Guardian had already faced it once before against Paige, but he had been willing to use his abilities freely at the time. This time was different, however. There would be a crowd, so any obvious use of his light, apart from using it to boost his strength and power, would be noticed immediately. ‘Well it’s a good thing I don’t know how to use this thing.’

“Hey Ghost, when you lit up my disk, what did you do?”

“I reprogrammed it to match the light signature running through your Armor. It carries an indirect connection to you. Although your unorthodox means of connecting to the disk prevents some of its functions to work properly such as backing up your memories, it is still strong enough for the disk to respond to your will,” Ghost explained.

“I see,” the Guardian said quietly as he examined the disk, urging it to activate. Despite what his Ghost had just told him, he was still taken aback a bit when its edge lit up into a bright cutting blade. “Fascinating!” He could now hear cheering coming from up above as the surface quickly approached. Disk engaged and in hand, he stood ready for a fight. It was show time.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5: Massacre at the Games

“These guys are all show,” the Guardian laughed to himself as he threw another black guard who was attempting to jump over him to the ground. So far, the tactics of his opponents had all been the same, flashily enter the arena by performing some acrobatic trick, and then charge at him one at a time. Only a few had decided to throw their disks which forced him to clumsily dodge out of the way, but none of them ever seemed to pick up on his weakness, not that he gave them the chance to.

Ghost eyed the area around where the Guardian was standing, there were a lot of bodies. Scanning them he noticed that all of them still had power signatures. Turning towards his Guardian he asked, “you do realize that all of these programs are still alive right? All you’ve done is knocked them unconscious.”

“Hmm,” the Guardian replied distantly, “I hadn’t noticed.” He noticed two programs trying to flank him. He quickly sidestepped towards the one on his left grabbing him before throwing him into the still approaching solider on his right.

“Look, all I am saying is that at some point they will wake up, and then you’ll have to decide whether having to deal with 25 of them at once is worth it.” Ghost shook his frame. “They CAN kill you.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a disk rapidly flying towards him. “Might as well learn how to use this thing,” he thought glancing down at his disk. Mimicking the form that he had seen some of the guards he had fought using, he sloppily threw his disk at the oncoming one in an ill-conceived attempt to knock it out of the air. Despite the bad technique the Guardian’s disk did manage to hit its target before falling gracelessly to the ground.

“Lucky shot,” Ghost teased, “maybe next time don’t hurl it like a grenade.”

“I’ll hurl you like a grenade,” the Guardian threatened with false seriousness, only breaking a smile when he detected Ghost retreat further away from him.

Retrieving his disk, he looked at the mess of unconscious soldiers laid out around him. “You’d think after all of this they’d have figured out that they are not my enemy,” he sighed while shaking his head.

“You could always try something even more obvious,” Ghost replied.

While the Guardian was contemplating his next move, he heard a solider behind him groaning while they crawled towards their disk. Seeing an opportunity to make a statement to those running this “game,” he slowly walked over to the injured guard. 

Taking advantage of the program’s instability as they leaned over to pick up their disk, he back-handed them causing them to fly backwards not unlike the way that Ghaul had done to him during the early moments of The Red War. Grabbing their disk from the floor with his free hand he turned and moved carefully to where the solider was lying on the ground. Kneeling over the solider he paused, taking a moment reading the body language of the program before bringing the soldier’s disk down with as much forward force as he could.

_______________________________________

Paige’s were still wide at what had transpired on the Colosseum floor as she. She was obviously not the only one who had been thrown for a loop. The normally loud crowd had remained silent even as the challenger walked away from the still rezzed and probably relieved soldier.

Instinctively she had closed her eyes, not because the sight of cubes shocked her anymore, she was a solider and at one point a medic for crying out loud, but when she believed an almighty User was going to execute the defenseless Black Guard, she felt like she was going to be sick.

Once she saw the disk halfway in the floor next to her subordinate’s chest however, Paige quietly let out a breath of relief. As the tension of the situation subsided, she couldn’t help but be halfway impressed with “The Guardian’s” level of control in each hand to hand engagement, not that she was willing to admit that. The very fact alone that he took down nearly 30 black guards without the need to derez any of them demonstrated his fighting prowess. She did note that he had for the most part avoided using his disk for most of the fight, which if his throw was anything to go by was for the best.

“What is he doing?” Tesler was not happy. Besides the embarrassment from watching his soldiers being taken out like they were minor nuisances, the challenging program was looking up towards where the General and his Commanders were situated, motioning them to come and get him in a mocking manner.

“I believe he is provoking you, sir,” Pavel smirked, he hoped Tesler would go down there either to give that program down there the punishment he deserves, or based on the results of recent fight, get humiliated himself. He turned slightly when a sentry entered the room and whispered something to the General who smiled slightly. Pavel increased his audio circuit sensitivity to try to listen in, but they were just out of earshot. Just as quickly as the Sentry had entered, they left.

“Pavel, go down there and see to it that program knows their place, but do not derez them. I want to know who they are before I do so myself.” Shuddering at the thought of meeting that program’s fist again, Pavel nodded. “Oh, and if he doesn’t turn you into cubes and you return empty handed,” Tesler paused, “I will!”

Paige smiled to herself. “So Tesler is aware of Pavel’s sliminess.”

Looking down again at the program below, she secretly hoped that maybe “The Guardian” would make an exception to his current rule about derezzing occupation soldiers when he fought Pavel.

“Y-yes General,” Pavel stuttered before quickly leaving the room to ready himself. Tesler did not know that he had one more trick up his sleeve, one that would give him a distinct advantage over the program awaiting him.

_______________________________________

The Guardian stood in the middle of the arena, the unconscious soldiers still littering the area around him. He had tried to get the leader’s attention through an act of mockery but so far there had not been any response. “Well I tried more obvious and so far, they haven’t responded; I wonder what they are waiting for?”

“Well based on how the crowd is now booing you for not killing that guard back there, they are probably trying to determine the most entertaining way of eliminating you.” Ghost looked around anxiously as something didn’t seem right. No sooner had he given his response, that familiar female voice they first heard in The Corridors of Time rang out over the arena.

“Manual Colosseum reset initiated. Please move to the designated safe corners of the field to avoid immediate deresolution.” The voice cut off leaving only the background cheer of the crowd.

“We need to get off of this platform!” Ghost shouted, slightly panicked. Hearing a groan, he spun his shell around to find the program that had just been spared attempting to pick himself up but was still too stunned after his encounter with the Guardian to do so.

Noticing this as well, the Titan ran over and flung him over his shoulder. “Come on, I’m not going to let you die like this.” The Guardian began running towards the edge of the arena as it began to levitate into the air, his armor glowed brighter while he channeled light through his body for an extra boost of strength.

While the Guardian focused on making it to safety in time, Ghost surveyed the rising platform for any means to slow or stop its ascent. His concern for his Guardian came back when he began to see the bodies of the unconscious fighters start to slide towards one of the ledges. His shell slightly separated in horror as he realized that it wasn’t the whole platform that was rising but just one side.

“This is how they clear off their arena-- by just dumping the bodies of still living programs into a pit!" Ghost asked himself, still not able to fully accept what was happening around him; the screams of terrified programs trying desperately to climb to safety as they helplessly faced their mortality.

 Sprinting faster now to compensate for the rapidly increasing angle of platform he charged up one massive leap as he reached the ledge, just barely making it with both of his feet onto the edge of the arena. Putting the solider he was carrying down, he turned to see the center of the arena begin to flip over. He also saw that there were no more bodies falling off into the under area. “They just massacred their own people,” he whispered to himself in shock.

“But why? To what end?” his Ghost added through his Guardian’s helmet.

“If I ever see Paige again, I am going to find out if she had anything to do with this,” he thought angrily. The Guardian thoughts were interrupted by the loud noise caused by the center of the Arena re-securing itself to the rest of the stadium.

As the ground clicked back into place with the arena’s outer walls, the automated voice came back. “Cleansing complete. New challenger approaching.”

“Well, I assume that is the end that they are waiting for.” The Guardian said flatly. Another grunt caught his attention. It was the solider, he had managed to get up, but his shakiness betrayed his attempt at hiding his injured state.

“Why didn’t you derez me?” He had a confused look on his face.

“Because you are not the enemy,” he said pointing upwards to where those responsible for the massacre sat, “what they did just proved that.”

It was at that moment the soldier realized what had just happened and began to break down. Those soldiers, some of whom he considered to be friends were now gone, but not by who they were told was a dangerous enemy, but by the one he had sworn to fight under. His emotions turned from despair to rage.

“I am going to derez that grid bug with his own disk for what he has just done!” When the solider looked up towards where his leader watched from above, the Guardian saw the primal fire in the program’s eyes.

“We can worry about that later,” he tried to calm him down a bit. He knew that when that next opponent came out this solider would do something rash and be killed in an instant if he was not calmed down immediately. “Right now, we have bigger problems to worry about, like whoever is rising out of the arena’s floor right now.”

The solider looked over to see who he was talking about. His eyes suddenly narrowed. “Pavel,” he snarled.

“Let me deal with this,” the Guardian said while placing a hand momentarily on the program’s shoulder before moving towards the new program.

“Greetings program,” his face twisted with a deep smirk. “It’s felt like so long since our last meet up, I thought I would stop by so we could have some more fun together.”

“If by fun you mean you being thrown across this whole arena for what just happened, then I have no problem obliging that request.” The Guardian gripped the holstered disk on his belt seeing that this program was not entirely stable and that this conversation was only going to result in a fight.

“Ah ha ha ha ha, I’m afraid that’s not how this is going to work out this time.” He then briefly glowed bright red causing a small aura to form around him before he returned to normal. “This time I brought some back up.”

The Guardian’s HUD lit up red, preceding a whizzing sound behind him. Instinctively he dove out of the way as the friendly soldier’s disk went hurtling towards Pavel. Looking up he saw Pavel become a momentary blur before catching the disk midair and returning it towards the solider at a frightening speed. The Guardian turned around just in time to see the disk fly through the soldier’s mid-section, turning him into a pile of cubes seconds later.

“Alright, now I’m pissed!” The Guardian said letting his solar energy Aura burn brighter than before although not quite enough to destabilize his Ghost’s armor modifications. “

Pavel laughed mockingly again before responding. “Then come at me program,” he sneered. The two then charged at each other at their full speeds. The Guardian threw his disk directly at Pavel’s head. While Pavel easily dodged it with a mere tilt of his head, he was distracted enough to miss the Guardian slide before jumping back onto his feet to punch the Commander square in the chest sending him flying. Unlike their first engagement below, Pavel landed on his feet, grinding his disk into the arena floor to slow him down. He still had a large grin plastered onto his face as he again decided to charge the Guardian, only this time he was the one who threw his disk which forced the Guardian to hastily jump to the side, not wanting to risk a wild throw that would leave him open.

While he managed to dodge the oncoming disk, he was tackled Pavel, the momentum of his impact sending them tumbling down the slick floor of the arena. Due to the chaos, Pavel almost gained the upper hand, or at least thought he did. Unlike Paige, he hadn’t fully experienced the Titan’s skill and power in a hand to hand fight.

Grabbing the Guardian’s disk off his belt, Pavel hastily went to drive it through his opponent’s chest. As he brought the disk down, one of the Guardian’s hands tightly grabbed hold of the other side of it. Before he could respond, a powerful kick to his own chest sent him flying away from the Guardian, cubes from what used to be his hand trailing him to where he landed. It was only after recovering from the heavy blow and seeing the program slowly approach him that Pavel noticed his derezzed appendage.

Gritting his teeth in pain, Pavel wildly swung his disk at his opponent who jumped backwards causing him to narrowly miss. Even equipped with the upgrade disk, the odds of his failure appeared to ever increase. Despite this reality, he decided to push forward out of desperation knowing that if he failed to capture the Guardian, his own death was inevitable.

Despite Pavel’s dangerous wounded animal like fighting style, the Guardian saw a small opening. Deciding this was the cleanest way to end this fight, he used his left arm to briefly stop Pavel’s attacks before bringing his head back and throwing it forward into his opponent in a massive Saint-14 style head slam. Pavel immediately collapsed to the ground, motionless; his circuit lights dimming to reflect his new low-power state.

The crowd booed at the Guardian’s choice to spare his competitor once again. While the Guardian ignored it, feeling more relieved that this fight was over, as his adrenaline rush died down, he could feel a minor pain in his arm. Looking down he saw a short, but deep gash in his left forearm. “Ugh one of Pavel’s rabid swings must have clipped me, Ghost can you patch me up?”

“I’m on it,” Ghost acknowledged with a determined voice. Doing his best to stay out of sight while he healed his Guardian before quickly vanishing himself again. “There, good as new.”

The Guardian relaxed when he felt his wound seal up. “Thanks,” he replied, grateful for his little friend’s help.

“They may be booing, but you put on a pretty good show,” Ghost added.

“Hmm,” the Guardian grumbled in response. “This crowd only came here to watch others die; if I gave them a good show, then that was a mistake.”

“So,” Ghost awkwardly started, “what do you think their plan for us is now, or should I say their back-up, back-up plan?” The Guardian silently shrugged in response, not having an answer to his ball of light’s question. Little did he know that his question was soon going to be answered as a small drop of blood gathered on his forearm armor, threatening to fall the arena’s floor.

Chapter Text

Chapter 6: Behind the Veil

“Warning!” the voice rang over the ringing of alarms and panicked sounds of programs evacuating the arena, “Foreign contaminant detected. Please make your way to the nearest safe zone.”

“Looks like they found something of interest,” the Guardian noted flatly as he observed a couple dozen soldiers run out onto the field from all directions, surrounding him with all their disks activated. “Probably us.”

“That is a lot of opposition. Super?” his Ghost suggested.

He scanned the encroaching soldiers before shaking his head. “I don’t think we are participating in The Games anymore. Let’s just see where this goes– if things take a turn for the worst, then maybe,” he replied placing his hands above his head.              

_______________________________________

So, he was a User!

Despite her accurate prediction, Paige was still in shock as she stared at the warning message flashing on the screen in front of her. Yes, she had been right, but that surprisingly didn’t make the evidence slapping her in the face any less jarring. Her processor cycled up faster while she just stood there staring downwards at the arena, barely aware of Tesler ordering the soldiers down below to apprehend the User and bring him to the flagship.

“Paige.” She didn’t respond, her thoughts were still clouded. “Paige!” Tesler’s voice was louder this time and managed to snap her back to the moment.

“Sorry, General,” she replied composing herself.

“It appears you’ve outdone yourself again.” Seeing that she looked a bit confused Tesler elaborated. “Somehow, you managed to apprehend a User! Once Clu hears about this, his lack of confidence in us for our troubles with the Renegade will vanish,” he grinned with excitement.

It wasn’t often that Tesler let his facial expressions stray away from his default frown, a fact that Paige only took note of from the rare instances where he did– and thank Flynn it wasn’t often. It was obvious he was out of practice with anything that closely resembled a smile.

Fortunately, his amusement only lasted for mere seconds before his face shifted back into his standard scowl. “I will return to the ship to meet our new guest. Clean up down here; make sure that any rumors regarding the User are squashed.”

“Yes sir,” she said firmly but quietly. Turning halfway back briefly to look over the now empty field, she sighed. ‘What game is he playing,’ she pondered.

Paige had seen a lot of fights–been in a lot of fights, enough to be able to tell if a person was holding back. It had been obvious to her, especially with hindsight that Beck had been doing it all but their earliest encounters. Once the uprising had started however, he made it clear that he was not merely the lucky program that refused to derez others and who only just escaped with his life that she and Tesler had believed him to be. He was skilled, very skilled, and obviously trained by someone who knew how to handle a disk like the security programs before Clu took charge. The most obvious change was his willingness, or rather acceptance, that the deresolution of Occupation loyal programs was inevitable if his revolt were to have any chance of surviving Clu’s arrival.

She shook her head to bring her thoughts back to the present before finally taking her leave of the room. The User appeared to have a plan, one she needed to find out the details of sooner rather than later.        

_______________________________________

After being apprehended again at the Colosseum, the Guardian was quickly escorted back onto another recognizer before being directed to an unknown location. Upon their arrival, his eyes were met by an ever-increasing sea of red as the ramp slowly lowered. The sheer number of recognizers and tanks present coupled by the many programs running around led him to the obvious conclusion that he was not at just some random military complex. The uniform black and red color scheme was a detail that was not lost on him either.

Crossing the expansive hangar led him to a large elevator where the sentries escorting him wasted no time transferring him to a group of six new guards dressed in the same armor as those he had fought in the arena.

As the doors closed and the lift began to move, the nervousness of the guards surrounding him was palpable. In a way, he did understand their anticipation; news of what had happened earlier in the arena had probably spread, and if his suspicions about this red-themed organization were correct, the deaths of their comrades were solely blamed on him.

The doors of the elevator car soon opened and the Titan immediately felt himself being shoved to his knees by the guards behind him. He saw two figures. One, a large figure with a cape draped over his back, was standing by the window looking over the operations in the hanger with his back turned to the Guardian. The other, who he saw approaching, he recognized as the vile program, Pavel. “You said you would only talk to the one in charge, well there he is,” he taunted, pointing to Tesler. “Now– TALK!”

“Pavel,” the General growled, “leave us. He and I have much to discuss.” The Guardian could see annoyance spread across Pavel’s face before he stood up and responded.

“Of course, sir,” he replied storming out of the room like a petulant child. Once Pavel had left the room, he saw the larger figure turn around.

“Greetings User, I am General Tesler.” Tesler looked down at the User with cold eyes. He had never met Flynn, the only User he knew of personally, but he had heard warnings from Clu some of what he was capable of. He had mostly just brushed this off as prideful boasting from his superior after executing his masterful takeover. However now, warnings of caution kept appearing in his task list. Despite his earlier desire to meet this User face to face, now that he had, a part of him was wondering if it had been a mistake. If those stories from Clu carried any truth, then Clu’s newest project could be in serious danger.

After the User failed to respond after a few nano-cycles, Tesler chose to break the silence. “What should I call you, User?”

“I did not come here to discuss myself,” the User stated matter-of-factly. Tesler gritted his teeth at the User’s dodge of the question.

“Then what exactly, did you come here to–discuss?” he growled.

“We are at an impasse, unfortunately. I had hoped to arrange a cooperation between us, one that would protect each of our peoples. But the events at the games arena made it very clear to me that your organization does not share that goal, and I have no desire to work with people who think that murdering thirty of their own is acceptable,” the Guardian spat.

“You murdered those Programs,” Tesler growled.

“That’s the official story is it,” the User let out a short chuckle. “My assessment was correct then; you don’t have a single care for the lives of those who exist below this room. If you did, you would have arrested the program you and I both know is responsible. But that would impact your image and ability to wield power, and you only care about power, about control.”

“You Users are all the same, arrogant– thinking you can lecture me on how to rule. Those programs down there rely on the state, and I am the state,” Tesler retaliated, fists clenched, and glowing white hot.”

“Then we are finished here.” The Guardian ran small charge of arc energy through his wrists, shorting the cuffs around his wrist.

“I’m afraid not,” Tesler started waving two guards over. “As I’m sure you know by now User, your presence here on the Grid is a crime by itself. It’s not punishable by death, at least not yet.” Tesler growled grabbing the User by the chest piece, “Your capture will please our great leader. Don’t worry, my people will make sure you are comfortable for Clu’s arrival.”

He felt the hands of one of the guards behind him grab the sides of his helmet in an attempt to take it off. Taking this as his queue, the Guardian reached up and grabbed the offending program’s wrists, shattering them into cubes with a quick squeeze before kicking the program into the wall behind him. Using the shock of his sudden attack to his advantage, he landed a quick blow to the General’s side, knocking the wind or the Grid’s equivalent of it out of him while leader of Argon slumped to the ground.

He went to face the final guard, but only saw the doors of the elevator behind him shut, no doubt with the fleeing third attacker inside.

The User moved to stand over the injured General who looked up at him with some semblance of fear in his eyes. “They call me, The Guardian,” the User stated in a chilled, steely voice before walking towards the room’s window.

Wasting no more time, the Guardian mocked threw an arc charged lightning grenade at the window, the bolt of energy causing it to shatter instantly. “Stay out of my way,” he said before leaping out of the window. Landing on the ground he started running towards the exit of the base, Go Figure materializing in his hands while he laid down suppressive fire in the direction of any program that could be a potential problem.

“After him,” he heard a recovered Tesler shout from the balcony looking over the hanger. Seeing the ship’s large circular door begin to close, he quickly summoned his Sparrow and raced down and out of the large circular mouth of the ship.

_______________________________________

The Guardian flew down an empty back road on his sparrow, its nimbleness able to outmaneuver a couple of his pursuers at a previous turn, causing them to crash into the side of a building. The other two were a different story. One of them was in hot pursuit and was quickly closing in behind him. The other had peeled off earlier and had yet to re-emerge, probably waiting to flank him when the streets joined back up. He could hear the bike behind him grow nearer. In attempt to bait the guard, the Guardian drifted slightly to the left, providing space for his pursuer to come up alongside. For a moment, the guard did nothing causing him to doubt his plan.

That lack of confidence quickly dispersed when the program finally decided to take the bait and accelerated. “Maybe they’re just a little slow?” he wondered as their bike slowly pulled alongside him.

Out of the corner of his eye he read the enemy rider’s body language and how he was obviously gearing up to crash the side of his bike into him. His opponent leaned hard to port. Ready for this move, the User took advantage of his sparrow’s momentum and leapt off it towards the guard’s light cycle while his own vehicle transmatted away under his feet, knocking them off before grabbing the handlebars himself.

“Wow, this thing moves!” The Guardian he commented, grinning as he kicked the bike into overdrive. It wasn’t very often that he found himself in a high-speed chase on what was effectively an old earth style bike.

As fun as driving the vehicle was, he remembered that there was still at least one more Guard he’d have to deal with. “Ghost on my mark, transmat me Devils Ruin!”

Looking ahead he saw a crossroad and prepared for a side attack by the guard. “Now!” he yelled. Without hearing a response, he felt the weapon attach itself to the side of his Titan Mark. Slowing down, he pulled it out with his right hand, his left arm still holding onto the bike. Sure enough, the final guard made their appearance and were heading towards his starboard side at full speed!

Not having enough time to make a clean shot, the Guardian engaged the weapon’s “close the gap” setting and fired a beam of concentrated solar energy across the front wheel of the oncoming vehicle.

With a significant chunk of the forward section of the bike damaged, its structural integrity began to fail, its once smooth black body beginning to flicker a translucent teal color as its code became visible. Another second passed and what had been unstable code finally started breaking apart into cubes, the instability causing its rider to fly forward over the handlebars.

Unfortunately, despite the significant damage, the bike had not completely fallen to pieces yet and was still rapidly skidding towards the Guardian, the friction caused by the smooth black surface of the road inconsequential in slowing it down. Foreseeing the impending crash, the Guardian bailed from his own bike, gracelessly jumping off the port side. This, combined with the speed of his bike, made for a less than ideal face first landing. He didn’t even bother to acknowledge the sound of the two vehicle’s crashing into one another and exploding into orange and black voxels.

He gave himself a minute before finally giving in and standing up. Doing so, he felt multiple joints in his body crack. Those that didn’t felt incredibly stiff. “Agh, never felt better,” he cracked his shoulder with a humorous groan.

“We should get out of here,” his Ghost commented, “before others come looking.”

“You mean others like me?” A voice interrupted from behind him.

The Guardian swung around, his Ghost quickly transmatting his Guardian’s disk to his hand where it was promptly activated.

The User narrowed his eyes under the helmet when he saw Commander Paige walk out from around a nearby corner.

Chapter Text

Chapter 7: Common Cause

Paige looked over the rigid figure staring her down. Even without him tightly gripping his disk, she could tell he was in a much less pleasant mood than during their earlier conversation

“Look,” she paused as she gathered her thoughts, “I came here to help you.”

“Help me?” The Guardian scoffed. “I think you’ve helped enough for one cycle,” he said accusingly before walking away.

“Wait,” she yelled out behind him. He stopped, not bothering to turn around, “please hear me out.” Her voice had a hint of desperation running through it. “These Cabal... if they’re anything like you say they are--I can’t protect all of these programs by myself.”

The Guardian closed his eyes, trying to process the situation. Here was one of the high-ranking officers among red lit programs apparently showing concern for those supposedly under their protection. Perhaps she was different than the others he had spoken with. He had to be sure though. What she had just said were just words and after what happened, he wouldn’t accept some half measure damage control propaganda. Taking a deep breath, he turned back to face her. “Maybe you are better than the others,” he conceded deactivating his disk and clipping it to his belt.

Paige breathed out slowly in relief. At least the chances of him cutting her down where she stood had diminished. Internally though, her processor still churned quickly. “What does he mean better than the others? Why did it seem like her genuine concern for the programs Argon caught him off guard?”

Despite her inner turmoil, she didn’t let it visibly show. Instead, her experience telling her that he was no longer an active threat, she walked over to him and offered her hand. “A truce?” she offered.

“Agreed,” he said, returning the gesture. Upon making contact, Paige could tell he was working hard to not crush her hand, as if it went against his instinct somehow. She could also feel, power? As a program, she knew it was some form of energy, but whether its presence was because he was a User or something else entirely was unknown to her.

“We’re going to need a plan if we are to deal with this threat without panicking Argon’s citizens,” she said as they pulled apart. “The presence of a single User is a curiosity, but you at least look somewhat familiar. If any of them were to run into a Cabal and manage to not get derezzed–” her voice trailed off.

“Indeed,” the User said in acknowledgment. “Is there somewhere we can go to lay low? Preferably somewhere with vantage points for surveillance of the city.”

“Hmm,” Paige hummed taking in the User’s request. She knew of just the place. “Follow me,” she ordered before starting off down the street.

“You should follow the Commander,” Ghost chimed in, making sure to stay quiet enough so as not to be heard by said program.

“You trust her?” The Guardian asked.

“Not in the slightest,” Ghost answered before disappearing.

_______________________________________

A snow like substance blinded the path in front of him as he and the Commander trudged through rocky terrain. They had made it this far outside of the city on their sparrow and light-cycle respectively, but due to the weather conditions, they or rather, Paige had to dismount her vehicle and the Guardian followed along.

“Where are we going,” the Titan finally asked his guide.

“Why, getting tired in that armor User?” she snarked. She read his silence before giving in with a real answer. “We’re almost there. Trust me, you’ll see it comINNGGG!” she yelped as she slipped on the ledge of a wide canyon. She tried to grab onto the side, but the snow made getting a grip on the rock underneath impossible. Her fingers slipped off when a hand quickly reached out and grabbed her arm before pulling her back up to the surface above.

It was only upon reaching solid ground that Paige realized how fast her processor was cycling from the incident. “Thanks,” she said letting out a heavy breath as she looked over to the User kneeling besides her.

“Is there a way around this pit?” he asked looking down into the bottomless chasm.

She shook her head. “There is, but it’ll take too long and has a much higher chance of us encountering a swarm of gridbugs. Crossing this gap is our fastest way there.”

“Crossing it?” the Guardian inquired.

“When I initially found this place, I was tailing another program. Let’s just say I copied their technique,” she replied drawing his attention to what looked to be a rock shaped in a similar manner to a half pipe.

“I see,” he replied.

“But the maneuver requires the use of a light-cycle, which in this weather isn’t possible without one outfitted with treads,” she explained.

The User stood in thought for a moment before responding. “Would a vehicle that doesn’t touch the ground work,” he offered.

“Are you saying that your–” she started but paused when she realized she didn't know what to call his ride.

“Sparrow,” he added.

“Sparrow,” she began, rolling her eyes, “is unaffected by the snow, and has been available to you this whole time!”

“You didn’t ask,” he said in an almost teasing manner.

“That,” she snapped, “is not an answer!” Only when he didn’t immediately respond did it hit her as to why he probably didn’t bring it up. “You don’t trust me,” she said more calmly, slight disappointment evident in her tone.

“I have no reason to, especially after what happened at the arena,” he said noticing a pained mixture of emotions flash across her face. “Look, I can respect your loyalty to General Tesler. But after my... enlightening conversation with him, you too might be hesitant to trust anyone who willingly serves under his command if you were in my position.”

He saw another look appear on her face which he recognized as sadness or regret. “I didn’t have anything to do with that,” she quietly replied, “that was a decision that Pavel made without informing Tesler or myself.” Paige thought back to the time when she had caught him derezzing programs with the upgraded disk who were helpless in their prison cells, a memory that sent a shiver through her code.

“That wouldn’t be the first time that glitch has cruelly butchered helpless programs for his amusement,” she continued. The User could hear the tone of her voice become louder and increasingly bitter as she went on.

“Why do you stand with them,” he asked suddenly, matching her softer tone.

“Why did she stand with them,” the question suddenly hit Paige. “Did she at all?” Instead of responding, she suddenly reached behind her and undocked her disk. The Guardian immediately clenched his fist defensively ready for her swing. It didn’t come. Instead, she activated a holographic function on it and began swiping through her memory files.

The User furrowed he brow in puzzlement. “Are those–”

“My memories...yes,” she interjected already regretting what she was doing. She of all people understood just how violating it felt to have someone forcibly access your memories and cursed Flynn every cycle for allowing those disgusting code-worms to exist. Even as she fidgeted through her recent filings, she didn’t really know why this had been her first choice in trying to convince a User of all entities present on the Grid of her disassociation with Pavel’s actions. Was it guilt? Desperation? Or was it something else? Acceptance perhaps.

“You don’t need to show me those,” he said softly. “Those are private.”

She considered taking his offer and shutting her disk down then and there, but she knew that being completely open with the User, at least this once was going to be necessary if they were going to get anything done. “No, you should see this,” she said offering him the disk.

He thought about declining it or insisting that she keep it, but he realized the importance of the gesture. If the disk held such importance that it also held a program’s memories, then offering to part with her disk would be the equivalent of a Guardian temporarily parting with their Ghost. It was a sign of trust and she trusted him enough to not violate it.

He reached out and took hold of it, gently maneuvering it in his hands to level out the hologram. “You’re sure about this,” he confirmed with her one last time. She nodded and tapped the play button on the selected file.

The User watched carefully as the events of The Colosseum began to replay from her perspective.

_______________________________________

About One-Millicycle Earlier

“What is Pavel doing?” Paige felt her processor cycle up faster and faster as she saw the center of the arena begin to rise and tilt. She knew that he was sent down there to apprehend that program, but no orders were given to execute the unconscious guards lying about the Colosseum’s floor. She ran over to a communications panel and scrambled to find a way to ping Pavel to stand down.

“Paige, what are you doing?” Tesler had seen her run off towards the back of the room.

“I am not going to allow Pavel to senselessly derez all of those guards!” She yelled back. Her medic programming had fully kicked in by this point. She established a communication link, sending a basic ‘stand down’ message. Running back to the window and looking down, she saw Pavel glance upwards towards her as he rose out of the arena’s floor before beginning to laugh. That glitch had gotten her message, and clearly had decided to mock her desperation. While she had deep down expected this, she wasn’t looking forward to him trying to make this somehow her fault. She scowled as she turned to leave.

“Paige!” Tesler growled, not angrily per se, but with authority. “It’s too late for them.”

She signed, knowing it was true. By now the arena had already tilted enough that any solider lying down on it were derezzed for sure. She was grateful that Tesler at least understood, or at least she was until he spoke again. “Besides, if you are worried that we’ve lost valuable guards don’t be. Other than the new recruits, the rest of these guards were put in here either because of their own incompetence. I also just received word from Supreme Commander Dyson that we are getting a shipment of black guards and sentries within the next 5 cycles.”

“Great,” Paige replied bitterly. There was a twisting in her core as Tesler gave his reassurances to her. Personally, she wished he had just kept his mouth shut as the thought of programs being perceived as disposable disgusted her. She re-approached the glass. She saw Pavel walking across the colosseum floor to where the program and one of the soldiers were held up. There was clearly a heated pre-fight conversation taking place, one that was interrupted by the rescued soldier’s disk flying towards Pavel. She watched closely as Pavel grabbed the disk and sent flying right back at the Guard.

_______________________________________

“That’s enough,” the User interrupted. Paige jumped slightly. She had gotten so focused on the memories that she had lost track of her surroundings. She quickly shut down her disk and took it back from the User.

“I don’t always stand with them,” she asserted while porting her disk on her back.

The User nodded slightly in response. “You seem like a good program Paige,” he began, “I apologize for assuming otherwise.”

“It’s accepted,” she replied, “I suppose if I were in your position when what happened, happened, I wouldn’t be overly trusting either. Glitch it! You’re a User and I’m an Occupation Program– we’re not exactly allies by default. But we’re going to have to put our opinions if we’re going to prevent the Cabal from destroying the Grid... my home.”    

“Then we should get going,” the User agreed, his sparrow rezzing out of seemingly nowhere, “we have a lot of work to do.”

_______________________________________

“General Tesler,” Clu said with a friendly smile, “I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon after your message earlier. What’s got your processor spinning man?”

“There is a problem in Argon, sir,” Tesler said, hoping his vagueness would allow him to request reinforcements without revealing his predicament. Not only had he allowed the User to escape and disappear in his city under his watch, but he had also lost contact with Commander Paige.

“Let me guess, the User escaped,” Clu stated as if expectant of this result, his smile never fading which made Tesler even more self-conscious of his failure.

“I assure you; I have diverted every resource to finding this User. It won’t be long until we find them,” the General tried to assure his leader.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep General,” Clu warned, his cool facade faltering slightly.

“He did provide a name before fleeing,” Tesler offered, hoping it would be enough to satisfy Clu temporarily while he searched his city for the malware.

“Probably useless no doubt, but I do encourage you to provide humor to this unamusing situation,” a voice that Tesler recognized as Dyson’s pierced his audio circuits through his video screen.

“Dyson,” Clu chimed in, “no need to be so harsh man, I’m sure our good General here is doing the best that he can. Tesler, please go on.”

“Well,” Tesler said fumbling to form a sentence, “he called himself The Guardian.” Tesler’s processor was so wound up from his embarrassment in front of Clu that he failed to notice both his great leader and Dyson shoot side glances at each other.”

“Interesting,” Clu said, his smile having faded almost entirely. If he had blood, his face would have retreated to a shade of white. “Does anyone else know?”

“No sir,” Tesler replied quickly.

“Good,” Clu’s smile returned, “keep me posted on your progress General.” Upon hanging up the transmission Dyson, turned to him.

“Sir, our ally--” he started.

“Yes,” Clu began, “perhaps Tesler’s failure wasn’t a symptom of his poor leadership--this time.”

The gold-robed program stood up. Continue monitoring the situation from here and alert me if there are any significant problems that might pose a threat to our greater plans, but be ready to go to Argon at any moment. Tesler’s ineffectualness is a problem we can easily handle, but this User–hmm...” he trailed off as he walked out of the room.

Chapter Text

Chapter 8: Infested Hideout

“Is this it?”

“Hmm,” she hummed, now focusing on the task of finding the entrance she knew was here. She hadn’t been here for cycles, or more accurately since the end of the Argon City’s uprising and it didn’t help that in that time the already elusive passage into the mountain was now buried under layers of snow. She could hear the User’s footsteps approach behind her.

He let the program continue staring at the expansive rock face in deep concentration while she figured out how to get through the cloaked doorway. Or at least that’s what he guessed it was. He had enough experience with radiolarian walls simply vanishing to reveal secret doors and passages because of hidden vex tech, to figure that something similar was the case here.

“What are you looking for?” he finally interjected when the Commander didn’t seem to be making any progress.

“Who said I was looking for anything?” Paige replied with a hint of irritation. Her focus never drifting away from the rock she was brushing snow off of.

“No one, I just couldn’t think of another reason why we stopped at the base of a massive pillar of rock, in a storm, just to stare at a wall.” Utilizing his Helmet’s HUD, the Guardian scanned the surface for strange power readings as he had done countless times on Mercury, Venus, and Nessus. Detecting a faint power signature he traced his hand across the side of the surface, brushing aside the snow as he went until his hand suddenly dipped into a hologram covered hole.

“Is this what you were trying to find?”

“Lucky guess, User,” she said spotting the panel he found. She walked over and pushed on it. Immediately, a small chunk of the wall flickered away revealing a hidden passageway.“Clever,” she muttered under her chilled breath, no wonder our forces were unable to find it for so long.”

“Shall we?” She turned to look at her, colleague? Was that the right word, I guess technically if we’re were working together now that term feels appropriate. He hasn’t told me his name yet, or really anything about himself. What is he hiding? Perhaps he would be willing to talk to once they were inside. Paige brushed her processor’s tangent aside when she saw him nod in agreement before stepping inside right behind her.

A crackling sound of energy caused both of them to turn around as the door sealed them in behind them. As the last bit of the storm faded away, bright white lights lining the floor and ceiling kicked on, revealing an expansive room. Paige derezzed her helmet and looked around the area. ‘This place looks like it goes on forever!’ She knew that if the door was anything to go by that this effect was just a holographic trick, but it was impressive nonetheless.

“We should take a look around,” Paige suggested, carefully moving forward in case there were any traps. If whatever program who had lived here had gone through the trouble of using cloaking devices to hide this place, it wasn’t beyond expectation that there were more than a few surprises lurking out of sight.

They walked through the silence, the only sound being their footsteps clicking against the smooth white surface of the floor. “What is this place? How did you know about it?” the User asked.

“It was a hideout,” she replied simply. She wasn’t trying to omit information, but her experience here had been limited. “I only know about it because I tailed a program out here cycles ago.”

“Let me guess, one of Argon’s citizens?” the User said with slight accusation.

“No, actually,” she replied with a similar level of aggression, “one of our own.”

“I see,” he tentatively accepted her story. Even after their conversation, the Guardian was still having some difficulty separating her from those that she worked for. The User four more paces before suddenly stopping and holding his fist up, signaling her to stop.

“What is it,” she whispered. He obviously could detect things she couldn’t as evidenced by his ability to find the door earlier.

“You hear that,” he asked.

“No, I–” she frowned. “Wait, yes. I do. It sounds like–Gridbugs!”

The sound of hundreds of small spiked legs clicking against the floor grew louder in her audio circuits but remained out of sight, masked by the holographic emitters scattered throughout the room. Both she and the user moved back to back, both covering each other’s blind spots.

The Guardian could feel Paige’s tension. If these creatures were causing her this much concern, they must be pretty dangerous at least to programs. The tapping of feet continued to rise in volume, almost like the sound of crashing of ocean waves in terms of its asynchronous pattern. Both readied themselves for the inevitable: the program, her disk and the user a lightweight sub-machine gun.

After what felt like an eternity to Paige due to the anxiety of being picked to pieces by a swarm, the first metallic legs appeared from one of the walls facing the Commander. At least she now knew where the emitters were.

“Contact!” she yelled throwing her disk in a low throw similar to one that would be used to skip rocks. The disk kissed the floor as it cut upwards slicing a dozen or so of the pests in half before returning to her hand.

In that time, the User had turned around to assist her and started firing his weapon at the emerging swarm. He could see Paige glance behind them in case they were being flanked. “You don’t have to worry about that,” he reassured her, not taking his focus off of the oncoming swarm, “my helmet has already marked them as hostile. If any approach from behind, I’ll know.” She stole a quick side glance at him skeptically but shifted her focus back to the problem at hand, and it was becoming an increasingly big one.

While they had the advantage of distance for a period, their upper hand was slowly giving away as more and more of the spider-like creatures appeared. Paige was especially concerned at the increasing width of the swarm as it started to wrap around to the sides. “There has got to be tens of thousands of them!” she thought to herself, her eyes widening in panic. It was then that the first of the bugs finally got close enough for her to slice with her disk.

“This is too close,” she said out loud as she swung her arm in short and precise cutting motions as the bugs lept towards her frame. Paige heard the User’s weapon stop firing for a moment while he reloaded. This was the first time Paige had seen his weapon of choice and frowned at his decision. “Maybe you should have picked something a bit more damaging,” she said as they backed up away from the incoming sea of death, her voice raised in alarm.

“You trust me right,” he replied, catching her off-guard.

“Enough, wh––” she didn’t get to finish her sentence before she was shoved backwards to the floor by his left arm, putting some distance between them. She watched as an electric blue orb formed in his hand before immediately being discharged into the floor, disintegrating the nearest part of the swarm– each pulse taking least a couple hundred of them if Paige had to guess. But it was still not enough to be effective; they just kept coming. She got up, assuming that was the end of the User’s attempt and readied herself to jump back into action when he started firing the gun again. It was only then that she realized his slight orange glow was now clashing with a sparking light blue one. The weapon too she realized had been affected by whatever he had just done as every landed shot caused some of the blue energy to jump to another pocket of gridbugs, disintegrating them in the blink of an eye.

He kept firing...and firing...and firing, not stopping to reload or anything, only once and while stopping to throw another one of those pulsing blue orbs before continuing. Despite still being woefully outnumbered, the Guardian’s onslaught seemingly triggered the gridbugs’ basic survival programming. Just as quickly as they had appeared, the swarm retreated back behind the hologram and out of sight.

The Guardian huffed as the last residual arc energy flickered across his armor before it returned to its steady orange color. “Damn bugs,” he grumbled seeing Paige approach him from the side. “You we’re right, those things are not a good time. Looks like I am going to have to come back down here and clear them out when I have a chance.”

“You’re welcome to try,” she replied surveying the scene. Some of the holo-emitters were flickering from collateral damage revealing the barren rock wall behind them. “Those glitching things infest everything.” Her eyes drifted then towards the weapon he was holding. “I wasn’t expecting that thing to be so effective at clearing out gridbugs."

“It’s called Riskrunner,” the User explained holding it up, “it conducts arc-energy through its user in order to create that chain effect you saw against that swarm. Stings like anything though.”

“Arc-energy?” the program inquired curiously.

“Its a form of energy similar to what powers many devices in the User world including probably this one,” he explained. “You can identify it from its bright blue color.”

“Like that glowing blue orb you threw after you pushed me aside,” Paige realized.

“Indeed,” he nodded, “sorry about that by the way.”

“I can’t exactly complain. I really have no desire to be hit by another one of those things,” she agreed thinking about their first engagement in the alley. “What are they by the way? They just seem to appear when you want them to.”

“They’re arc-energy pulse grenades. I generate them... over time,” he replied.

“Generate? Is that a User thing,” she asked quizzically.

“No,” she said shaking his head, “but it is a Guardian thing.”

“I see,” she said. She still hadn’t gotten an answer out of him on what a Guardian exactly was compared to a “regular” User, but from the way he had phrased it it seemed like he definitely wasn’t the only one.

“If the area is clear, we should keep moving. Why did we come here again?” she asked. Their encounter with the gridbugs had made her forget why they had even come to the outlands in the first place.

“You mentioned something about a view,” he replied dryly.

“Right, I think you’ll like it,” she perked up and started forwards to where she knew a lift to the upper levels was.

_______________________________________

In only a few micros, the doors opened to a large, although significantly smaller room than the first floor, with a massive window that provided a 270 degree view over the outlands and of Argon City. The floor was dark black with light lines running around the edges. Based on the type of equipment she saw lying around, she concluded that this must have been a command center of some kind. To whom, she only had theories and circumstantial evidence at most.

She and the User both stepped out of the elevator together and looked around. They were both clearly thinking the same thing, both tensing as they scanned the room for anything that could be a threat. Finding nothing, Paige’s processor slowed. She approached the window overlooking Argon and gasped. It was a stunning view, ‘almost’ better than her own “best seat in town” on the bridge. She could see everything from Tesler’s ship, to the docks where she had the unpleasant experience of being run over by a biker gang, to Able’s Garage.

The User had made his way over to her side looking out as well, arms crossed. “I don’t know who you followed to find this place, but they knew what they were doing when they settled here. This is a much better view than down there in that alley, I’m impressed.”

“Or in that storm,” she added gesturing towards the clouds above them. “It also appears to have some useful equipment built in that might be of some value if we can get it working,” she said gesturing towards some of the consoles, some of which showing slight to heavy damage.

Seeing what looked to be a shattered plasma healing tank, Paige went over to investigate but soon found herself struggling to stand upright. She must have made some sort of noise because the User bolted over and help stabilize her.

“What’s wrong?” he asked with concern coating his voice. She looked down at circuit lines and noticed their extremely dim color. Paige hadn’t realized until now how exhausted and low on energy she was.

“I’ll be fine,” she replied, “I just need some energy.” He just stood there holding a confused posture. ‘Right, he probably doesn’t know what he is looking for.’ She snorted a bit in amusement before explaining. “See if you can find some glowing blue liquid, it’ll probably be blue if it comes from the same source that the rest of Argon uses.” He nodded and walked out of the room.

Sitting down against a wall, Paige decided to take the moment alone to collect herself. Paige sighed. This past cycle had been a mess, mostly because of this User. She wanted to hate him, blame him and his kind for the imperfections on The Grid. She shook her head at the idea. Those thoughts were built on pronouncements made by Clu against a group who couldn’t defend themselves against it since he banished Flynn, the only user to ever be on the Grid, until now.

There wasn’t anything particularly treacherous about him that really stood out to her other than maybe his secrecy, but could she really blame him for that. “To be fair to him, he hadn’t exactly had a good first impression of her home since he’d arrived, having been chased down by her, then arrested and finally watching her people murder their own,” she reasoned, “and then he found out an enemy from where he comes from is also here for an unknown purpose.”

She would have to find a way to bring his wall down eventually, even if it was just to satisfy her own personal curiosity.

Hearing a thud, Paige’s eyes shot up only to see the User misjudge the size of a door frame with his shoulder armor. In his hand he was carrying a cup filled to the top with energy. She smiled lightly, impressed with how he had somehow managed to not spill any of it during his collision. She took the cup from him with both hands and sipped it slowly.

“This is the only blue liquid I could find; I hope that works,” he said innocently, head angled slightly to the left in confusion when he was met with laughter.

“It’s fine,” she smiled warmly as she felt herself become refreshed a bit from the drink, her red circuit lines glowing steadily stronger as she sipped it, “thank you.” A few micros passed where neither of them said a word, just sitting there, both exhausted in their own ways.

Chapter Text

Chapter 9: Facing Demons

            Paige, having recuperated partially from the drink, was the first to have enough of the silence and decided to start up a conversation.

            “You never did tell me how you ended up here? On the Grid, I mean.” She had seen the portal and damage caused by the crash, but she wanted to know why he had come. She intended to keep this off the record, this was mostly to satisfy her own curiosity about the User world after all. That was unless of course she determined the information would be of value to Clu which she doubted.

            “Initially I was on a special mission to prevent the Cabal from altering history in their favor, a mission that eventually changed to altering history myself to save a legendary Guardian, another Titan named Saint-14 from an otherwise certain death at the hands of his adversary, The Martyr Mind—a leader of sorts within the ranks of a machine race called the Vex,” he explained. He would have told her more about the Vex, but he still wasn’t sure how much any individual program could process before crashing. And if the information Ghost had been feeding to his helmet was accurate, this system was located sometime in Earth’s past around the late 20^th century. It was remarkable that this place was possible at all during that time, let alone a whole functioning society of artificial sentient beings, but there still had to be limits on what a computer from that time could handle. Heck, even Rasputin had limits and he was a Warmind AI that at one time spanned the entire solar system.

             “So, there were more Guardians!” she thought, pleased with her guesswork from earlier, but still uncertain about the consequences of such information, especially as his words continued to process.

             “Wait, what do you mean, alter history?” she asked in a semi-accusatory tone.

            “Another Guardian, an exiled Warlock named Osiris had previously built a prototype device that he called The Sundial. It worked by connecting itself to the Infinite Forest, a super-computer powerful enough to simulate possible realities. It could simulate entire planes of reality that are based off anything from the simple choice of turning right instead of left, to the removal of key figures in major combat engagements. The Sundial allowed for its user to not only enter a specific reality, including the one the User came from, but change the course of history.”

            Paige frowned, “That sounds like a dangerous game to be playing considering the possible consequences. Why would anyone make such a device?”        

            “Osiris is immensely stubborn and filled with regret about Saint’s death. The Sundials were created with the express purpose of rescuing Saint-14 and bringing him back into our reality, a problem I was only made aware of after trying to directly purge the Cabal from the system,” he explained.

            “Sundials? You mean there is more than one?” she choked.

            “The same,” he replied dryly. He had come very close to fists-of-havocking Osiris off one of Mercury’s cliff sides after the Warlock had explained the situation to him.

“Osiris’ obsession with the Vex and their technology has on multiple occasions led to serious messes that I then had to clean up. This time, his carelessness led to the Cabal finding The Sundial prototype which they unfortunately saw as an opportunity to change the outcome of the Red War.” The Guardian shook his head regretfully. “He was so focused on trying to fix a mistake for a time, that he became unconcerned with the consequences of his actions.”

            She looked out towards the window, a rush of anger rolling through her circuits. “So, this is all your fault then!” The User looked up, taken aback by her sudden change of tone.

            “Commander, I--” she cut him off.

            “Do not Commander me,” she spat. “Another User error that’s is going to cost programs their lives. I should have trusted my instincts and never put my resolution on the lines for you––you, who claims to care about protecting the lives of regular programs! Clu was right; you and every User are threats to this system, and I will do everything I can to clean up your mess and stop anymore of you from causing anymore chaos.”

            She jumped up and quickly walked to the door. “And I promise if you try to interfere, I will not hesitate to bring everything collapsing down upon you.”

            The elevator doors closed leaving the Guardian alone in the room. Was it just him or did the doors seem angrier as well? Just then, Ghost made his appearance shutting down the Guardian’s tangential thought.

            “What just happened,” Ghost asked, furrowing the top section of his shell in confusion.

            “What, were you sleeping through that,” the Titan replied bitterly. So much for having an ally in all of this. He also felt a tinge of something else but couldn’t put his finger on it.

            “I think you struck a nerve,” Ghost added.

            “She’s a program, she doesn’t have nerves,” the Guardian grumbled.

            “You know what I mean,” Ghost sighed. “I’ve been running a personality analysis of her this whole time. Her reaction wasn’t geared towards you, or at least not towards of anything you personally did or said.”

            “You can do personality analyses? How come is the first I’ve heard of this?” the Guardian asked, noting Ghosts previous comment but deciding not to acknowledge it.

            “I’ve ran them on everyone we have met ever since I first resurrected you in the Cosmodrome. I’m only bringing it up now because I see the way you interact with her and, it’s well—different,” Ghost replied.

             He couldn’t see the Guardian narrow his eyes, but he knew he was shooting daggers at his shell. “Hey, don’t look at me like that, it’s obvious. You actually talk to her; you don’t talk to anybody!”

            “I talk to you,” the Guardian pointed out. “Not the same thing and you know it. You’re stuck with me. Besides how many missions have we been on where I am the one doing all the talking. I’m pretty sure the last line you said to anyone before today was on the Moon when you asked Eris what the pyramid was. Trust me, this is a very different situation.”

            “Right,” the Guardian grumbled getting up. “Alright, let’s get back to work and see if we can get these systems back to working order. Some of these things look to be in pretty bad shape.”

            “Wait that’s where we’re ending the conversation,” Ghost protested as he quickly floated to behind his Guardian who was already walking towards the damaged equipment.

            “Yes,” the Guardian replied in a tone that Ghost recognized as the same one Zavala used when he was done with a conversation.

            “You know I’m right then,” Ghost yelled at his retreating Guardian. “Ugh, Titans,” he groaned in pursuit.

_______________________________________

            Paige was still fuming as rode up the steep ramp of the ship. Her processor had been riding a roller-coaster the entire ride, and even as she pulled into her destination, she had yet to make any substantial progress in culling her personal feelings about the situation.

            Reaching the back of the hanger, she was met with the subsequent arrival of both Pavel and Tesler. “Glitch it,” she cursed to herself. She hadn’t given herself any time to think of an excuse for why she was so late. Tesler had ordered her to return to the ship immediately after clearing the Colosseum's crowd, and here she was almost an entire cycle later.

            “Paige, I ordered you to report back here immediately; where have you been?” the General bellowed—not quite angry, but the glare on his face exposed his displeasure with her tardiness.

            “I heard that the User had escaped on my way back to base. When he happened to speed passed me and I decided to pursue,” she couldn’t tell if he was buying her story or not, but she had to do her best to make it seem as true as possible. Well, the first part was true, the second was an exaggeration at best, but if it saved her resolution then she would go with it.

            “And?” he said impatiently.

            “I lost him in a blizzard in the outlands sir,” she lied.

             Wait, why was she covering for the User? He was a threat—his people we’re threats...right?

             She had missed or rather ignored it in the moment when the User had mentioned it, but now the User’s explanation of Osiris’ guilt over his loved one’s death and desperation to fix his mistake suddenly hit her and made her stop to question herself.

             If she had the power to undo her own mistakes, would she?

            “Hmm,” Tesler grumbled, shaking Paige from her thoughts. He turned to Pavel, “Get three recognizers fueled and up in the air immediately. I want him found quickly.”

            As soon as the sleazebag program nodded and scampered off, he turned his attention back to Paige. “As for you,” he began.

            “Here it comes,” she winced internally. Had he caught her in her lie?

            “There is a matter at the garage that I need taken care of immediately,” the General continued, “Their repairs of our vehicles have been taking much longer than expected and I want to know why! I would have sent Pavel but given his history there, you’re better suited.”

            His eyes narrowed when she just stood there. “Is there a problem?” he asked accusingly.

            “No General,” she finally got out.

            “Good,” he replied and handed her over a data pad. “Read that over and take care of it, quickly this time.”

            “Yes sir,” she replied. She took a deep breath when he walked out of the hangar and out of sight. He seemed to have bought her story, not that she would make lying to her direct and only superior a habit. Unfortunately, she was now stuck with a mission that she couldn’t be looking forward to any less. Able’s Garage was the last place she wanted to visit right now especially given her own more personal history with the mechanics who resided there, not that she had a choice on whether she could go or not. The best she could do was hope that her conversation with Mara wasn’t going to be too bitter.

            They were good programs the mechanics, much like the other medics at her old medical facility. Still, she knew from the past they weren’t exactly friends of the Occupation to begin with, the uprising not helping matters. Confrontation was probably inevitable.

_______________________________________

            Paige’s drive through Argon was sluggish, not from traffic, or from her being assigned to methodically comb the streets for programs caught breaking curfew. It was a personal issue, one that was gnawing at her from inside her memory core. She knew that she was walking into hostile territory, both from the general tones of hostility towards the Occupation, which she could understand to a point, but also personally towards her.

            Then there was her final conversation with the Guardian earlier. She still wanted to blame him and his kind for the new threat on the grid, she really did. It would make this problem seem so much easier to deal with, except that it wouldn’t. And the longer that desire sat in her memory core the less justified it felt. Was he dangerous, sure, but so were all Users. The power they held on the Grid and over programs was already problematic back when it was just Kevin Flynn. And once again the Grid, her home, was in danger because of the carelessness of a User.

            “But not this one,” she thought in an attempt to push back against the easy choice—against hundreds of cycles of exposure to clear-cut propaganda that was starting to look duller as the cycle continued. “He was here to clean up this mess caused by another’s desperation and carelessness, to help protect her city.”

She shook her head trying to shake the traitorous thought. “No, you naïve glitch! That’s a nice sentiment, but that’s all it is. It’s obvious he only cares about protecting his own people. Why would he care about the lives of programs, let alone ones he has never met,” she chided herself.

            The struggle in her processor would have likely continued in its unproductive war of attrition had she had not looked up and noticed the large silver structure that housed the garage. Stopping just short of the entrance, Paige collapsed her light-cycle back into her baton. She scanned the scene in front of her, looking for anyone familiar. A good number of the veteran mechanics had either fled Argon or been derezzed by Clu’s forces their meager attempts at retaliating so there were quite a few new faces that she hadn’t seen before. Her core churned; as much as she hated to admit it, familiar faces were the ones who would probably be the most helpful right now even if they trusted her the least. With that she retracted her helmet and began walking towards the gaping entrance of the bright and lively workshop.

            Entering, she looked around. The deeper she went into the building, the more tense she felt. Any neutrality this place had once shown towards Tesler’s forces had been flushed out the building. Those that knew her and noticed her presence shot daggers her way, and even those that were new made no effort to greet her. Paige was painfully aware of their quiet mumbling to each other she walked through the garage.

            “Commander?” a voice suddenly penetrated her audio circuits. She spun around to find the blue haired program, Mara, standing behind her with her arms crossed. “Is there something I can help you with?”

            “Um,” Paige tried to remember the reason why she was here, and how she was going to accomplish her objective. Regaining her composure, she managed to get out a more confident reply. “There is.” Behind Mara, Paige noticed some of programs behind her stop working, turning their focus onto the two of them.

            Mara raised an eyebrow at Paige’s response. “I see.” She stared a Paige for a few nano-cycles, probably trying to determine whether her presence should be considered a threat or not. “My office then,” she finally said with just enough sternness to mask the venom that lied beneath it, “now!” Paige followed the blue haired program into what she remembered used to be Able’s office before he was killed. Shortly after entering Mara turned to her frowning, “sit!”

            Paige nodded and took a seat across from Mara’s desk. “Look, I know what happened–”

            “Did you come here to apologize for the past? For what you did, or should I say, did not do, or are you here for business on Tesler’s orders? Either way you had best get to it, Commander!” Paige wanted nothing more than to object to Mara’s accusations of her involvement during Clu’s personal takeover, but bit her tongue knowing that it was going to be an uphill battle to win that argument.

            “I came here to inquire on how the repairs of Tesler’s damaged tanks and recognizers are coming along. The General is beginning to get impatient,” she replied reluctantly dropping the subject and sticking with her orders rather than engaging. Reading Mara’s face, she saw–– disappointment?

            Wait––She wanted to discuss what happened? But why?

            “The damage on some of the vehicles was extensive, but not unfix-able. If our current rate of progress remains undisturbed, we should have 70% of the tanks back in working order by the end of next cycle with 3 of the 5 recognizers ready for flight by the next one,” Mara replied with stoic coldness.

            “Only 70%?” Paige hummed accusingly. She knew exactly why those last 30% were taking so long and so did the mechanic. If Mara wanted to talk about the failed uprising, then fine, but she would have to do it on the Commander’s terms.

            “Oh no you don’t,” Mara protested angrily, “you have no right to put the blame on my crew for that. Do you have any idea on how many programs would have lost their lives if we hadn’t done what was necessary to cripple them before they fired?”

            “What would you have had me do,” Paige protested. “You and the Renegade openly declared a revolt against Clu! It was you two who put every citizen in Argon in harm’s way with your blind hope that the traitor Tron was still alive!”

            “And who exactly is the one capable of causing harm in this situation,” Mara snapped. “Which overwhelming force were we putting the people of this city in the way of then huh?”

            Paige bit her lip. She couldn’t exactly deny it. Sure Tesler, Pavel and herself could blame the Renegade for causing chaos all they want, but the Occupation was the one with the power.

            “You know I’m right don’t you, but you can’t openly admit it,” Mara scoffed, “Oh who am I kidding, you can’t even say his name.”

            The Commander felt a Paige of guilt, especially the more compassionate medical programming still residing at the foundation of her code. “Beck,” she let out under her breath.

            Mara turned away from the Commander and started towards a filing cabinet. “He kept holding onto hope that you would eventually see the twisted nature of the Occupation, of your General, but he was wrong, and he paid with his life for it.”

            “There are good programs in that twisted organization who just want to make the Grid a safer place, General Tesler among them,” Paige growled at the insult to her mentor. “Not every program is like Pavel.”

            Mara sighed shaking her head, all former anger drained from her frame. “You really believe that don’t you,” the mechanic said sympathetically.

            “I wouldn’t stay if I didn’t,” Paige answered confidently. Mara was going somewhere with this, she was sure of it, especially when the blue-haired program pulled out a small safe and placed it down on the table in front of her. “What’s this,” she asked.

            “Something the Renegade wanted you to have. He left it with me at the start of the revolution after you made it clear to him that your loyalty to Tesler outweighed the importance of your friendship with Beck,” Mara stated. “He made me promise that I give it to you if you ever came back here.”

            “Of course,” Paige realized. Thinking back to her last engagement with the Renegade before Argon was set on fire from above. He had been pretty much pleading with her to do something, anything to stop the Occupation from annihilating the garage, the birthplace of the uprising. He hadn’t revealed his identity to her then and it likely wouldn’t have mattered. She would have just gone straight back to Tesler and confirmed to him that the Renegade was a mechanic which would have likely ended in–– well she didn’t want to think about that.

            Cautiously she reached out and pressed the two buttons on either side causing the lid to pop open. The first thing she saw was a recoding wrench, presumably the one he always carried with him since their first fight on the light-chopper. However, it wasn’t that which drew her attention. No, her eyes were drawn to the glowing red cube in the center.

            “Where did he get this,” Paige asked holding up the cube with a mixture of concern and anger.

            “He didn’t steal it from you,” Mara asked curiously.

            “If he did, he managed it without setting off the alarm this time,” she mumbled.

            “This time,” Mara repeated raising eyebrow.

            “Did you open it at all,” Paige asked with genuine concern. If there was classified intelligence on this cube and Mara had seen it, Occupation protocol mandated that she would have to be brought before Tesler and then likely derezzed.

            “No,” the Mechanic shook her head, “the box was left for you, so I assumed whatever was in there was mean for your eyes only.”

            “Good,” Paige said standing up. “You know I have to turn this in, right.”

            “I know,” Mara said quietly, “it’s your duty. Just do me a favor, for Beck.”

            “Mara if you’re worried, I’m going to report you for being in possession of this, don’t be. This was Renegade’s doing and I will make sure that the blame for––,” she began.

            “That wasn’t what I was going to ask,” Mara interrupted. “Beck put those items in there for a reason. Don’t take this as me telling you what to do but, consider looking at that data cube before turning it over, please.”

            “I won’t promise, but I will consider it,” the Commander replied with a small smile. “Thank you,” she said turning to leave the office before stopping just short of the door. “And Mara, I am going to do what I can to fix this.”

            A look of sadness flashed across the mechanic’s face. “You’re going to need more than a wrench for that.” Paige only gave a small, solemn nod in response before finally leaving the blue-haired girl alone.

_______________________________________

            In the outlands, the blizzard had completely stopped leaving the grey and white landscape completely silent with perfect visual clarity for miles in all directions. That was of course apart from a lone light-cycle as it tore through the snow.

            It wasn’t the best vehicle given the thick puffy layers of white code littering the rocky terrain, and certainly a dangerous one if the rider were inexperienced. Luckily for Paige, this was not the case as she rocketed towards the spire, her bike perfectly upright–– never wobbling to one side or the other to risk chancing a possibly fatal fall.

            The Commander had quickly stopped back at base to inform the General of the garage’s progress. She had also planned on handing over the data cube, but a mixture of hesitation caused by Mara’s words and the General leaving to oversee another matter left her with little choice but to hang onto it for a bit longer. She had considered opening it in her quarters back at the base, but quickly dismissed the idea. If she had been found in possession of it let alone accessing it without authorization—well there wouldn’t exactly have been a trial.

            She also couldn’t shake the feeling that the information held inside was personal. Why else would The Renegade return a seemingly random data cube by giving it to her specifically, especially packaged with an item that she knew meant so much to him. Her hand absentmindedly brushed the side of the tool that now hung from her side.

            No, she would open it when she was ready. It hadn’t been missed up until this point, she doubted its continued absence would be noticed either. She was certain now that whatever was in the data cube related to her somehow, and that whatever it was would only cause her more pain.

            And, if this past cycle had done anything it had revealed to her just how little she had healed since the uprising: the regret, the sense of loss––the guilt. She had spent all this time fooling herself into believing she had moved on when she really had just buried it under protocol and discipline eventually culminating in leaving the confused User in a fit of rage, blaming him for the new Cabal threat and cursing his kind for every issue that ever plagued the Grid, ever.

            This wasn’t this User’s fault though, none of it was. Even the Cabal being here was on that Osiris character––if she ever met him…

            Paige pulled into the garage of the spire and quickly collapsed her ride and helmet and ran over to the elevator, taking it up to the top floor where she presumed the Guardian was still located.

            As the doors receded Paige saw the Guardian standing over by the window and started to walk over, but stopped when she heard—arguing? Stopping suddenly so as not to be heard, she redirected power to her audio circuits.

          “Who could the User possibly be talking to?” she wondered.

           Paige wasn’t typically one to be nosy, but this situation was different. If there was a conversation happening, she had to know what was being said.

           “Saint hasn’t come through the gateway yet,” a grumblier voice stated.

            “Perhaps if your master had done a better job of protecting the Sundial then maybe he would have made it out by now,” another unfamiliar voice said.

            “So at least three voices then,” Paige counted. Who else found this place in such a short amount of time?

            “You say that like this is my fault,” the first voice replied.

            “Yes, it absolutely is. The Cabal found the prototype Sundial, which was problematic already, and then when we were working on extracting Saint, you allowed the Cabal to take over the not-prototype one that we were using. This is all very much your fault,” the second voice replied.

            “You should have been faster in destroying Martyr Mind and getting out of––,” the first voice was cut off by who she recognized unmistakably as the Guardian.

            “This is so far from what the most important issue is right now,” the User growled. Paige hadn’t heard him this angry before. The closest was after the incident at the games, but even then, it was more akin to disappointment.

            “You’ve made it very clear that you feel it is necessary to protect this Grid as you call it, but my master requires you to go to the gateway and open it for Saint. Nothing is more important,” the first voice argued back.

            “And I have made it very clear that as a Titan I cannot allow the Cabal to rampage through cities of innocent people, destroying the lives of thousands. Your master may be able to justify this as an intellectual exercise gone wrong and move on, but I can’t do that. Titans are the shield behind which the Last City stands tall, and that applies to here as well,” the User asserted forcefully.

             Paige had heard enough from the sidelines. She was allowed into this conversation. This was her home after all.

             She knew exactly when her approach was detected as he spun his larger frame around, instinctively on the defensive, only relaxing when he saw that it was her.

            “You came back,” he said, “and seeing how there aren’t any others with you I assume this isn’t an assassination attempt.” She could hear the slight smile and suppressed relief in his voice.

            “No, it is not. I actually came to apologize,” she said looking him in the helmet.

            “For what,” he asked.

            “I blamed you for the Cabal’s presence here, that was wrong of me, especially when I know it wasn’t you, but Osiris who caused this.” She looked at the ground momentarily. “Glitch it,” she cursed before looking back up. “It’s too bad he isn’t here right now; I’d love to give anyone that careless, program or user, a piece of my mind.”

            “Actually,” the Guardian voice dropped down to a sourer tone which peaked Paige’s curiosity more than anything. “May I introduce to you, Osiris.”  

Chapter Text

Chapter 10: Presage

            “Wait, that’s Osiris,” Paige deadpanned while continuing to shield her eyes from the bright golden glow that totally overwhelmed her visual circuits just seconds earlier like a swarm of gridbugs.

            Paige had no expectations when it came to the appearance of the one responsible for this, as she now realized, much bigger mess than she originally imagined. What she did know was that a shimmering apparition that she was only scarcely able to look at before her eyes started to burn was definitely not it.

            “Well, not exactly,” the User replied, “this is a reflection of him, one of many.”

            Noticing her struggle to look at the radiant figure and quickly moving to block him out before offering her a pair of, night-club glasses? Paige frowned at the strange choice of item but accepted them anyway and placed them over her eyes. Immediately the room darkened to near blindness apart from Osiris whom she could now look at without feeling any ill-effects. While a small part of her was grateful for not being blinded painfully by light, the soldier part of her programming didn’t feel much more comfortable with her vision being equally blinded by the shadows.

            “What’s the difference,” she asked looking over to the User whom she heard move to stand on her left.

            “You remember how I said Osiris was obsessed with the Infinite Forest,” he asked not expecting a reply, “his reflections are another result of that. He is only one man and the Infinite Forest is well, it’s in the name. The reflections are the only way he can realistically explore thousands––millions of possible realities simultaneously.”

            Paige raised her eyes in skeptical disbelief. “So, you’re saying there are thousands of Osirises out there?”

            “Something like that. While these reflections are fully sentient copies of Osiris, at least mentally, they’re like any reflection you might see of on a window are intrinsically tied to the will of the source entity,” he explained, ignoring the growing impatience of the reflection.

            Paige nodded. Being a program on the grid, she had heard stories of the close relationship Users and their Programs shared on the so-called old system. Stories of how they would work together, even if it weren’t face to face. The Guardian’s explanation of Osiris’s reflections didn’t sound so different.

            “So, it’s like a messenger then,” she replied.

            “Something like that,” he finished. If the User was going to elaborate further, he didn’t get a chance before the reflection interrupted.

            “You are wasting time trying to help these–programs,” spat acerbically and gestured in Paige’s direction without bothering to look. “They’re just simulations,” the reflection thoughtlessly asserted.

            “Don’t try that with me,” the Guardian retorted. “That might be true with just the infinite forest, but you and I both know that both the Sundial and Corridors of Time work quite differently.”

            “I’m sorry,” Paige defiantly stepped towards the shimmering figure, anger boiling over, “but who are you to determine whether my kind gets to exist or not.”

            The reflection grumbled and turned to the red-circuited program. “Who’s this?” he sighed almost casually, angering Paige even more.

            “One of the programs you are suggesting be condemned to deresolution because of your mistake,” she snapped. She saw the reflection retreat a little bit, a bit of its open pompousness dissipating.

            “It’s a lot harder to tell an entire population that you won’t try to fix your mistakes when you’re looking one of them in the eye isn’t it,” the Guardian replied coldly to the reflection’s silent reaction. “Tell Osiris that I will be staying here until this place is secure, and if he has a problem with that, to file a formal complaint with the Vanguard. I have a feeling that they won’t find Osiris’s position quite as acceptable as mine.”

            “Anything else,” the reflection glared at the Guardian and program in frustration.

            “Yes actually,” Paige interjected, “tell him that the next time he considers walking away from the consequences of his mistakes, he should go and explain that to the people who are going to have to live with those consequences himself rather than send one of his pawns.”

            “I’ll pass on the message,” Osiris replied coldly before breaking down into a golden mist and vanishing.

            It was then that the urge Paige had been holding back finally boiled over as she ripped the light dampening glasses off her face. “You can’t see anything with these,” she said tossing him the fragile object, “what’s the point?”

            “They weren’t exactly made with this place in mind,” he laughed.

            “Meaning?” she pushed, eyebrows raised.

            “Where I come from half of the day, or cycle as you call is dark just like it is out there,” he directed her attention out the window.

            “And the other half is light,” she guessed. She tried to imagine what that would even look like, but the only image her processor could produce was blinding and unpleasant.

            “Don’t think of it as the opposite of complete darkness,” he added on as if reading her mind. He didn’t need to. Even in his short time here he had already started to become aware of the many differences between his world and the Grid. More frustratingly was the lack of common reference points that one would normally use to help describe foreign experiences. “Imagine it more as the warmth radiating from a fire––you do have fire here right, or some version of it?”

            The Commander nodded. “Hmm, so it’s similar to the light the Osiris reflection was giving off,” she concluded.

            “Similar yes, but not necessarily as intense and violating,” he clarified. “It’s much more pleasant in many ways–less so in others.” He could see by her expression she was still struggling come up with a satisfying image of what he was describing. “I’m sorry if my description is, lacking. I can’t say this is a conversation I’ve ever had before.”

            “I’m sure your description is fine,” she replied, “it’s just hard for me to picture anything else other than what I’ve seen since I first rezzed. It’s hard to say now, but I don’t think I could have imagined a Cabal even with a perfect description. They’re just so, different.”

            “Are you criticizing my story-telling abilities now,” he asked, feigning offense—smirking when he saw her shoot a glare at him. He sighed, “I wish I could just show you––I'll keep thinking about it and see if I can come up with something more helpful.”

            Paige nodded in the direction of one of the damaged consoles. “How did the repairs go while I was gone?”

            “Unfortunately, not as well as we had hoped,” Ghost jumped in. Both the Guardian and Paige were caught off-guard and turned their attention to the floating ball. The Guardian shot him a glare, while the Commander slowly made the connection between the third voice from the earlier conversation and this unknown entity.

            “What, was I not supposed to do that?” Ghost protested looking between the two individuals, each filled with vastly different emotions.

            “You’re–a bit,” Paige said hesitantly, “how are you talking.”

            “A Bit, huh. I’ll try not to be offended,” Ghost replied, floating over to his favorite location above his Guardian’s shoulder. “I’m actually a Ghost, well specifically, his Ghost. But I am certainly not a Bit, but I did read about those in my research of this place. They are quite fascinating really. I think it’s really amazing that they can understand everything that’s said to them, but they can only reply with Yes or No. It’s amazing that they can filter everything down into one word–”

            “Ghost?” the Guardian tried to interrupt.

            “...but I think it could be frustrating too. I wonder if that ever annoys th–”

            “Ghost!” The little ball beeped and then went quiet. His single eye darted between his Guardian and Paige.

            “Ooh, I think I might have gotten a bit carried away,” he said quietly. The Guardian nodded with an amused smirk under his helmet that only Ghost could see. He saw Paige doing her best to try and keep her serious Commander persona up and avoid letting out a laugh, but was failing miserably. “I’ll just go–sorry,” he whispered awkwardly before disappearing in a shower sparkling light.

            Paige let out an embarrassing snort as she attempted to swallow her laugh. There was something endearing about the small object going off on a verbose tangent like that, as if to demonstrate that he could indeed say more than just a simple yes or no.

            “Sorry he didn’t manage to finish his explanation of what he was before he got distracted. He is my companion of sorts. If you were wondering where my vehicle and other equipment disappears to when I’m not using it, that’s all on him,” he explained while crouching down next to one of the damaged computers.

            “Interesting, we don’t have anything like him here. Is that all he can do?” Paige queried.

            “No, but it is one of his primary functions apart from being a valuable voice in my head,” he replied knowing Ghost was listening, “well, sometimes valuable.”

            “Hmm,” Paige hummed as she tried to remember what started his conversation. “He mentioned your lack of success in repairing these systems.”

            “Right,” the Guardian replied. “It seemed a lot of the circuitry is burned out. Looks to have been manually destroyed. Like everything here though, it’s entirely made up of code.”

            “I thought accessing and modifying code was supposed to be a strength of Users?” Paige countered.

            “Oh, accessing wasn’t the hard part once I figured out how to reveal the individual lines, but I’m not overly familiar with this programming language, or really any programming language to be honest.”

            “Let me guess, it never came up,” Paige teased.

            “To be completely honest, no. It’s not exactly a Titan thing; You’d have much better luck with a Warlock,” he replied.

            “Oh,” she deadpanned. “What exactly is a Titan’s thing?”

            “Punching things, yelling loudly, oh and hitting things with our heads–there’s a lot of that too,” he replied trying to keep a level voice so as not to give away his own amusement. He hadn’t personally head slammed any of his opponents, but he had seen Saint-14 take out a number of Eliksni and Vex using that method despite his brief time knowing him. Its effectiveness did seem strangely alluring–perhaps he would find an opponent to try it on while he was here.

            “Lucky me,” she snorted watching him struggle to sift through the layers of code. She wouldn’t say it to him, but she noticed coding on this console was very complex. This wasn’t just designed by some random engineering program. In fact, the longer she spent here the more began to realize there was more to this place than she had originally thought. “Here,” she finally said reaching for the recoder attached to her belt and offered it to him, “try this.”

            “What is it?” he asked, tilting his head.

            “It’s a type of wrench. What, you don’t have those in the User world?”

            “We do. They don’t typically look like this though. How does it work?” he examined the tool in his hands, looking for something familiar but not seeing anything resembling the tool in question.

            “I’ve never used one either, but, a former friend of mine was very proficient with one.” She winced at her use of the word former. Why had she chosen that word? Was it because Beck had betrayed her trust by not telling her the truth, or was it because she knew he was dead? Neither option was pleasant.

            “Are you alright,” the User’s voice shook her from her thoughts.

            “Yeah,” she said shaking her head, “sorry. I just got stuck on a memory. Here,” she said taking the tool out of his hand and orientating it in a similar manner to how she had seen Beck use it. As soon as the tool contacted the side of the console the whole system almost instantaneously became transparent, revealing its underlying components.

            “Woah,” the User said, “I wasn’t expecting that! You sure you’ve never done this before?”

            “Impressive right,” she smiled, rolling with the compliment, “but I don’t actually know what I am doing when it comes to fixing this equipment. The re-coding wrench only allows me access to its internals.”

            “Regardless, you’ve made it possible to identify what the actual problem is which is more progress than I’ve managed so far. In fact,” he leaned closer to one of the smaller components which was glowing brighter than the rest of the frame and was visibly flickering, “I think we’ve found the problem. Ghost?”

            “On it,” the little ball reappeared over the User’s shoulder and began pulsing a blue beam of light at the circuitry while Paige looked on in confusion. “My scan of the system indicates that this fuse and all of its surrounding circuitry is completely fried. Something must have overloaded it somehow.”

            “Or someone,” Paige mumbled. She saw both the Guardian and, his ghost?, turn their gazes towards her and immediately regretted it, mostly because of Ghost. There was something unnerving about its presence, but she couldn’t place why. Maybe it was because I didn’t know he was there this whole time. She sighed, “Remember what I told you about how I found this place?”

            “Yeah, you said you followed someone here,” he replied while he put the pieces together. “You mentioned they were an ally of yours. Do you think they’re the ones who sabotaged the equipment?”

            “I don’t know,” she said shaking her head, “but whoever did this didn’t want this place to remain active. Since the program I followed was also aligned with the Occupation, they would have had motive to take this place offline. This place would be a threat to CLU’s operations in Argon after all.”

            “Ghost, see if you can get the main systems back up,” the Guardian ordered before turning his back to Paige. “But why just fry some circuits if they can just be repaired. Why not just topple this whole spire? This place isn’t that structurally sound.”

            “I don’t know,” Paige agreed, “but you’re right. Rocks in the Outlands are pretty fragile, especially more complex formations. It wouldn’t take more than a few recognizers and some well-placed explosives to completely format this sector.

            “It sounds like you have some personal experience with that,” he inquired.

            “You don’t know the half of it,” she replied before being interrupted by the room’s lights dimming momentarily. The console’s operating system flickered to life on the large transparent screen by the window followed by a large array of files, mostly.

            “And we’re up,” Ghost said excitedly as he backed away towards the Guardian. “No need to thank me all at once,” he added when no one replied other than his Guardian giving him a silent nod. Paige on the other hand was already over by the large screen sifting through the database.

            “I recognize many of these,” she jumped in after a few more moments of swiping, “they’re mostly just classified Occupation files from Tesler’s ship. Why this place has them I couldn’t guess.” But she could guess, and lucky for her she found exactly what she was looking for. She didn’t know why she hesitated to open it. It wasn’t like she didn’t already know of Beck’s secret identity at this point. There was nothing new to uncover here, right?  

            “You’re late Beck,” a voice scolded off screen.

            “You know if you told Able to let me off earlier then I wouldn’t be so late all the time,” Beck replied to the unknown voice.

            “Wow he looks exhausted,” Paige noted before checking when the file was created. “Hmm, the cycle after his public fight with Tesler in Argon square. No wonder he looks so drained.”

            “Friend of yours,” the Guardian asked, while walking over to the screen next to her.

            “I thought so,” was all she replied before starting the file up again. Who is that voice? It sounds so, familiar.

            “Yes, you would,” the voice said coldly but with a small hint of amusement. “Come, it’s time to resume your training. You may have fought well against Tesler yesterday, but well isn’t going to cut it.”

            “What are we working on this time,” Beck asked curiously. “Not the Dyson simulation I hope, please not that one.”

            That one must be pretty rough if Beck is that against it.

            “You need to be more aware of your environment when you’re in a fight,” the voice cut through Beck’s complaints. Suddenly the simulation room in the video generated a cut down copy of Argon Square.

            “Who am I fighting?” Beck asked as he scanned the newly rendered environment.

            “Me,” the voice said as the figure stepped into the scene.

            Paige froze. “Tron lives,” she gasped, eyes wide. The blasphemous words were true. It was all true, well minus Beck actually being Tron, but the message that he was sending wasn’t merely the hopeful lie that inspired unrest in Argon’s population.

            Her processor was so caught up in a loop that she almost failed to process a sudden and massive trembling of the spire around her, only snapping back to awareness when the Guardian stabilized her from falling over.

            “Ghost,” he asked, “what was that?”

            “It’s not from anything I did,” Ghost replied.

            “Warning! Proximity Alert Triggered!” The Grid’s voice jumped in seemingly on queue.

            “Well, that was remarkably insightful,” he gave a defeated sigh. He turned to Paige. “A recognizer?”

            “A super-recognizer maybe,” she offered, “not a regular model though.” She had only seen the one that had crashed into Able’s garage on the eve of the uprising, but even in her brief encounter she couldn’t deny the vast superiority of it.

            “Can the computer identify the vessel?” he said to Ghost.

            “The external cameras are still offline,” the ghost chirped.

            “Hmm,” the Guardian grumbled before moving towards the door.

            “Where are you going?” she asked.

            “I found a balcony while you were away. We might be able to get a visual on what’s causing this shaking from up there,” he replied before disappearing around the corner.

            Another large shake caused Paige to lurch forward. “That doesn’t sound too safe,” she muttered under her breath as she started in pursuit.

            “Don’t be dramatic; it’s not that bad,” Ghost chimed in.

Apparently, he had heard her. “Says the floating not a bit who doesn’t touch the ground,” she snapped back, before making a root note in her memory bank not to talk so loudly when it was around.

“I should have you know that I am very much affected by wind,” he added to the unwanted conversation.

She let out an annoyed sigh before heading out of the room. Wow that User has a lot of patience if he has to deal with that inside of his head all the time.

Paige wasted no time in running up the wrapping steps, only stabilizing herself against the wall when the spire’s shaking became too much for her quick movements. Reaching the balcony, she gave herself a moment to regain her breath. She noticed the User standing perfectly still, transfixed on something just out of her view. “Guardian?” Paige began to cautiously approach the User when she too caught sight of the culprit behind the shaking.

            She gasped, eyes wide. “What...is that,” she asked not taking her eyes off the hulking ship as it ever so slowly creeped past.

            “Fate,” the User muttered under his breath. Paige could hear a tinge of concern slip through, indicating that the situation just got a lot more complicated.

____________________________________________________________

            “A Red Legion Carrier?” The situation wasn’t more complicated, it was much, much worse. Paige stared at the holographic projection of the ship that Ghost was emitting. “How do we stop it,” she asked.

            “We don’t,” the User sighed.

            “You’re not giving up,” she accused.

            “Of course not,” he reassured her, “but we also can’t just go charging in.”

            “And why not,” she pushed. “You’re a Guardian. I was under the impression that this was your thing.”

            “Cabal Carriers are designed to bring in entire legions into a combat zone. Even a lone one like that could be carrying as many as 10,000 ground troops and that’s ignoring its vehicle count,” he replied. “I’m pretty good, but I can’t say I’ve fought that many simultaneously on my own before.”

            “If it is an invasion force then what’s their target?” Paige continued to study the image in front of her. She wouldn’t roll over and let more innocent programs die, not if she could help it.

            “I don’t know,” the User admitted. “I do find one thing odd though.” He saw the Commander look to him intently. “Carriers almost never travel alone. They’re usually flanked by a couple of smaller warships which are much better at close range combat. If this one is alone–” he trailed off.

            “What is it?” Paige frowned when the Guardian suddenly moved over to the main computer and started searching through its files.

            “Perhaps we should give that ship a visit after all,” he hummed.

____________________________________________________________

            “So much for it being alone,” Paige sighed. The now landed carrier was flanked by what she guessed was two of the aforementioned warships, if their smaller size but similar shape was anything to go by. “This is going to change our strategy, isn’t it?”

            “The Carrier is untouchable for now if we want to avoid a large firefight,” he replied. The number of tanks and Cabal troops already deployed and currently surrounding the ship made sneaking onto it an impossibility, and it would only get more difficult as time went on. “But that warship might still work as long as they don’t increase the security around its perimeter,” he said, pointing to the one closest to their position.

            “We should get moving then.” The urgency in her voice betrayed her composed mask.

            As the Commander peered over the ledge they had been ducking behind to look for a way down into the crater, the Guardian heard a sound that even the most notorious light-bearers feared. “Scorpius!” he growled under his breath. In one quick motion he grabbed Paige and pulled her back just as a beam of precise bullet fire ripped upwards into the sky where her head had been less than a second earlier. That was too close. He let out a sigh of relief.

            Paige’s processor on the other hand was much slower in its acceptance of the close call. “Give me a warning next time,” she snapped as she slowly picked herself up off the ground. She glared when the User snorted in relieved amusement, but her expression softened when she saw how tense he was. That must have been a much closer call than I thought. She shivered. What a way to go that would have been, she mused darkly as her own memory of the near miss replayed in her head. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

            “Anytime,” the User replied. A pair of binoculars appeared in his hands. “It looks like that isn’t the only Scorpius the Cabal have placed around this ridge,” he said handing them over to Paige.

            “They really don’t want anyone going down there.” The turrets were all similarly spaced apart from one another across the rim of the crater. As she continued to pan, she spotted a series of large pipes, or what used to be pipes. Most of them had crumbled and caved in on themselves. Her eyes widened. How had she not recognized this place sooner? “I think I might know of a way we can get to that ship without getting spotted by the Scorpius.”

            “Go on,” he replied.

            “The city of Argon is surrounded by a labyrinth of tunnels that all lead to different parts of the city. Until relatively recently, some of those tunnels used to lead here,” Paige pointed to the many openings around the crater floor, some more damaged than others. “We use them to get down there, sneak onto one of the ships, and then quickly escape.”

            “But you just said they used to lead here though,” the User frowned.

            “I did. Most of the tunnels with the shortest routes between here and Argon are in fact destroyed, but after the incident that led to their collapse, the Occupation had the remaining tunnels surveyed and mapped out. If we can get that map, we should be able to take one of the longer tunnel paths and still arrive here to one of the less damaged entrances,” she replied.

            “Then it’s a good thing that we have a computer that has an archived copy of the Occupation’s database.”

____________________________________________________________

            “So, what exactly was this incident?” The Guardian couldn’t help but notice the increasing number and severity of cracks in the tunnel walls as they got deeper into the system and closer to their destination.

            Paige sighed. “A drill used to mine liquid energy was sabotaged and suffered a catastrophic meltdown and subsequently an explosion.”

            “Wait, you have to mine for that stuff?”

            “Yes and no,” Paige replied, eyes never leaving the map of the tunnel system she was holding. “The cities are in fact connected directly to the Grid and are fed a steady stream of energy that is normally more than enough to keep all of the programs there functioning. But programs aren’t the only thing on the Grid that use energy. It’s used to repair vehicles and buildings when they’re damaged, it can be used as fuel for the larger vehicles like Recognizers and Tesler’s Ship. But the most energy is needed when anything is created: programs, vehicles–it doesn’t matter.”

            “And let me guess, the bigger and more complex the project, the more energy is needed,” the User followed.

            “In this case the project was so large that the energy necessary would have expended Argon’s natural supply for tens of cycles, and it still wouldn’t have been enough. The mining operation would have been able to compensate for it, had it been successful...” Paige trailed off.

            “But it was sabotaged,” the Guardian pushed.

            “It wouldn’t have been sabotaged if the drill wasn’t causing other problems,” Paige replied a little more harshly than intended.

            The Guardian was just going to drop the subject, when he heard Paige let out a sigh before continuing. “The use of the drill interrupted the main energy flow to Argon and was causing blackouts throughout the city––among other issues,” she explained. And that if the Renegade hadn’t intervened it probably would have blown Argon right off the Grid, she bitterly thought. Of course, she hadn’t known that until after Tesler relieved her of duty and put the assignment in the hands of Pavel. Users she missed the days where she could just blame the Renegade for all her problems!

            Her thoughts were shaken when she abruptly felt herself get pulled into an adjacent tunnel. “What’s–”

            The Guardian put a finger up to his helmet indicating her to be quiet. In the silence she heard what sounded like distant grunting and footsteps, or rather foot stomps as the rhythm were more akin to marching. Paige followed the Guardian’s actions and plastered herself against the tunnel wall. It didn’t take long for the ones behind the noise to finally make their appearance.

            It was the first time since her initial encounter with them in the ally that Paige had seen a Cabal up close, but this time she had more of an opportunity to study them. They were large, much larger than even the User standing next to her. Factoring in their armor, she began to wonder how effective her disk would be against one of them. While the patrol was only made up of two heavily armed Cabal, they were flanked by another much thinner and shorter soldier as well as two other entities that were unlike anything she had encountered during her runtime on the Grid.

            It didn’t take long for the patrol to fully pass them by and after waiting another micro they quietly re-entered the main passageway. “I know what the Cabal look like, but what were the others?”

            “The smaller one is a Psion. Their race was conquered and enslaved by the Cabal before being molded into their loyal subjects,” the Guardian responded.

            “Is the same thing true for the other–” she paused not knowing what to call it.

            “War Beasts,” the User finished for her, “no. As far as I know, they are native animals to the Cabal’s home world. They’re like wolves and dogs where I–” he stopped after seeing her face. “You have no idea what I’m talking about do you?”

            “Sorry,” she replied, “I think they might only be a User thing.”

            “Fair enough,” he whispered in response.

            After passing a few more tunnels, the map in Paige’s hand made a sharp pinging noise. “We’re here,” she announced. Stepping into the side passage’s fractured entrance, both the User and Program momentarily froze at the sight in front of them before they both retreated behind the wall.

            Paige looked over to the User. “There’s dozens of them. What do we do,” she asked in a barely audible whisper?

            “When we go through there, don’t make a sound,” he replied at a similar volume. He had walked through dog piles of sleeping war beasts before, especially during the Red War. The problem wasn’t so much not stepping on them, that was the easy part. But he knew from experience that it didn’t necessarily take a gunshot to wake them up either.

            “Like I want to wake up one of those things,” she scoffed. The device in Paige’s hand let off another ill-timed beep, triggering Ghost to confiscate it out of her hand in one quick transmat and leading him to be on the receiving end of another one of the Commander’s glares.

            “You never wake up only one,” the Guardian commented dryly. “Come on.” Slowly both he and Paige entered the dimly lit tunnel, being careful not to bump, trip over, or otherwise do anything that would shake the Red Legion’s armored pets from their deep slumbers. As they approached the halfway point, the debris left behind from the drill’s explosion began to increase, making it more difficult to pass through without making a scuffing sound with each step. To compensate, the Guardian silently indicated to the Commander to step in time with the closest war beast’s breathing.

            Finally, they reached the end of the passage, and after a close call where a War Beast briefly became roused before getting knocked out by the Guardian, the immediate danger of becoming chew toys was put behind them.

            “What now?” Paige asked after joining the User behind a large chunk of rubble.

            “I count only two Cabal, one Legionary and Phalanx guarding the ship’s ramp, but that doesn't mean there aren’t more nearby, so we’ll need to be quick,” the Guardian quickly assessed. “You’re a Commander, got any ideas on how to approach this?”

            “You’re the one who does this all the time,” Paige protested. “What do you normally do?”

            “I mean, typically I would just run in headfirst so to speak,” he replied.

            “Right, punching everything in sight, I remember,” Paige teased. “Hmm. Fine, I think I might have a few ideas.”

____________________________________________________________

            Cabal Guards speaking Ulurant (The Cabal’s Native Language)

            “We’ve only been here four days and already I hate this place,” one of the Legionaries muttered under his breath.

            “It’s not exactly the endless sand dunes of Mars is it,” the other soldier joked.

            “Shut it,” the first grumbled. “It’s those Psion’s fault you know. Who put them in charge anyway?”

            “Here it comes,” the other said sarcastically.

            “We conquered them, remember? They should be bowing to us,” the first complained.

            “You can go tell that to them yourself,” the second replied, “but a bit of advice––you may want to wait until there isn’t a loose Guardian running about.”

            “You’re not seriously buying that Guardian nonsense,” the first Cabal indignantly snorted. “Have you seen the helmets that those programs wear? You and that Psion sister probably just saw one of those and assumed it was a Guardian.”

            “You mean one of those helmets?” The second Cabal pointed off to the left.

            “Huh,” the first turned to see what his partner was looking at. “Yeah, one of, wait–Halt!” The two soldiers raised their weapons.

            “Haavee you two seen the light-rail stopp,” a red circuited program wobbled over to the two guards. “I waaas told by a friend to meeet them here.”

            “Uh, light-rail,” the first guard asked to his partner, letting his guard down and speaking in English.

            “I think she’s drunk,” the other replied.

            “It’s a program you fool, it doesn’t get drunk,” the first snapped.

            “Aii...AM not drunk,” the program stammered.

            “Hey, don’t the red circuits mean they’re a soldier,” the second asked.

            The first guard scoffed. “And that matters why?”

            “Well shouldn’t we report this then? Tazaroc will want to know.” the second replied.

            “Soldier or not, as long as it’s alive, or whatever a pile of sentient code is classified as, it’s our problem.” The Cabal re-targeted the program who retreated a couple of steps. “I did say as long as it’s alive, didn’t I?”

            “Woah, sorry for bothering you. I’m leaving.” The program stumbled backwards and put her hands up in surrender. “I actually think I see the light-rail station over there.”

            The two Cabal sent side glances to each other. “Huh? Over where?”

            “Behind you.” The program smirked under her helmet, dropping the facade fully.

            The two soldiers swung around to engage the threat behind them. Unfortunately, they only had moments to react before they were blown, or rather disappeared entirely into a purple cloud by the void pulse of the Guardian’s Epicurean fusion rifle.

            “Nice performance,” the User commented, “you were very convincing.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it because I am never doing that again!” Her helmet retracted, showing her face and on it a look the Guardian had seen more than enough to recognize someone coming to terms with difficult circumstances.

            “That’s a shame. If I didn’t know better, I would have assumed you were programmed to be a thespian,” he replied lightly. He didn’t know the Commander’s thoughts on the situation at hand, but he felt a little attempt at humor couldn’t hurt things.

            “A what?” Paige raised a confused eyebrow, indicating to the User that his attempt had fallen flat with his intended audience.

            “Never mind.” He sighed. “I do want to point out that that plan was your idea.”

            “No thanks to you,” Paige rebutted with feigned indignance.

            The Guardian cracked a small smile under the veil of his helmet, noting her attempt at banter. Perhaps his effort to cut through the tension wasn’t a complete failure. “Come on,” he waved her forward, while Ghost transmatted fusion rifle away and replaced it with his ever-trusty Go Figure pulse rifle. “We should get moving before we’re spotted.”

            Paige silently nodded before starting after him up the ramp, disk in hand.

____________________________________________________________

            Perhaps it was merely the fact that she lived aboard a military vessel, but Paige felt a tinge of comfort from the somewhat familiar design language of the ship. But for each thing that she found familiar, there were three that were completely new. For one, the red color scheme the decorated the walls could, in the right lighting, almost make her feel like she was back on board her own vessel, almost. This ship was devoid of the illuminated circuit lines that could be found tracing the walls of Tesler’s ship, lines that Paige hadn’t given much thought to in the past, but now in their absence anticipated their return.

            Most notably however was the detailing on everything, from a crate pushed into a corner, to the many doors. The Commander had noticed this during her time with the User. While most everything on the Grid, the armor, light-cycles, ships, etc. all had a smooth black texture coating them, the Guardian’s equivalent of those items were all incredibly detailed with no two textures being perfectly identical. Paige rolled around on that word for a moment.

            Is that why CLU thinks the Users and their world are imperfect? Could it really be something so unimportant? She silently shook the thought from her head. It had to be more than that.

            “This place is massive, but it’s not exactly what I would call space efficient,” Paige interjected trying to make conversation. The silence, or rather, the droning humming and clicking sounds of the ships machinery we’re starting to mess with her sense of location as they navigated the wide, winding hallways.

            “You’d be surprised,” the Guardian replied. “The Cabal don’t exactly do anything small and yet what they can fit on a single ship––” The User trailed off.

            “I don’t think I want to find out.” Paige noticed the User’s shift in tone.

            “I hope you don’t,” the User grumbled.

            As the continued forward to the ship’s bridge, Paige’s security programming was starting to wear at her. Something felt off. “You’ve been on these ships before right, do you find it odd that we haven’t run into a single Cabal yet.”

            “Yes,” the Guardian agreed. The thought had occurred to him five minutes prior, but he dismissed it. If it was a trap, he had learned from experience that it was often best to play along. If it wasn’t––he was never that lucky. No matter what, this mission was going to go south very fast. It was just a matter of time. “We’re almost to the bridge. I’ll have Ghost check the inventory and duty rosters once we get in there.”

            Paige nodded, glad that it wasn’t just her being paranoid from a lack of energy or from missing a sleep cycle. She was also glad to know the User knew where they were on this ship. They had passed through a total of 14 doors since boarding the unfamiliar vessel and that, combined with the long winding corridors and vents they had made their way through, had caused her to completely lose track of where they were in correlation to the entrance.

            The Guardian suddenly indicated her to stop before they rounded a corner. “Are we at the bridge?”

            “Just about,” he replied.

            “I’m detecting two Psion’s up ahead,” Ghost quietly chimed in between their shoulders, startling Paige who had forgotten he was there.

            “I’ve got to start remembering that thing exists,” she mentally grumbled not appreciating his sudden appearance.

            “You should put your helmet back on,” the User suggested.

            “Right.” Paige reached behind her and tapped the release mechanism causing her helmet to quickly rez around her head. “Let’s go.”

            They both quickly rounded the corner, taking the two Psion’s guarding the door by surprise. Paige engaged the nearest one, landing a kick into the side of its leg before using the move Quorra had taught her back at the medical center to launch the frail being into the wall.

            She turned towards the sound of the Guardian shoulder slamming the other one into the corner before letting it crumple to the floor lifelessly.

            “Ghost,” the Guardian called out.

            “I’ve got the door,” Ghost replied. “I’m detecting hostiles on the other side.”

            “Any idea the number,” Paige asked.

            “No, but it shouldn’t be too many.” Both Paige and the Guardian looked at each other skeptically.

            “Uh huh,” the Commander mused.

            “When those doors open, be ready for anything,” the User advised. Paige moved to the other side of the door opposite the User and activated her disk.

            “Opening, in 3...2…1…” Ghost counted down.

            The moment the two halves pulled apart, a lone sniper blast flew past them, no doubt by an anxious opponent. The User swung the barrel of his weapon around the corner and sent two, four-bullet pulses towards the two Psions on Paige’s side before fully entering himself and ducking behind a pillar on the right side of the room.

            The Commander saw a Legionary begin to move towards the Guardian’s position and without a second thought launched her disk towards it which only deflected off its shoulder armor before returning to her hand. It also had the unfortunate effect of alerting the Cabal to her presence and position. In a matter of moments, she found herself suppressed behind the corner of the doorway as blast after blast of arc-shot from the Cabal’s shotgun was unloaded in her direction.

            Spotting an opening, she quickly sprinted through the doorway and rolled behind the pillar opposite the User. She turned her head towards him when she caught him waving. “Hit them in the back,” he yelled over to her. Momentarily looking past the pillar to see where the enemy was, she shifted 90 degrees clockwise around her cover. Taking a deep breath, she jumped out and released her disk in a wide arc. In doing so, the Legionary she was targeting spotted her and resumed firing in her direction, only this time they started approaching her, as was her disk. The Legionary let out a wail before crumpling to the ground as oil leaked from the back of its suit where her disk had lodged itself.

            The Guardian, using Paige’s surprise attack as a distraction ran around the edge of the room and momentarily engaged the sniper. The fight lasted about as long as it took for the Psion to blink its solitary eye, as the Guardian wasted no time pulling it from its crouched sniping position and punched it into a nearby console.

            “Now we’re on the bridge,” he pronounced to no one in particular once it was clear there were no other hostiles present. “Ghost, let’s see what we can pull from the computer.”

            “On it,” Ghost replied, pulsing at a nearby computer array. “There isn’t much here, just a lot of maintenance logs–ah I found the duty roster if that is still something you’re interested in.”

            “Indeed, give me a head count…” Paige stopped listening to what User and Ghost were talking about, their voices fading into background noise as she explored the alien control room. In all honesty, besides being much larger, it wasn’t all that different than the one of Tesler’s ship, but it did seem to have many more support structures.

            She was about to head over to the User when a bit of flickering on the back wall where they entered caught her attention. She frowned as she walked over to take a closer look at the damage. “What the…” she mumbled.

            “Guardian,” she called out.

            “What do you mean we took out half of their units? We only engaged like eight or nine of them–”

            “Guardian!” His attention quickly shifted to that of the Commander’s.

            “What’s going on,” he replied.

            “You had better take a look at this,” she waved him over. “Ghost, stay there; look up this ship’s origin.”

            “You got it,” he replied.

            “What have you got,” the User asked once he arrived at her side. She nodded towards the wall.

            “Hmm, that’s not normal,” he commented. The damage was presumably caused by the Psion’s stray sniper shot, but the damage wasn’t like anything he had seen before, or at least, seen before arriving on the grid. Where the bullet had impacted glowed harsh blue, and the hole produced was jagged with loose voxels.

            He bent down to pick a few stray ones off the floor and examined it in his hand. It was no longer glowing due to lack of power, but it was still very clearly of Grid origin.

            “I’ve got that name for you,” Ghost chimed in, unaware of the discovery that had just been made behind him. “Somewhere called Tron City.”

            He floated over to where the two were situated, stopping when he saw the wide-eyed expression plastered on the Commander’s face. “That’s not good–is it?”

            Paige did not answer.

Chapter Text

Chapter 11: Clarity

            “You said there weren’t that many files on this ship’s computer,” the Guardian said to his Ghost. “I want you to pull everything; I don’t care how insignificant it may appear. We can’t risk our own ignorance leading us to miss something.” Ghost gave a couple quick beeps in response before flying back over to the console.

            “Are you alright,” the User asked Paige quietly.

            “Yeah, sorry. I guess I just wasn’t expecting such a clear answer,” she replied.

            “So, you’re familiar with Tron City?”

            “It’s the capitol city on the Grid,” Paige replied coldly, “and the very heart of the Occupation.”

            “I see.” The User pondered over the implications of the Red Legion operating so close to this world’s only government. He saw the intensity on Paige’s face shift to uneasiness as she reached similar conclusions. “You don’t think––”

            She looked towards the glowing blue hole in the armored wall beside her head and sighed. “I don’t know what to think.”

            By the forward window, Ghost gave the ships’ file system one last once over just to make sure he didn’t miss something. Satisfied, he shut down his probe beam. He was about to turn back and join his Guardian when movement on the ground below caught his attention. Where the landing zone below was once empty was now filled with squads of Red Legion troops. Threshers, and Interceptors covered the area while they waited to be moved into the larger ships’ hangars.

            “Oh sh––Guys,” Ghost yelled across the room prompting both the Guardian and Paige to run over. “I think I know why this ship is so empty.”

            “Have you finish pulling everything from their computer,” the Guardian pressed.

            “Everything here has been duplicated onto my memory.”

            “Good,” the User replied, his voice restrained. “We’re leaving.”

___________________________________________________________

            Track 1

            “They haven’t raised the alarm yet,” Paige observed. They had luckily encountered no further resistance as they retraced their steps back to where they had originally entered. Unfortunately, the activity around the carrier’s armament and vehicle payload had spread into the smaller warship’s hangar, leaving the two to hastily find cover behind a small pile of fuel canisters.

            “There is a good chance they’ve noticed that they no longer have contact with the bridge. We should assume that they know we’re here.”

            “Well don’t look at me for ideas,” Paige quietly replied, “we both agreed this one’s all yours.”

            The User took a moment to count the number of guards in the hangar before responding. “I think I have an idea on how to get passed them,” he said, nodding towards a nearby patrol. “You trust me, right?”

            “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t,” she countered.

            The Guardian cracked a small smile under his helmet. “In that case, let’s make some noise.”

___________________________________________________________

Outside the ship…

            “Centurion!” A lone Legionary ran over to the field Commander. “Sir, the Carrier has lost contact with the bridge crew of the Avalanche. They have reason to believe it’s the same Guardian our unit encountered in the city.”

            “Seal the ship,” the Centurion ordered a nearby Psion before activating his radio. “I need reinforcements on my position, now! I don’t want anything getting out of that ship!”

            “Yes sir,” the Legionary on the other end replied. The Centurion looked over to the ship as the Psion disappeared into the hangar. Within a few seconds the ramp began to rise. The Centurion let out a sigh of relief. Once the ship was sealed this would become some higher-up’s problem. Dealing with a Guardian was well above his paygrade, assuming the Psions in charge could find something to pay him with other than promises of retribution.

            Suddenly, the ramp’s ascent stopped followed by a loud metallic clang. The Centurion activated his radio. “Where are those reinforcements I asked for,” he growled, a growing mixture of fear and frustration boiling over.

            “On their way sir,” the voice on the other end replied, “ETA 60 seconds.” The Centurion was about to reply when the sound of an engine revving rumbled just out sight behind the partially upturned ramp. The officer activated his solar over-shield in response.

            “Steady,” he ordered the troops around him. “What is the Guardian waiting for?” he wondered curiously when nothing happened. Despite this, he continued to keep his weapon aimed on the ramp, even as the sound of a drop-ship’s thrusters roared overhead and the rumbling of a tank’s treads as it shattered and ground the rock like substance beneath it threatened to break his concentration. “All troops, move to unit position one. I want every angle of that ramp covered– no blind spots!”

            Just as he finished, the ramp started to lower ever so slowly. “Perfect, you just come on out here,” he mumbled to himself smugly. That was when he heard the engine on the other side rev again only this time not quieting down but getting louder.

            “Contact,” one of the Legionaries who was much closer to the ramp yelled as a glowing motorcycle like vehicle launched itself off the end of the ramp. At that moment, all the tension broke, and the surrounding troops began to open fire on the exposed Guardian. The Centurion fired a few shots of his own before taking a moment to assess the situation. Something felt askew. “Why aren’t they attacking? Why aren’t they trying to flee?” The Field Commander watched as the rider looped around the tank, disappearing behind it for a second before doubling back in an S formation. The motion of the ramp also caught his attention as it continued to lower itself, “Wait,” the Centurion frowned, “why was the ramp still lowering!”

            “Stop! Cease fire!” he yelled desperately into his radio. “It’s a divers–” It was too late as bullets began flying towards his soldiers in a controlled sweeping pattern, starting with those closest to the ramp. He watched in wide-eyed horror as a Guardian in full black armor let loose an arc-energy pulse grenade and emptied his machine gun’s payload into each of the tank’s forward-facing thrusters respectively causing both to explode outwards, temporarily disabling the tank and taking out any unlucky Legionaries and Phalanx who happened to be standing nearby. By this time, the remaining Red Legion forces in the local vicinity had realized what was happening and shifted their attention away from the two-wheeled distraction, not that that was doing them much good.

            Realizing that he had to intervene to win, the Centurion charged the Guardian who up until this point hadn’t noticed the idle Commander standing off to the side and knocked him into the ground about 20 feet back from, he was previously standing.

___________________________________________________________

            Meanwhile, Paige was amazed by how well this “plan” was actually turning out. Yes, the Guardian getting thrown into the ground looked brutal, but the User seemed to have recovered just fine and it wasn’t like they hadn’t accounted for that. It kept the attention off her at least which was the main goal of this diversion. She quickly maneuvered her light-cycle over to the mostly undamaged rear of the tank. “Alright, what was it he said? Two thrusters down equals temporarily disabled, three thrusters, boom? I wonder what four thrusters down does,” she smirked as she fastened two light-grenades to each of the two remaining legs, being careful not to get burned by the glowing blue flame beneath.

            As she got back on her light-cycle she saw two Cabal run past to assist their struggling Commanding Officer and noticed a large, unusual tank mounted on their back. “That looks important,” she hummed, deciding to test her theory. She activated her disk’s cutting blade and threw it towards the tank, puncturing it. Paige had barely caught her disk by the time the tank was bulging and smoking critically, giving her only a fraction of a second to dive to the ground before it, and the Cabal wearing it erupted into a large fireball. “Huh,” she groaned pulling herself back up, “I guess that was important.”

___________________________________________________________

            Whether it was the force expelled from the Centurion’s over shield giving out or from the explosion of the incendior, both the Guardian and his Cabal combatant were thrown away from one another. After taking a couple of breaths to steady himself, the Guardian stumbled to his feet only to be facing the also recovered Centurion and the barrel of the damaged tank leveled at him.

            “You cannot hope to save this little world– or your own,” the Centurion chided. “Tazaroc will shape this place into Earth’s destruction, and you will be its first victim. Not even the Traveler can save you now.”

            The Guardian briefly turned his attention away from the Centurion’s hubris when he saw Paige stop her light-cycle at a safe distance away from the tank.

            “I’m going to enjoy watching you and your kind burn,” the Cabal continued to gloat.

            “Yeah, well,” he interrupted, “you should have been watching her.” He nodded in Paige’s direction.

            The Centurion spun around to see the figure on the two-wheeled vehicle holding up a small object. Quickly putting the pieces together, he looked over to the nearest working thruster on the tank. “No,” he gasped, ignoring the sound of a sparrow transmatting behind him and speeding away.

            Paige squeezed the detonator, the subsequent explosion taking out the two remaining thrusters on the tank causing its aft section to crash into the rock beneath it with an unceremonious thud.

            “That was it?” she asked the Guardian as he pulled up to her, not trying to hide her disappointment.

            “Wait for it–” he replied. Even with all the smoke in the air, she could see an impressive bright-yellow glow, not unlike what she saw with the exploding Cabal, materialize through the haze where the tank once stood, before blowing itself to pieces in all directions. “That, was it.”

            “I have to ask; how did you know there was going to be a tank?”

            “With the Cabal, there is always a tank,” he deadpanned.

            “I still can’t believe that worked,” she shook her head.

            The sound of two thresher gunship’s exiting the carrier’s hangar caught the Guardian’s attention. “We’re not out of the woods yet.”

___________________________________________________________

            Track 2

            Paige skillfully evaded a pair of the pack’s stragglers, easily dodging the first with her light-cycle and batting the other aside with her disk during its midair attempt at knocking her off the vehicle. She shot a quick glance over her shoulder to see if the war beasts were catching up but was relieved to see that not only were they not pursuing, but that the quick direction change had led to them tripping and piling over each other. She let out a snort of amusement. Even gridbugs were more coordinated than that.

            Less amusing was the gunfire that started pummeling the ground right behind her rear wheel. Paige quickly began accelerating to the bike’s full speed as she raced into the tunnel ahead. She immediately felt the change in road quality, the dust like debris left behind from the drill’s explosion making the traction less than desirable. She looked over at the User’s floating sparrow with a tinge of jealousy.

            A loud crashing sound behind her once again shook her thoughts. One of the two thresher gunships had blasted its way in from the ceiling and resumed its pursuit, now unimpeded by the much larger main tunnel they were in. “I hope you have a plan User,” she shouted accusingly over the echoing rumble of all three of their engines while evading a hail of fire.

            “I’m working on it,” he muttered to himself. “Ghost, you have the map– any chance we can lose these guys in one of the side tunnels?”

            “Not likely. Most of these just lead to dead ends,” Ghost answered, “or worse.”

            The Guardian sighed. “We can’t outrun that ship forever. Scan the map and find us a way out!”

            “Scanning… I have found three routes out of the tunnels system from our current position. Pushing the shortest route to your HUD now.”

            A familiar white dot appeared in the center of the Guardian’s helmet. “Hey,” he yelled over to the Commander to grab her attention. Sending a brief nod in acknowledgment, she quickly drifted over besides the Guardian. “Ghost found a path out of these tunnels,” he informed her, “Stay close and follow me!”

            A stream of bullets zipped past the left side of her head causing her to duck. “Oh yeah, like I had any plans of staying here.”

            The Guardian saw the white dot shift over to an upcoming opening. “Third tunnel on the left on my mark,” he relayed to her, not pointing so as not to give away their next move and give the hostile ship a chance to collapse one of their paths out. “… And now!” he yelled just as they passed it forcing them, and their much less maneuverable pursuant to double back around.

            “Too bad we couldn’t have done that sooner,” Paige commented in relief as pulled up alongside the Guardian while the thresher’s pilot carefully attempted to pull off the in-air equivalent of a three-point turn.

            “It won’t last long,” he replied dryly. The sound of the ship’s thrusters behind them reverberated through the tunnel’s walls as it caught back up.

            “I have a plan,” Paige announced. “How many more direction changes until we’re out of here?”

            “Just two,” the User replied, “But there isn’t much of a gap between them. Whatever you’re planning on doing you’ll have to do quickly. The first one is coming up in 10...9…8…”

            “Okay focus Paige,” she thought to calm herself. The bullet fire from earlier returned as the gunship pulled back into range of them again. “When I say so, speed ahead,” she yelled over to him. The Guardian suddenly banked right into a wide tunnel split. As Paige went to follow, she pulled out her own disk and activated its cutting blade.

            “Go, now!” The glow of Guardian’s rear engine grew brighter with his increased speed as he pulled out ahead. A shadow crept over top of Paige as the thresher picked the Guardian as its primary target and attempted to catch up.

            Paige leaned over and punctured the tunnel floor with her disk. “Oh no you don’t,” she muttered before speeding up and guiding the new incision across the entire inner circumference of the tunnel wall multiple times over. Looking over her shoulder she saw that the tunnel was beginning to fracture, the vibrations of the quickly approaching ship were wreaking havoc with the newly damaged areas.

            Within a couple more seconds it was all too much, and the ceiling caved. First a large chunk came down onto the ship’s starboard thruster, destabilizing it and sending it careening off to its left. As it crashed, the rest of the ceiling and walls came down, burying it.

            “Alright,” the Commander applauded to herself, “that worked out.” Her relief was quickly lost when she heard cracking sounds above her. Looking up, she saw a web of fractures forming in the ceiling almost just a quickly as she was driving.

            “Oh, for Flynn’s sake,” she spat. She attempted to increase her bike’s speed but found the throttle to already be fully engaged. “Come on, which way did you go,” she panicked at the three openings ahead of her.

            “Paige!” The User’s voice came from the center most maw, which sat elevated above the other two. She could hear rubble falling from the ceiling, and land just behind her back wheel.

            The slope of the ramp wasn’t overly steep, but she could immediately feel the effects, even as small as they were, on her speed. The first piece of debris that hit her bike was small, but had fallen with enough force to slightly damage the code on her rear wheel. A blue checkerboard pattern formed where the collision had occurred, and Paige noticed the decreased traction whenever it made contact with the ground below.

            Paige was halfway up the ramp when a second piece of the ceiling landed directly in front of her. As Paige dodged out of its way to prevent a direct forward collision, a stray chunk that had broken off bounced its way into the spokes of her rear wheel, finishing it off. Cubes exploded everywhere, as her bike began to derez into a wireframe.

            “Her bike isn’t going to last much longer,” Ghost commented.

            “Paige,” the Guardian yelled down to her. She just needed a few more seconds, seconds her bike didn’t have. “Jump!”

            Her back wheel was phasing in and out of existence making it extremely difficult to keep going straight. Without giving it any further thought, she climbed onto the still partially phased front wheel, and leapt forward. It its damaged state and with the loss of its driver, the light-cycle fell back and toppled over before being consumed by a pile of debris.

            The commander on the other hand was having second thoughts about jumping, especially as the ground approached. As she reached her hands out to catch herself, whatever benefit that would have provided her given her current predicament, a blue shimmer appeared beneath her. She only had a fraction to register what it was before her hands caught hold of the wide handlebars of the sparrow. The vehicle’s engine roared while it accelerated to its full speed in mere seconds without any input from its passenger. Paige could hear one close call after another as the sparrow was remotely guided presumably by Ghost up the remainder of the ramp and into the smaller opening.

            “So much for there being three ways out,” Ghost muttered as last of the debris fell, blocking the path behind them.

            “Are you alright,” the Guardian turned to Paige.

            She let out a deep breath. “I think so,” she inflected upwards.

            “Sorry if I made you think I left you behind.”

            “I didn’t think that,” she looked over to him. “Thanks for having my back.”

            Before he could respond, a new crack formed in the area above where they were standing.

            “Time to go,” Ghost yelled. Both the User and Paige raced forward.       

            “This tunnel isn’t very long,” the User yelled over the caving in walls behind them, “we’re going to make it.”

            “Guardian,” Ghost exclaimed, “there is a big drop off at the end. I don’t think the sparrows can handle it.”

            If Paige had any blood, it would have drained from her face. How could she have forgotten about this.

            “How far of a drop is it?” They had just turned rounded the final corner and now with light visible at the end of the tunnel, they needed a plan.

            “250ft,” Ghost replied quickly.

            “Okay,” he reasoned out loud.

            “If you’ve got something, I’m open to suggestions,” she yelled over to him.

            “It’s a plan, but you’re not going to like it,” he foreshadowed.

            “We can’t afford to be picky,” she replied, “just tell me!”

            “We’re going to drive straight out of this tunnel, but when I say so, I’m going to need you to jump towards me,” he yelled back.

            “What kind of a plan is that” she questioned, not really expecting an answer. Even in her short time with the User, she had grown to trust him, at least when it came to plans. When he had the time to explain them, he did, so when he didn’t, she knew that there was probably more to it than his lacking description, even if that description came down to essentially throwing herself off a ledge. Or at least she hoped there was.

            “Don’t hesitate,” he yelled.

            She braced herself as the ground’s end approached. “Three… two… one…” she counted under her breath. For a brief period, she felt weightless as the momentum from the sparrow carried her forward. Then the moment came that she had not been looking forward to, the sudden drop.

            A loud, “now” rang into her audio circuits and for a brief period she couldn’t move due to the sinking feeling in her chest. She had felt it many times before. When she fell at the island, when she fell at The Games fighting Pavel, when she fell off the recognizer whilst fighting with the Renegade back on Tesler’s ship. “So, she fell a lot,” she recognized, but that never froze her up before and it wasn’t going to now. Regaining control of her movement, she leapt to her right, the sparrow vanishing beneath her feet as she pushed herself from its surface.

            She reached out and grabbed his extended hand and was pulled towards him. Wait did he jump off his sparrow too? They really were just plummeting to the ground.

            “I’m hoping there is more to this plan of yours,” she said, trying to control the panic in her voice.

            “Hang on,” he answered. She looked down, focusing so much at the rapidly approaching ground that she barely registered the white feathering beginning to glow around them. She closed her eyes in preparation for the impact, but it never came. The numb sinking feeling subsided. Cautiously opening one eye she noticed they were not standing on the ground but floating a dozen meters above. Just as she began to acclimate, she was caught off guard when they started to drop again, only to stop, this time around the height of a normal program. The rest this time was much shorter as was the distance they fell.

            Paige didn’t realize how tense her body had been until her feet   the solid ground of the Grid and she almost fell over.

            “Sorry for not giving you more of a warning about, that,” he said apologetically seeing how visibly shaken she was.

            “How did you– you can– fly?” she finally managed to stammer out.

            “No, of course not,” he said. “Warlocks can fly. I can just hover around for a little bit and then I fall.”

            “Uh huh. I definitely noticed the falling part,” she snorted, “but I will admit that your landing wasn’t terrible.”

            “I’ll take that as a compliment,” he let out a small laugh in return. He looked around at the open area they had landed in. “If you’re ready, we should get out of here.”

            “Right, patrols,” she said dusting herself off. She reached for her light-cycle baton and paused when she remembered it wasn’t there. She made a fake coughing sound in the User’s direction.

            “Oh yeah, Ghost help her out.” Paige hadn’t taken the time to examine the sparrow that Ghost had rezzed for her earlier, but now that it was in front of her, she actually found it to be fairly sleek looking with its shimmering green and purple body. Not as nice as a light-cycle, but she wasn’t going to complain. It certainly beat walking back to the city from the Outlands during a storm, thank you Renegade.

            “All good,” the User asked.

            “Yeah,” she replied quickly, coming out of her thoughts, “let’s go.”

            As they drove off back towards the spire, neither of them noticed a thresher observing them from above and out of sight.

___________________________________________________________

            “Can’t you go any faster,” Paige snapped in frustration.

            “Sure, if you want the file to wipe itself,” Ghost retorted. Paige stepped back with a huff and sat down on a bench next to the User.

            “I wouldn’t worry,” the User said reassuringly, “my Ghost is the best at breaking through security protocols.”

            “It’s true,” Ghost chimed in. “You’re looking at the Tower Encryption Cracking champion three years running.”

            “That’s a thing,” Paige asked taking a sip of energy.

            “Oh yeah. It’s a pretty big deal among the ghost community up in the tower. It can get pretty heated,” the Guardian explained.

            “I’m sure,” she hummed as she tried to imagine how a competition like that could even be possibly entertaining. How would anyone be able tell what’s going on? A Ghost cracking security protocols just looks like a Bit floating aimlessly over a computer.

            “Trust me, I don’t get it either. Ghost once tried to explain the level of satisfaction he receives after completing one of the challenges; something about how each line of security code is like a brush stroke from an artist, and solving the puzzle is like entering the artist’s mind.”

            He stopped when he saw the incredibly confused look on the Commander’s face. She took another sip of energy, perhaps in the hope that it would help her understand what he was talking about. “Honestly, it’s a pretty terrible analogy and all I really got out of it is that Ghost really likes to open doors.” Paige spat out the energy into a spray.

            “No, I don’t,” Ghost protested.

            “Oh, come on, you do it all the time; you love it,” the Guardian replied, “especially the Vex ones.”

            “I hate it,” Ghost held his ground. “I actually love it. The Vex make such dynamic puzzles,” he thought to himself.

            After giving the conversation time to die down, the Guardian finally spoke again. “I don’t want you to get the impression that you aren’t welcome here, but it’s been a while since you left your base. It may be a good idea for you to go and tell Tesler what you found.”

            “I suppose you’re right,” she sighed, then stood up from the bench. “But what do I tell him though? I can’t just lie to him.”

            “Then don’t. At least not fully.” Paige’s initially furrowed eyebrows suddenly expanded in realization.

            “But then he’ll come after you. They’ll be an image of you projected on every wall in Argon,” she countered.

            “I had actually assumed that was already the case,” he replied before shaking his hand dismissively. “He already wants me dead. I don’t think that a futile attempt at salvaging my reputation with him is worth putting yourself at risk over. The math doesn’t work out.”

            “And what equation was that,” she inquired.

            “It doesn’t matter,” the Guardian got up from his seat as well. “Look, I know you’ll have a good reason for saying whatever you decide to tell him. If it means that I need to watch my back anytime I venture into the city, then so be it. I’ll be fine.”

            She nodded and walked back towards the elevator. “Try not to break anything until I get back,” said accusingly.

            “Why, are you worried you’re going to miss out?”

            “I hate Users,” she muttered under her breath as the doors closed.

            “No she doesn’t,” Ghost said out of nowhere over the Guardian’s shoulder, startling him.

            “Really?” he snapped. “Ghost, when were you going to tell her you had finished breaking into the file?”

            “Wait, you knew I was pretending this whole time,” Ghost asked.

            “Ghost, I’ve watched you work almost every day for like six years. I can tell when you’re faking your scans,” the Guardian explained. “How long ago did you finish?”

            “Oh, I was done all the way back when I told her that I had to go slowly or else I could accidentally erase the files,” Ghost revealed. The Guardian tilted his head accusingly. “What? I could see she was tense after, everything, and you two needed to talk.”

            “Wow you can be frustrating little light,” the Guardian sighed in defeat.

            “You know I hate it when you call me that,” Ghost replied, his voice serious.

            “Good, then we’re even,” the Titan smirked as he walked back to the main computer terminal.

___________________________________________________________

            “Sir, Commander Paige has arrived back at base and is requesting permission to speak with you,” a Black Guard informed Tesler in his throne room.

            “And what is the problem,” Tesler questioned the Guard.

            “Commander Pavel said you gave the order to not be disturbed,” the Guard responded quickly.

            “And what exactly are you doing?” Tesler tested in a chillingly calm voice.

            The Guard attempted to step back. “I’m sorry sir. I did not––” the Guard’s apology was cut off when Tesler’s gauntlet extended out and punched through the program’s chest, derezzing him nearly instantly.

            “Pavel!” Tesler shouted.

            “Yes sir,” the Commander’s wretched voice returned. “Clean this up! Apparently, Paige has something important to share.”

            “Perhaps I should escort you sir, in case the User decides to make an appearance–” Pavel offered as the last of the cubes were swept up into a waste disposal unit.

            “Send her in,” he ordered to a Guard standing by the door, refusing to humor whatever plan the slippery program was trying to enact.

            “Paige, welcome back.” Tesler directed his fake smile towards Paige.

            “Thank you General,” she replied bowing her head slightly. “What’s with all of the extra security posted outside.”

            “It’s a precaution, Paige,” Pavel sniveled. “You can’t be too careful with that User you’ve been failing to subdue running around.”

            “That’s enough Pavel,” Tesler growled. He turned back to Paige. “Speaking of the User, I hope whatever news you have is of value to our continuing problem. Have you managed to capture him?”

            “No,” Paige started, “but I did find him again.” She pulled out a data pad filled with images and clips she had pulled from her disk when she first got back to base and handed it to Tesler. He narrowed his eyes as he swiped through the various files.

            “What is this?” He held up an image file from their escape. The lifeless bodies of the Red Legion lay scattered across the dark terrain.

            “This is where I tracked the User to. It looks to be a base of some kind,” she explained.

            “And them?” He pointed to one group of legionaries.

            “Whoever they are, they don’t appear to be his allies,” she added.

            “Interesting,” he mumbled before locking eyes with the Commander. “This was not the result that I was expecting, but you’ve done quite well.”

            “Pavel,” he turned to the remaining program, “get a recognizer and check those coordinates. Paige, take the cycle off.”

            “Sir?” they both replied in unison.

            “If the rogue User is using that as his new base of operations, then we need to act quickly before he does something that could hurt innocent programs,” Tesler elaborated.

            “Given Pai–” Pavel started but was cut off.

            “No more talking,” Tesler growled.

___________________________________________________________

            Paige stood tensely next to Pavel in the elevator as it traveled down to the hangar. “Why Tesler would choose you for this mission is beyond me,” she grumbled.

            “Isn’t it obvious? Tesler is getting desperate, and of the two of us I am the obvious choice when he wants something done.” Paige rolled her eyes at Pavel’s hubris.

            “Don’t humor yourself Pavel. All you’ve been doing since the User revealed himself at the games is hide inside this ship. Tesler’s probably just testing to see how far you’ve slipped.”

            “How dare she, that glitch!” Pavel thought angrily. Before he could respond or do anything the doors opened and she stepped out. “Where do you think you’re going,” he snarled after her.

            “I was given the cycle off,” she reminded him, “and I don’t intend to spend it listening to you.”

___________________________________________________________

            “I saw a recognizer fly by, I assumed you were on it,” the User commented when she stepped back into the spire’s observatory.

            “That was Pavel,” she replied, walking over to him, “Tesler gave me the cycle off.”

            “And you came back here?” he questioned.

            “Have something to hide?” she asked accusingly.

            “No, of course not” he reassured her. “I guess I had assumed that you would rather be spending your time off in the city, with your friends.”

            She let out a short, pained laugh. “I’m running a little bit short on those these cycles.”

            “I know what you mean,” the User empathized. Out of the corner of his eye she saw her red light-lines dim briefly before returning to normal. “Your circuitry–-”

            She looked down and saw them lower in brightness slightly. “It’s fine. I’m just,” she paused, “low on energy.”

            “Right,” the User eyed her skeptically. “When was the last time you slept?”

            “When was the last time you did,” she retorted. “Look, after what happened today, you can’t just expect me to sit back and rest while the Cabal settle in.”

            “And I’m not asking you to. But not giving yourself the opportunity to process everything and clear your head isn’t going to help uncover their plan,” he clarified. “Also, I would hate to be the one forcing you to work when you’re off shift.”

            “And what if we miss something because we're both asleep. The legion could pass right by us again and we wouldn't know until after Argon was destroyed,” she argued.

            “Remember what I said about the Cabal and subtlety?” She nodded in understanding. “It will be fine. Ghost doesn’t need sleep; he’ll be able to look over the data we collected earlier, and he can alert us if anything changes.”

            “If you say so,” she replied skeptically.

            “Let’s try this then. What do you normally do to relax?” he queried.

            “Nothing that would interest you,” she snapped.

            “Try me,” he replied.

            She gave a defeated sigh. “I have a monome back on the ship that I like to play. It helps me channel my thoughts a bit–you probably don’t understand.”

            “Do you compose?” the Guardian asked.

            “Sometimes, but I mostly just play around with melodies that I like,” she replied, suddenly interested. “Wait, you know what a monome is?”

            He laughed a little bit. “Of course. We have a few of them back at the tower, but they don’t get much use there. They’re popular at the few clubs we have in the city though. How long have you been playing?”

            “It was something I picked up before I joined Tesler,” she answered. She was aware of the User’s lack of reference for time passage on the Grid by this point and figured this would at least give him something to go off of.

            “I bet you’re pretty good then,” he offered.

            “I suppose I'm adequate ,” she replied, “but I wasn’t programmed for music. It doesn’t come from my code as easily as it does for programs whose purpose is to create it.”

            “In User world good music comes from the passion of the artists creating it. We may be different, users and programs, but I can’t imagine that the fundamental foundation is all that different.” He paused momentarily, giving her a second to run through what he had just said. “If the opportunity arises, I would love to hear you play.”

            “You sound like an ISO I once knew,” she muttered bitterly at the sour memory.

            “I don’t know anything about that,” he replied, “but I do know that opportunity won’t present itself if you don’t get rest–”

            “Ugh users,” she groaned in a mixture of annoyance and mild amusement at the redirect, “you are unbelievable.”

            “Let’s meet in the middle then,” he suggested.

            “I’m listening,” she replied.

            “I noticed while we were at the ship you could use a bit of practice fighting the Cabal,” he began.

            “To be fair it was my first time directly facing them in combat,” she protested.

            “My point exactly,” he replied. “Ghost, want to open that training program you were working on earlier.”

            “Sure, but it is unfinished,” he answered.

            “Eh, as long as it can render Cabal combatants then it will do just fine.” He turned back to Paige, as a rough outline of “The Conflux” on Nessus.

            “Woah,” Paige gasped as the expansive area they were standing morphed into a multi layered room.

            “Ghost and I accidentally discovered this place’s simulation capabilities earlier,” he commented while examining the uncanny familiarity of the rendered area. “This is a replica of a hidden Cabal hideout,” he explained. “We could run through it a few times if you’d like. It’ll help us get used to fighting alongside one another if anything.”

            “Sounds productive and fun,” she commented, “you should start with that next time.”

___________________________________________________________

            Track 3

            “We have received an urgent message from our ally. There has been a disturbance in the Outlands outside of Argon,” Dyson calmly informed CLU.

            “The User,” he replied. It was a statement.

            “And one of our own.” Dyson handed data pad to the yellow-robed program.

            “Interesting,” he commented while looking over the footage. The zoomed in footage showed two figures on two foreign vehicles. The female program wore the standard occupation red circuitry, while the other wore bulky black armor.

“Users,” he noted to himself, “their imperfection can be so corrupting.”

            “Do we know who the traitor is?” he asked his second in command.

            “It belongs to one of Argon’s commanders,” Dyson answered. He had recognized Commander Paige’s unique winged helmet design from his previous trip to Argon during its uprising. It didn’t take him long to verify his memories with video evidence taken during her past short-lived label as a traitor, a label that now accurately fit her.

            “Does Tesler know?” CLU gave him a careful look while he returned the data pad.

            “He has not officially been informed yet,” Dyson replied, “but, he has reportedly sent reconnaissance teams to investigate.”

            “I see,” he replied, realizing she must have informed him of her findings in the Outlands. “Perhaps it is time to pay our good General a visit and bring him up to speed,” he said with a chilly calmness.

            “I will prepare for departure at once.” Dyson bowed his head slightly. “With your permission, I would like to bring the asset.”

            “Hmm,” CLU pondered over Dyson’s request for a moment. “Request granted,” he replied with a pleasant smile. “That should put a smile on that fool’s face. Wouldn’t you say Dyson.”

            Dyson turned to exit the room, smirking wickedly as he walked out.

Chapter Text

Chapter 12: Revelations

            The Guardian looked up towards the emerald, green sky stretching endlessly above him. Walking over to a nearby cliffside, he watched the everlasting auroras dance across the horizon in all visible directions. He sat down in the perfectly gardened bed of red and white flowers that flowed throughout the entire landscape. He reached over to pick one. He twirled its stem between his fingers as he examined it.

            Suddenly, the petals momentarily flattened, as if a shockwave had washed over them. He looked up. The auroras were gone, replaced by a fleet of dark, triangular ships. He tossed the flower aside as he jumped to his feet. The field around him started to fade into darkness, the black mists that were ever present in the air congealing into a shadowy fog, blocking out the comforting green shade of the sky. Not being able to see his own feet, the Guardian took a tentative step forward and quickly found himself falling into the lightless abyss below; the voice of the Darkness, his own voice, echoed past his ears as he silently plummeted, consoling him.

“Salvation awaits you.”

_______________________________________

            He shot up from the bed he was resting on. The room around him was flashing red as alarms blared. Was he still dreaming?

            “Guardian?” His Ghost flew in front of his face. “I’m sorry I had to wake you so soon, but something triggered the spire’s security system. Are you alright? You look terrible.”

            “Another nightmare,” the Guardian replied groggily, “don’t worry about it.”

            Despite wanting to comfort his Guardian, Ghost decided to stay quiet. The issue of the nightmare could wait.

            “Where is Paige,” the User asked while Ghost transmatted the Guardian’s armor overtop his under suit.

            “Presumably up in the observation area already,” Ghost replied. The Guardian shot him an accusatory glare. “What? It’s not my fault it takes a literal siren to wake you.”

            “Let’s just get up there,” the Guardian grumbled.

_______________________________________

            “Took you long enough,” Paige teased.

            “What have you got,” the User replied, ignoring her comment.

            “Apparently the alarm was automatically triggered by Argon’s port security system.” How this base was linked to the Occupation network without being noticed was beyond her, but then again, this spire had belonged to Tron; a detail she still hadn’t quite fully come to terms with yet. She tapped the flashing alert image, pulling up a side schematic of the ship and a name.

            “I assume other ships have arrived since we’ve been here. What’s so special about this one,” he asked.

            “I have no idea,” she replied, tapping the flashing alert image, pulling up a side schematic of the ship and a name.

            “Dyson?” The User asked. Paige’s eyes widened.

            “Oh no,” she let out a gasp. This was bad.

            “Who is Dyson?” He pushed.

            “He is CLU’s second in command,” Paige replied, not pulling her eyes away from the image of the program in question on the screen. “I should go.”

            “Wait,” the Guardian interjected. “You’re supposed to be taking the cycle off--”

            “Not this conversation again,” she rolled her eyes.

            “I don’t mean it like that,” he corrected. “But as far as Tesler is concerned, you are unaware of anything work related, including Dyson’s arrival. It may look suspicious if you were to show up unexpectedly just ahead of his arrival.”

            The annoyed look on her face softened a bit. “You may be right.” She quickly rezzed her helmet. “That’s weird.”

            “What is?”

            “It’s customary for the highest-ranking officers to greet a dignitary, such as Dyson, when they arrive. But I just checked to see if Tesler had ordered for my return to the ship, but I’ve received nothing,” she clarified.

            “Interesting,” the User replied. “Perhaps this meeting is something we should take a look at?”

            “You mean spy on,” she pressed.

            “I would have said, observe, but yes,” he clarified. “Unless you have a better--”

            “I never said I objected to it,” she interrupted.

_______________________________________

            Tesler was not pleased. Dyson was in Argon, and once again, Tesler’s only notice of his arrival was from the city’s port security.

            However, this time was different. This time he waited at the edge of the hangar, alone. Along with the transcript of CLU’s right-hand’s arrival was an encrypted order to keep the hangar clear of all subordinate officers, including Tesler’s own Commander’s. Even as Dyson landed, Tesler couldn’t figure out what information warranted such secrecy.

            “Dyson,” he greeted curtly. After his subsequent visits, Argon’s general had begun letting his disdain for the Occupation’s second in command come out a bit more.

            “It’s quiet out there,” Dyson commented. “With the exception of a rogue User I would say that you have the city much more under control than during my last visit.”

            “Right,” Tesler stammered, “the User. I can assure you that the situation is well under control.”

            “Can you?” Dyson challenged. “Tell me, do you know where this User is right now? Is he in your city? In the Outlands? Inside this base watching us?”

            “Commander Paige has been tracking them through the Outlands. She has been keeping me up to date on her progress,” Tesler replied.

            “Has she now? Are you sure of that?” Dyson’s smirk was insidious as he watched Tesler’s circuitry brighten with rage. There were few things he enjoyed more than provoking the short-tempered incompetent before him.

            “Are you implying Paige is a traitor?” Tesler accused angrily.

            “Why don’t you tell me?” Dyson handed a data pad over to Tesler and smirked.

            “What is this?” Tesler growled as he watched the video of what appeared to be Paige riding alongside the User on foreign looking vehicles. “Where did you get this?”

            “Besides the offense of collaborating with Users behind yours and CLU’s back, it seems some of Paige’s recent actions have angered some of CLU’s allies,” Dyson explained. The images on the screen changed to the destroyed section of the Cabal’s beachhead.

            “CLU is allied with those things?” Tesler questioned at the familiar images. “They’re a threat to the entire grid,” he protested.

            “And who did you hear that from I wonder,” Dyson sneered. Tesler’s eyes shot back and forth at the realization. Dyson turned away and looked out over the city. “This is why we cannot tolerate a single User’s presence on the system. They pollute it, pervert it, and spread their lies faster than we can act to stop it. This one’s managed to fully corrupt one of your commanders in mere cycles,” Dyson turned back to face Tesler, “and, they even managed to deceive you.”

            “If she really has betrayed us, I want more than a video clip and some images,” Tesler demanded.

            “Of course,” Dyson conceded with a half-smile. “That is why I brought an old friend of yours. I’m sure you recognize him.”

            Tesler’s eyes widened at the figure that appeared at the top of the ramp.

_______________________________________

            “He’s one of your own, yet you seem concerned about his presence here,” the User noted.

            “You should be too,” Paige replied as she watched Dyson’s ship land. “Dyson is going to be a problem for everyone.”

            “That bad?” the Guardian queried.

            “Let’s just say that Tesler only survived his last visit because something scared him off first,” she explained. She didn’t know why then, but she had a guess now. Tron. He found out Tron was still alive.

            “Interesting,” the User muttered in response. “Do you have eyes on Pavel?”

            “Negative,” she replied. “I guess he didn’t get an invite either.” Why the need for secrecy?

            “Well, I definitely believe you about Tesler and Dyson not getting along,” the User commented. “Dyson just handed a data pad to him, and he does not look happy about what’s on it.”

            “Come on, just a little lower,” she spoke inaudibly towards Tesler below as she strained to see what was on the screen. “I can’t get a clear view. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they know we’re watching them.”

            “Forget the data pad,” the Guardian replied, “look at Dyson’s ship.”

            “Someone’s coming out,” Paige exclaimed as she watched a red circuited figure emerge. She frowned as the mask program travelled down the stairs. The light lines, she knew them, but from where?

            As soon as the program reached the bottom of the ship’s ramp and their helmet dropped, she had her answer. Her binoculars dropped from her frozen frame into the rocky abyss below. A double crested wave of emotions hit her as she processed what she saw: first betrayal, then, fear.

            “It can’t be,” she gasped weakly, her consciousness lasting just long enough to hear the User call out her name and completely fleeting by the time she hit the ground.

            The unknown, red-circuited program now standing in Tesler's hangar was Beck.

_______________________________________

(The Tower), The Last City - Earth

Zavala slowly made his way through the crumbled ruins of the old tower. He had believed, had been hopeful that after nearly two years since Ghaul’s assault, that the old, familiar routine from before the Red War would have returned, with the reconstruction of this demolished structure lighting the way for the return to normalcy.

            That routine had not returned. Panotptes and Xol had been distractions; minor roadblocks that would have caused significant damage had they been left unchecked. Despite being relatively inconsequential, Zavala realized now that they were warnings that the Universe was not finished testing a rebuilding humanity.

            Cayde’s death, followed immediately by the Taken infestation of the Dreaming City was a wakeup call to the skilled tactician that he needed to push his dreams of normalcy aside and start preparing for the inevitable future, the Darkness’s arrival.

            Unfortunately, the situation on Mercury had taken a disastrous turn. What had gone from a Vanguard-sanctioned clean-up op at Osiris’ request had now resulted in the Guardian’s total disappearance with no update on the situation from the exiled Warlock.

            “I had a feeling I would find you here,” Ikora broke the silence as she walked out from behind a pile of rubble. “The Guardian has made it through worse. He’ll pull through, he always does.”

            “The trust you still have in your old mentor may be misplaced. It’s been two days and yet the only information we have is still that he was cleaning up a mess caused by the Red Legion,” Zavala replied, his eyes never drifting away from The Traveler.

            “Give it another day,” Ikora reassured him. “If nothing changes, then we can send a team of Guardians to investigate.”

            “No,” Zavala replied quietly.

            “What?” Ikora questioned in shock.

            “We can’t afford to risk any other Guardians. If whatever took him out is still there, then the fate of whoever we send will be sealed the moment they land.”

            “We aren’t just talking about any Guardian right now. We’re talking about the hero of The Red War, the one who slayed both Crota and his father, who has been fighting nonstop for the past year to contain the Taken incursion in the Dreaming City,” Ikora argued. “Those aren’t just trivial accomplishments; they mean something to younger Guardians and to the people of the city. If he’s alive we can’t just abandon him–”

            Zavala turned to face her. “What are you not telling me? What do your hidden know?”

            Ikora let out a breath. “The Guardian found the Perfect Paradox.”

            “Saint-14’s weapon,” Zavala recognized. “He found it in the Vex’s shrine I assume?”

            “He made it.” Her voice was flat as she let the weight of the statement hit her fellow Vanguard leader.

            “Hmm, and what is your Hidden’s assessment of this–development?”

            “That Saint is alive,” Ikora replied, “or was. The Guardian’s disappearance has left us with more questions than answers.”

            “So, we may have lost not one, but two Guardians today because of your mentor’s arrogance–”

            “You haven’t,” a voice boomed. Zavala and Ikora both shifted to face the incoming Warlock.

            “Osiris,” the Titan growled. Ikora stepped forward to cut the tension between them.

            “Both the Guardian and Saint are alive,” Osiris stated while walking down the stairs towards them.

            “Where are they?” she asked in as neutral a tone she could manage.

            “Both are occupied for the moment,” the Warlock replied, “but not in any real danger.”

            “Occupied with what,” Zavala tested, glaring when Osiris didn’t reply immediately.

            “Go on,” Sagira, his Ghost, materialized into existence, “tell them.”

            “The Guardian was doing dual duty, both our agreed upon mission, as well as pursuing an anomaly that came up during one of his entries into the Sundial. That anomaly, as your Hidden guessed, was related to Saint-14,” he began.

            “Skip ahead,” Ikora ordered. “That doesn’t explain where he is now.”

            “Much later, the Guardian goes back into the Sundial and defeats the Martyr mind, changing Saint’s future. Saint opts to stay behind and exit the Infinite Forest the long way around. But something happened, the Cabal took control of the Sundial, reprogrammed it to another time stream. The Guardian was caught in the reset,” Osiris’ voice trailed off.

            “Can we get him out?” Ikora asked.

            “That’s not the problem. He won’t leave.” Osiris used this opportunity to inform the Vanguard of his reflection’s conversation on the Grid.

            “But I thought the Infinite Forest just simulated reality. How can there be a real Cabal presence on this Grid?” Ikora questioned.

            “Because the Sundial isn’t merely a simulation of time. It uses the Infinite Forest’s compute power to create a replica of it. That’s why I needed the Guardian’s help on Mercury. If the Cabal hold onto control of it for long enough–”

            “We are Guardians,” Zavala interrupted. “We fight for the people of the Last City, The Traveler, the future. The Vanguard stands behind his decision to stay and fight off the Cabal.” The Vanguard Commander’s anger finally boiled over. “However, your carelessness with the Sundial may have just endangered the whole city, and indefinitely taken out one of those best capable of defending the city from this threat that you created. Your curiosity is unbridled by what effects your attempts to satiate it may bring onto others. It seems you learned nothing from your exile.”

            “I learned much from my time in the Forest,” Osiris fired back, “specifically just how unprepared the city’s leadership is for what’s coming.”

            “You spoke to the Guardian last,” Ikora, interrupted, stepping in to steer the conversation away from this heated discussion. She agreed, of course, with Zavala’s stance on Osiris. He was careless and arrogant, but the last thing they needed right now was to convince him to go back to the Infinite Forest and try to “fix” the situation on his own. “Does he have a plan?”

            “That I do not know. The local government does not favor non-programs, or “Users” as they call them, which is forcing him to lay low,” he explained.

            “A whole society of Rasputins,” Zavala grumbled in irritation.

            “If they’re that shallow, perhaps they would ally themselves against non-human appearing “Users.” Ikora suggested.

            “That would leave a very fragile alliance at best,” Osiris rebutted. “He does appear to have one ally. A high-ranking female Commander of the nearby city’s occupying army. An odd choice given the aforementioned opinions of the government, but she does seem understanding of the situation,” he replied, wincing internally as the memories of the program’s berating of his reflection resurfaced. Maybe a little too understanding.

            “Then I think we’re done here.” Zavala turned to Osiris. “Inform the Guardian of the Vanguard’s decision and that we will be available to assist him in any way we can.” The Warlock gave a short nod before walking out of the room.

            “We can’t solely rely on Osiris to be a messenger,” Ikora warned the Titan.

            “Indeed,” Zavala agreed. “We need to find a way of establishing direct two-way communications with him inside that computer system. Suggestions?”

            “Hmm,” Ikora thought it over. “I have one, but you’re not going to like it.”

            “No, I don’t believe I do,” he replied as he reached the same conclusion as her, “but choice is a luxury we don’t have.”

_______________________________________

            Paige opened her eyes slowly as she came out of her sleep state. Even before her vision had fully focused, she could feel the smooth surface of the bed underneath her–

            “Bed?” She thought in alarm at the realization that she was not where she had thought she was. She shot out of bed, tripping from the slightly higher than expected drop to the floor and her still slightly groggy state. After stabilizing herself with one hand against the wall, she took notice of a half-empty glass of energy sitting next to the stolen data-cube on the shelf near her bed.

            She hesitantly picked up the glass, examining it visually before finishing it off. Immediately her grogginess started fading. “Was I really that out?” she questioned. Obviously, given that she was clearly carried back here by the User, the answer was yes.

            Her thoughts immediately drifted back to their scouting mission on the cliff, and the thing that took her by surprise, Beck.

            But he was working for Dyson. That foolish program would have rather been derezzed than join “her side.” She knew that, and apparently, so did Dyson. Repurposing, what a fitting punishment for the conspirator against perfection. She gagged at the words cycling around in her head. In the past, she believed in CLU, fought for him and his vision of perfection. But that was before the uprising, before she knew what repurposing was and how CLU was using the technology, and before she met a User.

            Paige glanced down over the cube on the table. “What did you want to tell me?” She sighed sadly. Obviously, it would be so easy to unlock the cube and look, she knew that, but a part of her was afraid of what she would find. Slowly and with a deep breath she reached her hand forward, wrapping her fingers around the cube’s sharp edges and lifted it off the table.

            Pulling it up to her eyes, she admired the soft red glow emanating from between each of the cube’s smaller voxels that made it up. Was she ready for what was inside? Already her narrow world was completely shaken. Could she really take what she found inside? After seeing Beck again, she wasn’t sure. She placed the cube back on the table, exchanging it with the glass of energy before leaving the room in search of the Guardian.

            He wasn’t hard to find. She found him in his room with the door open, sitting on the side of the bed twirling a weapon in his hand.

            “Interesting,” she thought before knocking on the wall to get his attention.

            “Hey, you’re awake,” he noted in a voice as if he were masking something. “How do you feel? You fell pretty hard when you... is “crashed” the right word?”

            “I’m fine, thank you,” drawing attention to the glass in her hands. She moved to sit down next to the User on the bed. “What’s that?”

            “A gun,” he replied. She hit him in his shoulder amor, immediately shaking the pain out of her hand.

            She swore she could hear him smirk slightly under the helmet. “I know that,” Paige huffed in frustration. “What I mean is why is this weapon important to you? Why is it special?”

            “I know,” he sighed. “It belonged to a friend of mine.”

            “Oh.” She could tell by his sudden shift that this was a potentially touchy subject. “I’ve never seen you use it.”

            “There are a lot of things you’ve never seen me do,” he replied with something more akin to a growl. Sighing, he turned to face her. “I’m sorry. My past is not your fault. This weapon serves as a reminder of it.”

            “Why do you keep it if it causes you pain?” It wasn’t an accusation, just a curiosity.

            “Because it reminds me of what I became during that period,” he answered.

            “So, you don’t become like that again?”

            “No. So I remember what the consequences will be the next time I do.” He looked down and twirled the weapon in his hands.

            “May I,” she asked. He handed her the weapon. She took in its design: the choice of colors, the emblem printed on its sides and grip, the unhealed scars that wounded its edges, scars from its owner's history as well as its own. She didn’t know this User or of their history with the one sitting beside her now, but the weapon, it was clear to her that it wasn’t just merely that. It meant more, it always had.

            She thought of her own prized possessions. Her monome, from a time where she was youthfully optimistic, and the group photo she took with her two closest friends before the ISO’s took them from her. What she would do to have them back.

            “Can we talk?” the User asked, breaking the silence.

            “I thought we were,” she replied.

            “About before,” he clarified, “on the cliffside.”

            “Right,” she sighed. She was foolish to think he wouldn’t have noticed.

            “I recognized him from the spire’s video records; that’s the Renegade, right?”

            “I thought he was derezzed. I wasn’t expecting to see him again, not like that.” Her voice trailed off.

            “I thought he was fighting against you, but it looks like he’s on your side,” he noted.

            “Beck would have never joined my side! What you saw,” she paused, “that was perversion.” Not that long ago she would have thrown around feeble rebuttals to any of the negative rumors surrounding CLU’s use of repurposing, but then she saw it for herself. The complete erasure of a living program’s sense of self, replaced by a hollow and derivative mass of code.

            “Perversion?” the Guardian asked.

            “It’s called repurposing. It removes the program’s original code and replaces it with something new. It was originally intended for use in medical centers to remove otherwise irreparable damage in a program’s code,” she explained. “For the longest time that’s what I wanted to believe CLU was using it for, to help make programs perfect again, but I was wrong.” The User could hear the pain in her voice. “He’s just using it to strip programs of everything that makes them unique before turning them into an obedient army.”

            She noticed the difference immediately. Initially she had thought the sudden drop of competence by the freshly transferred programs came down to a lack of training, something that could have been made up for with time. But her attempts at drilling the fresh units into shape were consistently futile. They almost always failed in the same way at the same time, never learning, even when placed alongside her veteran soldiers to lead them by example. Until she saw the Super-Recognizer, she had never considered that they were reprogrammed intentionally not to learn.

            “So that explains all of the generic ‘Halt Program’ orders from every guard we encounter,” Ghost realized.

            “But you’re different,” the User. “If I remember correctly, your first words to me were ‘Welcome to Argon.’”

            “Close enough,” she corrected. “After what happened with the ISO’s happened, I joined CLU willingly. I was never repurposed.”

            “I see.” The Guardian took a deep breath before continuing. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but just a moment ago you were sounding a bit disillusioned with CLU. Why continue fighting for him?”

            “I don’t, not anymore. I care about helping programs. That’s in my programming,” Paige responded. “It’s also in Tesler’s.”

            “Hmm,” the Guardian replied.

            Paige recognized the hesitancy in the User’s response. “You don’t believe me.”

            “I do believe you, but I don’t know him the same way you do,” he admitted. “I personally haven’t seen anything to support that.”

            “When the ISO’s attacked, they took everything from me,” she lamented.

            He paused, thinking of a way to respond. He couldn’t refute what she had said, nor was it his place to make judgements on The Grid’s leadership either. “I’m sorry,” he replied in understanding.

            She looked back up to the Guardian before continuing. “General Tesler saved my life. I owe him everything.”

            “Okay,” he said quietly. Whether it was intended or not, she had opened up to him about her past, as painful as it was, at least a little bit. The last thing he was going to do was disrespect that, even if he was still skeptical.

            “One last thing,” he said.

            “Yeah?” Paige looked relieved that the conversation was finally moving on.

            “I’ve done my best to not dig my nose into Argon’s recent history. However, with both Dyson and Beck’s arrival, I think it might be time for a quick history lesson, if that’s alright with you of course.”

            “I’d be fine with that, but wouldn’t this place’s database be more complete?” She asked curiously.

            “Possibly, but it would be unfair to not hear your side too,” he explained.

            “Why me though?” She questioned.

            “You mean besides the fact that you’re the only Occupation member that doesn’t want to kill me on sight,” he answered light-heartedly, trying to improve the mood.

            “Fair point,” she acknowledged. “Where do you want me to start?”

            “Preferably the beginning, but I’ll leave that up to you,” he replied.

            “Flynn, you’re unhelpful,” she cursed before starting.

            As the history lesson went on, neither of them noticed Ghost quietly send a single pulse beam into the Commander’s disk before disappearing.

Chapter Text

Chapter 13: The Shadow

Paige pulled into the busier-than-usual hangar. She hopped off her bike, collapsing it back into a baton, and started towards the nearest elevator. As she passed programs, she noticed that the room wasn't so much busier as it was just crowded. Many of the sentries were standing around in groups, seemingly purposeless. She considered approaching but was unsettled by the gaze of a nearby group as she passed by.

“Elevator,” she thought. As she approached the elevator, she noticed another odd change. “ Guards?”

“Halt, you are not–” they started in unison.

“Authorized,” she finished, rolling her eyes. The two sentries looked at each other in confusion before doubling down on their order and crossing their staffs in front of the elevator door. “I’m one of Tesler’s Commanders,” she reasoned, pulling up her credentials on her disk, “if there is any program here who is authorized it would be me.”

"Sorry, no one is allowed up there by order of General Dyson," the one on the right replied.

Great, so he’s still here. “Ok,” she sighed, feigning fatigue before landing a quick strike into the guard’s chest, winding him. While he was bent over, she grabbed the staff out of his hands, smacking them in the face in the process and knocking him out. Seeing the staff of the other guard swinging down on her from the corner of her eye, she jumped out of the way. Just as the staff of the other guard made contact with the floor, hers struck them in the stomach, sending them hard into the wall where they collapsed moments later.

Tossing the staff aside, she walked into the open doors of the elevator. Paige didn’t bother looking around the room to see the definite stares being sent in her direction. Compared to the thoughts racing around in her processor, their opinions were unimportant.

As the doors opened, her eyes were met with an unsightly scene, Pavel.

“Paige,” the two-face greeted her, “it's so good to see you back. I assume your cycle off was pleasant.”

“It didn’t involve you, so yes, it was pleasant,” she snapped. “I’m here to report to Tesler, so if you’re done I would suggest getting out of my way.”

“Poor Paige,” Pavel provoked, “even time off can’t improve your personality. Unfortunately, Dyson and Tesler have made it very clear that no one is to go in, and they put me in charge of making sure that happens.”

“There’s a pile of sentries in Hangar,” Paige challenged, closing her fist, “If you want to join them–”

“Is there?” The doors to her right opened to reveal Dyson. “Unfortunately it’s so difficult to find competent, loyal soldiers.” His voice lingering on the word loyal a bit too heavily for Paige’s liking.

"I apologize for the unexpected increase in security around here, but I don't think you can fault me too much, given the security risk of an unaccounted-for User," Dyson ushered the two of them into the ship's throne room. "It seems the User has taken his own leave of absence during this recent cycle, and no amount of activity on our part has prompted him to make an appearance."

“I believe I can help with that,” Paige volunteered, sensing Dyson’s suspicion. She was going to have to be careful with him around, extremely careful.

“Excellent,” he replied as he led the two Commanders over to a table with a large holographic map of Argon’s surface. Paige stiffened at the sight of the program waiting for them.

“Commander Paige,” Dyson started, shaking her from her thoughts, “you will be taking point on this operation.”

“What?” Pavel exclaimed.

"Her skills are better suited for this assignment," Dyson rebutted simply, avoiding an unnecessary confrontation with Tesler's unfortunate choice of a subordinate. He turned his attention back to Paige. "You'll be working with another program who I believe you are familiar with," Dyson smirked wickedly.

Paige stole a glance at Beck. Seeing him up close was far worse than she could imagine. Scars covered his face from injuries that could have, should have easily been dealt with by any competent medical program. But there was something else missing. Something she realized immediately after looking into his eyes. Lifelessness.

She looked back over to Dyson. “I understand sir,” she answered, doing her best to keep her anger and sadness from spilling over.

“Good,” Dyson replied, “I’ll leave you two to it then. Pavel, with me. I have something that requires your particular set of programming.”

Paige didn’t have a clue what that meant, but if it required Pavel then it definitely didn’t involve anything good. Paige moved to the opposite side of the table as Beck, both so she could face him, but also to give herself space in case Dyson just locked her in here to be derezzed.

“So it looks like we’re finally on the same team,” she said, referencing their first time fighting each other on a helicopter in hopes to elicit some form of recognition. Nothing...

“Not much of a talker anymore,” she sighed, replying to herself more than his silence. This was going to be a long cycle.

________________________________________________________________________

“Any sign of her,” Ghost asked curiously.

“Nothing yet.” The Guardian had perched himself on a cliffside looking over Argon with a direct line of sight of Tesler’s ship.

“I hate to be a doomsayer, but you may need to consider the possibility that Dyson figured out that she’s been helping us,” Ghost warned.

“I’m considering it,” the Titan grumbled. It had been nearly three cycles since Paige had returned to her own base. In that time, Ghost had finished his decryption and analysis of the Avalanche ’s classified files and what he found was concerning.

The Avalanche they were on wasn't the original, but a copy, built with voxels and reinforced with extra thick armor plating to protect and make up for the native brittleness of the grid's structures.

"I've got eyes on in the hangar," the Guardian commented. Paige was arguing with Pavel about something, not that the User could tell the nature of what it was about from the current distance. Standing off to the side was the repurposed " Renegade " program, watching quietly. From outside observation, the way that both of Tesler's Commanders positioned themselves away from him indicated that neither of them was comfortable with the silent program's presence.

“Is it just me or does it look like her former friend is just, studying her?” The User lowered the binoculars.

“We don’t know why he was sent here,” Ghost replied, “but given that his arrival aligns with our attack on the Cabal base, your guess might not be so far off. Someone might have spotted her with us.”

“Then, we’re done here,” the Guardian concluded standing up.

“Where are you going?” Ghost called after him.

“Assuming that is what happened, there is no way of communicating with Paige without confirming that program’s suspicions and implicating her,” the Guardian explained. “We’re going to have to finish this ourselves,” his voice trailed off, “like always.” The User turned away again to leave.

“Wait,” Ghost chirped. “We may not need to go back to base.”

“What have you got?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” Ghost admitted, “but I am detecting a large power signature being generated 2 miles from our current position.”

“Is it the Occupation?” The Guardian looked directly out into the city with the binoculars.

“I don’t think so. It’s very different from anything I’ve detected here,” Ghost clarified.

"I'm not seeing anything–" The Guardian focused on a slight blue shimmer bubbling over a cluster of buildings. "Wait—there! Do you see that? Tell me that doesn't look like what I think it does."

"It looks like the outline of an Eliksni cloaking device." Ghost pondered the situation. "But here? Hiding isn't exactly the Cabal's style."

"The same," the Guardian agreed with his Ghost's puzzled assessment, "but then again it isn't typically ours either. Regardless of where it came from, we should investigate it."

"I'll ready a loadout," Ghost replied knowingly what " investigate " would mean if they encountered any Red Legion resistance.

________________________________________________________________________

"Captains, I want you to each take a squadron of recognizers to Argon sectors 105, 315, and 413 respectively. Report anything suspicious you may find directly to me." Paige reached the end of the row of recognizer pilots and support crew. "Dismissed."

She was about to leave the hangar when she saw one program waiting behind. “Something you wanted to add?”

“Permission to speak freely?” The program asked. She nodded. “How do we know that the User is still in Argon?”

“We don’t,” she admitted, “but so far all of his movements have been isolated to the city and the sectors of the outlands surrounding it. That makes it a good place to start our search.”

“But if they are hiding, wouldn't it make more sense for them to go to Purgos–” the Guard started before he was cut off.

“I believe I gave you an order Captain,” she interrupted.

“Yes Commander,” he replied before starting towards his recognizer. A sudden boom just outside the hangar door caught his attention. He turned around just in time to see a bright orange fireball erupt into the sky from part of the city nearest to the ship.

“Captain, I’m redirecting you to those coordinates,” Paige ordered over the alarms now blaring through the ship. “I’ll be joining you.”

________________________________________________________________________

Scene Music: Collapsing Sun - Brandon Lau

"Well, that worked spectacularly," Ghost observed.

“The shield is down and the Cabal’s operation is revealed,” the Guardian defended.

“As are we,” Ghost cautioned. “Here come the recognizers.”

“Right on schedule,” the Guardian muttered quietly, as he continued to speed along the city's outermost road. Ghost said nothing as watched the ships close on their position while pondering the meaning of his Guardian’s words.

“Light-cycles inbound,” Ghost suddenly shouted as two road vehicles became visible on the road behind them.

“Give me a distance countdown,” the Guardian replied.

“On it,” Ghost acknowledged. “100 meters.... 80 meters .... 60– one of them is Paige!”

“Which one?” The Guardian asked. He would need to quickly adjust his plan. Especially with the 

“On your right– 20 meters. She’s activated her disk!”

“Stop counting. Stand by to disable my sparrow on my mark!” The Guardian listened closely for the sound of her approaching bike. “Now Ghost!”

At that moment the Guardian leaped away from his vanishing vehicle, hitting the ground in front of Paige just long enough to engage a rally barricade before sliding to the side of the road, stopping inches away from a gaping chasm lining its rightmost edge. He didn't see it, but he could hear her get ejected from her seat as her bike came to a sudden halt.

Standing up, he didn't have much time to think as a disk was hurled at his head from his left side. Ducking out of the way, he felt Ghost transmat his disk into his hand. He could see on his HUD that another threat to his right was closing in. “Paige,” he realized. If she were smart, she would fight him, if for her own survival. He would just have to keep her out of the way.

The first program, formerly Beck, he now realized closed in and made the first swing which the Titan easily blocked and countered by grabbing the program by his arm and throwing him into a nearby snow pile. Next to the attack was Paige who jumped onto his back from behind, her disk nearing his throat, only stopped by his hand. "You may want to brace yourself," he warned.

“What?” she questioned before feeling the sensation associated with falling. Not just her, both of them were plummeting to the ground on the backs, and she was the one in the middle. He must have levitated them higher into the air. “Brace,” he had warned. “ Thanks for the advice User ,” she thought just as she blacked out from the impact.

The User cringed at the sight of her lifeless body on the ground. He knew she'd understand later, but still, it pained him to disable her like that, even if removing her from the situation was necessary.

He didn’t have time to focus on that though, made clear by the roar of recognizer engines above him. “Ghost, I need something to–” he was tackled from the side by Beck before he could finish his sentence.

Instinctively, the Guardian grabbed his attacker by the shoulders, and with a half-turn, threw the program backside first towards the face of a nearby rock. 

The Guardian watched with fascination as the repurposed program engaged some seemingly gravity-defying martial arts, briefly landing on the wall feet first before launching himself into a flip back towards the Guardian. With not a millisecond to spare, the User got his disk up to block the incoming strike.

"I am not your enemy," the Guardian asserted over the sound of their disks' edge blades grinding against one another.

"User corruption will not be tolerated," Beck spat, pulling his disk back before attempting another triad of close swipes at the User. 

“I will not kill you,” the Guardian growled.

“That will be your last mistake,” Beck spat through a distorted rumble emitted through his vocal systems. At this point, the Guardian performed the same move he had done on Paige during their first meeting and kicked the program off him, sending him flying. However, unlike Paige, Beck landed on his feet and used his disk to slow his slide.

“This needs to end now,” the Guardian thought to himself. The only issue was how he was going to end it without either derezzing every program in the vicinity or voluntarily giving himself up. The Guardian looked back to the cliffside behind him.

"Go ahead then," the Guardian taunted, "kill me. That is what your directives are telling you to do." At this, Beck started closing in. The Titan took a few steps back in response. He could tell that he was nearing the ledge from the undisturbed snow beneath his feet and the increasingly turbulent wind at his back. "But I do wonder, what your original programming thinks of what you've become."

"Beck was imperfect and weak. CLU easily subdued him and made him perfect," Beck snarled, taking another step forward.

"What I heard was that CLU sent an entire army to put an end to Beck's fight as the Renegade," the Guardian continued to provoke. "In fact, Beck is still inside you, isn't he? That constant growling—that's your old code fighting back, rebelling, isn't it."

"Enough," the corrupted program yelled.

"—But you are too weak to embrace it." As soon as the final taunt left the User's lips, Beck sprang forward, and landed a swift kick in the Guardian's chest, sending him back first off the cliff.

Paige, who recovered just long enough to catch sight of the Guardians' fall, ran over to the ledge. The snow particles swirling around them made sight difficult, but through the haze, she could still make out the Guardian's lifeless body as it lay at the bottom of the chasm.

"You didn't have to kill him!" she shouted.

"Didn't I?" Beck responded with cruel amusement. "Users poison the system. Their existence must not be tolerated."

Paige, having been incapacitated throughout Beck and the Guardian's fight was taken aback by his response, rather that there had been any at all. "Those weren't our orders," she protested at his words.

"Not yours perhaps," Beck replied before walking away.

As Paige looked over the ledge, her processor slowed. Any real chance of fighting off the Cabal died with him. Sure, she knew more about them than any other program, but that didn't mean she could fight against them on her own. But there was also something else gnawing at her. Sadness — or something akin to it, was the best description she had for the feeling. Working with the User had been a pleasant distraction from her routine. But even more so, he had been the closest thing to or even was, a friend that she had had in a long time.

She could feel Beck, if she could even call him that anymore, staring judgingly at her moment of weakness. This was not the same mechanic she had dated cycles ago; not the same optimistic program she had fought against time and again on Argon's streets while he masquerades as a thought-to-be dead program. No, this sadistic program had more in common now with Pavel than anything.

She turned away from the ledge back towards the malware standing behind her. "Said your goodbyes," ' Beck' asked mockingly.

"Let's just report this to Dyson," Paige replied as stoically as possible.

________________________________________________________________________

"So the User is dead," Dyson pondered the information his operative had just provided. "And this was confirmed—"

"No one could have survived the fall distance," Paige added having heard the start of the conversation outside the doors, "not even a User." And apparently not even the Guardian if their still body was anything to go by.

Dyson paced. "With a threat this big we can't afford to be hasty. Send a squad to recover the body and confirm the kill. CLU doesn't want another TRON situation and we cannot afford one."

"Sir, permission to speak freely," Paige requested.

"Please Commander," Dyson gestured for her to continue.

"Thank you," she replied, not noticing the silent exchange of nods between Dyson and Beck before the latter program exited the room. "Sir, I do not think the User's death was necessary for this mission."

"You don't," Dyson paused. "Why is that?"

She thought for a bit while she carefully constructed her point. "Given CLU's standing order to arrest Flynn on sight, wouldn't it have been strategically better to have captured this User given our opportunity."

"Ah," Dyson reacted, "the flaw with your argument is you assume both Users are of equal value to CLU. They are not."

"What do you mean?" Paige inquired.

"CLU's plans are classified above your station, as is any specific information on this other rogue User," he replied. "I expect you to accept that."

"Yes sir," Paige bowed her head slightly.

"Good" Dyson turned away from the Commander. "You are dismissed."

As the doors closed behind her Paige stopped. She had half expected Beck to be waiting outside but instead found the hallway vacant. 

She sighed. She had hoped Dyson would have been more open to her concerns than he had been, but she now realized that it had just been foolish optimism. It didn't matter anyway. The User, the Guardian , was dead and nothing was going to change that.

Paige suddenly felt exhausted as the cycle slowly began catching up to her. Making her way to the nearest elevator, she had to put an arm on one of its walls to stabilize herself. She looked down at her dimmed circuits. She needed energy too it seemed.

The short walk to the energy distribution room on the officer deck felt like an eternity in her low-energy power state. Lazily pressing her hand on the door's toggle button, she entered the empty room and grabbed one of the available glasses by the entrance.

While filling it up at the nearest station, her thoughts started to drift. What were her obligations at this point? It would be so easy to ignore the Cabal and hope they and any problems they bring will resolve themselves. The problem was she had seen the ship in the Outlands: its size, armament capability, and crew capacity didn't indicate something designed to just disappear. And even if by some odd chance it did, it would just become someone else's problem, someone else's nightmare.

Then there was the unmistakable damage she saw on the bridge. Voxels— those shouldn't have been there, but they were.

A grunting sound from behind her interrupted her thoughts and nearly made her jump. Her grip on the glass tightened as she quickly realized where or rather whom the now multiple grunting voices were coming from.

Determining that the creatures behind her were close enough for an attack, she quickly spun around and side kicked the leg of the one closest to her, before finishing it off with a blow to the back of its helmet-less head. The other one attempted to grab her, but she adeptly leaped out of its reach and towards the door. In her haste, she failed to notice the two holographic combatants flicker away nor did she notice a sly program drop down from the ceiling in pursuit.

In the hangar, Paige distanced herself from the elevator, refusing to look back for a second. If the Cabal were present on this ship, then she was out of options. Either they managed to slip through the ship's security systems, unlikely given their large stature and the number of programs she passed in the hangar who would have sounded the alarm at the first sight, or their presence was permitted from the inside. And if her suspicions at the energy station were at all correct, the latter was looking increasingly probable.

She knew what she had to do. She had to get to the spire, find out whatever information she could on the Cabal from the computers. If she was lucky, maybe Ghost had survived the fall and he could help her continue the User's fight. 

Paige still didn't really know how he worked. She had inquired on a couple of occasions but never received more than a guarded answer, but a cliff didn't really seem like it should have been a threat to him.

At the edge of the hangar, Paige activated her light cycle baton and raced down the ramp towards her destination in the outlands with her pursuant carefully distanced behind her.

________________________________________________________________________

The Guardian sat up with a gasp as the final flourish of white light faded around him.

"Welcome back," Ghost chirped.

"Was it convincing?" The Guardian took in his surroundings. The small amount of light let in by the narrow chasm was enough to illuminate just one of its walls. 

"Your little stunt? I think it was more convincing to some than others." Ghost knew Paige was convinced from her angry outburst, but her partner, he had seemed suspicious. 

Ghost was about to explain what happened after his Guardian's "death" when he received an alert that the spire had finished processing the data he had gathered from the Avalanche. "Oh no!"

"What is it?" The Guardian asked in concern. He had only heard his Ghost this worried on a few occasions, all were fitting.

"I think it would be better if you saw for yourself," Ghost answered, pushing the data to his Guardian's helmet. After a few long moments, he saw the Titan's fist clench. The sound of distant recognizers could be faintly heard through the wind whistling through the rock passage.

"It seems those less convinced have returned for the body," the Guardian concluded in an uncharacteristically controlled tone for the situation.

"We need to lea—your armor!" Ghost stared at the sudden light erupting from the Guardian's middle. "The modification I made must have failed during your resurrection. Here I can fix this..."

"No, we're done hiding," the Guardian stood up. His armor no longer glowed the orange hue it had been since his arrival. Instead, the flame integral to his chest plate's power had reignited, allocating some extra light to combat the darkness around them. "We need to get to the spire, gather whatever supplies and information we can from there. Then, we make our move."

________________________________________________________________________

Scene Music: Paige’s Past - Joseph Trapanese

Paige had been looking for any sign of Ghost's presence in the spire to no avail. The place was nearly exactly as she had left it, not that it had ever changed that much. The only change she did notice was the alert silently flashing on the main screen.

She approached it, dismissing the notification with a swipe of her hand. "Decryption Complete?" Paige read aloud. "The Cabal ship's files! There gotta be something I can use from that!" She began furiously sifting through document after document.

"It's just shipping manifests," she sighed in disappointment. "What's the point of such a heavy encryption if that's all that's there."

"Wait," she swiped back to the previous file. Document #273: Designated Landing Zone Authorization

"Authorization orders? That's...different. Designation from whom?" Curiously, she opened it and began to read its contents.

Reply: Request For Designated ShipYard Coordinates... Authorized

          Request For Frigate/Carrier Landing Zone... Authorized

         Approval For Authorization Order: CLU

Paige's eyes went wide in horror. CLU was behind this. Did he know what he was doing? Was he being manipulated? She knew the answer. Dyson and Beck's arrival. The Cabal she saw on the ship. The near-total dismissal of her concerns by Dyson. "You assume both Users are of equal value to CLU," he had said. She now understood what he had meant. Flynn was useful to CLU in some way. The Guardian, he was something to be terminated, or at least that's what she assumed the Cabal had told the Grid's leader.

The shock of the sudden revelation had piqued her curiosity and lowered her inhibitions. " What else had her superiors not told her?" She wondered in anger.

Paige quickly downloaded all of the documents onto her disk for future reference before running as quickly as she could to her temporary quarters.

Storming into the room, she snatched the data cube off the table and without any of the hesitation of her previous attempt, opened it.

Immediately a video started to play, a memory.

Her legs weakened at the sound of her friend's screams and the subsequent clattering of their cubes dancing across the wet ground. Her eyes teared at the pleas from the rest of her clinic's staff and patients moments before their de-resolution. Her fist clamped at the echo of Tesler's lie.

She threw the cube towards the open door behind her, partially shattering it before she finally collapsed and broke down.

Why couldn't she have seen it? Was she that blindly loyal to Tesler that his lie had worked on her for so long? After sitting with her head buried for another few micros she stood up and brushed herself off.

Beck had tried to help her, multiple times in fact. Paige wanted to blame him for not just showing her, not tricking her in some way to force her to see the truth, but she knew deep down that her past self wouldn't have accepted it. 

She wasn't the same program that she was during the uprising. Now she knew what she needed to do. For herself, for her friends, for those suffering in Argon. It was something she should have done dozens of cycles ago, but her ignorance had blinded her to that. 

Without a second glance behind her, Paige exited the spire. With a deep breath, she activated her light-cycle baton and once again found herself en route to the place she had considered home for so many cycles. In her concentration on her new, personal objective, she once again failed to notice a lone program start up their own bike in pursuit.

Chapter Text

Chapter 14: A Path Forward

The observation room was dark. Only the light emanating from Argon gave life to shadows that lingered across the shiny gray surface of the floor.

"This looks different than how we left it," Ghost said as he ignited his flashlight function.

The Guardian listened quietly to the faint sound of the wind whipping around the conical shape of the spire, the faint clicks of Ghost's shell moving about as he hovered above his shoulder, a quick snap of cloth catching up to the movement of its owner. "We're not alone," the Guardian commented, raising his pulse rifle as he scanned the room.

"Incredible," a voice rang out from the shadows. "Almost as fast as the system monitors of the past."

The Guardian lowered his weapon. "Who are you?"

"A concerned citizen," the voice replied with an eerie calm.

"And does this concerned citizen fear being seen," Ghost asked?

The voice laughed. "No." 

A face emerged out of the darkness, covered in lit-up lines reminiscent of the ink tattoos on Earth. "Here I am."

"Why are you here?" The Guardian could tell from the program's almost stiff stance that something was off, like there was a rabidness hiding underneath their calm and collected mask just waiting to gnaw its way out.

"To offer my assistance of course," the program grinned. "You clearly need it."

"I think we'll be just fine without it, thank you" Ghost snapped.

"Feisty," the program replied, "I like it."

"What kind of assistance are you proposing," the Guardian said, bringing the conversation back to its initial focus.

"Intel. It's clear from my observations that you aren't as aware of what is brewing as you may think you are," he replied. "Like who your real enemies are."

"We know the Cabal are working with CLU—" Ghost asserted.

"Yes, but look how long it took you to reach such an apparent conclusion," the program pointed out candidly. He took in the silence and sighed. "You still have suspicions of my intentions. Here, let me prove to you that they are genuine. Where is that Commander you are so fond of?"

"Back at her base, presumably reporting to her superiors what happened earlier," the Guardian replied.

"You presume wrong," the program smirked.

The Guardian, tired of this obtuse conversation, raised his pulse rifle at the program. "Where is she?"

The program didn't flinch, even as he looked down the barrel of the weapon. "She is back at base, but not for the reasons you think. See for yourself." The program offered forward a fractured red cube to the User who lowered their weapon and took it.

"I think you'll find what you see, enlightening," the program grinned in anticipation.

The image of a green facility being bombarded with rain appeared. The roar of a recognizer landing overpowered its’ droning rhythm until its engines finally quieted. 

“And you say her name was Quorra?” Tesler’s distinct voice bellowed out.

“She and her friend were treated right here,” the female program replied.

“They just left a few micros ago,” the other, a male, added.

“You’ve done the right thing,” Tesler replied while turning around to face them. “Tear the place apart. Erase any trace of their presence. And round up any program that’s been exposed to the ISO’s and have them derezzed immediately.”

“What?”

“Collaborating with traitors must be punished as an example for anyone else who might consider helping them. I’m afraid that includes you.”

“But we helped you,” the male program protested. “But we helped you!”

“Please–” the other tried to say before both their screams overpowered the video.

The image suddenly cut away to what was clearly Paige, crudely, but successfully fighting off black guards before being grabbed by Tesler and thrust into a wall. “What’s going on?” she yelped as Tesler’ raised his disk to her neck.

“I’m looking for two fugitive ISO’s; you’re going to tell me where they are.”

“I don’t know!” she replied firmly, despite Tesler's threat of de-resolution.

“How did you end up here?” he ordered.

“The one called Quorra did this to me. I gave her medical aid and this is how she thanked me!” Paige snapped angrily.

Tesler growled before lowering his disk. “The ISOs are crooked, dangerous creatures, and it seems we found you just in time. Unfortunately, we couldn’t save the others.”

“What others? What did they do?” Tesler beckoned her to follow him rather than reply.

“The ISO’s derezzed them. Took everything of value and fled,” Tesler finally answered as they looked over the messy hallway that was dotted with the cubes of derezzed programs. “You were obviously tricked into helping the wrong side in this conflict. Now that you understand that, I’m willing to give you a chance to join the right side, and make the ISOs pay for what they've done.”

“How soon can I start?” Paige replied through gritted teeth.

“Paige was a medic?” Ghost beeped in surprise. In a way, it made sense with her strong concern for others, and her sometimes abrasive bedside manner.

"How do we know—," the Guardian looked away from the video playback to where the program had been standing only to find him gone. "Ghost, where did he go!?"

"I'm not detecting any movement...wait. I'm sensing something large outside," Ghost answered. A red glow slowly filled the room as a recognizer slowly lowered itself to eye level with the room's large window.

"Hide yourself!" the Titan yelled moments before the room was lit up by a hail storm of bullets from the recognizer. The Guardian jumped over and behind one of the room's larger computer consoles. 

The recognizer continued to lay down suppression fire while a team of black guards’ flew in through the shattered windows on wing-shutes. "I'm detecting enemy movement behind us. We have to move so we don't get cornered."

"Call them out," the Guardian ordered Ghost.

"First one. Right staircase, medium range."

"I see them." The Guardian aimed his sights on the program and sent a 4-round burst right through their upper torso. The program only had a moment to reflect on what had happened before they collapsed into a pile of cubes.

The sound of a disk being hurled in his direction alerted him to the position of another program. By the time he had looked however, the program had vanished behind cover. In an attempt to draw them out, he nearly emptied Go Figure in the program's vicinity, making sure to leave enough for two bursts.

After giving a slight pause, the program, sure enough, came out of cover to throw his disk at the User. This time the Guardian was ready, utilizing the first burst to knock the disk off target before firing the final rounds at his confused opponent. "That's two. How many more?"

"I think there's only one, but I can't see where they went. There's too much fire. You need to do something about that recognizer." Ghost yelled into his helmet.

"On it," the Guardian replied, "Any chance you can give me a rocket launcher?"

"A little busy at the moment," Ghost replied over the helmet's comm system. "But those bombs the Guards carry should be able to take it down."

"I see them," the Guardian acknowledged, looking at the pile of cubes from the first program he had derezzed. With a single deep breath, the User jumped out from behind cover and made a break for the explosives, grabbing two as he passed by. Making it to cover just as the recognizer's weapons had caught up to him, the Guardian began to adjust the detonation delay when a hand came out of nowhere and knocked them away. The final black guard's second fist attempted to lay a strike on the Guardian but the User grabbed it, stopping it mid-swing. The Guard attempted to pull it away, using his other hand for leverage, but the User latched onto it as well, slowly applying greater force. Spider cracks began forming around the damaged voxels as the Titan's grip began destroying the structural integrity of the program's code before they both finally shattered.

The Guardian then ripped off the explosives from the Guard's suit before throwing them into the open, the recognizers' weapons tearing them into voxels in milliseconds.

The Titan, setting the delay for 15 seconds, activated the countdown and jumped out of cover. Using his experience throwing pulse grenades, he threw the pair of bombs out of the window towards the rightmost engine of the recognizer. They landed on the engine with time to spare. "Are you sure those are going to be enough?" He asked Ghost moments before the explosion occurred. The shockwave was enough to blow him back into the nearest wall.

"Are you alright?" Ghost quickly flew over to him with concern.

"I think that was enough," he groaned as he stood up. "You think our new friend set us up?"

"Maybe, or maybe he just didn't want to get spotted by the occupation. Concerned citizens and all, but I don't think he had anything to do with the cube," Ghost replied.

"Explain."

"That cube has been here since Paige acquired the wrench from that garage. I've seen it sitting on the table in her room ever since," Ghost clarified.

"And she just saw its contents for the first time now,” the Guardian realized. He walked over to the blown-out window over the city. “I think it’s time we paid that mechanic a visit.”

____________________________________________________________________________

Paige stormed through the ship, disabling every sentry who crossed her path with ease. She was better trained with a more diverse skill-set than any of them. Even as she approached the General's throne room, her momentum was unhindered as she cut through the slightly more competent black guards with her disk with little remorse.

"Where is Tesler!" She yelled at Dyson who was standing in the room. He gave a slight nod in the General's direction.

"Paige?" Tesler turned around and asked before being kicked back into one of the room's windows.

"You lied to me, back at the medical center, you told me the ISOs killed everyone. It was you!" Paige was holding her anger back just enough to form words through gritted teeth.

"I spared your life, Paige," Tesler replied.

"That's not the same thing as saving it!" She yelled, swinging her disk only to have it deflected by the General's own. "Derezzing programs, imprisoning them for public execution. I violated my own programming for you !"

"A personal choice," Tesler growled back as he started charging up his gauntlets.

"Like the one you gave Keller before she was murdered." Paige scoffed. Tesler's gauntlets and arms shot forward, glowing bright yellow as they flew towards her neck.

Paige bent backward as his arms passed over her, just centimeters from her face. In one swift motion, she sliced her disk in a short arc through the two outstretched glowing appendages.

Tesler growled in pain as the ends of his arms fell to the floor, noodle-like. He let out a laugh as he watched her approach. "I should have derezzed you at the medical center. You're nothing more than a piece of malware."

"A mistake I won't make now," Paige spat. Just as she was about to strike, she felt a hand on her back. She tried turning around only to have her movement seize up as an energy jolt flowed through her systems, knocking her unconscious.

Beck and Dyson stood over her now frozen body as Pavel came barging in. "Sir, Commander Paige has been spott—oh." 

"Take her to the repurposing chamber and ready her for rectification," Dyson ordered casually. "See to it that the procedure goes smoothly."

"Yes sir," Pavel replied, trying and failing to hide his excitement of destroying his coworker in such a humiliating way.

Once Pavel had left the room, Tesler finally spoke. "It's a shame a program with such skill was so weak against the User's influence."

Dyson quickly raised his hand to silence the General. "No Tesler. This incident falls under your personal list of failures. If you can't understand why then perhaps you should think about it while you clean your mess," he said pointing to the cubes scattered around the General on the floor.

Without any further exchange, Dyson exited the room, leaving Tesler alone, pathetically sitting on the floor surrounded by his own voxels.

____________________________________________________________________________

As Paige came to, she found herself awkwardly positioned inside a semi-transparent tube. Getting up, she attempted to remove her disk only to find it missing from its dock.

Panic set in. The repercussions of losing her disk were terrifying, but not as much as her realization after looking up. Despite the momentary relief of seeing her disk still nearby, the machine sitting above it quickly shattered any hope of her getting out of this with her memories or personality intact. She slammed her fist against the tube's wall in frustration.

She was about to try hitting it again, for whatever good that might do, when she heard footsteps behind her. “Hello, Paige.”

She stiffened at the voice. “Pavel.”

“I’m so glad you’re finally awake,” he started with a wicked grin. “I could have completed the procedure while you were unaware but, where is the fun in that.”

“Pavel, let me out of here, now,” she demanded. She knew he probably wouldn’t listen to her, but there was a chance. There was also a chance that if she could engage him long enough that maybe he would make a mistake and somehow release her from the chamber.

“You have no authority anymore Paige, not after your most recent betrayal,” he sneered.

“Like you haven’t been trying to get Tesler out of the way since we arrived in Argon,” she countered. “All I’d have to do is show him my disk and you’d be in here with me.”

“A problem that will be rectified shortly.” Pavel waved over to two blackguards operating the repurposing unit’s control station. “Goodbye Paige. For real this time.”

As the machine hummed to life, she felt her head involuntarily tip back and her arms float upwards towards her disk. A wave of defeat washed over her as the words “Preparing for code extraction...” were stated by the Grid’s voice.

“This wasn’t how this was supposed to end,” she thought. She had just broken free from the lies of the Occupation only to be forced back into serving it, this time unwillingly and without any possibility of breaking free.

“Data removal commencing...”

As the voice counted down to zero, she started to feel a tingling sensation build in her head as the read/write head of the repurposing machine scoured her code, extracting anything that is deemed imperfect. As it continued its pass, minor injuries, and scars, ones she had chosen to ignore due to their lack of seriousness faded.

“Cleaning complete...Countdown to repurposing in 5...4...3...2...1...Repurposing commencing”

Paige watched in horror as the new code visually spiraled down from the device. She had heard rumors of what to expect from other soldiers who had been present for the process in the past. The slow elimination of the program’s memories, their personality fighting to stay relevant only to be overpowered and shattered by the unrelenting stream of code raining down on them. Paige gritted her teeth in anticipation. She was going to fight it like every program before, even if the effort was futile.

The code hit her, but it didn’t feel like how she had imagined. Her memories weren’t going anywhere. She didn’t feel herself slipping away. All she felt was a steady buildup of pain growing where the code met her forehead. “ Something’s wrong,” she managed to think through the pressure headache.

Her suspicions were soon confirmed by the Grid’s voice. “Repurposing failure.”

She could see in her peripheral Pavel’s smug expression shift to one of concern, no doubt out of his selfish fears of failure. “Increase power,” he yelled to one of the guards in his grating voice. When the program hesitated, Pavel knocked him out of the way and turned the dial up.

Paige wanted to revel in his panic, but the pain caused by the increased flow rate of the insidious code was now reaching an unbearable level. Involuntarily tears formed around her eyes.

“Repurposing failure,” the grid repeated.

Pavel slammed the console in frustration before locking eyes with his former co-worker. “I may not get the pleasure of watching you transform into one of CLU’s useless drones, but I will enjoy watching you derez painfully. With that, he cranked the power of the repurposing unit beyond its safety limits. Paige finally couldn’t hold it back anymore and let out a long, agonized scream, her vocal mechanism distorting from the damage being incurred to her.

“Repurposing failure. Shutdown initiated.” As the machine’s power level dropped, Paige fell to the floor of the chamber, lying there on the edge of consciousness. The doors to the room then opened allowing Dyson and a squad of sentries to enter.

“Seize him,” Dyson ordered.

“Sir,” Pavel pleaded, “the machine was unable to repurpose her.”

“So you decided to ignore my orders and have her derezzed,” Dyson questioned.

“She’s a traitor,” Pavel questioned. “What purpose could she possibly serve?”

“The User has decided to play a game with us,” Dyson calmly replied. “It’s only fair that we return the favor.”

Paige, only barely aware of the conversation, was slow to recognize the implications of Dyson’s comment. Her eyes widened slightly from their dreary state before closing completely as her frame went completely inert.

Dyson signaled his guards to release Pavel. “Take her to the brig,” he ordered the Sentries. “I want you to deliver a convincing speech to Argon about what has transpired,” he said, turning back to Pavel. “I would do it myself, but I’m not really one for the dramatic.”

“Right away sir,” Pavel replied, bowing in faux loyalty.

“Good,” Dyson said, turning to leave, stopping just at the door. “And Pavel, don’t cross me again.”

____________________________________________________________________________

The Guardian was pressed up alongside one of Argon's ally walls just outside the block where the garage was located.

The streets were mostly empty save the occasional pleas of unfortunate programs caught violating curfew by the significant recognizer and patrol presence.

"How much further?" The Guardian whispered as he peered his head around the corner.

"About 1000 feet ahead," Ghost replied. The Guardian suddenly re-plastered himself against the wall.

"This wouldn't be taking so long if it weren't for all of these damned sentries." Ghost's response was interrupted by the sound of recognizers coalescing overhead. “Now what?”

“Citizens of Argon!” Pavel’s voice broadcasted over the city. “Your willingness to work with us after our momentary period of disagreement has not gone unnoticed. As a symbol of our appreciation, the curfew on this glorious city is hereby lifted, effective immediately.”

“Interesting,” Ghost, “why do I get the feeling that this move isn’t in good faith.”

“Because it isn’t,” the Titan grumbled.

“It is unfortunate however that I must inform you of Commander Paige’s betrayal. Betrayal of CLU, General Tesler, and you, the people. Her attempted assassination of this city’s great leader has put your freedoms at risk. But she was not working alone. The mastermind of her actions comes from this program.” A front and side view of the helmeted Titan appeared between each recognizer’s engines and across every nearby sign. “If you have seen them, do not engage. Doing so is treason. Please report any sightings to your local patrol unit. Thank you, for your cooperation.”

“I wonder why Pavel called you a program given his true knowledge of who we are,” Ghost pondered.

“Politics,” the Guardian replied. “I think we can assume that given this city’s history is, if not user-friendly at least not user-hostile. Imagine the response if the Occupation openly admitted that not only was there a User in Argon, but that one of their top commanding officers defected after working with them.” 

“We know that’s not the only reason she turned on them,” Ghost replied. 

“No, but the programs in the city don’t. The last thing the Occupation wants is to hand out inspiration for another uprising.” Despite the lifted curfew, the only activity sharing the streets with the User was still the many patrol units. “We should get off the streets, full-on sprint to the garage.”

____________________________________________________________________________

“I told you already,” Mara spat, “I don’t have whatever it is you are looking for.”

“Where is the data cube,” a guard ordered.

“Ugh,” she groaned in exasperation, “are you slow? We’ve been over this a thousand times. All of the data cubes in this building are on that table. If what you want isn’t on there then I suggest you start looking somewhere else!”

“You will tell us where to find it.” The lead Guard signaled for the other three to ignite their disks. “Now–” A random series of knocks with varying volumes could be heard just outside the office.

“We’re closed,” the Guard growled. The knocking continued, this time with a more consistent volume. “Go see what that is,” he barked at one of the other programs. “Now, I’m only going to ask this one more–” the knocking started again. 

Mara sat up in her chair. “ There was a pattern,” she realized, “ in the volume!”

“Quiet, Loud, Loud, Quiet, Loud, Quiet, Loud, Loud,” she followed in her head as she translated it binary. “ 01101011– k ”

“Black Guard 12184 come in,” the Guard said into his transmitter. The only reply was another series of knocks.

 “ Quiet, Loud, Quiet, Quiet, Quiet, Loud, Quiet, Quiet–01000100 ,” Mara recognized. “Capital D, start of a word. Next letter, “ Quiet, Loud, Loud, Loud, Quiet, Loud, Quiet, Loud– u”

The Guards all slowly started forming up to the entrance as the final series of knocks came. “c,” she mumbled out of hearing range. “Duck!” she gasped before ducking beneath the table, and just in time too. A bright orange disk, taken from the now derezzed guard, flew into the room, hitting the wall just over her head before ricocheting off into the back of one of the guards.

The centermost black guard who was closest to Mara had heard her gasp and had managed to evade the Guardian's initial attack unscathed. Having now recovered, they lunged towards the User as they appeared in the doorframe.

In an almost dance-like movement, the Guardian effortlessly lifted the program, continuing to use their momentum to build up additional force before slamming them into the wall, shattering them instantly, leaving only their disk remaining in his hand.

The final guard, utilizing the User's distraction with their ally, attempted to flank the Guardian. Unfortunately for them, they had forgotten about the room's primary occupant, only realizing their mistake after the bright white flash of a disk crossed just in front of their face and subsequent pain in their wrists and abdomen made their presence known, indicating to the guard they were in the final moments of their runtime.

The disk in the unidentified program's hand disappeared as they approached the head mechanic. "Mara, I presume?"

"Who's asking," she shot back. "Wait, you're that ISO they're after."

"ISO?" The User questioned.

"I heard ISO's are capable of derezzing programs with their bare hands," she said, gesturing to what remained of the guards.

"I believe you gave this to Commander Paige," The Titan gently placed the data cube on the table.

"Where did you get that?" Mara asked accusingly.

"Have you seen what's on it," he asked, ignoring her question.

"My question first," Mara said somewhat protectively.

"A friend," the Titan said quietly.

"You mean Paige?" Mara let out a single choked laugh, "Paige doesn't have friends."

"She has you," he countered, deciding now would also be a good time to put the wrench on the table.

"Please, it wasn't to help her when I gave her that cube, I was fulfilling Beck's last request—" her voice trailed off as she saw the wrench on the table.

"Keeping out any incriminating details, Paige and I have been consulting on how to solve an," he paused for a moment while he considered his description, "unusual problem."

"Fine, let's say you two are friends as you claim, how could you send her on a suicide mission against Tesler?" Mara asked, raising her voice slightly.

"I didn't," the Guardian replied. He looked down towards the cube.

"You really want me to see what's on there, don't you," Mara glared.

"It would be wrong of me to describe to you what takes place in those files," 

"If this is some sick Occupation joke—" she started.

"It's not." Mara nodded silently as she picked up and unlocked the cube. Just as before, the video began to play. The Guardian could see every emotion flash across the Mechanic's face as the scene in front of her played out. 

When it was over she quietly put the cube back down on the desk and took in a deep breath. "I had no idea."

"Neither did she," the Titan replied.

"You're going to help her?" she asked.

"That's the plan," he answered.

She inaudibly mumbled to herself before standing up. "Follow me."

Once they were in the main bay of the garage she spoke again. "What can I do to help?"

"Do you have anything that can fly?"

____________________________________________________________________________

"Thank you for your help with all of this."

"You're welcome, but are you sure this is a good idea," Mara asked as the Guardian boarded the light-chopper.

"Can this vehicle be traced back to you?"

"No, but—" she started.

"Then it will be fine," he said reassuringly. "Trust me, I've been through worse." He then tossed her a datapad.

"What's this," she asked, catching it.

"That unusual problem I referred to earlier is going to get worse before it gets better, and you have experience leading a revolutionary cell," he replied. "If it comes to it, I could use your leadership skills in the field in the future."

"I appreciate the offer," she began, "but I'm going to have to turn it down." She looked down sadly before returning her eyes to the Guardian. "I lost everyone and everything I cared about when the revolution failed. I don't think I can go through that again. I hope you can understand."

The Guardian nodded, only shaking his head when she tried handing the tablet back to him. "Keep it, just in case. The information on there could be of use in keeping you and your people safe when things get worse."

"Good luck," she said to him as she closed the chopper's pilot side door.

____________________________________________________________________________

“LC-6026 stand by for manifest scan...” a voice crackled through the comm system.

“I hope this works,” Ghost said.

“I trust Mara’s work...but stand by for resurrection, just in case,” the Guardian replied.

“LC-6026 you are cleared for landing,” the voice said before cutting out again.

“Guess I won't be needing to resurrect you after all,” Ghost joked.

"Let's keep our optimism to minimal until after we're out of here," the Titan replied, guiding the chopper through the maw of the ship.

"I'm not detecting any guards nearby," Ghost said, "if we're going to leave this vehicle we should go now."

"Copy," the Titan replied, exiting through the side door of the light-chopper. "It looks like there is a terminal over there. See if you can get a map of this place from there. The less we have to wander the better."

"On it." Ghost flew over to the glowing box on the wall. "Cover me."

The Guardian scanned the room for anyone that may notice them. He could feel the vibrations from the many sentry units patrolling the upper levels of the hangar.

"Alright," Ghost blurted, "internal schematics downloaded. Sending you the path to the brig now."

"Actually," the Guardian replied, "I want to make a pit stop at Paige's quarter's along the way."

"Why? It seems like an extra level of risk."

"Just a few loose ends to tie up," the Titan answered.

"Pushing the route to you now," Ghost replied begrudgingly," but if this goes south, you're going to keep hearing about it."

____________________________________________________________________________

"General, sir," a guard started.

"What is it?" Dyson walked over to the seated program.

"LC-6026 cleared our manifest scans on entry, but has yet to confirm delivery."

"And?" Dyson said, eyes not leaving the screen in front of him.

"That was 15 micros ago," the Guard replied.

"Hmm," Dyson grumbled before making a decision. "Dispatch someone to examine the vehicle."

____________________________________________________________________________

"There's no one in here," Ghost complained as the Guardian examined the room.

"I'm not looking for her." The Guardian pressed a button on the wall, engaging the closet door. "I'm looking for these," he answered as he picked up the only two items in the room.

"I'll transmat them into my inventory," Ghost offered.

"Thank you. Now, let's get our fire team."

The Guardian had only just stepped outside the room when a group of guards suddenly rounded the corner.

"Halt," one of them shouted, "this floor is sealed off. What were you doing in that room?"

"I'm with janitorial," the Guardian tried.

"Your circuits are wrong. Who are you? Present your access codes," the program ordered. Just then, Dyson's voice blared through the ship's communication system.

"Attention, the renegade User is loose on the ship. You are to terminate them on sight." As if on queue, another group of Guards fed in from behind, closing him in.

"Do you have any motes of light left from gambit," the Guardian whispered.

"Over a hundred, why?" Ghost's eye widened in realization. "Wait, you're not considering."

"I'm not; I've considered. On my signal." The Guardian turned his attention back to the Guards who had now all activated their disks.

"Nowhere to run, User," one of them taunted.

"You want my access codes? Here they are." The Guardian flicked his wrist, allowing the glowing white pyramid to appear in his hand briefly. He then pointed to the Guards. "Behind ya," he said, smirking under his helmet as he closed his hand around the motes, triggering the very noise he had come to tire of after his prolonged time in the dreaming city. A large blackened form began to take shape, growing second by second not yet reaching its full height.

"Ghost, how many motes did we just use," the Guardian asked, cautiously.

"Seventy-Five," Ghost replied hesitantly.

"Hmm," the Guardian breathed out as he watched the Taken Ogre reach its full height. “I believe now might be a good moment to go.”

The dark entity let out an enormous roar, before crushing the programs directly in front beneath its feet.

“I think you’re right,” Ghost gasped as the newly summoned Taken turned its attention towards him and his Guardian.

The Titan dashed the nearest side corridor, dodging the Ogre’s blasts of arc energy as he ran. 

"On the bright side, it'll give the occupation something to chew on while we break Paige out," the Guardian yelled. "Which way to the prison level?"

"Left!"

____________________________________________________________________________

"What was that," Dyson shouted at the programs in the control room. Mere moments after he gave the order to hunt down the user, the whole ship had started to tremble.

"Sir," One program answered, "I have identified the source of the disturbance."

"Well, out with it then," Dyson snapped when the program hesitated to answer.

"S-sorry sir, but I'm not sure what it is," the program stammered. Dyson quickly made his way over, shoving the program aside as he watched the live feed. 

A distraction! After taking a moment to accept what it was seeing, the General activated the intercom once again. "The User is attempting to break out the traitor! All available units, to reinforce the prison level immediately."

Dyson then turned to one of the black guards standing in the back of the room. "Signal our back-up to form up in the hangar. If the User wants this ship torn apart, then they can get torn apart with it."

____________________________________________________________________________

"Which cell?"

"Row 5, Cell 3," Ghost replied. As they ran down the aisles of transparent cages, the Guardian could see dozens of programs cooped up, waiting for whatever the Occupation planned for them.

"I'll get to Paige," the Guardian asserted, "you get these cell doors open."

"Copy that," Ghost chirped, "meet you there."

"Cell 6, 5, 4, Paige!" He said as he spotted her unconscious form on the floor of the cell. He knelt next to her, rolling her onto her back. "What did they do to you," he growled under his breath when she still didn't wake up.

He could hear footsteps behind him and initially assumed it was some of the programs Ghost had freed, at least until he heard a disk activate followed by a familiar grunting noise. He quickly responded with a snap of his fingers, bolts of arc energy impaled the attackers in a blue flash, derezzing the programs and burning a hole through the solitary legionary.

"I've never seen you do that before," Ghost commented, having returned from freeing the prisoners. 

"I saw one of Aunor's titans do it a few months ago and decided to give it a shot. If it didn't drain half of my energy reserves I would say it's fairly efficient," the Guardian replied, before looking down at Paige.

"Is she dead," Ghost asked bluntly.

"She hasn't derezzed," the Guardian pointed out. "Her circuits are dark; she could just be out of energy."

"I'll go and look for some," Ghost offered 

"There isn't time," the Guardian argued. The sound of guards' footsteps as they entered the room could be heard across the space. "The first time we encountered energy, you scanned it. If you could recall its frequency, I could adjust my own arc energy signature to match it and directly transfer it to her."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? What happens if you can't control it?"

"I will," the Guardian reassured him.

"You'll need to adjust your output to 50hz. Anything higher you'll risk harming her circuits. Anything lower, and you're wasting time." Ghost turned around when he heard a guard in row one call out their location. "I think they've seen us."

"Don't rush me," the Guardian snapped back. A soft blue glow began at his fingertips, building slowly until thin veiny strands of blue energy arced across his fingertips. "I'm going by feel here, but this definitely feels like 50hz. Making contact in 3...2...1"

As he made contact with her side, her whole frame jolted rigidly up in the air. His gut reaction was to pull his hand away out of concern but refrained from doing so as she slowly settled back to the floor. Upon closer examination, he could see a faint maroonish hue begin to take its place within the dark gray borders of her circuitry. It was working. What had begun as a questionable color shift steadily filled outwards, first solidifying its presence before building further into a dim red, then finally into a healthy vibrant glow.

He pulled his hand away and slid back away from her, giving her space as she came to. "Ghost, lower the cell doors and switch my energy output to void."

"That's also new," Ghost commented, "you never use that, at least not by choice."

"Well it's needed now," the Titan replied.

After another brief moment, her eyes opened, staring straight ahead for a few seconds before flicking to the sides as she took in her environment. "Guardian," she asked hesitantly, tilting her head slightly to see him. "But...how? I saw...you fell—"

"Miss me?" 

"What are you doing here?" Paige still didn't know how or why, but she couldn't deny that he was here.

"Breaking you out," he replied. "Can you move?"

She rolled her head back to center and closed her eyes. She had a headache, but she didn't know whether that was from Pavel's procedure, being thrown in what she guessed was the brig, or whatever it was the Guardian did to rapidly re-energize her. 

"I think so," she finally replied as she successfully managed to twitch her limbs. She could detect the Guardian's hand hovering behind her as she slowly sat up. "They tried to repurpose me but—" she paused, "I think it failed...somehow."

"Well, you haven't tried to kill me yet," he commented jokingly.

"Keep talking and I might," she glared. "I see you brought friends." She nodded to the guards who had now encompassed the exterior of the cell door.

"Well I wanted to make this a challenge for myself," he replied. "Ghost, lower the cell door for 1.5 seconds and then close it."

The cell wall flickered away. Wasting no time, the Guardian threw a magnetic grenade at one of the guards, sticking to them long enough for the cell door to reappear and act as a blast shield.

When the purple mist cleared, the guards were gone, disintegrated by the concentrated void light. The Guardian stepped through what remained of the shattered cell wall.

"Come on," he said, waving her to follow.

She briefly hesitated. A slight pang of guilt shot through her system as she looked at the voxels strewn out on the prison floor.

"You alright?" He asked, backtracking to her.

"Yeah," she sighed. Her eyes focused at the sight of the dead Cabal, the anger of her mentor's betrayal returning to her. She reached back and unhooked her disk, activating it as it reached her side.

"Let's go."

____________________________________________________________________________

The ship's alarms blared, overpowering the sounds of disks clashing and programs derezzing as they fought their way through the narrow hallways towards the hangar.

"I hope you have a plan," Paige grunted as she pushed back an attacking guard disk.

"It will all make sense once we're in the hangar," the Guardian yelled, disintegrating another guard with a single punch of his fist.

Paige's opponent witnessed this and hesitated, allowing her to slash through them with her disk. "Will it now? And why does the ship keep shaking?"

"It's part of the plan," Ghost attempted to reassure her. The section of the ship violently shook again, this time accompanied by a roar.

"Uh-huh," she narrowed her eyes. "Want to run that by me again?"

"The hangar is just beyond the next room," the Guardian interjected.

Paige nodded, dropping the subject. She opened the door, only managing to take one step in before having to dodge an incoming disk. She looked up and saw Beck drop the guard from whom he'd stolen the disk onto the floor.

"Beck," she tried, "I know you're still in there. Try to fight it."

Beck activated both disks in response and readied himself.

"It was worth a shot," she muttered as she activated her own. Four more guards entered the room and lined up behind him.

Beck charged at them, throwing both disks outwards in an arc, forcing the Guardian and Paige to separate. The Titan blocked the disk with his gauntlets, knocking it to the floor before engaging the two closest guards.

Paige was holding her own, derezzing one of her own attacking guards during their initial onslaught, but Beck's sole focus on her was beginning to force her back. The other guard was keeping their distance to a frustrating degree, throwing their disk, not with the intent of getting a hit, but to force her to deflect thus giving Beck an opening.

On the other side of the room, the Guardian grabbed the arm of one of the guards mid-swing, redirecting it into the chest of their team-mate, before punching them into the nearest wall and throwing their activated disk at their collapsed body for good measure.

After some steps back and more than a few close calls, Paige had finally figured out the timing of Beck and his support. As Beck went in for another swing, Paige broke the rhythm, stepping forward suddenly and deflecting his disk with her own. Using the brief respite, she threw her disk into the sidewall, angling its trajectory perfectly so it sliced cleanly through the guard.

Just as she was about to retrieve her disk, she saw Beck leap towards her from the side, faking out at the last second. Whatever move he had planned was quickly disrupted by the Guardian who, in his own quick motion, had grabbed him by the throat and pinned him to the floor. 

She suddenly felt her leg buckle beneath her. She looked down to see a long, open wound running the width of her outer thigh. The delayed onslaught of pain forced her to one knee.

Under the Guardian's grip, Beck struggled helplessly to get free, but to no avail. "Wait, don't derez him," Paige gasped through clenched teeth behind him.

She stood up, taking three awkward steps before collapsing again. "I have an idea; Give me his disk."

The User flipped Beck over. If it were almost any other situation, it could be funny, given the fish-out-of-water-like movements the protesting program was exhibiting. "What are you doing," he asked as Paige began accessing his internal systems.

She ignored him, flipping through one menu after another, adjusting settings as she went. "Put this back on," she ordered, handing the disk back to the User.

As soon as the disk was locked back into place, Beck stopped moving. "What happened?"

"I adjusted a few settings in his power cycle regulator," she answered nonchalantly. "He'll be out for a while." Without thinking, she tried to stand up, but let out a yelp from her injury.

"Hey hey, I've got you." The Guardian quickly jumped to his feet to steady her. "We're almost out of here. Just lean on me, keep your weight off of it."

____________________________________________________________________________

The hangar was a mess. The vehicles, normally in perfect rows were in total disarray, if you could call what was left, vehicles. Most of it could hardly be classified as anything more than scrap code: light-jets with missing wings, recognizers toppled like dominoes with huge sections of their engines crushed and shattered, and tanks. Whatever ones weren't being used to fire on the Primeval had met their end early on as the Taken entity's blunt weapon of choice against the crowded hangar.

The Ogre let out another horrendous roar as the remaining Occupation and Cabal troops rallied a final assault against it.

Paige turned her head to face the guardian. "Your distraction?"

"Yeah," he replied.

"Not for much longer," Ghost added. "That thing has already taken quite a hit since we summoned it."

"Then we need to move," the Guardian replied. He and Paige limped along the upper level until they reached a large flight of stairs. “Slow and steady—" 

The Taken Ogre howled one final time while twisting violently in the air, its form almost liquidating as it was sucked back into the ascendant plane.

"There goes our distraction," Paige grumbled, biting her lip in pain as she quickly ducked down below the stairway wall.

"Think you can fix your injury?" The Guardian asked.

She shot him a knowing glare. "Of course I can, but even if I do, we can't get through that without being seen."

"Maybe, that's it," the Guardian muttered under his breath. "Do what you need to do, then wait for my signal."

"Wait, where are you going," she asked when he moved away.

"I'm going to clear the room." With that, he turned back and jumped over the stairs rail and onto the hangar floor.

The Guardian landed on top of a tank with a loud thud. "Contact," a Sentry called out. Within seconds, every Occupation and Cabal soldier had their weapon readied on the Guardian.

The Titan activated his super, causing every Cabal in the room to immediately open fire, their shots being easily absorbed into the Guardian's void shield. The Titan quickly glanced around the room, taking in the location of every Cabal and Sentry before going on his own offensive.

Seeing a break in the fire, the Titan threw his void shield at one unfortunately placed Legionary. As expected, the shield bounced off the now disintegrated Cabal towards the next closest opponent, continuing its ricochet pattern and taking out four more before finally running out of energy and vanishing.

The Guardian jumped off the tank and towards a group of approaching black guards, a new shield briefly reappearing in his hands as he leaped towards them in a blur. Purple energy exploded around him as they derezzed from the force of his shield slam.

From above, Paige watched in a mixture of shock and awe at the scene below her. Since she had met the Guardian, she had never seen him fight with such ease and efficiency. His technique could be compared to that of a system monitor: every attack was calculated and dodge necessary, nothing wasted. It wasn’t at all like the fights they had been in together where the possibility of failure loomed dangerously overhead. 

For one reason or another, he’d been pulling his punches. Being trained herself she’d recognized that, but she hadn’t realized to what degree he had been. And as she watched him unhesitantly tear through the forces below her, some of them her former allies, the same feelings she had experienced earlier in the brig resurfaced. She tried to shake the thought as she sifted through her code, patching the damaged sections and activating the healing protocols. She could feel her leg begin to heal over after she re-docked her disk, the pain finally easing away.

He tossed the staff aside and looked up to her, giving her a nod. She started running down the stairs, only making it halfway before reinforcements made their way into the hangar and began firing on her position. "Jump," the Guardian yelled as he ran towards her. She complied. As they met halfway, the Guardian spread his hands out, focusing the void energy he had built back up into a Ward of Dawn bubble, encasing both him and Paige in it.

"That was close," he stated, helping her to her feet as bullets ricocheted off the outer wall of the bubble 

"Now what?" Paige looked around the inside of the bubble, noticing the shifting shades of the violet aura as it’s outer shell continued to be impacted.

"This thing isn't going to hold forever," the Guardian admitted.

"I take it there is something else to this other than standing in the open when this eventually fails, right?" Outside the bubble, she could see Dyson ordering tanks into position around them. She could just barely make out the word “fire,” escaping his lips moments before a volley shook the bubble’s walls. The Guardian pushed his hands outwards again, purple energy escaping from them to reinforce the barrier’s integrity.

"We're going to be okay," he said reassuringly. "Ghost, you're up!"

"Coming in hot," Ghost yelled. Despite being protected, Paige instinctively ducked down as a large foreign craft flew overhead. “Standby for transmat!”

“Brace yourself,” The Guardian warned, “the first time can be a little jarring.”

“What do you–” Paige felt a bizarre feeling sweep across her body, as if she were swimming in an effervescent pool of energy. The feeling only lasted a split second, building in her feet, traveling quickly towards her head. Before she could properly react she found herself instantly seated inside what she could only guess was the vehicle Ghost had flown in. The User was sitting next to her, busily pressing an assortment of buttons and switches across the dash. She could feel the vehicle shake as the tanks on the ground fired at their new target.

“Dyson’s closing the hangar door,” she yelled over the hum of the ship’s engines, compartmentalizing her overwhelming bewilderment for a few moments more.

“I see it,” the Guardian replied. “Ghost, how long until the engines are warm?!”

“They’re good—” Ghost paused, “now!” The User threw the throttle fully forward. Paige felt the rumble of the engines increase tenfold and she was thrust back into her seat. The ship ripped out of the hangar and out over Argon. She figured they were being pursued, it would be against protocol to not send out search parties, but from what she could see just by looking out the window, they didn’t have a chance of keeping up.

“Where are we going?” She turned to ask him. They had already flown past the spire and were well over the Sea of Simulation now.

“The analysis of the Avalanche’s data confirmed our suspicions about the existence of a relationship between the Cabal and the Occupation. But that ship was mostly a clean slate. If we want any further answers, we need to go to the source,” he replied. “Ghost lay in a course for Tron City.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 15: New Connections

CLU stepped over the still smoking debris scattered around the hangar. Countless recognizers were almost, well, unrecognizable. It was chaos . Chaos, a word he had so often seen and exploited as an ally, but now was staring him down as if he were in the sights of a light-tank. He had expected Tesler and his insignificant minions to fail, as always, which was why he had sent Dyson. What he had not expected was for his most trusted operator to fail so spectacularly and completely.  

“Rinzler!” He beckoned his enforcer forward. “We can’t afford to let these unfortunate setbacks become more than they are. Take a squad and derez any program who bore witness to what happened here.”  

“All of this could have been avoided if you would grant my psion commanders the access I requested,” a voice hissed behind him. “You’re going to need more than ships for what’s coming.”  

CLU clenched his back teeth in disgust at the suggestion. But given what had transpired in this cycle alone, he was all too aware of his rapidly diminishing options.   

“Agreed,” he exhaled begrudgingly. “Pavel, you and Beck are to assist the Psion here with whatever she needs.”  

“Right away, your majesty,” Pavel said, bowing quickly before escorting Tazaroc away.  

“Phase two,” Dyson questioned? “Don't you think it’s a bit premature for that?”  

“I don’t know what to think,” CLU replied with a chilly stillness in his voice. “My hand has been forced, and as for you–”  

“I will rectify the situation, sir,” he cowered.  

“You don’t have a choice,” CLU informed him. “Find them, or don’t come back.”  

_______________________________  

The ship cruised through the persistent cloud layer over the outlands. The low, constant hum of the engines and the clattering sounds of the grid's equivalent of water droplets breaking against the windshield were the only audible accompaniment for the Guardian and Paige inside the cockpit.  

It had been nearly twenty minutes since they had officially passed outside Argon's borders, which also meant twenty minutes since either had said anything.  

"You shouldn't have come back for me," Paige said flatly, catching the Guardian off guard.  

"What?"  

"Back on the ship, I saw you take out guard after guard effortlessly. You didn't need my help," her voice faded, "you never did."  

"That's not true," he sighed, glancing over her defeated posture. He was going to ask if that was what had been bothering her, but Paige's lack of response told him it was something else. "What you saw on the ship—" he paused, thinking about how to continue," I guess I just like to know who my enemies are—"  

"And do you?" Paige interrupted. "Do you know who your enemies are?"  

"I'm pretty confident at this point, yes," he admitted.  

"Then you know you should have derezzed me in the hangar with everyone else," she snapped bitterly.  

The Guardian just sat there in silence, unable to formulate a response.   

"I refuse to bury anymore friends," he finally replies, not in his usual confident tone. His words were buried, choked out almost.  

"That isn't up to you," she finally spoke after taking a moment to comprehend the meaning of his words. The cockpit fell into silence again until a beep came from the control panel.  

"So, I’d hate to interrupt," Ghost suddenly spoke up, shooting Paige a pointed glare with his one eye. "But, I was performing some basic surface scans, mostly for large power signatures..."  

"What did you find?" The Guardian asked.  

"I don't think it's a what, so much as a who; I'm getting life readings."  

"We're heading towards a city," Paige glowered, "obviously you're going to detect life."  

"Programs don't show up on sensors," Ghost shot back.   

"How many are you detecting," the Guardian asked, ignoring the pair’s bickering. He was of course grateful for his Ghost’s loyalty to him, but antagonizing the program sitting to his right wasn’t going to soothe tensions in the long run.  

"Just one," Ghost looked between the two of them.  

“Hmm.” The Guardian took a moment to let the information sink in. “Let’s set down behind that mesa over there. Whoever is down there, if we can detect them from this distance, so could the Cabal.  

__________________________________________  

Paige was numb. Not physically, she could feel the uneven, unstable, gravely outland terrain beneath her feet, but inside her processor churned. Her whole life, her whole purpose had been uprooted and unceremoniously overturned like it had been ground zero of a grid twister.  

She kept telling herself that she should have known, that she should have been stronger in confronting Tesler. The signs of the Occupation's true ideology were all there, she just missed them— no, ignored them. Maybe then...  

If onlys, what ifs, that's all she had now. The past, with all of its missed opportunities and sneering lessons. And the User, the one who had led her willingly headfirst into this, who couldn't look past the smokescreen of his own nightmares to see the monster that she was, served as yet another constant reminder of her mistakes.  

"I'm detecting disturbed terrain ahead," Ghost announced.  

Paige looked down. In her thoughts, she hadn't noticed the ground beneath her had become smoother, less untamed. It was still outlands terrain, the rock rough and layered unlike the Grid's constructed roads, but it was at least drivable with a properly fitted vehicle.  

"We're close," the Guardian said, shooting a glance in Paige's direction, "get ready for anything."  

Paige quickened her pace to catch up alongside the User. "Contrary to the Occupation's propaganda assessment of him, there’s no record of Flynn being aggressive. If anything, it's his passiveness that's led to everything that has happened," she commented dryly.  

"That may still be the case, but with " everything that has happened," as you put it, there's no telling how that has changed him," he replied, stopping only when he realized Paige was no longer beside him. He turned to see her standing perfectly still, a checkerboard pattern of white light glowed accumulated on the ground beneath her feet.  

"Paige?" he asked cautiously, taking a step towards her. He could see the circuitry on her frame flicker.  

"I… I can’t move," she stammered, her voice noticeably distorting.  

Just then, a disk came flying down from one of the overhanging ledges towards him, forcing him to dodge away from her. A figure followed, landing adeptly on top of Paige, pinning her to the ground, a light-katana at her throat.  

The Guardian temporarily targeted the attacking program when he noticed a flicker on his radar, indicating the approach of another behind him.  

Using his years of intuition, he waited until just the last moment to react, landing a hit on his attacker’s chest powerful enough to send them flying back ten feet.  

He leveled his hand-canon at the downed program. "Release her," the Guardian ordered the female program that was still pinning a disabled Paige.  

He could see his own opponent, who he now recognized as Flynn, shift slightly out of the corner of his eye. "Do it Q," he finally said.  

"But—" she started to protest.  

"It's ok Quorra," he reassured her.  

“Quorra?” Paige retracted her helmet.  

“Paige?”  

“You two know each other,” Flynn asked.  

“Yeah,” Paige replied with narrow eyes and a clear and distinct edge to her voice. “We do.”  

Quorra stepped up and away from Paige. “You,” she paused observing the glowing red circuitry, “fight for CLU now.”  

“Recently defected, actually,” Paige corrected coldly.  

“Both of you?” Quorra asked, looking towards the Guardian. He didn’t look like any program she had ever seen, but he couldn’t have been a User, right? He didn't fit any description Flynn had given of other Users.  

“Just her,” the Titan clarified.  

“You’re a User,” Flynn commented nonchalantly, smirking when the Titan tilted his head in slight surprise. “Don’t forget, I designed this place. I can tell when something’s foreign to the Grid, even if your armor, use of a gun, and lack of a disk weren’t enough of a give away.”  

“But if you are a User, why didn’t the portal open when you came through?" Quorra's eyes narrowed. "Who are you?"  

"It's—a long story," the Titan replied.  

"We don't have time for long stories out here," Flynn jumped in. "Quorra and I have a hideout not far from here. We can talk there."  

__________________________________________  

The hideout was naturally simple in its design, very little of the excess space was utilized, say for the non-standard light-cycle sitting in one of its corners, and a single bookshelf that spanned the wall.  

"Cozy place you have here," Paige said, breaking the silence. "KevinFlynn, I do understand you're efforts to hide are out of necessity, both of yours," she sent Quorra a pointed glance, "but given the consequences to the rest of the grid and to us programs who live out there if you were caught, I have to ask, what were you thinking?!" She knew she probably looked about ready to leap across the space between them and beat the Grid's creator back down to reality, but she wearily used whatever control she had left to just unload verbally.  

"I'm sorry," Flynn questioned. It wasn't a challenge, his face told her that. It was a genuine question, one of ignorance, and for her, that made it worse.  

"Let me rephrase it for you then," she snapped. "Are you aware of how reckless it was for you to be wandering the outlands? What if I was loyal to Clu? What if he was?" She pointed to the Guardian. "Do you even care about the consequences? Have you ever?"  

"I do care," Flynn replied solemnly. "But there was something out there I needed to see for myself."  

"A problem?" The Guardian stepped forward.  

"You might be able to tell me," Flynn turned to face the Guardian. "A little over ten cycles ago, during one of my meditation sessions, I felt a surge on the grid. I thought nothing of it, at first. Power fluctuations on the system are rare, but to be expected. We are after all plugged into LA's power grid." He let out a defeated sigh at the lack of reaction to his joke. "Tough crowd—anyway, turns out it wasn't nothing."  

Quorra stepped forward, her disk turned upwards in her hands, projecting an image of a three-dimensional triangular structure. The Guardian looked to his Ghost, who had appeared over his shoulder. “I found this about twenty micros from here.”   

“Could it be?” The Titan turned away and whispered to Ghost.  

“I haven’t detected any Vex activity,” he replied quietly, “and as far as I know, the Cabal are the ones with access to the Sundial at the moment.  

"Enough with the secrecy," Paige erupted at the Guardian. "I saw what you did in the hangar—what you're capable of. You could end this whole situation right now by yourself if you really wanted to, so why don't you? Well, go on, tell me. Is your extra caution because you truly care about minimizing collateral damage here on the Grid, or is it because you want to make sure that fallout of your ally's mistake doesn't reach your home."  

Paige held her sharp glare at the Guardian for another moment before turning her back on the group and storming out of the room.  

"Maybe we should postpone this discussion for the time being," Ghost said, breaking the stilted silence caused by Paige's departure. "It'll give everyone time to come to terms with recent cycles."  

Flynn's eyes narrowed in momentary curiosity at the fluency of the other User’s Bit looking object before finally giving it a small nod of agreement.  

He soon vacated the space, leaving just Quorra and the Guardian left. "I was expecting more of that to be directed at me, given our shared history," Quorra admitted.  

"Paige only just found out about what really happened that cycle, who killed her friends," the Guardian replied.  

"Wait," Quorra's eyes widened, "her friends?"  

"Tesler killed them upon his arrival," the Titan said grimly.  

"So she thought all this time..." Quorra's voice trailed off.  

"As much as she might want to still blame you, she knows it wasn't your fault," he reassured the ISO. "Paige has been through a lot, these last few cycles have been especially hard on her. Her entire world was just turned upside down and that has reopened a lot of old scars."  

Quorra nodded in understanding at the underlying plications of his words. He cared about her "How did you two meet exactly?"  

"She tried to kill me," he replied casually, causing the program next to him to crack a small, amused smile.  

"I think we got off on the wrong foot back in the Outlands. I'm Quorra," she introduced, extending out her hand.  

"You can just call me Guardian," he replied, completing her gesture. "Good to meet you, officially anyways.” He started to leave, but stopped when an idea came to his head. “Do you by any chance have a simulation room here?"  

"One floor down," she answered, "you can't miss it."  

"Thank you." As he left the room, the Titan tried to think of next steps. Despite his efforts, with the Occupations involvement, the situation had now escalated beyond something that could be kept hidden. He knew Tron City would have answers, but he didn't even know what he should be looking for. Ships? An army? That information would be redundant. No, what he needed to find was a purpose. Their purpose.  

__________________________________________  

Ghost found Paige sitting out next to an energy pool, looking out towards a large city. He flew over to occupy the space next to her.  

"Why does he keep treating this like it’s a game?" She asked desperately.  

"I've been alongside my Guardian since the day I resurrected him, and I can assure you he doesn’t view anything happening  here as a game,” Ghost answered. She continued to silently stare out across the barren landscape in front of her. “You feel guilty about surviving, don’t you?”  

“You know, you’re pretty perceptive when you want to be,” she sighed. “Killing Tesler was my responsibility, and I failed. I was so caught up—”  

“—in your own wounds that you missed the bigger picture,” Ghost finished. “And you think because you failed to get your revenge that you deserve to die?”  

“I’m no less deserving than the programs your Guardian derezzed while breaking me out,” she argued, “why can’t both you understand that?”  

“That’s where you are wrong,” Ghost replied.  

A data pads suddenly appeared in Paige’s hands. “What’s this?”  

“A mission log,” he replied as he watched her flip over the other one, furrowing her brow at its name. “What is the Prison of Elders ?  

“A turning point. The start of a list of failures, or at least what my Guardian considers personal failures,” he answered.  

She glanced down at the pads, running her thumb across their sides. “Why are you showing me these?”  

“Because you should know that he understands.” Ghost gave one last look before vanishing in a burst of sparkles.  

She gave the front of the tablet one last trace with her finger before powering it on. “ He understands ,” Ghost had said.  

“Understands what,” she scoffed as the words Prison of Elders briefly appeared before fading to Ghost’s perspective inside the Guardians ship as they rapidly approached the landing platform of a large building. Just as suddenly as she had experienced when she was brought onboard the Guardian’s ship, the perspective changed to the platform itself, where he, and who she assumed was another Guardian were now walking down.   

Paige smiled slightly at the sight of the Guardian’s armor, now black with green highlights rather than the deep red she had grown used to. While not quite the same tone as her former medic colors, she couldn’t help but feel a touch of nostalgia at seeing the color pairing that represented her own past, and apparently the Guardian’s too.  

“Petra Venj,” the other Guardian announced excitedly, “thanks for the invite. Whatcha packin’ for this party?”  

“Eh, the usual,” she replied slyly, pulling out her knife.  

“Ooh, do the thing,” the other one pointed eagerly. “Seriously, watch this!”  

Paige watched the knife mysteriously float up in the air, all on its own before returning to Petra’s hand.   

“Oof, that will never not freak me out–do it again!”  

Petra shook her head. “Later, maybe. Right now, Gen-pop is running wild. Fortunately, the main arena and lower levels remain on lock-down. But, if the core security systems fail, containment is going to be–a problem.”  

“Just another day at the office,” the other Guardian replied, turning to the Titan. “Alrighty partner, this is a Cayde riff in Six. Watch me for the changes and uh, try to keep up. Now let's go to prison!”   

Paige watched Cayde disappear down a ledge and the Guardian give a quick, exasperated head-shake before cocking his gun and following behind Petra into the prison. She started skimming through the footage, skipping past the seemingly endless fight as the Guardian pushed through the diverse cast of rioting prisoners, of which she only recognized one, the Cabal.  

A large explosion caught her attention, causing her to resume the pad’s playback. An enormous structure was falling down the deep pit of the prison, and as she looked closer, she could see Cayde waving as he fell along with it. As the object hit the bottom the video’s feed cut out, presumably from the shockwave that followed.  

It rather abruptly came back however, this time, clearly from a source other than Ghost. The video was low quality and distant, but the sound was still clear enough for her to make out what was happening.  

“Well, this – this is awkward. I Y–You got a gun I can borrow,” Cayde’s voice choked out.  

“No,” another, unfamiliar voice replied. “But, I do have a bullet with your name on it.”  

“Any second now, my partner is gonna roll in here and kill... Every. Last. One of you. And you, my man–” Cayde’s coughing overtook him.  

“Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh,” the other voice hushed mockingly. “Any last words.”  

“How’s your sister?” The deafening bang that followed shortly after told Paige everything she needed to know. As the figure walked away, it was joined by eight others, all far more sinister looking than anything else she had seen on the log.  

The perspective changed back to Ghost’s as the Guardian ran into the room, leveling their gun at the fleeing killers.  

“He didn’t feel a thing,” the one whose voice she had heard chuckled taunted.  

Paige skipped ahead again. The scene suddenly shifted to a completely different location. Three figures stood in a room: the Guardian, a short-haired woman dressed in long robes, and a hairless Titan whose skin tone she realized was the same color as Petra’s – blue.  

“He had the worst jokes. Even worse timing. I wanted to laugh, I really did,” the woman reminisced sadly.   

“We should have been there.” She said to the Guardian. “This is not your fault. This...is on the head of Uldren Sov. But if he thinks what he’s done is the end, it’s not. It’s the beginning. We’re going to fight him. Do you hear me? All of us. Every Titan. Every Warlock. Every Hunter. We will take the reef by storm. And then, we will mount the head of that son of bitch, on his precious throne.” Her voice trailed off. “For our fire-team. For Cayde.”  

“No,” the blue Guardian spoke quietly.  

“What did you say?” She growled.  

“We are not an army. We are not conquerors. We are Guardians. We need to keep our eyes here, on our home. Our people. The Traveler. The reef was lost the moment it lost its queen. So if another Sov wants a stretch of lifeless rocks. Let him have it.” He said, posturing.  

“This is Cayde we’re talking about. For us to do nothing is... is...”  

“Say it.”  

“Cowardice,” she finished.  

“I refuse to bury anymore friends.” The Titan vanguard’s eyes traveled down to the veiled frame of his deceased friend.  

Paige’s eyes widened in acknowledgement of that line, the same line he had spoken to her when she had scorned his breakout of her.  

“You won’t have to,” the Guardian said, shattering the back and forth dialogue of his colleagues. His fist was clenched “Uldren Sov, is mine.” The image on the pad trailed the Guardian as he exited the room before cutting out entirely.  

Paige sat in stunned silence for a few moments as what she had heard settled in her mind. “So that’s what Ghost meant,” she gasped under her breath. She had questions, lots of them, but they were far, far down on the list of importance. What she needed to do was talk with the User directly, clear the air between them.  

__________________________________________  

“I assume your talk with Paige went well,” the Guardian asked Ghost as he entered the room. “Don’t look at me like that, it was pretty easy to figure out where you went.”  

“Yes okay, I talked to her because you two are unbelievable,” Ghost feigned anger.  

“What did I do? I’m trying to train right now, but I need my Ghost to import a simulation routine into the system,” the Titan replied with annoyance.  

“You’re angry,” Ghost noted.  

“I am not angry,” the Titan growled. “Are you going to load a simulation out here or not?”  

“Fine, what were you thinking of,” Ghost gave in with an exasperated groan.  

“I want to simulate an Escalation Protocol.”  

“Oh you’re definitely angry,” Ghost muttered to himself.  

“You know I can hear you, right?” the Guardian pointed out.  

“Alright,” Ghost said, ignoring him. “Tier 1 starting in 3...2...1”  

__________________________________________  

When Paige arrived to the simulator room, she was met by a chaotic mess of strange creatures and brightly colored light, mostly emanating from the Guardian. Arc energy chained across the swarm, disintegrating the weaker fodder and stunning the larger more durable of the Guardian's opponents.   

As the enemies cleared, Paige could make out the Guardian's primary target, or rather targets. Two dauntingly tall creatures, each with oversized firearms were targeting the Guardian as he moved from cover to cover, not stopping for longer than a couple seconds.  

And then, out of nowhere it abruptly stopped. The enemies soon followed suit, vanishing from existence so completely as if they had never appeared at all.  

"That's time," Ghost announced.  

"How close was I?"  

"At your rate of damage, you could have used another 45 seconds."  

"Damn," the Guardian muttered under his breath. "Looks like I'll have to make some modifications to this Hammerhead if I want to cleanly make it through wave...four." His voice trailed off when he noticed Paige standing at the doorway.  

"I don't even want to ask what those things were," she said flatly.  

"That's probably for the best," he replied.  

"Can we, talk?" She asked cautiously. He returned her question with a simple nod.  

"Mind if we go somewhere else," he asked, gesturing to the simulator room. She nodded before following him outside and sitting down next to him on a small rock ledge.  

"I’m sorry about what I said before,” she said regretfully.  

"Paige, it's okay," he tried reassuring her.  

"No, it isn't! I jumped to conclusions about your motivations without knowing more details,” she rebutted.  

"I'm sorry for putting you in that position," he offered. “I should have been more open, about my capabilities, and about my past.”  

"Your past?” she repeated in the form of a question, eyes widening as everything she saw on that log clicked into place. “Is this about Uldren?” She could tell she unintentionally struck a nerve, not by his reaction towards her, but the speed that his head snapped in the direction of his Ghost, who had proactively floated away out of arms reach. The rigidity in his body soon left as he refocused on her.  

“Partially,” he replied. “How much did Ghost tell you?”  

“Not much if I’m being honest,” she admitted.  

“Uldren Sov was the prince of a race of people called the Awoken. He was unpleasant to interact with at the best of times, but not a cold-blooded murderer. Unfortunately, I was too blinded by my desire to avenge the death of my friend to recognize that,” the Guardian said remorsefully.  

“What happened?”  

“I killed him,” the Guardian replied coldly. Paige frowned in confusion.  

“So, you succeeded then?” she concluded.  

“Not exactly,” the Guardian sighed. “His death made obvious the entity that had corrupted him. A creature capable of searching your private thoughts for your deepest desires and warping them into physical nightmares. A wish dragon—” his voice trailed off as he looked back up at her. “You were right about what you said upstairs, that I will do anything to protect my home, but I won’t let my carelessness irreparably damage yours, not again.”  

She didn’t know how to respond. What could she even say to reassure him after what he had experienced? “I know you won’t.”  

For a while there was nothing but the silence between them. “Can I ask you a question?"  

"Anything," he replied.  

"Why did you come back for me? I mean, besides the ' I don't want to bury anymore friends' part," she said, in an attempt to mimic his voice.  

For a moment he didn't respond, making her question whether he had any other reason besides his own personal fears. Then, he did the unexpected. He took his helmet off. For the first time since their initial engagement in Argon’s alleys, her eyes could finally meet his own where they sat, not where she assumed they were underneath his mask. Despite an overall outward appearance indicative of a relatively youthful runtime, Paige could see through the soft, sympathetic gaze he was directing towards her down to the worn down and hardened person that lay underneath.  

“I don’t know what you did to hurt all of those programs, and I don’t really want to know. Those wounds are up to you mend. I didn’t come back only because you’re my friend, I but because I believe you deserve a chance to make things right, not be derezzed in the games or worse, forcibly turned into one of the Occupation’s pawns,” he explained.  

“What I did,” she started, “was cowardly, and unforgivable.”  

“I know for a fact that’s not true, because otherwise we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about it now.” He could see by the look on her face that her processor was trying to piece together who he was referring to.  

“It was Mara,” she realized, “wasn’t it?”  

“She understood that in spite of everything, despite your differing power levels under Clu’s rule, you were a victim of the Occupation as much as any other program,” he replied. “Paige, I know you think you are a lost cause, but your service to Clu and Tesler were based on lies and a manipulation of your compassion and desire to help others. Those circumstances cannot be dismissed, nor can your regret now.”  

“There is also one more reason,” he replied after giving her a moment to reflect, recognizing an opportunity to lighten her deteriorated moral, “maybe even the most important one.” Ghost, although hidden, seemed to notice his Guardian’s queue and transmatted her personal effects onto the cliff surface between them. “You still owe me a recital.”  

Paige’s eyes widened with recognition. “My monome?!” Her fingers traced the object's distinctive keys.  

“We may have made a slight detour on our way to breaking you out,” Ghost chimed.  

“You Users are even more reckless than I thought, or at least you are,” she teased, her spirits much higher than they were moments earlier. "Thank you, for everything." Paige placed a hand on top of the Guardians.  

"You are so much more than your programming," he replied, briefly glancing down at her gesture, internally noting the subtle shade of violet glimmering from where their hands met, very different from the solid red glow he was used to seeing. "My only hope is that when this is over, you get the chance to explore it.”  

“So, if we're going to be fully honest with each other from now on,” she started, “does that mean I now get to know your name?”  

He smiled, looking like he was also about to say something, to tell her. "I hate to break this up, you've got company," he interrupted quietly. By the time Paige had finished blinking the Guardian's helmet had materialized back over his face and he had turned to face Quorra.  

"Sorry to interrupt," she said apologetically.  

"Please, go on," the Guardian replied.  

"Flynn found another gateway." Quorra looked worried. "But this one's different. We think it might be active, but we're not sure."  

"Understood," the Guardian replied, "I'll be right there." Quorra nodded and skittered out of the room quickly.  

The User turned to the former medic and soldier who hadn't moved from her spot on the ledge. "Coming?"  

"You go ahead," she replied, "I'll be right behind you." As the User left the room, Paige picked up the second of her prized and only possessions, the photograph with her friends. She had decided to reach for that connection and he accepted, but now, she was beginning to second guess herself, again. Every bond she formed with someone, it always ended horribly. Her friends' deaths, Beck's repurposing, and her mentor's betrayal were all constant reminders of this. She wanted to believe that things would be different this time. This was a User after all, and a powerful one. She knew he could come back to life for Flynn's sake, even if he still hadn’t told her! But even with all of those "reassurances," she couldn't bring herself to fully squash her hesitations to grow attached.   

__________________________________________  

"Here," Quorra ushered the Guardian to the table. "It's closest any of these portals, if that is what they are, have ever gotten to us, but it's still far enough away from here that the base shouldn't be uncovered"  

"Hmm," the Guardian hummed, examining the holographic projection. Unlike the initial example of the mysterious structure, the center triangle seemed to pulsate outwards in a familiar animation."  

"Hit me straight man," Flynn paced excitedly.  

"It's active," the Titan replied simply before turning to leave the room.  

“Wild! So what–” Flynn started after him in surprise. "Wait, where are you going?"  

"I’m getting a closer look,” the Guardian replied sternly as he stepped into the elevator. “Stay here.”  

The Guardian didn’t bother waiting for the elevator to reach the ground level, choosing to jump off as soon as it was tenable to do so. He was surprised to find Paige leaned up against the wall expectantly.  

“Took you long enough,” she bantered. “Where’s Flynn and Quorra?”  

“Turns out the gate is active, so I told them to lay low here,” he answered. “If Flynn can detect the portal’s energy signature from here, you can be sure the Cabal can too.”  

“It was a good idea,” Paige thought, pushing herself off the wall to join him as he walked past. “Even if the Grid’s creator and an ISO were uninteresting targets to the Cabal, although she wasn’t so sure about the former, the Occupation would certainly find the prospect of eliminating them much more alluring.”  

“Lead the way,” she said, tossing him a light-cycle baton.  

__________________________________________   

Stopping their bikes right in front of a large glowing pool of energy, Paige couldn’t help but gape at the size of the structure. Flynn’s hologram, while showing adequate enough detail of its shape and materials, failed to translate the emburdening feelings that its sheer size and proportions inflicted to those standing at its base.  

In sheer contrast however, was the illuminating glow of the white pools that surrounded the base on all sides, save for the single staircase in the middle. Paige, noticing the electrical arcs dancing across its surface, cautiously reached out to touch the unfamiliar liquid only to have her hand stopped by the Guardian’s own, mere inches from the pool’s surface. “That’s not energy,” he said in a monotone but still reassuring voice, but Paige could tell by the presence of an ever so slight shakiness that whatever it was he had stopped her from was a much closer call than she knew.  

“Ghost?” he asked.  

“It’s definitely radiolaria,” Ghost replied after giving the liquid a quick scan.  

“Radiolaria?” she asked.  

“Vex mind fluid,” the Guardian clarified. “Best not to touch or drink it if possible. Unless of course you want to lose your mind to the vex, or be taken over by the vex, or become a vex.”  

“I’ll pass,” she concluded at the repulsing suggestions. Paige didn’t really know what a vex really was, but she didn’t need context to recognize the dooming nature of those outcomes. “Could it harm the grid?”  

“Possibly,” he answered. “This stuff here is only powering the gateway, but if the Vex get curious enough–” The Guardian transmatted his pulse rifle to his hands before offering it to her. “Here, take this,” the Guardian said suddenly.  

“Why?” She asked, accepting the weapon hesitantly.  

“Because I don’t know what’s on the other side of that portal. It could be a single Vex Goblin or a Vex Mind wielding an entire army, or anything in between. But what I do know is that the longer even one vex is allowed to persist on the grid, the exponentially more difficult it will be to keep them off of it,” he argued. The last thing he wanted was to see this place become like Mercury or Venus, or worse. This place was a computer, what would a sustained vex presence here even look like.  

“Look,” Paige pointed at the gateway entrance. “Something’s happening!” The dark blue triangle at the center of the gateway began pulsing outwards like ripples in water. Both she and the Guardian raised their weapons in anticipation.  

Suddenly a metallic humanoid flew out of the portal, landing only a dozen or so meters away from them. Paige looked to the Guardian to see his reaction, but his aim never deviated from the portal's entrance.   

The Vex Goblin boosted itself up and attempted to reenter the gate only for a fist to meet its head, sending its shattered husk flying backwards yet again. At this, Paige noticed the Guardian lower his own weapon and followed suit with her own.  

"My name is Saint-14," a thickly accented voice bellowed. She watched as a figure, dressed in obviously similar armor to the Guardian beside her but yet distinctively different in its design  exited the portal, another Vex in tow behind him. "They call me the greatest Titan who ever lived," he continued, executing the goblin at his feet, "but I would be dead if not for you."  

Behind him, and even larger vex stomped out. Saint immediately reacted, smashing his purple void shield into its frame causing it to stumble back onto one knee.  

His next move was to begin repeatedly smashing his head into the minotaur’s body, much to the Vex and Paige's confusion. "So is that—" she started, remembering the stereotype of Titans the Guardian had told her about.  

"I don't want to talk about it," he sighed, knowing exactly what she was getting at. She smirked.  

As the minotaur finally collapsed defeated after an ingenious use of the felled goblin, Saint turned to finish his speech. Whether he was speaking to his small audience or just self-posturing was another matter.  

"Since the day I met you, I swore I would make it my duty to follow your example. I'm still trying." It was then he finally looked towards the two spectators of his arrival.  

"Guardian, it is good to see you," he said enthusiastically. His voice trailed off as he took in the landscape.  

"Wait," he started cautiously, "this is not Mercury."  

"No, it isn't," the Guardian replied, speaking to the legendary Titan with his own voice for the first time. "Saint-14, welcome to the Grid."  

Chapter Text

(I wasn't happy with the ending to this chapter and it has since been updated since posting)

Chapter 16: Arrivals (Updated Chapter Ending)

“Saint-14, welcome to the Grid.” In a split second, Saint-14 had the Perfect Paradox leveled at the Guardian’s head, however, he did not flinch.

“Prove to me that you are not some Vex trick,” Saint ordered.

The Guardian paused as he gathered his words. “We met, hundreds of years ago on Mercury early on in its Vex corruption. You were fighting off the House of Rain after their surprise attack on Zephyr Station. You told me about how you were ready to give up and blamed yourself for the deaths of the colonists who came with you. No one saw me giving you that weapon, nor my Ghost showing you what could be if you went back to Earth.”

“Ha,” Saint suddenly laughed, lowering his weapon, “I knew it was you!” Paige just stood there, totally stunned at the newly arrived Titan’s, large personality.

“Look at this place,” he said, gesturing with his arms wide with admiration. “How did you get here?”

“While leaving the Vex network after the defeat of the Martyr, Psion Flayers took full control of the device we used on Mercury to enter the corridors of time and remapped it to bring us and them to this place,” Ghost explained.

“And I was following your light to the forest’s exit,” Saint realized how he got here. “And you? You live here–”

“Paige,” she replied, finishing his sentence, “and yes. This is my home.” She still didn’t know how much trust she should be putting into this new User. He seemed friendly enough, but 

“Oh I see,” he suddenly exclaimed loudly, centering his attention on Paige. “If the Guardian has chosen to protect this place with his life, then so will Saint-14! I stay!”

“It’s good to have you on board Saint,” the Ghost replied. “With where this situation is heading, we’re going to need all the help we can get.” The sound of distant yelling suddenly grabbed their attention.

“Quorra, you’ve got to see this,” the voice of Flynn shouted excitedly.

“Who is that,” Saint asked curiously about the approaching figure.

“The Grid’s creator,” the Guardian growled.

“Osiris version two-point-O,” Paige muttered under her breath as she walked to confront Flynn.

“What was that?” Saint pointedly asked.

“She blames Osiris for allowing the Cabal on the Grid in the first place,” Ghost explained, “which she isn’t exactly wrong about.”

Saint grumbled in thought. “I would speak with him on this matter,” he replied. “Is he here?”

“No, she spoke with a reflection,” Ghost answered.

“Fat-headed warlock,” Saint spat. “I will make this right.”

While Paige was now too far away to hear Saint and Ghost's back and forth, she was in the perfect position to endure Flynn's myopic excitement, or rather put a stop to it.

"The Guardian told you to stay put," she snapped while also shooting Quorra a glare.

"Relax. Don't forget, I was the one who found it," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand, ignoring her cold glare as he pushed past her and the two approaching Titans, "and besides, how much worse could a few minutes with this make things?"

“That went well,” the Guardian deadpanned.

“Even in CLU’s twisted propaganda videos of Flynn he wasn’t this reckless,” Paige observed.

“You might not be wrong,” the Guardian replied, watching Flynn and Quorra from a distance, the latter not looking overly amused by the creator’s rambling excitement. “That’s something we can ask her about later. In the meantime–”

Paige noticed the Guardian suddenly become transfixed on something in the distance. “What is it?” she asked. Then she heard the familiar sound.

“What are those?” Saint-14 asked, putting emphasis on the final word.

“Recognizers,” Paige grumbled angrily. 

“We’ve got threshers incoming too,” the Guardian added. “It seems their alliance is more coordinated than before.”

Out of the corner of her eye Paige saw the pair rush down from the portal to where they were standing. “Still wondering how much worse things can get,” she sniped at the User.

“I might have miscalculated a bit,” he admitted guiltily.

“So have they,” Saint growled, readying his shotgun.

“No, wait,” Paige stopped him after spotting a tactical deficiency in the recognizer landing formation. “Let them ground themselves first.”

With the final Occupation vehicle landed, they were blocked in; the portal preventing any possibility of a backward retreat, and the three recognizers with the support of the amassed thresher gunships in the air above making their inevitable push forward exponentially more challenging, especially now with the unwanted deadweight.

The central structure of the middle recognizer lowered to the ground and opened revealing— "Dyson," Paige muttered. She stepped forward. “I’ll handle this. Saint, protect those two if things go wrong.”

Dyson slowly walked down the ramp, a wicked expression plastered on his face. “My my, what have we here: the traitor and the Guardian together of course– and look at what the cat dragged in, to use one of your User expressions Flynn,” he mocked as he approached the creator and ISO. “Unfortunately CLU and I can’t afford the risk of using a memory worm to erase those from our disks.” Paige flinched slightly on remembering her own painful experience with those disgusting things.

Saint quickly stepped in front to block Dyson’s approach. “And who might you be?”

“My name is Saint-14,” he spat, “and as long as I live, you will not harm these people.”

“So you’re on errand duty now,” Paige interrupted to distract him from the Users. “On thin code with CLU are you?” She recognized the antagonistic nature of her words, but it was either to distract Dyson or risk being blown up from above before they could gain the upper hand.

“Thanks to the mess you and your partner caused,” he snapped, putting emphasis on the word. She momentarily froze. He said the thing that she had been denying was building between her and the Guardian. Not that it mattered in the moment. Besides her, the only ones who would probably recognize the term’s implications were Flynn and Quorra, and their opinions were irrelevant for the moment.

“The mess we caused,” she repeated angrily. “We’re not the ones who invited chaos onto the Grid.”

“Chaos?” Dyson challenged. “With the assistance of the Red Legion, CLU will finally bring perfection to this system– to every system!”

“You’re delusional,” Paige snarled. “It’s not about perfection or the liberation of programs, it never was. You and CLU just want control.”

“Perfection doesn’t need to be controlled,” Dyson replied. “Your failure to understand that is what makes you an abomination to your red circuitry.”

The Guardian was watching the argument play out in front of him. At first he had assumed the intention was to try and sow doubt in Dyson’s confidence with his new allies, but she seemed to be intentionally trying to get a rise out of the program. He diverted his attention to the recognizers.

“Troop carriers,” he realized. She was baiting Dyson to attack first which would play to the two Titan's strengths. And from the glimpse of movement on the top of the recognizer, it was working.

“What do you want,” she asked knowing it was either be captured then derezzed, or just be derezzed, but then Dyson did the unexpected. He hesitated.

“I want the ISO,” he replied cooly. Paige’s processor jumped. She was not expecting that. Not at all. In that moment, all of her painful memories of Gallium, all of the cycles she dreamed of putting her disk to Quorra’s throat came flooding back. But, so did the images of the one who truly murdered her friends, who lied to her time and time again, who manipulated her into giving up her true purpose. She glared back up at Dyson and activated her disk.

“That is not happening,” she seethed.

“Excellent.” Dyson smiled, stepping back away from her, giving Paige a view of a pinprick of purple light originating from the top of a recognizer. Before she could react, the Guardian shoulder charged her position with an even faster electric-blue blur and tackled her behind a cover, leading her to drop the weapon he had handed her earlier.

Not giving her a chance to react, the Titan quickly peered over cover with his pulse rifle and fired a burst into the attacker. As Paige pushed herself to her elbows, she felt something sticky on her left hand. It was dark red and thick. It didn’t take her long to find the source. A quick glance at the Titan’s left side as he fired away at Dyson’s attacking forces gave her a clear view of the wound just under his chest.

As he ducked back down to reload, she finally spoke. “You’re injured,” she commented sympathetically. She couldn’t tell if he just didn’t notice or just didn’t care, but her comment seemed to inspire him to take action.

“It’s nothing,” he reassured her quietly as Ghost appeared beside him. She watched in amazement as Ghost’s wide beam of light sealed up the wound as if it was never there. It was in that moment that she put everything together: Dyson’s cryptic comments about the Guardian’s death on the cliffside, his oddly close relationship with what could easily be mislabeled as a sentient tool belt, and his significant reaction to the death of his friend.

Her thoughts were quickly shaken by the loud sounds of suppressing fire from the overhead gunships nipping the top of the wall. She quickly glanced around, stuffing her realization back down to a lower priority thought in her processor’s cache. Saint-14 had at least upheld his promise and had encapsulated Flynn and Quorra into a violet protective bubble much like the one she and the Guardian had been in during their escape.

He was yelling, shifting his attention between the Cabal and Flynn’s protests. If they got out of this, they would have to find a way to either talk to sense into the creator or sideline him. “Guardian, their offense is fracturing! Time to end this!”

“Here! Take this,” the Guardian yelled, tossing her the pulse rifle.

“Wait, what are you going to do?” she asked.

“Clearing the field,” he replied. “Cover me.” A blue aura encased his armor, intensifying as energy arced across its surface, becoming nearly blinding a split second before he launched himself towards a large cluster of Cabal legionaries, disintegrating them instantly with a bright flash and thunderous sound.

Paige wasted no time taking advantage of the distraction, and began picking off whatever Cabal were left standing after the Guardian’s onslaught. Or at least she tried to. While she had managed to foil the flanking plans of a few Legionaries, the weapon didn’t feel natural to her. Even after the couple of times she and the Guardian had trained together in the simulation room, having both of her arms occupied combined with a lack of peripheral vision while aiming was driving her crazy. After missing her third shot at a legionary and drawing it to her position, she finally dropped the pulse rifle in exasperation and threw her activated disk into the chest of the oncoming Legionary, garnering the attention of others nearby.

As she acrobatically dodged the swings of the Legionaries’ oversized weapons, she couldn’t help but feel like something was off, like the ease in which she was cutting though these highly trained Users was a trick. Not that she had a moment to sit on that thought. Whether it was due to a slip up on her part or a well set up strategy on theirs, she found herself after what she considered to be a flawless backflip off of a Phalanx’s shield and subsequent delivery of a deadly slash into the rear life support unit on a gladiator, suddenly knocked out of the air.

By the force with which she kissed then outlands terrain, she had assumed that she had carelessly missed one of Dyson’s forces, but when she looked up there was nothing there but voxels. She flipped over onto her back to get a better look at herself. She didn’t feel injured, but she knew that could just be a temporary lapse in her pain response systems and that the lack of pain was not a viable indicator of potential injury. But despite her investigation, the source of the spilled voxels was still a mystery to her. 

Another rocket from one of the Threshers above exploded against the gateway, the shock wave causing the Guardian’s stability to waver momentarily. In response, he pulled out his Hammerhead and opened fire on the assaulting Cabal vehicle, quickly destroying its engines and bringing it crashing down into one of the stationary recognizers.

A loud burst of static cracked through his helmet’s comm system followed by a familiar voice. “Guardian? Guardian, do you copy? Jinju, boost the output power.”

“Ana?” the Guardian asked.

“Guardian! Glad we finally found you! You look like you could use some help down there,” she replied.

“I wouldn’t say no to it,” he answered as he watched her ship fly overhead.

“Copy that. I’ll take care of these guys up here,” she asserted, “but heads up, you’ve got a Warsat coming down on your position.”

“A Warsat?” Ghost questioned. “How did you–”

“Worry about getting yourselves clear first, then ask questions,” she scolded.

“I still don’t think she likes me,” Ghost mumbled.

“Saint,” the Guardian yelled, getting the Titan’s attention. “Get to your bubble, now!”

He looked up to see the all too familiar sight of a warsat burning through the upper atmosphere, or whatever the grid’s equivalent of one was. Tracking its trajectory downwards, he saw Paige engaged with a pair of phalanxes, easily holding her own but too focused to notice the incoming projectile. The Guardian raced across the battlefield at a record pace, using his increased speed to send one of the Cabal flying into the pool of radiolaria.

“I had it under control,” she interjected in frustration until she caught sight of fireball above.

“Hold on tight,” he said, pulling her into his embrace.

“Why–” she didn’t have a chance to respond before she felt her feet depart the ground suddenly. Blue energy sparked all around her and she could feel each snap of electricity delicately pull and prick at the outer layers of her code as she and the Guardian rocketed away from ground zero.

As the blue energy fizzled out around her, she was given a clear view of the spiked object that had impacted where she had just been standing seconds earlier.

"Ana are you there?" The Guardian asked behind Paige.

"Interesting use of your Thundercrash Guardian,” Ana replied over the radio.

"It worked didn't it," he answered, looking over at Paige who was stabilizing herself on a rock fighting off a program's version of nausea. "What's your status up above?" 

"Still occupied,” she yelled through the com, “but those vehicles down below aren’t.” The Titan looked towards the remaining two parked recognizers now ignited engines. “Guardian, that warsat is carrying a miniaturized valkyrie. Use it to ground those things.”

“So now we have to go back,” Paige interjected with a slight smirk as a sparrow materialized in front of her.

“Hop on,” the Guardian said, gesturing towards it.

____________________________________________________________________________

As the final recognizer collapsed from the valkyrie’s impact, what remained of Dyson’s forces became scattered between Saint, Paige, Quorra, and the Guardian who easily picked them off.

“We’ve done it,” Saint shouted as he shield-bashed a centurion out of existence. Ana’s ship shallowly approached, transmatting her to the ground before flying off.

“Guardian,” she greeted.

“It’s good to see you,” he said as they entered a friendly embrace. “Thank you for the assistance. I owe you one.”

“After the whole Xol thing, I think we’re–ev...en” Her voice trailed off. “Saint?”

“Ana,” he returned her surprised tone.

“I can’t believe it,” Ana said excitedly, “you’re alive?”

“Thanks to the Guardian here,” he postured. “I spoke of him to you before.” She glanced over to the Titan.

“Of course it was you,” she shook her head in amusement, “though I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“Hey guys, I hate to break up this reunion, but..” Quorra cautiously interrupted, pointing to a figure running off with a baton in his hand.

“The coward is running away,” Saint shouted, catching Ana off guard and forcing her to cover her ears in a delayed response.

“Dyson,” the Guardian growled preparing to pursue until Paige placed a hand on his shoulder stopping him.

“Let him go,” she said calmly, slightly surprised that the Guardian didn’t protest. They watched as Dyson flew off on a single-seat light jet.

Paige turned to face the rest of the group’s puzzlement at her order. “Dyson was already on thin ice with CLU after his failure to dispose of the Guardian in Argon. This slaughter was, if anything, a more absolute demonstration of his incompetence.”

“If he goes back and reports our existence,” Quorra started.

“CLU doesn’t need Dyson alive to obtain that intel. He’ll extract it, then derezz him,” Paige explained coldly. “If Dyson flees, CLU will have him hunted down, then derezz him. Either way, Dyson gets derezzed.”

As Paige finished and other voices took over, Paige surveyed the battlefield around them, not able to help the feeling that something was off. Discreetly, she moved away from the group.

“There wasn’t time to ask you before, but if you’re here, is it safe to assume the Vanguard has control of the Sundial?” The Guardian looked attentively at Ana.

“Just the opposite,” she replied shaking her head. “Mercury is under complete lockdown by the Cabal. Even the Vex are somehow outnumbered on the surface. It took a lot of Big Red’s firepower to get me in here.”

“Not that we’re ungrateful for your assistance,” Ghost clarified, “but may I then ask why you are in here?”

“Zavala asked me to set up communication relays so you can keep in more constant contact directly with the Vanguard and form a united opposition against the Cabal the Flayer Sisters,” she explained. “It’ll be better than relying on Osiris to show up.”

The Guardian nodded in agreement. “Quorra, can you take them back to your hideout?”

“Of course. What will you do?” she asked, looking past his shoulder towards Paige.

“She and I will wrap things up here and be right behind you,” he replied.

As the rest group started off, Ana stayed behind momentarily to speak with the Guardian. “You talk now,” she noted with a smirk. “It’s her isn’t it.”

“It was a combination of things, but predominantly–”

“She’s a miracle worker that one,” Ana quipped before turning to leave. “See you two back at base.”

As soon as the others were out of sight, the Guardian made his way over to where Paige was standing. “Something troubling you?”

“I could have sworn we were fighting Cabal,” she flatly stated.

“We were?” He confirmed with a hint of confusion.

“Then where are all of the bodies?” As he looked out he then saw what she had meant. He and Saint had disintegrated dozens of Cabal with their abilities during the fight, but he also knew that should have definitely been more than the skeleton number of Centurions and Gladiators that were killed either by ballistics or blades that remained. Across the battlefield lay strewn piles of voxels, completely separate from the debris of the destroyed recognizers.

“Oh no,” Ghost gasped at the realization.

____________________________________________________________________________

Quorra was waiting inside the garage as they finally pulled back in.

“Clean up took you two a while,” she briefly teased, changing after she saw Paige’s concerned look. “Did something happen?”

“It’s bad,” Paige replied, starting for the elevator. “Where’s Flynn?”

“Uptop. Last I checked he was assisting Ana with hooking the communication array into his personal power source,” she informed them. “It should be up and running soon.”

“I have to ask,” the Guardian asked Quorra as the elevator began to rise. “Is there something wrong with Flynn?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” she deflected, not entirely masking her own inner doubts with the gesture.

“Look Quorra, as a medical program I may only be technically qualified to treat other programs, but it’s my medical assessment that he is suffering from a processor error,” she pushed.

“That’s the Occupation propaganda speaking,” Quorra denied.

“No, it isn’t,” Paige replied in a quiet and sympathetic tone, “but you do know what the problem is, don’t you.”

Paige could sense Quorra’s defiance start to waver. It was obvious she cared about Flynn and was trying to protect him. But Paige also knew that whatever was wrong with Flynn was going to doom him and anyone associated with him if he didn’t get help. “You can tell us,” she gestured to the Guardian.

Quorra sighed as she stopped the elevator's ascent. “When I first met Flynn after the coup, he told me about his life outside the Grid. We covered a whole variety of subjects: philosophy, history, his work at Encom, but what talked about the most was his son, Sam Flynn."

"Hmm," the Guardian exhaled in realization. He glanced over to a visibly confused Paige, who returned his silent gaze with one that demanded he would be explaining Quorra’s comment to her later.

“He always hoped he’d see him again, but kept his expectations minimal,” Quorra added sadly.

“Until the portals showed up,” the Guardian added as the elevator reached the top. “Thank you, Quorra.”

The ISO returned a curt smile before processing to guide them to Flynn’s workshop. “Flynn and Ana are in there.”

“You're not coming?” Paige questioned.

“I’ll be back, but I’ve got some personal matters to catch up on first,” she replied, staring down the hallway.

“After you,” Paige said, gesturing to the door.

In the short time since they’d been gone, the hideout’s living space had been converted into a scattered nest of cables and bray tech equipment. At its center was a large emitter where Ana Bray was conversing with a holographic image of Commander Zavala, stepping aside as the two approached.

“Commander,” the Guardian formally greeted.

“Guardian,” the Vanguard leader returned. “It’s good to see you although I wish it were under better circumstances. And you must be Commander Paige,” he replied in a flat but not indifferent tone. “The Guardian speaks highly of you in his report.”

“It’s just Paige now,” she corrected. “I recently defected from my government. It turns out things weren’t what I thought they were.”

“Let us hope you are what you say you are,” he replied, not with the intent of malice, but as a reminder that although she might be trusted by the Guardian, Vanguard leadership won’t be as open. ”Ana informed me of your recent engagement with the Cabal. What’s your assessment of the situation?”

“It’s deteriorated since we spoke with Osiris’s reflection,” Ghost jumped in. “The Psion controlled Red Legion and the native government has officially made their first move together as partners.”

“Yes, I’ve been reading your assessment,” Zavala replied. His eyes hardened as he continued to process the information he had been given not an hour prior. “Their alliance is concerning.”

“With all due respect sir,” Paige spoke up, “I would argue that the current situation is more than mere cause for concern. The Guardian and I found an extremely troubling development after the battle.”

It looked as though the Commander was going to question further, but Ikora came into the hologram and whispered something into Zavala’s ear. “I apologize for the interruption. Let us reconvene at 0600 City Time."

The Guardian replied with a silent nod before the hologram faded.

"You told him about me?" Paige asked, slightly amused.

"Only the good stuff," he replied starting for the door.

"He doesn't trust me," she commented.

"Commander Zavala has a lot on his plate, especially these days. Trust me, it's not personal." They had almost made it to the door when Flynn suddenly stopped them.

"There you two are," he interrupted excitedly as he looked them over. "Wow, you guys look worse for wear. Sorry, I've been busy helping Ana get the tech she brought in online—fascinating stuff by the way, so I haven't gotten around to building more living spaces in this place. Hope you don't mind sleeping in the garage for a while."

"It will be fine," Paige replied. "Thank you, Flynn."

The ride down the elevator was filled with silence between them, however not from a lack of anything to say. As soon as they reached the bottom and stepped off the platform, Paige stepped out in front of the Guardian and faced him. “You’re a glitch.”

“What?” he inquired, recognizing the insult.

“You, rush into the line of fire without a care in the world whether you get killed in the process, and then act like everything is fine when you come out only wounded,” she clarified.

“It is fine,” he replied, “Ghost––”

“Ghost might be able to bring you back from the dead, but I am guessing there are limits to how he can do that and I refuse to be the reason for your final death,” she seethed. 

“And know this User ,” she threatened, taking a step closer to the Guardian, “if you ever intentionally kill yourself for my benefit again, I will personally make sure you get to relive that experience as many times as it takes to get that through your thick Titan head.”

“Your point is clear,” the Guardian replied.

“Good–” she started.

“But you expect me to be alright with watching you die knowing I could have done something to prevent it?” he retorted. “At least there’s a possibility for me to come back.” He could see her visibility shift at his comment.

“There are millions of people unknowingly counting on you to come home," she whispered sadly. "How can I possibly reconcile that when everyone I’ve ever cared about ends up dead?”

The Guardian, realizing she was moments from blaming herself for the possible future extinction of humanity, then did something he had never done before. He stepped forward and pulled her close. “You don’t have to,” he whispered comfortingly.

After an elongated pause, Paige pushed her trepidations aside she cautiously returned his gesture. “I don’t want to lose you too,” she whispered into him.

“You won’t,” he replied, as they both allowed the closeness of their embrace to overpower the emptiness of the open garage around them.

Chapter Text

Chapter 17: Prelude of Action (Part 1)

The Guardian found himself on the edge of an all too familiar cliff, staring over the dark chasm where the silent Lunar Pyramid loomed.

"Do not mistake our silence for slumber. We have been watching, and soon our season of arrivals will be upon you," a familiar feminine voice called out behind him.

Slowly he turned to see a twisted nightmare version of Paige lumbering towards him. "Do not fret. Preparation is unnecessary."

The Guardian found himself unable to move as the nightmare of Paige closed the distance, suddenly lashing out and sending him hurling off the cliff and into the deep.

He suddenly woke up with an adrenaline-fueled start. Beads of sweat ran down his face accompanying his elevated heart rate and accelerated breathing. 

"Hey hey, you're okay," Paige reassured as she effortlessly dodged his groggy single-arm attacks and pinned him down.

"You're safe, it was just a nightmare."

After giving her an excruciating look, the Guardian's body finally loosened. "Not a nightmare—communication," he replied while continuing to stare upwards at her.

"Either way, it might help to talk about this—communication," she offered, casually trying to keep the distressed User occupied with talking as she discreetly examined him. 

Still, head up from their recent fight and discovery, she might have asked Ghost for a basic lesson in User anatomy and medicine while the Guardian was asleep, as a just-in-case measure on the off chance it ever came up, especially given her newfound proximity to multiple Users. Or at least that was how she justified not resting herself and instead just watching the Titan lie, mostly, peacefully.

"It's helped me with dreams before," she added, “sometimes they’re hard to reconcile.” While she had no one in the Occupation she felt comfortable disclosing her personal hauntings to, she did eventually on more than a few occasions find confidence in Beck to whom she realized, not early enough, understood her.

"Flynn cursed you with those too," he asked bitterly, finally giving up and laying back down flat. 

"It's okay," she started, giving him a hurt smile, "if you don't want to tell me." She had thought they had made progress on trusting one another, but 

"It's not that," he sighed, sitting up against the wall so he could look her in the eyes. "I know the promise we made, but this, this is different."

"Paige, I've killed thousands of Cabal, probably more. I could tell you ten different ways to take out a Legionary without firing a single bullet," he scoffed. "But something is coming to my home Paige, and despite having this foreknowledge and time to prepare, I don't know how to stop it."

"And that worries you?" The question was rhetorical. Unnecessary might be how an outside observer would describe it, but Paige felt it was necessary to keep him talking. She had never seen the Guardian this shaken. Was his nightmare truly a message from his enemy? Was that even possible? The User seemed to think so. Paige knew Clu could take direct control of repurposed soldiers given the proper equipment, but even that was through the circuitry that ran throughout the paved terrain of the Grid's cities, not from wireless interlinking, and certainly never manifested in a cryptic manner such as this.

But she knew better now than to dismiss his concern given how her reality had been reshaped over the recent cycles. Even with her experiences, she was still a bit skeptical that the Guardian's concerns were grounded.

"Shouldn’t it," he replied. "Their past attempts at communication were all limited to a radius around the place where I first learned of their existence, but this is the second time they've reached out to me here, on the grid. And if they can find me here, in a digital world in another timeline or universe, then I can't be sure what the limits of their capabilities are. That is why I can't tell you."

"You think they'll latch onto someone else?" His concern seemed oddly specific, making her suspicious that he was leaving out something crucial that lay in the details of his so-called encounter.

"That's my concern," he replied wearily, resting his head back against the wall and closing his eyes.

Paige followed suit, shifting her position to one immediately next to the Guardian. She quietly intertwined her fingers between his and rested her head against his shoulder. "This doesn't have to be your fight alone. I promise, when this is over, whatever this enemy is, we'll fight them together."

If the Guardian was surprised by her close comforting gesture, he didn't show it. In reality, he was more hung up on her words. He knew there were many reasons they weren't true, couldn't be true, but held onto them at least until exhaustion forced him to let go.

As Paige sat there, she regretted the irresponsibility of what she had uttered, a lie. But underneath the sheath of logic and pragmatism that surrounded her code and fuelled her present line of thinking, a deep part of her hoped she was wrong.

______________________________________________

The Guardian groggily covered his face after being blasted by his ghost’s blue scanning beam.

“Ugh,” he muttered, holding back a gag as he chewed through the formless morning taste in his mouth. “What time is it?”

“0530,” Ghost replied. “Don’t tell me you already forgot about your meeting with Zavala–”

“Our meeting,” he corrected giving a glance next to him before returning his gaze to his Ghost.

“She’s over there by the entrance,” Ghost replied.

“Thank you,” the Titan replied, already up and in motion toward her red glow.

______________________________________________

Paige was standing in front of Flynn’s personal Encom 786 using its reflection to judge the two circuitry colors she was imposing onto herself. She had been at this for nearly an eighth of a milicycle and had made frustratingly little progress or rather, none.

At this exact moment, she found herself scrutinizing her old green circuitry for the 14th time when she was startled by the Guardian.

“Changing things up,” he asked behind her, causing her to jump and quickly shut down her circuitry lines entirely. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude. If you were busy...”

“It’s fine,” she said after a momentary pause.

“If it helps, I think you look good with the green. It suits you.”

“Do you now?” She mildly teased to acknowledge his compliment, but the banter didn’t last long given the priority status of the current task occupying her processor. Turning the circuitry back on, she once again frowned at the emerald glow. 

“I don’t know,” she replied with a sigh, “I’m not so sure it does anymore.”

“No?” he pressed curiously.

“Since the moment I defected, I looked at the red as a blemish and thought that once I changed it I’d feel more–” she trailed off.

“Comfortable?” The Guardian guessed. She nodded. “But you don’t.”

She didn't say anything, but her sudden averting of her eyes told him everything. "It's not permanent is it?"

"No?" Paige raised an eye at his chosen comment.

"Then don't," he replied.

"I can't keep wearing red," she sniped at him.

"I'm not telling you to. But you shouldn't decide now if you're not ready," he said, pausing cautiously. "You could pick a more neutral, user-friendly color."

"Very funny," she said, narrowing her eyes in aggravated amusement.

"It wasn't a joke," he said gently returning her smile. "Whatever and whenever you do decide—it's not going to change who you are."

With that, he turned to exit. "Meeting is upstairs in 15 min--nanocycles," he said as he stepped onto the elevator platform.

______________________________________________

Paige didn't bother waiting the full time, instead opting to take the very next ride up. She was surprised to see everyone, including Flynn waiting for her.

Quorra was the first to notice her presence and quickly made her way over.

"Good morning," she greeted excitedly.

"Morning?" Paige repeated in confusion.

"Sorry, it's just something Flynn says when I wake up," she attempted to explain.

Paige cracked an amused smile. "Speaking of him, how did you manage that," she asked nodding towards the creator.

"What, getting him up on schedule? Nothing actually, he was already here helping Ana when I arrived," she clarified. “He and Ana seem to get along. Their knowledge and ambitions are quite similar.”

"He also looks more focused than before," Paige analyzed.

"That might have something to do with interacting with other users for the first time in nearly a thousand cycles," Quorra smiled.

The Guardian looked over from the holographic emitter and waved Paige over. "Looks like I'm needed. We'll talk later."

"Paige, thank you for joining us," Zavala acknowledged. "Our strike teams are nearly assembled on our end. I am looking forward to your presentation," he said. His voice carried a tinge of amusement, betraying his otherwise stoic expression

"Of course, sir," she answered.

"Very good. I'll begin the briefing momentarily, then you'll take it from there." The hologram shut off unceremoniously.

"My presentation?" She asked quietly to the Guardian.

"It can't be me, I have an image to uphold," he countered.

"And what's that, the silent, brooding Titan?" She teased.

"Something like that," he replied, his smile hidden once again under his helmet.

"I'm glad we're past that, " she jabbed him in the side. He looked down at her knowingly.

"Me too," he said.

"Don't get the idea that you’re in the clear," she whispered into him. "I'll find a way to repay you, somehow, some way."

"Ominous," he joked.

"You're not the first person I've threatened, User." Paige’s smirk was cut short by the hologram of Zavala illuminating the room in a sky-blue hue.

“Fireteams are in position on the Earth side of Venus,” Zavala said initiating the discussion. “Now, tell me about this discovery of yours.”

“The Guardian and I believe what we encountered last night is the first result of the Red Legion and my government's alliance,” Paige explained. “It appears they have found a means to create programs in their image.”

“That’s not possible,” Quorra gasped. “CLU would need Flynn’s disk to co-authorize the rezzing of any program on the Grid. It’s why CLU turned to repurposing. It’s why Flynn’s in hiding.”

“Unless they found another way,” Flynn muttered.

“What is repurposing, exactly?” Zavala asked.

“It's the means by which a program is wiped clean of everything, their personality, memory, and original coded purpose and replaced with new code. The equipment and techniques were initially developed as a medical procedure to carefully remove damaged code from injured programs. Flynn scoffed. “But like everything CLU attempts to “perfect,” he ends up sanding it down until it's nothing but a cruel weapon. Ironically, it's what's been keeping his occupying forces at their bare minimum effectiveness, as little as that’s helped us.”

“And now that limitation has been circumvented?” Zavala pressed.

“CLU’s always known that even if repurposing worked flawlessly and allowed for the mass creation of his perfect fighting force, he would always be limited by the Grid’s population,” Flynn replied. “The Grid is a mirror of our civilizations, not everyone can do the same job. CLU is purpose-driven, often to the point of cruelty, but he is not wasteful. If what Paige said is true and he has found a way to create programs without my disk, there is no doubt in my mind that he would take it. He could have an army of any size ready, at any time.”

“But an army for whom,” Zavala pondered. “This alliance of theirs is, to use an understatement, unusual for the Cabal—even with their current Psionic leadership. I highly doubt either side fully trusts the other.”

“Agreed. This is an unprecedented move for CLU as well,” Paige added.

“But no less dangerous,” Zavala loudly retorted. “I say we strike the Sundial immediately before they have a chance to use this army.”

“And what happens if they retaliate here? Those of us who have lived on the grid know even CLU will expand whole cities to reach his vision of the perfect system,” Quorra retorted.

“Maybe I missed it,” Ana started, “but what is CLU’s goal here? It doesn’t sound like Flynn’s description of him to just throw away the system for a larger military.”

“It’s because that’s not what he’s doing,” Flynn sighed. The creator was now lying face-up on a nearby couch. “He wants to leave.”

“Leave?” Saint asked.

“CLU believes his job is done,” Paige answered. “His programming was to create the perfect system, not maintain it.”

“He’s me,” Flynn answered, “or a copy of my more naive self. He sees new challenges in perfecting other systems, even, the User world.”

“Put that way it almost sounds inspirational,” Paige grumbled.

“Now you understand my headspace when I created him,” Flynn shot back. “But Paige is right, he might turn the army on the Grid if his promised way out is nullified by your attack. If he can't get out via the sundial, he will come for my disk.”

“Once the Sundial is under Guardian control we can deploy fireteams to the Grid to assist,” Zavala asserted.

Paige was about to argue when a powerful unknown voice behind her summarized everything she was about to say into a single word. "No!"

"Ikora," Zavala inquired. "What are you doing there?"

"The Grid needs an advocate, and the tower a representative," she replied, not only to Zavala but to the room. "That is my role to play."

“I believe this back and forth has led us dancing around something important,” the Guardian interrupted, catching everyone off guard with his public break of silence. “We have an opportunity here.”

“Where,” Zavala asked, his tone non-accusatory.

“When you attack, CLU, the Psions, our enemies here on the Grid, must organize a response,” he said, looking to both Commanders. “We control when they tip their hand. That is our advantage.”

“But for how long will we have this, advantage,” Zavala pressed.

“That’s why I am not asking for a long delay. Two days Grid time. One Earth hour from this moment for us to gather intel on possible critical targets for a simultaneous strike with yours and to prepare for possible containment.” The Guardian watched as Zavala pondered the proposal.

“And you can do all of this in two days,” he asked skeptically.

“Whether we are ready or not, strike the Sundial as you proposed. If we are, we’ll shut them down before they can walk. If not, we’ll protect Flynn’s disk for as long as we can until you break through.”

“Very well,” Zavala agreed. “Keep me posted on your progress. Good luck, all of you.”

“What just happened,” Quorra asked after Zavala’s image faded from view.

“I just set us up to end this,” the Guardian replied before turning to Paige. “Looks like you’re up. What’s the plan?”

Chapter Text

Chapter 18: Plan of Action (Part 2)

“Get inside,” Paige said, urgently ushering the Guardian inside one of the train’s side passenger rooms, “quickly!”

“Paige,” the Guardian repeated, attempting to get her attention to no avail. He felt vibrations beneath his feet as the beam of energy forming the monorail’s track met the train’s grip, bringing its engine to life.

“I think we managed to get on board without being spotted, for now,” she said, pushing herself away from the window. The last she wanted was to be recognized by an unsuspecting sentry. Instead, she went to the room’s door and cracked it open.

Peering down the hall she saw the conductor checking tickets and quickly brought herself back inside so as not to be spotted. “We don’t have tickets,” she commented nonchalantly whilst pulling a chair over, “sit.”

“Why,” he asked. It was not like he wasn’t used to doing missions without fully understanding the stakes, but her answer to his inquiries had been little more than not having the time to explain why she didn’t have time to explain.

“Trust me,” she replied. “Oh, and when I do this, I need you to scream.”

“Do what?” Right then, the doors opened up revealing the ticket taker.

“I’m sorry but this train car is for ticketed passengers only,” the program interrupted, “so unless you have one….”

Paige stuck an electro-grenade right to Guardian’s neck. Figuring that was the queue, the Titan let out a hyperbolic version of what he imagined risk-runner might feel like on the receiving end.

“I’m afraid this room is being used for Occupation business,” Paige replied with a sinister smirk, “so unless you want to be next—”

“I-I’ll make sure no one else bothers you,” the operator stammered, backing out of the room.

“Good move, program,” Paige chided, only dropping her dangerous act once the doors were closed and secured.

“You played that well,” the Guardian mused. He was going to mention her continued use of red circuitry but decided to drop it. She would change it if, and when she was ready.

“Well, I had to make up for your performance,” she teased. “At least there's less of a chance we'll be disturbed in here..”

“Why are we in here?” The Guardian asked while taking off his helmet.

“Because it lowers the chance someone will spot us,” Paige reasoned, relaxing down on the long bench next to the window. “It's also more comfortable.”

“Let me rephrase,” the Guardian started, “given our time constraint, why are we taking this long train ride when the Grid’s capitol was visible from the base?”

"You mean as opposed to flying or driving in?" Paige activated her disk and began digging through menus until a holographic projection of Tron City was pulled up. "Much like Argon, the capitol has a perpetual no-fly zone for all aerial vehicles but specifically authorized Occupation craft, but the difference being that CLU has the military power to fully enforce it. We'd be intercepted before we even got to the city's perimeter."

"And if the sky is that locked down, the roads will be worse," the Titan followed.

"Exactly. Trust me, the train is the best option," Paige confirmed. "The occupation won't be expecting us to be coming from Osmium, so security should be lighter. And, we'll have the benefit of crowds."

"Since when are crowds a benefit," the Guardian retorted lightly.

"Not all of us are as conspicuous as you," she teased back.

"I see your point," the Titan smirked and sat down next to her. "I guess this also gives us time to talk."

"About?" Paige narrowed her eyes. She knew what he was getting at, and despite every ounce of her not wanting to have this conversation, she also knew what she had said. And it called for a conversation.

Paige's eye contact faltered. She let out a weak sigh. " This can't work," she replied with a hint of sadness. "It doesn't matter how closely we learn to work together, how familiar we become...when this is over, you'll go back to your world, and I'll stay here in mine."

"I know," he answered, matching her tone. “And, you're right. With this exception, our fights are not the same."

He watched as Paige spent the few following moments studying his face before on her own, a smirk emerged."

"You're a horrible liar," she chuckled.

"We might agree on the futility of whatever we are, but there’s something else you’re not telling me," she reasoned. A concerned expression shifted across her face. "Does this have anything to do with your communication?"

"Has anyone ever told you you're clever," he teased.

"I don't need anyone to tell me,” She cooed. "Now, are you going to answer my question?"

The Guardian let out an unwilling sigh. “It was you. You were there, communicating with me.”

“In the nightmare?” Paige pressed.

“You were the nightmare,” the Guardian clarified, raising his voice a volume level higher.

“I’ll try not to take that personally,” Paige replied through a single, nervous chuckle. “What did I say?”

“You know I can’t tell you,” he pleaded. “I’ve said too much as it is.”

“It’s okay. I’m the one asking,” she said leaning ever so toward him. “Whatever it is you’re afraid is going to happen, we’ll ta–”

“This isn’t the Cabal or the occupation. This isn’t a physical being that you can just shoot or slice your way through,” he explained forcefully. “It’s paracausal, like me. Its actions bend the rules of reality, only unlike Guardians no one knows what feeds its power. Is it knowledge? Ignorance? Telling you more could be a risk to the Grid, a risk to you–” he gave her a desperate look, “and that’s a risk I can’t–won’t take.”

“It could also not be,” she replied softly, placing her hand on his shoulder. Any following response was cut short as she found herself being thrown into him by the force of the train’s sudden breakage.

‘This isn’t right,’ she thought to herself as pulled herself up and ran to the window.

“Short trip,” the Guardian deadpanned to her left, earning himself a sharp glare and elbow.

“This shouldn’t be here,” she commented, her eyes scanning the hastily-built security checkpoint as they slowed.

“At least there’s a crowd,” he added, pushing his luck. She only quietly flitted her eyes at the comment, instead focusing on a parked light chopper at the back of the terminal.

“And we’re going to need it,” she replied with a devious half-smile.

______________________________________________

“ This is your plan,” the Guardian asked as he was blindly shoved through the crowd. Paige insisted that Ghost dematerialize his armor down to its base underlayer and instead that he wear an oversized cloak she had “borrowed” from a free-willed passenger.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going,” a standing program yelled after being nearly toppled them over.

“It might help if I could at least move my hands,” he commented. He could just hear the sound of Paige levying some not-so-veiled threats toward the aggrieved program before redirecting him back on course. “Why am I in light cuffs anyways?”

“This has to look convincing,” she hummed behind him. “Let’s call it, a trust-building exercise”

“I think you’re enjoying this far too much,” he grumbled.

“I told you I’d repay you somehow,” she bantered, continuing her previous tone, “and I am always a program of my word.”

“I can’t say that I see that,” he joked. She smiled silently behind him, shifting herself back into a less civilian state of mind as they approached their goal.

“Say nothing, do nothing,” she told him quietly. “I’ll handle this.”

“Identify,” one of the Guards greeted with pre-programmed hostility.

“I don’t have to identify myself to you, Sentry ,” she retorted a took an aggressive step forward. “Now step aside.”

“You are not authorized,” the sentry pressed, pointing his staff directly at her abdomen.

“You bet I’m not,” Paige replied, ignoring the valueless statement made by her opponent. “You see this,” she gestured towards the hooded Guardian. “I have a stray that needs to be processed, and unless CLU has changed his standing orders, strays are to be rounded up on sight and immediately conducted to the arena for rectification. So, if you don’t get out of my way...”

“Proceed, Commander,” the sentry said after an extended pause. “Have a safe flight.”

“Mindless drone,” she muttered as she and the Guardian stepped onto the aircraft. Within moments they were high and away from the danger of the guards that lay below but were much closer to a carefully observant onlooker.

// Suspicious Activity Identified

         // Assessment Underway

                     // Female Program - Unidentified

                                 // Facial Identity - False - Masked

                                 // Physical Structure - Wanted Database - Match = 80%

                                 // Circuitry - Wanted Database - Match = Identical

                                             // Suspect Identified - Cmdr. Paige - 90% Match

                                                         // Risk Assessment - High

                     // Unidentified Prisoner

                                 // Facial Identity - False - Covered

                                 // Physical Structure = Large

                                             // Wanted Database - False = Unspecific

                                 // Circuitry - False = Unknown - Covered

                                             // Deception Suspected

                                 // Prisoner Suspected = Titan Male - Match = Irrelevant

                                             // Known Allies

                                                         // Cmdr. Paige

// Argon City Garage - Unknown

         // Action Recommended

                     // Pursuit - Confirm

______________________________________________

Once they were high enough that the Guardian was confident, they were free of any threatening onlookers, he made his way to the co-pilot chair and sat down.

“Care to take these off,” he asked, presenting the light cuffs to Paige.

“I’m flying,” she replied bluntly.

“Okay,” he answered simply, leaning back in his chair before sending a jolt of arc energy down his wrists. Instantly the pathetic mechanism binding his wrists fell to the floor, disabled.

“Especially not when you could just ruin them yourself,” she added, hiding her amusement at the Guardian’s frank action against the useless object, a stance she held firmly after many cycles of experience. Locks were after all only there to keep law-abiding programs cooperative, a cynically optimistic lesson she learned from chasing the Renegade out of the dozens of restricted areas he had stumbled his way into.

She smiled at the thought of the old cycles. How much she had hated him, but how even before her defection had started longing for the chase, and the petty stakes, as she now realized that had been erected by the Grid’s narrow-minded leader. It was...fun.

Her nostalgic trip was interrupted by the Titan next to her. “You were in character back there.”

“Meaning,” she pressed, unsure whether or not to take it as an insult.

“You were convincing,” he said, trying to clear up his statement.

“Aren’t you glad I’m on your side,” she asked rhetorically.

“You don’t need me to answer that,” he replied, playing along. They both knew the answer at this point, after everything.

“You’re worried I am considering going back,” she realized. “Don’t be. I wouldn’t, even if I could. What you saw— I was just following protocol.”

“It was more than protocol,” he commented. “It was harsh.”

“As if you would understand,” Paige scoffed.

The Guardian could feel the chopper lightly roil in sync with her hand as it trembled just ever so in a loose grip over the cyclic control. The bio-feedback caused by whatever was conflicting her would have been scarcely noticeable had it not been for her buttery helicopter piloting until that moment. 

Gently placed his hand over hers, he could feel a steady calmness return, most immediately noticeable in the flight, but to her as well as her hand relaxed around the chopper controls blanketed by his own. “Explain it to me,” he said gently, “please.”

“What do you know about repurposing?” she asked.

“Only what you’ve told me,” he answered.

“Then you know it was a medical device that now serves as CLU’s primary arsenal for recruitment, or at least it was until recently,” she explained.

“That sounds about it,” the Guardian agreed.

“Then I didn’t tell you everything,” she said. “The concept in its original form was life-changing. It could add code where none existed. Programs that had permanently lost their limbs from viruses or light-cycle accidents could walk again and more importantly fulfill their purposes again.”

“You sound almost romantic of it. You weren’t by any chance the one who created it?”

“I’m not that good,” Paige chuckled. “I am fond of its original intention. It was created by another medic in the same medical center I was working in at the time, and I was one of the few who ever used it as designed.”

“What happened?”

“Who do you think happened? One day CLU shows up and wants a demonstration-- wants to see if some code his scientists had written up would be sufficient to sustain a vacant program,” she lamented.

“Like a stray,” the Guardian filled in. 

Paige nodded. “Of course I obliged, and the next thing we know the device is being wheeled out. I should have done more to stop him, but in my naivety, I accepted his promise to give new purpose to every stray program across the Grid.”

“I didn’t know,” said the Guardian.

“I didn’t either... until he paraded the machine around Argon square after the uprising was squashed. That program back there-- he could have been a stray, but you know what’s worse...he probably wasn’t,” Paige explained. “That should have been me, back in Argon, would have been if not for your Ghost.”

“What are you talking about?” The Guardian asked perplexed.

“You didn’t know?” She read his face looking for a tell. “I found it when I was trying to change my circuitry and asked Ana. Apparently, he encrypted my disk with a specialized external read-only mode with what she called an IKELOS encryption.”

“Ghost,” the Guardian called slowly. “Is this true?”

“Yes,” Ghost replied, sheepishly. “I’m sorry Paige if I violated your disk. I just figured that with your betrayal of CLU, it was only a matter of time before you ended up in one of those chambers. I’m sure I speak for more than myself that things are better with you as well, you.”

“It’s accepted. Thank you,” Paige half-smiled. “You know, when I was in that chamber, and the repurposing device failed, I welcomed the pain if it meant I would be derezzed. But then it stopped, and I blacked out, and then you were there breaking me out of my cell and I was still-- me. I guess what I am trying to say is...thank you for not abandoning me. Both of you.”

A beeping from the nav computer drew their attention away from their conversation. “Approaching the capitol, Tron City,” Paige muttered, her voice monotone.

“What do you know about this Zuse,” the Guardian asked, changing the subject.

“Only what Quorra told us,” she replied.

“Hmm.” Paige narrowed her eyes skeptically at the user's sound.

“I know that hmm ,” she replied. “That’s the same reaction you had whenever I would praise Tesler. You’re skeptical.”

“You’re not,” he asked, carefully avoiding the still raw wound caused by her mentor’s betrayal.

She paused thoughtfully. “I suppose I am. But there is nothing from Quorra's story that indicated malevolent intent when he helped her escape.”

“This was during the coup. Our friendly bartender may have been able to get away with a lot more before CLU had cemented full control over the city,” he offered. “People change.”

Paige lowered the chopper beneath the cloud layer. They were far enough inland past the city’s perimeter that it was likely no one would question their remaining temporary presence in the air. “I was wrong.” The words came out slowly as she caught sight of the sky-high building in which the End of Line Club occupied the penthouse, a penthouse which sat in the direct line-of-site of CLU’s headquarters. “We should expect a betrayal.”

 ______________________________________________

The elevator ride up was eerily quiet and appeared to be moving just slow enough to incite palpable anticipation of what might be waiting for them once the doors opened. The only sign they were reaching their destination was the slow loudening of musical beats.

“Are you sure the chopper is adequately enough hidden?” The Guardian asked.

“It’s in an occupation landing space, it’ll blend in. Trust me, no one will think twice,” she reassured, suppressing her won concerned tingle. ‘ We probably shouldn’t stay here too long though,’ she thought to herself.

The elevator finally came to a stop and the barrier separating them from the full auditory range parted. The Guardian could feel the demeanor of the program beside him shift as well as they walked through the bustling Club and past the complete range of characters occupying the place within, occupation and civilian. He was so entrenched in studying the environment that he’d almost missed that Paige had stopped short behind him, eyes fixated on the duo filling the musical booth.

“I had an opportunity to see them perform once,” she said, a tinge of regret present in her voice that did not go unnoticed by the Guardian. “It was a long time ago.”

“If you want to listen for a moment...” he offered.

“No, no I’m okay. We don’t have the time,” she asserted. “I’m sorry.”

“Have you all been so rude to our new guests that you haven’t shown them a place to sit yet,” a bubbly voice scolded a pair of sirens sitting idle at the bar. Guardian and Paige turned to meet it. “How interesting,” the white-haired program curiously stated. “Up, up,” he said briefly returning his attention to his club staff, “I’ll welcome these two VIPs myself.”

“You know who we are?” Paige asked flatly.

“Of course, I do! News of Argon’s recent ruffling within CLU’s ranks there doesn’t stop at its borders. It’s hard to keep something like that a secret, especially when there's word of an untimely leadership snafu-- a changing of the Guard so to speak,” his voice inflecting upwards as he finished his sentence. “But I’m sure you know more details on that Commander Paige.” The white-haired program’s smile was warm, but Paige still felt slightly chilled at his words.

“And if you’re here,” he said shifting his attention towards the helmeted Titan, “then you must be the User who miraculously de-converted her from CLU’s cause.”

“Care to say that louder,” Paige snapped back. Her hand was halfway to her disk port.

“No need to worry, not a soul here who would tell,” he smiled reassuringly. The Guardian eyed the programs littered around the bar, many of them donning occupation-red circuitry.

“You seem to know a lot about us,” the Guardian continued. “Who are you?”

“My name is Castor at your service, although I don’t suppose we are here merely for drinks, are we?” His voice sounded hopeful.

“We are here to see Zuse,” Paige frankly replied. “Quorra said he might be willing to help us.”

“Quorra,” he replied, his voice in a semi-dreamlike state as he recalled a memory. “I haven’t heard that name in many cycles. How is she doing?”

“Where is he?” Paige demanded, voice raising slightly.

“Quorra was right to believe he could help, only one problem, Zuse isn’t here,” Castor replied while using his cane to slide a glass of energy toward himself.

“Where can we find him,” the Guardian asked. Castor froze momentarily mid-sip of his drink, his eyes darting between the two of them before responding.

“I’m afraid I don’t know,” he chuckled nervously. “I’m genuinely sorry, I can’t help you. I know you probably traveled far to get here so please, sit and enjoy yourself a little. Libations are on the house.”

“What do you think,” the Guardian asked as the pair of them sat down in a semicircular booth.

“Of Castor? He’s hiding something,” Paige admitted.

“You think he knows where Zuse is?” The Guardian played with the glass of energy in his hands, swishing the pleasant blue-hued liquid around its sides. Drinking it would require him to take his helmet off, something that wasn’t going to happen in a place like this.

“Our asking for help set him off. If he doesn’t know where Zuse is then he’s definitely keeping something else from us,” she noted.

“Castor is Zuse,” Ghost blurted out, materializing in an out-of-sight crevice between the Guardian and the booth’s seat.

“What?” Paige responded.

“I did a surface-level scan of his disk while his back was turned,” Ghost explained. “It identifies him as Zuse.”

“Genuinely sorry,” Paige scoffed pulling herself out of the narrow area between the table and the booth. “Excuse me.”

“She always was impressive,” a program in a neighboring booth addressed the Guardian after Paige had walked away.

“Before you tell me my life story, who are you?” The Guardian turned to face the program as their mask fell. The program’s familiar voice had caught his attention, but the face...the Guardian couldn’t help but smile in amusement. “Oh, Zavala’s going to love this.”

 ______________________________________________

"Zuse," Paige called out once she was close enough.

"Keep your voice down," he scolded in a panicked voice, "my identity must remain an enigma."

"Then tell me what I want to know," she demanded.

"And why should I help you," he questioned. "My placation offer earlier should have been favor enough."

"Because CLU needs to be stopped," Paige replied.

"A User's cause," Zuse spit into a glass in response. "How did he manage to de-convert you of all of CLU's Commanders, one of his most loyal, willing to betray your own friends for his vision?"

Paige seethed internally at the personal jab.

"Confused how I know that? CLU's eyes and ears are my eyes and ears darling," he smiled wickedly.

"This has nothing to do with the User," Paige replied, outwardly uncluttered, "CLU is in over his head."

She could see Zuse's body stiffen slightly. "You know what's happening, don't you?"

"It's something of a controversy in this city," Zuse seemed to rationalize, "but what is in it for me? If I reveal anything CLU derezzes me, and if I don't you will."

"Tempting, but I don’t intend to,” Paige begrudgingly bargained.

"Intention aside I can't afford that risk," Zuse exclaimed shutting her down. "Now go!”

Paige gave an exasperated sigh as she turned to leave. “And change your colors for User’s sake,” he called after her, “a viridian palette far better suits your new allegiances.” Paige stopped momentarily, a small smile tugged at the edge of her lips before she made her way back onto the club floor.

"I take it you were successful,” the Guardian asked.

“He cooperated,” she answered. But her lighter expression quickly faded when her eyes met those of the program sitting behind the Guardian.

“Greetings program,” he introduced.

“Cutler,” she growled.

“You two have met,” the Guardian asked.

“Several times,” she answered, eyes not leaving the program. “The last time I heard your name, you were repurposed and reportedly derezzed when the Renegade crashed the mobile repurposing unit. How did you survive?”

“From the same person who saved me from being derezzed by you and Tesler after forfeiting the games,” he explained.

“Beck,” she finished for him.

“Beck showed me the light,” he continued. “When he revealed himself to be the Renegade on the super recognizer, it gave my original code something to latch onto for the first time since it was buried by the repurposing. The first few times I wasn’t able to control it, but I’ve since learned to bury it. Even now, I can still feel it gnawing at me.”

“Now that she is here, what do you want?” The Guardian could tell that Paige had relaxed, slightly, at least enough to sit down, but she was still rigid.

“I’ve heard rumors of grid-wide catastrophes spawning from the User world,” he said looking at the Titan, “And with Beck and Tron repurposed, there is no one to thwart CLU.”

“I was a soldier before,” Cutler continued, “and I owe my life to those two programs.”

“I see,” Paige contemplated. The Guardian’s communication device beeped suddenly. It was a communication from Quorra. “Fine, if you want me to start trusting you, get out of earshot.” Cutler obliged and made his way over to the opposite end of the bar.

“Ghost scan for bugs,” the Guardian ordered.

“We’re clear,” Ghost replied after stealthily scanning the booth area.

“Go ahead Quorra,” Paige formally greeted.

“We’ve found a Legionary program and disabled it, but there is a problem, there’s no disk,” Quorra informed in a worried tone.

“Are you certain?” Paige’s processor rushed to figure out a solution. “Could Saint have accidentally vaporized it with one of his abilities?”

“I used my helmet,” she could hear Saint shout in protest.

“I had to ask, sorry,” Paige half-heartedly laughed.

“I’ve never seen a functional program without a disk before,” Quorra commented. “What does it mean?”

“I don’t know,” Paige replied. “Bring it back to base. We’re wrapping up here, I’ll examine it when we get back.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea,” Quorra asked, unsure?

“It should be as long as you and Saint keep it unconscious,” Paige reassured. As she spoke, her eyes caught sight of a tall occupation program entering the club, a large T was encircled on its chest. “We’ve got to go, ping the Guardian when you get back.”

“Quorra’s question; Any ideas?,” the Guardian asked curiously.

“A few, but we have bigger problems,” she nodded to the door. “Keep your head down.”

“That’s--,” the Guardian started.

“Tron,” she finished, “yes.”

“Just a mom--,” he started to get up, only for her to grab his arm and pull him back down towards her, ducked behind the booth’s backrest.

“No,” she asserted, “I’ll handle this.”

“Paige,” his voice sounded slightly pleading, “you’re a good fighter, but this is Tron we’re talking about.”

“I don’t plan on fighting him,” she said, determination clear in her eyes. “You and Cutler get back to the hideout and plan for my arrival.”

“And what if you don’t,” he asked. His question searched for contingency, but the intention was obvious.

“Tell Flynn the target is the Viridian training facility outside of Old Arjia. He’ll know where to look,” she informed him. Through his HUD, he focused on her eyes, reading their intent carefully.

“I see,” he finally replied, seeing through her motives. “You’re playing a dangerous game,” the Guardian warned. “Be safe, please.”

He got up and quickly crossed the room to Cutler who was unaware of the situation developing around him. "We're leaving."

“What?,” he retorted.

The Guardian nodded past him. “Tron,” Cutler said under his breath. “What about Paige?”

“She has a plan, and I’m following it,” the Guardian replied as they tried to stealthily move through the crowd towards the exit. “If you want to help, you’ll follow it too. Now move.”

But no amount of stealth was going to slip past the system monitor who quickly caught onto their rouse and closed in, only making himself known when he had a clear disk throw at the Titan.

“Hostile left!” Ghost yelled into the Guardian’s helmet comms unit. “Duck!” The warning allowed the Titan to drop the necessary couple of inches to avoid critical contact with the blade. He could see a brief flurry of sparks dance in front of his HUD as the disk delicately ground against the rest of his helmet.

Three of the previously lounging guards jumped in to engage Cutler. It didn’t take long for chaos in the room to rouse the club-goers from their inebriated stupor and fall into a panic, inadvertently parting ways and leaving Tron, or rather Rinzler a clear shot at the Titan. Noticing this new tactical deficiency, the Guardian prepared to drop a barrier.

Rinzler threw his disk, only to have it knocked out off course mid-way through to its target by Paige’s. “Go,” she mouthed, reaffirming her earlier plan before leaping aside to avoid Rinzler’s disk as it returned to his hand.

The Guardian took one last glance at Paige doing what she could to keep herself between an angered Rinzler and his target without getting derezzed herself, before dropping a towering barricade to cover their exit. He quickly focused on the fight between Cutler and the guards. He was surprisingly holding his own in the 3-on-1 fight but was losing ground.

"Hand cannon," he growled. "Any!" A copy of Austringer appeared in his hand.

Two quick successive shots did away with the two guards closest to Cutler. The third, further back and closer to the Guardian turned his attention to the User and went in for a hard swipe. The Guardian dodged forward and to the right, grabbing the Guard's extended arm and yanking him to the ground before finishing him off with a stomp to the chest, shattering them into a pile of cubes around his foot.

"Let's go," he said walking past Cutler to the elevator. The aerodynamics program quickly followed suit. Rinzler, seeing this kicked Paige away and arced an explosive through the small gap between the top of the Guardian’s barricade and the ceiling and onto the elevator door. Seconds later the device went off, throwing both Rinzler and Paige were thrown back by the explosion and leaving a gaping hole to the outside where the door had once been.

Paige groaned in agony as she flipped herself over to assess the damage. Through the flames, she could see the Guardian’s ship rise into view, the bow seeming to almost stare her down before turning and flying away. Rinzler charged, throwing one last grenade out toward it in a last-ditch effort.

He stood there, motionless as the Guardian’s ship flew out of sight. A spark of fear shot through her chest as she observed the program’s low grumble and stillness. He was seething. 

Had she gotten overconfident? The situation seemed to indicate so. The club was empty barring the two of them, the Guardian was gone. 

‘Of all the times he could have listened to me,’ she thought bitterly, her self-preservation instincts driving her processor to look for someone to blame. ‘No, this one is on me,’ she rationalized. No one was coming to save her. She pulled herself up.

There was only one way out of this, and it had to work.

Rinzler’s beating grumbles intensified in time with her movement.

Paige cursed internally. ‘He must have heard her.’

He turned. ‘This was it. Her over-confidence had gotten her this far. Maybe it would be enough to get her out of this.’

He approached. “If you plan to take me to CLU for repurposing, it won’t work. Dyson tried. You’ll have to derez me.” Rinzler activated his disk.

If she sounded brave, she would have been surprised. She was petrified. Here she was, guard down, telling CLU’s enforcer exactly what he probably, no, certainly already wanted to do. Everything rested on this next part. She had to come off convincing.

“But if you kill me, you’ll never find Flynn.” Rinzler paused. For a brief moment of hope, she thought it was in consideration of her “offer.” But the moment quickly decayed, much to her horror as he bent down to retrieve something, clarifying that it was not. She closed her eyes in surrender.

Rinzler activated his second disk.

Chapter Text

Chapter 19: Takedown

"What was Paige thinking," Ghost reprimanded in his ear as they flew through the protection of the cloud layer. "Terrible plan! Just terrible!" Ghost was rambling. "And I know you cannot talk to me in present company, but I do know you agree with me. I saw you take it out on that guard."

"I just hope Paige didn't suffer the same fate," his tone shifting sympathetically.

"I trust her," the Guardian replied.

"I didn't say anything," a startled Cutler replied.

"But I don't trust you," the Guardian said, discreetly transmatting a junk helmet into his hand from Ghost's inventory.

"You're serious?" Cutler asked, looking at the bright-yellow-shadered Tangled Web Helm.

"I am not flying anywhere close to our base until you put that on," the Guardian dismissed, "until I know for certain you are not compromised."

Cutler begrudgingly covered his head. "I wasn't questioning the caution, but this helmet?"

"It was lying around," the Guardian, his voice terse as he altered course to the hide-out. "Ana, do you copy," he called out over the designated frequency.

"I read you, Guardian," she replied. "What's your status?"

"We've acquired a target, but our mission parameters appear to have temporarily changed to recruitment. Notify Flynn to prepare himself to dig through some code," he answered. "ETA 10 minutes."

"That bad?" Ana pressed, knowing something was up.

"Paige stayed behind. She wanted to practice some unconventional recruiting techniques." The Guardian paused. "She is trying to bring back Tron."

"Tron!" Quorra exclaimed in the background, having just returned to the base herself. "He's a lost cause. He'll derez her."

"She was adamant," he said dismissively, ignoring Quorra's use of the familiar phrase Paige had previously describe herself with and returning his attention to his conversation with Ana. "And I trust her. If her plan goes accordingly, she won't be far behind."

The Guardian could hear what sounded like a distorted Russian in the background before Ana finally responded. "We'll be ready."

"Copy that," the Titan replied. "Ana? I assume by we you don't mean you and Warmind?"

"Red is," she paused, "consulting. Don't worry, he has no plans to move here. Something about downsizing himself down to the level of a chess program? -- I don't know what he's going on about."

The communication shuts off.

________________________________________________________________

The Guardian and Cutler transmatted down in front of the hideout's lower-level garage entrance. Ana and Saint were waiting to greet them.

"Guardian," Saint stepped forward. "Ana told me what happened. Is she all right?"

"I don't know," the Guardian admitted with a sturdy albeit quieter voice. "But this was something she felt needed to do."

"We're operating on the grounds that she is successful," Ana reassured him. "But Flynn briefed me on Tron. Guardian, Quorra's concerns might not be entirely unfounded."

"Noted," the Guardian replied. A beeping sound came from Ana's wrist braces.

"Rasputin's detected an aerial vehicle on approach ten minutes out," she read out.

"Tron," the Guardian stated, "you do have a plan, right?"

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't." Ana cracked a small smile as she handed the Guardian a tablet. "Flynn's been feeding Red all the information he has on CLU's occupation: strategies, tendencies, approximate equipment inventory, and his personal experience with the system monitor Tron."

"He's been busy," the Guardian said as he scrolled at the overwhelming number of strategies, many mostly the same but with minor changes to singular variables.

"Every contingency accounted for," Ana answered, proudly.

"I can see that," the Guardian replied, ignoring a particularly egregious scenario. "And of these, what is his current recommendation?"

"Rasputin is operating on the assumptions Paige made about Dyson," Saint replied. "Tron should only expect minimal resistance."

"Me and Flynn," the Guardian noted.

"Just you actually," Ana corrected, pulling up two tactical options on the data pad. "Here."

The Guardian looked at the information on the screen. The first plan was rock solid. The Guardian would stay in the open near Flynn and engage Tron in the air with suppressive fire while Saint and Ana worked outside the Recognizer's field of view to disable the engines and cause it to crash.

The second was far riskier in terms of success requiring them to lure Tron out into the open and engage him directly on the ground with no preamble. Not an issue for any one of the three light-bearers if the plan were to terminate the program. But Tron had a resume, a long one, and Rasputin's numbers factoring the chances of Tron escaping during the engagement only collated that.

"This one has a 96% success rate," he observed, pointing to the first. "The other is at 72—why show me both?"

"Look," Ana said scrolling to the bottom. The Guardian then saw it...

Strategy 1:// Subject: Cmdr Paige - Survival Assessment: 50%

Strategy 2:// Subject: Cmdr Paige - Survival Assessment: 88%

The Guardian continued to stare at the numbers, hoping internally the second row would increase. It didn't. Another moment passed before he finally brought his head back up to eye level.

"No," he replied confidently. "We go with the first one. As Saint alluded to, Dyson might not report to CLU, but Tron does. Our edge is that he believes it's only my presence on the Grid. If Tron escapes, that mystery compromised, as is this location."

"And so would our advantage with Zavala," Ana added.

"Assuming that information wasn't broken out of her," Saint added grimly, earning looks from both Ana and the Guardian, though he couldn't see the latter under his helmet.

"Considering her disk inaccessible to others I, hope not," the Guardian replied to shut down that line of conversation.

"Guardians are you sure you want to go through this," Ana asked.

He nodded. "Bringing in Tron was important to her. She would not want us to risk failing on her behalf."

A sudden movement behind him caught Ana's attention. "Who's the shadow?"

"Another recruit," the Guardian said dismissively. "He used to be repurposed as well. Flynn will need to check his disk for dirty code before we clear him."

She asked. "You have a name?"

"Cutler," the program replied.

"I see," she replied, glancing at the Guardian while withholding a chuckle at the familiar voice. "I know it's inconvenient, but I'm afraid you're going to have to wait in a holding cell with the helmet a while longer until we can clear you."

"I understand," Cutler replied. "Your concern is justified."

"I will take him," Saint volunteered, turning to Cutler. "If you are compromised, I suggest you keep it to yourself."

Once Cutler was led out of earshot, Ana faced the Guardian. "He sounds like Zavala."

"He looks like him too," the Titan added catching Ana off guard.

"Does that mean--" she started.

"Your guess is as good as mine," he offered.

"Tell me that's not the only reason you recruited him," she deadpanned.

"One of them," he replied. "Paige thought he could be a good asset. Apparently, they share a history of some kind. He also has hair."

"Zavala with hair," Ana repeated with amusement. "Now I have to see this."

Ana then narrowed her eyes. "Going to be honest Guardian, I didn't know you had that side to you... you know, being a god slayer and all."

"It's easy to hide things when you don't say anything," he replied.

"I guess it was just always..." her voice trailed suddenly.

"Cayde's territory?" The Guardian filled in.

"Yeah," she replied sadly. "I miss him."

"You knew him longer than me," the Guardian replied. "Maybe that can become your job."

"What? Pushing Zavala's buttons," she asked, perplexed.

"Keeping him on his toes," the Guardian clarified.

Ana frowned and then sighed. "Are you pushing me as Hunter Vanguard?"

"The seat needs to be filled," he rebutted.

"Ugh, you sound like rat-faced Drifter," she groaned, the two of them walking towards the base to meet Flynn and Saint at the garage entrance.

________________________________________________________________

"Receiving telemetry data on the recognizer's location. Tron should be coming into your sights at any moment," Ghost informed his Guardian. "Look, I'm not saying I don't trust Rasputin's data, but with Flynn out in the open..."

"He's my friend," Flynn interjected. "When CLU took over--he fought for me, but I didn't fight enough for him. If I'm a variable that requires removal so that he can be recovered...I owe him that. The Grid needs him now more than it needs me."

"It won't come that," the Guardian replied confidently. The Guardian frowned under his helmet and pulled himself away from the sight of the linear-fusion rifle. The recognizer should have been in view by now. "Something's wrong."

Flynn must have sensed it too as he'd already turned around and was facing the opposite direction. The recognizer rose over the top of the base, weapons fully charged and glowing in anticipation.

"Move!" Flynn yelled as it opened fire, just missing the two Users as they jumped off the surface of the mesa down to a lower ledge and out of Tron's purview.

"We have a problem!" Ghost announced over the radio.

"I see it," Ana replied. "Saint and I are en route. How the hell did he know we were waiting for him?"

"Perhaps Paige betrayed us?" Saint asked.

"She knew of a plan, not the plan," Ghost defended.

"Tron," Flynn yelled as he and the Guardian continued their steep descent. The recognizer had just flown past overhead and was no doubt moments away from circling for another attack pass. "Seems like your Warmind AI underestimated a system monitor."

"And you underestimate Guardians," Saint bellowed.

By this point, the recognizer was rapidly approaching the two of them. The Guardian quickly deployed a towering barricade, just in time to absorb the first volley of shots.

"Guardian, I am over your position. Make space and I will cover you." Saint yelled. The Guardian immediately pulled Flynn back against the cliffside just as Saint landed where he had been previously standing.

Saint wasted no time dropping a ward of dawn bubble to shield them from the Recognizer. "I have Flynn! Go knock that thing out of the sky!"

The Guardian gave a silent nod, and dropped down off the ledge, activating his thunder crash mid-air and targeting the recognizer.

He could see Tron's attempts to cleverly dodge the attack in the ship's sudden maneuver, but the Guardian was prepared, choosing to fly past the Recognizer before coming about and crashing into one of its blind spots.

Electricity sparked everywhere, not only from the fallout of the Guardian's super but the damage to the recognizer's right engine as well. No longer able to keep itself airborne, the vehicle quickly found itself colliding with the side of the cliff, knocking the damaged engine off its mount entirely with the rest of the vehicle's knocked face-down sliding across the ice-covered rocky terrain.

"Vehicle down; good work," said Ana's voice-over comms. "I'm going to investigate the crash. We do not want him getting away."

"We'll be there as soon as we can Ana," Ghost replied. "Good luck."

"Rendezvous at the transmat zone Guardian," Saint yelled down to the bottom of the ravine where the Guardian had landed. "It'll be faster than climbing these cliffs."

Up top, Ana slowly approached the downed ship. The hull was mostly intact, but the scorch marks across its sides, and the large chunks of still flaming engine debris served as evidence of the severity of the landing.

Ana pulled out the modified Warmind node but paused in activating it. The plan was designed for two of them, one to hold back Tron while the device activated, and the other to get Paige out of the danger zone. But until backup arrived it was just her. This Rinzler Tron program was the priority meaning Paige would have to deal with the repercussions of this plan on her own for now.

She quickly pushed the thought away, twisting the two sides of the device to prime it. She pulled her arm back ready to throw it but suddenly felt a strong, vice-like grip grab her wrist, preventing her from releasing it.

Tron, or rather Rinzler was there. Ana pulled her arm forward, a move that would have flipped any normal-sized enemy onto their back for an easy finisher with the amount of force she used, but Tron countered, combining her force with his own to send him into a heightened front flip and using the additional momentum from his landing to turn the tables on the hunter and throw her into the icy ground. The shock from the blow sent the Warmind node bouncing out of Ana's hand and towards the cliff edge, only getting stopped by a pile of snow.

Ana went to reach for it but recoiled away when Tron slammed his disk into the ground in front of her, aiming for her hand. She quickly pulled herself up onto her feet and pulled out a pair of small blades from her boots.

Ana shrugged her shoulders in a rolling motion to try and ease the pain caused by Tron's counter. She was surprised her shoulder didn't dislocate from the force, still, it was something her ghost, Jinju, would have to heal later.

"You want to fight," she growled under her breath, "let's do it!"

________________________________________________________________

"Ghost?" The Guardian asked.

"Still nothing from Ana," Ghost replied worriedly.

"She'll be fine," the Guardian said as he double-jumped up to another ledge. The transmat point might have been faster, but it being the garage and for security reasons not having an accessible point of entry and exit from any other side of the building made getting back feel more akin to navigating the ascendant plane than a standard patrol zone.

"I have eyes on Ana, Guardian,' Saint yelled over comms. "She has engaged Tron. We will join her shortly."

"As will we." The Guardian jumped across to a neighboring ledge and pulled himself up.

"At least we're at the top now," he sighed. "Let's get moving."

________________________________________________________________

By the time he arrived, Saint too was tapped into the fight against the former savior of the Grid. Even from a distance, he could tell Ana was winded compared to Saint, who despite being much fresher was also considerably slower than Ana, allowing for more hits to be taken and even fewer given, but those that did land...

Whether it was a mistake made in earnest or of his corrupted code, Rinzler slashed forward with his two disks, a predictable move with only one practical way out for Saint. But instead of fully avoiding the attack as Rinzler had anticipated, Saint took it, the two disks causing a medium-depth slash under his chest plate and across his exo frame. He growled from the simulated pain before bringing his helmet down on the program whose momentum had kept them in the Saint-14's attack range.

While not hard enough to be lethal, it was enough to stun CLU's pet long enough for the Guardian to reach the fight.

Seeing the moment of opportunity, Ana lunged towards the Warmind node. Rinzler, noticing this and seeing an opportunity while Saint was distracted from his injuries leaped after her.

"Guardian," Ana shouted, barely having time to grab the device and haphazardly toss it in the Guardian's direction before Rinzler pulled her back to the ground.

Rinzler attempted to grab it first, but the Titan was faster. Just as Rinzler went for the attack, the Guardian pulled the node apart creating an ear-piercing blast of classical music that sent the two of them stumbling backward.

The ambiance was still for but a moment before the prickling sound of small cracks in the surrounding rock filled the air.

With their nests disturbed by the node's sonic outburst, Grid bugs began pouring out of the newly formed cracks in the landscape and began their hunt for their antagonists.

"On me," Saint yelled to Flynn, Ana, and the Guardian as he popped up his ward of dawn around the three of them.

While half the grid bugs fruitlessly attempted to break through the Titan's void barrier, the rest were sicced onto Rinzler.

The former hero of the Grid, seeing his opportunities for escape dwindling, attempted to rez his light cycle. Unfortunately, no sooner did the wheels contact the ground was its internals gummed up by the needly insectoids.

"Flynn now," Ana said to the creator as he duplicated the previous maneuver he used on Paige.

En masse, the swarm's bodies began to spasm as their power drained, flipping onto their backs as they shorted and derezzed. Rinzler initially found it easier to fight back due to their increasingly slower onslaught, but soon too found himself feeling drained as the ground beneath him glowed brighter and brighter.

Recognizing the source of the drainage, Rinzler made one final effort to reach Flynn inside the bubble, slashing rabidly at the outer edge, each strike weaker than the last as his systems failed. Finally, his circuits faded and so did his fight as he tumbled to the ground inert.

Saint dropped the bubble.

"We did it," Ana said relieved, "we need to tell—Paige!" Her voice alarmed as both she and the Guardian both simultaneously turned to see a small offshoot of Grid Bugs climbing up the side of the recognizer and breaking in through the severed sections where the engines used to be.

The Guardian wasted no time in responding, quickly grabbing two bombs off the unconscious Rinzler before engaging his sparrow as soon as it had finished transmitting beneath him.

"Paige is inside," Ghost said after quickly scanning the ship as they approached.

As soon as they were in range, the Guardian leaped off his sparrow into a high jump, letting the vehicle continue its momentum into a distant rock.

"I've marked a spot away from her location where you can place the explosives," Ghost said.

Before the dust had even settled from the explosion the Guardian moved onto the ship and saw that Paige, having already broken free of her constraints, had already started fighting off the swarm. But she was hopelessly outnumbered as hundreds continued to pour in through small fractures in the structure.

The Guardian threw two arc pulse grenades into the two largest pockets of Grid bugs nearest Paige, shattering their frail bodies with each blast.

He ran over to Paige, who had collapsed onto one knee out of exhaustion. "Took you long enough," she teased through a labored breath.

"Let's get you out of here," he replied, pulling her up onto her feet and draping her arm over his shoulder to support her. He saw brightly lit gashes shimmering across her leg from her fight.

He could still hear the pittering sound of the remaining bugs behind them as they exited the ships, but fortunately, the small creatures seemed more interested in the craft at this point than them.

"Did...did we get him," she asked quietly.

"Rinzler has been incapacitated," he replied. He heard her let out a relieved breath before feeling her go heavy.

He slowly let her down, carefully propping her head and torso up against his leg. Her circuits had dimmed significantly and were ever so softly flickering.

Not seeing another option, he grabbed her limp hand and began channeling arc energy as he had done before.

Her eyes shot open as her groggy state rapidly washed away.

She sat up. "What did you do?" Her voice was non-accusatory but inquisitive.

"Doing what I can to keep you on your feet," he replied, offering his hand to help pull her up.

Initially, she went to accept but suddenly recoiled, opting instead to push herself onto her feet.

Hearing the footsteps of Ana and Saint approaching, the Guardian shrugged it off as Paige not wanting to show anything that could be construed as weakness, an instinctual remnant from her time working alongside those who would exploit it.

But then he saw it again. Even as she kept her right hand in a tight fist and out of his direct line of sight, an unmistakable violet hue clashed with the red and black color of her circuitry and grid suit.

"Are you alright," Ana asked Paige as the two guardians approached.

"I'll be fine," Paige replied dismissively. "Tron?"

"Flynn's taking a look at his code now," Ana replied. "I've got to say, you were right. I haven't had a bout that good since..." She gave Saint a melancholy look. "It's been a while."

"After Flynn works his magic, he'll be a great warrior on our side," Saint-14 added.

"I hate to break it to you man, but it's going to take more than magic to fix CLU's damage," Flynn jumped in as he approached the group. "His code is like digital scrambled eggs man. I'm not sure that I can pull it apart. If Alan was here—"

"You're going to have to try," Paige doubled down.

________________________________________________________________

The Guardian entered the makeshift medical lab after his debrief with Zavala to find Paige still buried in the Legionary program's code. "Still working?"

"Hmm," Paige hummed dismissively.

"It's been an eventful cycle, for you more than most of us," he tried again. "You should take a break. Ghost can sub in for you."

"I know the layout of the code better, I'll be faster," she replied.

"Not in your current state you won't," he replied. She shot him a half-hearted glare.

"Sometimes I think you forget you have bright lines that indicate how tired you are," he sighed, placing a tall glass of blue energy in front of her.

"Why are you pushing?" Her voice was slightly aggravated.

"Why are you hiding," he replied. Her face softened as she reached for the glass. She took a sip, her eyes shifted momentarily towards Ghost.

She sighed. "Alright; I'll bite."

The Guardian took off his helmet. "That's a user expression—unless you have fish."

Paige frowned at the unfamiliar term. "Flynn used it earlier when Ana presented an idea. I thought the context fit here."

"It did," the Guardian assured her.

"You clearly have something planned given that—" her voice faded slightly as did the brightness in her eyes.

The Guardian nodded knowingly and pulled out the monome Ghost had been safekeeping and gently placed it on the table. Paige's gaze lingered on the instrument a moment longer.

"Alright," she finally said, getting up. "Ghost, don't break his code."

"I'll be more careful than you," he grumbled to himself as she and the guardian walked away.

"I know I promised this, but I should remind you I'm not a music program," she prefaced while setting up her monome on a small stand.

"If I wanted to hear something critical created by a program coded to create music, I would have found one," he replied, "but that's not what music should be. It should mean something which is why I want to listen to you."

Paige smiled softly and turned on her monome. The lights of the keys danced around as it booted. Then she started playing. It was the same song she had played hundreds of cycles earlier for Quorra and Ada back at the medical clinic in Gallium, the day the only people from her past she considered friends were murdered. The same day that tyrant had used their deaths as leverage to manipulate her.

It was the same song, but at the same time, was different. Slight inflections here and there, alterations she had toyed with over time during her deployment in Argon. The moments of frustration from her bouts with the Renegade were represented by bursts of short aggressive notes, feelings of sadness, loss, and missed opportunities through slower, singular notes, the distance between them almost longing for the next keystroke to come along and rejuvenate it. And her anger, something she had only just started coming to grips with, remained something un-represented in this piece.

The events of Tesler and CLU's lies were in the past, sure, but the ramifications were in the present. She expertly shifted the song, dropping the tranquil melody for something darker and far more militant, but only for a moment. She hung on the final note, giving it time to dissipate around the room, before returning to the original melody but this time played much softer.

"That was beautiful," Quorra's voice said from behind. Paige turned suddenly to the unexpected audience member. The ISO was positioned in the door frame, not in or out. "Sorry if I startled you, I was passing by and I heard you playing. I love the slight changes you made to it."

"Thanks," Paige replied. "I'm not sure though, maybe it's too much?"

"I think it was just the right amount," Quorra reassured her. "I should get going, I'll see you two at the start of the next milli."

As Quorra walked off, Paige turned to the Guardian. "So, what did you think?"

"Breathtaking," he started with a smile before his expression shifted to something more serious. "There was no ego when you were playing. I could see the emotions in your expressions and hear them as you played. This song is about your life, isn't it?"

She nodded and sat now next to him. "Thank you for sharing this."

"I'm glad I had a chance to," she replied softly.

"Now it's my turn," he said pulling himself up.

"Your turn?" She frowned watching the Guardian walk past the monome on the table and over to Ghost.

"It's only fair," he added. She watched as two objects appeared, one in each hand.

The first was brown colored and oddly shaped, almost eight-like with how the center contracted with the two ends rounding out, and the top extending into a skinny shaft. In the other hand was a bent stick with long strands of hair stretching from the tip to where he was holding it.

"What is that?" she asked, getting up to get a better look at the foreign instrument.

"It's called a violin," he answered through a series of plucks while he tuned it. "It's an older instrument invented I think around 500 years ago if we are going by Flynn's time--well over 1000 years where I'm from."

"Hmm," she hummed before seating herself again.

The guardian opted to play a solo variant of Lost Light, the fifth string allowing him to cover some of the viola parts. While she found the size difference between the Titan and the instrument somewhat comical, she soon found herself fascinated by how his movements aligned so perfectly with the music. She could tell he was in tune with the sound, not just by the look on his face, but by the way his body flowed back and forth with each note change.

Paige became so lost in the unfamiliar sound that she was caught off guard when its four-minute runtime ran its course.

"That was amazing," she finally said. "I've never heard anything like that."

"You want to give it a go?" He held out the instrument.

"How does it work," she asked. He smiled at the obvious interest in her voice.

"It's analog, meaning the sound is generated via the direct interaction between the musician and the instrument," he started while helping her get the instrument situated correctly. "The sound is created when these hairs are run across this section of the strings right here."

Paige pulled the bow across the A string, but instead of the sound she had heard when the Guardian played, it was crunchy and brutal. She felt the tips of her fingers go numb.

"Too much pressure," he corrected, noticing how she was gripping the bow with her fist wrapped around the whole bottom section.

He delicately unwrapped her fingers and rearranged them into the correct position. "There, now try again."

The sound was much cleaner. While she initially felt like she had less control, she noticed after going up and down a few times that she was connecting with the instrument better.

"That sounded great," he said.

"How do I play other notes," she asked curiously.

"That's where the other hand comes in," he replied. He moved to the end of the scroll. "Start playing the second string from the left."

She ran the bow along the D string, and as she did so, the Guardian gently placed her index finger onto the string.

"E," he said as the sound changed. He paused before moving to the next note, giving her a chance to hear it. "F#, then G, next string A, B, C#, and then—" He placed her ring finger onto the top note of the scale, but Paige stopped playing. Her eyes focused on her hand again.

"Paige?" He released her hand.

"I'm fine," she replied dismissively, refusing to make eye contact.

"That's happened before; what is it?"

"It's irrelevant," she said dismissively.

"I don't think it is," he pushed.

"It is to you," she sighed, gently placing the violin on the table. "The glow is an open data stream, it's how we programs can connect more deeply, but it's entirely instinctual, and since you're not a program—"

"I understand," he replied.

"I'm sorry about what I said on the train," she added suddenly.

"I agreed that you were right," he replied, confused at her bringing the conversation back up.

"And I mostly still am—I think," she replied, taking a breath to gather her thoughts. "Assuming Zavala's plan works tomorrow, this will be our last cycle together. I want to know what we are...if you think that question fits?"

He thought for a moment. "I think I have an answer to your question," he replied, before pulling into a kiss.

The intimacy of the foreign gesture was not lost on her, especially as the initial shock wore off. But just as she was acclimating, it ended.

They locked eyes as they pulled away. "I know it's probably not the same as sharing a data stream, but as a half—"

She pulled him back in, cutting him off.

______________________________________________________________________

Paige woke up coughing from the fine gray dust that had crept into her mouth while slumbered. Wait, dust?

She leaped to her feet. Steep rocky walls enveloped her on either side of the narrow, chalky pathway. The slim opening at the top revealed a darkened sky with an array of distant twinkling lights.

Where was she? She looked around. The path was slightly sloped, one direction darkened, the shadows almost cloud-like as if to warn her off, while the other danced with a greenish hue. Neither was appealing, but at least with one, she could see.

Paige carefully followed the path down. Small dust clouds formed around her feet with each lightened step, but no footprint remained. Not knowing what she would find around the corner, Paige activated her disk.

What she did find though was heart-stopping. She slowly stepped out, moving closer to the cavern-sized structure before her. Her eyes wandered up and down its perfect edge up to where it crossed the sky and as far down as her safe position from the rock edge would let her although she imagined it went on much further still than even the haze would let her see.

"Welcome at last," an all too familiar voice said behind her. She turned.

"You," she snarled, raising her disk at the imposter wearing Tesler's image before her. "What do you want?"

"Your people suffer program: loss, destruction--pain. You seek an end to that suffering. We offer what you seek," the imposter replied, growing ever closer.

"Thanks," Paige spat, "but I'll pass."

"Your pain runs deep," the imposter's image blurred before reconstructing into that of CLU, "nurtured by those who promise what they cannot deliver. We offer more."

"And what's that?" Paige gripped her disk hard.

The image distorted again before becoming a perfect reflection of herself. "Salvation."

Paige launched, but the reflection easily moved out of the way causing Paige to trip over her movement. When she got up, the reflection was gone. "Do not be afraid," its voice whispered. "Gather your strength. We will be there soon."

She felt a sudden weight on her shoulders, burdening her, pressing her down onto the floor. She felt herself beginning to blackout as darkness encroached on her vision.

Paige gasped for air. She was back in the lab, her head and body rested on the Guardian's shoulder against the wall they had fallen asleep against earlier. She could feel herself shaking from the dream. Was it a dream?

"Hey," he said softly, giving her hand a calming squeeze, "you're alright."

She took a deep breath and looked him in the eye. "What did you say you saw in your dream again?"

"I didn't," he replied. He gave Ghost a concerned look.

"Get Ikora," he ordered.

Chapter Text

Chapter 20: Infiltration

"And you’re certain you didn't provide any details during your nightmare," Ikora asked the Guardian.

"I can provide you with the audio logs," Ghost offered, backing up his Guardian.

Ikora shook her head. "That won't be necessary.” The Warlock slowly paced the room. "Would you two please give us a moment?"

The Guardian nodded. "We'll be in the hangar when you're done," he stopped to tell Paige before leaving.

“Start from the top again,” Ikora said sternly once the room had cleared. “What is it you said you saw?”

“A pyramid,” Paige let out an irritated growl. “Why are we going through this again?”

“I need to be sure your story is consistent,” Ikora rebutted.

“In other words, you either don’t believe me, or you’re trying to delay confirmation because you’re afraid of the ramifications if they turn out to be inconvenient,” Paige retorted.

Ikora’s pacing ceased, and the warlock looked to the program, void light burning in her eyes. “What did you say?”

“You heard me,” Paige replied. She did not flinch, even as she matched the searing gaze of the vanguard commander. “You and the Guardian both dance around this issue as if any confrontation would result in the end of everything--”

“It might,” Ikora retorted, stepping closer to the ignorant program.

“You don’t know that! At least the Guardian had a reason for staying quiet. It was a bad reason, but he thought would help to protect me--”

“He was doing his duty,” Ikora replied.

“And it didn’t work, Warlock! It was eating him up inside, and I couldn’t do a thing to help!” Paige took a deep breath, before continuing.

“Why can’t you just tell me what is going on,” she asked, a sharpness remaining in her voice, but much more muted than before.

“Because I’ve read your file, and I don’t have confidence in your ability to handle the ramifications,” Ikora answered.

“If you think that’s your call to make, then you really are Osiris’s pupil,” Paige growled.

The comment disabled Ikora. Despite revitalizing communications with her mentor, comparisons like that were worth considering, and Paige was right. The situation they found themselves in now was caused by cold analytics and a void of empathy.

“Paige, I--” Ikora started.

“Not now,” Paige replied, before leaving.

The Guardian saw Paige crossing the hangar towards him.

"There you are," she said.

The Guardian stepped out from under the ship. "How did it go with Ikora?"

"I'd hate to disappoint you," she replied dismissively, avoiding the question. Her eyes flicked briefly towards the Guardian's ship. "Ghost's coordinates?"

"Yours actually," he responded.

She frowned. "He didn’t find anything?"

"Not coordinates, but something designated as Extract 15, apparently also at the Veridian facility. Zavala said this mission was a solo operation but given your familiarity with this location I wouldn't deny your-- help," the Guardian offered.

"I think it would be best for you to take this one on your own," she cautiously replied, taking an unconscious step back.

"Extract 15," she thought to herself. "That stuff was scrapped by CLU after Keller’s defection. What is it doing there?"

"Paige," he called. "Are you alright?" He placed a hand on her shoulder to snap her out of her thoughts.

"Y, yeah. I'm fine," she shook her head. "I know you have the whole coming back to life thing but-- be careful."

"I'll try to be," he replied, shooting her a small smile before his helmet materialized. "Ghost, initiate the pre-flight checklist."

Paige watched from a safe distance as the ship's engines roared to life and the Guardian accelerated out of the hangar.

The program was only given a moment of peace to watch the ship's silhouette before she was interrupted by the footsteps of the very person she did not want to speak with.

________________________________________

The Guardian transmatted down a quarter mile from the entrance of the Occupation facility.

"We've arrived at the mission coordinates Ikora," Ghost relayed, "where to?"

"Guardian, the terrain here was designed to inhibit unauthorized entrances...or escapees. If we want to move quickly, you'll need to take the direct path," Paige responded over the channel.

"Paige?" Ghost questioned. "I didn't know you were overseeing this operation, not that I’m objecting—"

"It took some convincing with Zavala, but he agreed that with my history here, it would be tactically efficient that I guide you through the facility," she explained over the comms channel while glaring at Ikora who was sitting across from her.

"Assuming you don't lead the Guardian into a trap, that is," Ikora warned.

"Guardian I should advise you that Commander Ikora is also present,” Paige introduced the Vanguard leader, sarcasm ripe in her voice. “There is also a representative from the city... a Lord Saladin Forge?"

"Young Wolf," Lord Saladin greeted, "it is agreeable to fight alongside you again."

“Another titan.” The Guardian smiled slightly at hearing Paige let out a deadpan groan in the background at the Iron Lord’s introduction.

"The same," Ghost replied to the Iron Lord. "Paige, you mentioned you have history. Where are we going, exactly?"

"Where I was made...where I became a soldier," she answered with regret.

"I thought you weren't repurposed," Ikora questioned.

"I wasn't," Paige replied curtly, irritated with Ikora's tone, "but after the coup, CLU realized that he couldn’t execute his vision alone. He needed a command structure to ensure his hold over every corner of the Grid."

“Vision?” Lord Saladin asked.

“Perfection,” Paige clarified, the word bitter on her tongue.

“Hubris,” Saladin replied.

"And that's when you volunteered," Ikora implied.

Though Paige seethed internally, she chose to leave the warlock's accusation to dissipate into the air unanswered. 

"The generals came first, often made up of desperate grovelers who wanted power. Their selection was less than merit based. Loyalty to CLU’s vision was not required, so much as having a price for placation," she explained. "The commanders, on the other hand-- we were the true believers. The ones who had to execute it."

Out on the field, the Guardian had punched his way along the outland terrain, being as inconspicuous as possible in his approach to the facility. By his standards he had been successful, at least as long as no one took notice of the piles of cubes and bodies he was leaving behind in his wake.

"Paige, we're nearing the entrance," Ghost said over the radio channel, "but it's surrounded by Scorpius turrets. Please advise."

"Destroying them could risk detection," Ikora reacted. 

"There should be an alternative entrance on the far side of the building on the lower level," Paige added, quickly grabbing her data pad, and modifying the map displayed on it. "I've marked a path for you."

"Input received," Ghost replied as he patched a white guidance marker onto the Guardian's HUD.

The Guardian activated his sparrow and gunned it down a nearby sequestered path, being careful to stick close to the rocks to his right to avoid the possibility of being spotted. Looking ahead, he could see the path begin to widen into a small clearing. The naturally low levels of the outlands were even dimmer here due to the high rock walls around him, making it difficult to determine what was more black terrain, or a gap. Unable to make the distinction at his current speed, he came to a stop, and it couldn’t have been sooner. The sound of a thresher patrolling the space overhead reverberated around him.

The Guardian looked up, trying to spot the ship’s searchlight but couldn’t see it. Suddenly, the thresher made an appearance at just below eye level, and it wasn’t alone. There were four in total, patrolling an unseen ravine around one hundred or so meters or so feet in front of him and spaced four times that apart, and were traveling parallel to Ghost’s objective marker.

“Guardian, I am picking up increased activity over the radio,” Ikora informed him. “It's not panicked yet, but it sounds like someone didn’t check in when they were supposed to.”

“That would explain the increased patrol activity,” the Guardian responded. “Paige I’m near the edge of a cliff. It looks like the entrance is directly below my location; can you confirm?”

“Checking-- Affirmative. I recommend you continue via the marked path,” she replied.

“I’m not sure that’s possible,” he muttered looking in the direction of the route marked on his HUD. He could see in the distance that a squad of black guards had just been deployed by a recognizer and were slowly making their way toward his position.

He slowly backed up his sparrow to give himself more distance to accelerate. “Ghost what’s the drop from here?”

“Uh, I don’t know, it’s a big drop.” Ghost replied.

“Informative,” the Guardian deadpanned. “Standby for resurrection, just in case.”

“A Recognizer just pulled into the canyon we came from!”

“Copy,” the Guardian answered, more focused on timing the start of his acceleration so as not to be seen by the thresher patrols. 

“They’re closing on us!”

“Six seconds,” the Guardian reassured Ghost. He gave the controls on his sparrow one last once-over before twisting flicking the vehicle into gear and flooring the throttle. He knew there was a chance that the Recognizer had spotted the trail of his sparrow, but the thought was pushed aside as he quickly raced towards the ledge...

Then nothing. Despite the vehicle’s lack of direct contact with the terrain while in use, there was always a distinct feeling to the anti-grav thrusters when it was there versus in free-fall. Despite having to launch earlier than he originally planned, the Guardian’s momentum was enough to just push him and the sparrow over the top of the last thresher before plummeting like a rock.

“Ghost,” the Guardian shouted over the wind as they fell, “mark the entrance on my display!” The white diamond appeared below, indicating the entrance. “Are those Scorpius turrets,” the Guardian asked, doing his best to make out what he was seeing despite the turbulent descent.

“So much for an alternative path. If we get too close, we’ll be in the same position as we were at the main entrance, or worse. “This is a bad place for a final stand,” Ghost added looking around at the easily destructible terrain around them. It wouldn’t take much for one of those threshers to double back and bury them both.

“I have an idea,” the Guardian.

“10 seconds to impact,” Ghost yelled.

Wasting no more time, the Guardian briefly engaged the left thruster, sending the the sparrow into a violent clockwise spin before alternating to the other side, being careful to maintain the clockwise rotation and movement to the right.

“Two seconds,” Ghost yelled. The Guardian maxed all thrusters and leaped off, sending the sparrow careening toward the entrance and more critically the two Scorpius turrets that were still on standby.

The Guardian groaned as he picked himself up. “That should have killed you,” Ghost grumbled as he scanned his Guardian for internal injuries.

“More importantly, is the entrance clear?” The Guardian asked. Ghost peered up over the ledge of the rock they were inadvertently covering behind.

“Looks that way,” Ghost replied.

“Good. Signal Paige that we are entering the facility,” the Guardian finished.

"These look like repurposing chambers,” the Guardian noted over the radio as he entered a large room in the facility. The reflective black walls had the usual red-orange occupation circuity. Given the openness of the space and that much of the decor was reminiscent of the armory in Argon’s Colosseum, he guessed this was at one time a training space.

"They are," she replied bitterly, shooting a glance at Ikora. "While I wasn't repurposed, at least not technically, others weren't so lucky.”

“How so,” Ikora queried, knowing she needed to tread lightly.

“CLU’s Commanders were made up strictly of volunteers, true loyalists, but to become more than a common sentry we had to be first sponsored by one of his Generals and brought here to prove ourselves," she explained. “None of us had combat or tactical experience coming here. CLU wanted it that way, or maybe Dyson did. Maybe it had had something to do with maintaining creativity in the occupation’s tacticians, or perhaps it was just to prove to CLU that he was deserving of the same genuine loyalty as his User-- I don’t know. Those of us who demonstrated natural proficiency were given coding enhancements and alterations that bolstered our tactical abilities while keeping our personality and base characteristics mostly intact. Those who didn’t were put into one of those chambers to fill up the black guard units.”

"This is where I met Pavel," she added almost nostalgically. "We each made sure the other never ended up in one of these things."

"That sounds like a far cry from the program we met," Ghost replied.

“He wasn’t always so unhinged. He was a good program. Misguided like I was, but well-intentioned. But this place made him paranoid, and the cycles have only deteriorated him further since we left."

"You've used the term true believer, more than once. What justified your loyalty?" Lord Saladin asked.

Paige could feel herself initially become defensive at the question. But the question, while direct, wasn’t accusatory she realized. It wasn’t meant to serve as the foundation of an ethical dilemma of which she was the test subject. It was coming from a titan who was trying to get a ley of the situation.

"A lie," she finally responded. "I fell for a lie, and ever since the Guardian showed me the truth of what happened, I have been fighting to undo the damage my choices caused.

"Trying to undo our past mistakes is often a futile effort...like trying to carry a tune next to the roar of an engine," Lord Saladin countered. "Genuinely demonstrate your changed perspective, and you may find that those you wronged are not as far off from being allies as you may believe.”

Not wanting to hear the combined tribunal over Paige’s questionable past, the Titan had shut off his commlink and was currently peering through one of the slits in the vent cover to the area below, his lack of response signaling the end of the conversation. “What do you see?”

“It’s bad,” the Guardian replied, “Psions everywhere.”

“Anything big?” Ghost asked, moving in to take a closer look themselves.

“Doesn’t matter. I count six, and that’s just the ones I can see from this position. Radar is hot. If we enter the room, we’ll be spotted instantly,” the Guardian countered. “Paige, Ikora. Are you seeing my feed?”

“We see it now, but your feed dropped a few minutes ago. Are you two alright?” Ikora asked.

“We’re fine Ikora,” Ghost answered. “There was some interference when we entered a vent shaft, but the signal’s stronger now. We’ve come across what looks like a production facility of some kind. But there’s activity below.”

“This is why we came here,” Ikora replied. “You have permission to enter, weapons hot if necessary.”

“Copy commander,” the Guardian confirmed. “Ready Ghost?”

The Guardian kicked open the vent and jumped down into the room, grabbing the nearest unsuspecting Psion closest to his landing point and throwing it into the wall. He targeted the two positioned across the room, who were only able to get one round each from their snipers before taking fatal bursts from the Guardian’s Go Figure.

The Guardian took cover behind a pillar. “Ghost that’s three, where are the others?”

“Ten and two-o-clock, above, medium range.” Ghost responded quickly.

“Copy,” the Guardian replied, sliding out from behind the wall and picking off the next two.

“Behind you!” Ghost yelled.

The Guardian turned around and threw a pulse grenade at the charging Psions, the blast knocking them lifelessly to the floor. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a lone Psion running along the upper catwalk towards a nearby. The distance and clutter of the room put the psion nearly out of the pulse rifle’s range. He took a deep breath, but just as he started squeezing the trigger, he felt himself get thrown up into the air, face nearly kissing the ceiling before landing on his back with an agonizing slam.

As he achily pulled himself together, single psion charged his position, sword in hand.

Seeing this, Ghost quickly rushed in to aid his injured Guardian in the fight. Doing the first thing that he thought of to slow the attacker and give the Titan a chance to recover, Ghost unleashed a massive shower of glimmer in the area around the psion, causing the bewildered opponent to stumble over an especially large chunk of it and fall right into the Guardian’s fist.

“Look!” Ghost indicated towards the last Psion who was busying themselves on a nearby computer. Needing to quickly the distance, the Guardian thunder crashed the lone psion, disintegrating both it and half of the consoles in the localized vicinity.

“You think you got him?” Ghost chirped with amusement.

“Funny,” the Guardian stoically replied. “Interesting move back there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen glimmer be used that way.”

“You weren’t using it anyway,” Ghost retorted.

“The real question is, do you think they heard that?” The Guardian asked.

“I don’t hear anything,” Ghost responded after taking a few seconds to listen.

“Yet,” the Guardian replied, moving closer to one of the many large test-tube-shaped cylinders encircling the perimeter of the room. “Paige, we found more repurposing chambers, but these are different.”

Back at the base, Paige’s eyes widened as the pod on the screen activated. Free code began filling up the tube, chaotically and violently at first, but slowly it began to take form, one cube at a time. Within seconds the vague blob of code became more silhouette-like, then a blurry picture, until eventually sharpening into the inarguable form of a legionary.

“Did that thing just create, a Cabal,” Ikora gasped.

“It rezzed a program that looks like one,” Paige corrected, “but doesn’t think like one.”

“CLU’s perfect soldier,” Ikora realized out loud. “And at that pace...there could be a whole legion of them by now.”

“CLU’s hubris,” Lord Saladin added. “Exploit it Guardian and shut this operation down!”

“Guardian, I’m picking up activity around us,” Ghost interjected. “We’ve got incoming!”

“Oh Users,” Paige suddenly realized, noticing a familiar orange substance in the feed. “That’s it!”

The Guardian had just pulled out his Hammerhead machine gun and was about fire when Paige’s voice erupted in his earpiece. “Guardian, wait!” 

“Quickly! We’re about to have lots of company.”

“Do you see that orange stuff being injected into the modified repurposing chambers?” she asked.

“Yes, I see it! Why, what is it?”

“We can go over the details later, but I need you to find an unused sample of it and bring it back to me for studying,” she clarified. 

“I found some,” Ghost yelled. “Transmat complete!” 

“Permission to destroy this place?” The Guardian asked.

“Please,” Paige replied. 

The Guardian immediately began firing on the repurposing chambers. After exhausting a whole drum he called out to Ghost who was busy hacking the doors on a nearby computer console. “There are thousands of these, we don’t have time for this!”

“I think I might have a solution,” Ghost proposed. Loud banging echoed throughout the room as Cabal rallied outside.

“Ghost?” The Guardian dropped a towering barricade to his right to block incoming fire if that side broke in first.

“One second, aaaaand, there!” Ghost gave his shell a little satisfied spin. “My handiwork is complete.”

At that moment all the remaining rectification chambers spoon to life, dumping free code into their barren chambers, rapidly filling them.

“What exactly did you do?” The Guardian asked slowly.

“I modified the cabal to be larger than normal. Sixteen times larger than normal to be specific,” Ghost chirped happily.

“Right,” The Guardian started as spider cracks began forming along the walls of the nearest chamber, “we should probably get out of here before we’re buried in a pile of cubes.

The lighting in the room suddenly dimmed to a deep red hue, with the Grid’s voice coming on shortly. “Warning, capacitor overload. Runaway detected. Implosion inevitable. For your safety, please follow the emergency exit protocols outlined in section 11 of the security manual and maintain a safe distance from the facility.

The Guardian seismic struck one of the nearby doors, breaking it and the pile of Cabal crowding its passage. “Where to?”

“I don’t know. RUN!” Ghost yelled.

The Guardian sprinted down the nearest corridor which eventually reconnected to a main through path. Explosions and the shattered, cubic remains of the walls rained down around him as they lost the battle to the pressure-derived shockwaves that emanated in the foundation below.

Panicked Cabal and Occupation-aligned soldiers ran past, taking little notice of the escaping perpetrator of the facility’s destruction, beyond the occasional potshot or swing of their weapon as they neared the entrance.

Outside, Threshers and Recogizers wasted no time in taking off from the imploding facility leaving few obstacles in the way for the Guardian as he too quickly rezzed his sparrow and moved to a safe distance. The thunderous roar as the interior structure of the building finally gave way, leaving the outer walls only mere moments before they too fell inward towards the newly revealed massive pool of energy that had been supplying the cloning operation.

“Guardian?” Ikora’s voice could be heard breaking through comms. “Guardian? Are you alright? Come in!”

“We made it out Ikora,” Ghost replied, “but so did a lot of CLU’s and the Red Legion Remnant’s forces.”

“We’ll deal with them later,” Ikora replied. “For now, return to base. I’ll let Commander Zavala know that he should initiate the assault on The Sundial. Good work!”

“I think we should come up with a new name for the Cabal we face here,” Ghost posited. “I’m thinking Grid Legion.”

___________________________________

"They split our focus," Tazaroc hissed. News about the destruction of the resurrection facility had reached CLU's tower just moments before the Psion left to help fend off Zavala's attack. 

"You should not have dismissed Dyson so quickly," Tazaroc finished.

"How many do you suppose are in their group now?" Club asked coldly.

"Dyson's final report indicated a total of six, including your creator, Kevin Flynn." The name was an insult, and the Psion grinned devilishly at CLU's grip subtly tightening against the railing.

"Then we can assume that there are at least eight by now," CLU replied, "including Rinzler." His voice betrayed his disappointment. He knew his creator would be prioritizing fixing Tron’s code, assuming he hadn’t already fixed the system protector by now.

"I am pulling my forces to the portal," Tazaroc asserted, shaking CLU from his thoughts.

"Our forces,” CLU corrected. “I’ve upheld my end of our bargain.” 

“You’ve upheld nothing! One of the production facilities has already been destroyed. It's only a matter of time until another is brought down!” The Psion seethed.

“Hmm, then tell me, what is your plan once you get there," CLU smirked at his unlikely ally’s abysmal attempt at a power play.

"Then what do you suggest," the Psion growled.

“I suggest we do to them, what they believe they’ve done to us,” CLU produced an unsettling smile as he sat down at a nearby terminal. "Greetings program," he announced to the startled program.

“Yes, Your Excellency,” Pavel rigidly replied. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

“I have received intelligence that due to the ex-commander’s actions; Argon will be the target of an attack. The damage to the city will be insurmountable -- it will likely be destroyed. It's unfortunate, but an expected result from a lack of purpose from its citizens.” CLU postured. “You understand, General Pavel.”

“Yes, my liege,” Pavel said quickly, bowing in hyperbolic gratitude at the promotion. CLU smiled.

“I should also warn you that your former city’s old renegade engineer problem has moved. Should the situation entice them to re-emerge...” CLU warned.

“I know what must be done,” Pavel replied sickeningly.

“Good,” CLU replied before killing the feed.

"You would destroy your own city," Tazaroc hissed in surprise.

"No, you will destroy my city,” Clu countered. “Our opponents believe that perfection binds me from acting unpredictably. Perhaps, like them, our strategy must change," CLU explained.

"Chaos. Good News," he sneered.

Chapter Text

Chapter 21: Escalation (Part 1)

“Paige,” Ikora called out as they dispersed after concluding the Guardian’s operation. “Do you have a moment?”

Paige reluctantly turned to face the warlock. “If you plan on telling me how much you distrust me, save your breath.”

“Actually, I owe you an apology,”  Ikora replied.

“You owe me more than that,” Paige rebutted.

“I’m afraid this will have to do for now. But I wanted to tell you—” Ikora paused, “you were right. I was afraid to confront the situation. The truth is we’ve all been a little tense since the nightmares started spreading out from their point of origin. We thought they were contained to the Sol System, but your case indicates they can cross boundaries we hadn’t considered.”

“You’re talking like these nightmares aren’t limited to dreams,” Paige replied cautiously.

Paige picks up on Ikora’s hesitation before answering. “Let’s hope in your case it stays that way.”

“You’re still being intentionally vague.” Paige noted. 

Ikora smiled. “When there is a moment and with your consent, I’d like to try something. It would require reliving the experience again, but it would provide a valuable data point for our expert in these matters to study.”

Paige gave herself a moment to think about her experience for the first time before answering. “I wouldn’t be opposed--”

Paige was interrupted by an alarm followed by Ana’s voice calling them to the control center. “It will have to wait,” she added before they both exited to meet the emergency.

“What’s going on,” Paige asked Ana.

“Rasputin picked up a large uptick in long-range communications chatter from these coordinates,” she said, pointing to the monitor.

“Argon,” Paige gasped, recognizing the coordinates Ana was referring to. “What’s going on? Are they mobilizing?”

“It sounds more confused than anything,” Ana clarified, “We intercepted this communique being sent in the general direction of Tron City requesting immediate reinforcements and support against an aerial bombardment. This image was attached. It’s a little garbled, but it looks like a Cabal carrier!”

“How did they get a cabal ship through the Infinite Forrest?” Ikora asked.

“They didn’t,” Paige realized. “I’ve been on that ship. It was made here, on the Grid.”

Before Ikora could ask how she knew that information, Paige was already halfway to the door of the makeshift command center. “Paige, where are you going?”

“I have something in Argon I need to take care of,” Paige replied without turning around as she entered the hangar.

Ikora grabs Paige by the shoulder. “We don’t have the resources for a personal errand!”

“Not just a personal errand,” Paige violently shrugs her off. “If CLU green lit a strike like that without notifying Argon’s occupying forces, then he has calculated that the entire city of Argon has exceeded its’ usefulness.”

“This is what CLU wants! He wants our attention split; just as we've been doing to him,” Ikora argued.

“Did you hear the confusion over that radio? That is the sound of an absent chain of command. And as you know until recently I was pretty high up in that chain of command,” Paige rebutted.

“...You think you might be able to rally an evacuation effort,” Ikora followed.

“I have a duty to try,” Paige replied, “...as well as a personal errand.”

Ikora gave a begrudging nod for Paige to proceed, watching as the program wasted no time before cracking it open and punching the throttle to full out of the hangar.

“Should I signal the Guardian to intercept,” Ana asked, having caught up to them.

Ikora stayed silent.

____________________________________________________________________________

“We're 5 minutes out from the base, should I... wait I am detecting a bogey incoming 125 degrees off our nose,” Ghost called out.

“Approaching aircraft, identify yourself,” the Guardian relayed over comms.

“Guardian, this is Ikora,” she replied.

“Go ahead,” the Guardian answered, shooting Ghost a puzzled look.

“You are redirecting to assist Cmdr. Paige’s efforts in Argon,” Ikora ordered.

“Why would she be in Argon,” Ghost asked quietly to the Guardian.

“Ikora, did I hear that right? We're changing course to Argon and not delivering the sample Paige requested,” the Guardian asked.

“Confirmed,” Ikora confirmed. “As I will not be joining you, you can transfer it over to my ship.” 

“Saint-14 and I will be your support for this operation,” another voice came over the comm line.

“Tron,” the Guardian greeted cautiously, “Are you....you?”

“The subroutine known as Rinzler has been purged from Tron’s system,” Flynn replied, having been listening in from his hideout. “Save for a few quirks, he is operating perfectly-- if you’ll pardon the phrasing.”

“Guardian, I am approaching to starboard. Stand by totransmat of the powder to my coordinates and receive Tron.”

“Initiating on our end,” Ghost replied, sending the orange powder over to Ikora. A transmat effect glowed in the seat beside the Guardian.

“Tron has been received on our end,” the Guardian said to Ikora while doing his best to ignore the program beside him who looked like they wanted to vomit cubes if they could.

“Confirming the same for the sample,” Ikora replied. “Keep this clean. Good luck.”

“This is a delicate operation,” Tron started. “Paige’s first-hand experience of the execution of the mind control substance’s testing in Argon, as well as her medical background make her extremely valuable in being able to crack the powder’s pathogenic code. We need her back... after we provide her backup.”

“That explains why we need her back; why is she there?” The Guardian asked.

“There is a cabal carrier raining fire down on the city,” Tron stated.

“The Avalanche?” The Guardian replied, his tone of voice relaying his shocked expression beneath his helmet. “I assume Tesler or his successor’s death squads are out in full-swing.”

“Actually, data from your... Warmind, is it called?-- suggests Argon’s occupying forces are scattering,” Tron replied.

The Guardian thinks for a moment before realizing. “She thinks that without a command structure she might be able to use her previous rank to rally an evacuation effort. It’s a good plan.”

“Sounds like you know her well,” Tron noted.

“Well...” The Guardian trailed off. “I have experience navigating a burning city,” he quickly changed the subject. It’s going to be a mess. I’m open to suggestions where you think we’ll find her.”

“She didn’t leave long before we did, and I think you and I can narrow down where she’ll start,” Tron replied with a knowing look.

_________________________________________________________

“How bad is it?” Mara asked from behind Paige.

“Manageable as long as they aren't alerted to us,” Paige replied. “Mara, is there still an emergency exit at the back?”

“Yeah, but it has an alarm,” Mara questioned. “The moment we open it--”

“Let me worry about that,” Paige reassured her, pulling out her disk. “I don't know how long the city’s foundation will hold. Once you're all out, get to the Outlands as quickly as possible and go here,” she said, pointing to an image of the spire.

“What’s that,” Mara asked.

“Beck and Tron’s old base, from before...” Her voice trailed. “I've heard it's in rough shape since I was last there, but it’ll be safe for you to hunker down until this passes.”

“I get you feel guilty. but we’re not going to cower away while the Grid is destroyed, Paige. That isn’t your call!” Mara retorted.

Paige took a second to reflect. She had been so concerned with the details that she hadn’t noticed herself mirroring Ikora’s earlier behavior towards her..

“You're right. It’s not.” She answered. “But the immediate plan is the same-- get to the Outlands. Once we’re clear, then your team can each decide what they want to do. Deal?”

“Deal,” Mara answered.

“Break your mechanics into groups. We go in waves when the patrols are preoccupied, on my signal.” Paige’s eyes narrowed as she searched for a pattern in the Cabal patrols, frowning at how almost nonchalantly one of the legionaries walked past one of dead cabal she’d slain earlier. Her eyes flicked to one of the other members of the patrol party, a centurion. It was difficult to notice due to the heavy armor, but Paige noticed the way its head cautiously tracked the legionary as it paced that it too was watching the situation with disgust.

Paige let out a sigh. It wasn’t much, or rather anything to hope for. The centurion wasn’t going to throw down its arms and stand with her and the Guardian against CLU and the Psion Flayers. She knew as much. Not because they were Cabal, but because she had experienced the same thing first hand when the repurposed were integrated into her ranks. The frustration, the pure disgust at their lack of care for fallen comrades. She almost released a pained chuckle at a memory of Tesler, of all programs, being brought to rage at how the carelessness of a mindless sentry led to the unnecessary de-rezolution of three cognizant pilots.

And yet, whenever a situation arose, there they all were, right alongside the mindless because allegiance came first...every time.

“Paige?” Mara repeated, getting her attention.

“Yeah,” Paige replied.

“I’ve got four groups formed,” Mara explained.

“Good,” Paige replied, examining the groups. “Send your most seasoned group to the other side first on my mark. Mara, you go with group two, but you’ll hold behind that support strut in the middle. I’ll send group three to you and you’ll escort them to the exit. I’ll bring over group four.”

“Understood,” Mara replied. “Group one, stand by for Paige’s signal.”

_______________________________________________________________________________________

“Dropping into town without even saying hello?” The voice sent a chill through Paige’s circuits. 

Paige turned around to face him. “Pavel,” she answered in a warning voice. 

“And by the looks of it, leaving already?!, I thought we were FRIENDS,” Pavel chided.

“Mara, go.” Paige ordered without dropping her sight on Pavel.

“I wouldn’t,” Pavel sing-songed. 

“Pavel,” Paige snarled, “this is personal. I’ll turn myself over, but you let them go...peacefully.”

“Paige,” Mara questioned, but was waved down by the former commander.

The sniveling program took a moment to think, or at least pretend to think. “I accept. They can leave-- to peacefully go to their DEATHS!”

Pavel leapt forward towards Mara, disk blade active. Mara clumsily tried to step back, but was luckily saved by Paige’s own disk meeting Pavel’s edge.

Caught off-guard, Pavel had left his port side open, an over-extension that Paige took quick advantage of, landing a hard, decisive kick forcing Pavel away from the group.

The action in the hangar unfortunately did not go unnoticed by the Grid Legion troops outside the hangar. A few of the stragglers left alive from the Guardian’s first pass began to make their way inside.

“Users,” Mara cursed under her breath. “Mechanics, let’s make a stand--”

A well thrown disk prematurely hurled over shoulder, perfectly nailing an incoming legionary in the face, derezzing it. The two pursuing psions behind it didn’t fare much better, getting taken down from the back by two precise pulses from the Guardian’s rifle from the edge of the hangar.

Even from a distance, Mara could just barely make out the Guardian give a short nod to someone behind her before making off again. She spun around, activating her disk in surprise.

“Tron,” she gasped? Still partially out of reverence, but more than ever, fear.

“Hello Mara,” he greeted coldly. The building shook from a nearby explosion. “We need to go!”

The mechanics quickly followed the white-suited program out the rear-exit. Mara however, held in the back of the group. Despite the familiarity to Tron, her eyes never drifted off of the returned program. Even after witnessing the User acknowledge the Grid’s former protector, she couldn’t shake the suspicion that this was a ruse. Reaching the door, she gave the garage one final forlorn look, knowing it would likely be the last.

Still inside, Paige disposed of each attempted blow by Pavel, pressing him further and further back out of the garage.

“Pavel, listen to me! You are fighting on the wrong side,” she shouted, realizing she must have sounded like Beck.

“You would think that wouldn’t you,” he retorted, going in for a jab.

“Pavel, I’m serious,” she tried again. “CLU is going to destroy the Grid! We can stop him, as a team!”

Pavel looked at her with a wicked smile. “What makes you think I don’t approve of that?”

“What?” She looked at him with a mixture of confusion and disgust.

“The Cabal have shown CLU how to traverse a vast network, one connected to any infinite number of other systems to be bent to him. And they will bend...”

“You weren’t like this even under Tesler,” Paige answered. “What did CLU do to you Pavel?!”

“That is Supreme Commander Pavel to you, traitor,” he corrected sharply.

“Don’t make me have to derez you,” she sighed.

“Cute,” he mocked, “but I don’t think it's my cubes that will need to be swept up today.” He pulled a round object from his side and placed it in his disk.

Paige recognized the item immediately. With suppressed horror, she readied herself as the power upgrade weapon attuned itself to its wearer. She had...survived him before...mostly thanks to Beck, but she had held her own for a few seconds even then with an unclear head. 

But her head was clear this time. She had a purpose of her own. She had heard Tron’s voice hurriedly ushering the mechanics out of the garage. If she could hold Pavel off long enough, or even injure him, maybe she could buy the group enough time to get to safety with minimal resistance.

Pavel jumped forward, almost a blur, and landed a kick to Paige’s chest, causing her to stumble backwards. He went in for another swing, she countered with her own disk, just barely knocking it out of the way of her face. He leapt into a twirl, hurling his disk towards one of the columns situated behind her. Paige ducked, jumping forward into a somersault, dodging his attempt at a swipe as she moved past him, so that she was now positioned with her back to the garage’s entrance, their positions swapped. At least then, she wouldn’t have the disadvantage of crowding.

That was, assuming she didn’t get de-rezzed. She had only just stood up when she received a blow to her side, akin to the initial blow she had dealt to Pavel earlier, only far harder. She couldn’t tell what was to blame, the hit itself, or the landing, but whichever impact, it had sent her vision into a series of blurry warnings from her processor. Her legs were stiff and heavy, as she crawled towards her disk, desperate to keep the fight going.

She could just barely make out her disk through her haze, her guiding light of sorts being a particularly obnoxious, white visual artifact that planted itself beside her disk. Paige’s efforts hastened, knowing deep down that Pavel was enjoying every moment of her desperation and likely biding his time to strike when she was close. But he had left her alive, and she was going to make it his last mistake--

Paige yelled in pain at a sudden heavy pressure on her back, as her former colleague placed all his weight onto his boot. Paige’s outstretched arm desperately clawed the ground in front of her as she futilely attempted to close the narrow gap between the tips of her fingers and her disk. The world seemed to slow down around her, and she struggled against Pavel. 

Paige’s vision was still blurred, but whether it was her processor catching up to her injuries, adrenaline response, or just a pure hallucination, one object slowly came to focus in the haze. The soft white glow in her field of view became somewhat sharpened, and was now clearly identifiable as a small orb; it was also closer than her disk. It pulsed softly, calling to her almost, drawing her hand away from her disk.

Contact. 

Paige felt an intense rush of energy surge through her circuitry as the orb’s energy engulfed her, the sensation instigating an involuntary gasp for air preceding the determination-fueled strength that paralleled fighting the downward pull of an undercurrent in the sea of simulation. It was unlike anything she had ever felt. 

She felt-- empowered. 

Paige pushed herself up with enough force to throw Pavel onto his back foot, her circuits restoring themselves.

“What th--” Pavel started, startled by the nearly incapacitated program’s literal second-wind.

He jumped towards her, desperate to finish her before she caught her bearings, but she was prepared. Her fist connected with the middle of his chest. A burst of white light exploded at the point of contact as the paracausal surge transferred into kinetic energy, sending Pavel flying back hard into a pillar.

Paige fell to one knee, light-headed as the excess charge left her body. After a few deep breaths she got back to her feet, activating her disk as a precaution as her eyes hastily scanned the room for Pavel. She exhaled in relief when his defeated form collapsed across the room.

Then it hit her. “What had just happened,” she thought, examining the hand she’d reached forward with. “Outwards to what,” she wondered as she re-affixed her disk to its mount. 

“Commander!” The voice of an incoming occupation program interrupted her before she could ponder the thought further. She turned to face them.

“Commander Paige!” There were two programs, one obviously the superior and the other likely their subordinate. Paige braced herself for another fight.

“Halt programs,” she replied, holding her hand up. “State your business, quickly.”

The more veteran program stepped forward. “Our units are being torn to cubes! We need orders!”

“I am not your superior anymore,” she replied. Maybe she could get them to leave on their own.

“We’ve lost contact with our superiors at command. You are all that’s left,” the program replied.

“She’s a traitor,” their counterpart muttered behind him.

“Quiet,” the main guard snapped before turning back to Paige. “Do you know what is happening here?”

“I do,” she replied, “mostly.”

“Are you responsible?” She could feel the program’s unwavering gaze through his helmet. The question’s intent wasn’t accusatory, it was pragmatic. Still, she knew she should keep her answer to the point.

“No,” she replied.

“We can’t trust her,” the other program spat, more loudly this time. “She’s aligned herself with Users!”

“He has a point,” the main sentry conceded. “Those things attacking my troops, they bleed just like how CLU described Users do. How do we know you aren’t allied with them?”

“I left because of those things,” Paige replied in almost a growl. “And they might be from the User world, but they are NOT Users!”

The two programs looked at each other, simultaneously piecing together the implications of what she had said. Paige readied herself for retaliation, but neither program reacted.

“Are you suggesting that CLU knew this was coming? Why?” The sentry asked.

“Argon’s been a problem for CLU since he sent Tesler,” Paige replied.

“Look around,” Paige gestured. “When did you lose communication with your commanders? Did you ever have contact with them since this started, or have you been so busy trying to triage the situation just to survive that you didn’t consider that?”

Paige gave them a second to reflect before continuing. Her voice was serious. “I’m not suggesting he just knew this was coming. I’m stating he is involved.”

The sentry tilted his head in thought. 

“That ship in the sky,” Paige continued, “I boarded it when it suspiciously appeared in the Outlands outside of Argon. Its origin point is two sectors outside of Tron City. CLU’s recognizers should have spotted it during regular patrols, and yet nothing. I wonder what you would find if you looked into the flight paths of those patrols.”

“It’s a good suggestion,” the sentry noted, “but I can’t verify it right now.”

“Then don’t,” Paige retorted. “Verify this then. You said you saw them bleed. Did you notice some of them don’t?”

“The more common ones derez,” the sentry replied, “we did notice that. That would mean--”

The ground violently shook, nearly knocking all three of them off their feet. The Avalanche had begun a bombardment across the city.

“What the--” the more inexperienced program yelped.

“You know what that means,” Paige finished. “The city’s foundation isn’t going to hold up to that much longer. You want to help? Get every one of your available troops and assets, and begin evacuating civilians!”

“We don’t have enough recognizer capacity to get everyone out,” the Sentry replied.

“Then get as many as you can,” Paige corrected, “but make sure you get out too. See that spire in the distance, regroup your forces and evacuees there. There will be shelter.”

“Even if we do this, we’ll be sitting ducks in the Outlands,” the Sentry said with concern.

“These “Cabal” as they’re called, aren’t interested in you. They want Argon, and CLU is going to make sure they have it. Any programs trapped within are just in the way,” she reassured.

“Understood Commander,” the Sentry replied after a second of thought. “Good luck.”

As the two programs rezzed their light-cycles and sped off, Paige gazed up at The Avalanche flying above and was hit with the full realization. Argon wasn’t just going to be leveled by the ship’s guns. It was going to get wiped.

The shattering of cubes to her right quickly shook her back to reality. A Cabal Goliath tank had broken through the side of the garage and had its weapons and was bearing down its weapons directly at her. Suddenly its’ barrel tilted upwards slightly, and fired.

The proximity of the projectile caused her to flinch downwards in a delayed reaction as it zipped overhead. She instinctively craned her neck to track its impact as best she could.

What she saw was a Cabal Interceptor accelerating towards her, and the Guardian was riding it!

“Paige! Brace!” he yelled. She reacted, immediately diving to the ground, facing away from the tank with hands covering her head.

Now at critical speed, he dove off the vehicle towards Paige, popping a towing barricade at her feet as he passed her by before stopping the slide in front of her and positioned facing the tank.

A bright orange yellow glow erupted from the turret ring between the Goliath’s turret and hull as the vehicle built to an overload. BOOM!

After a few seconds Paige looked up and met the Guardian’s eye-line.

“Hey,” he said after a few seconds, breaking the tension. “Love the new look.”

“I see you’ve made some color improvements to your armor yourself,” she replied. “--You could have given me more of a warning.”

“Then you would have missed all of that,” he countered. She could hear the smile in his voice.

Paige un-enthusiastically sat herself up halfway up to look at the damage. “Hmm, and how did you know that was going to work?” She replied with a teasing tone.

“I figured that if CLU was taking the lazy approach to digitizing the likeness of the Cabal, he would do the same for their equipment...with its many design flaws,” the Guardian, somewhat theatrically, extended his neck to survey the damage as well. “Appears I was right...”

“That's--more logical of an answer than I was expecting,” Paige conceded.

“That’s just the introduction,” he added, his voice suddenly more serious. “We have more Grid Legion incoming.”

“Fitting name,” she pulled herself up and offered a hand to him to do the same.

“You good,” he asked, noticing Paige’s repeated glances up at the carrier hovering above them.

“Yeah,” she replied quickly, pushing the event from earlier aside in her memory. She had a inkling that he may had something to do with it, or at least have answers. But that would have to be a conversation for later with the engine roar above of Cabal drop ships coming up on their position.

“Good, because here they come,” the Guardian warned.

“I’m glad you’re here by the way,” Paige added, readying herself.

Chapter Text

Chapter 22: Desolation

They had encountered a little resistance en-route to the docks, but it wasn’t anything the Grid’s protector didn’t dispatch with easily. 

Tron had made sure to navigate the inexperienced group around the Grid Legion forces swarming the garage. And an inexperienced group it was. Flynn had removed all traces of Rinzler from his code, but having to hush the programs for the 14th time was beginning to bring out some of his own aggressive feelings. That was if it wasn’t for Mara, attentive as she was, noticing his building frustration and taking over that portion of the job.

The group lined up against the side of a long cargo container, and Tron peered around the side to check for activity.

“Clear,” Tron ordered the group of mechanics around. “Go, go, go.”

The mechanics crossed the opening to the next container, except Mara.

“What are you doing?” Tron asked, “We need to move.”

“I need to know something,” she replied, her voice urgent. “How are you back?”

“Flynn,” Tron answered quietly.

“He’s alive?!” Mara’s eyes widened.

“Come on,” he rushed, grabbing her by the elbow, waving for the other mechanics to follow. “Past this clearing we’ll be at the evac site. Then--”

As the group passed the last row of containers, one of the cranes above them suspiciously failed, dropping a group of loaded containers just behind them blocking them in. There wasn’t time to determine whether trapping or crushing them was the goal before a single figure emerged from the settling dust.

“Beck!” Tron hurriedly pushed Mara behind him into the rest of the mechanics and activated his disk.

“Going somewhere?” Beck taunted. 

______________________

Stilted was the best word Paige had to describe the start of the fight. This was surprisingly, and very evident to anyone witnessing the engagement, somehow the first time they had actually fought side by side with one another. This was thankfully a short lived-issue, and after, by Paige’s estimate, the nearly two-hundredth Grid Legion they had taken down together, they were very much synced in rhythm. So much so that even without any formal coordination, they had even begun developing two-person movements akin to a sort of unspoken duet between them both.

Their roles were quite different. The Guardian, being significantly more armed and armored, took responsibility for taking out the ranged psions and larger aggressive threats on the field that would be difficult for her to handle with her disk alone. Paige’s focus therefore largely rested on Legionary’s, Phalanxes and the occasional brave Psion determined to interrupt their flow with a void blast.

“Another drop-ship,” Paiged groaned somewhat weakly as she caught her breath behind cover.

“Catch your breath. I’ll take it,” he replied, swapping to Hammerhead and quickly picked off each target as they exposed themselves from the ship. He then turned his attention briefly to Paige. His eyes flitted over her circuitry, noticing they were substantially dimmed. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two Light-Tanks from their forward flanks.

“Hey,” he said, squatting down beside her, “how do you feel?”

“I wouldn’t complain about a glass of energy,” she replied with a smile. “I’m fine.”

“Ok.” He gave her a nod. “We have light-tanks approaching on either side. You take the right, I get the left?”

“Copy that.” Paige quickly peered around the edge of her cover to get a location of her target. “They must have run out of Cabal vehicles to throw at us. I can take care of it with a couple of these,” she replied, holding up a pair of light-grenades. “I’ll have to get pretty close.”

“We both will,” he said. “You ready?”

Paige nodded.

“I’ll go first. Hold for five, then go. I want both tanks’ attention on me. “Alright. 3...2...1...Mark!” 

Paige clutched the weapon and took a final deep breath before making a break towards the tank. Its' cannon was as hoped-- targeting the Guardian as he crossed the field, unsuspecting of her. She was in the clear.

It didn't take long for Paige to reach the blind spot along the front of the tanks and quickly crawled underneath. "First charge planted," she muttered to herself after sticking the explosive up into a small crevice where the tread’s mechanicals connected to the main frame of the vehicle.

Beck had implied to her during one of their dates that the Occupation's vehicles were haphazardly designed, though he didn't give specifics when she asked. She had assumed it was meant to be a tease between them. A game for her to find as many of these flaws as she could with her limited mechanical expertise. She had even reciprocated, flaunting her medical knowledge with some hints about quirks within his code for him to find.

But it wasn't only a little game, she now realized while planting the second charge on the opposite side. It was a test. She had found this flaw during a routine vehicle rotation and inspection, and all it took was an ever-so-slight deviation from the occupation-provided checklist to find it.

Of course, Beck must have figured she would report it, and that nothing would come of it.

“Perfection,” Paige quietly scoffed through a soft exhale. “Easy to attain if you just bury the flaws in procedure.”

“I am so sorry Beck,” she muttered, initiating the countdown on the bombs. The explosives lit up with the full count down ring and began beeping.

Cursing under her breath, Paige wasted no time in hauling herself out from beneath the tank. She sprinted away, keeping track of the remaining time as best as she could. She didn’t look back, whatever distance she was at when she got to 5 would have to do.

Paige dove to the ground, protecting her head with her hands. “Two...one...”

Nothing happened! Slowly, Paige flipped herself over onto her back. Her eyes widened. The tank had not moved, but had clearly spotted her with its barrel aiming right down at her.

Then, a huge fireball. Both bombs detonated successfully together. Paige let out a deep breath she hadn’t realized she was holding in.

The respite was short lived. Paige’s perked at a series of snarls and growls coming from the direction of the wreckage.

“Oh--”

On the other side, the Guardian was busy controlling the crowd of enemies that were swarming his position. One of the benefits of being the more visible threat was that anything that did show up focused on him while Paige completed her role. That also meant he had very nearly ran out of ammo this deep into the battle and that any cabal, psions, black guards, or whatever else happened to show up were quickly met with his fist.

“Guardian, Paige has successfully blown up her tank,” Ghost informed the Guardian.

“Good. Enough of this!” The Guardian charged his super and thundercrashed into the tank, destroying it, and disintegrating most of the enemies around it.

“Guardian, incoming Colossus!”

“Good I just got some ammo back,” he replied, making sure both his pulse rifle and heavy were reloaded.

“It looks like it’s one of those champion-class enemies we started seeing in the corridors of time. Be careful!”

The Colossus began firing a constant barrage of suppression fire at the Guardian.

“Yeah, I see it,” the Guardian answered as he dove behind a remaining chunk of the derezzed tank.

“We can’t stay here forever. The tank is disintegrating,” Ghost fretted.

“I’ve got to get up there,” the Guardian indicated towards the roof, “I don’t want to risk wasting ammo.”

“Understood. I’ll tell you when it’s reloading,” Ghost replied.

Ghost hovered above the tank, hidden in the smoke of the smoldering vehicle.

“Now!” Ghost yelled.

The Guardian, leapt over the remains of his cover and sprinted towards the building, double jumping into the air high above where the Colossus was positioned. The Guardian clenched his fist and dove down at a rapid acceleration towards the heavy Cabal and ballistic-slamming it off the ledge. The Colossus had no sooner hit the ground did the Guardian begin unloading his heavy ammo at its head.

“It's dropping its bubble! Pulse rifle now, before it heals itself!” Ghost yelled.

The Guardian quickly swapped to Go Figure , and dropped four dead-on bursts into the bubble, destroying it and stunning the cabal.

“Nice shot. It barely got anything back,” Ghost commented.

“Good. I'm out of heavy,” he growled.

“Guardian,” Paige’s voice cracked over the radio.

“Paige, what’s your status?” the Guardian replied, returning to picking away at the colossus with his pulse rifle.

“I am being chased by armored war beasts,” she huffed over the radio. She had clearly been running for a while. “I don’t have my disk!”

“What?” The Guardian immediately replied in concern.

“I managed to take out a group of them, but I threw my disk to take out some psions, one of them retrieved it before I could reach it and ran off,” Paige quickly explained through labored gasps. “I could use an assist!”

“I have eyes on,” Ghost commented. “I count 4 of them and they are definitely armored. Fighting the group with her bare hands would be suicide.”

The Guardian felt for the side-arm on his hip. “I’ve got an idea,” he said, pulling it out. He rapidly unloaded 14 rounds into the Colossus. “Paige, catch!”

He threw the Devil’s Ruin in the area generally in front of where Paige was running. 

“I see it!” She confirmed, altering course to pick it up from where it had landed.

The Colossus, also seeing the weapon whiz over its head, briefly turned its attention away from the Guardian.

The Guardian, noticing the opportunity, took advantage. He threw a pulse grenade before leaping off of the roof and charging up for a ballistic slam. Right before impact however, he altered his impact positioning to a feet-first approach, finishing off the Colossus with a Golden Age Dropkick.

“Got it,” she replied. “How many shots do I have?”

“One,” he answered.

“One?!” She yelled.

“You’ll only need one. On my signal, squeeze the trigger and hold it.”

“Copy,” she replied, uncertain.

The Guardian watched carefully at the row of war beasts. “Two... one... mark!”

Paige jumped into a slide and spun around to face the warbeasts. Her sudden decrease in speed caused the charging beasts to pile up on one-another. Paige fired. The clump of warbeasts gave Paige ample time within the weapon’s two-second solar beam to hit each one, disintegrating them in a fiery-orange glow.

“Are you alright,” the Guardian yelled over comms.

“Yes,” she replied, somewhat wearily as she pulled herself to her feet. “All clear down he--”

She stopped at a loud crashing sound behind her caused by the arrival of a Cabal drop pod. Through the half-melted ball, a humongous shielded Incendior stepped out.

Paige instinctively pulled out the side-arm she was holding and attempted to fire, forgetting it was out of ammunition. “Oh, sh--”

A sudden purple flash as a hail of inaccurate rounds flew in from her left impacted the shield, temporarily disabling it and stunning the Cabal.

“Paige, run!” The Guardian yelled, as he hurriedly ran across the significant gap between them to stop what was about to happen.

Ghost had been caught off-guard and was still back by the fallen champion. “He’s not going to make it,” Ghost whispered sadly to himself.

He was about to turn away, unable to watch when he spotted a Cabal command pad lying on the ground next to the defeated enemy. “What’s this? Deployment positions--”

He scanned the device, taking control of it. “I hope this works...” he sighed.

Paige nearly tripped over her feet as a pool of fiery magma landed just in front of her. She winced in pain, as a droplet of the scalding liquid landed on her shoulder. She turned to face her attacker, hearing him laugh as he painted a semicircle of the burning fuel around her. She could see the Guardian rushing to her position behind the Incendior, but he was too far away to be effective even if he had any ammo left. She was trapped.

A blue flash from behind the Incendior indicated that the Guardian intended to thundercrash her attacker, but by the time he would close the distance it would be too late. She would be derezzed. Paige defiantly stared down the Cabal as it raised its launcher for her death blast. 

Thud!

Another Cabal drop pod landed squarely on the Incendior, squashing it instantly. A split second later, the Guardian arrived, vaporizing whatever had been deployed in that pod before they had a chance to get their bearings.

With the Incendior dead and the flames beginning to die down, Paige leapt and front-rolled her way out of the circle, next to the Guardian.

In a surprise move, he transmatted his hemet away, revealing his face. It was pale, the color drained. “Are--”

Paige pulled him into a hug. “ Don’t ask if I’m alright. I’m here.”

“And get caballed!” Ghost flew in yelling.

Paige and the Guardian pulled apart, the latter turning to face his floating companion.

“Get...caballed?” The Guardian repeated.

“It's from the ghost support group.” Ghost looks past the Guardian directly at Paige. “Turns out getting crushed by Cabal drop pods is the second largest cause of Guardian deaths.”

Paige let out a quiet chuckle. “What’s number one?”

“Death whilst attempting to cross vast distances...whilst swinging a sword.”

“Ghost--” the Guardian sternly interjected, “isn’t there something better you could be doing?” He nodded to the empty disk mount on Paige’s back.

“Oh, right--sorry. I picked it up on the way over here. Saved it from becoming a chew toy.” Ghost chimed happily.

“A...chew...toy,” Paige repeated slowly, picking up the disk from where Ghost deposited it, and secured it to her back. Her eyes flashed momentarily as it synced.

“I can explain later,” the Guardian replied. “We should get to the garage. It’s more defensible if they send another wave, and maybe will have--”

“There won’t be another wave,” Paige interrupted him. The rumbling beneath their feet was now ever-present, as raw energy from beneath the grid’s base layer pushed upwards into stress fractures and cracks formed by the chaos above. “Argon’s code is too unstable.” 

“From this,” he indicated to the burning city around them. He could see the answer in Paige’s eyes.

“The Grid will initiate a format to prevent a wider-scale eruption, but--” she stopped to swallow down the flooding emotions. “But, Argon will be erased in the process.”

Above, there was a large explosion. They both looked up, seeing flames erupt from the damaged fuel cells located near the Avalanche’s engines, casting an eerie, orange glow. Additional blasts punctured through the ship’s keel, mainly around its many open hangars and gunnery positions.

The carrier’s bow dove as its forward stabilizing thrusters failed. Black smoke billowed around the vessel as it descended with only its forward section occasionally visible through the haze from the blueish flicker of electrical fires which illuminated the hull panels like the veins of one’s hand with a flashlight.

“Guardian! Look!” Ghost called out, tagging a recognizer escaping from the haze. It was illuminated white. “It must be Saint!”

“Guardian, the Avalanche is going down!” Saint chimed over the comms. “ Geppetto is tracking Tron’s signal near the edge of the city by the docks. I assume you are with the Commander?”

“Indeed,” the Guardian replied. “He is with the mechanics.”

“Do you need a pickup?” Saint asked.

“No! You only have a few minutes before the city begins to format itself. Go and get Tron’s group!” Paige interjected.

“Understood. Good luck you two,” Saint-14 replied. “I recommend you find cover.”

**Comms return to static**

“What does he mean by that?” Ghost turned to the Guardian and asked. “Oh.”

The moment before the hurtling Cabal carrier impacted Tesler’s ship felt like it moved in slow motion. Fiery cubes flew as the momentum from the Avalanche tore the two vessels apart. Then, a blast as the Cabal carrier made contact with the power core of Tesler’s old ship, sending a massive shockwave across the city.

“Get down!” Paige yelled, raising her helmet.

The Guardian quickly dropped a towering barricade in front of them before joining her, as the leading edge of the shockwave approached at incredible speed. 

Through the turbulent dust and debris flying around them, the normally bluish hue of the city had turned scalding red.

The Grid’s voice began to speak. 

// “Warning. Argon Partition Status: Critical.”

“Initiating: Partition Format.”

“Time Until Execution: 16 Nanocycles”

“Please Utilize Established Evacuation Routes: Alpha and Delta towards Cesium and Gallium.”

“Thank You For Your Cooperation.”

\\

“That doesn’t sound good,” Ghost responded, as soon as the dust settled a bit.

“We need to get out of here! Where’s your jumpship?” Paige asked urgently.

“Out of commission from when we were shot down,” he replied.

The Guardian looked toward the disheveled building next to them. “What about the garage? Maybe there is something in there?” The Guardian asked.

“It’s worth a shot. There’s bound to be at least one light jet in there.” Paige turned to Ghost. “How much time do we have?”

“Just under 14 nanocycles,” he replied.

Paige and the Guardian exchanged a look.“Then we better hurry.”

Inside the garage, the two of them tore through every maintenance cart and shelf in the main part of the garage for something resembling a functioning vehicle. Unfortunately, the crash of the Avalanche had scattered and smashed much of the shop’s inventory.

“I’ve found one,” Paige yelled over to the Guardian.

“Good, one down. I have not,” he replied.

“What if...we don’t find another one?” Ghost asked.

“Then it will be a tight squeeze,” Paige retorted, her eyes laser focused on the drawers of junk she was sifting through.

“Paige will kill me; you and Paige will go back to base; and then you’ll resurrect me there.” The Guardian replied to Ghost.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Paige responded grimly.

The Guardian turned his head slightly at her tone. He could tell her processor was stuck on something. He marked that as something to ask her about later, as if there wasn’t already enough. If it was mission critical she would have mentioned it already.

“Hey guys,” Ghost yelled from a dimly lit portion of the room. “I think I found something.”

Paige grabbed the one light-jet baton they had found and caught up with the Guardian. “What is it?”

“I don’t have hands to open it, but my scans indicate the schematics are for a larger vehicle,” Ghost explained.

“You may be right,” Paige confirmed, picking it up. “I’ve never seen a vehicle baton that large before.”

She cracked it open.

“Woah,” Ghost reacted after it fully rezzed, “that’s a light-copter.”

“Must be something one of the mechanics was experimenting with,” Paige concluded. “Looks like I won’t have to kill you after all.”

“There’s the silver lining. Will it fly?” The Guardian asked.

“It will if I’m piloting it.” Paige shot him a smirk. “Get on.”

Paige jumped into the pilot’s and powered up the console. The light-copter’s rotors whirred to life, slicing through the air with a rhythmic hum that became more pronounced as the blades accelerated overhead.

“Stand by for throttle-up,” Paige announced. With a sudden burst of energy, the helicopter lifted off. The garage, especially now in its half-collapsed state, gave very little room to maneuver. Paige quickly tilted the cyclic forward, relying on her extensive experience with the vehicle and muscle memory alone to keep the skids a near consistent mere inches off scraping the floor. 

That wasn’t the only problem she was masterfully contending with. The Guardian could see the constant threat of debris and the garage’s large pillars looming silently near the blades of the main rotor. His right hand quietly found a place out of Paige’s line of sight to exert his stress onto, not that her eyes were locked onto anything inside the cockpit to begin with.

After the seconds that felt like an eternity, they approached the garage’s wide entrance. Paige dialed the nose of the chopper back so they would safely pass through the dead center of the building’s maw.

Paige let out a shaky breath to relieve the tension once they hit open space and had begun their ascent into the sky. Regaining her focus, Paige increases the throttle, accelerating their rise in altitude and speed away from the city-center.

“That was...amazing,” the Guardian commented reassuringly.

Paige turned and gave a grateful smile. “We’re not in the clear yet. Ghost, how much time until the format initiates?”

“We have two nanocycles,” Ghost replied.

“It’s going to be close...” Paige grumbled anxiously.

“It always is. What’s the safe distance?” The Guardian asked.

“You see the glow of that shipping checkpoint,” she asked, pointing towards the Sea of Simulation in front of them?

“I see it,” he confirmed.

Paige’s expression turns somber, as if fully realizing the gravity of what is about to happen. “That marks the outer edge of the Argon partition. We’ll be clear from the format radius once we’re past that.”

___________________________

“So it’s true then. You’ve been corrupted,” Beck commented in an exaggerated, disappointed tone.

“Flynn helped me regain my original purpose,” Tron replied. “Mara, Paige, and I are your friends. We can help you regain yours too.”

A loud explosion thundered overhead, startling the mechanics, and causing them to shift anxiously behind the Grid’s hero. Tron’s focus on Beck remained steady.

“My old purpose was crippling,” Beck spat. “I couldn’t stop CLU while I was in your shadow. And  I now know why. Because HE fixed me. Perfected me. And now you are in my shadow.” Beck activated his disk. 

Tron reciprocated. Behind Beck, two-dozen black guards emerged, forming a protracted U around the group. “Fight the programming in your head Beck! Argon is being destroyed. It’s your home,” Tron argued, attempting a final attempt to break through. “Help us stop those who are responsible for this.”

Beck only smiled. His eyes shifted briefly to the sky as he spotted the Avalanche’s initial descent. “Argon is a pitiful city. CLU has plans beyond perfecting this system, and this destruction is a small sacrifice for a large step towards that achievement.”

Beck waived for the guards to ignite their disks for the execution. Tron could hear the mechanics behind him ignite their disks in response, even if for most of them it wouldn’t give them a much better chance. He clenched his disk, not only in preparation for the fight, but for the inevitable loss of some of the programs he was trying to protect.

“It is a shame we won’t be standing together in CLU’s brave new world. But, you will get to die with my old one,” Beck chided before signaling to his posse. “Execute them.”

The buzz of a recognizer flew in low overhead with its spotlight singling down on Beck, temporarily blinding him. The recognizer’s engines suddenly cut out, causing the large ship to drop down and crush a number of the black guards surrounding the group. Tron took advantage of the chaos and lunged at his former protegee, engaging him in hand-to-hand combat.

“Hah!” Saint-14 yelled as he transmatted out of the recognizer, immediately blowing two charging guards to cubes with The Perfect Paradox . “No! It is you who will die here!”

Saint-14 turned to face the mechanics. “Mechanics! Come to my shield!” He yelled, casting a large, stationary Ward of Dawn. “Stay inside and you will all be safe until this is over,” he ordered the group. 

He heard the sound of a blade running across the outside of the shield. He turned to exit, making a beeline for a black guard that had been tentatively testing their disk’s blade against the void bubble. With one hand he grabbed the guard by the throat as he passed through the barrier  and shattered them to cubes against the ground. 

“This will not be like Zephyr Station,” he growled, as he moved in to finish the remaining guards.

Tron had slowly pressed Beck away from Saint’s crowd clearing. He didn’t want to give Beck a chance of escape in the chaos nor did he want to risk Beck ending up at the wrong end of the Titan’s fist for trying to get at the mechanics.

Beck swung his disk wildly at Tron, who easily ducked out of the way and landed a strong kick onto his port side, sending the former mechanic stumbling back. 

“Beck, enough of this! You can’t win,” Tron yelled.

“You keep thinking that,” Beck growled, hurling his disk as hard as he could at Tron... as well as an explosive charge just behind it!

Tron easily deflected Beck’s disk with his own, but only spotted the device as it passed halfway between them.

A glowing purple shield suddenly flew in from the side, hitting the explosive with extreme accuracy, disintegrating it before it reached the Grid’s protector. Beck, caught off-guard by the interference, had left himself blind to Tron who capitalized on the situation, rushing up to Beck and planting a shock-device on him, knocking him unconscious.

Tron derezzed his helmet. “I had that,” he said to Saint with a smirk. “The mechanics?”

“Safe and sound,” Saint replied. The ground beneath them rumbled. They both looked out towards the city and saw the Avalanche making contact with the ground.

“We need to go now,” Tron said, quickly picking up Beck and following closely behind Saint to the recognizer.

_______________________

“Paige?” The Guardian asked, noticing that they had just passed the shipping checkpoint. Her eyes were distant.

“Sorry,” she said. “I just got locked in there.”

“Hey, you’re fine.” He reassured her. “We just passed the checkpoint.”

“Leveling us off to hover,” she replied, adjusting the pitch. She paused, momentarily lost in thought before turning to the Guardian. “I need to check something---take over?”

The Guardian could hear the anxiety in her voice. “I’ve got it.”

“Thanks,” she answered weakly before moving to the back of the aircraft.

“You see that too right?” Ghost called out to the Guardian.

“Looks like a recognizer, with white circuitry,” he replied. “You think it could be Saint?”

“I’ll hail him,” Ghost replied. “Saint, do you read me?”

“Guardian I read you loud and clear,” he replied. “I assume that’s you out there in the tiny green chopper?”

“It is,” the Guardian replied. “Do you have everyone?”

“Everyone is accounted for,” Saint confirmed. “Do you have Paige?”

“We do,” the Guardian replied.

“Good. We need her.” There was a pause. “Tell her Tron picked up an additional passenger. A Beck.”

“She’ll be relieved to hear that,” the Guardian added, glancing towards the back of the cabin. He spotted Paige by the open door of the chopper fixated on something far away, and clearly not tuned into the conversation.

“He is secure right?” Ghost chimed in.

“Tron’s got him neutralized. Should we rendezvous with you before heading back to base?”

The Guardian glanced back at Paige one more time before answering. “Negative. You go ahead. We’ll catch up.”

“Understood...I’m sorry about Argon,” Saint added much more somberly.

“Me too,” the Guardian replied, closing off the channel.

There was a sudden orange glow off the starboard side of the craft that reflected into the cockpit. 

“Take over,” the Guardian motioned to Ghost.

He slips out of the cockpit towards the back. He stops, seeing Paige standing at the ledge of the door. He feels himself begin to lurch forward, but stops himself. There was nothing to her body language indicating that she was about to jump.

Her eyes were fixated on something in the distance. He approached her slowly.

The orange warm flicker reflected across her face and eyes, only becoming visible as he closed the distance.

“Paige?” he spoke softly, almost inaudibly. She responded with a nod just as subtle as his query and one easily missed if not attentive of the answer.

He followed it.

He expected flames of the city on fire, and they were present among the still standing structures. But they were kindling compared to the towering orange pillar that was ominously closing inwards from the invisible border they had just crossed. It appeared to slow as it approached the actual landmass of Argon like a tsunami wave building height as it reaches the shoreline, but he didn’t know if that was truly the case or if it was horror-driven anticipation. 

If there were screams, there was no way of knowing at their distance outside of the imagination filling in the blanks. But the haunting scene was easily of the kind that causes the heart to suspend its purpose for one too many seconds; enough to feel it. And as it became clear that the pillar had made landfall, he could feel Paige’s free hand beside him scrabbling desperately and likely unconsciously for his own. He carefully moved his hand in the mean of her movements until she found it. 

Her grip, immediately tight, and only constricted further as piller constricted to the center of Argon. And then it was over. Just as quickly as it had appeared. No ceremony, no final warning from the Grid’s voice. Nothing except the faint sound of the Sea of Simulation churning beneath them intermixed with the steady thwomp of the helicopter blades.

He felt the tension of Paige’s grip loosen beside him as she fell into a state of shock, and he quickly guided her half-conscious form against the wall of the cabin. He took one last look back out to where Argon had been, searching for any glimpse of something or someone remaining, but even with high visibility there was nothing to see. Without knowledge that a city had been there there was no way of distinguishing it from the outlands.

He pulled the side door of the light-chopper shut and signaled to Ghost to navigate them back to the base. Paige seemed to only barely register his presence as he sat down against the wall beside her. He gently placed his hand next to hers on the ground so that just their borders were touching, and leaned his own head back against the wall.